Uff Da!

Uff Da! I heard this expression all the time when I was a student in North Dakota, where there is a large number of residents of Norwegian descent. It means something like "Oh My Gosh" or just "Really."

When you think of Norway, you think of the fjords and the beauty of the country. We decided to go to Trondheim, in the northwestern part of Norway. Trondheim is the 3rd largest city, yet it's population is only about 170,000.

Our train ride from Stockholm was not the best. We were supposed to change trains in Lillestrom but our train got delayed and we missed our connection. So, we had to go to Oslo and take a later train. The trains here are a little slow and the ride not as smooth. It was also late getting into Trondheim. We got into the hostel just before midnight. If we had been a little late, well......we'd have to sleep outside or someplace where we're not supposed to be sleeping.

We spent the next day walking all over the city. It's small enough that you can get to most places by walking. The city has a lot of history and tradition; it was founded in 997. I'll just use the pictures below to explain some of the sights.

This is the Nidaros Cathedral, Norway's national sanctuary, built over their patron saint, St. Olaf. Construction started around 1070 and finished around 1300. The inside is typical of many cathedrals that you see in Europe that were built around that time. I was able to climb up to the top where I had an excellent view of the city. Next to the cathedral is a museum about Norway's history and Trondheim itself. Also next to the cathedral is a museum of the Royal Family's treasures.

Here is one of the pictures I took from the top of the cathedral. In the distance is a fjord and below that is Monk's Island. I was expecting to see a fjord like you'd see in tourist brochures but I was told by someone in the Tourism Office that if you want to see one of those impressive fjords, you'd have to go 4 to 5 hours out in the country. If you google "fjord of norway" you can see beautiful images of fjords posted by others.

A sunset view of buildings along the river.

Monk's Island, off the coast of Trondheim. It was at some time a monastery, a prison and a garrison for the Germans during WWII.

Just a beautiful sandbar with the fjord in the background.

Surprisingly, there are many non-native Norwegians in Norway. Here a couple of Vietnamese women are buying fresh fish from a fisherman. They spoke fluent Norwegian but they were speaking Vietnamese to each other. At the train station in Oslo there were many Africans and some middle-easterners.

My Norwegian lunch - a reindeer stew with potatoes and a few pieces of lettuce. All for 170 kroners, about $34! I thought Denmark is expensive, until I went to Sweden. Then I found that Norway is the most expensive of all.

Stockholm

We arrived in Stockholm after a 6 1/2 hour train ride from Copenhagen. The train was very clean and comfortable. We were in first class and it came with a little snack and drink.

The scenery along the route reminds me a little of northern Minnesota - a lot of greenery and trees. Even the farmhouses look a little bit like those in the mid-west. No wonder there are so many Swedes and Norwegians in Minnesota and North Dakota. The climates are very similar.

It was about a 15-minute walk from the Central Station to the hostel, which is in Old Town Stockholm. By "Old" they mean really old; some buildings are more than 500 years old. Our hostel is in the center of all the old buildings. It was next to the Nobel Museum and about 100 yards from a very old church. The Royal Palace is about 200 yards away. It was a very pleasant surprise. Some of the streets are very narrow and it was interesting walking through them, as we did several times.

On the second day, we took another free tour, similar to the one in Copenhagen. This time our guide is more knowledgeable and speaks better English. She was an exchange student in Houston before. She walked us through the city center and pointed out many landmarks and the history behind them.

She explained what IKEA stands for (it's an abbreviation for an address), showed us the corporate headquarters of H&M, the spot where Prime Minister Olaf Palmes was shot and killed and the bank where the Stockholm Syndrome was associated with. It was a free tour but she depended on tips.

Stockholm is a very clean and beautiful city and has a beautiful waterfront. It's a mixture of old and new architecture. The Swedes all speak excellent English. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

Again, if you want to see an enlarged view of any of the pictures below, just click on it. Click the Back Arrow to go back to the blog.

Beautiful Waterfront

One of the narrow streets in Old Town Stockholm

A sunset bird's eye view of Old Town

A well-known hotel by the river.

Nobel Museum. Our hostel is just to the left of the museum.

The square in front of the museum is a popular place for musicians. There are many restaurants around the square.

A view of the Storkyrkan Church (Stockholm Cathedral) taken from the grounds of the Royal Palace.

Stockholm's National Museum.

Street musicians performing on one of the streets in Old Town.

Homeless

This is something that I did not think of before the trip. Not being able to get a room at a hostel. We tossed around many ideas on where we should go after Copenhagen. By the time we decided that we need to spend another night, there was no space available at any of the hostels within Copenhagen. We tried and tried and asked the hostel staff where we were staying to call for us.

The only space they could find for us was in the outskirts of Copenhagen.

So, last night at 9 pm we took the Metro to the hostel. Someone gave us the wrong directions so we had to take another train to another station. When we got there, it was dark and raining. We walked for about 15 minutes but couldn't see any buildings.

We decided to turn back and go back to the city to our hostel to see if there were any alternatives.

Most of the hotels nearby were very expensive, over $200 a night.

I asked the manager of the Clarion Hotel nearby whether we can just stay in the lobby since our train was leaving early in the morning. He said yes. However, we found a good hiding spot in our hostel - the staircase in the back of the building.

Believe or not, we slept on the landings of the staircase. We had our sheets on the concrete and our backpacks as pillows. We were able to use the shower and bathroom facilities in the hostel. No one came to bother us. It was not a restful sleep but it was better than roaming the streets.

Well...that's a lesson to be learned. We need to plan ahead where we want to go and booked the hostels in advance.

We got into Stockholm this afternoon after a 6 1/2 hour train ride from Copenhagen.

So far, the impressions have been great. Our hostel has a great location. It's in Old Town Stockholm, next to the Royal Palace. We'll pay a visit to the King tomorrow.

Copenhagen

We arrived in Copenhagen yesterday afternoon. The train station is just behind the famous Tivoli Gardens. The picture on the right is a picture of the entrance to the Tivoli Gardens. It is an old amusement park, one of the oldest, I heard.

We checked into our hostel, which is about half a mile from the train station. A hostel is like a dorm. You pay by the bed and you typically get 4, 6, or even 10 people in a room with bunk beds.

The room that we were in has 10 beds. It is co-ed. You share toilets and bathrooms. Many young travelers like to stay in hostels because it's cheap and provide a lot of amenities. For example, the hostel where we were in has wireless internet and even loan out laptops and iPads. They have a bar and restaurant that sells inexpensive food and drinks. A lot of the residents like to congregate in the lobby/restaurant.

If privacy is a problem for you, a hostel is definitely not the place. Many adults and families also stay in hostels because it's a no-frills way to travel. I paid about $42 for my bed. The prices vary depending on which country and city you are in. We plan to stay in hostels for almost the entire trip.

On the right is a picture of the mayor's office. It's a very impressive old building. In front of the building is the Town Square. On the left is the Palace Hotel, another impressive building. Unfortunately, McDonald's chose to build a restaurant to the left of the hotel.

To the left of McDonald's is the famous Stroget Street, a pedestrian mall with name-brand shops. It runs 2 or 3 miles through the center of the city. It is crowded with pedestrians and shoppers. On both sides of Stroget Street are other shops and restaurants. In fact, the whole neighborhood is filled with small boutique shops and restaurants. At the end of Stroget Street is Nyhavn or "new harbor." Nyhavn is a street filled with high-priced restaurants for tourists. One tour guide called this a tourist trap and looking at the prices on the menus, I'd certainly agree with that. It was said that the area was built by Swedish prisoners. I heard that the Swedes like to come here to drink because drinking is so expensive in Sweden. I heard that the Swedes and Danes don't like each other and they are constantly at odds with each other.

No visit to Copenhagen is complete without a visit to the Mermaid. The picture on the right shows the back of the mermaid taken from a canal cruise tour boat. While walking towards the Nyhavn area, we ran into the Copenhagen University Choir raising money by having the public ride on this tour boat. One of the choir members would explain different landmarks and the choir would sing a song related to that landmark. For example, if they passed a building where Hans Christian Andersen used to live, the'd sing a song that was his favorite or related to his story. It was an excellent cruise because seeing the city from the canal perspective is definitely different from land.

One striking thing you notice about Copenhagen is the architecture and the color of the buildings. On the right you see a few brightly painted buildings on the side of a canal. Another thing you will notice is that Copenhagen, like all Scandinavian cities, is an expensive city. The Danes are super nice and they all speak excellent English, with a Danish accent, of course. Everyone seems to be blond and blue-eyed.

On our second day, the weather did not cooperate. It was cloudy and it rained on and off. I saw a brochure at the hostel for a free walking tour of the city. We met at the Town Square and met a local guide wearing a red T-shirt. The guide works solely on tips. If you like what he or she did, you tip him or her whatever you think is fair.

Our guide was was born in Copenhagen and lived here all her life. She took us on an almost 3-hour walking tour and explained a lot of history and background behind a lot of the landmarks. It was an excellent tour except that a few times we were caught in the rain. At the end of the tour, most in the group gave her something, whether it was coins or some notes. Not a bad way to earn some extra money, especially if you are a student. I understand there are such tours in many European cities.

Note: if you want a larger view of the pictures above, you can click on it and it will show a larger view.

Train Ride from Hamburg to Copenhagen

We are finally starting on our journey. This morning we took the 9:25 am train from Hamburg to Copenhagen. If you haven't taken a lot of train outside the US, this should be quite an experience. First, the train stations in Europe are big....very big. Second, the trains are punctual. Third, they are very clean and efficient.

We took an ICE (Inter-City Express) train from Hamburg to Copenhagen. With the Eurail pass, we paid nothing. Also, we get to ride in first-class. There were about 6 or 7 cars so this is a relatively small train. Only one of the cars is first-class. We are lucky because the second-class cars were all booked. Some people even have to sit on their luggage. We sat in nice comfortable seats. They also gave us a coupon for a croissant and coffee.

Riding on a train in Europe is nothing like flying. We had a lot of room and we are free to walk around. There's also a table available for you to write or put your stuff. And you get to see the changing scenery as the train ride through the country.

The train ride took slightly less than 5 hours. It went through the north German countryside. About 2 1/2 hours into the journey, the train got onto a ferry which took us across to another part of Germany. We had to get off the train and walked around the ferry. But, it was a very nice ferry. They have restaurants and a duty-free shop on the ferry. However, the prices are high. I bought a bottle of water for 2 euros, which is about $3.

We arrived at the Copenhagen Central Station at about 2:10 pm and walked to the hostel. I will talk more about the hostel and our first day in Copenhagen in the next blog.

Unfortunately, I am not able to upload pictures for this blog because the wi-fi at the hostel is very slow.

On to Scandinavia

This afternoon, we decided that as long as we are going to Copenhagen, we might as well go to the other Scandinavian countries. So, our plan is to go from Copenhagen to Stockholm, then from Stockholm to Oslo. I read that the scenery from Oslo to Bergen is amazing so we'll probably take the 290-mile Bergen Railway that crosses some of the most beautiful parts of Norway.

We'll be in Scandinavia for about a week, then come back to Hamburg for about a day to re-charge, then go south to Eastern Europe.

Scandinavia was not part of our plan but that's the beauty of the Eurail Global pass. We can go anywhere in the 22 countries and most of the time we don't have to make reservations on the train. We have to find the right hostel though because their prices vary widely. One thing I noticed about the Scandinavian hostels is that they don't provide you with sheets (or linen as they call them here). You can either rent them for about $8 or bring your own. For that price, I will buy my own set.

There are 6 trains daily going from Hamburg to Copenhagen and it's about a 6-hour train ride.

We'll take one of the earlier ones so that we'll get there in the early afternoon and still get to enjoy the city.

Hamburg

I arrived in Hamburg on Sunday evening local time after a long 12-hour flight from Phoenix to London, then London to Hamburg. Flying long-distance is not much fun nowadays because of the over-crowded planes, lousy food and poor entertainment. Airlines are trying to make money by doing code-sharing and reducing flights so that they can squeeze as many passengers as they can into a jumbo jet.

My friend, Ralph, picked me up at the airport and I was starving because they gave me only a muffin and coffee just before we landed in London. At the train station, I had my first meal in Germany on this trip. It was a Turkish dinner. It is quite similar to a gyro, except that I had rice instead of pita bread.

By the time I got to Ralph's apartment, I was very tired, not having slept much on the plane.
The next day (Monday, August 22nd) was a beautiful, sunny day in Hamburg. The temperature was around 70F, a drop of more than 40 degrees from Phoenix.

First, I was welcomed by the mayor of Hamburg to his office.

On the left is a picture of his office, called the Hamburg Rathaus.

(Wishful thinking....I am just kidding)

The mayor's office is in the downtown area. One of the first things I noticed about Hamburg is that it is very clean and green.

Germans are known to be fastidious about their cleanliness and orderliness. That is evident everywhere you go. The other thing I noticed right away is that there are not too many overweight Germans around. I think that can be attributed to the northern German diet, which is a lot of fish and little meat. Another reason I think, is that the Hamburgers (yes....that's what the locals are called, not something that you eat at McDonald's) walk and ride their bikes a lot. They use a lot of public transportation, whether it's buses or trains. In order to get to the bus stop or train station, they have to walk. If you walk 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, very soon it adds up to 60 minutes a day. Well...that is enough exercise for a day. Is this something that Americans can learn from?

If you are a Beatles fan, you should know that the Beatles started their journey to fame in Hamburg. On the left is a picture of the nightclub where they used to perform. It's called the Grosse Freiheit 36. Grosse Freiheit literally means Great Freedom. I don't know what the 36 stands for. I think the place is still operating but on the night that we were there, there were a couple of homeless people sleeping in the front of the building.

The Grosse Freiheit is located in a famous area in Hamburg called the Reeperbahn. Unfortunately, it's famous for the wrong reason. It's the "red-light area." The picture on the left is the street leading to the area. This is legal business in Hamburg. As you stroll down the streets, there are big display windows showing off the products. This is similar to another European city famous for the same thing - Amsterdam. Guys....I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Just to get our priorities in order, Hamburg is actually better known as a port. It is the biggest port in Germany. It has recently grown tremendously because of the growing business in Eastern Europe. It is also the second-largest city in Germany.

On the left is a picture taken in the evening, about 9 pm, of the sun setting over the port area.

Hamburg is also the wealthiest city in Germany. I saw a lot of BMWs' and Porsches' everywhere I went plus huge mansions around the lake.

As we walked around the city, you can see that this is a very livable city, with many parks and a big lake. There is plenty of greenery everywhere. Bike lanes run on almost all streets.

You find migrants from all over the world, although I don't see as many Asians as I have seen in other European cities. There is a big Turkish population, many of them running small grocery stores. There is a young vibrant student population around the Hamburg University area.

I just found out that my Eurail Global pass does not include Poland, Serbia and Montenegro. This changes our plans slightly. Originally, we were planning to go to Warsaw first, then Krakow (to see the Auschwitz concentration camp). Now we'll probably go to Prague, then Vienna instead. Before we start on that trip, we'll take a short overnight trip to Copenhagen, which is about a 6-hour train ride north of Hamburg.

From Vienna, we'll go to Budapest, Hungary, then west to Slovenia and Croatia.

Leaving HOT, HOT Phoenix

Am I glad to be out of the heat. It's been very hot in Phoenix the last 2 months. The high temperature today in Phoenix is 105F or 40.5C. Next week it's going to go up to 110F or 43C. Now that's hot. You can't do much outside.
I am at the airport waiting for my British Airways flight to London Heathrow, then to Hamburg. The flight to London is almost 10 hours, non-stop. I have an almost 2-hour layover in London before connecting to Hamburg.
In Hamburg, the high temperature is less than 70F so I'll probably need a jacket even during the day.
I'll spend a couple of days in Hamburg, doing some planning with Ralph and enjoying some good German food and beer. This is my second trip to Hamburg. Hamburg is in the northern part of Germany. I was there about 13 years ago and it was in late November. It was very cold. I don't remember much of the place. Hopefully, this time I will get to know Hamburg better.

Ready to Go!

This is a dream trip for anyone.
Two months in Europe with unlimited train travel in 22 countries.

My friend, Ralph, and I, decided to reward ourselves by taking a trip around Europe. We have a rough plan on where we want to go but we don't have any hotel reservations anywhere. Mostly, we'll go to where we feel like going.

We'll start in Ralph's hometown of Hamburg, Germany, then go south through Eastern Europe. Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, then down the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. We'll enjoy the old architecture of Eastern Europe and the beauty of Slovenia and Croatia. Then on to Bulgaria and south to Greece.

From Greece, we'll take the ferry to Italy then go west towards the Amalfi coast. After leaving the Amalfi coast, we'l go north to Rome and then Tuscany. Pisa, Genoa, then west to Nice, France. We'll travel through the coastal cities of France and head towards Barcelona. We don't know where we'll be going in Spain but definitely Barcelona and Madrid. Then we go west to Portugal, probably spending a few days in Lisbon. From Portugal, we start to head home through the countrysides of France and Germany. Our travels will end in late October.

I will share our journey on this blog. When I add a post depends on the availability of internet connections. I hope to have some nice pictures to share with you too. If you have any comments or questions, please ask. I love to hear from you.