DAY 146 SATURDAY AUGUST 18 STOCKHOLM SIGHTSEEING

We had a breakfast from the goods we bought at the supermarket round the corner, then googled local post office hours to see whether we could send our excess luggage home. Found a site which reported Saturday 8.30 to 11am.  Walked for half an hour to the nearest PO listed on Google and found a sign on the door in Swedish which seemed to say that from June 6 all POs would not open on Saturdays. On the way back we passed two parcel delivery offices, also closed.  Enough with the frustrations. Set off with Margot's email guide to Stockholm, deciding to take a hopon hopoff ferry in preference to a bus.  This worked quite well for the rest of the day. It started in among the wooden ships moored at the bottom of our street.

 First stop was the Nordic Museum which suited our tastes well.

On the way to the Museum we passed a little museum for Astrid Lindberg who is Sweden's best known children's author and the creator of Pippy Longstocking.  The number of prams parked outside indicated what it would be like inside.

In the Nordic Museum there was a wonderful display of arts and crafts and everyday living styles from the last 300 years in Sweden. This dresser was very impressive.
Next stop was the Green Land Amusement Park which was popular with screaming teenagers on the death defying rides.  Kept our distance and took the ferry again, travelling past this giraffe which Fred Flintstone could have made good use of.

Stop number 8 was at the cruise ship wharf so a large group got off to get back to their ship and we followed a yellow line to the Viking wharf to check out Monday's departure.

We followed the yellow and blue lines back to our ferry but on the way a bus was parked across it  and as we deviated around the front of the bus an officious securiy guard told us "Follow the blue line!"
When Malcolm pointed out to her that we would have to crawl under the bus, she waved us on reluctantly.  Hopped back on the ferry at the end of the yellow line.

We got off at the Old Town and wandered through the cobbled narrow streets.  Found a selection of model bicycles and bought one to send home.  Then came across another St George statuein a small square.

The King' daughter who was saved from being sacrificed was standing watching.

When we reached the palace we took Margot's advice and paid to go into the Cathedral.

Here we found another statue of St George, the dragon and the maid.

The plaque explained why he was important to Stockholm.

Just down the road was the German church with an even taller spire.  The stained glass windows in this one were the best we have seen.

FEAR GOD! HONOUR THE KING!

We learned about Prometheus and Pandora's box in Gothenburg but in Stockholm we found the box in a shop window.

Further down we came across a troll who had been left tied to a fence.

On a building near the troll we spotted the OTHER mermaid and the troll seemed to be looking straight at her.

Although she appeared to be spoken for.  We cut through what Yorkshire people call a snickleway.

Bought an ice cream and followed our sense of direction towards home.  Ended up on a little deadend island and noticed a group of three Japanese people studying their map.  On enquiry the told us they wanted to get to the station.  We pointed out a set of steps leading off the island and they bowed and smiled in appreciation.  We neede to go in the opposite direction and were surprised by a group of skateboarders coming around a corner.  They continued to come for several minutes, so there must have been about 200 of them.  Never seen before or again.

One motorist was very impatient, blowing the horn over and over again and trying to drive through them.  Two people in a car think they have more right to the road than 200 skate boarders. We were pretty tired by now and were heading towards the Opera House when we heard  singing.  As we came round the corner into a large square we saw a huge stage had been erected in front of the Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus was rehearsing the Te Deum from Tosca. We sat down on the stools that filled the square and listened for a few minutes then they appeared to be finished.  We looked around and worked out that tonight at 8pm was the Finale performance concert for the Week's Cultural Festival.  Before we got up to leave the Orchestra started to come in then proceeded to perform the whole program in readiness for the evening. It consisted of extracts from The Magic Flute, Tosca, Carmen and quite a few other pieces.  It was a brilliant concert; one of the best we have been to as the sound system was perfect and the solo singers excellent.  Serendipity again.  We felt compensated for the 3 frustrations of the last 24 hours.

DAY 145 FRIDAY AUGUST 15 STOCKHOLM

The Hotel Perminalen gave us a packed breakfast as we had to leave at 6.45 to catch a Swedish fast train. The First Class carriage filled up along the way and we shared a compartment with two brothers from Uruguay who were travelling on Eurail Passes.  We clocked the train at 160 km/hr and because we were in the last carriage we could see throught the back door.

 We caught a taxi at 1.40pm because we had no map of Stockholm and were delivered to our apartment at 1.50.  We had to cross the road with our luggage and just then a group of young people came up and offered to assist Lyn across the road.  She asked for assurance that she was not targeted because she looked to be old and they explained that it was a task on their list in some game they were involved in.  One stopped the traffic and the other carried her bag.  Lyn had a good giggle.

  Philip, the owner, had arranged to meet us there at 2pm.  We needed a code to enter the building so stood with our luggage in the street. After 45 minutes he was still not there so one of his neighbours who worked around the corner contacted him and he said he would be there in 10 minutes.  He explained that he had been in a meeting and he had left the apartment open so we could get in.  Not much use when we could not get in and did not know which of the 16 flats was his.  We found a few problems with the flat, chief of which was that he did not know the code for the promised wifi.  Said he would return at 5pm with that, but we had to ring him at 7pm when he did not return and then he had to ring us back after ringing his son to get the code.  The towels we were to use were still in the drier and very wet.  He was definitely caught on the hop.  We could have had a hotel room nearby for half the price.  The rest of the evening was spent trying to navigate the Google procedures for reinstating the gmail and blog access after they detected suspicious activity (travelling across borders!).  A session with Evelyn on Facebook chat fixed us up at midnight.  As long as Google trust their computer programs to think for them they will continue to make stupid decisions on behalf of their customers. When we were finally able to read our emails we found one from Philip the owner saying he would not be at the flat till 6pm.  Went to bed quite frustrated with him and with Google.

DAY 144 THURSDAY AUGUST 16 BACK TO OSLO

We spent the night on a ship called the Fjord Vision which acts as a hotel when moored at Bergen.  It had recently been up near the Arctic on a mission to make a series of TV programs and these had been shown on Norwegian TV recently.  The crown prince had been involved and slept aboard.  It was similar to the canal boat experience we had in Holland.  As we arrived in Bergen last night the Vingtor captain told us that Bergen was "the most beautifulest city in the world", using the Shakespearian superlative.  It is certainly located in a very beautiful environment but as Norway's second largest city, we found this morning that it was noisy, dirty and overloaded with traffic just like most other cities we have been to.

We left the ship in bright sunlight and climbed the hill behind the city centre up to the largest church.

Then we descende to the park with its lake in the centre of town.  We found this statue of a reluctant little boy being hosed in a fountain.

The gazebo in the park was beautiful, with flowers all around and on it.  It was a long way back to Oslo on the train and we again enjoyed the scenery.  We saw another glacier not too far away.

And more waterfalls.

We got back to our hotel in Oslo and had dinner in a nice Indian Restaurant then met up with Ken and Pam and reviewed our plans to meet up in Helsinki. They will be doing a week's cruise in the fjords in the meantime.

DAY 143 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 SAILING THE FJORD

Our boat to Bergen was not due to leave until 3.30 today so we took our time over the nice breakfast provided at Heimly and went for a walk up the Flam valley.  The weather was sunny and warm but they had had long periods of rain this summer so the waterfalls were in good order.

We ate wild raspberries growing along the road. And admired the shaggy cows.

This red house was typical.

We have seen a few houses with grass growing on the roof and this is now being seen as an excellent way to insulate homes everywhere. This tiny log cabin was an example.

We turned back when we reached this stream at the bottom of the waterfall.

On the way back we saw the Flam train go through the level crossing.  It was full as usual.



There were  hundreds of Americans in Flam while the Cruise Ship was moored. Another one was waiting up the fjord.

We sat in a little cafe for an hour taking in the view.

We spent quite a bit in the souvenir shops and costed postage to Australia from here.  Decided to wait till Sweden.  We queued up early for the ship and were surprised to find they gave us half price because we are over 65.  We were able to find front row seats and had marvellous views of the fjord.  This fjord  is world heritage listed and we saw many waterfalls.

The ship called in at umpteen little villages on the way to Bergen, all lovely places to spend a week's holiday.

We saw a mountain that resembled Mitre Peak in New Zealand.

The captain pointed out a glacier along the way.

DAY142 TUESDAY AUGUST 14 FLAM

The next few days we will be moving on from place to place.  Today we go to Flam to see the famous Sognefjord, deepest and longest in Norway. After the train left Oslo our jolly train guard looked at our tickets and wished us well.  His demeanour and his moustache put us in the Viking mood for our excursion.

 We were soon into beautiful scenery with mountains and lakes and a rushing river which we followed for ages.  Most of the little villages had their own lakefront.

We noticed that most houses attached their timber cladding vertically, rather than horizontally. As we climbed into the mountains we were surprised to see quite a lot of snow still on the ground even though it was late summer.  We guessed it might be quite cold when we got off the train.

We left the train after four hours of travel and got on the famous Flam railway with a big crowd.  A few people had to stand.  We had been worried that we might be stranded here because we had no tickets, but the conductor sold us tickets with a 30% Eurail reduction.  This railway has inclines of 1 in 18 and is possibly the steepest in the world that does not use cables or cogs.  The views were magnificent as we watched cliffs and waterfalls on both sides of the train. It stopped for five minutes at these falls.

A lady was dancing to music next to the falls and then suddenly jumped down a hollow where we could not see her and immediately reappeared some distance away, later returning to her original spot
miraculously.  Our Japanese tourists sitting opposite were very amused and we said "twins" which they
understood. Flam is a small tourist town with a huge influx of tourists on a daily basis. It has the largest collection of souvenir shops we have ever seen.  The fjord is able to dock huge cruise ships as well as smaller pleasure ships to take visitors down the fjord.

We walked around the shops and checked out the express ship for Bergen and all seemed OK for tomorrow. The train museum contained some interesting rail vehicles.

Outside the station was this sculptured globe which rotated as water rose up from underneath it.  Caught it at a strategic moment.

  We bought food at the supermarket and sat on the Hotel Heimly veranda with a magnificent view along the fjord.

 Thanks to Margot for suggesting this hotel.  In the park was a metal bear representing his ancient local forbears.

DAY 141 MONDAY AUGUST 13 OSLO

Another lovely Scandinavian breakfast included in the hotel cost was appreciated.  Had to go down to the lounge to get Wifi so spent some time there today catching up.  We were still in the dark about our trip to the fjord at Flam, so went to the station and got tickets for the trains for the next four days.  Then we went to the Tourist Office and bought tickets on the private Flam railway.  They could not help us plan our time in Flam, because everyone seems to buy package tours which are hard to work in with a Eurail Pass.  Minor crisis emerged when our Bergen accommodation reminded us we had reversed our days at Flam and Bergen and so we had to replan everything to suit the accommodation.  Could not book anything suitable on the internet.  Rang the tour company and was put on a queue, which does not work with an Australian mobile phone charges.  Went back to the Tourism Office and told them they should have given us 30% discount.  They said you only get that if you buy tickets on the train.
We asked if we could catch a ship from Flam to Bergen and they said yes, but had no brochure, they just knew.  So our plan is to venture out without tickets on the private train and ship and hope it all works out tomorrow. This is today's station statue, to be found in the huge shopping centre underneath.

  It rained in the afternoon and we were not in the mood for sightseeing.

DAY 140 SUNDAY AUGUST 12 NORWAY

We had to pass through Sweden to get to Norway by train.  Strangely, though, when we  inquired about booking seats to Oslo, the ticket office told us there was no direct train.  We needed to travel by bus for an hour from Gothenburg to Trollenhanne and get on the train that starts from there.  Since the bus did not leave till noon, we had the morning to explore Gothenburg further. We headed up the widest street in the town called The Avenue on the map, but tour guides refer to it as THE OTHER Champs Elysees.  It did not have an Obelisk or an Arc de Triomphe but it did have a very good Art Gallery at the top end. Halfway along we found this figure of Charles Felix Lindberg whose name appears on many statues and was a great benefactor of the town. Was he the father of the aviator? They were setting up for a concert on the square at the top end where this statue dominated.

 We could not identify him.  Behind the Gallery was a park on a hill which we climbed to get a view of the town.  The best vantage points at the top were reserved for blocks of flats.  We sauntered back to the station where we found a surprising version of the three wise monkeys in the square.

The bus zoomed straight out of town on a freeway that was right next to the station and we thought we would be on the train in no time.  But it was like the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle with more roadworks than completed freeway.  It will be great in a couple of years.  On the train we had a pleasant trip watching the change in architecture as we crossed into Norway.  In Sweden the country houses were often dark red walls and black roof while in Norway they were more often white or pastel coloured.  Along the way we saw the biggest thatched roof yet.

 As we were more inland we saw a lot of lakes surrounded by forest and appreciated how Scandinavians like to move out of cities to lake houses in summer.

When we arrived in Oslo we headed for the FOREX office to change some Swedish currency and found it is closed on Sundays.  We were able to get some from the ATM however.  Next priority was to go to the tourist office to get a map and find our hotel as the google map we had was hopeless as usual. A German lady was coming away from the entrance and told us it was also closed (which we found out was not correct the next day) .  She had no local currency and no card for the ATM so we swapped one of our 100 Norwegian for her 100 Swedish so she could get the train to her accommodation.  She was very grateful.  We gave up trying to locate a direction to head from the station and went to the taxi rank.  So much easier.  The Perminalen Hotel was satisfactory and we learned that it had a contract with the army and there were always soldiers staying there.  We saw an advertisement for authentic Norwegian food, so dutifully found the restaurant and ordered a meal we did not understand.  It turned out to be slow boiled ham (with lots of fat), mushy peas. overcooked cabbage and potatoes. Probably good winter food if snowbound in the Arctic circle.  Afterwards we walked downhill past a housemaid called Tilly

 and found the waterfront and enjoyed looking at the wooden ships and the huge statues.