Nuttela

I am putting together my trip report for our vacation that was on June 25 – July 7, 2008, with some information on hotels, restaurants and general commentary. My husband and I had a great time exploring the capitals past and present of the Scandinavian countries or as I refer to them as the three crowns (I picked that up somewhere along my travels).

My husband and I did not take a tour company for our travels we did it on our own. I definitely would check out the tours for the area if you are interested in going because I believe you will get more information about the countries and not to mention it may end up being cheaper…but don’t hold me to that, I am still calculating.

I will start by saying that my husband and I had a really good time and glad we ventured off to that part of the world.

I will post the first installment later today.

crefloors

I'll be looking for it.

Nuttela

Let’s begin the report…
Copenhagen, Denmark – My husband and I least favorite city that we saw and we may attribute it to the fact that we were going through jet leg, getting use to almost 17 hours of light, and a not so great location for a hotel. Also, we didn’t have the time to explore it the right way and I think that didn’t help either.
We stayed at Clarion Collection Hotel Twentyseven and it was a nice hotel. The staff was friendly and the breakfast and dinner buffet was a nice bonus especially since going out to eat was expensive. Granted the dinner buffet for my taste buds were very gourmet like and small portions but it worked. The only negative was the location of our room and hotel. The hotel was on the same street as a bar and dance club and our room was facing that street, so it was usually a bit noisy and since it was warm the windows had to stay open. If you stay at this hotel see if you get a room on a different side of the building. Oh and the hotel was within walking distance of the Central Train Station behind Tivoli but it is probably border line to being a bit of hike if carrying luggage with you. We did it anyways.

We did the following in Copenhagen:
National museum – You need a lot of time for this place since it had a lot of exhibits. We saw some cool history type things.

Tojhusmuseet (National Museum of Military History) – If you are a guns, swords, and canons buff this place is for you. There were thousands of different types of weapons from the earlier years to the present. Ones used in Denmark and around the world. After awhile it was a bit boring for me but my husband loved it to all the way to the end.

Orlogsmuseet – This place was cool especially if you like ships and military. They had a replica of an actual submarine that you could walk through and a replica of the top of a carrier ship that you could also go in and see how things work. There were a lot of sailing ship displays and history of the Danish Navy.

Rundetaarn (Round Tower) - This gave us a chance to walk the pedestrian shopping streets to get to the tower. You go to the top luckily there are no stairs until the very top. It is all ramped – you still have to walk though. The architecture of the passage to get to the top of the tower was neat. It is also contains a telescope that is open to the public on choice days. It is the earliest astronomical tower. The views were good. We didn’t realize how big Copenhagen was until we were up there and that is when we realized that we only saw small areas.

The Ruins under Christiansborg Palace– Unfortunately we were unable to take the tour of the palace but we did go through the ruins underneath the palace. That was cool to see the original walls. We also learned about the many fires that occurred at the Palace which with our limited travel around other countries that was the first time we heard about massive fires. I think the Ruins gave us the best history of the area.

Tivoli – This was close to our hotel so it was worth checking out and since getting to sleep early was impossible we thought staying out there would be fine. We ate at the hotel and went over and walked around and saw the concert that was going on. We got some beers and popcorn. We then waited to see the light show which was much more than I expected. I thought it was fireworks thing and it turned out it was literally a light show near the lake with smoke and lights. It was definitely neat and I never saw anything like it before.

Carlsberg Visitors Center – This was a must since my husband likes Carlsberg beer. Although getting there was easy by train from Copenhagen city center we somehow got lost and had to take a few circles around the area to finally find it. My recommendations if you take the train in just make a left from the station exit and then a right on Vesterfaelledvej and a left on NY Carlsberg Vej. Even if the map looks shorter the other way we couldn’t find the road Carlsberg Cladukten. We couldn’t do it, but if someone has feel free to help out. I would be interested to see where we went wrong. Besides the rough start we eventually got there and although it wasn’t as big as the Guinness tour, it is definitely interesting. We enjoyed the self tour and my husband enjoyed his many beers especially since you are allowed more than one with the tickets and I used one for the Carlsberg Water and took another for the road since the water bottles tended to be expensive.

We did a lot of walking which we passed different monuments, the canal area, and gardens. We saw the Little Mermaid Statue and walked through the military fort. We enjoyed the canal area with the ships parked along the side of it. This is the one area we found a good food place worth mentioning. It was a bakery type place that sold sandwiches, bread and dessert. I could not find where I wrote down the name of this restaurant but it was on the corner of Torvegade and Overg Neden Vandet south of the canal and near the bus stop line for 77, 78, 2A, 350S. We had pizza bread and a crepes dessert. It was really good. The crepes dessert was cream filled with berries on top.
Next Stop Bergen, hope you are enjoying the report so far!

ira

Hi N,

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more.

>...we were going through jet leg, getting use to almost 17 hours of light, and a not so great location for a hotel.<

Which explains why you have to go back to Copenhagen.

You don't mention smorrebrød, smørgåsbord, Wienerbrød or akvavit.

Nuttela

Ira,

You are correct, Copenhagen will require a second trip. That is the reason why I mentioned possibilities of why we may have not had as much fun.

In terms of food, we did eat a lot of open faced sandwiches which unfortunately meant we missed a lot of the smørgåsbord.

I travel over seas every year almost, but this is the first time that I was overwhelmed by the first few days of the trip. It took me by surprise and now looking back I wished I had done a few things differently.

Thanks for reading and be on the look out for info on Bergen, Oslo, & Stockholm.

lanejohann

great report Nuttela
we are heading to scandinavia next may/ june
thinking of getting a car in norway
you didnt happen to look at petrol prices lol?!

oliverandharry

We spent 11 days in Norway in June and "treated" ourselves to a three day car rental to drive around the fjords. We paid $9.65 gallon. I read recently that Norway's gas prices are the highest anywhere.

Nuttela

Bergen, Norway (2 days, 2 nights) – Probably one of our favorite places. Actually overall, Norway was our favorite part of the trip. We wished we have more time to explore it. Yes it isn’t the capital of Norway but it once was the capital.

The hotel we stayed in was called Bergen Travel Hotel. It is actually a bit of a walk to get to the Central Station and the main attractions of the area but we did it and after awhile we didn’t even think about it. There are a few things people need to know about this hotel. One they have two buildings one that holds the check in reception, rooms, and a bar and the other that are just rooms. Fortunately we were in the building that was just rooms since our room was facing a courtyard and it was really quiet. Unfortunately, we had a small room, it had no elevator, and it required us to walk to the other building for our included breakfast which was hearty and we enjoyed it. Overall for what we needed the room to do which was basically ensured we got some sleep, it was fine.

Activities with did while in Bergen:
Walking Tour from The Tourist Office – This I definitely recommend if you like to get some history on where you are visiting and if you are limited on time. We loved our walk it had been raining the whole day but it seemed it had stopped so we could do the tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and she lived in a suburban area of the city. We learned how the city was more under water than it was land. It also suffered from many fires and she showed us what different people from around Europe had spent time in Bergen. The tour we took involved only the old city but that is where the charm of Bergen is located.

The Aquarium – This was something that yes we could have done in the US but my husband and I were intrigued so we went and we saw penguins, seals, crocodiles, all the different marine life of Norway and some from other areas of the world too. We enjoyed spending our few hours there. The way they told the story of the fish was definitely interesting for our taste anyways.

The Fløybanen - the Funicular and Mountain Trails – We took this up to the peak of the mountain that gave us incredible views of Bergen and surrounding areas. We then strolled on the top of the mountain along a trail which if we had more time we would have probably done a few different ones. We took the one that went around a mini lake. We then proceeded following the path that would take us all the way back to the city center. It wasn’t a bad walk and it was nice to be in the fresh air. I definitely recommend this if only to get away from the museums, palaces, and the normal sightseeing.

The Fish Market – We enjoyed walking through it when we were in the area. My husband is allergic to fish but he loves to fish so he was envious of how big the fish were there. We also picked up some strawberries that were just incredible at least compared to the batch we have been eating here in NY before we left.

The Fortress – We didn’t go in and do the tour but we walked the grounds which we enjoyed.
The only restaurant worth mentioning here was the Bryggeloftet & Stuene (www.bryggeloftet.no) which was recommended to us by the tour guide when we asked where would be a good place to get Norwegian style food. The place she recommended did not disappoint. I love fish so I ordered a Norway Salmon and it basically melted in your mouth and didn’t have that strong fish taste as some I have had here. My husband had reindeer and it was surprisingly not has tough as deer meat. It was very moist. If we had heard about this place the night before we probably would have just kept going back.

Next will be our Norway in a Nutshell adventure.

Nuttela

Now we head to Norway in the Nutshell – I agree with everyone it is worth the trip. We used it as transportation to get from Bergen to Oslo.

We started around 8:00 AM at the Bergen train station. We got on the train which had plenty of space for our luggage. The scenery was very nice and was interesting to see the change from Oslo to the countryside.

We then stopped and transferred to a bus with our luggage in tow. We placed them into the bin outside the bus, so there was plenty of room again for them. Again the scenes were incredible and again we saw changes in our surroundings.

The bus took us to the ferry. We got on the ferry again with no problems with our luggage. There is an area where they can be held. I was a bit skeptical about leaving them unattended but we had locked them so people couldn’t get into them. If you are scared about it, I would just bring a bike lock and attach it nearby to something and it should be fine. The views of the fjords were incredible and we even got to see seals and mountain goats. There were plenty of natural waterfalls from the snow melting from the mountain tops and we saw small villages along the banks in some areas.

From there we stopped at Flam and spent a few hours there. This was the only time we wished that we didn’t have our luggage. It was hard to maneuver around the area since we didn’t want to keep lugging them with us. We just took this opportunity to sit have an ice cream and enjoy the weather and wonderful atmosphere. Of course, we find out when we get on the train there were lockers that we could have placed them in for a fee. It was the same place you rent bikes. Oh well lesson learned.

We loaded on to the train to Mydral. The views were really spectacular. We saw snow covered mountains. There were waterfalls and we even stopped at one for photos opt. The train again was spacious and there was room for our luggage with no problem. Finally we get to Mydral and wait for the final leg of the adventure to begin. Here we enjoyed some pancakes while waiting for the train that would take us to Oslo. Again the train was spacious and our luggage had no problems. Since it was light the whole time we could see the views without any problem. It was fun to see the changes of scenery from wintery lakes to general grasslands. It was nice and relaxing. We got to our hotel in Oslo at about 10 PM and it was still bright outside so it didn’t feel as late as it was. Just a note the luggage we had in tow was a medium and small expandable bag on wheels and two hand bags.

Thanks again for reading if you are still following our adventures. Tomorrow I will try to get Oslo and Stockholm written up. Hopefully I am not boring you too much.

BaljitKL

Thanks for a great trip report. Scandinavian countries are on my list of places to visit in this lifetime. Reading your trip report makes me want to go there sooner than later.

Nuttela

BaljitKL - Thanks for the kind words I will have to make sure that I finish this thing up this weekend so that you get a taste of what Sweden was like for us.

lanejohann - I don't remember looking at petroleum prices but I do recall my husband saying how expensive it was when we passed one. We did not see many in the city centers we visited.

I promise the final part of my report will come soon.

Nuttela

Sorry for the delay but the trip continues...

Oslo, Norway (2 days, 2 nights)

We stayed at the Comfort Hotel Borsparken in Oslo. It was close to the train station but a bit far from the main attractions of the city but it was walkable if you don’t mind it. The hotel is one I definitely would recommend. The price was good but that may have been because it was July. The breakfast buffet was great and the fresh fruit all day was nice and so was the tea time snack. The rooms were a good size and the bathroom was great since it was the first one that had a whole countertop near the sink that went from one side of the wall to the other. We also had no issues with getting to sleep in this room because it faced the inside instead of the street.

The activities in Norway were the following:

Bygdoy Island - We took a ferry there and it surprisingly was very quaint and tranquil despite the various museums that were located there for tourists to enjoy. We went to the following museums while we were there:

Viking Museum – This was interesting to see these ships and to know how old they were.

Kon Tiki Museum – This I am still confused about and what we actually saw. Luckily I bought a book and hopefully I can figure it out. They are rafts that were made out of reed, but I am confused about who used them for what.

Flam (Polar Expedition) Museum – This was a cool museum it has the actual Flam boat used for polar expeditions within a building. It was three floors and at each floor there was an exhibit and on the last floor you could go on board the boat and see the deck and the inside of the ship. It was really cool.
There were others but we thought these were most interesting to us and the others were things we were going to do somewhere else or we had done in similar places. Besides it gave us more time to sit by the water and enjoy the weather and sun. We actually returned to this Island again to have a picnic the next evening.

Historisk Museum – This place was a nice surprise because they were giving a guided tour of the Viking Exhibits. It was really nice and informative. The museum is also free so that was a nice change for us. The exhibits of this museum were basically the history of different areas of the world and of Norway. We enjoyed it.

Changing of the Guards – We happened to be visiting the grounds of the palace and we were able to see it. Granted it wasn’t anything huge in terms of excitement but I thought it was cool to watch.

Vigeland Park – We went here in the evening and it was spectacular. It is a park that contains all the sculptures of Mr. Vigeland. It was definitely used as a park that people can picnic and bike ride around. We liked walking around and seeing the different sculptures. There were some that were huge and others that were smaller but just as expressive.

The following are the restaurants we ate at:
-Engebret Café – It was a good restaurant. It was quaint and out of the hustle and bustle of the main streets. It was located on Bankplassen 1.
-Café Christiania - The food was good (their menu was based on Gourmet BBQ Grilling). I actually had a grilled banana for dessert. We enjoyed the terrace top view while we were eating.

Nuttela

Stockholm, Sweden (2 days, 3 nights)

We enjoyed this place but I believe we just didn’t really explore as much as we thought since we did have limited time there.

We stayed in Mornington Hotel which was a nice hotel far from the site attractions and the Central Train Station. We used the subway a lot and as a hint if you take the subway, get the 24 – 72 hour pass because otherwise it is more expensive than necessary. The room given to us was meant for two people but we pushed the beds together and let the front desk know. We had a room not on the main street so we didn’t want to lose that which is why we didn’t change rooms. I would say out of all the rooms we stayed in this one had a more aged feel to it. The staff was nice and I think the breakfast buffet was the largest out of all the hotels. (You can make your own waffles.) The staff was really nice about helping us make reservations and dealing with my many postcards.

Activities we did here:

Skansen – The open air museum which if you like the idea of seeing how people use to live and do in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in Sweden this was the place to learn it. We walked around and saw the various farm houses and animals of Sweden. Their animals (zoo area) were very impressive. Of course all of this is my opinion. We had some ice cream here which was a nice treat for us.

Vasa Musuem – This museum was interesting and dark. The museum is kept dark to ensure the Vasa Ship stays preserved. It was a huge war ship that was very impressive. This ship was built to be the greatest war ship that sank after 25 minutes in the bay and that it took 5 years to take it out of the ground. It was interesting and we took advantage of the guided tour to explain what we were looking at and some of its history.

Ice Bar – Okay probably over priced for what it is and silly if you don’t like vodka or the cold but my husband and I don’t regret going and having the vodka with our parka’s and gloves. It was definitely cold (-5 degrees Celsius). My husband took a photo of me entering the bar with normal colored face but by the end of our time there my nose had gotten all red as if I had been out in the snow all day. We were there for a little more than an hour but I think there is a 45 minute limit. There were not a lot of people and we think that is why no one came to kick us out. I didn’t think we would be there for that long but the time there passed rather quickly. It was fun and now we both can say we had vodka out of a glass made out of ice.

Old Stockholm (Gamla Stan) – we started with a walking tour of the area which was okay. The guide had to do it in two different languages: English and Swedish, so it was hard to follow sometimes. It did give us some information which is better than nothing. While on the walk we saw again the changing of the guards which had much more fanfare than in Oslo with a marching band so it was cool to see.

Palace – we bought the combined ticket and saw the Palace Apartments, Tre Kronor Museum, The treasury & The Royal Armory. It was more history type of information about Sweden and its government. We enjoy that kind of stuff so it works for us. The Royal Armory was interesting since we got to see the suits of armor, stuffed horses, clothing, weapons, and carriages of the King and Queen. If you have kids, there were some hands on room that I am sure the kids would enjoy.

We spent the rest of the time wandering the old city and did some shopping.

Restaurants worth mentioning:
Misteln - located in the old city. We stopped here for lunch and they had a great menu. After all our walking it was also a much deserved break.

The second restaurant was called Tures on Sturegallerian 10 which had good food.

Our final dinner on vacation was at Restaurang D6 (or at least the receipt says that, I can’t seem to find my notes on this restaurant) served traditional Swedish food and that was very good. I recommend the fish stew. My husband enjoyed his Swedish meatballs and the ice cream dessert was a great end to our vacation.

Also if you like chocolate I would definitely recommend the chocolate boutique shop in the old city. It was a nice treat for me since I love chocolate. They had so many different choices. It was like going to a pastry shop but just for chocolates.

Well that was our trip; Now for some tips and general observations and comments.

Money - All the places we went to were expensive. It didn’t matter if we were getting a sandwich, buying a bottle of water, or just souvenir shopping. It was almost 5 times more than what we would pay here. I couldn’t believe I was paying $1 for postcards. I think Norway and Denmark were the most expensive of the three and we definitely got more for our dollar at Sweden. We were worried about the money when we started but realized that this was our vacation and we are not big spenders here in NY so we can splurge a little. We did save some money by not getting dessert and coffee at dinner. A lot of the hotels had tea kettles in the room so we would just enjoy our coffee and tea in the room or take it to go to a nearby park. We also ate a lot during breakfast so we would bypass lunch because we weren’t hungry and would get an ice cream or some pastries to hold us over until dinner. Dinners were expensive no matter where we went.

Time – The time of year we went the sun was up all the time which took some major adjustment. The first few days our body just didn’t realize when it was tired so it made it hard to sleep. The positive of the sun out all the time is that once you finished with the museums you could still enjoy the sun at the nearby parks or sea sides. Also another thing to note about time, a lot of the museums and palaces had business hours of 10 AM – 4 PM and a few 5 PM which made it a bit hard to see everything. I would recommend if you want to see something check out the times so that you can regulate when you need to be there by. Another benefit of early museum closings is that you still have plenty of time to get a nice dinner and enjoy the outdoors. Although the weather was nice in July, I found that there were more tourists than natives. I could be wrong though. Also, if you want to go to a particular restaurant make sure they are open on the day you want to go. A few restaurants we wanted to go to were closed on Sunday.
People – The few we did meet were all very friendly and helpful and spoke English.

Transportation – Using public transportation worked out nicely for us since we were in locations that were city like. We walked everywhere and used the buses and subways. They are very easy to follow and if they have the passes definitely get them. It is worth the cost especially if you are there for just 24 hours.

Also all the cities we visited had a discount card which came in different time increments. If you do some research about places you want to see and if the card can be used there, definitely get it. You can save money because some attractions become free or discounted and you get free mass transit so you don’t need to worry about zone pricings with buses, subways and some locations trains.

Weather – The weather when we got there end of June was about low 60’s. By the time we left, it was low 70’s with some days in between that were high 70’s almost 80. If going during this time layering is key for not having to over pack.

Final thought that I was not as prepared as I would have liked to been for this trip which accounts for missing out on a lot of traditional things to do in the area. I would have liked to have done better research before we went, in our case it would have made some difference. Oh well, it just means another visit.

I hope you enjoyed this report. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask questions. Hopefully this will help others who were thinking of visiting the area but just couldn’t find personal experience information.
Thanks again and I apologize for the length of the report and delay in finishing it.