lauramsgarden

Hi Karen. quick answer is that yes, if we were younger and healthier we could have easily done this all by public transport. I had shared in an earlier post that my husband has been having some ppretty severe health issues so we just decided to do this in the easiest gentlest way possible - money be damned. There is a famous train from Oslo to Bergen (I waited too long to get tickets and the one we wanted was sold out) and I just wasn't up for another plane flight. The roads have been easy to follow and Scandinavians are incredibly polite drivers so as long as you aren't in winter weather I should think the drive would be easy. If you do get interested check out Norway in a nutshell which helps you arrange various public transport options to see the country the way you want. Also had we been in better shape we would have taken the Hurtigruten coastal boat.

hottest we've had was 85 F maybe - but I heard last summer was much hotter (there was a trip report about it which was very funny, basically the 7-11s were the only places with air conditioning). Most of the hotels don't have air conditioning so I could imagine they might be a bit sweltering if the heat was bad. We just found the air stuffy at times because the street noise meant we didn't want to open windows.

food has been sophisticated, varied and fun. also very attuned to issues like gluten intolerance.

yes, the cruise is part of the norway in a nutshell - was not crowded and was maybe the most beautiful placce I've ever visited.

we've used private guides in the past for travelling to bits of the country outside of the cities when we didn't want to stress the driving (like Thailand, Greece) but have also driven in countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal). The nice thing about guides (and I recommend Tours by Locals) is that they often take you to out of the way places that the guide books don't mention, but that are historically significant or just interesting and beautiful.

best of luck with your trip planning - Laura

lauramsgarden

One final post before we catch our (yawn) 7:45 flight tomorrow for home.
Dinner last night at Fisk in the radisson blu in the City - a fish restaurant where I paradoxically ordered swedish meatballs because I hadn't tried them yet and they were very good (ok, also ate crab). It was fun seeing all the lassies and laddies decked out in their flowered crowns for the midsummer holiday.

My husband had a tough night last night so we are a bit tired today, but grateful that he got through as much of the trip as he did without the neurological stuff causing trouble. Praying for an easy night tonight.

Some random last day observations:
Everywhere we went we were able to use English - in Denmark most people were incredibly fluent, a little less so in Norway and Sweden but still pretty damn good which made me lazy about using the little bit of Swedish I was able to learn before hand, still it was fun to try.

Bathtubs here are longer and skinnier than those at home probably reflecting the taller slenderer physique of our hosts - had to scramble a bit to not slide under.

I had dyed my hair a fun shade of blue prior to the trip and all of a sudden noticed in Denmark that I was the only woman in the room so to speak with unusual colors,. In Norway things seemed even more subdued, until wee got to Sweden where I was glad not to be the only colorful lady around.

Today we mostly wandered the Gamla Stan (old town). Tried to see the Midieval museum but it was cclosed (sort of par for the course for us) but were able to see the wonderful church that was closed yesterday where the Swedish kings and queens are buried - beautiful, then wandered about a biat searching for lunch, and in trying to avoid a huge wave of tourists coming down one of the streets stumbled in a back alley upon a fusion Bengali Swedish restaurant that served curried reindeer by the name of Papels Bengaliska - excellent and quiet.

topped it off with a gelato chaser and last ditch effort to spend our cash in tourist stores (actually got needed apron and a beautiful wool caps)

I forgot to mention that we started out the day searching for the Raoul Wallenberg park and found it right next to our hotel (par for the course for us as well) and spent some time in quiet meditation thinking on heroes and bravery and moral courage.

then retrieved luggage and grabbed a cab to the airport. Our Eritrian cab driver had very strong views about American politics and world affairs (very well informed). Fun fact - from my small sample 2 out of 3 cab drivers in Sweden support Bernie Sanders for president.

and with that I shall bid you goodnight.

KarenWoo

Laura, thank you for your helpful and detailed response. I hope your husband is doing better. Bravo to him for being able to handle a long and wonderful trip! I think it's great that he didn't let his health problems prevent him from taking this journey.