Short Trip to Scandanavia (4/21-5/9/2024)

April 21, 2024 (Sunday) - Starting the Trip

Today our Scandinavian trip started. We took Uber for our airport transportation for the first time. I was quite nervous since we did not receive any message from the driver in the morning. But he did show up on time. Our Uber driver was from Uganda, here doing some business. Nice young man! I told him I have watched the Uganda lady who married a Chinese and is now living in China happily. Her name is Rose and she speaks perfect Chinese!! He said she is quite famous in Uganda. Interesting! We got to Logan more than 2 hours before our 5:15pm flight. Thankfully we're able to use Air France's sky lounge courtesy of AmEx Platinum (Bob has not cancelled it as he was going to ....) We were able to get some nice snacks, good enough that we're ok even if the airline won't feed us.

We're also lucky that the aircraft seemed to be a new one, with lots of new technology. For example, to darken the window, we did not need to pull down any shade, just swipe our hands on the window and it darkened. Wow!! And for econ plus, they have very nice online entertainment, plus a nice over the ear earphone, a bottle of water, etc. Very pleasant surprise! We're happy.

April 22, 2024, Monday - Arrived in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Our flight arrive at Paris airport shortly after 6am local time (about midnight at home). Neither of us slept much. The flight was pleasant. Not crammed. And people around of us were quiet, not sick.

After we got off the plane and stepped into the airport, our happiness almost immediately disappeared .... First of all, it was COLD! And the airport was crowded even at that early hour! Our flight came in at gate 2E, and our connecting flight was at 2F. Sounded close, right? Wrong! Not only the walk was far, we had to re go through the security! And Paris airport's security was archaic still! All the electrical equipment must be out. Ugh!!!!!!! And after security, we had to go through police. Very confusing!! But we did it and got to our gate 2 hours early.

From Paris to Amsterdam there was no econ plus seats - too short a flight so they don't have them. Ours were 23E and F - not only quite far in the back, but also no aisle seat! Bob said the airline changed them! The aircraft was old and had a very strange loud noise, very unpleasant. Thankfully the flight was only 1.5 hours and we landed around 9:30. Amsterdam again was quite cold!! I really fear we don't have enough warm clothes! I guess we'll just have to pile the layers on!

Getting our luggage did not take too long but the walk to the luggage hall was not short. Even though this was not our first time here, neither of us could remember any details, until we finally found the rental car office! Hopefully next time (if there is a next time) we will remember where the car rental office is!

There was quite a long line at Avis car rental. We're preferred so the car has been reserved for us and we can go directly to garage floor 0 to get it. Bob reserved it for 12pm and it was only around 10am, so the guy said they did not have the car ready yet .... Then he seemed to have relented and said it was just not as clean as it should be. We really did not want to wait, so we said okay. It turns out the inside of the car was not bad, they just have not made the outside clean. Oh well .... But this was not the bad part - because bob reserved the car under my name (I have the avis preferred status), he cannot remove me and had to add him as a second driver, even though he is the spouse. And they charged us 15 euro/day more! Ugh!!!!!!!

We got to the hotel - Marriott Renaissance at the airport. I know they allow checkin at 3pm but usually if/when they have the room available they would let us in early. But guess what? Here they want to charge us 10 euro/hour for early checkin. Unbelievable!!! We're too tired to argue so we paid. But I will definitely give them a few words in the review!! In addition, parking is 17+euro/day extra! Do not know why Bob booked this hotel! I am pissed!!!!

After settling down in the hotel room, it was about noon time. We decided to visit the zoo so we drove out. The zoo's name is actually Artis Amsterdam Royal zoo. It is right in the middle of the city. We were rather shocked at the entrance fee - 29+euros per adult! The nice girl explained that they're trying to build a nicer environment for the animals - for that I had no argument. I asked what animals they have, she said reptiles, bugs, sea lion, lion elephant, etc. No tiger, no bear, no panda, .....oh lots of monkeys. It turns out this is really a nice zoo. It's like an oasis in the middle of a busy city. If we had the time and energy I would love to come often and tour every corner (except bugs and snakes!!). We were very tired today and my right foot hurts ..... One complaint I had about the zoo was they do not have adequate bathrooms for the visitors. The couple they marked on the map were closed. I had to use their internal bathroom via a kind man who allowed me.... Sigh .....

I took a few photos - that male lion was a handsome young one! And so many different exotic birds!!!!! Wish we could stayed longer. But we're so tired and it was really quite cold, and windy!! Like the hotel girl said, their spring this year has been awful - cold, wet, windy ..... Just today, within the short hours we've been here. we saw rain, wind, sun, and cold .... Sigh ....

After the zoo, we walked to Chinatown and found the restaurant we ate at last time. Had a simple dinner, then walked back to the zoo parking lot and drove back to the hotel.

Now it is almost 9pm local time but the sun just started to go down. We need to go to bed asap. Tomorrow our tulip garden reservation is for 9am. That is the main focus of this trip to Amsterdam!

4/23/2024 Tuesday - Keukenhof Garden

I thought I would have had a really good sleep last night as I was very tired, but I did not. Woke up around 3, but was able to fall back to sleep after a while and got up just before the alarm went off at 7am. We got on the road towards Keukenhof around 8am.

It was a glorious sunny day but quite chilly so we put on all the warm layers I packed. Unfortunately we could not do anything about our legs .... We got to the garden shortly before 9am. We went straight to the gate and I presented our print-out tickets. She tried to scan it then said "what is this?" It turned out that I bought the WRONG tickets!! I cannot believe this! What an embarrassing mistake!! Fortunately we were early and there were not many people at the ticket windows. We got our tickets very quickly and got in. Due to the bathroom difficulty at the zoo, I asked the lady at the gate if there were bathrooms inside the garden. She said "Of course!! We have 40 thousand visitors everyday, you think we just have one toilet?!" Haha! No concerns in that regard!

Once inside the garden, beautiful displays of tulips were everywhere!! And they're so pretty especially under the bright morning sun! I was looking for the fields of tulips, like the ones I saw on FB photos. But they were not inside the garden. All the tulips in the garden were planted in arrangements everywhere! We walked probably half of the garden, also visited the orchid house as Linda told me.

After 11am, the garden became more and more crowded, to the extent I found very

unpleasant, so we decided to leave. By that time, the parking lots were filled with big tour buses, cars and vans. The garden staff directed parking and traffic, so the whole thing was very organized. Nice!

The rows of tulips in the fields were actually visible outside the garden! From the road approaching the garden, the scene was quite pretty. So Bob found a spot to park the car and let me walk to the edge of the fields and I was able to get some phone photos. Today I mainly did phone photos. I used my R5 for a few shots, but they were nothing special ....

We left the garden before 12pm and wanted to find a place for lunch. The place where bob parked happened to be outside a restaurant named "Hanimi" and it was it was actually a fusion restaurant! We were excited! But it was closed today :-( So we yelped and identified a Korean restaurant near Amsterdam to try. Bob drove there - it was a small rather shabby place, and it was closed as well! We yelped again and found another place in Amsterdam, which was not far from where we were but would take half an hour to get to. What the heck - we would go! Bob fought through the worst inner city traffic and finally got to the area, but could not find the place. It was just as well - we read the menu and found out it would not be something we would like. Oh well ....

By the time we're done looking for a place to eat, it was 2:30pm. We were to tired and disgusted to continue looking and decided to return to the hotel. After a few minutes' rest I googled again and found this Cantonese restaurant called Royal Sankong which had good reviews and which was quite close by, only 4 minutes drive! So we went. It is in the town called Amstelveen which turned out to be a lovely town! The owner was Chinese, but born and raised in the Netherlands. But he (and his brother) spoke fluent English (it turns out people here learn English at school, almost a mandatory second language for them). His wife is from WenZhou - they were all very friendly and helpful! Their food turned out to be decent - certainly cannot be compared with what we had the first day, in the Chinese restaurant in Chinatown of Amsterdam. But their attitude and help beat the other hands-down.

We asked them if there were any grocery stores nearby. And there was! So we drove there and got apples and some water. The town of Amstelveen was quite lovely! We will go back there for breakfast tomorrow, hopefully. The restaurant owner also told us a couple of places worth a visit: a goat farm; a glass museum (right in Amstelveen), and a "dwarf place" ..... I will google to find out more.

Our original plan was to go to Prinsengracht to have pancakes at The Pancake Bakery which Linda recommended. After I googled that town, I found out that is also a place where people go to watch sunset and photograph the canals. It would be perfect for us to go today and have a little pancake. But the rain started as we drove to the grocery store. And it did not stop when we left .... It was cold and miserable, and there won't be any sunset ..... So we decided to stay in and rest.

Tomorrow Bob plan to drive to Groningen - a town 2 hours away from here. We will see how it turns out ....

April 24, 2024 Wednesday - Groningen, Netherlands

This was a leisure day for us - no specific schedule to hit. We got up after 8am and headed to Amstelveen looking for a breakfast place. The hotel's buffet breakfast was too expensive and did not even have eggs to order. The breakfast place we went to in Amstelveen was very close to the Chinese restaurant we went to last night. Unfortunately it did not have eggs to order and only had the traditional stuff - pancakes, croissants, yogurt, coffee/tea. We both had pancakes, Bob had coffee and I had tea. Feed was fine and the price was reasonable. And the environment was pleasant.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel again before heading out. Today's destination was the town Groningen 2 hours drive away. Bob found this place somewhere and said it had some sceneries. The weather today was similar to yesterday. The sun came out when we got up and was bright and glorious! But when we got out, it disappeared behind the clouds. It was quite chilly again. On the drive to the G city, it was sunny, rainy, cloudy, as if the sky could not make up its mind .... But we enjoyed sceneries outside the window (well, mainly I did as Bob was driving). The fields were SO GREEN and lush! We saw more tulip fields - some red, some pink, many dark red. Apparently tulips are an important industry of Netherlands.

We got into Groningen after 2pm. It was impossible to find a parking garage or a parking spot! Googling did not help. Finally we saw a tiny spot on the side of a small road by the canal. Bob heroically and skillfully parallel parked into that spot! On the canal side of the parking spot was a row of boat houses, with even mailboxes on them. They were below the road surface. On the road side there were cars parked all along the road. Thank god I did not have to drive/park there - I would have probably fall right into the canal onto those houses!

As we got out of the car, the rain started - only drizzling. Right across the street from where we parked was an interesting courtyard type of place. I walked in and found a lovely garden! Well groomed place! Unfortunately we could not tell what it was. Later we found out it was the Prinsentuin garden! Another hidden gen oasis inside a busy city!

After we walked through the small garden, the rain became harder. I regret we did not bring an umbrella. It seems that people there were accustomed to this kind of crazy weather - most of them just walked/biked in the rain without any rain gear! We had to duck into a building's door way to wait until the rain became a drizzle again. We walked through the town center starting from around the Martini Tower. I was thinking of visiting the Groningen Museum, but after looking through its exhibits online, I decided against going in. But we did walk to it since I was most interested in its unique outside architectural shape. It took us a while to finally found it. The weather was not cooperating and was dark the entire time we walked there. So we did not really do much worth mentioning. Bob had some coffee in one of their many coffee shops. I bought a warm hat which really made walking in the cold much better for me. We saw a cat coffee place where the cat was sleeping in its bed on a table by the window and a little girl was eating her dessert next to it, while her father looking at her fondly. I took a picture to show Linda - that cat was the same kind she likes but I cannot remember the name. Oh, when we were asking directions to the museum, an old gentleman was eating something while telling us how to get there. The pigeon was SO audacious and took a bite from the man's bread while he was eating!!! Gee!!

As we were walking back to our car we walked by a quick food store by the street that sells gyros. I love gyros so we decided to make it our dinner today since it was almost 5pm and we did not know where to eat dinner. It would be too late to eat after we get back to close to Amsterdam. So we ate there. They've got to be the worst gyros I had in my life!!! Aside from being salty, there was no other flavor. Sigh .... Wasted our stomach for a meal!

To get back, Bob was hoping to take a more local route instead of the highways when we came. Not knowing what to do, he tapped a point on the map in the car and off we went. We did get on a different route, but it took us to some strange countryside place and a dead end:-) We had to reenter our destination and got back on track. This side trip gave us some nice feeling of the Dutch countryside! Saw more cows and goats at closer range.

Thinking of going into Prinsengracht area of Amsterdam which was supposed to be the best spot for seeing sunset. But along the way the dark clouds came and wiped out the hope of seeing any sunset. We decided to drive straight back to the hotel.

Now it is almost 10pm and it's still not all dark outside. Tomorrow is our last day in Amsterdam. We plan to explore a few more areas of Amsterdam. We will see ....

April 25, 2024 (Thursday) - A Wasted Rainy Day

Sleepless last night - literally did not sleep at all. Not sure why - only thing I can think of is because I had coke zero yesterday while eating that awful gyro then another one on the road because the stuff was too salty and I was so thirsty .... Sigh .... I am up now, all washed, 8am. Bob is still sleeping - seems he was awake a lot last night.

Did some searching online and found a restaurant in Amsterdam that serves breakfast and brunch. We plan to go there. Then park the car in a garage (Bob said he found one). Then we will visit the Jordaan and Prinsengracht areas in Amsterdam.

We drove out in the damp, cold, and cloudy day to look for the breakfast/brunch restaurant in Amsterdam, which had good reviews online. We had no idea where it was but I hoped it was not in the Amsterdam city so we could find a parking spot and have some breakfast.

The restaurant is called Dignita. We found it. It was in Amsterdam and in a sort of residential area where it was almost impossible to find parking!! We drove round and round and finally saw a small spot by the street. Bob managed to maneuver the car into the spot and we walked to the eating place in the drizzle. The place was a trendy cafe type of place. We each ordered an eggs benedict with side of mashed avocado plus coffee/tea. The food was OK but nothing to write home about. The hassle and stress of finding parking made the experience extremely unpleasant and not worth it. On hind sight we should have just eaten in the hotel restaurant which should not be worse.

It was cold an drizzling and neither of us felt like walking to the areas we hoped to go. But we did try driving there and got to the area. It turned out that we definitely had been there last time when our private guide took us walking. Driving on the crammed streets killed any pleasure of exploring the place. And I was deadly tired - could not even keep my eyes open. So we decided to go back to the hotel and rest.

And that's what we did. We came back to the hotel and both took a nap till after 3pm. Feeling better after the rest, we set out to look for dinner. Bob found a Chinese restaurant "Jasmin" in the nearby city/town Hoofddorp which had good reviews, so we went. It's only less than 5 miles away but it took almost half an hour. And the rain was on and off. The food there was decent - better than the one in Amstelveen. We came back to the hotel before 6:30, and filled the car's gas on the way.

Our flight to Copenhagen is 9:45am tomorrow. I need to start packing as much as I can tonight, and get up early to finish packing, then leave the hotel at 7am.

There are certainly things worth doing/seeing in the Netherlands, but I am not sure if we will have another chance to come back. And I sure have no desire to deal with driving in these crammed cities!! And NEVER again in such miserable rainy cold season.

April 26, 2024 (Friday) - Arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark

We got up at 6am aiming at getting to the airport by 7am, but we only got out of the hotel at 7am and arrived at the rental car return about 15 past 7am. I really cannot compliment the Amsterdam airport - it was chaotic as hell, especially when we cannot read Dutch. Our flight was with KLM. It seems that all flights with KLM have luggage checkin at the same few windows and it tooks quite a while to find them. To get to our gate, we went upstairs, then downstairs, and long walkways, finally got to our gate - terminal 2 B5. Our flight was one of those that you have to take a bus to the plane then walk up. Also, apparently there was a change of the aircraft so we now had a smaller one and quite a number of people had to be called off this flight. Fortunately we were not among them. Phew!! It was a small aircraft. We had row 20 - I think there are only less than 10 rows after us. The seat arrangement was 2 and 2, we both had aisle seats, across from each other. The man sitting by the window next to Bob offered to switch with me so Bob and I were able to sit next to each other, The legroom of our econ seats was not as bad as the ones on American airlines so it was tolerable, for the less than 1.5 hr flight. Our flight was at 9:45 but was late in taking off. The pilot said he would try flaying faster. We arrived in Copenhagen a little after 11am. Getting our luggage was eventless and we got on the taxi rather smoothly.

Nice taxi driver, driving an electric Mercedes. He told us about the app Viggo which is equivalent of our Uber except all their cars are electric. The scandinavian countries are indeed much more environment conscious!

Our hotel is Radisson Royal right in the center of town - Bob intentionally did not rent a car so we can walk around the city. The hotel was not that far from the airport and we got here quickly. The hotel, like most of the buildings in the city, looks quite cold. The taxi driver told us that the inside has been totally renovated. True. The inside was rather pleasant. It was around 12:30pm. Our room was not ready yet so we stored everything there and decided to go explore. It was right in the city center so go walking around was easy!

We really did not know where to go. Bob has read about the street Stroget which is one of the main streets with shops etc. We got there in a few minutes. In a local store that sells decent wool and cotton clothing, I found and bought another wool hat - a pure wool one with a huge ball on top, my favorite kind. It was a well known Danish brand but was made in Nepal (unlike the cheap one I bought in Groningen which was a no-name synthetic and made in Taiwan). Wearing the new had felt very good! The weather here was just like in the Netherlands - rainy, windy, wet and cold! Waling on the wet street was not that much fun!

There were quite a few Oriental street food places but they just did not look appetizing to me. Then we saw a "Mr. Pho" at a street corner which looked OK. So we went in and each had a bowl of warm soup pho. The place was definitely operated by some young Asian (or even Chinese, as I heard them talking) people. The inside decor was kind of trendy. The workers were young asian and local girls, friendly and polite. The food was fine - not gourmet but acceptable. But they must have put MSG in the food, which made me extremely thirsty later on. The warm soup and comfort noodles felt good in the stomach.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel. It started raining again. There was a main information office right across the street from our hotel, we went in there first and grabbed a couple of maps. It was around 2pm and our room was ready (they did not charge us extra to get in the room before 3pm the formal checkin time!).

We got into our room which is 1216, on the 12th floor. The room is much smaller than what we had at the Renaissance, but it was economically designed for its size. The bathroom was also much smaller, but acceptable. I must say our room in the Renaissance was one the best rooms in this class of hotels we've had! The bathroom was adequately spacious. There were ample electric outlets. Everything was adequate and I'm glad Bob chose it. In the few rainy cold days it was pleasant to have spend the time in that hotel room. The only complaint was their charge for the early checkin - SO petty!!

Any ways, after we came back to the hotel room, with the dark and miserable weather outside, we decided to just take it easy and see how the weather goes. We both took naps. I was so tired. After that, we started looking online for dinner places. Finally Bob identified a ramen place called Ferment, and we walked out looking for it around 5pm. By this time, the rain had stopped and the sun came out!! (Even though it went in and out of the clouds). On the way we saw a bookstore and bought a decent map for Copenhagen. Then we came across an Indonesian restaurant called Saji which looked rather interesting (and there were quite some people inside), so we decided to eat there, which turned out to be the right decision. The food was tasty and we had a good dinner.

We finished dinner around 8pm. I was hoping to walk to the famous Nyhavn as the sun was still visible and it might be good for pictures. But Bob did not feel like walking in the cold so we returned to the hotel.

No specific plans for tomorrow even though there are quite a few places we'd like to go. From the tour book, we read about guided city tours so we will try to join.

April 27, 2024 (Saturday) - Nyhavn and the Little Mermaid in Sunny Copenhagen

I slept for maybe 2 hours last night (more accurately, this morning) - somehow just not sleepy even though tired, so I got up around 2:30am and started researching the map on how to get to Nyhavn and the Little Mermaid statue and finally knew how to get to them! Then I continued to watch my YouTube soap TV until after 5am. Worried I would not be able to sustain myself later today, I went to bed and finally slept for a couple of hours. We were up shortly after 8am, and decided to try the breakfast buffet in the hotel (after hearing XiaoPing said about her experience here years ago, about good hotel breakfast). It turned out the breakfast was quite good! We willl eat here for the remaining days.

When we looked out of the window after getting up, we found the rain had stopped and the sun was out! Based on the past week's experience, I thought the sun would disappear by the time we go out. But guess what? It's 3:30pm now and it's still sunny outside!!!! It is the very first full sunny day since we came to this part of the world! WOW!!! The sun was quite warm and I had to take off my down sweater half the way.

We left the hotel around 11am. First destination was Nyhavn. It was really quite close to the hotel, and we did our best navigate the map and using google map, still challenging and had to ask along the way. I made a fool of myself trying to pronounce nyhavn. The nice gentleman I asked said "what?" so I knew I did not say it right and asked him how to pronounce it. Now I know!! It's "neihoun". We finally found the place! As expected, it was crowded. But there was still space to snap some photos. It was a picturesque place, worth a visit!

After that, we continued to walk towards the Little Mermaid which is in a park not too far from the Nyhavn. We found it, together with the crowds. It would have been so nice if the place was quiet with less people, but it is what it is! I took the photos and we started heading back. The park was very nice - with water, flowers, and green lawn.... not too many people aside from the crowds by the littler mermaid. I would have stayed longer if my foot was not hurting.....

The walk was not that long but we found it very difficult and tiring to walk on the very bumpy cobble stones/bricks. Need to be very attentive not to trip over and it was very hard on the sole. I should have worn some thick/har soled sneakers vs my soft Merrell. My right foot neuroma has been acting up since we arrived in Amsterdam and making walking very very painful. I took off my socks which made things better for a little while. My legs (or hips?) also have not been behaving .....Sigh.....

On the way back we thought of taking in the Christianborg Palace. It was open. But we decided against paying the fees to visit the inside - past experiences visiting these palaces did not seem to leave us too much long lasting memories or enjoyment or learning. So we walked through the outside courtyard and the space outside the royal stable and admired the two white horses outside. The only spot I was tempted to pay the visit was that stable. But the familiar horse stable smell made us decide against it.

Then at one of the squares whose name we did not know, we ran into a pro Iranian protect - not quite understanding exactly the content but the woman's singing was nice and I knew the song, just don't remember its name ...... In the square I saw a small food cart for the famous Chinese Tiancing crepe! I ordered one and chatted with the owner. Turned out that he came here as a chef and even cooked for the royal banquet with the Chinese leaders. He showed me all the pictures of him with famous people and the publications about him! His last name is Xing - I will look him up on YouTube and Little Redbook. The crepe was fine - I had not had it for SO LONG!

Back to the hotel, chatted with the hotel concierge who was very very helpful about our plan to rent the car in Malmo then drive back to Sweden, etc. After Bob takes his nap, we will go to the train station to check out how to get the tickets, etc. Still have not decided the exact itinerary yet .....

I do not dare to take another nap lest I would not be able to sleep again tonight.

Around 5pm we walked out again, first to the train station to scout out how/where to buy train tickets to go to Malmo, Sweden to pick up our rental car. Glad we did as it was not obvious how to do this, and it would be very stressful if we had to try figuring out how to do it when under time pressure.

Bob was interested in exploring the Christianshavn - the hippy community. We both thought it might be similar to the area in Vilnius, Latvia which was quite interesting. So after the train station we walked there - it was not that far but still quite a bit of walk, especially when my right foot and both legs/hips were hurting or simply not feeling right .... But we got there. And it was very disappointing - it was messy and not a trace of artistic feeling ..... they had a some sort of market with various clothing and jewelry booths, selling various Tibetan style clothing and silver jewelry .... We did not go too far and came back out. Bob read about a restaurant named Wok close to the community which seemed to have good reviews. So we decided to eat there. It turned out to be Thai food - you order at the counter and they bring to your table. We were glad to be able to sit down and rest a bit, but the food took a while to arrive. Oh well, it solved Bob's hunger issue. I was not hungry because of that Chinese pancake :-) but I ate just as well :-)

We walked home after dinner, went through the Christianborg Palace again. Got back to the hotel around 8:30pm. I did not take a nap today so hopefully I will be able to sleep.

April 28, 2024 (Sunday) - Gorgeous Sunny Day on Hop-on Hop-off Bus

Last night I had not slept that well for god-knows-how-long - I fell asleep before Bob finished his shower! And only woke up once but fell back to sleep quickly, until after 8am!! Opening the curtain and we saw a glorious bright sunny morning! Unbelievable!!!

After having a good breakfast, we went out to catch the hop-on hop-off bus which turned out to be right outside the dining room door! We bought the 48 hour hop 0n/off bus for all three lines - the green, purple and the red which covers all the areas of the city.

The green lines covers Frederiksberg and Vesterbro areas, basically the area west of the city center. That was the first one we took. Our hotel, the Radisson Royal is right at the border of Vesterbro, which used to be the poorer and seedy area, whereas Frederiksberg is the more affluent area. Aside from the few historical sites such as the Frederiskberg palace, the zoo and the planetarium are there. I would have loved to visit the zoo which looked very interesting, but we won't have the time ....

Then we took the purple line which covers the area to the east of city center, including Christianshavn where Christiania is. An interesting area which I think will develop fast in the future. I learned the term and concept "allotment garden" from the recorded tour explanation which is quite interesting! Denmark is indeed a forward thinking country and very environment conscious!

Finally we took the red line bus which is about the Copenhagen city center. I has most of the modern and historical sites, of course including the Nyhavn and the little mermaid statue. I wish we had taken these hop on and off buses the first day when we got here!! They would have given us such a good orientation introduction! And I would have had such a good impression of Copenhagen!! And I really like the less crowed natural green spaces here, away from the hustling and bustling congested areas ....

The bus tours took more than 3 hours and we came back to the hotel after 2pm. After resting for a bit, we decided to do some walk outside. I really wanted to go to zoo, but it would be too far, so we decided to walk to the botanical garden which was only a 20 minutes walk. We got there, but found out there was no entry fee as specified online, so we figured it must be because there was not any plants there yet since it's still cold. We walked around along the paths and took some pictures of the few well-fed ducks. Quite some people were sitting/lying on the lawn sun-bathing. Then we found out there is an entry fee required Palm house and we tried to find the ticket office to get in. By the time we found the poorly directed ticket office, only 15 minutes were left before they closed, so the ticket girl advised us not to buy the tickets.

We walked back to the hotel and decided to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant Issei which is serving fusion Japanese/Peruvian dinner. The food was OK but definitely not worth the price they charge. Oh well .... We took a walk after dinner to checkout the possible eating places nearby. There is a Chinese restaurant called China Palace which looked awful so that's out of the question. Across the street from it there is a Pho place which had lots of people, so it is a possibility.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Malmo in Sweden to pickup the rental car, then drive back to Demark and tour some places outside of Copenhagen. Important thing: I want to photograph the Oresund Bridge! Hope to be able to find the right spots.

April 29, 2024 (Monday) - Malmo, Sweden, then Roskilde Cathedral and Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark

As I feared, I did not sleep well or much last night, due to the fact I slept too well the night before, sigh .... I got up before 7 which we set the alarm for. I needed to take my fosamax and needed half hour before eating anything.

We took off for the train station at around 9am. And we selected the 2 tickets to Malmo and proceeded to pay with credit card. But the software did not seem to be able to handle USD. So we had to go to the ticket office where there are humans to help. We got our tickets and got on the train shortly after. Malmo station was really quite close and we got there in no time. The train was comfortable especially for such a short ride. Bob had the thoughts of taking the train to Malmo then rent the car without the back and forth manuvour and that would save quite some $ - the extra bridge toll, parking, etc. etc. But I was extremely concerned about dragging the three pieces of luggage along the often bumpy cobblestone roads plus where to store them on the train ..... After being on the train, now I know they have a special car where one can store big luggage, bikes, etc. And people can sit there by flipping down the simple seats from the wall. Don't think they're that comfortable .... I still prefer Bob's original plan which we're pursuing.

Avis car rental was just a couple of blocks from the Malmo C train station. We asked a policemand who directed us there. By the way, all the people we ran into and helped us with directions were all very very kind! I am quite impressed!

We got an automatic car. The rental agent asked who will be driving, we said Bob. So she changed the name to Bob and did not charge us extra, unlike the agent in Amsterdam. She was a very pleasand young girl and helped us to find the places where we could get good views of the Oresund bridge.

There were two view points, once closer to the bridge than the other. We drove to both. I did not take out my real camera, as I really could not capture any pictures that I would consider photography -at best they are just documentaries.

Then we drove across the bridge to come back to the hotel. While driving there, we finally understood why they built the artificial island which is where the bridge in/out of the water! Quite interesting! We originally hoped to go to the vewpoint on the Copenhagen side to take some photos, but decided to give up, since the view would be similar to what I got from Malmo.

We go back to the hotel before 1pm. After a short break, we drove to the small town Roskilde. The most famous sight there is the Roskilde Cathedral, where houses the tombs of herly all of the Danish kings and queens. We decided to go inside this cathedral and we did, after struggling with the parking machine and not being able to pay despite the help from a friendly Danish visitor. Finally the cathedral worker gave us a piece of paper with our name and car info filled out then left in the car, and let us park right in front of the cathedral. We very much appreciated it! But trying to get to the front of the cathedral was not easy, with all the oneway streets. It took Bob 20 minutes and finally got back to the same parking lot. We finally drove up the oneway street and got to the cathedral! Good thing we did not stay inside too long! It was a very impressive cathedral!! With all those tombs and marble coffins, it did not feel morbid at all!! We did not have the patience to read all the stories of the kings/queens inside. Hopefully I will have the chance later to find the information - very interesting!

Another sights Rick Steves mentioned in his book was the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. I was hoping to see or even buy a wooden model of the viking ship. But the museum turned out to be very disappointing! We went into the gift shop and bought a gift which was much better than paying the entry fee to see nothing.

Where should we go next? We did not have the time to go too far. Bob suggested we drive to Frederiksborg castle which was avout 45 minutes away. It was supposed to be a very beautiful place, with the reputation of being the "Danish Versailles". We did not have the interest or time to visit the inside, and my main interest was to photograph the outside.

It turned out we got more than we expected! The castle was indeed very grand and fancy, just looking from the outside. Besides, in the water surrounding the castle there were many beautiful ducks or geese and their chicks!!! I took pictures with my iphone and got out my real camera. Now I have more questions for Mike about using my R5!

We got back to the hotel shortly before 6, then went to the Pho restaurant near us for supper. It was crowded with a long line outside yesterday. We thought today is Monday so it might not be as bad. It turned out it was just as busy. We did not realized it actually required reservation, but they let us sit as far as we could be done by 7:15. No problem there! The place is called "Pho Hanoi", and its business is really good! A small place with tables almost touching each other. We ordered our usual things in a pho restaurant. Everything was decent. If we had known this place sooner, we would have had many meals here!

It is our last night in Copenhagen. Tomorrow morning we will be driving to Gothenburg, Sweden. Bob plans to drive north along the coast to Helsingor, take the ferry ovre to Sweden, then drive along the Swedish coast to Gothenburg. Will be another long drive for him.

April 30, 2024 (Tuesday) - Arrived at Gothenburg, Sweden

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel in Copenhagen and drove towards the ferry at Helsingor. It was such a relief when we finally got our of the city and onto the road along the coast line, Rt 152. The part of Dutch countryside along the coast was SO beautiful and tranquil! Nothing fancy, just beautiful! I tried to take photos and videos while riding in the car, but was not able to capture the beauty along the road. I was always fascinated by the thatched roof buildings, and there were quite a number of them! I thought they only had them in the British countryside and I was wrong!

We got to the ferry around 11am. It was a real breeze to take the ferry ride across to Sweden! The ferry runs every 10 or 20 minutes. You enter the lot and buy the ticket at the machine to enter and that was it. You wait in line and then get on the ferry, Then you get out of the car to get into the ferry's lounge which had a cafe and a shop. Because the stuff there is duty free, we saw people buying liquors and bring back to their own country.

The ferry ride is supposed to be 20 minutes end to end but it felt even shorter. After we got off the ferry, bob took the small roads that were close to the shoreline and drove all the way to Angelholm. It was truly a very enjoyable journey!! The tranquil country scene, surrounded by green fields dotted by yellows - either conola fields or dandelions. There were also sheep, horses and cows here and there, and not too many people! By the time we left Angelholm, we decided to get on the highway to get to Gothenburg which would take about 2.5 hours. There was not too much to say about the drive and ride, it took us to our hotel Radisson Blu shortly before 5pm.

When Bob booked this hotel he was not really sure if it's in the city center or not. But it is! Our room is 302 - we're pleased with the room. It is not as well equipt as the Renaissance in Amsterdam, but it's definitely better than the Raddison in Copenhagen. Too bad we only have 2 nights here. Looking our of the window, we can see the busy square. It's only Tuesday but it felt like the weekend here - so many people!! We later found out it is actually a holiday here in Sweden, called Valborg - the last of April, a traditional spring celebration holiday in Sweden. Also I think the people here do know how to enjoy life. It was after work and so many people were on the street. There is a canal runs throught the city. We saw a "box float" (my name for it) that was full of young people eating and singing in there while the square wooden "box" slowly floating on the water .... And there are people sitting on the lawn by the riverside.

After settling in the room we went out to dinner, after Bob searched and found a nearby Vietnamese restaurant which had good reviews. We walked by the canal and found the place. It is called "Floating Saigon" which is actually on a boat in the canal. The food was very enjoyable!! We will probably go back there again tomorrow night - will leave the "mandatory" smorgasbord for Stockholm.

After dinner we wanted to take a stroll down the Avenyn street. Oh boy it was so crowded! Then we saw a parade which was quite rowdy, and later on our hotel staff told us about the holiday celebration. We did not want to fight the crowd so we walked back to the hotel.

We only have one day here so we must make a plan for tomorrow to catch as much as we can.

May 1, 2024 (Wednday) - A Tiring Day Walking around Gothenburg

We were up around 8am then went down to have breakfast. The breakfast here is definitely not as good as the one in Copenhagen - there was no option to order a la carte eggs to one's own preferrence. But all was OK.

After breakfast, we first went to the Information center quite close to our hotel, but today it would not open until 11am. So we decided to walk down the main street Avenyn in the direction of the opera house. Along the way we went into a mall where we found the store where we could get some markers (I had been looking for them to mark the maps). And I found the clothing I was hoping to get! They're all expedition type: a fleece vest and a pair of pants with reinforced knee parts etc. the kind I first saw in Svarlbard later in REI. This is the last pair that happened to fit me (man's), size 38, on sale. We got both for about $100. Like them very much! The store was like a Dick's Sporting Goods, but a little like REI in the sense that it has a membership. The stuff I got is of their own brand: Everet.

We walked by the IKEA store right at a street corner. I'm used to seeing the huge IKEA stores in the US and was quite surprised to see IKEA right in the city center, a rather small store. Took a photo of it.

The Opera house was behind a lot of constructions, and there was nothing spectacular on the outside. We then walked back to the information place. The young lady there was quite nice and pleasant. We were hoping to get some advice on what to do and see in this half day. She said there would be a demonstration very soon and the main street in Gothenburg would be all blocked off for traffic. She recommended that we go visit the Haga area (which I read a little bit online. She also said the Botanical gardens would be nice to visit, and we could take the #1 train from Haga to the gardens. We walked to Haga following google map. But it was rather disappointing. The so called wooden houses did not seem to have anything special, or maybe we simply did not find the right area. We stopped at a cafe where Bob had a cup of coffee and a big cinamon bun which was very very disappointing! We were thinking of climbing the steps to the castle on the hill and get a birdseye view of Haga, but the steps were blocked off. The weather today was SO warm and my legs especially the left one were not behaving too well. So we gave up and decided to head for the Botanical gardens. While we looked for the train station to take the #1 train to the garden, we found out the demonstration also affected the trains (there was demonstration even on the streets of Haga!). A nice man we stopped to ask for directions told us what trams we could take for the gardens, but we could also walk, as it is not that far. And that's what we decided to do.

It is a less than 30 minutes walk. But today was really hot - we wish we had shorts!! With only one shirt, we both got very sweaty and tired. But we managed to get to the gardens! I had the feeling that after all that walk, we might be disappointed. And that was what happened .... It's a free garden and there were pretty flowers planted in different arrangements. But we were too hot and too tired to walk around and up the hill to vew the different areas. We sat on the rocks for a while, then went to the gift shop to get a popsicle and a souvinir. By that time, we absolutely had no energy to walk back to the hote, which would take an hour. It would be too much hassle to call for a taxi, so we asked the store people how we could get back to the hotel via the tram. She was very kind and told us we can take #7 tram and get back to within 400m walk. And that's what we did. The tram was very convenient, except the ticketing part. If without the help of a very kind lady, we would not have been able to get the 2 tickets!! She was SO patient and nice!! I am absolutely grateful!!!

We're back in the hotel around 4:30. After resting an hour, we headed out to Floating Saigon to enjoy our Vietnamese dinner. We ordered almost the same dishes, with some extra roast port. Thouroughly enjoyed our dinner.

We had no energy for more walk after dinner, so we came straight back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will head for Stockholm after breakfast. Bob had thought about 3 routes and the young lady at the Information center confirmed his plan for driving by the lake Vattern - she mentioned two places to go visit: Hjo and Granna. We will see. The drive will take more than 5 hours.

May 2, 2024 (Thursday) - To Stockholm

We took off for Stockholm after breakfast, around 9:30am. Our first destination is Granna by lake Vattern. The drive was about 2 hours and 10 minutes. We did not try to go to Hjo because it is on the opposite of the lake and would cost us at least one hour.

Granna is a very small lake side town. It turned out it is the birthplace of those striped colored candies. There really was not much to see in the little town. We walked up and down its main street; Bob had a cup of coffee plus a piece of pastry, then we continued on with our drive towards Stockholm which was another 3+ hours drive.

The drive to Stockholm was uneventful and nothing special - it felt just like driving on the US highway. Basically we were on E4 all the way. We got to our hotel Marriott Courtyard around 4:30pm. Unfortunately Bob booked this hotel using booking.com so it did not even use my status. And the hotel is NOT in the realm of the city center, but on the outskirt. To walk to the city center is half an hour. I'm quite disappointed. This is perhaps the only city that's interesting and we're not in the middle of things .....

We first returned the car after checking into the hotel and moving our stuff into our room (414). The Avis car rental place was somewhere in the city center. After returning it, we walked towards the old town and got there. But we really did not see anything that special - lots of stately old buildings and lot of construction work around them. Without any specific target it was really difficult to just walk around randomly .... Finally we walked to a central subway station. There a very kind information lady helped explain to us how the ticketing works. We ended up getting tickets for 72 hours each, which is more economical than buying day by day. We also got the green card so we could just tap the card and get into the station. We took the greenline and got to the station close to our hotel (still quite a bit of walk). Before we left the hotel, Bob had searched and located a well rated Chinese restaurant named "Mooncake" which is not too far from us. So we walked towards it following google map. It took us about 20 minutes walk but the food was well worth it! It felt like an upper scale Chinese restaurant, but not a fancy one. Food was rather smart but authentic. We enjoyed the food quite a bit. Walking back to the hotel was about 20 minutes as well. By the time we got back, it was almost 9pm.

We ordered hop-on hop-off tickets for tomorrow plus the boat tour. Hope we can beat the weekend crowd and do the walking tours ourselves on the weekend.

May 3, 2024 (Fridya) - A Day of Hop-On and Off in Stockholm

I did not sleep well at all last night - felt like I was awake the entire time, with my eyes closed, twiseted and turned all night .... So when I woke up around 5:30am, I did not feel rested.

Had breakfast - the courtyard here is definitely very different from the ones at home. Back at home, the free breakfast at the Courtyard hotel is the so-called "continental". Here it is as good as what we've had in the other restaurants. I was pleased. Unfortunately my stomach is not feeling right - perhaps due to the spicy food last night. I had doubs about how I would handle today, but decided to go with our plan - it's mostly on the bus anyway.

We need to get on the bus from their stop at the City Hall, which is about 30 minutes walk away. We got there per googlemap directions and did not wait for too long before the bus came. It was scheduled to leave at 10am. And the round took a little more than 1.5 hours. I was a bit disappointed - the recorded explanation was far from the one in Copenhagen. After the ride, I don't think I had much idea about what is where in Stockholm. Maybe it was partilally because I was dead tired, falling asleep from time to time, plus the stomach wasn not cooperating - I even felt like throwing up at times ... Thankfully nothing happened, and I did not learn too much from the ride either ....

Our pland was to get off the bus at the location where we could get on the boat tour. The boat tour stop was just a couple of stops fromthe Cityhall stop, so we got off the bus at the 2nd round of the bus ride. It was just past 12pm, the boat ride was at 1pm. We waited - found a cafe for Bob to have some coffee and a snack, and we both had the chance to use the restrooms.

The boat ride was quite below my expetations, but it was okay. Also hop off and hop on, less than 10 stops around that small water area.

After the boat tour, we waited and hop on the bus again, thinking to take another round and learn some more. Originally I was thinking of getting off at the walking/shopping street, walk throught that street, then take the train back to the hotel. But after getting on the bus, I felt so tired and could not think of doing more walk. So we got off at the Cityhall stop and started walking towards the hotel. Both of us were hoping to find somewhere simple and nice to have supper then go back. Then we happened to see a Japanese simple restaurant whose menu said they had ramen (in addition to sushi etc), so we stepped in. The owner was a young man - his restaurant appeared to be new, just starting up. I ordered chicken ramen, and he was very honest and told me the chicken was just steamed chicken guoza (apparently they were not sufficiently prepared). It turned out the food was fine - Bob's roll was decent and my ramen was ok. It was probably the simplest food close to what I would have liked.

So what I learned today:

Stockholm was actually built on 14 islands. Different islands have different characteristics - one that has the amusement park, one has the most posh residential areas, one has a red catle like building that has a flag on top - when that flag was raised it means Sweden is in peace. That flag has been raised there for 200 (?) years. Unfortunately I cannot remember any of the names of the islands.

What should we do for the next two days? A few things:

• Visit the old town;

• Walk that pedastrian shopping street

• Visit that ship museum where they have that sunken ship which was later salvaged

• Find the best sporting goods store to look for the walking vest I've been looking for.

Need to call it an early night tonight and hope tomorrow is a better day.

May 4, 2024 (Saturday) - Stockholm Old Town, Drottninggaton St. & Naturkompaniet

I had a decent night's sleep last night, finally! We were up around 8, and walked out of the hotelaround 9:30-ish. The T station was less than 10 minutes walk and we got to the station by the old town smoothly. I started to feel quite accomplished that we were able to find out ways on the T, despite the fact that we really do not know the names of any of the stops - can't really pronouce them, just tried to remember the first few letters.

We walked through the old town's main street, which was lined with all sorts of shops, mainly for the tourists. There were a few things I found quite desirable, but the price was quite ridiculous, and nothing seemed a must-have, so we walked away empty-handed. I took many iphone photos - I do love those old colorful tall buildings! But with the crowd, it was difficult to get any really good photos ....

After the old town, we wanted to go to that pedestrian popular shopping street, which was not far from the old town. We got there, and walking by the Royal Palace and witnessed the guards marching and their band playing - not quite sure if it was for the changing of guards. Rather impressive.

We walked the entire pedestrian shopping street (Drottninggatan) and I poked into a few shops - just learned on this trip that H&M is actually a Swedish company! Did not see much there I really like.

We had a coffee break in a cafe on that street. Bob had a coffee and pastry, I had a salad. I like how they packae the salad in the stores, in a nice recycleable cardboard box. Nice and fresh!

I decided to try ChatGPT to find out the sporting goods store similar to our REI - chatGPT again did not disappoint!! The first store it mentioned is Naturkompanient. And it turne out that the store had quite a few locations, and there was one very close to where we were!! We walked there - it wa really like our REI! Good quality products!! But very pricey!! They have the kind of vests I liked, but it's the US brand North Face (I wonder why I did not see them in the US .....). And there were only a few left, not the style I like. Besides, the price is around $170 USD! Not any cheaper than the one I bought and no better. Quite disappointig! I did see one thing I really liked - a pair of hiking tights. Solid quality and it fits! But the price: $220 USD! It's the brand Fjall Raven - I remember seeing this brand at REI .... Too expensive! I gave up!

It was after 3pm after we walked out of Naturkompient. Originally we were hoping to go to the ship museum, but the museum closes at 5 and there was not much time left. So we decided to head back to the hotel, and leave the museum for tomorrow.

Got back to the hotelbefore 4 and the room was not cleaned yet. We sat in the lobby until after 4:30 before coming back to the room. Bob took a nap and I started writing my diary. Around 6:30, we needed to go for dinner. Somehow we did not feel like walking to Mooncake, even though we would have liked their food. Searching for nearby Asian restaurants but did not see any that does not require some driving. Finally we decided to eat in the hotel's restaurant called Roth's Kitchen. The food was okay and the price was more than what the food is worth. But their asparagus soup was very delicious!!

It was almost 8 when we walked out of the restaurant. We took a short walk towards the river. It was getting chilly so we did not walk far and turned back. I continued to watch my soap to relax.

Tomorrow our destination is the ship museum. If we can find other good places, that would be wonderful!!

May 5, 2024 (Sunday) - Rainy Last Day in Stockholm

We woke up to a cloudy day and it was drizzling when we left the hotel after 10am. We knew it was going to be much colder than yesterday but did not expect the rain. We walked to the subway station and took the subway to the central station, then changed to the #7 tram which took us straight to the Vasa museum. Bob actually navigated this route by himself. I'm impressed.

The Vasa museum is situated behind another very stately looking museum after we got off the tram - we had to ask around before we found out how to get there. A short walk.

The old ship Vasa was quite impressive and so is the story of it! It was Swedish Navy's first warship and built in 1628. It sunk during its maiden voyage, and was salvaged 1961 - the wooden ship was by and large intact. WOW!! Quite miracally!! I would not want to summarize the story here, and I bought the books to go home and read. Definitely a story to remember and savor!

By the time we walked out of the museum, it was really raining. After we got off the tram at the central station, the rain was quite hard! I seriously regret that we did not bring umbrellas on this trip (Bob had asked if we should, and I said no - merphy's law!!). We went into a department store right there near the central station. Walking through its home section, it reminded me so much of IKEA! But everything was quite expensive! For the few brands I'm familiar with such as Le Cruse, things were more expensive than back home. Gee!....

It was around 2pm when we exited the department store. Bob looked up the couple of Asian restaurant we thought of going to today for dinner, but they're all closed on Sunday. Bummer. So I searched google for food near me and identified this place named WeiDao, a Chinese food sounding place (my guess it means Good Taste), which is only 4 minutes walk from where we were! So we braved the rain and walked there. It turned out I wa correct. The owner and the wait staff were clearly Chinese - they were speaking Chinese with each other. I asked our waiter - he was from Hunan. The food was okay. We ordered a ramen and a couple of dishes. They were tasty, no complaint except the noodles were not good. We're happy we got our comfort food - really do not feel like having heavy meatballs etc again! It turns out that we saw this restaurant from the hop-on/off bus and I actually noticed it! So this area must be a place that's more or less popular, except we still don't know what is where ....

We got back to the hotel before 4. No desire to walk out any more, as it was chilly and wet, even though the rain had stopped. Tomorrow our flight to Helsinki is after 4pm so I'll have plenty of time to pack in the morning. We plan to take the taxi to the airport leaving around 1pm.

May 6, 2024 (Monday) - To Helsinki, Finland

We are in Helsinki, Finland now - local time almost 10pm. It is 9pm in Stockholm and we lost an hour. We did not do much at all today, besides getting here. I did not sleep much or well last night and we were up by 8am. After breakfast, I repacked both suitcases, then watched my soap and rested. We asked the hotel to get us a taxi picking us up at the hotel at 1pm, and we got to the airport Arlanda before 2pm. Our flight was not until 4:40, so we were in no rush and went through the security etc. leisurely. This Arlanda airport was a lot more pleasant than Amsterdam! The AmEx Platinum's lounge was there so we were able to enjoy it. This lounge was different from all the others we'd been to - the waiter came to take your order and it's a rather decent meal. I had the grilled arctic char which was quite good.

Our flight was on time. It was a 737, Bob and I had the aisle and window seats, and nobody in the middle. Quite pleasant! The flight was only 45 minutes so we landed in no time. Steppin into the Helsinki airport, the foremost feeling was it was not THAT crowded. And we got our luggage and got on the taxi for our hotel smoothly.

While on the way to the hotel, I consulted chatGPT about Helsinki and Finland in general. I was surprised to learn that Finland used to be part of Sweden but later became part of the Russia empire, until 1917, when it became independent. So when I saw the plain looking buildings, they reminded me of some buildings I saw in St. Petersburg when I visited that place (for work) the first time. Even though we have not seen much of Helsinki yet, I already have the feeling that there probably is not much to see in this city. The other cities, even though congested and old, one can feel the rich history behind them. I'm not sure what we will see here ....

We stayed in three Radisson hotels this time which were all better than the courtyard. I was hoping the Radisson Blu Seaside Bob booked in Helsinki would be as good. Unfortuately it is not. It is in an old building. The room was not small, with two king beds! Enough to sleep 4 people! But the bathrooms were small - the toilet room and the bathroom are separate, both small, and the shower is in an old tub, like the courtyard, with no grab bar .....And they both have an unpleasant smell.....No luggage rack, no drawers ...... Oh wel! For 2.5 nights, we'll survive! Our last night here, Wednesday night, we will only sleep a few hours - need to be up at 3, the taxi pickup at 4, our flight is 6:20.

We walked to a Vietnamese restaurant for supper - 10 minutes walk. A simple place, food is passable. But it was somewhat comfort food.

The only thing good about the hotel is the front desk receptionists are very pleasant!

Need to call it a night now. Tomorrow we will do the hop on/off bus tour.

May 7, 2024 (Tuesday) - Helsinki City Center

One of the hop on/off bus stops was actually quite close to out hotel - maybe only 5 minutes walk. We left the hotel around 10am. The bus came shortly after 10:30, the full round was about 1.5 hours. The recorded tour explanation gave a decent explanation - there were a few places worth a visit, such as the opera house, some museums, the music and dance hall, the olympic statium (built in the late 1930s), etc. etc. And the city center area was quite nice! The small parks here and there were especially pleasant. The bus drove by a couple residential areas on a little peninsular near the city center which were the most affluent places and they look very nice. Quite picturesque but I was not able to take good photos ....

We rode the bus for one full round, and got off at the city center on the second round. Went into a nice sourvinir shop which had decent things. Looked throuth the sections with all the stuff for the sauna - so very interestig!! And there was one thing I really liked - a hand-made wooden cup. Really cute! But quite costly - more than $60 USD for small cup! Of course, the imitation ones (not hand made) was only around $20. I was very tempted to get one, but I woud like to get the even better one (made out of the tree burl) even if it's more expensive - would be a display piece for me! But we did not find it.

We stopped at a cafe and Bob had a black coffee - it was the first time I could remember seeing Bob drinking black coffe and needed a little sugar! Our original intention was to eat something and then use their bathroom, but it was a small upscale cafe and there was no sign of a bathroom for visitors - we did not have to ask.... Our next stop was the famous Stockmann department store. It was a nice department store, reminded me of Bloomingdale's, but I would much prefer a specialized boutique shop, even if I could not afford anything! Everything here is so expensive indeed.

Oh, before the department store we went into Burger King and solved the bathroom issue :-) It was actually interesting to see what Burger King was like in these goreign countries! Different! Seemed fancier than back home....

I was hoping to take a few iphone photo of the pretty residential areas, the either walk back to the hotel (not too far, less than half an hour walk), or get on the hop on/off bus). What we did was gettting on the bus then off near the pretty area; took some photos; then got on the bus again and got back to the hotel around 3:30. The weather was bright and sunny, with beautiful clouds, but windy and quite cold! Not very pleasant to walk, so we caved in to our weakness ....

Even though our hotel is not that far from the city center, it is not in a nice area - not it was dangerous or anything, just an area with nothing around. It is by the seaside, but it is an ugly area, with loading docks etc. Not sure how Bob booked the hotels ....Hopefully it was on the inexpensive side ....

For dinner, we googled and found an Asian fusion restaurant Boon Nam which was only 11 minutes walk away and had decent reviews. We went there - did not realize we were actually so close to the city center such as Stockmann! The food was enjoyable, so was the service and the environment, but we paid for all that :-) Food was way over priced. It was actually inside the hotel St. George - if I had known that we probably would not have gone there.

Back to the hotel around 8 - time to relax, and think about tomorrow.

May 8, 2024 (Wednesday) - 2nd Day Walking around Helsinki

It's shortly before 4pm and we're back in the hotel from our walk. It was not a long walk - we left after 10:30 and came back 5 hours later. But according to the watch, we actually walked more than more than 5.5 miles. Not too shabby. Our legs should feel tired - too much cobble stoned walkways.

Our first target was the antique market which was a short walk from the hotel, across from the hop on/off bus station. We thought the brownish brick building was the market, but it turned out wrong - the building was something like a food court, or a mini time-out market. It had around 10 food vendors including one called Mama's Pho and a coule of Japanese ones, etc. Too bad we did not know of this place sooner, or we would have eaten here! Maybe this afternoon was an option .... The antique market actually was an open air market outside the brown brick building, in the big empty parking lot. I guess it' not the season yet so it was empty.

Next target, the design district, as mentioned in Rick Steve's book. Bob read the book and said he knew where to go - just the street behind the hop on/off but station. So we walked that street - it was definitely not right. The book did not seem to give clear directions on where the area was. We did not find it, and walked to the Esplanade. From there, we walked by the Stockmann and reached the Kampi. I heard this was a rather popular place so we went in. It was a large place with many popular stores in it. The 5th floor had a number of eateries, including one called Beijing 8, and another "Seoul88" where I heard the staff behind the counter speaking Chinese. There was also the WC which we needed. I was very curious about that Beijing8 so I ordered a few dumplings and a steamed bun with crispy chicken, even though I was not hungry at all! I learned from the young man behind the counter that this place was founded by a Swedish man who spent a year in China, working. He came back and founded this company. It was quite successful - the food was Chinese but tuned down a bit to fit the Nordic taste. There are already 300 stores, plus retail of frozen dumplings. Pretty smart man! The dumplings were not bad. The steamed bun with crispy chicken was ok. The "glass noodle salad" was not to my taste.

The thing I really love about Scandinavia is their beddings! We went into a bedding store which had various leves of down comforters. I was so tempted to get a twin sized one, 70% white goose down, 30% white goose feather, on sale for only 79 euro. But I could not find the duvet cover, and I was concerned about how to pack it ..... so I gave up, Am still thinking about them....

After the Kampi, we walked to the souvinir store which we first saw the hand-made Finnish wooden cup and bought it - the only Finnish souvinir. Then we started walking back to the hotel. Our plan was to have a late lunch/early supper in that casual mini time-out market. And that's what we did. We picked the Brazilian restaurant - Bob ordered the pork and I ordered the grilled octapus. Food was OK - I am sure the octapus was from frozen - it tasted fine but very chewy, even hard to cut with the knife.

Think about all the meals we had on this trip, 90% had been Asian or Asian fusion. Bob mainly went with my choice and he did not want anything else either. Somehow I really did not feel like having the butter heavy and heavily meaty food. Maybe because I have been tired and really just felt like having Asian comfort food. Of all the places we dined at, our favorite was the "Floating Saigon" in Gothenburg - hands down! Rest were more or less ok. The ones with worst price/value ratio were 1. The Japanese/Peruvian restaurant at the hotel in Copenhagen, whose food was simply not good and not worth it. 2. The Thai/fusion restaurant here in Helsinki - taste was fine, just over priced.

We will try to go to bed early tonight, as we need to be up at 3am! I am about to pack my laptop now, and other things that can be packed up now.

May 9, 2024 (Thursday) - Home Sweet Home