Roxy,

You should be just about off to Scandinavia????

Have a great trip.

Many thanks! Yes 5:20 pm flight today non stop to Stockholm!

Keep those USA memories fresh!

Totally cool ...

Enjoy your trip Roxy, I am interested in hearing what you thought about Scandinavia.

Hi Marie56, just back yesterday from Sweden, Denmark and Norway tour. Will try to post something generic on tour tales since others may also have an interested in Scandanavia with TT. My tour was with Globxs, but I can comment on the region and things in general, which in a few words: majestic, scenic, great people and prohibitively expensive...$12 for a beer; higher for wine, $8 for a hot dog, $6 for an ice cream cone and for Mc Donalds: $12= 1 cheeseburger, 1 coke, 1 fries! Home...$5.79

Welcome back Roxy. Yes please write your views. I took my son there 4 years ago and I think a beer was $10 in Norway. Prices seemed to have gone up. One day I might want to bring my daughters and maybe husband there but it is not high on our list. My youngest daughter might do a 1 month exchange course in Copenhagen next July, but then she would like us to meet up in Central Europe, maybe Prague.

Roxy,
Welcome home. I am glad to hear you enjoyed the trip. It is a beautiful area. My trip was with Insight.
That really was liquid gold you were drinking--not beer.

Wow, welcome home Roxy. Dying to hear about some experiences although it's not strictly legit on this site. Very expensive though those prices you quote and I remember Suegreg saying the same thing when she got back.

Brenda

Hey, hey! That is the official Scandanavian greeting...I kid you not! On my arrival day I walked into a store in Stockholm to buy water ($3) and was greeted with "hey hey". I thought geeze what a way to greet a customer. . .then found out the next day from the TD it was the official greeting in Scandanavia (can also be just one "hey').

Thanks for the welcomes home.

. . .drinking liquid gold. . .I love it!

Tidbits:

All hotels were walking distance to the main square/harbors a big plus. A/C is poor in these countries because they don't anticipate hot weather. . .but you still need ventilation and it was lacking especially in Bergen and Oslo where temps reached the unexpected 90's F. They commented that for the scattered couple of weeks a year the temps rise, they do not change their A/C set at 20 C.

Cruising the fjords is just breathtaking. A Kodak moment every 5 minutes...water like glass, snowcapped mountains in the distance in some areas and waterfalls everywhere. Also the bus travel though the forests and lake regions equally as grand.

Everyone speaks English readily and without hesitation and can shift from their native tongue easily. They are cheerful, pleasant and always ready to accommodate, unlike the surliness and arrogance found in other regions.


Lowest costs are in Sweden (and not low) next highest is Denmark and the most expensive: Norway. e.g. Hard Rock Cafe T-Shirt in Oslo = almost $60 and not a fine cotton! did not buy it - sorry to the son, 2nd born.

Breakfast buffets were outstanding with salmon (gravlax) always in abundance. I ate enough of it to last a lifetime! So if you like salmon, you will get your fill in Scandanavia as well as every type of fish. For meat eaters...it's reindeer or moose! pass. . .
not when a dinner or lunch out will cost you about $65. I need to know I will like it!

Visited the Ice Bar in the Nordic Sea Hotel- it was a hoot. Everything was ice including the glasses they give you a shot of some Asolute Vodka berry drink. You get a hooded parka and mittens to wear during your imbibing and walking around in it. They have some hip hop music playing and everone started to dance around with their drinks raised and designer threads on! It was a hoot!

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen was quite unique! some might call it cheesy, but found it a welcome respite from the grind of historical stuff and had a fabulous Italian dinner at a restaurant there which I splashed out on for myself including 2 glasses of a Barbaresco wine ... 90 euro with tip (yes used euro here was short on local cash - most stores and the ferries would calculate and let you pay in euro if you chose to). ATMs were everywhere.

VAT refund - first time I ever bother to do it and it was painless. At the airport one booth stamps your papers, the next area you go to after you check in, refunds your tax in either local cash, USD or euro. Of course I took the USD. Perhaps Olso airport has it simplified, not sure but it was also very early in the a.m.

So... any questions...ask away.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roxy,

Roxy: I've always wanted to see the statue of the Little Mermaid in Denmark. Did you see it? Were you at all tempted by Royal Copenhagen china?

Yes, saw the little Mermaid from the land and from the sea and heard the story behind it as well. She is quite small...maybe 5 feet?

Yes, bought only a couple of Royal Copenhagen figurines. My bag had to make the 50lb. allowance going home and it was close to it heading overseas so had to make my purchases small so they'd fit in hand luggage. The airlines are fanatical about this weight allowance now...but, the carryon police seem to be having a blind eye. Travelers are bringing all sorts of luggage on board now...guess the airlines don't want to be accused of trying to clip travelers deiberately so the carryons rules seem to be unofficially verrry liberal now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roxy,

Roxy: Hans Christian Anderson was always my favourite children's author. But, he lives in my imagination as Danny Kaye singing "Inchworm."

Thanks, Brenda

Roxy: Welcome home! I`ve been thinking of you and looking forward to hearing all about Scandinavia. Did it meet your expectations? Is this a popular destination? How many were on your tour? Did you learn much history? What was the highlight of the trip? Tell all!!!

Roxy ~ A big welcome home & thank you for posting some tidbits. This is an area I have always wanted to visit so any little I can learn is great. Expensive it is & someone else (Suegreg?) said very much the same thing. I guess if it is somewhere we want to see it is a matter of biting the bullet.

Hi Caitie and Dimpz - thanks for your greeting and of course glad to be home...we all know the feeling.

My tidbits are really off topic here, but for those who need info on Scandi I'll stay here and for all others, hope it's not too much of an inconvenience.

The trip met all expectations and we had a typical racanteur Brit TD (who lives in Poland no less) which made it even more salted with humor and mysteries...you know how they can talk in puzzles sometimes?!

42 on board 6 Canadians, 1 Aussie recent Widow 70 from Melbourne and the rest USA. A socially civilized group - one misfit solo lady (no not me ) who ultimately just did her own thing at meals and other times...no not the Aussie lady either .

Brand new bus, seats had a net bag for your "stuff" and tray tables - nice. Cubbies up top typical and fit the free bag which I wound up using for the first time as it had a long shoulder strap so I could easily access camera equipment without any difficulty.

Breakfast buffets were fabulous with everything from herring, sardines, cheeses and 3 kinds of eggs...scrambled (not runny - a miracle in itself) soft boiled and hard boiled. You name it, they had it...even the mini hotdogs and baked beans.

All included dinners were also buffet, again with amazing choices including Swedish meatballs Mmmmm. Beverages were extra.

One negative - pastries were lacking - not like in other countries - only a bare minimum - but excellent oven baked breads of all varieties were to be had.


All accommodations as a solo were excellent-no broom closets and quite the contrary. Just needed better a/c - which they don't seem to covet as much as NA does.

Personal comments and observations:

The men and women are all a handsome bunch with towhead children everywhere.

Out public only the men push the baby carriages/strollers and tend to the walking tots, while the women walk solo nearby like a matriarch. The men are the child caregivers and do all the fussing over the tots, including feeding and discipline, managing clothing, toys and messy ice cream faces. It was so amazing to see the male parent so child dominant and genuinely being fatherly. Others on the tour commented on the same point as well.

There seems to be no poverty anywhere or run down areas. Beggars could be counted on one hand and only in Oslo at the harbor.

Graffiti was at a minimum and only in Norway.

Daylight. . .sun rose somewhere around 4 a.m. and it stayed light in some areas till 10PM! Bad for rooms without good blackout drapes and one's own body clock - discipline needed to call it a night. Of course in winter the sun doesn't come up until 11:00 a.m. and sets around 3:30 p.m. or so. Not sure how I'd deal with that, but it seems their suicide rates go up then.

All in all... a great trip to a fabulous region which is really under visited. I highly recommend Sweden (I liked the best) Denmark and Norway, (Finland is part of the Nordic countries and not Scandanavia - didn't seem to know that) and save every dollar you can in advance because the costs are extremely high and money goes like water...fast!

P.S. Gas = 13.05/litre or so, equating to $8.70 to $10.44/gal depending which countries you were in. Guess we have it good here at $4.65/gal just before I left.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roxy,