Moscow Mules at Ten Paces

Tallinn, Estonia.  A Loop of the Baltic

This is the 2015 Intrepid Oslo to Berlin Tour. The Baltic Loop
started in Helsinki, Finland and ended in Berlin, Germany

Very sturdy ocean-going ferries

Time for another ferry ride, but at least the sun was (sorta) shining for our trip across the Baltic to Estonia and the UNESCO Heritage Listed old town of Tallinn.  What a delight to wander through cobbled streets and enjoy the seriously medieval ambience.

I think the "modern" building behind the old city is the KGB Hotel & Museum??

But not before yet another 20km bike ride; this one courtesy of City Bikes and in the company of a knowledgeable guide, who allowed us to stop, often!  Our tail-end Charlie earned his keep this day as we photographers stopped regularly at unscheduled intervals to take yet more photos.  As you do!  This tour took us well out of the old city limits so we could appreciate the huge natural harbour and understand completely why Tallinn was yet another gold star in the strategic acquisitions program of the Hanseatic League. 

Tallin's calm yet picturesque harbour

After our ride, his Captainship headed off to the KGB Museum (he was less than complimentary on return) and GS made for an exhibition of European Masters from the Medieval and Renaissance times.  Housed within the Medieval Town Hall (the only surviving  Town Hall in the Gothic style of architecture) the exhibition was showcased brilliantly with many old masters that are rarely (if ever) seen at home.  What a treat!

After that, it was time to hit the shops and admire the local talent for knitting, spot incredibly cheap linen products and wish that luggage allowances were more generous.  The Katariina Guild, a row of craftsman’s studios housed in medieval workshops in an alley alongside the Katariina Monastery was home to leather, glass, ceramics, felt, milliners and textiles.  Finally, some fellow quilters!  

Such beautiful craftsmanship.
Oh darn, NO room in our suitcases! 

Given that our tour had become something of an eat-street review, it should be noted that we had an amazing dinner at a Medieval-style restaurant under the Town Hall.  We dined on ox rib, ate pies, drank wine from ceramic beakers, beer from jugs, and soup from bowls, and fished for pickles from a barrel – all with no cutlery (except a knife) and in a dark, atmospheric cellar.  It was certainly not a 5 star dining experience but heaps of fun. 

Another restaurant in the town square served bear meat, smoked beaver, wild mushrooms and the very best black caviar (at a mere 99€)…but we simply couldn't bear the thought of it...(Sorry!)  

Yes, Tallinn, although a favourite of Fins is also visited by crowds and crowds of Russians.

Meanwhile some of us had to stay home and take care of a few chores.  Namely drying the laundry!  (Note effective use of hairdryer for drying undies whilst on the internet...  He's such a natural!)

Also For those interested, a Moscow Mule is a cocktail of vodka, lime and ginger beer.  Self-preservation kicks in at times, especially as youth fades.  So, we developed instead, a fondness for Chilean wines, or even better, the local beer!

Going Berry Nuts

Helsinki, Finland.  And the end of the tour for some.

Beautiful, but oh, so grey!

Our run of wet weather continued, however by the time we had settled into the hotel and geared up for a city orientation walk, the sun was breaking between the clouds.  With a positive outlook for the weather, we disappeared off to walk the outdoor museum, Suomenlinna, once a Naval Fortress (1758) with a big, big history.  Suomenlinna is located over a series of islands in Helsinki Harbour and some residences are still owned by locals – so it’s a nice suburban/open air museum mix.   

We walked the grounds out to the Kings Gate then along the Russian defence line complete with some rather robust artillery in the gun emplacements. 

This poor chap was tied to a canon for punishment.  Yes, it was then fired!
This isn't really what's left of him, but a bronze memorial...but you knew that!

Whilst the Cap’n sought out more things military, GS happily toured the totally captivating toy museum and then learned more about the life and times of the period at the Commandant’s Residence, once home to the fort’s founder, Augustin Ehrensvard.

Aside from a quick visit to the unusual (though interesting architecturally) Church of the Rock, we did little else in Helsinki except pound the pavement and admire amazing buildings both old & new, enjoy trend-setting Finnish arts & design and appreciate flavoursome wafts courtesy of the current fad for street food. 

Down near the wharf, we succumbed to a mixed fish plate – salmon, cod and sardines(?) served with buttered potatoes and mixed vegetables.  Yumalicious!  But enough to feed a small army!  Market stalls, aside from the usual souvenirs, also had fur hats, fantastic woolly scarves & mittens, a wide selection of seasonal berries and wild mushrooms - all at unbelievable prices - it was so hard not to go completely nuts...

Design and arts is BIG in Helsinki and having won the Design Capital 2012 Award, delicious colours, modern design, inspirational architecture and fabulous traditional knitting is featured everywhere.  We could easily have spent a week in this vibrant and stylish city. 

(Note the stylish & comfortable chairs in the Ferry Terminal!)

Oh well, time to bid some of our fellow travellers farewell, welcome newcomers and move on to experience the Baltic coast and see more of Eastern Europe.  Again, led by the delightful Sanni!  Except, we'll just have to have a quick chat about all this long distance push-bike riding...

Another captivating view of Helsinki's Harbour

Tervetuloa Suomi

Aland Islands, Finland.  

The solidly built Pommern 1904 - on a very grey afternoon

We left Stockholm on a dull, grey morning for the 4 hour crossing on a rather substantial ferry to the Aland Islands.  The seas were equally grey, somewhat swelly and with white caps.  Yes, it was raining too.  Welcome to Finland.

We think this was a house with a "widow's watchtower"

Families were watching and waiting for ships
 like the Pommern to return home safely

The Alands consist of some 6757 skerries and islands, mostly rocky, flat and largely uninhabited.  The archipelago is something of an enigma, given its Finnish nationality, autonomous status and Swedish language.  Thanks to a shipping industry and tourism it is quite well off.

Marieham, its quaint village capital, seems unspoilt by either activity.  We noted however, large ladders attached to most of the houses and assumed this was to enable access during those long, snowed-in months.  We also learned that during winter, it is possible to drive over the ice to the islands from the Finnish mainland.  Strange but true!

Although the rain had eased, our fearless group set off on yet another 20km bike ride to explore some of the nearby tiny granite islands.  It was reported as a bracing tour through some lovely birch forested skerries.

Substantial Halyard Winch

For those not bike riding (Ed. yours truly), a nearby Maritime Museum beckoned, though we only had an hour to cover both the museum and the Pommern, a 1904 four-masted, steel hulled merchant ship that once plied its trade between the UK and Australia. 

Thankfully, many of the Pommern’s adventures were photographed or filmed and there were some indescribable pictures on display of the ship’s rounding of Cape Horn in less than appealing conditions and wild hurricane experiences in the Atlantic.

Thank goodness for modern day charts and weather forecasts!  

A Captain with taste in travelling companions!

The Museum was set up as a re-creation of a ship, with some truly remarkable supporting pieces, including a pirate flag (one of only three known to exist in the world), a collection of delightful figureheads and a large display of items made by the sailors during their time off-watch.  Aside from the usual macramé and knitting, the collection included shell covered boxes and pictures made from butterfly wings. 

At Dino’s Bar & Grill we mixed it with the locals, skipped meals of moose meat and waited in the convivial warmth before taking our midnight ferry to Helsinki.  Let’s just say that this crossing was even more challenging than the last and put paid to ANY idea of sailing the Baltic….(well, in anything less than a very, very large cruise ship!)

Now, wouldn't this be a really nice figurehead for WJ3?

Valkommen till Sverige

Mora, Sweden.  Dalarna & Swedish Lakes

The scenery was spectacular.  Lets live here....  Wait, it snows

St George
made an appearance too!

Mora is a definite outdoorsy town, set by the edge of some beautiful lakes.  On our orientation walk, we learned of Mora’s participation, in 1520 and at the urging of Gustav Vasa, in the fight to free Sweden from Danish occupation.  Sweden’s history changed.  (Remember that name, Vasa!)  

Otherwise, Mora is best known for its metal working, sharp knives and the Vasaloppet, a 90km cross-country skiing event.  Our hotel room was an Ikea experience, making GS feel really at home.  Welcome to Sweden!

Sweden appears not to be short on fabulous scenery - pine dressed hillsides, picturesque waterways and energetic people.  I’m not quite sure what we had envisioned for our time in Mora, but our leader had many plans.  Mainly a bicycle tour of the lake!  

We could do the short trip (22km), the medium trip (36km) or the long trip - a quick round of the lake at 48km.  Our hire bikes were sturdy mountain bikes (built for beefed-up Swedes) with the most uncomfortable seats imaginable.  Perfect!

Off we set with a promise of lunch in the village of Orsa (which was really nice - a table set on a balcony overlooking the lake and a salad buffet to keep the calorie intake down..). 

From there the group split with the Cap’n leading the charge on the 48km trail.  I might add we were still recovering from the previous day’s orientation walk (3kms), a picnic lunch by the river followed by (for some) a 7km hike.  Are you getting the Action Jackson drift here?  Anyway, we managed to survive it all…  But only just!

Oh gosh, darn, there's still 19km to go...

Stockholm

 

From Mora, we caught a coach into Stockholm where our hotel was thoughtfully, centrally located.  Aside from a little window shopping, we only had a short time to explore this delightful city set on many green islands (green in summer) and extensive waterways.  They say Stockholm is built over 14 islands and is connected by 57 bridges.  I think we crossed all of them on our Big Red Bus tour of this city with a style (chic, cool, funky, tattoo-ridden) all of its own.

The Vasa Museum was our first priority, and what a stunning display of the world’s best preserved timber warship from 1628.  Launched on the 10^th August, the Vasa, in all its spectacular, splendiferous-ness, sank in minutes - only 1.3km from the Royal Palace.  Their sad loss was history’s gain. 





The Vasa was apparently very colourful
& the King obsessed with all things Roman

This is without doubt one of the most interesting museums we’ve visited.  Included was a retrospective of other events occurring during the Renaissance era but from a world-perspective, such as the Mughal Empire in India (Shah Jahan from his palace in Agra) and the artist, Rembrandt, who died penniless in 1969. 

This was about the best photo we could get of this massive ship

 

Another Marching Band

Our walking led us to Gamla Stan, the old town section with narrow cobbled streets, souvenir sellers galore and reserved historic palaces all fighting for attention.  We could have stayed longer, we could have dined at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant and we could have done the Millennium* Walking Tour (only it wasn’t Saturday either)…oh well!  There was so much we had missed but at least, from our short time, we’d gained a decent overview of this interesting city and touched a little of what it did have to offer.  Perhaps we’d better go back some day…  (Oh dear, the Cap’n has just fainted!)

 

*Steig Larsson’s very successful novel trilogy.  Starting with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” these three slick & pacey books dig deep into the darker side of Stockholm.  GS is currently obsessed with them!

The harbour was full of interesting sights

Grand Designs Norwegian Style

Lillehammer, Norway. 

Inside Garmo Stave Church

Lillehammer is relatively flat, which came as quite a surprise given its history as a site for Winter Olympics (1994). Not that we know anything about winter or winter sports!   Any ideas we had of visiting the Olympic facilities however were put to rest as the town was busy preparing for its next challenge post–tourist season, the 2016 Youth Olympics. 

We had however, arrived to other celebrations – the start of the Uni year, when newbies are learning their drinking capabilities on one wild night.  We were warned by the hotel and the restaurant of this fearsome and noisy beast, but hardly heard a thing or noted any miscreant behaviour.  Having been young ourselves once, we knew what to look for.

If only we could remember that far back!

Garmo Stave Church, Maihaugen

Rather than mixing it with the young ones (who were probably relieved, sigh!), we took off to the living history museum, Maihaugen for a few hours – the perfect opportunity to see inside period homes.  Maihaugen began its life as a cultural collection of Anders Sandvig, a dentist who saw the value in preserving Norwegian buildings and folk items for posterity.  His collection grew and was eventually settled in its present location in 1904 under the city’s management, with Sandvig becoming curator.  There are now some 200 buildings, spread between three specific “themes’ (rural, town and residential), all beautifully set out and furnished in authentic period style.

First we stopped at the guest centre to view “We Won the Land” – a summary of Norway’s history.  From there we walked our way through a number of exhibits.  Perhaps the most interesting was the Garmo stave church for the story of Sandvig’s sleuthing to find it, piece by piece and the oldest “farm settlement” Oygarden, with its winter and summer residences, lots of animal shelters & food storage areas and even a house for the old folks.  On such a warm summer day, it made it hard to visualise life in Norway’s cold and snow.

Post Office & to-die-for cars, Maihaugen

And a few domestic items.  GS wanted that
sewing machine for WJ3 - no electricity necessary

Some of us then took the opportunity to view another residence, Bjerkebaek, once the home of Sigrid Undset (1882-1949).  Undset is Norway’s most famous female author and her novel trilogy “Kristin Lavransdatter” set in Medieval Norway sold world-wide.  She also received the Nobel Prize for Literature (from an all-male selection panel) in 1928 and was the third woman to have achieved this significant acknowledgement. 

She lived quite well from her earnings as an author and managed to raise three children on her own. Her home was furnished in the sparse Arts & Crafts style and reflected her many travel experiences.  Yes, she even had a collection of American quilts!  The summer garden was a late-summer delight and quite large, so a good “Grand Designs” day was has by all.

For those interested, Norwegian (well, really Scandinavian) style can best be summed up as a relaxed, pared back country style.  It reflects a love for the great outdoors and good design and is probably best known to us through the Marimeko label (a Finnish design) and even a language I speak well, Swedish Ikea.  Gudren Sjoden, a clothing and textile designer, has a Norwegian range that is quite beautiful. Be prepared to spend time exploring Scandi designers....

Sadly, this was to be our last day in Norway.  We bid this delightful country farewell and moved on, in holiday mood, to the Swedish lakes district and the town of Mora.

 

 

Meeting Vikings

Gudvangen, Norway

Having our fill of city life, it was time to move on to the Gudvangen camping grounds (well glamping, actually) at the base of the Songnefjord.  In the Viking era, Gudvangen, meaning “God’s place by the water” was a Viking settlement and an important market area.  In the 12^th c, the black plague decimated the entire population.  (Apparently the Brits carried this dreadful disease with them, unintentionally of course, to Bergen on a sailing ship!)  

Our host was a Viking, with a less than blood-curdling name.  And a pet Chihuahua!  But we forgave him as he’d arranged a wonderful tour of the area for us in his mini-bus. 

Our camping ground at Gudvangen was set in lush green fields amidst the most amazing scenery yet.  The lack of noise, other than the thunderous crash of waterfalls, was exceptional and the air so, so fresh and so, so crisp.   

Our camp offered a close & personal view of the Kjelsfossen waterfall with a spectacular rainbow - just for our viewing pleasure - as we sat outdoors eating our dinner.  If we got bored with that waterfall, then there were plenty more cascading down the mountains to gaze at. 

We settled into cosy cabins then prepared for our next hike.  Oh yes, Sanni, our tour leader had another short hike in mind…

We started our tour with the best vantage point of the Naeroy Valley, the Stalheim Hotel which, in 1647, was a postal stop on the Oslo to Bergen mail route.  Eventually in 1855, a hotel was opened on the site, however current buildings date from 1959 due to serious fire.  During WW2, the hotel was occupied by Germans and set up as a home for children born as a result of “the occupation of Norway”. 

From the hotel, we passed the Per Sivle Memorial (a Norwegian Poet, 1857 – 1904) and took a spin down the Old Kings Road section with its memorable hairpin bends and 20% gradient, for a quick stop (and a short, warm up hike) to the Stalheimsfossen waterfall. 

Hmmm, our camping trip was turning decidedly physical!

 

Then, at a point some 5km beyond the Gudvangen ferry terminal, our Viking host abandoned us; though it was a pleasant stroll indeed, feasting on wild berries, meeting lots of interesting locals, including some elusive seals and taking rather too many photographs along the edge of the fjord. 

We made it back to the camp in time for a fantastic feast of local salmon, buttered potatoes and fresh salad prepared, in the Norwegian way, by the ever-energetic Sanni.

From Horse Whispering

to JUST plain annoying

Our stay in this Eden ended with a 2 hour cruise by ferry, with yet more breathtaking scenery, along the fjords to Flam (said Flom).  Here, once we'd made our way past a couple of cruise ship's worth of people, we caught the bus to Lillehammer.  This was the perfect opportunity to rest our weary legs, recharge our camera batteries and for our leader, time to devise even more exercise opportunities.  

When does it stop?  View from the ferry as we glided silently through the fjord...