Contiki's Scandi/Russia Tour: Part 1 - 30th July - 17th August 2000

After a 24 hour North Sea ferry crossing on the Prince of Scandinavia from Harwich to Hamburg, we finally reached Copenhagen.  We'd been warned about the standard of accommodation we'd be staying in "It's not gross, but...".  Our first 2 nights were in a 'garden shed'.  The jobs were allocated - and I was in the bus-packing team.  I'm not sure I was much use, but I probably bashed my head less times than I would have cut or burned myself on the cooking team.

Our first stop was The Little Mermaid - "Is that it?" and the Gefion Fountain of the Goddess Gefion and 4 oxes, which according to legend were the sons she had turned to oxes to plough the land.

We watched the changing of the guards and visited the Cathedral before finding the Church of Our Lady, although were disappointed that we couldn't climb it because it had been raining too much.  Then there was Christiana.  A cultural experience!  A place where photography was banned and market stalls openly sold big slabs of hashish! 

I had my first encounter with an Internet cafe in Copenhagen.  The first of many!  To complete the day, we finished up at Tivoli Gardens for the evening.

So much to see, and so little time!  First stop, the Town Hall.  For a 20th Century building, this was fascinating.  A picture of a headless horse man is on a wall - nothing sinister, it's just that the picture was bigger than the wall!  Great views of the city from the tower - and the Blue Room is actually red!  

From here, we spent a few hours around the Gamla Stan (the old town) exploring alleyways, museums and trying to understand how some of the steep streets leading down to the waters edge used to be piers!  Still not sure I believe that.  

I think that of all the museums I've visited, the Vasa must be one of my favourites.  The Viking ship was sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, and not raised for over 300 years.  The smell of damp wood hits you as you enter the museum where the Vasa is being restored, and they have built a replica of part of the ship to get a feel of how it would be on board.

Our last stop was the Skansen Museum.  This was a collection of buildings, shops, a print works, and animals.  Houses and shops had been taken from their original locations around Sweden and re-built in the museum.  My favourite was the bakery where you could smell the pastries baking as you walked up the hill!  Each place had people at work - bakers, glass-blowers, maids etc. 

We spent the day wandering around in Oslo, having visited Frogner Park - a park full of sculptures of bodies of men, women and children.  There was some street entertainment, and a fort, and a student internet cafe!  3 of us decided to stay in town for the evening.  We were told "you can't get back  - the train station is 3km through the bush back to camp!"  The alternative was to play Viking Games around the camp-fire.  Not much contest really!  We had a great evening - a cruise around Oslo Fjord just before sunset, a few drinks and the midnight train back, worrying about the trolls, mad-axe-men and wild animals we'd encounter on our 3km trek...

Fortunately, we had a very understanding guard on the train.  She arranged for the train to stop near to the campsite, especially for us.  It was pitch dark, and we still had to cross broken bridges and streams to get back!

More of Norway...

As we headed north through Norway, the driving days got longer and we were entertained by 'Uncle John from Jamaica', the first song we heard each day - and just before each service stop, 'The Time Is Now'.  And Troll stories, well after all, there are Trolls and Troll graves all over Norway.  And writing love letters...

Barney wrote this one for me to send...

I love you more than showers that need tokens
I love you more than walking up hills to the toilet in the middle of the night
I love you more than flap drying
I love you more than a long crowded bus trip
I love you more than queuing up for hours for the washing machine

But most of all I love you.  Will you share shower token, hold my hand as I walk to the toilet, flap dry my dishes sit next to me on the bus and combine our clothes for washing...

Your secret admirer!

We stopped at a train station called 'Hell', visited Svartisen Glacier - Norway's 2nd biggest glacier, rode a bob-sled on wheels on the track where 'Cool Runnings' was filmed, and took a cruise in the Geiranger Fjord.  It got colder and colder as we went further north.  I know it we were in The Arctic Circle, but it was August, and I didn't expect it to be that cold!  At mealtimes, dishes had to be 'flap-dried', as tea-towels spread bugs.  The flap drying became more of an aerobic session, just to make it less mundane (and less cold).

2 crazy polar bears - Barney and Catherine braved with water at Hammerfest, although both were awarded with certificates just to make sure they never forget the experience.

We took a very choppy Catamaran crossing to the Nord Cap.  Our first stop was to visit a traditional Sami (person from Lapland) man , who was feeding his reindeer.  Just to make sure he'd be there, our guide called him first on his cell phone!

The visitor's centre was a lot like the one at Lands End in Cornwall - very commercialised, loads of buses and loads of people!  It didn't really get dark, and was quite eerie, it was mid-August, so the days aren't so long as in mid-summer.

Whilst in Lapland, we went to visit Santa at Santa's Village.  He was at home, of course, but there were too many people waiting to sit on his knee, so I just watched from the balcony.  Having visited Santa, we then had a Christmas Party.  At the party, the senders of the love letters were revealed, and gifts exchanged.    

We arrived in Helsinki for the end of the Scandinavian Tour.  Here we parted with 14 members of the tour and 12 newcomers joined us before we left for Russia.  On our last night, we all headed to a nightclub, and of course, there were lots of tearful goodbyes the following morning.

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