Finland/Norway Blog

Days 1-2

Hi folks! I'm writing this at 3.30 am with the sun shining outside my hotel window. Weird, huh? (The fact that I'm writing this at 3.30am is also weird.) It's day 3 of the Northern Highlights tour and we're in a Finnish town called Kuopio en route to the Arctic Circle. The tour began yesterday with a drive around Helsinki then a couple of hours of independent exploring of the harbour precincts. It's a nice town with some lovey old art nouveau buildings and interesting statues, but I'd been there before so there were no surprises. The afternoon was basically a four-hour drive to Kupio, passing through some nice, but unspectacular scenery consisting of mainly pine and beech tree forests and a million lakes. Weather-wise, the day was gorgeous: bright blue cloudless skies with cool but pleasant temperatures.

The great Lutheran Cathedral, Helsinki

Our group is 39-strong, one third of which are Australians. There are a half a dozen Kiwis, a few Poms, Irish and Scots, a Canadian woman and an American girl, then the rest are Asians (from India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore). All in all a reserved bunch of mainly oldies (except myself of course), though a couple of giggly NZ women are good value. The tour leader is a bubbly young Hungarian girl called Judit who seems organised and efficient. She has two trainees with her: a Polish girl and a Swedish girl. The bus, sorry coach (it has a toilet), is brand new and fairly spoofy, so all things considered it should be a good tour. Apropos the toilet, we're not allowed to use it while in motion, so to speak, because of European traffic laws. If someone urgently needs to use it, the coach has to pull over and stop, which happened to a hugely embarrassed English lady yesterday who rushed up the aisle to the accompaniment of catcalls and smart comments. ("You shouldn't have had that second cup of tea, luv!") The laws also stipulate the compulsory wearing of seat belts, which all the Aussies ignored of course. Apparently when we get into reindeer country the driver often has to break suddenly because of straying Rudolphs. The consequences could cost us deerly.

Our group. I'm right in the middle.

Day 3

The third day of our Northern Highlights tour (which I've renamed the Snore-thern Lowlights Tour) was spent mainly in the coach as we drove north through boring scenery for 6 hours to Rovaniemi, capital of Finnish Lapland. As I remarked to one of the tour members, it's pretty sad when the highlights of the day are the toilet stops. Why we couldn't have flown there is beyond me. Anyway, the day ended with a potentially nice optional extra: a traditional meal put on by the Sami people, one of the ten indigenous tribes of Lapland, in a large tent-like structure with a fire in the middle and tables laid out around it. We were promised reindeer so I expected a large slab of the beast roasted over an open fire. What we got was minced meat sprinkled sparsely over a large bed of mashed potato. Still, I have to admit it was pretty delicious, just not as primitive and macho as I was expecting. Dessert was a traditional Lapp pie made of local lingonberries. Also delicious. All in all, however, the evening was pretty boring. Only half of the group attended - mainly the Asians, who hardly ever open their mouths, and the rest seemed to be the dullest of the already dull group. (Where were the riotous NZ women when you needed them?) I was praying for some Lapp dancing (!) to spice the evening up, but that never eventuated. I did discover, however, that the Canadian lady is from Quebec and is French speaking so I might practice my Frog with her some time. By the way, speaking of languages, I really don't feel comfortable in Finland. As you know, I usually travel to places where I can communicate with the locals, but here it's like being on another planet. In Denmark I could always read signs and menus as Danish and Swedish are so close but Finnish is not one of the Germanic languages (it's closer to Hungarian and Estonian) and I can't understand a single word! I can't wait for the Finnish leg to finnish (pun intended) and to get into Norway where I should be able to speak Swedish.

Our tour guide Judit, giving us instructions on how to eat our reindeer meal

Day 4

A much appreciated "veggie day", with just one organised activity: visiting the Santa Claus Village, a kind of theme park which was as crass as its sounds. I declined to line up and have my picture taken with the big fella (at 25 Euros a shot). That was a Lapp experience I could live without. Instead I just wandered around the souvenir shops and soaked in the atmosphere, enjoying the superb sunny weather. The only mildly interesting thing about the place was that the Arctic Circle ran through it. 

Straddling the Arctic Circle with Yvonne and Meg from NZ

In the afternoon I visited the impressive Arktikum (arctic museum), where, amongst other things, I lay on my back and watched beautiful footage of the aurora borealis, which was definitely NOT a bore. (About the only thing in this trip that hasn't been.)

Day 5

Wonder of wonders: a couple of interesting things happened today. We saw our first wild reindeer, we saw lots of snow and we visited a gold museum. We're still heading north, but strangely the weather is becoming milder! Our overnight stay is in Saariselka, on the edge of the "virgin wilderness" (I'm looking forward to seeing some) and part of Finland's major national park, a stone's throw away from the Russian border. In winter the village is a bustling ski resort; at the moment it's dead. But that's fine by us as we need our sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day - 25 hours in fact. Read on to find out why.

Our first wild reindeer. Looks like an albino to me.

Outside the Gold Museum. That's fools gold in the foreground, unfortunately.

 

The lookout at Saariselka

Day 6

Well, I can't complain today. The scenery was great: hilly pine forests, half-frozen lakes, reindeer by the sleighful, vast snow fields, spectacular fjords, etc, etc. In the morning, after visiting a Sami (indigenous) community, we crossed into Norway, gaining an hour on the way (thus the 25-hour day). Though the landscape became progressively spectacular the weather became progressively worse, until by late afternoon it was lightly raining. Our first spell of bad weather. However, the cold, rainy conditions kind of went with the wild terrain. Our night stop was the tourist haven (in summer, not now thank goodness) of Honningsvag on a small island, access to which is through three long tunnels. The beautiful little harbour town is the end station of the fjord cruise to Bergen which takes 2 weeks. (We'll be doing just a short leg tomorrow.)

The wild shoreline up to North Cape

That night we experienced what was billed as "one of the highlights of the tour" - a drive to North Cape, Europe's last northern outpost, on a sheer cliff rising 305 metres from the Atlantic Ocean. The idea was to view the midnight sun rolling just above the horizon. It was freezing cold (4 degrees) but I was dressed for the occasion: long johns, two coats, gloves, balaclava, etc. The long johns, which I'd found stashed away in a forgotten bag at the back of my wardrobe, had obviously been purchased decades ago when I was just a slip of a lad. Getting them on was a quite a stretch (literally) and left me speaking in a high-pitched voice. But it was worth it. The trip up the mountain was awesome, even though in the end the sun was hidden by the heavy clouds. At least it didn't rain.

Up at freezing cold North Cape

Day 7

By the time we got back from North Cape to our Honningsvag hotel it was 1am and we had to be up this morning at 5.15am to catch the 6 o'clock ferry for a 5-hour fjord cruise to Hammerfest. So as you can imagine we were all very bleary-eyed that morning It was a great cruise though, with magnificent snowy mountain scenery viewed from a luxury cruise-ship type vessel. 

Boarding the ferry to Hammerfest

After lunch we headed inland and southward through wide, flat snow fields to Alta, situated at the mouth of the world's richest salmon river. That night our hotel put on a magnificent buffet (the best of the tour), starting with an array of cold fish - at least six different kinds, including salmon of course.  Naturally I had to sample the lot. Alcohol was off the menu however, as Norwegian taxes makes the prices prohibitive. We were all well prepared though, having stocked up in Finland. I'd bought a bottle of Akvavit and a bottle of Jägermeister to have before each dinner. (I mean a bit of each, not a whole bottle!) I figured they should last me just over a week. So every night in Norway I would stagger down to dinner in a highly inebriated state, then sober up during the meal.  Consequently it didn't really matter what I ate in Norway as I was always too drunk to care.

Day 8

A long day of driving (over 500ks) which was made palatable by the breathtaking scenery - fjords and snow-covered alps surrounded us the whole time. I've never seen anything like it. Norway is truly a scenic wonderland. That night at our hotel in Narvik I spoiled myself with a traditional fish meal that cost over $50! It was delicious but of course not worth the money. Norway may be beautiful but the prices are horrendous! Everything is almost twice as much as in Australia. For example, a glass of beer costs over $10; I was never game to find out how much a glass of wine would be.

A sample of the beautiful scenery, shot through the bus window

Speaking of money, I just want to make an interesting observation. Norway is a cashless society - the first I've come across. Everyone uses a credit card for everything, no matter how trifling: a cup of coffee, a loaf of bread, whatever. For the first time in my travelling life I haven't bothered to get any of the local currency. (I just have to be careful not to run into a toilet that requires a coin - and there are some, apparently. It could be nasty.)

Day 9

This morning we visited the Narvik war museum where we learnt heaps about the naval battles that occurred here between the British and the Germans and what life was like during the Nazi occupation. Interestingly, there are still dozens of warships at the bottom of the waters of the fjord. In the afternoon some of us did an optional tour of the city that ended with a gondola ride up a mountain for a spectacular view of the city and the surrounding alps.

Day 10

Another long day travelling (440ks), but the weather was glorious and the scenery constantly spectacular. In the late afternoon we crossed the arctic circle again - back supposedly into the world of sunrises and sunsets. Huh, someone forgot to tell the hotel where we stayed that night (at Mo I Rana). The sun was so bright and so intrusive my room was like a furnace and I was forced to sleep practically naked and wearing eye shades like they give you in planes. How's that for a mental image?!

The Arctic Circle again

Day 11

An even longer day's coach ride than the one before, but, with the scenery changing to lush pine forests à la the Black Forest,  we hardly noticed. Got into Trondheim very late in the afternoon and were immediately struck by the beauty and allure of the place, especially the unique, historic warehouses (now chic apartments) on stilts lining the water. We were shocked to realise that we had only one night in this charming place, with no opportunity to check out its major attractions like the new Rock House (not a geology museum, but a museum of pop music) and the ancient monastery lying on an island off shore. Absolutely criminal. Everyone was angry. We wondered if the people who organise these itineraries actually do them themselves...

The beautiful Trondheim

Day 12

Today's seemingly endless drive took us through lots of tunnels, over three ferries, along the Atlantic Road and around hairpin mountain bends to reach Geiranger, a small tourist village and cruise ship port of call at the base of the Geirangerfjord. The setting is the most spectacular I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot. Can't begin to describe how beautiful it is, so I'll just let the pictures to the talking. And we have two nights here!

One of the dramatic bridges on the Atlantic Road

The spectacular Geirangerfjord

A cruise ship calls in to Geiranger

Day 13

A welcome "veggie" day with nothing organised except a 90 minute morning cruise around the fjord The weather, which had been very overcast for the past couple of days, started to clear and by the end of the cruise there was glorious sunshine - the first time in 3 weeks, so the locals informed us. So we were very lucky. The cruise itself was of course spectacular, with a myriad waterfalls cascading down the precipitous slopes, fed by the melting spring snows. 

Cascading waterfalls. (How's that for stating the bleeding obvious?)

Day 14

A shortish trip to our second last stop, Lillehammer, host city of the 1994 Winter Olympics (and don't they flog it), along a road that only three days before had been washed out by devastating floods. Once again our timing was impeccable. We made a morning stop in Lom, a scenic mountain village famous for its stave church. (A stave church, according to Wikipedia, uses free standing inner columns to support a raised section in the ceiling of the main nave. Don't worry if you can't understand that - I can't either!) The church dates from the 12th century and is only one of a couple of dozen left in Norway. 

The stave church at Lom

Day 15

Our last drive took us past rivers and lakes, swollen from the previous week's flooding rains. Arrived in Oslo around 11am and were given a couple of hours free time to check it out. It seemed a nice clean city, very much like Helsinki. At 1pm a local guide gave us a more in-depth tour of the place, beginning with the famous City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held in the ornate surroundings. 

An ornate mural inside the Oslo City Hall

 

After that we drove around looking at the many grand buildings, finally ending up in Frogner Park filled with sculptures of nude figures of all ages and sexes by Gustav Vigeland,  Norway's most famous sculptor of the early twentieth century. The "Vigeland Sculpture Arrangement" covers 80 acres and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures all designed by Vigeland. The sculptures culminate in the famous Monolith with its 121 figures struggling to reach the top of the phallic-like sculpture. Staring at it made me a little cock-eyed (so to speak) and I can't say it was my cup of tea, but it certainly is unique and dramatic, as you can see in the pictures.

This is supposed to have a symbolic meaning. Just don't ask me what.

Naked bodies galore.

That night half of the group (me included) elected to have a farewell meal in this restaurant that had a spectacular view of the city, quite near the famous and stomach-turning Oslo ski jump. We had a lovely time, getting pissed by the piste. It was a fitting end to a nice tour.  (Or should that be "an ice" tour?)

Denmark Blog 

After a gruelling 37-hour trip from Brisbane (one third of which I spent going bonkers waiting in airports) I finally made it to Copenhagen where I was met at the airport by Kjeld, 78 year-old husband of a Russian lady I had hosted three years ago. (She had gone off to Bulgaria for the summer, unfortunately.) Kjeld's heart condition was a major concern and I wondered whether he would last the five days I had planned at his place. (He did, thankfully.) His English was in a similar state as his health, so communicating was always a challenge, but with lots of hand gestures and some German and Swedish words thrown in, we got by. Olga and Kjeld live 22 ks outside Copenhagen - 38 minutes by train - in a nice, quiet and leafy suburb where the people are an odd multi-cultural mix of Danes and foreigners, a very large proportion of which seem to be Muslim. (Kjeld tells me this is now normal in Denmark. Worryingly, it seems to be the norm everywhere around the world.)

Started my first full day in the big C by checking out the major attraction: the Tivoli Gardens. It is basically Lunar Park on steroids, huge in size, scope, gaudiness and price. (A cappuccino costs between $6 and $8.) Being mainly for kids, you can imagine how I reacted. Zzzzz. (And I paid $20 entrance fee for this?) I wondered how all the oldies taking their grandchildren around could afford it all, as every ride, booth and eating place charged an arm and a leg. After only an hour there I headed to the Tourist Information Centre and picked up maps and info on the local sights.

 

Tivoli

I opted for a self-guided walk that ultimately took 2 1/2 hours but took me to all the major attractions that I probably would have paid $60 or more to see if I had done a bus tour. As for the quality of the attractions (I hope there are no Danes reading this!) I have to say they left me cold. To me the city is  charmless. Mind you, in its defence, the place was undergoing major reconstruction, with every second building covered in scaffolding and roads being ripped up and recobbled. (Is that a word?) And there were hordes of tourists. I couldn't imagine what it would be like in summer! It says a lot for a city where the main attractions are a tiny brass, twice-decapitated statue of a bored mermaid and the world's longest and probably most expensive shopping mall! Still, the beautiful (but bracing) weather and the exercise were enjoyable and there were some mildly interesting historical buildings. 

 

Guess who?

 

I ended my tour of Boresville with a half a chicken and chips meal, followed by apple cake and shaving cream in a cheap, out of the way restaurant run by a Chinese lady who could speak no English, nor I imagined no Danish either. As I waited for my fowl meal I derived great pleasure from spotting the howlers in the English menu, like 'chicken and ships' and 'reserved fruits' (as opposed to what, outgoing fruits?) After my filling 'rate runch'', I dragged my reluctant and blistered feet back to Central Station. One minute after boarding my train, I realised to my horror that I'd forgotten to punch my ticket. (You buy a multizone strip of tickets that you have to put into a machine to be punched once for every two zones you travel.) Inspectors are on almost every train and if you don't punch your ticket they punch *you* with a huge fine. I hastily hopped off at the first stop, punched my ticket, then jumped on the next train. Phew, I was starting to feel 'punch' drunk!

 

Nyhavn - the nicest part of Copenhagen

 

Next day I decided to do something less strenuous: I went to the Botanical Gardens, the highlight of which is the large and ornate Victorian-style greenhouse that houses an enormous number of tropical plants from around the world. It was quite a shock to enter the glasshouse from the cold, dry spring air into the hot and steamy rainforest environment. Glasses fogged up and coats were quickly shed. But it was like entering another world, one I didn't want to leave. It really was the perfect place to vegetate (pun intended).

 

The Glass House at the Botanical Gardens

 

After that I went to the nearby and outstanding National Gallery of Denmark that contains a unique collection of Danish and international art, spanning 700 years. I don't know why I thought going there would be less strenuous than the day before. Spending four hours, walking slowly from painting to painting and bending down to read the background info in tiny English print (the Danish print is large and can be read from a distance - the bastards!) is just as physically demanding as briskly walking 25ks! Still, I enjoyed it. It was a very good collection with most of the Great Masters represented. And it gave me an insight into Danish life through the centuries. At the end I treated myself to a $6 cappuccino (seems to be the standard price) while nibbling on a lovely sweet Danish (her name was Monika).

That night I got an email from my host in Aalborg (a northern city where I was going a week later) to say she was going to be in Copenhagen for a day and did I want to hook up? Of course I rang and said yes. 

I met Ann and her lovely 19 year-old daughter Helena in a little cafe in the old docklands district of the city and we immediately hit it off.  After coffee and croissants we strolled by the river then took a passenger ferry (a kind of Copenhagen City Cat) for some very nice sightseeing. The plan was to get out at a particular stop then walk to this new modern art gallery where Helena had just started working However, we were talking and laughing so much we missed our stop by two stations and had a fair walk to the gallery. Didn't really matter as the weather was gorgeous and the way past some grand buildings was interesting. The gallery, situated in a kind of Bohemian quarter teeming with young people and some very strange and colourful alternative types, was interesting, containing works by up-and-coming Danish and international artists. Some items were bizarre, like a skateboard in a bottle and large canvases by a lady who only paints aftermath scenes of school massacres like Colombine. Who would want one of those in one's living room I wondered? Still, I was tempted, especially as one of the massacre scenes reminded me of my bedroom. And Helena was so lovely and personable, I would've bought a dead rat from her if she'd told me it was a work of art. After coffee and cupcakes in a small, arty coffee shop, Ann and I parted company, both looking forward to my stay at her place in Aalborg next Thursday. Couch Surfing is truly wonderful.

The next day I decided I'd had enough of the city and decided to visit one of the big three castles out in the countryside, Frederiksborg Slot. ("Slot" means castle in Danish) Built on three islands from 1560 and surrounded by a moat, it is the most lavish of the Danish royal residences, but I found it a bit run down and needing an injection of funds. Yes, they should really put more money in the slot. (Sorry.) Of the hundreds of portraits of the royal family through the centuries lining the walls of the castle (the Danish royals were well known for being self-obsessed), it was nice to see a big flattering portrait of Our Mary, the Crown Princess, who is universally loved and admired in Denmark. Of course I tell the locals that all Australian girls look like her. (If only!)

 

The Great Hall, Frederiksslot

 

Our Mary, the Crown Princess

Monday I said goodbye to my kind host Kjeld and took the train to Aarhus, second largest city in Denmark situated on the eastern side of the Jutland peninsula. I was greeted at the station by Kasper, a 25 year-old architecture student who couch-surfed at my place 3 years ago. It was so good to see him again. He generously arranged to sleep at his girlfriend's place for the next two nights, allowing me to stay in his tiny but comfortable flat for my three days there. (He was leaving the city Wed morning.) That night I took him out for the traditional Dorrie's Shout at a nice restaurant, a Greek one as it turned out. (Almost a week in Denmark and I still haven't sampled traditional fare. I'm  going to have to do something about that.)

Tuesday morning Kasper played truant from Uni classes to show me around his city. There was much to see - the sleepy marina (the city is the principal port of Denmark), the arty Latin Quarter, the 13th century Protestant cathedral (the tallest in Denmark), a couple of canals and quaint, old half-timbered buildings in narrow, winding cobbled lanes. We searched in vain to find me a tour to do the next day, but spring tours in Aarhus are non-existent. They all start in June. Even the tourist information office was closed till June. With such gorgeous weather, this was almost criminal. Anyway, we made our own entertainment, having a coffee here, a Guinness there and generally soaking up the sun which had been hidden for so long. (It was a long, cold and depressing winter apparently.) Bare limbs were being exposed by the locals, obviously for the first time in aeons. I couldn't help smiling at their lily-white appearance. At one point, Kasper looked up and asked me what that big round yellow ball in the sky was. For more than six months the Aarhusians hadn't seen it! How lucky we Australians are.

Just by the by: Aarhus people are looked down by the rest of Denmark who make jokes about them like we do about Tasmanians. For example, one popular Aarhus story goes as follows. "Have you heard about the Aarhus citizen who was leafing through a phonebook and remarked: 'Jensen, Jensen, Jensen, Jensen, Jensen... How many phones does this guy have?' I showed this to Kasper and he roared with laughter. Guess what his surname is? You guessed it: Jensen!

That night Kaspar cooked me a delicious traditional meal of Danish meatballs, which he kept apologetically stating were nowhere near as good as those his grandmother used to make, but they tasted great to me. Afterwards we went to a late session of Iron Man 3 at the local cinema, some of which I slept through. (All my walking was starting to catch up with me.) It was shown in English with subtitles, as Hollywood movies are throughout Scandinavia. After the movie we said our fond farewells as Kaspar had to go to his parents first thing the next day. I could still use his flat though till my departure on Thursday, which was very nice of him. I was sad that I had only a day and a half of this fine young man's company and grateful that he took time out of his busy schedule to spend with me. He really is a great Dane. (Had to get that one in!)

The next day spelt the end of the beautiful weather. It was cold and grey, but no rain thankfully. I spent the morning at the Viking Museum and from noon to 2pm at the Old Town, Aarhus's main tourist attraction, and a good one too. It's an open-air town museum consisting of 75 historical buildings collected from 20 townships in all parts of the country with people dressed in period costume interacting with the tourists. I've been to places like this before but this was the best I've seen. It gave a great picture of what life was like from the 1550s to the early 20th century.

 

 

The Old Town

After the Old Town I went to a clinic which caters to tourists as my ear was continuing to give me problems. A young doctor examined my ear and found nothing seriously wrong, apart from some swelling and redness. He then tested it for hearing loss and again found nothing of concern, though I assured him, my hearing *was* affected. He prescribed some drops which I was to take for the next 5 days. Let's hope they are more effective than those prescribed by my Brisbane doctor and which I took for almost two weeks with no success. The whole thing cost about $70 for the consultation and $14 for the drops, all of which I should be able to get back on my travel insurance. Hopefully money well spent.

Thursday was the day of my departure from Aarhus and I filled in the morning before my afternoon train to Aalborg by visiting the internationally acclaimed ARoS modern art gallery. It's the city's top attraction, along with the Old Town. Being modern art, most of the works there were ugly and weird and many left me baffled. Like the bare canvas simply painted blue. This is art? This is worth thousands of dollars? I was starting to get ideas about how to fund the rest of my trip... (I just needed to find some green paint.) The morning wasn't a complete waste of time, however. On the roof of the gallery is this giant circular walkway built of glass featuring all the colours of the spectrum of light. It was like walking inside a rainbow and was nothing like I'd ever experienced. Providing a spectacular panoramic view of the city, the walkway was worth the admission price alone If only I'd known!

 

I arrived at Aalborg after 4pm and was met by Ann. She took me to her new apartment where I met her 15 year-old twin son and daughter (nice bright kids). There are four older siblings scattered around the place, including the lovely Helena in Copenhagen. (Ann is separated, if you hadn't guessed.) After tea and snacks we took off on a long walk through the city and along the waterfront. Dorrie's Shout was at an alternative, hippyish restaurant where the food was cheap and good, but the wine expensive ($30 for the cheapest South African red). 

The next morning Ann generously offered to drive me up to Skagen, Denmark's northernmost town and important ferry terminal to Norway, exploring the wind-swept coasts of Jutland along the way. It was to be a long but enjoyable day of sightseeing, visiting neat little holiday/fishing villages, climbing high sand dunes, viewing quaint light houses, scrambling down into derelict wartime German bunkers, having coffee and traditional Danish chocolate torte in a lovely ambience-rich hotel, to mention some of the highlights. Arriving at Skagen at 2pm, we admired the many old and charming yellow-painted stone houses with their red tile roofs. We went down to the docks where our intention was to have a fish meal (plaice was Ann's favourite) at one of the many outdoor restaurants, but the weather turned nasty  We managed to find the only indoor restaurant and were lucky enough to get a table. Though a little pricey, it was a great place for some great plaice. (This time the meal was on Ann, bless her.) From our restaurant we could see lots of Norwegians taking loads of grog onto the ferry to Norway, where the price of alcohol is astronomical. This is a very common practice, I believe. I'll probably have to do the same when I cross from Finland to Norway in a week's time.

 

A typical Skagen house

 

Hirtshals Fyr (Light House)

 

Having morning tea at Løkken

After the rain had subsided, we went on to the Skagen Museum which houses a great collection of Scandinavian art from their Golden Age (the years around the turn of the 20th century) that featured the villages and people of the area as their subjects. Our final destination was Grenen, the very top of Denmark where the  North and Baltic Seas meet. Tourists are supposed to "transfer to a tractor-pulled tram" to get to the cape, about one and a half ks along the beach from the car park. By the time we'd got there the trams had strangely disappeared and we had to use the only other alternative mode of transport: Shanks's Pony. Arriving at the point of meeting  of the two oceans, we could clearly see them - one was calm, the other rough, and where they met was quite turbulenthhkf. It was well worth the walk, though our enthusiasm was dampened (literally) on the way back when the heavens opened and we got thoroughly soaked. The car' s heater and fan worked overtime on our uncomfortable drive home, I can assure you. There's nothing worse than cold, clinging wet jeans. 

Ann at the meeting of the waters. Note the approaching storm!

Saturday (yesterday) was spent chilling out and doing mundane things like washing, getting my blog organised and watching DVDs of Danish historical movies (more entertaining than it sounds!). This time it was my shout for lunch and a bottle of Chilean wine for later. A small token of thanks really for the kindness and generosity of my host. Ann has been truly wonderful; she's wined and dined me, driven me hundreds of kilometres and is even taking me to the airport this afternoon! I consider myself to be a first-class host, but I'm never this generous to my guests. I've thoroughly enjoyed talking and eating with the family (I've now met all of the siblings except the eldest son who lives in Switzerland) who have also been super welcoming. It's a lovely end to the first part of my Great Adventure. This evening I fly back to Copenhagen (I'm staying overnight in a cheap hotel near the airport) then tomorrow morning I fly to Helsinki to start my organised tour of Finland and Norway. My next blog will be after this has finished, in 16 days time. I'm sure there'll be lots of interesting things to tell you about my arctic excapades! In the meantime, stay cool as I try to stay warm.