Had lunch at one of the 12 best food halls in Europe (at least that's what one of our tour group members who we happend to meet in the hotel said).
Went down to the harbor and took a scenic boat ride through the canal area - very nice.
Back to the hotel in time to meet our guide (Ylva) and be there for the official start of the tour.
Take a short ferry ride over to the Djurgarden island where the Vassa museum is located. 300 year old war ship that sank a few hundred yards into it's maiden voyage in the middle of the Stockholm hardbor (fortunately it sank in 100 ft of water so, since they couldn't salvage it at the time, it stayed there but didn't cause an obstacle for shipping in the harbor).
We had noticed that they have duck boats (they call them ocean busses here but it's the same thing - amphibous vehicles that drive through the city and the go on water through the harbor). Since we've already done duck boat tours in Baltimore, San Diego, and Alaska we had to do it and had great time (fun hour ride with a guide offering cheesy joks, mostly poking fun at Norwegians - standard duck boat fare).
We got a little tidbit about the oval atrium, that is where civil marriages can be held (choice between a long, 3.5 minute cermony and a short, 0.5 minute one). Turns out most Swedes these days (like our guide and her partner and their children) don't see a need to get married. Every one is taxed individually so there's no advantage there. With universal health care there's no need to ride on a spouse's health insurance. If you split up then joint custody is the rule so there's no need to fight over the children (and, with cheap state sponsored child care, dealing with children is easy). For the most part, the only ones who get married are because of religion and mixed cultural couples where one, non-Swedish culture, demands it.
After a 6 hr bus ride we then get to Kalmar, a moderat city of about 30,000 people which is bursting at the seams because there's a 3 day city festival that started today. Our hotel is on the Noisy Square (that's what the locals call it) and that is definitely truth in advertising, the bass from the music is thumping in our room, we'll see how we sleep tonight.
After a 5 hr. bus trip we arrive in Copenhagen. At 2PM on a Fri. afternoon the place was a mad house. Wall to wall people on the streets (no one seems to go to school or go to work in this citry).
While walking to the restaurant for a group dinner we get waylaid by a local guide dressed up as Hans Christian Anersen. He proceeds to give a nice outdoor presentation on HC before we proceed to one of the better meals of the trip.
I also liked the story about the Marble Church. One of the kings wanted to build a marble church that rivaled St.Peters in Rome and he started building it. Unfortunately, he ran out of money pretty soon. They finished the church but they had to use sandstone rather than marble (that stuff is expensive) but eveyone refers to it as the Marble Church even though there is little marble in it.
In the afternoon a group of 6 of us hired a private guide (the same guy who dressed up as HC) to give us a tour of Rosenborg Castle. He delighted in telling us that the old king had a remote garage door opener (a level he could use to lower the draw bridge), stereo sound (the ball room had two corners with holes down to the room below where they could have an orchestra playing), and an intercom system (the dining root had the end of a tube system that went down to the kitchen and you could yell in the tube and ask the staff to bring up what you wanted).
After that we squeezed in a canal trip (us and 120 close personal friends) and only got sprinked on for about the last 10 minutes.
We then take the ferry over to Aeroskoping (almost missing the ferry because of traffic but the operative word is almost).
The afternoon was a bus tour around the island with a stop for lunch of traditional smorrebord (basically an open face sandwich). On the way to a church we stopped at a beach that was covered with flint stones. Of course we stopped and tried to make arrow heads from the flint (major failure, making an arrow head is a lot harder than it looks).
On the way to lunch we stopped at a medieval church where our guide provided an interesting explanation for why women's blouses are buttoned the opposite from the way men's shirts are (I have my doubts about the truth of this explanation but it sounds cool). Bear with me, the explanation is a little convoluted.
(Personally, I like this explanation. The Wikipedia answer that men had simple clothes and dressed themselves while women's clothes were complex and needed help so this arrangement made this easier for the helpers is dull and boring so I reject it out of hand.)
After that we just walked around.
Then we take the bus to Varberg where we arrive around 5 and get a brief walking tour of the 4 block area around the hotel. Then our guide guilted me (funny how I was the only one in the group to take her up on the offer) into taking a 5K run to the lighthouse nearby (she ran, I ran/walked). The real goal of the run was there are two nudist beaches on the way, one for women and one for men. We did our run and then went to our respective beaches, stripped, and jumped into the North Sea. Yes, it was as cold as you expect. But it was definitely an experience I will remember, swimming naked in the sea at a beach where men have been doing this for over 100 years.
Next we go to a small fishing village on a bay on the west coast of Sweden where we stop for a homemade soup lunch and a boat takes 2 trips to give everyone a 45 min. ride around the bay. Unfortunately, we got the first ride and the weather was very Irish misty so, after I took up the captains suggestion to ride in the bow of the boat, I got a little wet. But it was worth it, the ride was rather spectacular.
Finally got to Oslo where we checked into the hotel and then went to the Vigeland Sculpture Garden - highly recommended. There are hundreds of sculptures lining the main path trough the center of the garden. Each sculpture is 1-4 people from babies to old crones all interacting with each other (carrying children, intertwining with each other, all kinds of poses). Note that Vigeland refused to put clothes on any of his statues because clothes would date the statue and he though they should be timeless. In fact, the only statue with any clothes on was a statue of Vigeland himself, dressed in a smock and carrying the tools of his trade (a hammer and a chisel - Vigeland preferred to work in granite).
After dinner we walked down to the harbor and Barb got to dip her does in the North Sea (she dipped toes, I submerged my whole body - who wins that competition :-)
We had already decided to visit the Fram museum (a ship that Nanson used to try and find the north pole) and the Kon-Tiki museum. The guide suffested those museums and said the the Maritime museum had the best cafe so a plan was made - lunch at the Maritime museum, visit the Kon-Tiki, and the end with the Fram (all 3 museums were on an island (really a peninsula but Oslo has the same issue as San Diego and can't tell the two apart). We take the ferry ride to the peninsula and execute the plan - highly recommended. You get to see the actual Kon-Tiki, walk through the real Fram (both vessels were recoverd and relocated to Oslo), and marvel at the insanity of Norwegian explorers
Finally we took a 20 min. walk to the Cafe Laundromatte which suffers from truth in advertising - it's a cafe that has laundry machines so you can wash your clothes while eating/drinking. The cafe was excellent (and our clothes got clean) so I can suggest a business opportunity for anyone who is interested.
Off to see an artisinal farm where they make brown cheese (a common sight on Norwegian breakfast tables). Actually, this isn't really cheese (it's made without rennet) but it looks and tastes a lot like cheese. They make it by boiling milk until it becomes thick and caramalized (hence the brown color). The result is cooled and place in molds.
Next we went to see a stave church. Unfortunately, half way to the church the road was blocked by a landslide. Fortunately, we had a skillfull driver who drove us down a gravel road with some noticable hairpins but eventually we got to the church fine.
The staves for these churches (there used to be thousands in the country, now there are 28) were created by stripping the bark and clearing the branches of a tree almost to the top. And then you wait for the tree to die. This way, called root drying, the leaves at the top try to pull nutrients up and that pulls up all the sap into the trunk of the tree. There aren't enough nutrients that make it to the top so after a few years the tree dies. This way the tree basically dries out from the roots up (rather than from the outside to the center if you just cut it down) and the trunk becomes rock hard. These staves are then used to hold up the roof of the church and planks (created by splitting logs the viking way) are used to fill in the sides. The church is very strong, remove all the sides and the roof stays there (remove 1 stave and the whole building falls down).
Finally we get to the stop for the night (a restored farm with an uncounted number of buildings on site). This was our first major disappointment in the trip as our meal preferences got screwed up. We knew the meal was probably going to be meat based so I know we told the guide early on that we wanted a vegetarian option but the guide insisted that no one in the group asked for vegetarian - it was a beef stew so we made it work by eating the mashed potatoe base but still...
Then it was off to Flom for a 2hr boat ride through the fjord. The scenary was basically breath taking with steep mountain sides down to the waters edge and lots of water falls along the way.
Then it was another 2hr bus ride to Bergen where we said goodbye to the bus and our driver Pinge, we don't see them again.
After the walking tour we took the funicular 1000ft up to the top of one of the 7 mountains surrounding the city (there's actually 9 mountains but a writer thought that Bergen having 7 mountains would mimic Rome having hills would sound better - facts be damned). Anyway, nice view from the top and then a pleasant (but steep in places) 3km walk back down to town.
Atter lunch I forced Barb to go to the Magic Ice Bar - a sub-freezing bar where you get drinks in an ice glass (a small glass shaped ice insert they put in a regular glass) and sit on ice benches to comtemplate the ice scuptures around you (you get the idea that ice is the theme here). It was an experience but I was hoping for more, it was basically just 2 rooms (the bar and a side room) with about 6 life size statues. Worth going to once but I wouldn't go a second time (I'd actually jump naked into the North Sea a second time, that experience grabbed my imagination better).
Then we go through the BA system of "we'll tell you what concouse to use but we won't tell you the gate until 50 min. before departure". It all works out in the end but my advice for future travellers is don't use BA and don't go through Heathrow (that airport is so spread out you have to walk miles get anywhere).
After lunch we visited the Edinburgh Castle (entrance was sold out by the time we got there at noon so it was a good thing I planned in advance for once and got the tickets months ago). Lots of interesting things to see, escpecially the Stone of Destiny (the hunk of sandstone that the kings/queens sit on during their cornation).
Interesting tidbit - Barb is descended from the Hay clan and we can't get a scarf in that tartan, every shop we've tried is sold out. What is so special about that tartan?
The Britannia was very impressive, both from the restoration/preservation they've done on it and from the example of royal privilege symbolized by the ship (for a while they actually carried a Rolls Royce on the ship in case the country they were going to didn't have suitable transportation on land - can't have the queen ride around in a plebian sedan). Once you got over the class/status issues (crew members couldn't shout and disturb the royal passengers so they did a lot of things via hand signals) it was a very impressive ship and well worth the visit.
Highlight of the day was the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Nothing like a troop of ~200 bag pipers to get your attention. It was an hour and a half performance, mainly miliary bands with a few dance numbers. They had a few unexpected twists:
Next we went to the the Palace at Holyrood (Holyrood is gaelic for Holy Cross, theoretically there's a piece of the cross in the abby there but if all holy cross pieces are legitimate then the cross itself would be the size of the Empire State Building so I have my doubts about the provenance of this piece). Lovely place, must be nice to be a royal and have access to it. A lot of the story around the palace centers around Mary, Queen of Scots but she is such a significant figure in scottish history I guess that's not too surprising.
Minor disaster - while juggling the autio guide and my phone I dropped my phone on the cobblstone path and, just like our last trip to Italy, the cobblestones won and I'm in the market for a new phone. I didn't really love this phone anyway (it's too big) so it doesn't bother me too much to replace it but surviving in modern life (even for the 2 days left to get home) without a cell phone could get interesting.
No problem getting our plane to Heathrow although the airport was remarkably busy for 5AM. People in the UK must really like to take early flights.
British Air did it again, I highly recommend you don't use that airline. I asked for a cup of coffee - no problem, that'll be £3. (I've never had to pay for coffee before, even on notoriously stingy US airlines). Then the coffee they provided was a cup of hot water with a large teabag filled with coffee grounds, brew it yourself. And I paid for this privilege.