Scandinavia

We had a great week traveling in Northern Europe! Our 1st stop was Copenhagen; full of canals, bicycles, & funky counterculture. On arrival, we had lunch and locally brewed IPA along the historic Nyhavn canal pictured above. I loved this atmosphere!

An unusual but interesting area of the city we visited was Christiania. In 1971, 700 people established squatters’ rights in abandoned military buildings right in Copenhagen. This “free city” still stands today with idealists, hippies, nonmaterialists, and children. They welcome tourists as they sell their art and have a number of interesting restaurants.

We enjoyed bicycling many places in Copenhagen. It was super easy as we could unlock & rent them using a phone app and they were everywhere. We even tried electric bikes for the first time; they can go fast! We went on a small boat tour of the city where they told us a lot of interesting history which was fun. And of course the Danish pastries were wonderful!

We took high speed rail (only 5 hours) to Stockholm and enjoyed a few days there. The city is built on 14 islands connected by 57 bridges; pretty amazing and beautiful. One of the best sites is the Vasa Museum which displays a fully intact 17th-century war ship. It’s quite spectacular!

We enjoyed using the ferries to get around to the different sites. (We bought a 3 day public transport pass and these ferries are part of the system.). I especially enjoyed the ride back to our hotel at sunset.