It’s all about the ferries. There are big ones and small ones and they are quite convenient.

The Voxholm ferry was an old steamer ship – with its captain and engine room using bells to communicate. Charming too was its upholstered chairs and benches, filled with locals and visitors who chatted over beer or coffee for the 75 minute journey. So civilized.

From Stockholm to Helsinki to St. Petersburg (then back to Helsinki), we traveled by BIG ferry. These are more like small cruise ships with night club, bar, and duty free shopping. It’s a fraction of the cost of traveling with SilverSea or one of the cruise lines. The ferries are well organized and though the food isn’t great, the experience is pleasant enough. Each leg takes place over night and we slept four to a room. In the photo we have only one half of the beds down. We had an ocean view and during white nights that means there is some sunlight on the water the entire night.

There are very kitchey dance numbers and talent shows – we opted out of those and sat on the quieter upper deck watching the sun set. On the trip over to Petersburg, we got a kick out of the Cuban themed bar but didn’t stay to smoke Cohibas with our fellow shipmates. On our return from Petersburg we watched FIFA World Cup Soccer, Australia v. Netherlands. By cheering for the Aussies we found ourselves a magnet for all antipodeans on the ship! The Dutch prevailed but it was a good time.

I do want to give credit to TripAdvisor for alerting me to the St. Peter Line Ferry and its three-day visa travel package for St. Petersburg. If I hadn’t stumbled on that, we likely would have forgone the trip to Russia altogether due to their recent geo-political shenanigans and the extensive and lengthy visa application process. I have posted a trip report there for anyone who wants to explore that option.

Stockholm to Voxholm and back

Stockholm to Helsinki Overnight

Helsinki to St. Petersburg Overnight(and back)

Us: For our last week of travel, we are going on vacation.
Reader (if any): What? Haven’t you been on vacation for ten months already?
Us: No.
Reader scratches head and thinks we’ve gone bananas

Cue music: Yes, we have some bananas….

It’s true we’ve had a break from our routines AND we’ve visited some of the world’s most beautiful and interesting places. But we’ve been (trying to be) travelers – getting to know a place, its history and its people rather than lazing through largely unaware. But this week we will (try to) put life on hold altogether. No school-work, no work-work, no blogging. We will just be lazing around largely unaware of all but one fact: at the end of every vacation, you go home.

So thinking of our last experience as our vacation is helping us process the fact that our ten months of travel is coming to an end.

Time to put on my flip flops and beach hat….

Green and rugged. That’s Scotland in a nutshell. Grasses are uniformly thick and green making cows, sheep and golfers very happy. We spent four days on a road trip through the Highlands making a loop from Edinburgh (Ed-in-burrow) up through Glen Coe and Fort William to the Isles of Skye and Raasay and around the Loch Ness to Inverness, Dalwhinnie and back to Edinburgh.

I tend to do much of the driving and this was a challenge. I learned to drive from the right seat on the left side of the road back in NZ so that part was no trouble. But doing it on single lane roads with passing pockets (little turn outs that allow cars to pass) adds a little excitement (and not a little stress) to the driving. But seeing the open Glen Coe, a rugged terrain on a massive scale, and the small town of Eigg, with its view of the mountains makes it all worthwhile.

For our Scotch road trip (we tried a different whisky most nights) we tuned in to the “Radio One Big Weekend” music festival from Glascow to hear popular artists like Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Lordes and One Direction and some new ones (at least for me) like Jake Something-or-Other, Bastille and Lauren’s fave, the 1975s. We had decent weather and managed to get in one walk to Inchtree Falls – a small hike of only 5 km or so. Someday I’d like to come back to do one of Scotland’s Great Walks. I don’t think I can do the full 95 miles but a small stretch of 20-30 through Glen Coe would be amazing. Any takers? Maybe the photos of Scotland will inspire you….

Once back in Edinburgh we met up with my mom and Doug for three days of eating, drinking and parliament and castle-viewing. Our standout meal in Edinburgh was at Timberyard. There are several Michelin-starred places in town but this one wins hands down for great food at reasonable prices with a smart-casual atmosphere and super friendly service.

We expanded our knowledge along with our waistlines. Scotland is home to several famous thinkers and inventors like David Hume and Adam Smith, Alexander Graham Bell and David Watt. There is also an impressive array of writers from Scotland. JK Rowling is a more recent transplant and we saw her writing nook at the Elephant Cafe and the gravestones in the Greyfriars cemetery that inspired the names of characters like McGonagall and Tom Riddle. The adults went on a literary tour/pub crawl where two actors led us through a discussion about Sam Johnson (compiled the first English dictionary) biographer Boswell, poets Robert (Robbie) Burns, Robert Ferguson, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and modern author Ian Rankin. Turns out they were all drunks. Just kidding. They were high brow intellectuals inspired by the drunks and whores in the Grassmarket area but I can’t be sure if that’s what they said either. Understanding a Scot is like trying to speak Danish. It rarely comes together right.

Sometimes I wish I had a rolling video tape of our dinner conversations. Not because I am so particularly bright or insightful but because our children are. I know; it’s shameless pride in our kids but indulge me.

If I had a tape to share, you would hear the chatter among our girls and South African friends Jake and Josh about their differing travel experiences. In Jerusalem, you would hear Lauren’s discussion with Leon questioning our obsession with the after-life and asking, “Do you think about the before life? Like, what was it like before you were born? Why isn’t anyone talking about that? Because its nothing.”

In Copenhagen, the conversation with Joan and Joel about history and whether it ought to inform our decisions. As Joel said, “I spend my mornings studying dead people.” (He goes to shul each morning). But for our girls, the history’s lessons are not so readily apparent. They want to know which history? From whose perspective? The Torah? The scientists? The New York Times? Textbooks (California’s is admittedly bad) or travel?

And in Scotland last night our dinner conversation with Mom and Doug about California’s drought, recent studies on the irreversible decline of the polar ice sheets and the impacts of human behavior on global warming, or the preferred terminology: climate change. Rose wants us to trade our car for a solar powered version and loved the London Eye at sunset until she saw London’s buildings light up their facades. Such waste.

I’m bragging. I’ll stop.

It’s my last day in Copenhagen.

After ten days of rain, the sun came out and Copenhagen took on a whole new look. The work week must be flexible because once the sun came out everyone seemed to be outside. Copenhagers sitting alongside the canals or in the small canal-side beaches sipping beer. When it rains the city continues on – cycling to work in the rain, boat tours, events – but there is an energy and vitality that comes with sunshine and it lasts from 4am until 11pm. (Shops are strictly 9-6 though.)

Today is full sun. It’s our warmest day yet at 78 degrees and I too spent the better part of the day outside. I even tackled some vine weed in our hosts’ garden. Pesky anywhere but particularly annoying when its rooted itself under the rose bushes. No matter. I did a pretty thorough job which felt good. The little house is from the 1600s so it’s older than Duane Park!

Now I’m sitting down to tell you all about our time here. We stayed ten days in Nyhavn and then ten more in Christianshavn where we could host Joan and Joel. Both neighborhoods were convenient to trains and busses but then almost anywhere would be. Copenhagen is small and has an excellent public transportation system even without the bike lanes.

We ate well, really well. Noma was a special treat and I won’t look at ants the same way (they were the garnish on top of the steak tartar and they tasted like lemon). We sampled restaurants well established on the tourist track (Kul our favorite of these) and found a few local places that should be kept secret (Koefoed). When the girls craved tastes of home like the nachos and bagels, we headed to Luna Diner.

We also met up with a local family through the Dine With The Danes program which we arranged prior to our visit. This is a really nice way to meet locals and the family hosting us was a perfect match. Iben and Ton are foodies and gardeners (though professionally they are an Editor and Accountant, respectively) and their daughters Isabel and Clarissa were ages 14 and 10. We got on so well that later in the week Isabel and Lauren spent time hanging out at a cafe talking music and social media and Clarissa, Iben and Ton showed me their garden co-op just outside of town.

Our AirBnB hosts, Gitte and Michael, could not have been nicer. They took all six of us out on their boat to could enjoy Copenhagen from the water. We shared a few meals together and plenty of tea and espresso. Like so many we have met on our trip, we earnestly hope that our paths will cross again.

We visited several museums but two stand out for me: the Louisiana in Humleback (30 minutes north of the city by train) and the David Collection here in town. The David has a collection of Danish, English, French and German furniture which is lovely but even more spectacular is the collection of Islamic art. It’s not what you expect in a town known for its Danish design pedigree but that’s what makes it such a pleasant surprise. (The SMK and the Danish design museum were also top notch but the David is special.)

And because we were living here, not just touring here, we did loads of little things that you may have done too like laundry, going to the post office, and watching a little bit of news. Tragic news in Serbia and a coup in Thailand were the week’s headlines.

We’re off to Scotland next.