Come with us as we travel the world! See where you can go!

Posts tagged ‘europe’

Northern Lights Tour Day 03

Day 03 Jan 30, 2025, Helsinki, Finland

We get up and pack up. A leisurely breakfast consists of more bananas and toast. My stomach is better, but not good enough yet.

We check out of the hotel and join the tour bus at 10 AM. Fun sights and monuments entertain our cameras as we travel through the Finnish countryside.

We visit the “Rock Church”, dug into the rock. The acoustics are amazing! With a pipe organ and a choir section also. After that, we visit the Sibelius Monument, made from 600 stainless steel pipes, representing the music of Helsinki.

Today’s bus tour finishes at the Oodi Library. It is a very modern museum with book robots, 3D printing, free Meeting rooms and gaming rooms. They even make some windows look as if it is raining! I snack on more bananas and tea. We find a supermarket and get bananas, rice cakes and applesauce, etc.

We walk back to the hotel and nap and relax for 2 hours. Then we walk our luggage to the train station. We will ride a sleeper train tonight. It is probably our best sleeper train yet. We have a bathroom and shower in the room! Albeit an airline size bathroom, it has a panel that folds over the toilet to reveal a shower! We even get some sleep. Elee lets me have the lower bunk to placate my upset stomach. A photo of some of our fellow travelers shows how narrow the aisle in the train is!

We walk through several train cars and find the bar car. Yes, it seems that every train in the world with sleeper cars has a bar car! I smuggle a banana and a bottle of water in as I am keeping to my strict BRAT diet. Elee and others in our group order food and drinks from the bar. The conductor walks through and I hide my banana and water under the table. The conductor inquires about our tickets. Luckily, he accepts our story of being in a group and seems to recognize the validity of the group.

We continue to get to know the members of our group and all chat amicably together. The Aussies are a very friendly group! I take my leave and make it back to our car and sleeper unit for the night.

Northern Lights Tour Day 02

Day 02, Jan 29, 2025 Tallinn, Estonia

This morning it’s on the bus at 6:15 AM. Everyone is on time! We drive to the port where a Ferry is docked. We board the ferry that is larger than CMV Columbus or Ambassador Ambiance that took us around the world in 2020 and 2024!

The Ferry is a 2 hour ride to Tallinn in the dark. Breakfast on the ferry is really good. I blame my upset stomach on food poisoning from a burger I got in LAX. But I feel good now. So I enjoy a hearty breakfast. Once docked in Tallinn, we board a bus in the sunrise light around 9:30 AM.

The bus tour of Tallinn is interesting. There are some really interesting old Russian buildings. An interesting term is used several times. Russification. Russification is a policy of cultural assimilation that promotes Russian culture and language over other ethnicities.  It can be imposed by a state or adopted voluntarily. It seems in Estonia, it happens voluntarily. During the walking tour, it starts raining. We stop in a colonial restaurant and order soup to warm up. The rain stops at about 1:30 PM. We resume walking around the old city. We spot a small cafe and have glass of wine.

Here, as in many parts of the world, graffiti is no stranger. In the cities, it is just there. Like a plague. There are people in the world that do not know respect for people or property. It is sad.

We meet up with group at 3 PM and get back on the bus. The tour continues at an old park. We board the Ferry at 4:00 PM. It seems my stomach is doing flip flops again. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that big breakfast. The Ferry leaves at 4:30 and I’m feeling sick again. I find some airline type seats that recline and I try to relax and sleep. The Ferry ride lasts 2 hours.

We board a bus and travel back to the hotel. My dinner consists of bananas and crackers. I will put myself on the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) diet for a couple days. This is not a good start to vacation! I turn in early, vowing to beat this stomach bug, whatever it is.

Northern Lights Tour Day 01

Day 01 Jan 28, 2025 Travel to get there!

Our good friends Rick and Marilyn give us a ride to the airport. We board Scandinavian Airlines in LAX for a 5:40 PM flight to Kobenhavn (Copenhagen). The flight is an uneventful 11 hour flight. The notable thing is the temperature. It is quite chilly in Danmark (Denmark).

We change planes and the flight to Helsinki, Finland. It is also an uneventful flight lasting about 2 hours. We land at 5:40 PM. It is interesting that we land at the same clock time that we took off in LAX, only one day later). It is even colder in Finland. We have worn our Arctic Coats and Boots as these items do not fit in our already overstuffed suitcases. Winter cold weather clothing takes up a lot of space!

We have a ride scheduled to our hotel. Sure enough, there is a driver with our name on a placard waiting for us. I tell the driver that I need to get a sim card for my phone before we leave the airport. He helps me do that and all is good.

It is 6:15 PM and the ride to the hotel is 40 minutes. So we walk into the lobby at 7 PM and check in. We bring our bags up to our room. I head back down to meet our Guide and Group for the Introduction Meeting and Dinner that is scheduled to start at 7 PM. Yes, we are late. But there’s nothing we can do about it. Our Guide is looking for us. He sits us at the same table as he is sitting so he can bring us up to date. The other table mates introduce themselves and are very friendly. The light above the bed in our room elicits conversation among the group!

It turns out that the Group of 24 is from Australia and we are the only 2 from the USA. But everyone is friendly and we get along with everyone also. The important news is that we need to be on the bus at 6:15 AM. The Guide, Mikael, is very laid back. He has only one rule to adhere to, “Be on time, All the time.” It will turn out that everyone will pay attention to that very simple rule.

These next two photos are of the decor above the front desk in the hotel! I wonder how many other people photograph them?

Up to our room and settle in for our 2 night stay here. Goodnight! We have traveled for over 18 hours and it is 28 clock hours later. Jet Lag. Get over it, you’ll need to.