Scandinavia- 5th Nov (Sun)

We slept in really late today. When we switched on the TV, and realized that the news of the day was that Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to depth by hanging. We headed out for lunch and decided to check out the Italian restaurant listed on the SAS in-flight magazine. We had found out from the Tourist Information yesterday where it is on the map. We decided to walk there, in the area of Vasastaden. By the time we reached there, it was past midday we had lunch there. It was a small place but filled with people. Almost all the customers were having huge pizzas that overflowed their plates and a huge salad bowl in the middle. We had problems communicating to the waiter in English but finally managed to place our orders for a carbonara pasta and pizza (one of those huge over-flowing ones, at least 50cm in diameter).

As we waited for the food, we watched as the people around us tackled theirs. Quite a few of them will cut up long thin strips, roll them up and cramp the roll into their mouths. As Ross put it, it seemed like a competition to get as much into your mouth as possible. The order came fast and the food was in fact very good, but Ross was put off by the manner of eating of the people around us.

We left the restaurant and took a long walk for a couple of hours around the area. The walk was good and we were glad to walk in an area that we haven’t explored before. It wasn’t as cold as we thought it might be. We ended at Gamla Stan, at Chokladkoppen, to have hot chocolate and afternoon tea. It tasted as good as we remembered. It was really crowded on a Sunday afternoon and we had to wait to get a table.




We spent most of the rest of the day planning out the rest of our trips and surfing the internet. We had a casual dinner at the central station.

Scandinavia- 4th Nov (Sat)

We had to miss the breakfast this morning since the hotel reception and breakfast only starts at 7am. We had paid our bill last night. We walked out on the streets by 6:30am. It was all quiet in the morning, no cars on the roads, only a few bicycles on the streets and a handful of people. None of the shops or cafes is open. At the central train station, it was a hustle and bustle.

We managed to get to the airport with no problems. The airport was really crowded and there was a long long queue for Scandinavian Airlines. We waited for around 45 minutes on the queue. There was an Indian who tried to cut into the queue and everyone around us protested. There was also a mother with a 9 year-old girl who tried to cut the long queue, again right in front of us. She tried to show Ross her e-ticket, but proved that her plane was no earlier than ours anyway. Ross stood to his guns and insisted that the queue goes way back. In the end, she managed to go to the express queue, approaching the airline officers and was served at the first available check-in counter. What is the queuing system for??!!

We were wondering whether the long queue was to encourage passengers to use the check-in kiosks but didn’t know whether it would work for us since we had check-in luggage. The lady behind us, after waiting behind us for 30 minutes, decided to check it out. She succeeded and left the queue. There was also a group of Chinese men behind us. One of the guys was highly philosophical about it and kept going on and on about the airport system and so on. He went on and on, I don’t think there was a pause in that 45 minutes that we waited.

With about 10 people in front of the queue, we were getting near to the check-in counters. We saw a couple of Indians having problems. Their check-in luggage was over-weight. Hers was 30kg and his is 33kg. The lady at the counter was explaining to them that the EU regulation kicks in tomorrow that hand luggage can’t be above 10kg. Their hand luggage was 10kg and 11kg. They were still at the counter after we were done. We didn’t have much problems at all. The Chinese checked in at the counter next to ours. I was surprised that they couldn’t understand English very well since I assumed that they were well-educated and well-traveled.

We boarded the plane with not much time to spare. We would usually try to grab a bite before boarding the plane. We were surprised though that we were assigned seats (not free seating) and we had food in-flight. The food was not bad.

We also had no problems getting from the airport to our hotel since we had done it before. It was snowing in Stockholm when we landed. On the airport express train, we could see the weather in the region for the next few days. Stockholm’s temperature is 3 degrees Celsius while Copenhagen is 11 degrees Celsius. We have managed to get to a colder place than we came from.

We are staying in Sheraton again and the room’s nice and spacious but we didn’t have a room with a view as we did the last time. We dropped our stuff and went out to watch the changing of guards at 12:15pm. We saw the changing of guards for a few minutes and assumed that it was over and headed for lunch. After lunch, we headed back to Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace) to visit the Royal Apartments, places we haven’t visited yet. We had to go back to where the changing of guards took place to visit these places and realized that maybe the changing of guards wasn’t over yet. It was very curious as it was already 1:30pm, it couldn’t still be the changing of guards still going on.

The Royal Apartments was slightly disappointing. We headed out and wondered what to do next. The Kronor Museum was closed, most places were open only in summer. It was still snowing and there was dirty slush everywhere. The weather and the crowds on a Saturday are a bit depressing. We went to Tourist Information to find out more information. We also found out that the IceBar was not open today and we should therefore try to visit it today. We went to the Nordic Sea Hotel to check out reservations and were told that the IceBar is shut until Friday. We were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to see the IceBar this time.

We decided to head back and just chill out in the hotel. Surprisingly as we walked the streets in the falling snow, it doesn’t feel as cold as Copenhagen, we suspect it’s because there is barely any wind here.

We took it easy the rest of the day and had dinner near the central station. Ross accompanied me for fast food Thai while he shamelessly had McDonalds.

The TV programmes here aren’t as good as the selection we had in Copenhagen.

Scandinavia- 3rd Nov (Fri)

Today’s breakfast was terrific as usual. It’s the last breakfast that we will be having here.

Ross’s neck is not getting any better. We went to get a cream for him at the nearest pharmacy. We realized that Tiger Balm was available here too but we were recommended their own brand of Tiger Balm. I was impressed with the fact that Tiger Balm is found here and as told by Ross, everywhere. We went back to the hotel and applied the rub on his sore neck and shoulders.


We wanted to do the Town Hall and climb the tower. We went to the Town Hall and saw that there was a guided tour to the top of the tower at 12pm. It was still early and we decided not to wait around. We wanted to do other things like to see Christainsborg Palace and Borsen (Stock Exchange).

We walked at a fast pace (even faster than our usual) and managed to see Christainsborg Palace and the Stock Exchange. Along the way, we also saw the National Museum. We managed to rush back in time at 12pm to join the guided tour. It was a 300 steps climb to the top without a pause. It was a great clear view from the top. It was a beautiful sunny day today.




After the climb, We had a snack at the hotdog stand nearby and debated what to do next.


We had marked down Dragor as one of the places to visit. Dragor is an old seafaring town filled with well-preserved-timbered ocher and pink 18th- century cottages with steep red-tile or thatched roofs, many of which are under the protection of the National Trust. But doing Dragor would mean miss out on the museums. Since it was such a beautiful weather, we decided we wanted to stay outdoors and decided to go to Dragor, 35 minutes from Central Station.

It turned out to be a bit of a hassle to get to Dragor. The bus number 33 that was mentioned in the guidebook to be going to Dragor doesn’t go anymore. We had to get the bus 30 from the Central Station.


After getting on the right bus, we finally got to Dragor. But surprise surprise, we got off at the wrong stop. We had gotten off too early and after asking around, we had to walk around 2km down to the sea town. Dragor turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and nothing much to see. We did do a short walk among the houses.




After which, we took a bus back to Central again and stopped for afternoon tea at Radisson Hotel. By the time we were done, it was slightly after 5pm and the sun was going down. We headed back for the hotel.

Today’s weather had been much better than yesterday. At least at the end of the day, we weren’t freezing.

For dinner, we had Thai again. But since it was Friday night, the first few Thai restaurants we went in were fully booked. On our 3rd or 4th try, we finally managed to find one that’s available. The food was alright but the papaya salad I had ordered for myself proved to be too spicy. I couldn’t finish it because of that. We had to pay for the bill by cash again because they accepted only AMEX. Surprisingly, we haven’t been able to use credit cards as much as we would have liked in this country with problems in credit card acceptance and surcharges. I have also had problems using my credit card at some outlets all over Scandinavia, it has problems detecting my credit card strip, saying “invalid card”.

We had ice-cream on the way back. We haven’t really been able to find Copenhagen brand ice-cream here though.

Scandinavia- 2nd Nov (Thu)

We slept in today and had another fantastic breakfast in the morning. The café was less crowded this morning as we went in after 9:30am, breakfast is until 10am. The weather today looks terrific with even a bit of sun. Since we have been here, today’s the only clear day we have. Ross was suffering from a sore neck and shoulders. It started yesterday and had gotten worse this morning.


We started our walk at around 11am today. We started from the Town Hall, and then to Copenhagen University. There were lots of people around the University and lots of bicycles. We next went to Vor Frue Kirke or Copenhagen Cathedral, Rundetarn or Round tower (climbed the tower), visited the Rosenborg Castle (the castle and treasury), Kongens Nytorv, Amalienborg Palace (where the Queen lives).





We were feeling really cold by then, our faces were feeling numb with the cold. We only managed to last three hours in the cold and were eager to find a nice warm place and warm food or drinks. We stopped by Nyhavn for lunch. The first place we dropped by shoke her head at me. We waited for a while longer and she came back saying she was the only one serving and can’t cope with any more customers. We headed to the next restaurant down and were finally relieved to get a warm place to sit down for a while.

After lunch, we headed to Frederikskirke or “marble church”, then to Kastellet- fortifications here and have military premises. Kastellet was a nice area and has a nice chapel as well as park. We headed next to the harbour banks to see Little Mermaid, also called Den Lille Havfrue. We were feeling really cold and we were quite finished with the sights today. It was a long way to walk back and we took the subway back. It was interesting to take the local subway. The subway train is clean, modern and quite spacious with very comfortable seats. We traveled 3 stations to the Tourist Office where we had afternoon tea. There is a café within the Tourist Office that serves delightful deserts. We both had a warm drink and something sweet (chocolate muffin and custard puff) to go with it.

The women here are enviously tall and slim, I suspect it might have something to do with all the cycling they do. In my opinion, the slimmest among the Scandinavian countries we have been. Most of them are well-dressed and carry beautiful handbags.

We headed back to the hotel after afternoon tea and were relieved to be in a nice warm room. It was a bit of our own fault since we wanted to lighten our load today and didn’t bring our beanies with us.

Because the nights are so cold, we usually have dinner nearby. We had dinner at a nice restaurant which only 5 mains in their menu. Ross had a burger while I had a Thai noodle. Both were not bad though mine was a bit oily and the chilli was lacking. We also realized that there was a 4% surcharge for using credit cards that we hadn’t noticed before. We might have been paying these surcharges and not noticed it.

Scandinavia- 1st Nov (Wed)

We had to wake up early to check whether we could join the day trip for Castle tour. I woke up slightly after 8am and called up the sight-seeing tour. They didn’t think that the tour will be fully booked and told us to go down.

Though the bed was comfortable, it got a bit warm overnight. I could also hear loud heels going down the hallway belonging to guests who are having an early morning. We had a slight problem with the shower as there weren’t any shower curtains (designed that way?) and got the floors slightly wet. As we were preparing to go out, we switched on the TV and got the day’s news as well as weather reports. Copenhagen is reported to have strong winds of up to 89km/h.

We rushed down to have breakfast before starting the day and were surprised to see a café full of people. There is an excellent spread of food, with yogurt, good range of cereal, muesli, dried blueberry, almond with honey, juices, selection of high-quality bread, croissants, jams, charcuterie and French cheese, freshly cut fruits, tea and coffee all served with hand-decorated Mexican tableware.

From the hotel pamphlets, we learnt that the hotel had 64 rooms in total decorated with French colonial style with hand-picked furniture and soft colours. They are trying to achieve a home-like atmosphere which they are successful at achieving. All the rooms are unique. Most of them have four-poster beds like what we have and they all have original art on the walls. Each of them also have different details such as bathtub (which we don’t) and furnished balconies. The building dates from nineteenth century and has been carefully restored with panels, stucco and high ceilings.

The café is where breakfast is served. The hotel indicates that quality and variety is emphasized in the breakfast that is served.

We had an excellent breakfast. As we sat on a table looking out on the streets, we saw that it was snowing and the wind was blowing ferociously.


We walked in the falling snow and strong wind to Grand Palace Hotel which was next to the Town Hall, a good 15 minutes away. As the snow fell to the ground, it melted. Umbrellas were no help in the strong wind.

We managed to reach the Grand Palace Hotel at 9:20am, the “Castle Tour of North Sealand” tour is supposed to depart at 9:30am. We wanted to pay for the tour by credit card but there was a 6% surcharge. Besides the driver and the guide, there were three other guests on the huge coach bus. Two of them were from Australia (Sydney, Blue Mountain) and the other from Japan. As we waited for the bus to move on, we watched the weather from the comfort of the bus. The bus moved off only at 9:40am.

There was GPS on the bus. We could see the roads where the bus was heading on. The guide had a crisp clear English accent. We headed first to Hillerod. On the way, we saw Danish beautiful countryside and houses with thatched roofs. We first dropped by the Royal Family’s summer residence – Fredensborg Palace. It was a short visit and we got off the bus and got out in the snow and wind. There were smart guards standing at the gate and we learnt that the Queen was in the castle. Next to the castle, were some residential areas which we learnt were where the Crown Prince and his Australian wife live. Our tour guide spoke to the guard and learnt too that Mary had left the Palace grounds 30 mins ago. We hopped back onto the bus and headed next to the Frederiksborg Castle. At the castle, we visited the National Museum, the Chapel and the Knight’s Hall. Our tour guide was very friendly and greeted everyone he met on the way. We saw a group of Chinese at the Castle’s courtyard.





We headed next to Elsinor and our guide pointed out the stretch where we could see Sweden across the water, in a distance. Near the coast, we had a lunch lasting 45minutes. We both had hot chocolate (free flow) and I had a Danish open sandwich and Ross had Danish meatballs. The café we went to had lots of delightful, tempting cakes and deserts. We bought some to go. At lunch, we learnt that the Japanese lady was taking a month to go around Europe. She told me that she was keen to go to Singapore to visit a friend who stays in Ang Mo Kio. She is very nice and friendly as are the Australians. I thought she was quite young initially but close up I realized that she wasn’t very young and doesn’t have very good teeth. There are metal fittings and fillings and darken gums. She’s very slim and small. For lunch, she only had coffee.


The weather wasn’t getting any better. We headed next for Kronborg Castle, the setting of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Upon arrival at elsinor, we were impressed by the outer walls and towers of Kronborg Castle. The Castle was built between 1574 – 1585, to protect Danish interests, and also to collect tolls on ships passing through the narrow straits.
At Hamlet’s castle, we bumped into another group of Chinese tourists. As we were given an introduction of each room, the Chinese talked very loudly. Our tour guide tried to talk to the Chinese tour guide in English and Danish but she ignored him. I felt so embarrassed that the Chinese were behaving so badly. As Ross said, it is scaring how the Chinese are rising to be a Superpower.



We headed back after the Kronborg Castle. After we were dropped off at the town hall at around 5pm, we headed back to the hotel. It was getting dark by then.

The rain had stopped by now.

We had Thai food for dinner, at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. The area was slightly dodgy, with lots of tattoo shops, sex shops and others. The food at the Thai restaurant wasn’t exactly fantastic but they served good chilli which helped to satisfy my Asian food cravings.

Scandinavia- 31st Oct (Tue)

It was pouring in the morning as we waited at 7am, just outside the hotel for the shuttle bus to take us to the airport. There was snow all around. Luckily it was a very short wait.

We reached the airport early and our flight was at 850am. As we weighed in our luggage, my luggage weighed 15.8kg while Ross’s weighed 19.5kg. We took Norwegian Airlines today and it was free seating on the plane. On these budget and short flights, we had to pay to get food and drinks, but in any case, we had already gotten some breakfast in the morning.

We reached Copenhagen airport and had to walk quite a fair way to reclaim our luggage. There was a nice huge Great Dane dog that greeted us when we wheeled our luggage out of the arrivals gate. I was owed by its size and beauty, since it was the first time I saw one close up. Then we bought train tickets into the city. The lady at the counter wasn’t exactly very friendly or helpful and I only hoped that she understood me when I said return tickets for two. We boarded the express train which was only about less than 15 minutes to town. The express train was very new and clean too. It also has power plug outlets which I noticed when the guys sitting next to us charged their notebooks.

We reached our destination at the Copenhagen central station. It was a nice large station but had some scaffoldings around it. As we walked out of the station, it was raining quite heavily and a strong gust of wind blew and knocked down quite a few bicycles that were parked near the station.

We stayed in Hotel Guldsmeden, around 1km from the Central Station and near to the heart of the city. We had to wait for a while for the room to be ready and the young pretty lady at reception was very nice this time. She had a very clear accent and spoke perfect English. We had a drink and accessed the internet in the café while waiting for our rooms to be ready. We could even help ourselves to chocolate cake and brownies while waiting.

Within an hour, the room was ready. We found out that we had a lovely room with lots of character. It was well coordinated with dark wooden furniture and off set by the white sheets and curtains. There was even a chair with some kind of skin with black and white dots. We had a huge mirror with a nice broad characteristic border and a leather chair. The bathroom was mostly black and white décor with the hotel’s own organic cream and soap products. It was simply lovely but had a slight smell of tobacco. I usually hate the smell of cigarette but didn’t mind it so much since it was a nice smoky smell and not over-powering or off-putting at all.

We headed out for lunch as well as a long walk in Copenhagen. Around our hotel, there are lots of shops, there is even a small supermarket just downstairs. I had grown an obsession to check out the supermarket at each new place that we go to see what are the local brands and foods that they have. In the rows of shops around the hotel, there are also lots of shoe shops, clothes boutiques, Arabic food restaurants, cafes and a few sex shops. Fur and leather seems to be quite popular in Copenhagen. There are lots of hot dog kiosks around and we were thinking of having a hot dog but decided to go to a café instead due to the rain. We had freshly squeezed orange juice and sandwiches for lunch. We had problems paying by credit card because the café just installed a new system. He tried quite a few times and we ended paying cash.

We were wondering what to do, to do museums so that we can stay indoors in the rain or to do the walk. In the end, the rain cleared up enough for us to do the walk. We walked to Tourist Information to get the information and pamphlets we needed. Since Tivoli Gardens was nearby, we walked over and verified that it was only open in summer.






We then started our walking tour from Radhuspladsen (Town Hall Square), Lavendelstraede where Mozart’s widow lived with her second husband and where there were numerous late 18th century houses, courthouses, Nytorv (a famous square with fine 19th century houses), Stroget (a shopping street), Helligandskirken (Church of the Holy Ghost), and Kongens Nytorv (interesting buildings), Thott’s Mansion (current French Embassy), saw Hotel d’Angleterre (the best hotel in Copenhagen), the Royal Theater and then walked to the end of Nyhavn. Nyhavn has lots of restaurants and cafes along the canal. It is a beautiful canal with sailing boats, ducks and swans. Nyhavn was also the home of Hans Christian Anderson at various times.





We then walked through a park to get to Rosenberg Castle. It closes at 4pm and it was already after 4pm when we reached the gate. We then decided to head back for the long walk we had. We saw the National Art Gallery on the way back and walked past huge lakes Peblinge So, Sanket Jorgens So and Sankt Jorgens So. There was a strong gust of wind as we walked past the lakes. It also felt more chilly than it already was.


There are lots of cyclists on the road. There is a lane especially for cyclist.

After a short rest in the hotel room, we headed for the launderette. We had managed to find the location of the nearest launderette from the hotel and it was 2 streets from the hotel. Most of the instructions were in Danish so we had problems understanding it and asked a guy there. He was really nice and helpful and helped us with the machines.

While waiting for the laundry to be done, we read the materials we picked up at the Tourist Office. We decided to sign up to do a “Castle tour” day trip tomorrow. It had to be tomorrow because the agency only does the Castle tour on Wednesdays and Sundays. We only managed to finish our laundry at nearly 8pm. We thought of doing the trip ourselves but the easiest way we could cover two places out of Copenhagen would probably be by renting a car and driving. Ross decided that we should not risk driving again so soon since divorce will be more expensive than anything else.

We tried to call up the agency but the office hours were over and we could only book the tour first thing tomorrow at 8am. We headed next for an Italian dinner at the restaurant downstairs called Vagabond. The pasta was not exactly fantastic for me but Ross’s cordon bleu was better than he expected.

Scandinavia- 30th Oct (Mon)

We had to return the car at 9am (given around 35 minutes allowance) today. Breakfast in the hotel was quite good. We drove to the Oslo airport, about 5 mins from the hotel. The signs along the way were quite straightforward, it was quite a stress-less affair. We drove the car into the “return-rental car” car park, left it there and went to the Europcar counter at Arrivals floor. It was as simple as dropping off the keys.

We then bought the airport express train tickets. There were a few sales promoters around who were promoting the usage of kiosks to buy tickets. Through her guidance, we bought our return tickets from the kiosk, it cost us (640kroners for 4 tickets). The train goes from Oslo airport to Oslo Central Station. It was a nice new modern train that we sat in. The service was also very prompt. There was an officer who would walk through each carriage, smiling, to make sure that she would answer or help anyone who has any questions at all.

So we reached Oslo Central Station before 10am and the first thing that we saw when we walked out of the station was a huge statue of a tiger. We started on the walking tour in Frommers. The roads are nice and broad. It was pleasant to walk around. We walked on Karl Johans Gate, the main pedestrian-only street. We next headed for Oslo Domkirke, the 17th century cathedral, waiting for it to open at 10am. The building was in scaffoldings, and a beautiful blond lady in a hard hat came over to tell us that the cathedral is closed for 3 years for repairs.

I was surprised to see so many beggars on the street though and felt that Oslo had more smokers than anywhere we have experienced in Norway. I noticed something curious, there are 2 red lights for the pedestrian traffic lights. Instead of the normal red man, there is another red man right on top of the one that we usually see. I wondered what that was for, was it for the cyclists?

Next, we saw the Norwegian Parliament and then the Royal Palace where we saw the young guards guarding the place. The place looked pretty modest and simple. We headed next for the National Theatret and University of Oslo and then Radhuset, the Oslo City Hall.

After an hour or so, we stopped at a café at Arker Brygge for a hot chocolate.

We then headed back to visit the interiors of the City Hall. Ross thought it was quite good and interesting but I beg to differ. Next, we saw the statue of Franklin Roosevelt before heading to the Akershug Fortress and Castle. We decided to do a short visit at the Norwegian Resistance Museum and were impressed by how good it was. We ended up spending nearly two hours in the Museum and felt it was very interesting. We couldn’t help but feel the utmost respect for the Norwegians who fought hard against their German invaders. That didn’t leave us much time to have lunch, so we walked around the Castle a bit more before heading to Bygdoynes.

We bought 4 single trip tickets at a 7-Eleven store for 20 kroners each. It was a 20 mins bus trip to the Kon-Tiki Museum at Bygdoynes and we snacked on the bus, eating stuff we carried on our daypack. It was nearly 4pm, turning chilly and raining when we finished at the Kon-Tiki Museum.

We headed back to the City and had an early dinner at Dolly Dimple’s (pizza). The pizza was very good, in my opinion, better than Peppe’s pizza.

In the rain, we headed back to the Oslo Central Station and noticed that there was a protest going on outside. The banner was in Norwegian so we didn’t understand what the protest was about but almost everyone there (around 100 of them) were holding fire torches. But it was a peaceful protest and the police were standing around to make sure it didn’t get out of hand.

We will miss the chocolates here, the delicious double chocolate muffins and I will miss the custard bread with icing. The bread is always so fresh and the custard bread and a few other local delights can be found almost everywhere (7-Eleven, small shops and cafes).

We took the airport shuttle from the airport back to the hotel. We had to pay 50 kroners each to get on the shuttle and realized that we probably didn’t pay for the bus the first time round.