Well, our last 3 days were in Tallinn Estonia.  Finally a place where the prices were reasonable.  Tallin's old town, is a mideival walled city, with lots of nooks and crannies, and crazy cobblestone streets.  We took a bus tour outside of the "old city" and saw some of the 20th century sites, but mostly we wandered the quaint old town.  It was so scenic you couldn't help but take tons of photos.  And did i say we ate more interesting food?  No fast food here.  Tons of sidwalk cafes, with full meal options.  So we wandered in the morning, ate a late lunch, then went back and took a nap, then started over again and had dinner.  It was a very relaxing pace.  We finally bought a couple of souvenirs - amber earrings for Cari, linen placemats, wood spoons and a couple of small paintings.

We got off very early Monday morning (well actually about 9 p.m. Sunday night at home) and arrived back at 5:30 p.m. Monday night.  The way I figure, we got about 45 minutes of sleep in a 24 hour period, but amazingly I'm not just totally bushed. 

It was a great trip.

Hel-stinki

Well, not literally, but we're just not as impressed with it as we thought we'd be. We arrived on Tuesday, had no problem getting to the central town, but then had a time locating our hotel. We started walking and stopped to check the map, when a lady stopped to help us, however she redirected us to a different hotel! Anyway we ended up walking about two miles out of our way up and down hills on cobblestones and were very sweaty and tired when we arrived. Yesterday we had reservations for a guided bus tour which was fine. We saw a lot of the highlights that would have been a little far flung to walk to. The town is not laid out very well, and while it seems like a smaller city in some ways it covers a lot of territory to get there. I guess there's just a lot of residential in between the points of interest and the language is harder to decipher. So anyway, we then we walked around checking out some museums (which were very small and not so interesting)and decided since Helsinki has been designated "design city 2012" it might be a good place to finally buy something to bring home. I could buy equally interesting stuff at ikea for a fraction of the cost,so this may be a first that we come home empty handed. Things continue to be equally overpriced including food. No great memorable finnish meals here yet. But maybe we'll try some salmon soup in the open market. That might be interesting. Note to self: next time don't worry about buying admissions in advance through travel agent. Just go with the flow. We previously purchased the bus tour tickets, then when we arrived we bought a Helsinki card which allows free tram and bus rides (which is necessary)as well as the very same bus tour as well and free admittance to many of the museums and discounts for other things. Hed we known, we would have saved ourselves some money. Today we are going to take a ferry to a island off shore that was a fortress and is now a museum and then another art museum and more random shopping. Tomorrow, Friday, we take the ferry across the Baltic sea to Tallinn Estonia, our last stop. Hopefully, cheaper and more interesting.

Sick tuna

Well, not really sick tuna but SIgtuna. Spent MOnday going on a little excursion to the oldest town in Sweden by that name. It's about 45minutes north of Veronica's house. There were several church ruins and several rune stones, too. The town itself has a very old, historic main street with little shops and restaurants. We had lunch there, a traditional meatball sandwich which was topped with a pickled beet/sour cream salad. Sounds weird, but was really very good. I caught lori's cold, so rested up in the evening. Tuesday morning we headed to the airport, Lori back home and we headed to Helsinki. We had a couple of false starts locating our hotel, but we are now settled in. I'm resting and Rick is trying to figure out what we want to see tomorrow. We do have a bus tour planned in the morning so we will have an overview. Can't post photos from the iPad, so will have to embellish later. Having fun, we're 8 hours ahead now.

Archipeligo adventure

Yesterday we took the bus/train back into the city again and had a lunch tour out into the archipelago. It was on a boat made in 1909 so it had a lot of character and was really cool. We took a ton of photos, to be posted later. Then we went to the vasser museum. The vasser was a ship ordered to be built by the king in 1698. Unfortunately he prescribed the dimensions and it was top heavy and sunk before it even got out of the harbor. It has been resurrected and preserved and the museum is really wel done. Then we went to a cafe to have afternoon tea, and had an incredible crawfish sandwich. Great time visiting with Veronica and mark.

Stockholm like a native

We arrived in Stockholm on Friday and lori's friend, Veronica picked us up at the airport and took us to her home. She lives in a suburb called taby. Don't ask me where that is exactly, I'd never be able to get here without her! They have a very nice home and have taken us in like family. Friday afternoon we went for a six mile walk around a lake near there home, then had dinner. Saturday, we took the bus then the train/subway into the city and Veronica showed us around town. It's a quite large city, very old in parts and feels like most other European cities. The "old city" has very narrow streets that are full of gift shops, restaurants and art galleries. We had lunch at a restaurant in the cellar of one of the buildings. It was built in 1366, burned down and rebuilt in the 1600's, but the cellar is original. It was used as a wine cellar for a period, but is now a cafe. It was so hidden you'd never find it unless you were a native. Lots of middle age history. Then we took a sightseeing boat trip around the islands that the city is built on. Today we are going back to the city and taking a lunch cruise out into the archipelago, which is where some people live, but is also their get away from the city. We're also going to go to a few museums. Will post more pictures tonight. Having a great time so far. Weather is beautiful, in the 60's, a sweatshirt does the job!

Rain on my parade

Yesterday, May 17, was the Norwegian Independence day and the whole country turned out to celebrate. In Bergen it started with 21 cannons shooting off at 7am! After our wonderful breakfast we headed down the street to line up for the parades. Yes plural. Simultaniously! Apparently there were three parades, one starting at 7(which we missed) and two that started around ten. We swear every resident of the town marched! It went on for over two hours and every organization you could imagine was represented, with instruments or not,including our Irish accordian band. About an hour into it, the flow of marchers shifted to the right and another whole parade started coming from the opposite direction! That went on for another hour. The most interesting part was that a majority of the folks, both marchers and watchers wore their traditional dress,both men and women. So the town was filled with revelers all day which made it all the more fun. We explored all around town, walked through the celebration fair, rode the funicular to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view, then consumed $40 worth of McDonalds happy meals. We almost didn't do that as they didn't take foreign credit cards but fortunately Lori had just enough kroners. After a brief siesta we explored the other end of the peninsula then settled in to this really cool wine bar in our hotel (a wine spectator listed establishment)and shared a bottle of wine and ate the last of our $8 potato chips. And did I mention that it rained the whole day? Beren gts six feet of rain a year, and it rains 275 days a year. So it rained on our parade, but that was just fine. Bergeners just go on! I'll be able to post photos later today when we get to Stockholm.

Fjording

We had a great day yesterday fjording. We got up early, had a great coldbord buffet breakfast (also hot food). We made sandwiches to take with us since we didn't know how our day would go and that was a good thing. First we took a 2hour train ride it Myrdal, which consists of a train station and a couple of houses, and the boarded the flambanna train which descends 864 meters to the aueland fjord.it is considered one of the world's most scenic train rides. It was funny thoug because there was a cruise ship full of people who came up from the fjord, doing a round trip. They all fgot off the train for a few minutes, so we got on. We took some window seats that looked unoccupied, but when they got back on, we were yelled at in Italian because obviously we had taken someone's seats. Too bad. They were not reserve! So anyway, we got to take some photos of some beautiful scenery as we descended, even though we were stared at the whole time. The village at the bottom is called FLam. Not much there except the pier, a train museum and some gift shops. We ate our sandwiches on a hike through the village,then boarded a water ferry back to Bergen. It was pretty scenic 5hr boat ride back. It is not just for tourists, but a means of transport for the people living along the fjord. I only mention the sandwiches that we made from the breakfast fare because we have discovered that food in Norway is outrageously expensive!!!! First night we had fish and chips and it was $60!! A bag of potato chips was$8, and a bottle of water was $5!! We've decided today is a big breakfast, which is included w our room, then do burger king. Save our meal money for another country. There's more than one incentive to loose weight. We were going to go to some museums today, but we found out that may 17is their independence day and everything is going to be closed, but there will be several parades and celebrations, so we will actually see the Norwegians being themselves. Should be interesting. Ps it is difficult to determine the price of things, the norwegian crown is about 6to1$ so everything looks really high priced and you have to divid by 6. Other than food, things don't seem too bad, but only if you want to starve! Haven't bought anything yet. Can't see wearing a sweater in Memphis this summer! Lori has a cold and Rick is going through technology withdrawal. Well, when they wake up we'll be off to the parades and fireworks. One more interesting sidelight. There was a northern Ireland accordion band on our flight from Amsterdam, first evening in Bergen, here they come marching down the street playing, get to flam,a few hours later here they come marching down. The pier! I think they are following us! Stalked by accordion playing Irishmen!(actually they are a pretty cool bunch) Now,off to the parades and $20burgers