Month: September 2023

Our two weeks journey is about to end.

Waiting for the ferry to Turku in Stockholm. We also had time to meet our friend Liisa at the restaurant of Fotografiska- museum. She managed to speak us into the restaurant without paying the ticket as there was not time enough for the photos.

To get from Poland to Sweden we travelled across the Baltic Sea with a brand new Stena Ebba. On that date September 28th, 29 years ago Estonia drowned in storm with hundreds of people, but we could enjoy mild winds and sunshine.

Relaxing on Stena Ebba, during 10 hour’s ride over the Baltic sea.

Ferryharbour in Karlskrona was on half hour drive to the town. We were very few passangers without own car, but luckily there was local bus in front of the terminal.

Karlskrona is a small and sympathetic town in southern Sweden. After one night rest in the hotel Siesta we continued our trip towards Stockholm, first with two local trains to Alvesta. Due to electric failure on the main railway the trains to Stockholm were delayed. That has happened to me earlier, previous time I was here the delay was three hours, now only one hour.

Krösatåg to Emmaboda train looked like a train in fairytales

Our train came finally 13.38, but SJ has a good habit to inform of the delays and missing bistro in the train with SMS. When the delay increased, you could at least get coffee and snacks for free.

Baltic Sea with its sandy beaches and sunny warm days offered its best to us.

Those beautiful beaches, and autumn is perfect on the beach, as it is not too hot.We just enjoyed walking there, watching waves, birds and children playing. I also enjoyed the good coffee that was string enough for me

Funkis Gdynia and old Gdansk, where was the great Museum of World War II from 2017.

The museum of World War II

Gdansk Glownu- Main Railwaystation

Boats belong to Gdansk

Gdynia Glowna-Main Railwaystation

Must be more than 10 years I have used Polish trains. On smaller stations only Polish is spoken and written, but you still get personal service there. Mixing languages and writing we anyway managed to buy seat tickets. Trains were quite comfortable and clean and the conductors were often young English speaking ladies. There were no restaurant cars in our trains, but on the stations you could find modest kiosks or small restaurants.

Engins were electric, but coal wagons could be seen on the stations

Szczecin Dabie station

On our way to Gdynia we changed trains in Szczecin Dabie. It is former independent town, but today a small suburp of Szczecin, and there were not many alternatives to eat before 4 hour’s journey.

Zurek? was a soup that tasted better it looked.

You have to take a ferry to get from Swinoujscie Centrum station to Swinoujscie station.

Our journey forwarded via Copenhagen and Hamburg along the Baltic shoreline. First night in Germany we spent in Schleswig which was a cozy small town and our hotel Deutscher Hof had a nice beer garden under appletrees. A friendly lady at the reception found us buses back to the railwaystation as walking from there with our backbags was sweaty.

Although the town was nice the railwaystation was in ruins inside.

Our next step in Germany was Rostock. It is a modern city, with layers of history. In the Kulturhistorissche museum we learned that it was important and independent during Hansa time, but lost that status due to 30 years war and the big fire.

Marien kirche was first built around 1200, but it had been rebuilt and enlargened during the years. It had originally paintings on the walls, but it was painted white when it turned lutheran. Rostock was among the first to advance reformation. Luckily some of the paintings are still seen, and that inspired me as I am reading a book of church painters in Finland, Hattula church. The organ of the church was biggest I have seen.

The Rostock hotel was big and kind of mistake. I prefer smaller hotels or hostels and personal atmosphere. It was clean and steril and no personal touch. The name was Art hotel Ana, maybe the name was misleading me. However, the tramstop was near. A day trip to Warnemunde with S-bahn was easy to do.

Warnow river in Warnemunde

Warnemunde was a real turist attraction with its beaches, promenades, fishkiosks and old lighthouse.

Old lighthouse from1912

Long long beach, ann soft sand.

Malmö has again shown its friendly faces to us. In the news are warnings of the street gangs and terror, but our schedules are propably different than that of the street gangs. Here are big parks and channels and plenty of bikes. For me this was fifth time here. Morning sauna and swimming in Riberborgs Kallbad is one of my favourites here. Sitting in the saunas, watching the open sea, swimming and back again. After relaxing in sauna and sea you can also have lunch at their restaurant.

Turning Torso needs to be checked everytime.

Best view to the Bridge over Öresund is from Torso shore.

In various parks are also interesting statues.

On the first evening we managed to get tickets to the musical “Everybody’s talking about Jamie”. Jamie is a16 years old boy who dreams about becoming a Drag queen. Audience was mainly young people, who lived loudly with the play.

Now, thankyou Malmö we are happily moving forward over the Bridge.

This time we are heading to the southern coast of Baltic sea and coastal small towns in Germany and Poland. Pekka, my husband is my travelmate. Three problems arouse, just before and early during the trip. But all the problems were solved with the help of friendly experts.

My tooth broke, savior was my skilful dentist Thomas from Providental who started his day one hour earlier and could take me in quickly.

Interrail ticket can only be in one device at a time and both our tickets were in my tablet . When in Stockholm I realized there was no mobile connection and tickets could not be opened. The savior this time was Operator’s customer service. Tablets with only 4g did not find new connections automaticaĺly and after some steps connection was found and tickets saved.

Pekka’s bankcards did not work. Some faint idea told me that there could be self-made limitations and he could change it.

After these small obstacles morning coffee at Stockholm railway station tasted good. Solving problems is actually rewarding and you cannot avoid them when travelling on your own.