Month: May 2024

First time in my life in this country. My only knowledge of Scotland and Edinburgh was Ian Rankin’s inspector John Rebus. Did not meet him here, but I bought the latest book. We continued here the same strategy overnighting in smaller towns, this time in a village Inverkeithing in Fife, 25 minutes train ride from Edinburgh. The ancient pilgrim route, Coastal Path had been going through this village and we made a day’ s walk along the coast. Two days we spent in Edinburgh among other tourists. In the National museum we tried to get some understanding of their history. Until 1707 there was an independent kingdom of Scotland, but then they merged with the kingdom of England.

After Scotland Pekka flies back home and I continue for a week in Sweden to meet friends and old colleagues, Eminent Refiner Groundwood Scientists. Trains and the weather have treated us well and two weeks has passed fast.

The railway bridge towards Edinburgh is from 1890.

During our two days in London we visited several big museums and spent a day in Kew Gardens. Annikki was waiting to see Rothko works in Tate Modern, but they were sent to Paris for an exibition. However, several fine old paintings in National Gallery were like an award. In the Museum of Natural history we said hello to Hope the blue whale, that we learned to know from the works of Annikki’s photography group. We staid in a modest little hotel near the StPancras and Kings Cross stations and had our dinners in a cosy Italian restaurants Casa Tua near the hotel. Next towards Scotland Inverkeithing.

Haarlem is older than Amsterdam, that is what we were told. We were happy to stay and rest in a smaller town again. Especially as getting here was not easy. Deutsche Bahn had rail problems between Germany and Netherlands and the planned 5 hours turned to be 10 hours. Partly it was also our own fault as we once jumped into wrong train as the platform screen was not working. What we learned, ask, ask and ask. However, we met so many friendly and helpful people so it saved our day.

Our base here was a bohemian hostel driven by young volunteers. A nice surprise was to meet Pekka’s old friend and her lovely dog and have a dinner together by the canal. Dogs are here welcome to restaurants and cats walk freely around the town.

Next under the channel to Britannia.

Luneburg was our base for four nights. It is a lovely small town half an hour from Hamburg. Luneburg history is based on salt, that was ground from here for a century. We admired Luneburg houses, network of canals and climbed up to Kalkberg and the old water tower for the scenery.

Next day we spent in Hamburg. This was my third visit to Hamburg and first now I started to understand the structure of the city at least a little bit. We walked through Altstadt, Speicherstadt, Landungsbrugge, Neustadt residential area and Alster lakes and admired the scenery from Michael church tower. The warm long week- end and harbor birthday brought crowds of people outside. My favourite was the residential “New ” area, which was built after the war. As people lived there it had small restaurants and shops and a lively atmosphere.

On third day I visited Celle to meet old friends. I spent one summer month at Boltz family 1967. Now I met even the fourth generation of the Boltz family, the little girl Corwyn. The older generations were gone years ago.

Next we are heading to Netherlands, Haarlem.

Nikolai church ruins serve as a memorial of WW2 victims

People relaxing by Alster lakes.

We are on our way again. Our route started fromTurku and it is planned to go through Sweden, Germany, Netherlands toward Great Britain and Scotland. Although interrail is looking for excitements I enjoy even the familiar experiences. Sunset when crossing the sea from Turku to Stockholm through beautiful archipelago. Breakfast at Stockholm railwaystation cafe Ritazza, south Swedish Lund and Malmö. This year we overnighted in Lund due to Eurovision contest in Malmö. We had however musical tickets for Malmö opera, “Next to Normal”.Malmö was actually quite calm inspite the media predictions. The train to the Areena aerea was fully packed with young people dressed in funny shiny outfits. When coming back to Lund after theater we found people following Eurovision performers from big screens in the Park in a good mood. Bye now to Lund Luneburg is waiting.

The Lund Domkyrka is always as impressive

In that respect I am old fashioned that I like paper books and maps.