Author: Annikki

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.

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.