Northern Europe
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A weekend in Tallinn
We spend each summer in Finland and usually take a trip over to Tallinn in Estonia. This year was no exception, we booked tickets with Linda Line on their morning ferry which takes only 90 minutes between Helsinki and Tallinn across the Gulf of Finland. Landing in Tallinn, the ferry terminal is only a 10…
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Guide to visiting Tallinn’s Open Air Museum
After eating breakfast in our hotel, we caught a trolley bus out to Kopli Bay, a 30 minute ride away to the home of the Estonian Open Air Museum. It’s located overlooking the bay and occupying a large site providing an insight into old Estonian life. A rural village has been re-constructed within a forest…
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Arriving in Oslo
After spending the night in Edinburgh we took a Ryanair flight from Edinburgh Airport to Oslo Torp. Edinburgh is my favourite UK regional airport, it’s modern, stylish has a good choice of shops and cafes and is small enough to reach gates without lengthy walks. Coming into land at Torp we had good views…
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Sightseeing in Oslo
As our friends set off for work, we walked along to the railway station in Ski for a train into the city centre. Alongside the pathways wild lupins were flowering and looking bright and cheerful despite it being a gloomy morning with heavy rain showers. On reaching Oslo we headed first of all to view…
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Frogner Park and the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo
Our friends suggested a visit to the Opera House so we took the train into the centre of Oslo and headed there first. Built in 2008, it’s a futuristic white building, overlooking the sea with it’s angled exterior covered in Italian marble and white granite to make it appear as if it is rising from…
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Touring Oslofjord and Oscarsborg Fortress
It was Saturday and our Norwegian friends were free to spend the next three days with us, and for once the sun was shining and there were no rain clouds in sight! Served with our breakfast was a brown cheese, sweet tasting, rather like fudge but absolutely delicious, it’s called Gubrandsdalost and I will definitely…
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Shopping at Vestby Outlet and dinner al fresco
After the previous day’s sunshine it was back to heavy rain so a shopping trip was planned to Vestby, the home to Norway’s only outlet mall. Compared to Bicester Village and Cheshire Oaks in the UK, this was much smaller scale, there weren’t many bargains to be had as everything is considerably more expensive in…
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A weekend in Berlin – Day 1
We had spent the night at the Travelodge, Heathrow Central as our flight was one of the first of the morning to depart Heathrow. We had originally booked our outbound flight with Germanwings, however, with less than 48 hours prior to departure, we received an email from Germanwings informing us that our flight had been…
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Reichstag Dome and the Brandenburg Tor, Berlin
We had breakfast at 7.45 am as we had pre-booked a visit on-line to the Dome of the Reichstag building at 10.30 am. The hotel’s restaurant was attractively decorated and smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and pastries set us up for our morning sightseeing. We walked to the nearby U Bahn station and, like the previous day…
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Charlottenburg Palace and Spandau, Berlin
After a short lunch stop we boarded a train from Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof to Charlottenburg, an affluent suburb of Berlin where the beautiful Charlottenburg Palace is located. A walk along wide, tree lined avenues with imposing buildings standing proudly, led us to the Palace. It was a cold yet sunny afternoon, perfect conditions for a walk through…
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Potsdam, Sanssouci Palace and Tiergarten, Berlin
Another lovely sunny morning. On finishing our breakfast our plan was to inspect the largest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall located near the ornate bridge beside the River Spree. The pieces of wall have now been decorated in modern art / graffiti and plaques explain the historical significance. A train to Potsdam was next on…
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Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin
Our final day in Berlin, so after breakfast we checked out of our hotel but left our luggage to collect later in the day. Then it was on the train to Kreuzberg where we walked for about 15 minutes to reach the Checkpoint Charlie Box. This famous landmark was the best known crossing point between…
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