A while ago, I had the idea to take a trip by myself. Alex was traveling so much and I wasn’t able to go with him most of the time so I decided to look into doing a solo trip. At some point, I had mentioned it to Andrea and she liked the idea so much, she decided to join. Her sister Kristen wanted to take a trip to Europe so she joined us for an unforgettable girls trip. Since none of us wanted to do the driving, we opted for a bus tour. We eventually settled on a 12 day tour through Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Denmark – Copenhagen: I flew into Copenhagen and met Andrea and Kristen at the hotel. We freshened up and met the rest of the group we would be traveling with for the next 12 days. They were people from all over the world, Australia, Philippines, Canada etc. We all had dinner together then had the rest of the evening to ourselves. The next morning we had a tour of Copenhagen including the palace, the Little Mermaid statue and the Nyhavn waterfront. The rest of the day was free to do what we wanted. The three of us headed over to the Carlsberg Brewery. We spent a fun couple of hours there, touring the brewery, going on a carriage ride, competing in a competition and of course sampling some Carlsberg beer. Then we made our way back to the center where we took a relaxing canal cruise and had a traditional dinner at a local restaurant.

 

Frederikshavn: We left Copenhagen and headed north towards the little port town of Frederikshavn. Along the way, we stopped for lunch in Odense the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson. Once we made it to Frederikshavn, we walked around the town until dinner. After dinner we found an Irish bar to celebrate Kristen’s birthday where we listened to live music and enjoyed a few beers.

 

Norway – Oslo: Bright and early we took a three hour ferry to Gothenburg, Sweden then continued on to Norway where we arrived in Oslo in the afternoon. It was such a beautiful day and we took advantage of it by walking all around the town. Then we grabbed dinner at a delicious pizza place. The next morning we had a two hour tour of Oslo. A good chunk of that was spent in the beautiful Vigeland sculpture park. We had a few hours of free time so we took a ferry ride over to the Viking Ship Museum. The museum houses three original Viking ships and numerous artifacts. The first and biggest ship was built in AD 820 and used as a grave ship in AD 834 for two prominent women. It was later found on a farm in 1903 and took 21 years to restore. After admiring the next two ships and reading all about the artifacts, we headed back to the center. We took the ferry back and walked around town visiting the palace, the fortress and the opera house. We then hopped on the bus and headed to our next destination. We stayed the night in a cute little hotel overlooking a lake. We got there just in time to watch the sunset. We enjoyed dinner at the hotel with the group.

 

Bergen: The next morning we were off to Bergen for two days. Along the way, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall. We walked behind it and up to the top where we were able to get some pretty pictures. We eventually made it to Bergen, one of the rainiest cities in the world. It rains 263 days of the year so when we arrived and it wasn’t raining, we felt pretty lucky. We quickly took the funicular to the top of Bergen for great views over the city. Then we had a small dinner and since it had started to rain, we found a bar to enjoy a few pints. The next day we toured a Nazi command bunker hidden deep inside a mountain. Then we moved on to the city of Telavåg, which was destroyed when the gestapo discovered the villagers support of the resistance. We finished up the tour with a stop at a small fishing village for delicious homemade pancakes. We headed back to town and had the rest of the day to explore Bergen. We did a little souvenir shopping, found a nice cafe for a drink, then dinner with a few group members.

 

Fagerness: Today was the day we were all looking forward to the most. We had a exciting excursion all lined up. First, we stopped at another breathtaking waterfall for a group photo. Then we all jumped on a boat for our cruise along the fjords. We were lucky because it had rained quite a bit earlier so everywhere we looked there were waterfalls cascading off of the mountains. Plus, the fog added a nice mysterious look to the fjords. We stood on the outside deck of the boat for the next 2 hours enjoying the wonderful scenery. Once we got back to shore the bus took us to Fagerness. On the way, we went through the longest (car) tunnel in the world. 25km of tunnel can get a little claustrophobic so we stopped 2/3 of the way through to take pictures then continued on our way. When we got to our next stop (about an hour later) our guide realized she had left her backpack in the tunnel, passport and all. We got to the hotel and she called the tunnel guys, the police, anyone she could think of and nothing. Long story short, she eventually checked Facebook and had a message from a group of guys who had found it. She found a way to get it to our next hotel before we even got there. Crazy! Anyways, when we got to our hotel, we walked around it enjoying the beautiful evening.

 

Sweden – Karlstad: Our first stop of the day was to Lillehammer, home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. We started at the ski jump where we got to watch a few Norwegians practicing. We even got to take a few (touristy) pictures ourselves ski jumping and bobsledding. Plus, we were able to run up the same stairs where they had lit the torch. After all that Olympic fun, we had a few hours in the town for lunch. Then on the border of Norway and Sweden we stopped at a huge mall (things are much cheaper in Sweden vs. Norway) where we got a bottle of wine and some Aquavit as a souvenir for the guys. Throughout the trip we talked to everyone on the bus but we had our favorites, one of our favorites was an 82 year old man named Jim. We had given him a beer on the bus a few days ago so he returned the favor by sharing his scotch with us. It made the hour long drive to the hotel much more enjoyable. We found a fun little pub for dinner and drinks to end the evening.

 

Stockholm: We were headed to the last city on our trip. Along the way, we stopped for a break at a cute little town for lunch. Once we made it to Stockholm we headed into the city for a bit. Then it was time for the Ice Bar! The first ever Ice Bar was started in Stockholm in 2002. They use ice from northern Sweden to decorate the inside of the bar with. The bar is at a constant temperature of -7°c (19°f) so we were fitted with a heavy poncho and gloves. Once we entered, we grabbed our drink (in a glass made of ice, of course) then had a chance to look around. The ice all throughout the bar was decorated beautifully with stories, pictures and maps. They even had a throne and Viking boat made out of ice for picture taking. We enjoyed the Ice Bar for about 40 minutes then left to warm up. To end the evening we enjoyed a dinner of traditional Swedish meatballs. While we were waiting for dessert we got to talking to some of our group members, one of them said “you girls have just been such a delight.” It was really nice end to a good day.

 

Our last day in Stockholm started with a boat cruise through the archipelago. Then a tour of the vasa ship; a warship that sank in the harbor within 20 minutes of setting sail. It was long forgotten about (for 333 years!) until one man looked into it and decided to pull it out of the water, which alone took 5 years. But luckily because of the mud and cold water, the ship was still in pretty good shape. We walked into the museum and were immediately overwhelmed by the size of the ship. And the detail was incredible. We spent almost two hours just walking around the ship, exploring all three levels to get different perspectives of the massive voyager. After we had our fill, we had the rest of the afternoon in the city. Our last evening was enjoyed at the hotel with our group. We took a few pictures then said our goodbyes to some of the lovely people we spent the last 12 days with. We had one final drink with our New York and Australian friends before retreating to our room for the evening.

 

A bus trip was something I wasn’t sure how much I would like but I’m so glad we did Scandinavia that way. We got to see so many wonderful sights, didn’t have to worry about driving, met a ton of fun people and got a lot of time to explore the cities on our own. I would definitely do a bus tour again if the opportunity presented itself. Thanks again to Andrea and Kristen for joining me on this tour. It definitely wouldn’t have been the same without you both. I’m glad Kristen was able to join on one of our European adventures and Andrea and I keep continuing to check off countries together! Thanks for a fun trip ladies!