Johannes H. Glitsch — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:49:36 +0000

Today we got up really early at around 5.50 am. After a Taxi trip to the ferry (so we didn’t have to carry our bags to much) Verena already felt a little bit sick. Aside from the fact that during the trip her condition didn’t get any better the trip was great. The ferry was really big compared to the little ferries we see e.g. on the Rhine river. It had 9 decks to visit with room and car decks, different restaurants and cafés, playgrounds, casino, duty free shop, cinema etc. At around 1 o’clock we arrived at the Åland Islands with consists of more than 20.000 small islands and are already part of Finland.

At the beginning, around the islands and at the end of the trip – so you can say most of the time – the water was ice covered with snow. At the beginning we couldn’t believe that it is possible to do the trip without an ice-breaker driving in front of us. But is was amazing to see.

We arrived in Turku in time at 7.50 pm.

Verena Hausmann — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:28:38 +0000

Hello again from Stockholm,

today was our last day in Sweden’s capital. We started our day with a guided tour of the Stadshuset (town hall). You could think it’s mainly consisting of four big halls. Sadly enough the tower with its (potentially) nice outlook was closed. We then made our way to Sveriges Riksdag (the parliament), which was also closed

However, the Kungliga Slotten (the royal palace) opened its doors for us at noon. Besides the nice rooms and the crown jewels we saw the change of guards (see below).

Afterwards another walk took us to the islet of Djurgarden and the Vasamuseet. Within the museum one can see the wreck of the well-preserved battleship Vasa. It sailed for about 20 minutes in 1628 before it sank in the harbor of Stockholm on its maiden voyage.

Tomorrow morning we’ll get onto our ferry and head towards Turku.

Johannes H. Glitsch — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:09:20 +0000

Today we had our second round of sightseeing. After our arrival (yesterday) we already visited the Northern parts of the city. Today mainly Gamla Stan (the historic center) was our destination.

From yesterday the weather changed dramatically, not so much in temperature, but it has been snowing all day. The town still is very beautiful as you can see below. Please note that this is the city beach with a great body of water behind us.