Final Thoughts....

As we sit in Changi airport waiting for our flight home, we appreciate reflecting on the fantastic 37 days away in Europe & Scandinavia- We’ve :

- Taken 12 flights totalling 50 hrs in the air

- Spent 30 hrs sitting in airports

- Did 1 train trip between countries 

- Did 1 small ship cruise, 1 sea cruise, 1 coach tour

- Fulfilled a bucket list tick with visiting Croatia and taking a private boat charter into the incredibly clear aqua water & caves

- Visited the never-forgettable concentration camps of Auschwitz, & the death camp at Birkenau 

- Went 400 metres under the ground to visit the amazing Salt mine in Krakow 

- Visited 3 vodka distilleries & did tours 

- Visited 2 breweries for tours

- Drank approx 45 pints & about the same number of Mojitos, Pinot noirs and Malbecs(thanks unlimited drinks package on the Scandinavian cruise!)

- Visited the old Prague Sex machine museum!

- Stayed at the ABBA museum hotel

- Attended two F1 grand prixs this year- Mel & Singapore night race

- Did 385,000 steps - walked 245kms!

Days 36,37 & 38. 20-22 Sep. Singapore And Homeward bound

Day 36 

Up at 7:30 am and out for our pick up for the gardens by the bay tour today. The first pick up took us to another central hotel where all the tours are going from and we waited for a big bus to take us there. Pretty crappy seats all a bit broken! But got us there. It was 30° and quite still today, so after doing one of the two domes that were included in our ticket, we decided to go up on the skywalk as there are only 80 people allowed at a time up there and it was still early and quiet. 

It is really amazing what they have done with these gardens and man-made towers. You get a birds eye view of everything below and there are waterfalls as well.  After that we decided to do the outside gardens before the day got too much hotter & humid, they have gardens from all different countries – Australia’s had what looked like a didgeridoo standing up in the middle of a garden!

After that we went into the second dome– they have the cloud and the flower domes and they are beautifully cooled, so they are great places to go and cool yourself down before going outside again.

Spent a good few hours there then walked about 15 mins to the MRT which is the subway system – it was really sticky and hot by then so we walked very slowly as it was all out in the open sun. Worked out how to use the system and even though the ticket machines showed you could use Visa to buy your tickets, it turned out they only accept cash. Luckily Danni had given Graeme a $5 note she had and the tickets were $4.20 for two – so that was perfect as we didn’t have any cash!

The subway lines are all colour coded and we needed to get two different lines to get back to our hotel,  but we worked it out fine. 

Walking back to the Swissohotel, we came across a big shopping mall down underneath the tower block! It was tucked around the back so you wouldn’t see it unless you knew it was there. Spent quite a bit of time looking around and then went down and got some lunch in the food hall below. Tried out the authentic Asian place and some dumplings – very nice. There are so many people everywhere - think it’s mostly because of the F1 this weekend.

Went back upstairs to our room and had a rest for a while, they went out for a wander round and to the pub style restaurant downstairs in the foyer for a pint and a quick meal before sitting out on our balcony on the 56 floor and watched the qualifying race – we are in such a good spot with a massive view of quite a lot of track right below us. 

Then we sat listening to Gwen Stefani play at the band area down below us, then the Muse concert. Danni would love to have been here as she is a fan of theirs – (wish she was here too! :-)

We have realised you need to stay up till the bands finish each night at midnight otherwise you are thumping in bed, in time to the music no matter how good your earplugs are, so we are just going with it!

 
 

Day 37

We lay in bed a bit later today after the last few late nights – although we feel fine despite losing 7 hours between Copenhagen and Singapore flights! We just feel a bit dizzy and spaced out sometimes. 

We decided to go to Chinatown today after breakfast – looking at the map it was about half an hour so we decided to walk it. It was 33° and high humidity already by mid morning, so we were both a bit drenched by the time we got down there. Despite the really bad haze from the Indonesian fires, the sun was out and shining.

Wandered around the markets in Chinatown – found the Tintin shop that Danni has told us about. Graeme bought a two book hardcover comic, they were a favourite from his childhood.

Wandered around a bit more– pretty hot and smelly in a lot of this area, so we stopped and shared a big bottle of Tiger beer – pulled out of a chilly bin with tons of ice! Pretty good value, $8 for a longneck bottle. Bought gifts for the our little girls in NZ, then walked back home – very hot and sticky by now, so back to our room to cool down.

We went to the little supermarket we found yesterday and bought nice cold drinks – they sell beer in the supermarket here too which is good.

The F1 race tonight starts at 8 pm but we left before 6pm to go and wander around the track, there is a real buzz with the crowd everywhere. There are 268,000 people attending – the second biggest attendance for all of the F1 races. 

They said it was 33° but had a high point of 39°C and very high humidity – no wonder it felt so sticky! but it is 60°C in the cockpit for the drivers! There are 5.6 km of Race track and 23 turns. Our seats were in the bay grandstand. You have to buy a grandstand ticket as it isn’t like the Melbourne F1 where you can buy general admission. The seats are the same is if you wanted to just walk around anyway - $210 pp. Our seats were smack in front of 2 big TV screens- couldn’t have done it better :-)! There was a bit of a breeze which was nice too and over here it seems to cool down after about 6 pm. 

The way they manage these events, everything runs like clockwork and there are so many staff guiding people everywhere, there is a lot better flow than at the Melbourne F1.

We got some beers- pretty expensive at $14 for a cup, but cheaper than it is at American baseball games!

Where we were sitting was at a bit of a straight and then a sharp turn where the drivers went down underneath our grandstand so that was pretty cool – because they were going slower you’re able to actually see the cars better. 

Sebastian Vettel continued in the lead and won tonight. Had lots of English people sitting around us tonight – we all got to know each other as the small plastic seats, were a bit cosy!

It was funny – all the young officials that have been hired to ask people to sit down if they stood up to film or take photos, it is very well organised and people seem to toe the line very well here. 

Wandered out with the crowds afterwards and went and got something to eat and a cold drink and sat up on the balcony and listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing below us - was so good. Stayed up till they finished at 12:15 am then set the alarm for 5:30 am – early start, as we are flying back to Melbourne - our pick up is coming early because there have been road closures over the weekend.

 

 



                                    

Day 38

Dragged ourselves out of bed this morning - but a great view off the balcony in the early morning light! Got ready and down for a quick breakfast before our pick up to the airport. There was no traffic at all, so we were there really early as it’s only about 20 minutes when there’s no traffic.

Through check-in and border control, then sat in the lounge for 2 1/2 hours. It’s funny when you go down to your boarding gate in Singapore and Copenhagen airport, they have the x-ray screening right before the gates so you have to leave time to get there as there is always a queue. Seems a funny place to have it is it could mean people missing boarding as they think they have done all the screening they need to do already. Luckily we were okay though – you even get fingerprinted and Changi airport!

Flight home was really quick this time, only 6 1/2 hours also and we were in Melbourne. Lost another two hours, so it was 9:30 pm. We had decided to stay at the park royal hotel at the airport as another couple hours driving when we were tired and its late would have been a pain – well along with the fact that we had no car to drive ha ha!

Had showers and jumped into bed. Really looking forward to Danni picking us up tomorrow :-) . She is going to come to have breakfast with us at the hotel and then we will head home to our place and mum and dad and the dogs.

It’s been an awesome trip but it’s always nice to come home too :-) :-) .

 
                                  

Days 34 & 35, 18-19 sep. Copenhagen & leaving for Singapore

 Day 34

We decided to do what we do best! and walk and explore today. We walked to a massive shopping centre and while it has constantly rained, then sun, then rained since we arrived, it’s just like Melbourne haha! 

Had a good couple of hours there, bought Graeme some trendy pants and had brunch at the espresso house which is a franchise everywhere in Scandinavia. They make the best chai lattes (they use powder rather than syrup with a little water and frothed milk- yum). 

On the way home we walked through the meatpacking district and went to a brewery and pub called Warpigs. They brew a huge amount of beers so we thought it would be rude not to stop and have a couple! They were formed on the basis of  three different breweries who came together as one. We walked back to the hotel afterwards and tried to have a lay down but the cleaning lady knocked and walked in - 2nd time this has happened to us! Gray had already spoken to another lady in the hallway about giving us an hour, but I guess it got lost in the translation.  So we got up and went walking again in the early evening to Nyhavn where we had a drink the other night when we visited off the ship- this is the 3rd time we have been back to Copenhagen this trip!  Anyway, we had steamed mussels in a pot - they were soooo tiny. Smaller than Australian mussels. Makes us appreciate what we so easily get in NZ😊. 

Wandered back and enjoyed people watching along the way- so many different nationalities and we have been hearing foreign languages for the past 5 weeks, so much so, that it seems like normal background sound now.  We have walked 16,500 steps today too!This is the nifty pic on our hotel lift doors

 
 

                                     

Day 35

We packed up and walked the 3 mins to the train station at 8:30am. The train is only 15 mins to the airport and we had to wait only about 10 mins then check in opened. Through immigration- my backpack gets pulled out again - 2nd time this trip, for a random swab?! 

We went up to the SAS lounge again, it’s actually a bit disappointing in the food category.  Very little choice and they split it so only specific gold members (?frequent flyers?) can go upstairs to the better lounge, but it was fine. 

Lucky we left 15 mins early to walk to the board as the final immigration was after the lounge! Which was weird- have only seen that once before but it means big queues right before the boarding gates, then it was a pretty sprightly 10 min fast walk to gate 37 to make sure we got there on time! Boarded easy and we are in the very front section which is smaller and very nice. It was about 40C on the plane when we got on and the captain apologised and said Copenhagen has a rule that they can’t start the engines until 10 mins before takeoff. Everyone was stripping down! But it soon cooled once we got going. 

A very easy 11 & 1/2 hr flight. Watched movies, Godzilla- king of monsters- very dumb! and a Dogs journey which made me cry repeatedly but loved the storyline.  We didn’t sleep - of course because we needed to! and arrived about midnight cph time and 5:30am Singapore time, so we are going to be awake a while! Nice food and cabin crew this flight and they kept the temp nice and cool. 

Must say that Singapore airlines have been on time every flight and I know it was the same when Danni flew them earlier this year to the UK. 

We landed and got through no problems and our transfer was waiting. Got to the hotel at 7 am and the concierge was great – he swapped a room around so we could get in that early. A room on the 56 floor, absolutely over the race track – Graeme is in F1 heaven!

We walked to the huge shopping mall just across the road to get the racing tickets – I had aarrangedthis previously and was pleased to see my Google mapping had picked the closest pick up point! Had a few issues getting the tickets as I had paid for them with Danni’s travel card many months ago and even though I had the confirmation email with the ticket numbers and photo ID they wanted to see that credit card as well – luckily was able to get Dan on messenger and she screenshot a photo of the card and they were happy with that and released the tickets – phew!

Wandered around in the shopping mall for a couple of hours- both of us were feeling spaced out and dizzy from travel and being up so long I think, but it was good to look around. Went back to the hotel and set an alarm so we could sleep for two hours until lunchtime. We were out like lights! Woke feeling disgusting so got up and got going again! The sound of the Formula One cars from our balcony is amazing and we have a fantastic view point of the rest of the track, plus we have grandstand tickets for Sunday’s race night -You have to purchase grandstand tickets here in Singapore as they aren’t like Melbourne where you can get general admission for $100 pp. The cheapest tickets for Singapore were $210pp.

We went downstairs to the hotel pub restaurant, this hotel is huge! There are so many people here because of the F1 and there being so many people in town for it, it gives a great vibe. 

It is about 27° but not unpleasant, so we went for a wander after dinner to a bar right opposite the raffles hotel ( turns out the raffles is literally in spitting distance of our hotel!) and had a Singapore sling and a Mojito there – $55 for the two here, but think it is a lot more at the raffles! That hotel looks quite small these days with all the tower blocks around it.

Did a beauty on my toe walking home – stubbed it on an uneven paver, Sheez it hurt as I split it open but not too bad. Hobbled home and sorted it. On the way we saw ferraris, a Lamborghini and other assorted half a million dollar cars!

They have lots of music stages down below the hotel in the marina area right below us and they had Swedish house mafia playing  – that bass was incredible! We were too knackered to care about it at the time, but it woke us a couple of hours later. Jammed earplugs in as far as they would go but could still hear it - it will be par for the course this weekend with all the activities on, so oh well! Think it all has to stop at midnight each night anyway :-). 

Days 32 & 33, 16-17 sep. Stockholm & back to Copenhagen

Day 32

Had a pretty good sleep in the oh-so soft bed, the topper pad is so squishy it’s nice but the pillows- my neck was not happy!

We decided to do museums today, so after a pretty basic brekky at the hotel we walked not far down the road to the Viking museum. Think about half of the displays were genuine and the rest replicas in this small museum. It was $25pp - over priced for what it was but still good to go and see. Then we walked a little further along to the famous Vasa museum where the huge Swedish galleon is housed. There were dozens of tour buses there but we mostly kept ahead of the big tour groups. 

The ship sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628 as it was poorly designed and very top heavy.  35 people died, as many were below deck and the heavy cannons blocked any of the opening windows. It lay underwater in clay for over 300 yrs until it was found and raised in 1961. Watching how they raised it back then and kept it completely intact was impressive. They then sprayed it for 17 yrs with specific additives to stop the wood drying out, then carpenters spent 20 yrs restoring her. The Museum has special temperature control and humidity as well.    

After that we headed back out into the howling cold wind again,(hurricane Dorian still giving its effects!) and walked all the way to Gamla Stan- the old town. We decided to visit the royal palace while we were close. 

All our entries today have been about $25 pp- Again lots of tour groups inside, so very popular. I was really hoping to visit the armoury as travel friends had posted a great photo of down there but alas- it’s closed on Mondays☹️. But the opulent palace was worth the visit - again its hard to believe how some families live in such incredible wealth and surroundings!

We were pretty knackered after the morning so found a restaurant in the old town and had a bit of lunch then wandered to the ferry and caught that back over to where we are staying. Lucky all the Swedes know where the Abba museum is for directions! Although they pronounce it “Ar-bar”😊. 

Rested our tired feet (12,500 steps!)after a beer in the bar then were able to get dinner in the hotel restaurant tonight which was good. Everything here is Very expensive as everyone says, but the ‘converter’ offline currency app has been invaluable in working things out cost wise  as the currency denominations are in the hundreds and thousands. Also maps.me has giving pretty decent directions offline with previously downloaded maps. They have made a huge diffence.



 

 
 

Day 33

Woke early today and we mooched around, went down for brekky then into the Museum downstairs when it opened at 10am. It was good as there weren’t a lot of people at that time but it got busier as time went on. Staff told me they have an average of 650-800 people through a day! And in July broke their record at 60,000 in that month😳. 

It is a fantastic interactive museum and well set up with audio info, music booths where you can sing along, movie screens, mixing tables and even a stage if you want to try the holographic sing a long- I declined! But the whole thing was fun and we could have actually done with more than 1 1/2 hrs we were there, but we needed to go back up and do the final little pack. Check out on this side of the world is often a very generous 12 pm but they allowed us until 1 pm when we were due to leave. 

Got Uber to Arlanda airport as it’s over 40 mins away and again would be a train and a bus. So the $75 for a car was a lot easier with our 3 bags. We are now using the big duffle bag we brought along and it’s much better as we buy gifts. We are at 19,21 & 11 kgs now. 

Easily through immigration- were told we couldnt buy the 2 packs of 5 Absolut flavoured vodka miniatures for our girls as, even we are flying internationally, Sweden alone has a peculiar rule that you can’t take alcohol into any EU country?! Boo for the girls☹️We were delayed a couple of times  with take off with SAS, but no hassle.  Landed in an hour in Copenhagen - again! It was raining but we trained then walked to our hotel in the lively Meatpacking district - none of the signs are in English! The Absalon hotel was only a 3 min walk which was good as it was getting dark. First time weve seen lots of drunks around the train station. We have noticed a lot of Scandinavians smoke surprisingly, as well as a few European countries and they can all smoke at outdoor tables at restaurants- way behind our side of the world. Showers and intoto bed!