Dogs on trains . . .

The Scandic Crown Hotel in Göteborg is huge.  Seven floors and 338 rooms.  So breakfast is a frenetic, noisy affair.  It is surprising to see the number of Swedish families staying here.  We guess that they come in for a weekend in the City.  We had missed out on the pancakes yesterday and were determined to have some this morning.  Got down to the buffet breakfast about 9 am and true to form, plenty of food.  No pancakes.  Doesn't help when there is a male sports team there and some of those 'growing boys' were taking 6 pancakes or more - each!  We could see however that the staff were in the process of refilling and so, waited at a nearby table.  By the time more were delivered there was a queue waiting with 11 people ahead of us.  Thankfully the boys had had theirs and we managed to get two each this time.  Lovely crepe style pancakes, not the stodgier fatter ones.  Maple syrup, cream and jam did the trick!

We had not bought a ticket for Copenhagen as there is a train every hour - even on a Sunday - from Göteborg.  A short walk to the station and Donna goes from the Tourist Office, to the booking Office to the local Pressbyrån convenience store where she was told it was cheapest place to buy them.  Cost us the princely sum of $83.10 for each ticket - for a journey of 3 hours 38 minutes.

It is interesting to journey by train because it allows you to do a few things.  You can watch the scenery and compare how it changes over distances.  You can people watch - and in this instance, also dog watch.  Yep, we were accompanied by six dogs at various points along the journey an in this one carriage alone in this train of 13 carriages!  Once seated with their owners, they were all well behaved, but the gauntlet was thrown down by two as others passed them.  Takes a bit of getting used to.

The land between Göteborg and Copenhagen is flat.  Much of it is under crops, and there are plenty of wind turbines being farmed as well.  We see corn and strawberries, wheat and hay, just-ploughed fields, and others lying fallow.
There is the North Sea coastline, locks and canals and channels.
And dotted right along the coastline there are lots of caravan and camping areas, small hamlets that appear to be holiday homes, parklands and well serviced beach areas - everything that you would expect coastal areas to have.


We cross a bridge that is 8 kms long that crosses the Øresund Strait that is the border between Sweden and Denmark. It's hard to get photos between the pillars, but we manage a few.  And as we near Denmark there is a sight that I've only seen once before in northern Scotland - a sea-bound wind farm.  


Obviously in this area of the Strait, the coastline is well protected - otherwise you would have to question the investment in significant rail infrastructure that hugs the coast - and I mean hugs it.  There are times when there is nothing between the train line and the water other than about a 20 metre strip of sandy grasses.

We needed to be on our wits as this train does not terminate at Copenhagen.  Needn't have worried as there were lots of people getting out here.

The Station is a beautiful piece of engineering with exposed iron beams supporting a predominantly glass domed roof.

It sits across the road from the Tivoli Gardens and our taxi driver insists that even if you do not want to partake of the amusement rides, that it is worth a visit for the gardens.  We'll see.

Our hotel (hostel) is a little way from the railway station - too far to walk with the luggage in tow on cobblestones, but it is very central to much of what we want to see.  Copenhagen is one of those cities where you could spend a year and still not see all that is on offer.  The driver gives us tips on where to eat and see and take tours.  It sure helps to chat to the locals.

And finally, we have access to a full laundry.
We were starting to get sick of recycling our clothes after airing, and of washing smalls in

bathroom sinks. Donna makes four trips to make sure that everything in our suitcases is washed and dried - what a trooper!

So tonight we rest because tomorrow we hit the ground walking again.  It has done my poor feet a world of good having a quieter day today without too much cobblestone pounding.

Ciao.  See you all soon!

Its a long way to Rovaniemi

Last night Runo offered to be our chauffeur today for the drive to Rovaniemi.  

Is just a little drive for those of us from Australia - a mere 543.2km!  This way, we get to relax a little during the drive and Donna gets a break from being main photographer and Runo can give us snippets of his knowledge and wisdom en-route.  It is a lovely gesture and greatly appreciated.  

We meet him at their home just before 9 am and drive almost half the length of Finland, stopping for a quick lunch and fuel at a roadstop before arriving at the air-base at Rovaniemi about 4:45 pm - just in time for Runo to get his military flight back to a base near Jyväskylä at 5:30 pm.  He will then get a bus ride home that will take him about an hour!

The drive is on really good roads and we are constantly being teased by the promise of moose sightings - these signs are placed about every 500 m along the road.  Bit of false advertising really, we saw none.  Not one! 

As we travel further north, the crops change as do the forests.  The same crops are harvested, but the yield is smaller, the crops do not grow as high.  The forests also thin with the trees not having the girth or the height of those growing further south.

Runo explains that the only way that these farmers are able to continue farming is with the government subsidies provided to ensure that farming land is still worked.  When you see the size of some of these smallholdings, it is easy to see that none of them can be financially viable.  After a long, dry summer last year where many crops failed, this year has been more productive and the wrapped hay is testament to this.  

This part of Finland has a large timber growing and processing industry with much of it going to paper production and China. We pass quite a number of timber trucks, seeing that the timber logs are significantly smaller than what we are used to seeing at home.  In fact, the way the logs are loaded on the trucks reminds us of the layout of the timber frames you find in Ikea and similar Scandinavian house stores back home!

Finland is the land of the lakes and from time to time, we come lakeside with many of them.  Lots have boats resting on the shoreline, exhausted after a summer of fun-giving.  We also see lots of signs to camping spots along their shores.  Runo's parents have a cabin in Eastern Finland that the family uses from time to time.  Lucky them, although I am told that the mosquitoes can be horrendous!

At last we arrive and drop Runo off at one of the back gates at the airbase, complete with requisite mounted plane, before contacting our hosts for the night and collecting the key to their inner city apartment.  Kikki is very welcoming and friendly and has provided a good selection of tourist information in their modern and tastefully decorated apartment.

We head in to town for a bite to eat only to find that the University here is also having the O week celebrations this week.  I watched two groups for a couple of minutes - one group would sing/chant and then the other group would reply in like.  Boisterous yes, but all good clean fun from what I observed. 

As the crow flies, we are only 50 kms from the Swedish border, but we don't do things the easy way - first we are driving back to Riikka and Runo's and then on to Helsinki for the weekend.

We are off to Santa Claus Village back across the Arctic Circle tomorrow.

But before we go to bed, we are going to have a look skyward - the Northern Lights were seen here two days ago - wouldn't THAT be a bonus!