h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tailing a group of girls from the train station in Copenhagen led me to the Contiki camp, and I started meeting the rest of the group over dinner. Mostly girls (about 2 to 1), half a dozen couples, lots of Aussies. The next morning we met the driver and tour manager who had got in late the previous night. Got on the coach and went for a drive around Copenhagen, past the Amalienborg palace and the little mermaid statue before heading off to the Carlsberg brewery. Free beer - mmmmm Then we headed back into town and spent an hour or so at the National Museum - it was really interesting, and I could have stayed longer but the brain was getting a bit overloaded... Wandered the city for a while but the weather was miserable, so we ended up in Macca's drinking coffee (swill, as expected), then found an American pizza place with all you can eat pizza and salad Authentic Danish cuisine... Not!

The next day we stopped briefly at Helsingborg castle, the basis of Shakespeare's Elsinore Castle from Hamlet, then got on a ferry across to Sweden and spent most of the day driving to Stockholm. Very pretty scenery - rolling hills and painted timber farmhouses. Also stopped for lunch near a genuine swedish Ikea, and drove thru the town of Huskvarna... Staying in cabins at a camping ground outside the city. The next day we headed into Stockholm, and went on a tour of the City Hall where they award the Nobel Prizes (except the peace prize) - very interesting - all the rooms decorated in different styles. Then wandered round the old town - narrow cobbled streets and gorgeous old buildings, and visited the Slottskyrk cathedral - very beautiful. Ate the Nobel Prize dinner ice cream (they have a different flavour at the dinner every year) which was delicious

Then we went out to the Vasa museum about a warship built by the Swedish king in the 1600s, which sank on it's maiden voyage after about 20 minutes (too tall, and with not enough ballast) and was amazingly well preserved in the cold Baltic water, until its retrieval in the 1950s. Really interesting

Then went for a walk around the Skansen open air museum, with a reconstructed historic village and a zoo. That evening we went to the Ice Bar (a mini version of the Ice Hotel built in winter) where everything is made of ice - walls, tables, bar, even glasses We got to wear big furry Eskimo-style ponchos (with gloves) and it was all very cool (ha - literrally and figuratively). Hopefully someone with a digi camera will email me a pic at some point that I can put in here.

The next day was a long drive to Oslo, arriving late in the afternoon, and spending a social evening round the bonfire.

After a late start we headed into Oslo and went to Frognor park, with lots of interesting sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. Also visited the Viking exhibition at the history museum, then met up with my second cousin Becky. We had ice cream, then spent the afternoon with friends of hers on a private beach, swimming in the fjord and having a barbecue - lots of fun Especially when as we satt here sunbaking happily until 8pm... I love these ridiculously long twilights, and they're only going to get later as we go north

More on that soon.