To tell the story of the entire trip would take hours and hours and pages and pages. Instead, I'll just comment briefly on the more successful pictures I took. Obviously, these are a small sample of the nearly 400 pictures I snapped over the course of the entire 19 day tour. It's a rare day when weather conditions and subject material work together to produce a really good pictures. These pictures in no way represent the entire trip. They are just the more presentable pictures! All pictures were taken with my Olympus XA pocket 35mm camera using Kodachrome 64 film. Enjoy...
We began our tour in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's a charming city with many canals
, famous
breweries
, amazing church spires
, and art
anyone would recognize
. The first cathedral concert of the tour was in the city of Växjö. The unusual twin spires
were visible from all over town. The falling rain left dark streaks
on the front of the cathedral. I enjoyed playing the organ
. In the park next door, I found a statue of my good buddy Carl Linnaeus
. The rocks in an old churchyard wall
sported a variety of mosses and lichens, growing since the wall was erected in 1731. We attended Midsommer
festivities
on the grounds
of the medieval Kronoberg castle on the shores
of Lake Helgasjön. Here's our bus
, all decorated for the occasion! There were people in native costume
and much dancing
. Earlier that day we toured the lake aboard Thor
, a coal fired steamboat. Later, we took a delightful cruise aboard the Kung Sverker
down a portion of the Göta Canal
from Lake Boren
to Lake Vättern through several locks
. We stopped briefly in Gamla Linkoping
. Stockholm is fascinating with its narrow streets
and distinctive skyline
. The warship Vasa
, sunk in 1628, has been restored to all of its baroque splendor
. Despite my best efforts, I was not awarded a nobel prize when I visited city hall
. While in Stockholm, we discovered the people of Sweden use very powerful toothpaste
. The cathedral
in Uppsala
was most impressive. The view
from the old castle on the hill was nice. I don't think the King cared much for the church
. The old church in Rättvik
did its best to compete with the clouds
. When we went to Moro (he he he!) we were greeted by another
towering spire. The ancient wooden stave churches
of Norway are architectural wonders. This door
was carved by the hand of some Viking over a thousand years ago. We saw several quiet
, isolated communities
along the Sognafjord. As we crossed the Norwegian highlands
I'm sure I saw a troll behind that rock. No trip to Oslo would be complete without a visit to the harbor
, National Gallery
or the world renowned Vigeland
Sculpture
Park
. On the way home we observed remarkable examples of polar glaciation
over northern Greenland
.
Now, are you ready for another trip? Grab your camera and let's go to the Baltics! We'll start in Helsinki, travel to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.