scandinavia 2024

 Day 12, 8/2/24 - going home We look at the trip home with some combination of relief and dread. Going home is a little easier because we don't mind checking a bag instead of hauling it around. If it gets lost, of course we want our stuff, but it's not disastrous the way it would be if it got lost on the way out. Here's spiral staircase of our last hotel. Breakfast was in a dark room that had a Asian motif. This was one of three tables of food. It opened at 7:00 and the ride that VBT arranged for us picked us up at 7:20 so we didn't have a lot of time to overeat. The guy who picked us up arrived in a Tesla. There were a lot of electric taxis both in Copenhagen and in Stockholm. Here's the obligatory picture of the duty-free shopping mall that you have to walk through to get to your gate. Orthopedic shoes. The flight west is arguably easier than going east, but we still try to sleep on the plane. One of the things that makes VBT a good value is that airfare is includ...

 Day 11/Day 7 of VBT trip Today is a travel day and the last day of the VBT trip. We have breakfast and then get on a bus for the trip to Stockholm. Before every trip, I use Duolingo to try to learn a few phrases. That is always helpful. This time, I did not, and the names of the towns are a good example of why. Even our guides told us that Swedish is difficult to learn for native kids. Nonetheless, on our first briefing, they taught a few things that were easy and came in handy. Hello is "hey hey". It's pronounced the way it looks, so it sounds like a double use of an informal greeting. I used it a lot and it didn't seem to mark me as a tourist. (I am sure there were other things the did that anyway.) During one of our rides, we passed a family and I waved at a young girl and she said "hey hey" as we rode by. Very cute. The second term was thanks and it is "tack tack" (pronounced "tak tak"). That usually got a "you're welcome...