Holidaying in Scandinavia & Eastern Europe

                               

 http://joyolney1.blogspot.com.au                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

We flew on an A380 to Singapore with 525 passengers.

 

April/May 2012 my husband & I travelled to Scandinavia & Europe.

We had booked on a river cruise and planned to take in some of Europe either side of Budapest and Prague. Because we were using Qantas Frequent Flyer points, and it was within 3 months of our travel time, we had to fly into Helsinki. (Our son kindly gave us his points).

Firstly that seemed disappointing but we soon turned it into a positive experience. We purchased a Eurail ticket and booked accomodation in and Helsinki, Turku, Stockholm, Gothenberg, Frederickshavn and Copenhagen. Our 10 days in Scandinavia were fantastic and included two ferry crossings.

 

We travelled through Scandinavia and Germany with 1st class Eurail tickets.

We took an overnight ferry from Finland to Sweden - arriving in snow.

A 3 hour ferry from Sweden to Denmark.

 
We flew from Copenhagen to Budapest via Helsinki.  After exploring Budapest for 2 days we joined a 7 day cruise on the Blue Danube with Avalon Waterways.

Boarding Avalon "Imagery" in Budapest.

Our three days in Prague were busy.

Next we travelled by train to Dresden for 2 days.

A long weekend with friends in Bayreuth, visiting Bamberg and Nuremberg and we flew out of Frankfurt for home.

I had done a Google searth on the long range weather report.  It was going to be -2C - 5C in Finland and Sweden and 0C - 8C in Denmark so I was hoping for snow if it was going to be that cold.

In Europe we were expecting 9C - 15C which could be still quite cool for outdoor activities.

We did have snow in Helsinki, Stockholm and Gothenberg.

While cruising and in Prague it ranged from 22C to a record breaking April day in Prague of 32C.

We were not prepared for the high temperatures which made it quite uncomfortable at times. I have vowed to always travel for 4 seasons regardless of what the weather man says!

I hope you will enjoy reading my further blogs about our holiday in Scandinavia and Europe.

If may wish to contact the author Joy Olney via email: joyolney@gmail.com