Hi all, many of you answered questions as we were preparing for this adventure, so I wanted to provide a brief synopsis of how it all went.
This was a first-time-to-Europe trip for myself, my 80 yr old mom, and my daughter. My sister had previously been to Scotland. My mom and daughter often hung back at the room while my sister and I explored on foot into the late evening hours given we had so much daylight available.
- We flew SAS non-stop from Seattle to Copenhagen June 9-10. Had a great experience with SAS. Stayed 3 nights in Copenhagen Airbnb (which was awesome and great location). Toured the Nationalmuseet, ate a delicious meal at Restaurant Karla, explored Rosenborg Castle, Christianborg Palace, University of Copenhagen, spent a rainy couple hours at Tivoli and saw part of a TLC concert we were completely not expecting. We took the train to Malmo Sweden to see St. Peter's church. And of course we took a canal tour and saw the mermaid that was on mom's must-see list.
- Then took the overnight ferry to Oslo. Highly recommend the overnight ferry!
- Stayed one night in Oslo at Thon Hotel Rozenkrantz - not surprised they were nominated for Best Breakfast in Norway 2025. So. Good. Explored Oslo, including the outdoor folk museum and Akershus Fortress. Walked through University of Oslo a bit (I'm an academic, so I love seeing universities).
- Train to Kristiansand where we stayed 2 nights at CityBox. Serviceable, I believe is the word RS uses for CityBox, and I agree. Clean and simple. Reminded me of what a dorm or hostel might be like? E.g., people (including the hotel attendant) were watching World Cup in a community room. Everyone was very nice. Rented a car to visit Mandal and the Lindenses Lighthouse, totally worth it. We lucked out with excellent weather (although very windy in Lindenses, of course). Easy driving. Gorgeous scenery, sunny, and warm.
- Bus to Bergen. Almost 8 hours. Silly? Probably. But we did see a ton of scenery. The bus went through countless tunnels plus took 2 ferries. Norwegian engineering is impressive. Took the funicular up Mount Floyen. Bergen was the rainiest part of our trip.
- Took the Norway in a Nutshell tour with an overnight stop in Aurland at the Wangen Apartments. So beautiful. Also went to the Stegastein Viewpoint. A little foggy, but again, gorgeous. -Train back to Oslo, then flew home with 2-hr layover in Copenhagen June 20, which was not enough as the passport control lines were crazy. But thankfully many people were on our flight waiting in those lines, so they held the plane for all of us.
I think the trip was overall fine, but not surprising to me, it was too much for our mom. We are still grateful to have done it, and that she did not fall, and we did not need to use the travel insurance I'd purchased. I do wish we would not have planned so much, but we had differing opinions on this among our travel group. Learned some good travel lessons - e.g., the train all the way back to Oslo was silly, I did not realize how far out of town the main airport is. Looking forward to another (and slower) European adventure someday. Hope this helps a reader!