Copenhagen - Norway - Stockholm (15 nights)

On day seven - we had brunch at Kafe Kopenhag (tasty) and puttered around a bit before going to the airport for our flight to Bergen. On arrival there we took a cab to Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz which had a much larger room than the Hotel Danmark, but felt more commercial. Many guests were there for a pre-cruise stay. We did a bit of walking around town - very scenic, but also touristy - particularly near Bryggen. Our dinner that night was at Bryggeloftet Restaurant. It's very good, but get a reservation. We had the opportunity to try both whale and reindeer while we were there and we did so. Both were good, but not great (I had the whale smoked at Bryggeloftet and would have it again the next night, grilled - if you told me the grilled whale was beef, I might have believed you).

The next morning (day eight) we took the funicular up to the viewpoint above the city. This was one of the highlights of our trip. There were great views, a "troll garden", goats, and a short hike to a peaceful lake. If you plan to do this, GO EARLY. We were on the almost-empty second train up the hill. When we got back down, the line to board was down the street and around the block. The guided tour from the Bergen Museum of the museum, Bryggen, etc. was also fabulous. On the tour, they take to you to some underground ruins that can only be accessed on the tour. Dinner was very good at Pingvinen ("Penguin").

On day nine we took an Uber to pick up our rental car at the Hertz self-service in town. It was a bit of a hassle and we probably should have paid just a bit more to get our car at the airport. This was our "Norway in a Nutshell Tour" by car. Highly recommended. I bought the tickets in advance and everything worked out. We drove to Flam, stopping at Tvindefossen waterfall and the Stalheim Hotel. Before we reached Flam, we went through a tunnel 11km long. There are a lot of tunnels in Norway - some even have roundabouts in the middle connecting intersecting tunnels! We dropped our bags at the Heimly Guest House (run by the tour company but very good!) and took the bus back along the same route (and through that tunnel again) to Gudvangen to get our fjord boat trip. The weather was beautiful and the views were stunning. Shortly after our boat arrived at Flam, we boarded the Flam railway for the scenic railway tour. We were doing the round-trip and on the return trip, the train was almost empty - much better. Both directions, the train stopped at Kjosfossen waterfall where a Huldra (Norwegian forest spirit) danced in a red dress to Norwegian folk music - sounds weird, but was really fun. That night I woke up at 3am thinking (from the light above the mountains) that it was dawn. I went outside to snap a few photos of the fjord at night - magical! Dinner at the hotel was good.

The next day (day nine) we drove on to Dalen in the Telemark Canal area. Not covered at all in the Rick Steves material - this was a fun spot, off-the-beaten with an old luxury hotel by the side of a lake. It felt like transporting ourselves back to the 1920's. Along the way we stopped at Roldal Stave Church - one of 28 remaining stave churches in Norway. It was much smaller than I expected, but very interesting. Dinner at the hotel was very formal and expensive, but it was good .

On day ten, we visited the Soria Moria Sauna in the morning (pre-reservations - the hotel has some slots available each afternoon, but we had this to ourselves). Jumping in the icy lake and then into the sauna was a great experience. It is near the hotel and right on the lake. After a late breakfast/brunch at the hotel, we visited the stave church (smallest remaining) and museum at Eidsborg - well worth the visit. The guided tour of the church gave a lot context.

The next day we drove to the Oslo airport with a stop at the Heddal Stave Church (largest remaining) and flew to Stockholm after a mediocre dinner at the airport.

(Stockholm in next post)

I'll update this later.

Bookmarking this for future planning--love the write up!

I spent a few days in Copenhagen in 2019 pre Baltic Cruise. Had travelled very little before then and made a lot of mistakes visiting Copenhagen. Would like to do it over another time.

I found the cost of food shockingly expensive and chose to eat at three or four buffets. One buffet was mediocre but the others were ok especially a Turkish buffet.

However it was not obvious that you had to buy a drink in order to eat the buffet at a reasonable price. You could order just water but would have to pay a "drink" price for water.

The restaurants that offer buffets put a board outside the restaurant announcing the buffet and often it says nothing about a requirement to order a drink or this information is in such small print that you do not notice it.

I bought the Copenhagen card but it was not worth it for me. I did not use it enough. And I had problems understanding public transportation which I had read and heard was very easy,

Really enjoyed Tivoli Gardens and New Carlsburg Museum.

I have learned from my visit and feel that if I could get back to Copenhagen, it would be an easier experience.

Looking forward to future reports.

Loving this TR so far! How'd you pick Host as your Michelin dinner spot? And how far in advance did you book reservations?

definitely get the Copenhagen Card. It also covers transit all over
Zealand.

No it doesn't. It covers transit in the capital region (Region Hovedstaden).

I WISH we had had a car for that day. I really wanted to explore some
of the old sites in Lejre (Om Jaettestue, the Lejre Museum,
Kongehallerne, Mysselhoj) - the next stop down the line. Unfortunately
- the distances between them (and from the train station) were so great that we couldn't have reasonably covered them on foot.

That shouldn't have stopped you. The Museum, Kongehallerne and Mysselhøj are easy to reach by bus from either Lejre or Roskilde. Øm Jættestue is a bit further away, but nothing that a taxi wouldn't have solved.

On day nine we took an Uber to pick up our rental car at the Hertz
self-service in town. It was a bit of a hassle and we probably should
have paid just a bit more to get our car at the airport.

Trying to use Uber can often be a bit of a hassle. My recommendation would have been to take the train to Voss and rent the car there instead.

Report Continued:

(NB: I got off on my counting above - it was late - the second day 9 is 10, 10 is 11, and 11 is 12 - we're up to day 13 now).

On day 13, we took an early train and bus to Drottningsholm Palace. We were originally going to take the boat there and arrive the way the royals would have, but someone on the internet (can't remember if it was on RS website or elsewhere) recommended taking the train to beat the crowds. So we entered at 10am when it opened (the boat wouldn't arrive until 11am). This was quite beautiful - but even more fun were the associated sights - the Chinese Pavilion, the Theater, and the gardens. The theater, in particular, was fascinating (all the mechanics are manually operated, etc.) and the guided tour was worthwhile. We spent about four hours at Drottningholm and could have easily spent all day on the grounds. We did take the boat BACK to central Stockholm and that was a very scenic cruise. Highly recommended. We only ate a snack (fika!) for "lunch" because we had an early dinner planned at Pastis (a very French bistro) in Gamla Stan. Our afternoon and even were spent in Gamla Stan, just wandering around until dinner. After dinner we joined a "Ghost Walk" which ended up having almost no "ghosts" referenced in it. Still, it pointed out some things we hadn't seen in Gamla Stan and was fun for not a lot of money (we REALLY enjoyed our Ghost Walk in York a couple of years earlier - the Brits really like their ghost stories). Pastis was also very good.

On Day 14, we visited the Swedish History Museum in the morning which we enjoyed but we barely scraped the surface of it seeing only the exhibits on the Vikings and on gold. We did find the audio guide a little difficult to follow. The rest of the afternoon and evening we spent with friends who live in Stockholm - but I'll note that we did drive up to Sigtuna, which our friend (a native of Upsalla) recommended over Upsalla. Sigtuna was a cute town on the enormous lake Malaren and may be the oldest still extant town in Sweden. The were ruins of churches and several rune stones scattered throughout.

Day 15 - our last full day - was spent on the island of Djurgarden, starting at the amazing Vasa museum. It's incredible to see this huge 17th century ship up close and personal. For those who don't know about it - the ship sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage and was recovered and restored 400+ years later. Vasa was strategically chosen as a first-of-the-day visit at opening time to get ahead of visitors from the Cruise ship. We were almost by ourselves when we first entered and it was PACKED 90 minutes later. After Vasa we popped into the ABBA "museum". This was fun, but more for my wife than for me. If you're a big ABBA fan, go. If you're not, skip it. We had a so-so lunch at a restaurant in Skansen where we would spend the afternoon. Skansen - Sweden's first-of-its-kind open air museum was fabulous. We missed the English version of a live show that was running, but still got to see some folk singing, replicas of old buildings (complete with informative actors), native animals, etc. Something for everyone with great trails offering stunning vistas throughout. Dinner was at Glashuset and I recommend it. The staff were great and the food very good. It also sits right on the water. As it was my wife's birthday, I asked for a window table and they were able to oblige.

Our final day was just spent getting home. We used the Arlanda Express (fast train between central station and the airport) to get to and from the airport. It was fast, quiet, clean and cheap. Also recommended!

We got very lucky in our weather in May. It was a touch warm, but we had almost no rain - even in Bergen/Flam. Overall - great trip.

I forgot to mention on Day 6 that we went to the changing of the Guard in Copenhagen. The royals were not there and it was a pretty boring ceremony. Unless the royals are there (or you really like to see two small lines of soldiers facing each other doing almost nothing for 20-30 minutes), I'd skip it. When the royals are there, I think they have music and more.

@Hanna (from the midwest)

RE: Host - I had done some searching on great restaurants in Copenhagen and looked to see which ones were on multiple lists. Host was one. Truth be told, I sometimes find that the Michelin starred places try too hard to be creative, but Host was more restrained - at least on the stated menu. Host had a very interesting, but set menu (there was also an expanded five-course option and a three-course vegan(?) option). The three course menu had a starter of smoked scallops, a main of beef tenderloin or chicken with porcini mushroom sauce and some greens on the side, and a dessert of ice cream with green(!) strawberries covered in a cream sauce (somewhere between buttermilk and yogurt) that was infused with elderflower. My wife is not a big fan of scallops, so they subbed a starter from the vegan menu of a salad of tomatoes and horseradish.

Before each of the three courses, however, the waitress brought out additional treats. In advance of the starters, they brought a very strange dish of some kind of whipped cheese covered in roe and accompanied by whole radishes (meant to be dipped in the cheese) and miso-flavored waffles (which were actually pretty good) that could also be eaten with the cheese. Before the mains, they brought out a little teacup with bunches of fresh thyme in them, over which they poured a blue-mussel cream soup (tasted kind of like a lobster bisque if you've had that). This was good, but they also set it up with a paper straw through which it was meant to drank and the paper of the straw interfered with the dish. Finally, before dessert, they brought out a bit of deep fried hazelnut ice cream (with a stick like a lollipop in it) with some black currant jam to dip it in. Better than the actual dessert in my opinion.

The wine pairing was very good as well, but I didn't get the labels - a Riesling with starters, a Syrah with the mains and something sweet and slightly bubbly from Piedmont to go with dessert.

@Hanna (again)

I booked the dinner reservations about 10 days (edited from "a month") in advance (this was for a Monday night). I have no idea if that was necessary.

@Badger

Our hassle in Bergen wasn't the Uber, it was with using the self-service kiosk by Hertz.

The Ubers (which I think are new to the countries we visited) worked great and were MUCH MUCH cheaper than taxis in Bergen and especially Stockholm. Definitely take Ubers for short hops when in Stockholm (taxi from central station to hotel = $40, Uber back to train station on last day $10). The public transit is pretty expensive (about $4.30 per person) and it wasn't very handy to our hotel in Ostermalm (we would have had to walk half the distance back to the train station with our bags and still would have had to pay almost $9 vs. a $10 Uber door to door).

We did use public transit to get to Drottningholm and to get back from our friends' house that was on the mainland south of Sodermalm, which made sense for those distances, and we found it clean and comfortable.

Thanks so much for sharing more about your dinner! Also, I'll take a shot and ask: do you have any favorite Michelin restaurants in NYC, by chance? I've just started poking around with some online research for a 25th anniversary dinner next March. (Would be looking for something delicious, memorable, not stuffy or pretentious in vibe, less than $200/person!)