It took more than a year to finally blog completely our epic Europe trip at the end of 2014. Life just has a way of keeping you busy.

It was a trip that took more than half a month, visiting countless cities and towns, speeding without a speed limit along the Autobahn, experienced countless Christmas markets, took trains through 3 countries, stayed in a wooden cabin log during Christmas eve, saw 2 nights of Northern Lights, experienced enough snow to last a lifetime, thrown off the dog sled by the dogs a few times, survived a night in freezing temperature in an Ice Hotel, ate many delicious meals, and many other experiences. The word that I think is most appropriate for describing this trip is, ‘epic’.

These memories will stay with us forever, and may our wanderlust leads us to new adventures and experiences.

“Not all those who wander are lost”

I had to break the trip into multiple posts as there were just too many photos and words to put everything into one. Here is a consolidation of all the posts :

Germany 13122014 – 21122014

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/02/24/europe-2014frankfurt-germany-13122014-15122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/06/23/europe-2014-romantic-road-germany-15122014-16122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/06/26/europe-2014-romantic-road-germany-17122014-18122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/10/27/europe-2014-munich-germany-18122014-20122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/11/30/europe-2014-nuremberg-germany-20122014-21122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/11/30/europe-2014-germanydenmarksweden-21122014-22122014/

Sweden 22122014 – 30122014

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/12/01/europe-2014-stockholm-sweden-22122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/12/01/europe-2014-kiruna-sweden-23122014-24122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2015/12/02/europe-2014-kiruna-sweden-24122014-25122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2016/01/12/europe-2014-ice-hotel-sweden-26122014-27122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2016/01/27/europe-2014-stockholm-sweden-28122014-30122014/

Denmark 30122014 – 01012015

https://wenjie.xyz/2016/02/03/europe-2014-copenhagen-denmark-30122014/

https://wenjie.xyz/2016/02/03/europe-2014-copenhagen-denmark-31122014-01012015/

Germany 01012015 – 03012015

https://wenjie.xyz/2016/02/06/europe-2014-frankfurt-germany-01012015-03012015/

We left Copenhagen and took the train to Frankfurt, with a stopover at Hamburg. This time when the train got onto the ferry, it was daylight, and we could see outside the ferry.

We arrived at Hamburg station feeling sore and tired after close to 5 1/2 hours journey. There was a German broadcast at the station and we realised those waiting at the platform for the train to Frankfurt started leaving. We suspected something was wrong, so we dragged our luggage all the way to the train station. We were informed that the train had some technical fault and we need to switch to another train. So we got our train tickets changed and proceeded to the next platform. After waiting a while, there was another German broadcast, and again, people started leaving the platform. We dragged our luggage again to the train station and was informed that the train was also cancelled due to technical fault. Imagine that. 2 trains all cancelled due to technical fault. We had to take the next available train, again getting our tickets changed. This train finally arrived. We reached Frankfurt tired and sore.

We checked into the same hotel that we stayed when we first arrived in Frankfurt, the Hotel ibis Frankfurt Centrum. For the next few days, we shopped (Rimowa luggage bags), and ate. As it was New Year, a lot of the shops in Frankfurt were closed.

On the 3rd January 2015, we took a morning flight back to Singapore, thus ending our epic Europe adventure.

The next morning we made our way to the first ferry stop along Nyhavn to purchase our ferry tickets. It was a cold winter morning, and because it was New Year’s eve, a lot of places were closed. The canal ferry tour was fantastic, as it provides a guided tour of the canals, and even allowed you to disembark at various points, do some sightseeing, and board the subsequent ferries.

We disembarked at the Langelinie Pier to meet up with this little lady.

Frankly, the Little Mermaid was in the middle of nowhere. Beside the pier was some army barracks. We explored a bit and decided to head back to the pier to board the next ferry back to Nyhavn.

We then had some of the best kebab we had eaten for lunch, and at a relatively cheap price too.

We then visited the Rundetarn, or the Round Tower, which offered expansive views over Copenhagen at the top.

We then walked to Rosenborg Castle, which was closed on New Year’s eve.

We made our way to Christiansborg Palace, which was also closed on New Year’s eve.

The sun was setting, so we made our way to Tivoli for the New Year’s eve fireworks.

Tivoli is so beautiful with all the lights. It was a wonderful place, with much fun and laughter.

And then there was the fantastic fireworks display.

After the fireworks display, we walked more within Tivoli. It is really huge.

We left Tivoli to head back to the hotel. That is when we realised people were releasing fireworks around us. It seems that while there is a ban on fireworks in Copenhagen throughout the year, the only time fireworks is allowed is on New Year’s eve. From our hotel room window, we could see people unloading a whole year supply of fireworks. This went on for more than 6 hours, through to the new year 2015 early morning.

It was a fantastic way to celebrate the New Year for us. We stayed up till the early hours of 2015 watching the fireworks.

We took a very comfortable train from Stockholm to Copenhagen early in the morning. Breakfast was even provided on the train.

After arriving at the Copenhagen train station, we walked about 10 minutes to check in to our accommodation Wakeup Copenhagen on Carsten Niebuhrs Gade. The hotel is located in a quiet area but still walking distance to the train station and Tivoli. We were offered a chance to upgrade our room upon checking in which we accepted. It turned out to be a good decision as our upgraded room was on higher floor, thus offering us very nice views. The room was small but then we did not expect much as the price was relatively cheap.

After unpacking and resting a while, we went out to explore Copenhagen.

We walked to the main Lego store in Stroget, the popular shopping area. We also did a fair bit of shopping here. The shopping here is really lovely.

We walked to Nyhavn, where the colorful facades along the canal is a popular picture on a lot of Copenhagen postcards.  It was well lighted up at night.

We then went back to the hotel for an early sleep.

It was a long train journey back from Kiruna to Stockholm where we had to share the cabin with another 4 strangers. We were very tired and the lady who insisted waking us up rudely because we were soundly (snoring) asleep did not help. We finally reached Stockholm on 28th Dec 2014 morning and was very happy to learn from our hotel that we can do an early check in.

We stayed at the Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel. It is a very nice, cosy and conveniently located hotel in Stockholm. After washing up, it was time to explore Stockholm.

The last time we were here a few days back en route to Kiruna, it was really cold and foggy. The weather has improved, and with the sun in the sky, we realised Stockholm is actually a very beautiful city. We fell in love with Stockholm.

After much walking and a bit of shopping, we decided to retire for the day as we were really exhausted. The next day, we visited the OM SkyView which we saw a very nice view of the city from the top.

We then went to the Fotografiska Museum, which was located along the waterway.

After that, it was more walking.

We ended our last night in Stockholm by doing a night cruise along the waterways.

The next morning, we bid a reluctant farewell to Stockholm, and caught an early morning train to Copenhagen.

On Boxing Day, we had a very nice hotel breakfast. There were just so many different kinds of bread available!

After breakfast, we went outside the hotel and realised it was snowing! Everything was covered in white. It looks like a winter wonderland.

We checked out of the hotel and were supposed to take a public bus to the Jukkasjärvi Ice Hotel next. We found out from the hotel that there is no public bus on Boxing Day. As such, we had to book a taxi to make our way there.

The first check in was at the front gate where we were informed that since we had booked a cold room, we are to go further in and check in at the second front desk for the cold room. This is where we had a very bad service, which we suspect was due to our race. The family in front of us were Europeans, and the second front desk lady was very helpful and cheerful. When it came to our turn, she did not offer any information, did not inform us how to proceed and so on. We had to keep asking her with questions, which she answered reluctantly. We managed to book our dinner at a very nice expensive restaurant just across the road. We then stored our luggage in these huge lockers and went for our guided tour where we were briefed on how to sleep in the ice hotel, on a bed made of ice.

We then explored the small village where the Ice Hotel was located.

It was quite a small village. We then went to the restaurant across the Ice Hotel for our dinner. It was fantastic, service was top notch, and the food was really delicious!

There was a dish with the food on top of a small ice block!

After dinner, as we walked back to the Ice Hotel, we saw our second night of the Northern Lights. We were very lucky!

We then showered and cleaned up in these toilets near the second check in area, wrapping ourselves up before dashing out of the warm area into the cold rooms. This was our room for the night.

The ice bed was covered with reindeer skins (which smell funny), and a warm sleeping bed was provided for each of us. Truthfully, it was not very comfortable, but it was something that just had to be experience. The next morning, we had breakfast in the same restaurant where we had dinner the night before. It was the typical type of hotel breakfast.

We then had a bit of time before checking out, so we wandered around the area.

After checking out, we found out again that there is still no public bus, so we shared a taxi back to Kiruna’s bus stop with a China couple who were working in Cologne, Germany. Upon reaching the bus stop, we took the free bus to the train station, only to find out that the train has been delayed for a few hours due to frozen track. It was a long, cold wait.

The train finally arrived, and we took the overnight train back to Stockholm, Sweden.

We woke up on Christmas Eve, had a nice breakfast in the hotel and then checked out.

We had booked a dogsledding overnight tour from White Trail Adventures. We waited for the people to pick us up from the hotel. We were then driven to the Mushers Lodge where we put on the winter gear, which included thick overalls, thick socks, boots etc. After putting it on, we could hardly walk!

After a brief introduction to the dogs, how to put on harness on the dogs, how to control the dogsled, we were off to the wooden cabin in the woods to spend the night.

While the dogs look very adorable in the pictures, in actual fact, they were almost impossible to control in real life. All they want is do is just to run, and they do not care if you are controlling them or not. Their secondary purpose is to throw you off the dogsled, and once you are thrown off, the dogs will keep running. They will then have to get someone on the snowmobile to chase after the dogs. We were thrown off once, lost our dogs, on the way to the wooden cabin.

However, we finally caught our first sighting of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) so I guessed it was worth it.

We finally reached the wooden cabin. It does not have any electricity nor running water. It was one of the coldest nights in recent times, reaching a low of –30 degrees, and the only warmth in the cabin came from a fireplace. It was almost as cold inside the cabin as outside.

As the guides were preparing our special Christmas dinner in the cabin, we went out to continue taking pictures of the Northern Lights. What an amazing sight it is! The lights seem to move like waves, with some invisible wind blowing gently. Each time we looked at it, it is different. It was really an unforgettable experience.

It was really cold, so we could not last too long outdoors before having to go indoors to warm ourselves. Soon, the Christmas dinner was ready. It was really delicious, and we ate it while having friendly chats with the visitors from other groups.

And they served ice cream for dessert. Imagine that!

We were soon asleep, after a tiring day. The next morning after a short breakfast, we took some photos of the wooden cabin area before setting off again.

Then we were off. As it was not cold as last night (“Good news! We are 10 degrees warmer!” “It is –20 degrees. It is still cold.”), the guide took us on a much longer route, through beautiful white forest, across frozen lake. As usual, we were again thrown off by the dogs. After more than an hour, where even my nose hair was frozen, we arrived back at the Mushers Lodge. After removing the harness and dragging the dogs back to their kennel, we paid the remaining amount, return the winter gear, and was driven back to Scandic Ferrum to check in for a night.

After a nice warm bath, we took a long nap to recover our battered and bruised body. While we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, we agreed that dogsledding was something that we just have to do it once, and never do again.

We did wake up long enough to walk across to the only eatery place open on Christmas Day, a pizza place, and did a pizza takeaway. It was one of the most delicious pizza we had eaten. Perhaps the weather has something to do with it.

It started snowing heavily before we went to bed.

It was really one of the most memorable Christmas we had ever.

We only managed to secure a shared cabin (6 beds) for the train to Kiruna. It felt funny to sleep in a cramped cabin with 4 other strangers. Also, there was a problem with finding space to store our luggage. In the end, we stored our luggage outside the cabin.

All the uncomfortable feeling was gone when we woke up to this.

Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden, in the province of Lapland. It is located 145 km north of the Arctic circle. We came here because we wanted to catch the Northern Lights.

We chose the hotel Scandic Ferrum, which is really a very good hotel. The rooms are big and clean, the bed is comfortable, the breakfast buffet each morning was tasty and of great variety. After checking in, it was time to explore the small town of Kiruna and get dinner.

We came from the tropics where it is summer all year round, and while this is not the first time we have seen snow, we are still very amazed at it.

We found a Swedish fast food restaurant called Sibylla that served really good burgers, reindeer meat and fries. We had our lunch there.

The above is reindeer meat, and it is really tasty.

After taking a short nap, we went to Landstroms Kok & Bar for a nice dinner.

Then we went back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

We spent the 22nd Dec 2014 in Stockholm because we only managed to get the night train to Kiruna from Stockholm. So we decided to spend the day sightseeing in Stockholm.

We stored our luggage in the lockers within the Stockholm train station. The lockers required a lot of coins, and we had a small adventure, involving multiple trips, trying to get the coins by buying coffee from a cafe in the train station. The lockers were clean, easy to use, and the big ones could take a really big sized luggage.

We walked to Gamla stan, or The Old Town, from the station. It was quite a far walk, but we did not mind. There were light snow on the ground, and some parts of the road were frozen over.

Gamla stan, while touristy, was a charming place. As we were early, the tourists had yet to arrive, and most of the shops were closed. We managed to explore the place without seeing anyone.

We came upon a nice small cafe that was opened, so we went in to have our breakfast and coffee. It was quite a nice, warm and cosy cafe.

After warming ourselves up, it was time to take a nice stroll through Stockholm to the Vasa Museum.

Stockholm is so beautiful! The buildings, while old, have so much character and charm. We agreed that Stockholm is our favourite city for this trip. It was a very cold day in Stockholm so we were glad when we reached our destination. Vasa Museum is a whole museum dedicated to the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has been salvaged. We went without any expectations, but it turned out to be a very good museum, very well executed and very well managed. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

We then had lunch in the cafe located inside the museum. Truthfully, we were tired and sleepy, and the lunch provided us an excuse to sit down and rest. This was the first time we ate Swedish cuisine, and we loved it.

We then left the museum and made our way slowly back to the train station. We also did some window shopping along the way.

We retrieved our luggage from the locker before boarding the train to Kiruna at 1755 hours.

After returning the car at Frankfurt, we would spend the rest of the day travelling from Frankfurt, Germany to Copenhagen, Denmark and finally ending at Stockholm, Sweden via train.

Taking a train through these countries was not too difficult, but it requires proper planning beforehand. We took a few days to track down exactly which trains to take, from where, timing, platform from the website Eurail. Taking advantage of their train passes, we proceed to make a booking from their website, paying a small processing fee. We also had them booking our seats, so that we had confirmed seats. Reserving seats do incur additional fee, but we felt it was worth it. The site will then get someone to come back to us on the availability of the trains we wanted, and alternatives. Once confirmed and paid for, the train passes were then mailed from a Singapore address to our home within a few days.

We would recommend using this website if there is a need to take multiple trains, like us, but if it was just for a single train trip, it is better to book directly from the train website itself.

We could have taken a flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm, but we wanted to experience taking the train through these countries. It was a fantastic experience.

So we took a train from Frankfurt to Hamburg, about 3 1/2 hours.

We waited for an hour in the Hamburg train station. Luckily, it is a huge train station so there is plenty of places to eat, and we took the time to have a quick lunch. We took another train from Hamburg to Copenhagen (or Koebenhavn) in Denmark.

The train to Copenhagen was interesting because we had to cross the Baltic Sea. This was done by getting the train to move into the ferry. We had some problems understanding this at first, and we almost alighted at the station just before the crossing, thinking we may have to go through border controls. Luckily we did not. The train entered the ferry at the bottom deck, and all passengers had to leave the train to get onto the upper deck of the ferry.

The photo above shows how nicely the train fits into the ferry. The upper decks of the ferry included duty-free shopping, cafe, and there were a lot of seats. We also had a very expensive bottle of Coke here.

It was possible to go outside and look at the Baltic Sea, however it was at night, and thus too dark to see anything. Also, it was really windy and cold outside. After almost an hour, they announced that we are reaching Denmark, and we are to make our way back to the train. Before long, the train departed the ferry and we were on our way to Copenhagen. It was really an amazing experience!

We then arrive at Copenhagen station quite late at night. The train station was quite empty. We were supposed to hop onto the next train to Hässleholm, Sweden. However looking at the train board there, there was no such train. The train was supposed to depart Copenhagen at 2152 hours, and there were a few trains scheduled during that time according to the board. In the end, we had to look at the train number (in this case, 1106) to find the correct platform. Once the train arrived, we looked for the train conductor on the platform to confirm. It seems that the destination listed on the board at the platform showed the final destination of the train, while we were to alight at one of the stops before the final destination. No wonder we could not find the train going to Hässleholm. To be honest, we were quite worried that we would miss our connecting train.

After around 1 1/2 hours, we reached Hässleholm. We waited about 1/2 an hour before taking the overnight train to Stockholm. We had secured a private cabin, where there are two beds, one on top of another, and comes with its own washroom. This allowed us to sleep all the way to Stockholm. The cabin was small, and we had some problems finding space to store our luggage. However, the bed was comfortable, and the cabin was very cosy. After spending the whole day travelling on the train, we fell asleep pretty quickly. We did wake up just before arriving at Stockholm to catch our first sighting of snow on this trip.

 

Before reaching Stockholm, we washed up, and took a light breakfast at the restaurant car.

We then arrived in Stockholm on the 22nd December 0616 hours.