row of buses at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium |
plane from Seattle to Oslo |
We had designed this European Swing in three parts leading
to my daughter April’s wedding at Scotland’s Guthrie Castle on July 2. The
first two weeks was through a combination of airplanes (except for Finland to
Russia which was by ferry) to transfer from one country to another and the use
of public transportation in the cities of Oslo, Helsinki, and Stockholm (at St.
Petersburg we were with a bus excursion from the ferry). We chose this mode because the price of car
rentals and fuel are sky high (as with everything else in Scandinavia).
The second part was a cruise on the MV Explorer’s second
segment of its Iron and Ice Enrichment Voyage through Denmark, Scotland, Iceland,
Ireland, and England and embarked in Stockholm, Sweden, England. We did walking tours in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lerwich,
Scotland, Isofjordur, Iceland and Belfast, Northern Ireland and took .bus excursions for
Rekjavik and Akureyri, Iceland.
MV Explorer |
train at Brighton train station |
Part 3 was divided into 3 sections, one with just the two of
us, another with my eldest Trisha and her daughters Krishna and Yeye, and the
third with BFFs Jingjing and Ann. On the first section, we traveled by trains
from Southampton to Brighton, then Brighton to Canterbury, and, finally,
Canterbury to Gatwick where we were to pick up my girls. We simply walked the towns.
On the second section, we rented a Renault Captur, big enough
for all 5 of us and our 5 bags. In two days we covered Stonehenge, Salisbury, and
Bath from the Farmers’ Hotel base in Warminster. Then for two days we toured the
famous towns of the Cotswolds and southwestern Wales from our base at the Central Hotel in
Cheltenham and, on the last day, Heathrow Lodge from where we toured Windsor Castle. On the third section, we are using trains, buses, cars, cabs, and the tube, whatever is appropriate and
available through London, Liverpool, and Edinburgh.
the Renault Captur we rented |
Here is what we learned. Cruise ships can be the least
expensive, especially if you get a highly discounted one like we did, you join
the expensive organized excursions only when necessary and explore on your own if
possible. If you take advantage of the many excursions offered, the cost can
climb dramatically and there is not even enough
time to do all of them! The biggest
drawback, however, is that you also get the least sense of a place and the
people; how can you with a just 8 hours?
However, you can get the best variety and quantity of food in
a cruise ship! We had duck l’orange, roast lamb shank, prime rib au jus, cog au
vin, turkey saltimbocca, pork medallions, veal shank osso bucco, lobster
thermidor, tenderloin pepper steak, etc. for entrees. Snacks were equally
varied: dim sum, Cuban sandwiches, pancit bijon, burgers, pizzas, all kinds of
pastas and the sweetest of papayas, grapes, oranges, apples, pears, and other
fresh fruits and all the ice cream in the world! What is more, there is a ready community and
people with like interests to travel with! Finally, there was no need to carry
luggage around, no need to pack or unpack! You stay in one place!
Planes, trains, and buses may be less convenient, especially
the hassle of hauling luggage through different means of transfers, even cabs,
especially on windy, damp, and cold days. In addition, at the endless security
lines in major airports, you risk the confiscation of your allergy gel or
shaving cream for being in the wrong size container by .01 ounces (although
country to country travel in Europe is not much of a hassle anymore with the
growing popularity of regional planes)!
cab to the train station |
Besides, they even give you the means to conveniently get
from one place to another as you drive to and from your temporary home and the
places you want to visit (as long as parking fees aren’t exorbitant). However,
since driving in the UK is on the wrong side of the road, the back roads are
very narrow for 2-lane driving, and the speed limits on such roads are higher
than those in the US, sometimes it became quite a scary proposition!
So we concluded that, like in North America, a car rental road
trip gives you the best sense of place and people and can be the most
convenient way to travel, as long as the roads and speed limits are as you are used to. And if car rental rates are not reasonable, then trains, buses,
and planes are the next best, depending on overall cost. Cruise ships we will
reserve only for exceptional conditions.
The only question we now have is: when will we travel next and,
more importantly, where to? As we say in Tagalog, ‘Abangan!’
Wow, you were at the Olympic stadium! Did you get to walk the track at all? Sounds like a pretty whirlwind tour but got to go to some very nice places. With all the food available on the ship, I would have gained about 20 pounds in two weeks, hope you had better luck.
ReplyDeleteI definitely gained pounds I am now trying to lose so I can fit into the gown I brought for the wedding. But what did you think about the different modes of transportation?
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