Travel Mishaps and How to Deal with Them

Travel mishaps are unfortunate accidents. They are pimples in the otherwise clear complexion of a fine travel day. I’m not talking about those incidents that make us scared enough to rethink how we travel. I am talking about simple occurrences that can be prevented but didn’t or couldn’t. Travelers are often in unfamiliar places so mishaps can happen to us more often. How we deal with them matters.

Buried in Snow

Early in our RVing career, we had to return to Washington from Florida for my citizenship interview with the US CIS. We weren’t supposed to be in the north in November, but we had to. We parked our RV at the Thunderbird RV and Camping Resort in Monroe, beside a river so my husband could do some fishing. But when a snowstorm arrived, we got trapped inside our RV.     

With very little propane left, our lone energy source for the heater and stove, we confined ourselves to microwaveable meals. Since management could not risk their pipes freezing, we were forced to scrimp on the little water we had left in the freshwater tank.  But we didn’t get glued to the TV and Internet. Instead, we enjoyed the new living arrangements. My husband ran errands and walked through the snow. I was a good girl scout, following instructions, for a change.

Stranded on the Interstate

flat tire on I-71

Later we had a scarier one. Driving down Interstate 71 from Cincinnati, Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky, the right front tire of the RV blew out. It had eight tires, two in front and six at the rear in two axles. It was such a loud noise, unfamiliar to my ears, and I got scared. Bill managed to steer our 20,000-pound rig off the road. He remained calm and called Good Sam.

Then he found the Rummikub game and we played a few games, letting me win so I could forget my fear. But we had to wait inside the RV on a hot afternoon, without air conditioning. Help finally arrived and the tire was replaced. The rescue truck accompanied us to Louisville because he said many of our tires needed changing. It was midnight when we arrived at their shop. We were tired but, as usual, my husband was that same old boy scout I had married!

Lost in Helsinki

Hotel Ava and Institute

And that is why, in Helsinki, I panicked when I thought I lost him.   After the failed hostel experiment in Oslo, we chose the Hotel Ava, a very affordable option because it was attached to a Hotel Management Institute that provided most of the staff. The only problem was it was twenty minutes away from the city center. A Helsinki card was our solution, It paid for museums, tours, and cruises, as well as all public transport. It was a nice feeling to go ‘home’ at the end of the day.

On our last day, we finished packing early. We waited in the lobby with our bags, ready for the 3 pm public bus to the airport. We had time so my husband left for the nearby pharmacy just around the corner. But by 2:30 pm, he had not come back. I was upset that the receptionist did not give him a map of how to get there and back. I was in full panic mode, imagining all sorts of things that could have happened to him.  At 2:55 pm, he came in, got his bags, and instructed me to follow him to the bus stop. I ran all the way, lugging my carry-on through the cobbled streets, unmindful if it got damaged. Mr. calm, cool, and collected.

More planning is needed to prevent these mishaps. And how we deal with them when they happen that matters. My husband showed me how. He says, “They are just that, mishaps, not tragedies!” The right perspective.

 

Choosing Planes, Ships, Trains, Buses or Automobiles

Our six-week European Swing was designed around my daughter’s wedding in Scotland’s Guthrie Castle. It was indeed memorable. But it was also highly educational. It gave us a great view of the differences among the different modes of transportation.

The first two weeks were in Scandinavia and Russia through a combination of airplanes and a ferry (from Finland to Russia) to transfer from one country to another. We used public transportation in Oslo, Helsinki, and Stockholm. In St. Petersburg, we were on a bus excursion from the ferry. We found that car rentals and fuel were sky-high.

The next two weeks were spent on an MV Explorer cruise through Denmark, Scotland, Iceland, Ireland, and England. We embarked in Stockholm, Sweden, did city walking tours in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lerwich, Scotland, Isofjordur, Iceland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, and took bus excursions for Rekjavik and Akureyri, Iceland.

The last two weeks were in the UK. We disembarked in Southampton, England. It was a Sunday and car rental companies were closed during the season because their entire fleet would have been rented out for the weekend to be returned only on the following Monday.  So besides car rentals, we used trains (and other modes) for road trips across the UK.

First, when it was just my husband and I, we walked the towns and used trains from Southampton to Brighton, Brighton to Canterbury, and Canterbury to Gatwick. That’s the airport where we picked up my daughter and her two daughters.

The five of us then rented a Renault Captur, big enough to carry us and five bags. In two days, we covered Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath from our hotel  in Warminster. Then we toured the Cotswolds and southwestern Wales from an Airbnb in Cheltenham for the next two days. On the last day, we visited Windsor Castle from Heathrow Lodge.

Third, after my daughter’s wedding, we joined our BFFs and partners using trains, buses, a private car, cabs, and the tube, whatever was appropriate and available, touring London, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. 

Here is what we learned. Cruise ships can be the least expensive mode, especially if you get a highly discounted one like we did through Groupon. Organized excursions, however, can dramatically raise the cost. Use them when necessary and explore by yourselves, whenever possible. The biggest drawback, however, is you get the least sense of a place and people with just 8 hours at port. But if you are a foodie, you can get the best variety and quantity of food on a cruise ship. There is also a ready like-minded community to travel with. Finally, there is no need to pack or unpack!

Planes, trains, cabs, and buses are less convenient, having to haul luggage through different means of transfers, especially on windy, damp, and cold days. But these road trips can give you the best sense of place and people because you can stay as long as you want. The longer you stay, the cheaper the lodging becomes.

Even if you must drive, a road trip by car may be even more cost-effective (car rentals become cheaper the longer the period), as long as parking fees and the cost of fuel aren’t exorbitant. But maybe not in the UK since driving is on the wrong side of the road, the back roads are very narrow, and the speed limits are higher than those in the US. It can sometimes be quite scary!

We concluded that a road trip gives you the best sense of place and people. We always prefer to travel by car but if fuel and parking costs are not reasonable or driving conditions are unfamiliar, then trains, buses, and planes are the next best. We will reserve cruise ships only as an exception. One such exception is short ferries from one country to another. But when in town, walk around and use public transportation!  

            

Top 10 Reasons for Quality of Life in Scandinavia

Nobel Museum in Stockholm

Scandinavian trolls...in Norway

Bill and I got a taste of life in Scandinavia for almost a month in May and June this year. It is comprised of Norway, Denmark and Sweden and can also include Iceland and Finland. In previous blog posts, I cited the interesting sights of each country. This post is about what I found common, shared, and loved in the region. First are the folkloric trolls, supernatural beings in Norse mythology, which we found everywhere. Second, I went gaga over the rows and tows of tulips in all colors, as well as wild lupines of Iceland that covered the geologic island masterpiece. What a fascinating place!

lovely tulips abound in Scandinavia

At a lecture of the Enrichment Voyage we attended, the professor flashed two comparative lists of country indicators, quality of life, democracy, gender gap, happiness and over all human development, leaving the headings blank. When asked where we would choose to live, majority of us (Americans) raised our hands for the country on the left, only to find out that was Norway! The other, sadly, was the US. It would have been quite revealing had a third country been included, the Philippines!

That the Euro is stronger than the US dollar should have already been a hint to us. And so number three is that, year after year, Scandinavia has continually scored the highest marks in all categories, garnering the top 4 or 5 usually. No wonder the Nobel awards are given by Oslo and Stockholm, two cities who best know how to live well. We had visited both centers.

offshore wind turbines in Copenhagen

light and heavy flushes

Fourth, the region’s success is due in part to its wealth in natural resources. Oil, forest and aquatic resources abound. Wood is used extensively and seafood is a hallmark of Scandinavian cuisine. Wind turbines are quite a sight to see off the coasts of Copenhagen, and the North Sea abounds with oil rigs.  Fifth, efficiency in energy use is a primordial principle. Commodes have two flushes, one for light, another heavy. Bicycles are as common as small (and dreamy like my Mini Cooper!!!) compact cars. And public transport systems are excellent and enviable. We always had a choice of trams, buses, trains, or subway systems to go from one place to another. Thus Scandinavia’s carbon footprint is lower than the US.

third largest restored Viking ship is in Norway

street sign in Helsinki

Sixth, Its success can also be attributed to homogeneity. The vast majority of Scandinavians are descended from Germanic tribes in what is now northern Germany, who spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse. The Vikings sprang from Norse culture and their influence is seen heavily throughout the region. In fact, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are related languages, considered mutually intelligible with one another, although Danish is considered much closer to Norwegian. Finnish is entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, yet Swedish is required as a language in Finnish schools. All street signs in Finland have their counterparts in Swedish. And everyone we met spoke English in Sweden; it is required at all school levels.

color in Helsinki International Airport

HTL check-in

Seventh, I was even more impressed that Scandinavian products are imbued with excellence in design and innovation. Arabia, not at all pertaining to the Middle East, is a design district in Helsinki, the Design Capital of the World, where elegant products are tops in both form and function. Almost everyone that is starting a home in America must have come across IKEA, a Swedish icon in home furnishings. Soon that may also be true of HTL. It is the hotel we stayed in Sweden where the nonsense is taken out of hotels. There are no closets, just cute hangers everywhere, self check-in and and other innovations. Whether it is fences and roofs of old, modern minimalist furniture, exquisite tableware, or even airports that come alive with color, I was very impressed with everything Scandinavian.

my favorite shrimp open-faced sandwich
and Bill's salmon sandwich in Oslo

hamburger place in Iceland

Eighth, for people who care that the table is graced with well-designed tableware, it is no wonder that Scandinavian cuisine, built around seafood as already mentioned above, is also excellent. The shrimp open-faced sandwich I had at a Norwegian café was unforgettably so good! So were the many versions of salmon Bill ordered. Swedish meatballs and German sausages are now mainstays of kitchens around the world.  However food there is very expensive. As a result, McDonalds outlets have long lines and many other examples of American fast food are to be found everywhere. But not as common as Middle Eastern pizzas! Yes, they are having a wave of immigration from those countries/

a beach sauna in Helsinki

the Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik

Ninth, the climate was not as cold as I thought it would be, despite being in the high latitudes and many northern places even touching the Arctic Circle. Summers go as high as low 70s Fahrenheit while winters are mild in coastal regions (20-30s) due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. In Helsinki and Stockholm beaches are dotted with small sauna cottages that are separated from the main homes. A common practice is to have a sauna, plunge into the cold water, then return to the saunas again! In Iceland, the Blue Lagoon is the prime hot medicinal bath and tourist attraction. But Open Air Museums are top attractions in each of the major cities even though they are unusable for almost half of the year.

Amalienborg in Copenhagen

Oresund Bridge

Tenth, architecture and engineering are fascinating in the region. Except for Iceland, each country has great medieval castles, just like every country in the rest of Europe. The big engineering feat is, of course, the spectacular 5-mile Oresund Bridge which we saw from the deck of MV Explorer. It connects Stockholm to an artificial island after which a 2.5–mile tunnel connects it to Copenhagen, the largest combined road and rail bridge in Europe. It also seems there is a silent competition to have the most prominent, most awe-inspiring Opera House among Scandinavian countries. 

Reykjavik Opera House

Congratulations are certainly in order to all Scandinavians for a great example of good life! But I still would not live there! The United States is friendlier to tropical me!

Our Lifestyle Adventures: Continuing our Nordic Experience in Helsinki

Helsinki has been ranked 3rd in Monacle and 8th in EIU as best livable city in the world for 2013!

on canal cruise around Helsinki Islands

Helsinki is the capital of Finland with a population of over 610,000 (SMSA of over 1,3M), making it the fourth largest among Nordic cities, after Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Oslo. She placed eighth best overall In the Economist Intelligence Unit's August 2012 Liveability Survey of the best and worst cities to live in. And we quickly found out why!

'almost flying carpet' in Arabia

Every day a vibrant Market Square sells souvenirs and Finnish food on the waterfront and a 40-foot ferris wheel is a prominent landmark on the harbor busy with large and small cruise ships. Just after the harbor, a fashion show, a folk music festival, and hosts of people milling around were happening all at the same time on Esplanade Park, Helsinki’s version of Central Park. May 24 was National Cleaning Day and everywhere you look, on grass lawns, even at tourist spots, people laid out their used items for sale in a giant national yard sale! I even found a huge yellow C and matching yellow C balloons at the Kamppi Shopping Centre in an enthusiastic campaign for awareness about hepatitis C.

Carol and white dinner plates

Bill, in peacock suit

In 2009, Helsinki was also chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.  A Design Museum in the Design District south of Esplanade Park attests to the industry’s achievements. Bill had fun donning a men’s costume inspired by peacocks at an exhibit of Takis’. The next day, we went to a town called Arabia, a residential area northeast of Helsinki where all developers are, by law, required to use 1-2 % of building investments for works of art. The Arabian Museum, an exhibit of Arabia’s ceramic products through the years, is part of the Design Museum.  Fiskar’s exhibit is a very creative expression of scissors and other everyday items.  Many other high quality brands have their factories there. Around the upscale neighborhood of residential condos many artworks like ‘The Almost Flying Carpet’ are featured. We saw why Finland got the Design Award!

beach sauna outhouses

Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550. The construction of the naval fortress which today is called Suomenlinna in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status. This was one of the spots on the Beautiful Canal Cruise we took around the islands of the Helsinki Harbor. The biggest island, Lauttasaari, is now a large residential area with summer homes of the rich. We saw many sauna outhouses built close to the water for the famous hot/cold therapy and water toys for the big boys. The tour guide said there are 2 million such sauna houses around Helsinki. Another island is Korkeasaari, site of the biggest northernmost zoo in the world. There was even a dog beach set apart for man’s best friend.

the Helsinki Cathedral

Uspenski Cathedral

But it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. Czar Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce the influence of Sweden and bring the capital closer to St. Petersburg. The Uspenski Cathedral, largest Eastern Orthodox Church in Western Europe lording over a hill across the waters, and the majestic Helsinki Cathedral that towering over the Senate Square and the Tori Quarter were all built to resemble St. Petersburg, only 190 miles away.

Karuna Chapel in Seurasaari Island

One day, we wandered farther out from the City Centre and took Tram 8, instead of the usual 7, to get to the Olympic Tower, the Sibelius Monument, and the island of Seurasaari. Helsinki was the site of the 1952 Summer Olympics (originally for the 1940 Games which was cancelled because of WWII). We were so lucky because on the day we went, the Stadion was again abuzz in a track and field competition among schools! The Sibelius Monument is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). The monument consists of a series of more than 600 hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern, capturing the essence of his music. Finally, Seurasaari is the island devoted to a celebration of old Finland’s old homes and farms relocated to the island from outlying regions, like Oslo’s Folk Museum.

Rock Church

The oldest structure there is a church built in the 1600s, the Karuna Church where a wedding was being held that afternoon. When we got to the Rock Church fashioned out of a huge rock near downtown Helsinki, another wedding was also being held that afternoon. Then we walked another 4 blocks to see the finest example of wooden architecture in Finland, the Kamppi Chapel at the grounds of the Kamppi Shopping Centre. Finland is 80% Lutheran so all these churches are Lutheran.

Begel Lunch at Esplanade Park

But we also have to tell you about how we did on our one-great-meal-a-day policy in Helsinki.  First, after arriving from the airport, we had a Japanese buffet of sushi, miso soup, gyozas, and beef, pork, and chicken teppanyaki.  Next, at the Belge restaurant near the Esplanade, we had excellent beef lasagna and pan-fried chicken in Bearnaise sauce with green salad and traditional dark and dense rye bread of Finland. Third was at Seurasaari for traditional wiener schnitzel and blueberry cake. Fourth was at the  seafood platter of fried Vendace, little fish like the Filipino ‘dilis’, grilled salmon, calamari and potatoes, carrots, and green beans at the Market Square. Fifth was a simple soup and salad buffet at Arabia.

@ the Market Square

lunch at Seurasaari Island

In preparation for my next book, Bill and I tried a suburban boutique hotel after the failed hostel experiment in Oslo. The Hotel Ava is attached to an Institute and had a lovely park in front, so the room had a beautiful picture window of green treetops. Aside from comfortable beds, a TV and a well-provided bathroom suite and ample closet space, there was a shared kitchen and laundry room, even a fitness center and a sauna each for men and women. The only hitch was that it is 20 minutes away from the city centre. Our Helsinki card paid for all of the museums we saw, cruises we took, and public transport we used. We saved less than our savings in Oslo because Helsinki did not have a special card for seniors. We definitely liked this hotel better. It was as if we were going ‘home’ every day after tours.

Hotel Ava and Institute

We loved Helsinki, especially the downtown area we came to know so well. It is well laid out with little nooks and corners of greens amid the concrete. The people are so warm that every time we looked at a map or maybe appeared a little lost, one Finn, whether a teenager, an old man, or a woman with a child, on the bus, on the streets, or inside malls, would approach and ask what we were looking for. Everyone was eager to help so we were always saying ‘Kiitos’ whence they would readily reply, ‘Ole hyva!’