The last part of my trip was very special. I’m visiting Lisa, a transplanted friend who lives in the southern part of the Netherlands. She and her friend, Vic picked me up in Maastricht, Netherlands, the nearest airport to her home in Colmont, and she offered to show me the town while we were here.
We started with lunch and window shopping along the main pedestrian street. I’ve seen these everywhere in Europe. We have them too – they’re called malls, but it’s just not the same as these outdoor social spaces. Here the restaurants spill into the street with tables under umbrellas, and people enjoy the weather, their friends, and a beer or coffee.
She took me to see the St. Servatius Bridge that the Americans crossed as they marched into the Netherlands to liberate it from the Germans in 1944. There are lots of WWII reminders here, including an American Cemetery in Margraten nearly as large as the one in Normandy.
We walked to a church that Lisa wanted to explore along a shady square full of tables. Vic waited outside. When we returned, we found him sitting with complete strangers who had noticed him standing alone and had invited him to have a beer. Being a people person, he joined them. So we sat too, a chance to talk with some locals. I’d guess the couple was in their 40’s, a generation younger than me.
We talked about a wide range of topics including the generous amount of vacation time (4 – 5 weeks) that Europeans typically get. We were surprised to learn that many self-employed people, like the woman, are lucky to get a week off now and then. She can’t afford to be gone from her shop for too many days. Luckily, she still does get the public holidays. The Netherlands is a Catholic country, so of the nine public holidays, seven of them are Catholic celebrations.
On the way back to the car, Lisa picked up cod for the next night’s supper at the outdoor market. Such a cool place to shop: take it home or eat it there. Here I learned that the Dutch like to eat their herring raw. Um, maybe I’ll try that next time.
The next day we drove less than two hours to Antwerp, Belgium, diamond capital of the world. We started our walking tour at the train station – a gorgeous building from the turn of the 20th century. The marble, the windows, the detailed craftsmanship was magnificent. But we really wanted to see the detail near the roof, so we hopped on the Ferris wheel right outside the train station and got level with the top.
I also highly recommend seeing the Antwerp zoo building, right next to the train station: old world colored tiling, gold leaf, and exotic statues including a turbaned young man on a camel, only begin to describe it.
Then we visited the Cathedral of Our Lady, the largest Gothic building in the Dutch-speaking world, and home to four Rubens paintings. So many opportunities in Europe!
On the way home, we stopped at a grocery store for a huge package of mussels to make with the cod we bought yesterday. It was only €4! Food is inexpensive in the Netherlands.
On the third day, a weather front was moving in so we started with the outdoor things we wanted to see first. Near Vaals, we drove up the tallest mountain in the Netherlands (actually a hill; much of the Netherlands is claimed from the sea and is actually below sea level). Vaalserberg has a tower overlooking three countries: Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. As it turned out, we explored pieces of all of those countries over the five days I was there. If I’d had just a few more days, I could have added France which is also close to Lisa’s home.
By afternoon, it was raining lightly, and we drove to Valkenburg, Netherlands for lunch. It’s a walled city with 14th century castle ruins at the top. We wandered into a Saturday market where we bought mustard from a Belgian couple who made it. We ate a late lunch and from our outdoor perch, we watched a bridal shower party at the restaurant across the street. The bridesmaids wore gold sashes and the bride wore a funny hat and a lei. A bachelor party happened along and the groom (not her groom) offered the bride a drink from the whiskey keg that he was carrying. They toasted each other with much laughing and the groom’s party walked on. It’s such a delight to see how other cultures celebrate these special moments.
Sunday morning dawned with full-on rain, so we drove to Aachen Germany to the thermal spa, Carolus Thermen. There are spas all over Europe offering therapeutic hot mineral waters. Dutch doctors prescribe the waters for patients and they not only take time from work to go, but their insurance pays for it.
The mineral waters went throughout the facility. There were so many different ways to enjoy it: a big pool inside, two pools outside with massaging waterfalls, jets coming out from the sides, and a portion of the cycle that whirled the whole pool in a circle. The water was so fast that everyone was caught up in the current and laughing with delight; it was bit like body bumper cars. There was also a cold pool (62 F), a hot pool (100 F), two large Jacuzzi-like tubs, and a steam room. Everyone seemed to have the same idea of enjoying the waters on a rainy day, so it was packed. We saw every body type; no one seemed to be hung-up about their shape the way people can be at an American beach or pool. Even the largest of German men were wearing tiny speedos.
This attitude continued on the upstairs level with multiple saunas and three additional pools, and where nude participation was required. I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit to nude public bathing in my blog, but my tag line is “inspiring others to live full out,” and I can’t inspire you if I don’t live full out myself.
I was naked and afraid at first, wanting to strategically place my towel. But everyone was so nonchalant, that I dropped it. My daughters asked how it was. I told them that when you’ve been without a man as long as I have, the first one was pretty interesting. Well, maybe the first four or five. But after a while, it’s like “Meh.” I did notice that couples tended to look at each other and everyone else looked you in the eye, to show that they weren’t “peeking.” I would definitely do it again.
So what’s the thread that ties all of these days together? I was amazed as how easy it was to experience multiple cultures, even on the same day. There were no border stops, no need to get passports out, no need for multiple currencies. The EU works. The next time I plan a European trip, I’ll look for more places close to borders so I can mix it up; oh, and with thermal spas.
All photos of Carolus Therman spa were taken from the internet. For other essays about my summer 2019 Europe trip see:
Living a lifetime in one place – Morgarraz Spain
Finding my happy place in Edinburgh Scotland
Watching the horsey set party in England
Scary train trip – Copenhagen to Stockholm
I could live in Stockholm Sweden
Floating hotel – ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki
Getting around Helsinki with sisu…or not
Bergen Norway – a short but delicious visit
Bergen – Sognefjord boat and Flam Railway trip with a hiccup
Experiencing Oslo Norway – Jazz to Vikings
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One of the pleasures of having my niece, Carly, along was that she has experience traveling in Scandinavia, and could recommend places to see and things to do. She was particularly taken with the 
Yes, the Opera House’s slowly rising 
Walking through the city, you see a mix of modern and old buildings, somewhat jumbled together. The Opera House is located about a block from the 
Oslo is very proud of its maritime history, and it has several museums covering the topic: the 
Here we saw the three Viking ships I had read about before starting this journey, the Gokstad, Oseberg and Tune ships. I had learned that a “Viking” was not a nationality or tribe, but an occupation. The 
The other Museum we visited was the Norwegian Folk Museum, or 
They also offered demonstrations (folk dancing, lefse making and baking, farming practices, wool carding and spinning, and funeral rites) that provided a rich experience of Norwegian life in the 1700-1800’s. I highly recommend it.
August 2019. Our second day in Bergen, the plan is to take a five-hour boat ride up the 
What struck me most about the islands is the variety. Some were barren of anything but a few low scrub bushes, others were bursting with evergreens right down to the shoreline, often right across the channel from each other. The shoreline along the mainland was full of tiered streets of houses with boat houses along the shore. The further we got from Bergen, the fewer the houses.
By the time we got to the opening of the Sognefjord, the sky had brightened so I spent more time on the deck. The shoreline cliffs along the fjord rose steeply, 3300 feet and more.
Occasionally there was enough flat land for a boat house or other small building. Some places were level enough to crowd in a few houses, maybe a hotel, and a dock, where the boat discharged and picked up a handful of passengers. At very few points we did see farming, but the practice seemed wrong, going up and down the hill, not along the contour.
While the scenery on the boat tour was reason enough to take it, our destination was 
The Flam Line from Flam to Myrdyl is 12.6 miles, rises 2841 ft, has 20 tunnels, one bridge, and a large number of fantastic scenes including several spectacular waterfalls pouring into the river below us; we could also see hardy folk riding bikes and hiking along the river.
All of this is explained in three languages on the train speaker system. We even had a stop where we could get out for photos. This tiny spur is the third most-visited tourist attraction in Norway, and rightly so.
When we pulled into the Myrdyl Station, most people got off including us. We were all transferring to the Bergen Railway, going to Bergen from here. But something went wrong. The tiny station’s departure monitor stated that the train to Bergen was cancelled “due to problems with the electricity supply.” Now the station in Myrdyl is not staffed except for the café people, so there was no one to help us rebook a later train. And while the population of Myrdyl was about 100 when the railroad was being built, no one lives there now, so there are no overnight accommodations.
This made perfect sense; they couldn’t strand us up there. Yet we witnessed a mad dash to the train, everyone afraid of not getting seats. This was silly, as we were the same number of people who came up. On the way down, we heard the train speaker system giving us the same facts and pointing out the same stunning sites as on the one-hour trip up; a real two-for-one bargain. Upon reaching Flam, the train operators instructed us to reassemble in the parking lot to the left of the train platform.
Right away as we stepped off the plane my curiosity was piqued. A huge sign on the mountain across from the airport says BERGEN?. What does that mean…are we in Bergen or not? It turns out this was the 
Our AirBnB was in the old part of the city, as were all of our lodgings so far. We were on the bottom two floors of a tiny burgundy house squeezed between two larger ones. The walkways to the back on both sides led to additional houses back there. How do they get furniture in and out?
After quickly settling in, we headed down to the harbor and the fish market, the heart of the town. On the way we appreciated all the pedestrian streets, broad swaths of road with cobblestones and monuments, and flower festooned gazebos and parks.
But once we reached the harbor, we let our eyes decide for us that we must eat right in the 
It didn’t take long to decide on the Spaniards in rubber waders boiling, sautéing, frying and otherwise transforming all manner of SEAfood into seaFOOD. When the flirty guy taking our order found we were from Hawaii (they always ask this to open a conversation that might lead to a sale), he immediately said “Aloha? Is that the word? Teach me some others.” I ran through a good list. “And would the ladies like mussels to start?” Oh yes.
Oh, the mussels! I learned to eat them on the trip I took to rural France in 2017, and haven’t been to a place where I can get them since. The only thing wrong with them was that there weren’t enough to feed all three of us hungry gals. Luckily the rest of the food came quickly. Carly and I had kabobs of shrimp, salmon and halibut; Kay had lobster. We all shared.
I wanted to ride the 
The sun was glinting off the harbor water and it was easy to spot the lake. Breath-taking. The funicular is one of Norway’s most visited attractions. It runs until 11 pm, but even then I don’t think you’d see full darkness with the city lights on. And after a very long day, I was not about to wait around to find out. Good night all.
August 2019. Wow, we thought Stockholm was cool (no pun intended). But Helsinki far exceeded our expectations. Everyone was so friendly. I guess they aren’t jaded by an overwhelming number of tourists like some of the other cities we visited. And although the Finns are known for not saying much, everyone we approached was very helpful.
And shopping was delightful. Helsinki is full of second-hand stores, our favorite shopping experience. Near our flat, we found eight thrift stores within four blocks. Summer sales were in full swing at all the regular stores. And they all had good stuff, though given the climate, the goods leaned toward woolens, leathers, and even furs, including hand-muffs! Helsinki people show excellent taste, sometimes funky, sometimes cat-walk gorgeous. Okay, take that with a grain of salt; anything beyond Croc sandals is dressed up for me.
The city itself has a turn-of-the-(last)-century glamorous feel with the highest number of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe, more than 600.
The 
Carly was a more compliant victim and both of them maneuvered onto one scooter. In short, within two minutes, they crashed the scooter at high speed going down a steep hill, and abraded many layers of skin (knees and elbows), on very rough pavement. They parked the scooter which remained pristine, and hobbled home sporting blood. Our flat was on the third floor, 52 steps. We weren’t sure they would be able to walk much the next day.
Frustrated, we finally found a taxi to take us to the 
Next day, we took the tourist bus again. I got off at the 
This was a co-ed swimsuit-required sauna, though other types were available. We checked-in and received two towels, one for sitting and one for drying. We showered, found the sauna, carefully placed the sitting towel, and steamed until I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I was expecting a hot-tub to sooth my aching legs. But no. What they offered was a dip in the Baltic Sea, just outside the building. Despite the chill that comes with evening and a breeze, lots of Finns were doing just that, or at least sat outside in towels with drinks. Typically one goes from the sauna to the sea several times in an evening. Even my thrill-seekers declined this delight.
August 2019. So what’s the best way to get from Stockholm to Helsinki? Cruise there! Yes, the 
There are three of us now; my niece Carly has joined us. She was the original inspiration for this trip, having taken a travel class for interior design while a Senior in College. I fell in love with Scandinavia at a distance through her FB posts. Now she’s joining us for the last couple legs of our trip.
The cabin was built for four people. Thank God there were only three of us. The cruise line kindly painted us a big porthole, but it didn’t help much. The berths hung two on a wall. Given the need to have space to store our luggage on the floor, we opted to use two uppers and one lower. Kay and I volunteered to sleep in the upper berths. When I struggled to climb the ladder in the middle of the night, I cursed myself for choosing unwisely.
We got out onto the upper decks ASAP; we needed air. As the ship pulled away from the dock, we enjoyed shoreline views of Stockholm. Gradually the cityscape turned to islands with cottages (how do the people get out there?) and then to uninhabited islands and vast amounts of water.
It was right nippy on the windy decks so we explored the rest of the ship. It had several restaurants besides the main buffet, shops, a spa for massages and facials, a night club, an outdoor bar with entertainment, and a sauna with hot tubs. Of all of these, we were most excited about the sauna and hot tubs, and determined to do this right after dinner.
We were hungry by the time we went to eat. We had the first seating at 5 pm in their restaurant called The Buffet. I’ve never seen anything like it. The list of the items on the menu was mind boggling. The cold herring choices alone numbered nine. We ate a lot of pickled herring back in Manitowoc, especially during the Christmas holidays. I recall going into a butcher shop just before Christmas to find a huge sign over their herring offerings: “Holiday Herring Headquarters.” My prior experience made me excited to try some different types. It turns out I only like the kind I grew up with: 
But there was so much other food that I didn’t miss the herring. The one thing that didn’t seem well represented was vegetables. Well there was that lettuce salad that no one took.
If the dessert table could groan, it would have, laden with so many choices my teeth hurt just to look at them. I have to confess that the three of us ate so much that we went into a collective food coma.
Up near the Arctic Circle, it doesn’t take too much travel to find yourself in another time zone. I hadn’t realized that Helsinki would be one hour ahead of Stockholm and two ahead of London. It appears that the cruise line understood this and the need for people to be ready to disembark the next morning at 9:15. So they cleverly showed two hour hands on the clocks, each with their respective country flag.
I’m not even sure why I say this; maybe because it reminds me of Wisconsin – in fall. Here it is, the very beginning of August, and there are leaves on the ground already. The air is crisp and clean. It’s clear that the residents consider this summer. They are in shorts while I’m bundled up. One early evening as the temperature dropped, I was wearing a sweatshirt, rain jacket, big scarf and gloves; at the same moment, the locals didn’t seem to mind the chill in the air at all.
It’s a vibrant city, growing, with lots of construction cranes in the air. The architecture is a nice mix of old and new. The city covers 14 islands, so we see water everywhere. People seemed happy and hopeful and relaxed. They look me in the eye and smile.
There are parks everywhere including one on either side of our flat. And the parks are full, with people playing 
The food was great everywhere we went. I think my favorite restaurant was a place called 
And I got my fill of really good black licorice (lakrit): licorice ice cream, licorice cream inside of chocolate squares, salted licorice; it was everywhere. The next place we go is Finland where they eat tar ice cream. As a representative of the Dairy State, I’ll be checking that out.
But Stockholm’s appeal is more than all that. There’s an atmosphere of inclusion that I’m enjoying. The Vasa Museum integrated an exhibit about the role of women in Sweden’s history of boat building. We also happened to be here during their Pride Fest, called Rainbow Weekend. Pride flags flew everywhere, including buildings, buses, street cars and statues. The population is somewhat diverse, though not as diverse as London. And I loved the fact that the Swedes are so tall. I almost felt small while among them.
Finally, there is SO much to do and see in Stockholm. They have so many museums and we barely scratched the surface. I can highly recommend the 
For other essays about my summer 2019 Europe trip see:
July 2109. Imagine yourself in the main train station for Copenhagen, Denmark, holding a ticket to Stockholm, pre-booked from home, all printed in Danish except for one line (Photo ID required.) All the station signage was in Danish too. We saw our train information on the Departure Board in blinking orange Danish lettering plus an indiscernible symbol. Nothing else looked like that. Yikes! What does that mean? We could not see an information booth or a place staffed with people. There were no officials around. So we hurried to a random boarding track, hoping to find an official there. No. But we did find a nice Danish woman who looked at our ticket and the Departures Board and explained that we had to take a train to 
I watched out the window as stations came into view, we paused, a few people got off and many more got on, and the train moved again. But at no time did we hear an announcement about passengers diverted to Malmo. We finally spent quite a bit of time racing over water. I surmised that Malmo was in Sweden, and that we were crossing 
Finally we reached the station in Malmo, and everyone got off. We located the train to Stockholm, and even though this was a different train than the one we booked, we got on the car and seats listed on our tickets. Thank God we weren’t traveling with a lot of luggage to tote around! I was managing this whole trip with one small suitcase and one backpack, now that my extended family was back in the US.
We had wanted to take the train so that we could see the Swedish countryside. Coming out of Malmo from the coast, we saw huge flat fields of recently cut golden wheat, red farm buildings, and the occasional cow or flock of sheep. At our first stop, 
After the stop in 
After 
We finally reached our destination, the whole trip taking about five hours. They never checked our tickets, the entire way to Stockholm!
We were lucky enough to snag an AirBnB a half block from one of the canals. Lined with gravel paths, art and trees, the canals provided a bit of nature right in the city. One could even rent a swan boat and paddle around. Restaurants along the route cozily provided blankets for patrons, in the Danish spirit of 
Then we walked to the number one photographic spot in Copenhagen: 
But when we saw the number of tourists, we took our photos and edged back out to the street. We had planned to take a boat tour of the harbor, but a whole line of people was standing waiting for the 2 o’clock boat and it was only 1:15. No thank you.
So we taxied to the number 2 photographic spot, The 
From there we taxied to the Design Museum. I typically prefer historical museums, but have developed a fascination for industrial design by working with these designers in my professional life. I also developed a passion for Danish mid-century modern teak furniture while living in Racine. I especially enjoyed the museum’s Danish Chair exhibit. I had read a travelogue called 
By the time I got to the end of the exhibit, I realized I had lost the rest of the family, so backtracked to find them. There they were, at the beginning of the Bauhaus Exhibit, coloring with all the other children visiting the museum. I needed a rest, and so joined them, finding calm and joy in my inner child for the next 20 minutes.
July 2019. My whole family came to London to be with our youngest for her college graduation. From here we were to travel to Copenhagen for an additional five days. Alas, the person (who will not be mentioned) responsible for arranging our transportation to the Stansted Airport (way northeast of London), cut it too close to our take-off time and the gate was closed when we arrived.
We regrouped and found another flight we could all get on – at the Gatwick Airport on the south side of London and two days hence. So we used Marriott points to book a hotel near Gatwick, a 1.5 hour taxi ride away. We could have taken a one hour coach ride to Victoria Station and then a one hour train to Gatwick and then a taxi to the hotel, but with six pieces of luggage and four backpacks, that would have been difficult. We had so much luggage because our new graduate was completely vacating England and returning her belongings to the US.
From our room we could see trainers leading horses around and riding them near stalls. The view of the racetrack itself was obstructed by the hotel building so we could not view it.
When we asked about the races, our waiter wearily explained that there were six races all together, the first starting in the late afternoon (about when we checked in) and the last around 9 pm. Then a DJ, a famous fashion guru, 
British ladies in fancy dresses and fascinators strolled past with Champagne in their hands – sometimes whole bottles! Most wore high heels that sunk into the grass unless they walked on tiptoe. Given how much drinking was going on, it was a wonder they could walk at all.
There was a private party immediately in front of the windows, with security guards posted to keep the riff-raff (us) out. This group seemed to be focused on the partying, as they only jumped out of their chairs just as the horses raced past. Then we all watched the replays and slow-motion action on the big screen, just like with American football.
Given that there were only six short races in the span of four hours or so, the crowd had to make their own fun between the spurts of action on the track. I felt a bit sorry for the ladies in their summer finery as the evening wore on and the temperature dropped into the low 60’s. But most of them were drinking ample anti-freeze.
Finally the last race began, and this time I was ready with my camera. I have proof that I was there, witness to one of Britain’s favorite sports. If you have to miss a plane connection, this is a great way to spend the time.
Manifesting Paradise 