23 June 2000, Hammerfest to Philadelphia...
While in Hammerfest, we drove to Nordkapp to see the midnight sun, and had two perfect clear days -- two out of the ten for the year. (If some of mz spelling is funnz, thez switched the y and the z on this kezboard.) The temperature stayed around 4C, but they consider anything over freezing as summer. We took the mailboat back to Bergen. On the way we took a tour of Lofoten, lovely islands off the coast. There was still quite a bit of snow around. I asked when it all went away -- July. When does it snow again -- the tour guide's birthday is Sept 10 and it always snows before his birthday, but last year it snowed in July.
From Bergen, now cloudy and drizzly, we took a train over the mountains to Oslo. From 900 meters up to the top there was still 4' of snow on the ground. Later we met a man from there. He was dressed in light shirt and shorts while we still had our long underwear on. When does all the snow go away? August, hopefully. Anyone want year round snow? Over the divide into green valleys and clear skies. Oslo has trouble with droughts. We can take our long underwear off. It's almost warm. Lots of electric streetcars to take us around the city. I recognize our stop not by the name, but by the huge yellow rose bushes in the park. We take a ferry over to the Viking ship museum.
Oslo to Copenhagen on the ferry. This is the biggest ship we've been on, and there are seven of them just to go around this area. They even have a dress code -- we ate in the cafeteria.
Copenhagen has lots of canals and walk only streets. Buildings dated 1632. We walk through empty plazas Sunday night, on Monday there are people all over enjoying the beautiful day.
Copenhagen to Hamburg on a train which takes a 45min. trip on a ferry. Hamburg to Basel, Switzerland on a fast train -- absolutely smooth. We saw some new track being laid. It comes all made up in train car lengths with the cement ties already in place, but once it's laid, we could not see the connections.
Overnight in Basel (sort of, there's a big fair in Basel and we had to take a taxi back into Germany to find a hotel -- Germany, Switzerland and France all meet here) and then on to Davos in the SE of Switzerland. This is great ski country, but we take the cable cars up to the top for great views of the Alps.
Tomorrow we go to Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn (there are a lot of _____horns in Switzerland -- all sharp peaks), then on to Montreaux at the east end of Lake Geneva, then to Paris for a week, and to Liverpool where we catch a freighter to Philadelphia. We should arrive in Philly around July 25.
More later,
Love, Wendy and Edwin Paul