The last leg

The last leg of our journey saw us basically keep moving for a bit less than two days.  We went from Berlin to Copenhagen, where we spent the night, then took a train to Stockholm where we caught the tunnel banana, ok itsTunnelbana in Swedish, to the ferry terminal and then took a ferry to Helsinki.

The train ride from Berlin to Copenhagen had an interesting little surprise for us, the train went on a ferry, yes the ferry had tracks for the train.  Basically the train pulled up on the ferry, we all hopped off, then when the crossing was nearing completion we hopped back on the train and it continued on.  This was something that Craig wondered about earlier on in the trip and he had to wonder no more.

Copenhagen is a pretty city and we wished we had of organised more time here.  We spent about fourteen hours there so it was basically enough time to go to the mermaid statue, see the palace, sleep and get on the train to Stockholm.  We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard at the palace.

These were everywhere in Copenhagen

Changing of the guard

The Royal Palace

The next day was the day we caught the train to the ferry, except for the two hours of waiting for the ferry we kept moving for about twenty four hours.

Getting ready to board

Catching the ferry was another new thing for Craig and something Leena had done often in her youth.  We did all the usual things like buy tax free stuff, eat and drink more than we should and watched a midnight cabaret.  It was raining when we left so we couldn't stand out on deck for long and look at the scenery go by, although Craig did manage to have a good look.  We had a bit of a surreal moment when we docked at Mariehamn (island called Åland is an autonomic area belonging to Finland), we were sitting waiting for the midnight show and when we looked out the window we could see another ship, it was very close, it wasn't until Craig got up for a better look that we realised  that we had docked and the other ship was leaving.  The rest of the voyage went as expected and we arrived safe and sound at Helsinki. 

Well that's it for our tripping around, we have a little time in Helsinki to gather our thoughts before making the long trek back down under.