Finland Day 1: Travel

 Tuesday morning, we ate a yummy breakfast at our hotel, drove through a few more underwater tunnels and returned our car to the airport. The Ålesund airport is quite small and low key which was nice. Fun fact about our travel: we never had to show any ID. We scanned boarding passes a few times but that was it. It was a bit strange....

We got to be famous people again by climbing up stairs to our airplane.

A few photos from the plane ride from Ålesund to Bergen.

Salmon fishing

The Bergen airport was much busier than the one in Ålesund. 

Matthew, Megan, U, Me on the flight from Bergen to Stockholm to Helsinki. (The plane stopped in Stockholm and a lot of people got off and other people got on. We just stayed on.)

Some pictures from the flight from Bergen to Stockholm. Can we just agree that Norway is absolutely stunning?!?

A few pictures from Stockholm to Helsinki. Really pretty. And green.

We were late getting into the Helsinki airport so we had to hurry to the other side of the terminal to catch our flight to Rovaniemi.

Sign on the bathroom in Helsinki airport.

Visual confirmation that all four bags made the last flight. (We typically do carry on only but the weight limit was quite low on the flights so we checked bags.)

Megan's blue bag at the top and U's black bag at the bottom

Me's red bag at the top and Matthew's black with a little red bag second from the bottom

In Lapland! U, Megan, Me, Matthew

Christmas and Santa are everywhere.

We stayed at the Santasport hotel, so called because it is a training facility for Olympic athletes in Finland. Matthew read it as "Santa's port" which makes sense as well. The layout of the hotel was interesting: our room was on the 4th floor. To get to the dining area, we took an elevator to the 2nd floor, walked a bit and then took an elevator to the 2nd floor (from ground level floor). Yes, it was a bit confusing. Overall, it was a nice place to stay with lots of storage. 

Matthew and Megan in their room

U and Me's bed

Me with the kitchen and table. See all the storage? There were high cabinets all over the place.

Matthew liked the big closet off of their room.

Bathroom with sauna

Clocks in the lobby show the times at all the locations of the Winter Olympics.

Nice map of Rovaniemi

Me and Megan playing Yahtzee. U also played. On the first game, U got a 2nd Yahtzee on his 3rd turn!!! Yes, he won. By a lot!

We went outside on our balcony to see the midnight sun but all we saw were the midnight clouds. It was definitely still light out with lots of chirping birds!

U Step Count: 7707

Copenhagen: Flights out and Day 1: Exploring Copenhagen

We were all eagerly anticipating our trip to Scandinavia and Finland this summer. We caught an evening flight direct from Phoenix to London which was nice. 

Here are our dinners.

And breakfast.

U, Megan, Me and Matthew coming off the plane in London. It was cool to see so many iconic landmarks like Tower Bridge and Big Ben as we flew in. We were able to switch to an earlier flight to Copenhagen so only have about 3 hours in Heathrow instead of 5.

U on the flight to Copenhagen.

Megan, Matthew and Me on the flight to Copenhagen.

Once we arrived in Copenhagen, it took awhile to go through Customs and Immigration. (Note: go in the left lane, which divides into two, not one of the other lanes which ended up needing to combine into one lane when one of the counters closed.)

Walking to our hostel. It was after 11 pm before we arrived.

Me, Megan and Matthew in our hostel (Danhostel in central Copenhagen).

We slept in the next morning, leaving around 11 am to go explore the city.

City Hall

Megan, Matthew and Me at the beginning of Strøget near City Hall.

U with a pretty fountain at Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square).

We went to Vor Frue Kirke (Cathedral of Our Lady). That was cool as we were able to see the original Christus statue as well as statues of the apostles scuplted by Bertel Thorvaldsen. We saw the mission president and his wife plus 2 APs and 1 new missionary and his companion.

Megan, Me and Matthew

The apostle Matthew

Angel statue as the front of the church

Christus statue. The mission president pointed out how his hands are out and low as if he's ministering to the one instead of to the masses.

Megan, Me, U and Matthew with the Christus statue

Back on Strøget, we found this duck store which was very intriguing especially to the kids who bought a few ducks.

We went to the LEGO store.

Megan with her Friends.

Different LEGO logos.

LEGO Dragon.

Megan, Matthew and U with C-3PO and R2-D2

There was a LEGO Star Wars scanner that would identify which Star Wars character you were. The kids did it a lot of times. Megan was disturbed she kept getting bad guys like Darth Vader and General Grievous.

Matthew as Darth Vader.

Me as Rey.

Another bad guy??? Megan as General Grievous.

Matthew as Chewbacca.

U as Boba Fett.

Matthew put his green hat in front of his face.

And the answer is: YODA!

U found a ladybug friend.

Megan with the Stork Fountain

Bishop Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen

Megan, Me and Matthew with the statue of Frederik VII at Christiansborg Palace.

We walked over Inderhavnsbroen sliding bridge and back and then on to Nyhavn.

Very picturesque!

U and Nyhavn

We walked by Amalienborg Palace and on to the Danish Resistance Museum which was basically the history of Denmark during WWII. We followed the stories of 5 different young people through the war.

Megan listening to one of the stories.

Matthew, Megan and Me outside the museum.

Me and U with The Little Mermaid statue.

 Megan with The Little Mermaid.

Another statue in Kastellet Park.

We enjoyed some ice cream!

Matthew and U with a cannon in the park.

Megan and Me with the windmill.

St Alban's Church

Frederik's Church (aka The Marble Church)

Hans Christian Andersen and U gaze longingly at Tivoli.

Megan and U with Hans Christian Andersen.

U Step Count: 18k