EARTHDWELLER's Adventures with
Contiki in Europe and Scandinavia
By Andrew Burley
On 28th May 1998 I began a five week adventure which would alter my perspective on life, the world we live in and my place in that world. I had not had the opportunity to travel during my student years and had thought that I would be unlikely to do so until I retired. However, having accumulated a considerable amount of leave entitlement and reached a point where I could break away from a major project, my manager encouraged me to take a month or so off work to travel. As this was unplanned I would be travelling on a shoestring budget and, being a reluctant flyer, I decided to seek out an overland trip which would take me as far as possible within the time and budget available.
I stumbled across a brochure for Contiki, a specialist in budget travel for the 18-35s, and picked out a combination of two holidays from their brochure. I would join their lowest cost EuropeanHorizon tour which is a mad ten days visiting Belgium (in transit), The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. After two days resting and washing clothes in London I would then join the Scandinavia tour - a 22 day trip starting with a voyage to Germany, then a short ferry across to Denmark, then Sweden, Norway, Finland, a cruise back to Sweden and then home.
Contiki is a truly international organisation and I would be joining travellers from all around the world. Not only would I get to see many of the sights of Europe and gain an insight in to the various European cultures, but I would also have the incredible stimulation of sharing several weeks of my life with people who had come together from all across the globe. This trip would open my eyes to the value of our diverse cultures in a very accessible world.
Combining two tours meant that I was meeting and spending a lot of time with two groups of people, which is probably more people than I have been that close to in the whole of my life. The first group were quite young, many were students or about to go to college for the first time. The second group were mostly seasoned travellers. They came from a dozen countries - Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. That brought national diversity but in many cases there were also people from different states who represented quite different ways of life from within the same country. With an age span of 18 to 33, they brought a variety of different life experiences with them too. Both groups had a much higher number of females than males, many women considering this kind of tour to be safer than independent travel while offering a similar experience.
My tour started with an early morning departure from the Royal National Hotel in London. I had already met some of the group in a briefing the previous evening, and had made friends with a Canadian girl over the Internet prior to meeting up in London. The bus was a top quality air-conditioned Scania and would carry us in comfort through London's chaotic traffic and on to the motorway to Dover. The ferry terminals at Dover and at Calais in France are like provincial airport terminals with customs channels. We were able to join the ferry without going through customs but an hour and a half later in France we had to walk through a customs post. Visitors to Europe get a raw deal on passport stamps nowadays as the borders have been opened up and passport checks once in mainland Europe are limited.
Once in France we headed up the main Autoroute (motorway/interstate) in to Belgium. A couple of hours later and we were in the Netherlands. Our brief view of Belgium had revealed very little of the country's character, but we did see a lot of windmills and this part of Belgium is predominantly Dutch-speaking. On my second tour one of my companions was a Belgian girl, Elsie, and she was determined to break down the stereotype of Belgians being boring, which is the way that they are portrayed in Europe. Certainly there is a lot more to Belgium and Belgian culture than many people realise and I plan to visit the country properly in due course.
The Netherlands or Holland, which ever you prefer, is flat. Everyone knows that. Amsterdam is full of canals - once again, no surprises there. Many people consider Amsterdam to be the club capital of Europe, and it certainly has plenty of nightlife. We took a night cruise on a party boat, which was a good way of seeing the different areas of the city. Our first night was spent in a youth hotel, four to a room right in the centre of Amsterdam. Clearly these rooms are primarily intended to be somewhere to leave your luggage while you go out clubbing. About half of the group went to see one of Amsterdam's famous sex shows while the rest of us wandered around the city. The city is nothing like as seedy as might be expected from its drugs and "red light" image, and we did not feel in any danger walking around late at night other than from the cyclists who ride without lights and without any consideration for pedestrians. The next morning was free for us to explore and there was a visit to a diamond exhibition for those who were interested. If time is short in a particular place I like to cover as much ground as possible, rather than spending a lot of time at individual attractions. While some people visited the Anne Frank House museum and some of the museums, I sought out the boat museum with its outdoor exhibits and radical modern architecture, the botanical gardens and a number of interesting buildings and bridges. By 1pm we were meeting up at the bus and heading for Germany.
Our destination for the evening was St. Goar in the Rhine Valley. Although we arrived late the little town was expecting us so several shops stayed open.
We had the opportunity to see the world's largest cuckoo clock and the world's largest beer stein, and most group members enjoyed an optional wine tasting at one of the region's famous wineries.
Our hotel that night was a few miles away at Bad Salzig. The family-run hotel offered tourist class accommodation and a pleasant bar. Two girls from our group took a late night swim in the Rhine, and that was the first of the anticipated madness. The next morning we were on our way again in to Bavaria and to the regional capital Munich.
Munich is a wonderful city, a nice blend of old and new. It is home to the famous Glockenspiel clock, which we were able to hear and see as it ran through its routine. Several of the churches have towers which are open to the public and I braved one of them for a wonderful view of the city. Our hotel that night was excellent, with many of us enjoying single rooms. After depositing our bags and getting changed, our bus took us to a beer hall for an evening of great Bavarian entertainment and food in a wonderful beer festival atmosphere.
The next morning we were heading in to Austria with its snow-capped mountains. We broke our journey for some of the group to join an optional river rafting experience while the less adventurous amongst us had some time to relax and try the local ice-creams and pastries. By late afternoon we reached Contiki's chalet in the ski resort of Hopfgarten. We had some time to explore before our evening meal and then most people hit the dance floor in the Contiki bar. Here the second bout of madness hit, with two of our group doing the "Fully Monty" on the bar. Other tour groups were staying at the chalet so there was a certain amount of inter-group rivalry and a lot of fun was had by all.
Soon after dawn we were on our way again, this time heading over the Brenner Pass in to Italy. We were delayed by major roadworks near Milan and then the bus's air-conditioning broke down, so we were a little agitated by the time we reached Venice. We didn't even have time for a comfort break before getting on the boat which would take us to Venice, so we were all looking for a McDonalds as soon as we landed. We were welcomed to a demonstration by one of Venice's master glass sculptors and then split up to explore the city. I took lots of pictures in Venice and visited a touring Salvador Dali exhibition which I stumbled across. We only had three hours before we had to meet up for our gondola rides so I treated this very much as a reconnoitre for a future return trip. Our gondola trip was great fun and was inexpensive because the cost was shared by a group of people. After the trip we were sat on a set of church steps and someone asked the tour manager to take a photograph of the group, and soon there was a line of forty four cameras waiting for her! Shortly afterwards we met our boat and were taken to the campsite. This time our accommodation was in caravans and it was a 100 yard dash to the toilets. The campsite bar was very lively and there was a repeat of the "Full Monty" episode.
After breakfast the next morning, with air-conditioning fixed, we were heading back towards Milan, past the beautiful Lake Como and in to Switzerland. Switzerland is not a European Union country so there was passport control. We had an enjoyable lunch stop then headed through the St. Gotthard Tunnel which, at 16.9 kilometres/10.5 miles, is one of the longest road tunnels in the world. Soon we were in the beautiful town of Lucerne, spending a couple of hours visiting attractions and gift shops, before heading off again over the Brunig Pass towards our next stop, Lauterbrunnen.
Lauterbrunnen is at the foot of the Jungfrau, one of Europe's highest mountains. Cog railways from Lauterbrunnen head up the mountainside to the skiing resort of Wengen, then climb higher until they enter a tunnel network which goes through the famous North Face of the Eiger and climbs to Jungfraujoch at 3454m/11333ft. From the "Top of Europe" complex an elevator takes visitors to the Sphynx observatory at 3571m/11782ft, which is the highest easily accessible point in Europe. The hard way to get there is to walk up the Aletch Glacier, which is the longest glacier in the Alps at 22 kilometres/14 miles. Although visibility was poor on our free day in Lauterbrunnen I decided that it was worth making the trip to Jungfraujoch (the easy way) and was not disappointed. Other group members walked in the hills or took a funicular up a nearby hill, while some went bungee jumping from a cable car!
The next day was a long drive from Switzerland up through France to our campsite in Paris, where we would be greeted with a champagne and escargot reception. After an evening tour of the city we hit the campsite bar. The next day would be a long one. It started at the Eiffel Tower, and despite my fear of heights I decided that I had to overcome my irrational fear and go up it. It wasn't easy but once I was at the top I enjoyed the feeling of having made it. Back on terra firma we were free to explore the city. I covered a lot of ground, taking in as many sights as possible including the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, the Pompidou Centre and various parks and gardens. The highlight for me was seeing Monet's waterlily rooms at L'Orangerie art gallery. Monet created a continuous painting around the walls of an oval room and did not allow it to be shown until after his death. It is total immersion art, pointless to photograph as it can only be appreciated by standing in the middle of it. It is stunning.
That night was the last night with the first tour group and we decided to have a meal together at a rather special restaurant in Montmartre - 'A La Bonne Franquette' was the haunt of Toulousse-Lautrec, Renoir, Monet and many others and was painted by Van Gogh in 1886. After a hearty meal and large quantities of house wine, the somewhat inebriated group took the funicular down to the bus which took us back to the campsite for a final night in the bar. The next morning it was back across the battlefields of France to Calais for the ferry back to England and a very sad parting.
After two rest days in London I joined another Contiki bus heading for the east coast port of Harwich for an overnight ferry to Hamburg in Germany. This group was much older and from the start there were signs that this was going to be a more lively trip - on the overnight ferry I shared a room with three lads which became three lads and a girl at 2am! On arriving in Hamburg we headed towards the Baltic and another short ferry which would take us in to Denmark. Our first destination in Scandinavia was "Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen" and we were staying in little "Hansel and Gretel" cabins. Copenhagen really is a wonderful city with wonderful people and we had a full day in which to visit the famous Little Mermaid statue, the Royal Palace and the Carlsberg brewery, have a few hours free to explore then experience a traditional smorgasbord meal and an evening visit to the famous Tivoli Gardens.
After Copenhagen we had a long day of travelling, firstly taking a ferry from Copenhagen to Sweden, then driving up through the commercial forests of southern Sweden, reaching Stockholm by late afternoon. Again we were staying in cabins on a campsite and this time the campsite had a free sauna and a swimming lake. The next morning we would drive in to the centre of Stockholm for a tour of the City Hall, followed by an orientation tour and a full day free. I explored Gamlastan, the old city, and saw the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. In the afternoon the bus took those who were interested to visit the Wasa Museum, the Wasa being a 300 year old warship which was recovered from Stockholm harbour in the 1960s. Near to the Wasa Museum is the Skansen museum, where old buildings from all over Sweden have been collected together and preserved.
The next morning we headed for Norway and our base for the next two days which was a campsite near Oslo. On the first night we had a "Viking party" which lasted many hours. Our driver could join in as the next day would be his rest day and a local driver would take us in to Oslo. Oslo is a tiny capital city, its principal road being only about a mile long. It does however hold some wonderful treasures. The National Gallery contains over 1200 works of art including Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream". Our bus took those who were interested to the other side of the harbour where there are several more museums and I took the opportunity to visit the Norwegian Folk Museum, which is similar to Sweden's Skansen, with many of the wooden buildings dating back more than 500 years. Other people visited the Viking Ship Museum. That evening we had the opportunity to visit the Vigeland sculptures which is a massive and wonderful record of human existence and interaction, and contains nearly 200 figures, all of them different.
After Oslo we started our long trek northwards to the Land of the Midnight Sun. Firstly we visited Lillehammer, home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. Here we had the chance to ride the Olympic bobsleigh track in a specially constructed wheeled bobsleigh. This was the scariest experience of my life but I am really glad that I did it. After Lillehammer we stayed two nights in the town of Åndalsnes, spending the intervening day driving over the Troll Road to Geirangerfjord for a cruise on this most famous of fjords. After Åndalsnes we headed northwards to Trondheim, Norway's old capital city. Here we stayed in a summer hotel - the university halls of residence which are operated as a hotel by the students in the summer. After Trondheim we went to Hell - yes really. Hell is a little village with only a hundred or so houses, a hotel and a railway station but some wonderful photo opportunities. After Hell we carried on up the main trunk route to Mo I Rana.
Mo is a regional centre and is just south of the Arctic Circle. Here I was able to photograph my watch at midnight, although the sun was just below the horizon so we weren't quite in the Land of the Midnight Sun. >From Mo we spent a day visiting the Svartisen Glacier and the Arctic Circle Centre. The approach to the glacier was by bus, then across an icy lake by boat, then a trek up a track, then over rocks to the foot of the glacier. It was a wonderful experience and well worth the effort. At the Arctic Circle Centre we each received an Arctic Circle Certificate, granting us the freedom of the Land of the Midnight Sun. We were heading further north up the main E6 route towards Hammerfest. Hammerfest is the world's most northerly city. It is home to a fishing fleet and has a small airport. Our cabins at Hammerfest were on "the most northerly campsite in the world that has a view of the midnight sun". It was also a very exposed site for a campsite and during the first night our cook tent blew down.
Almost all of the group embarked on the optional excursion which would take us to the North Cape, which at 71°10´21´´ is the most northerly point in continental Europe and only 1300 miles from the North Pole. Our visit coincided with the summer solstice so we saw the midnight sun at its highest in the sky. This was a very special experience and one to treasure. We didn't get back to the campsite until 5:30am so we had our only lie in of the trip before a free day in Hammerfest. I took the opportunity to explore the hills and photograph the reindeer, and then that night eight of us braved the cold for a swim in the Arctic Ocean before watching the midnight sun once again.
The next morning we were heading south, crossing the border in to Finland at just before lunchtime. We travelled south through Finnish Lapland to Rovaniemi which is close to the Arctic Circle. After a relaxing evening watching the Football World Cup on television in the bar, the next morning we headed to Santa Claus Village where some of the group got to talk to Santa. A Dutch member of our group was pleased to find the he spoke her language as well as English and no doubt numerous other languages. After some souvenir shopping we headed further south to Jyväskylä, now a long way from the midnight sun. It was 25th June - precisely six months from the usual Christmas - but Contiki is based in the southern hemisphere so they celebrate Christmas in the summer. We had our own little Christmas party on the campsite in Jyväskylä. The following night our tour group would split as some people were taking an extended tour in to Russia, so this was our last proper night together.
After Jyväskylä we headed for the Finnish capital Helsinki where we would be staying in a youth hostel. Helsinki is an interesting city, although not as colourful as the other Scandinavian capitals. We visited the Lutheran Cathedral, the Olympic stadium, a park dedicated to the composer Sibelius and a wonderful underground church on the first day, then took a boat ride and did some souvenir shopping on the second day before joining our cruise ferry towards Stockholm. The Silja Symphony is a super-ferry which has the comforts of a cruise ship including a shopping mall, some excellent restaurants, spa baths and a night club. It took us on the thousand islands route through the Helsinki archipelago and by dawn we were entering the Stockholm archipelago. We had another free day in Stockholm and another night at the campsite with the free sauna before the long drive across Sweden to Gothenburg for our overnight ferry back to England.
It had been an amazing experience, not just because of where we had been but because of that mixture of people on the bus and the life experiences and insight which we shared. I had the opportunity to spend time with a Japanese-Brazilian sculptress, a girl who works in a Dutch library for the blind, a young woman who was a victim of the Kobe earthquake in Japan, two Chinese girls who had trekked in the Himalayan Kingdom as children, a coloured South African lady doctor who is still struggling with racism amongst her white patients, a white South African lady who was caught up in a gun battle….the list goes on. I learned one thing more than any other from the trip - we must value our cultural diversity and take the time to learn from each other so that we can see the world from a much wider range of perspectives.
This tour is covered in greater detail, with over 250 photographs plus advice for anyone considering a similar trip, at the EARTHDWELLER website.
Copyright © 1999 Andrew Burley, Yorkshire, England.
