2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 11 - Welcome to Sweden (Bosjokloster)

 September 13, 2026

Our cruise in Scandinavia has come to an end.  It has been a wonderful cruise hearing so many languages.  The cruise director welcomed the theater crowd in 5 languages each night.  He was amazing.  I’m amazed how many languages many of these people on the ship can speak.  I guess you have to as so many languages are spoken all around us.  English is always the common denominator.

We were up at the buffet eating at 7:30 AM.  We checked out of the room by 8 AM and were off the ship by 8:15.  It was an easy exit, no one in line to get off.  But at the bus stop, there was a pretty good line.  Fortunately the public buses take a lot of people and we easily got on the first bus.  After a 10 minute ride to the metro, we caught the M4 metro to Osterplot station.  From there we then caught a Swedish train to Malmo C, the central train station in Malmo Sweden.  The journey from the Osterplot station was about 50 minutes.  Once we arrived, we easily found the Sixt car rental office and acquired a car.  With all our gear, the is a bit tight.  However, we did it and off we went. 

Our first stop of the day was at an old viking fort in Trelleborg.  We found it easily and it was in the middle of the city.  It has one quarter of the existing fort.  There are only 6 of these in all of Sweden.  Vikings are a part of all of these countries history.  

We then left the fort and drove to a beautiful Lutheran church where Denise’s ancestors were once buried.  That was our first church stop.  Unfortunately, the Pastor was too busy with members of her congregation that she would not take time to retrieve her books that would possibly have names of Denise’s ancestors.  Bummer.  Anyway, after taking some pictures, off we went to another church out in the middle of no where.  At this church there was a beautiful graveyard.  So well taken care of.  The church was closed.  But we were able to walk around looking at headstones.  But none matched Denise’s records.  Most of the headstones had dates newer than the dates Denise was looking for.  So maybe their plots do not have headstones.  It was a nice stop nonetheless.

Next, we needed to find some lunch.  So we started driving to our BnB and when we came to the first significantly sized village, we found a place and stopped.  It was a small pub that was run by a guy from Lebanon.  We all oredered Gyros and frys.  They were amazingly tasty.

After lunch we headed to the BnB in Bosjokloster.  The info I read when I booked indicated that it was a castle.  It was an hour or so drive from where we got lunch.  But upon arrival we were astonished.  It is an old fort, castle-like, structure which we have the north corner of.  Denise is finally staying in an old castle.  Even the beds seem olden.  The bathrooms seem to have been built into closets.  As a matter of fact, I’ll be showering in the morning in the laundry room.  Pictures will show more than words.  People pay money to come on the park like grounds that sit on a lake region.  It is quite pretty.  

After settling in and getting some wash going, we set out to walk the grounds.  There is an exhibition of Ukranian quilts.  And Ilene and Denise enjoying quilting, it was fascinating to them.  From there we walked the grounds seeing the most amazing flowers with big bumble bees flying all around.  We walked into a forest like area where we came upon a zip-line among the trees that both Denise and Ilene rode.  That was pretty funny as it was a bit tough to get off the darn thing!  But they did it.   The grounds are really pretty.  An amazing first night in Sweden.

Some pictures:

I’m sitting in the church here at the castle/convent where we are staying for the night.  

This is a picture of the courtyard in the Bosjokloster castle.  Our windows look out over this.

Us walking in the park that is part of the grounds at Bosjokloster.

A happy zip liner.  I’m going to post a video of this down below.

The servant taking the princess back to the point where she can dismount her thrill ride.  Pretty fun.

This is where you are able to mount the seat on the zip line.

Such beautiful flowers all over the grounds here.  These are just a few.

They will actually give you oars and life vests so you can take boats out on the lake.  We did not do that.  But the sign nearby said that we could.

Nice view of the castle, which in times later, became a convent for nuns.

This is the kitchen in our flat here.  Really quite big.

This is one of the beautiful quilts made by Ukranian folks that live in this region.

Our living room area.  You can actually start a fire if you chose to do so.

Our lunch…a Gyro and fties.

The group at the restaurant at lunch time.

This is a shot of the church where we stopped to look for Denise’s ancestors.  It is a lovely cemetery.

Another shot of that same church and cemetery.

This is one of the streets we drove through on our journey.  It was a cute little street.

This was the Lutheran church, the first church that we stopped at looking for Denise’s ancestors.

This is the outside of that old Lutheran church.

A picture of Denise and I on the outside of the viking fort.

They had some authentic viking gear.  I’m always amazed how heavy it is.

Our train ride to Malmo.

Another shot of the courtyard….

A pretty view across the lake here in Bosjokloster.

Another view of the castle/convent.

Zip lining….

Kids having fun….

2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 10 - Kiel, Germany

 September 12, 2026

Today we are waking up in Kiel, Germany.  It is a port city that has much world war 2 history as lots of manufacturing of boats, submarines and such were done here.  Besides Copenhagen, it is the biggest of the cities that we’ve been since cruising.

As has been the case the past 6 days, we were up and out the door by around 8:30 AM to go to the buffet and eat vast amounts of food.  I’m kinda tired of it.  I wish I had more self control where food is concerned.  But I’ve been trying to eat more fruit.

After eating, we headed off the ship to find bikes to ride.  We’ve been using an app called Donkey Republic.  It shows on a map where bikes can be picked up and parked.  Fortunately there was a spot that was about a 10 minute walk from the cruise ship.  Now, Kim was not to hip on biking, especially a standard bike.  He would have greatly preferred an e-bike.  We all probably would have enjoyed that.  However, there were none near us.  So we had to go with standard bikes.  The rate for a bike is .50 Euro for 15 minutes.  So to do 4 hours, it’s only 8 euro.  Cheap.  They then cap it at 12 Euro per 24 hours.  So not bad.  An e-bike is 2 Euro for 15 minutes and is capped at 35 Euro.  Anyway, once we had the bikes, I put in the GPS a site where we could see seals.  And off we went.   It turned out that the ride was about 5 miles….I think Ilene said.  And there was some slight hills we had to climb.  But the ride was nice.  We went through a pretty green park, through neighborhoods, through a downtown area into a harbor area where they were skull racing (rowing), crossed the water and then down the piers to where the seals were.  It turned out it was an aquarium with some pools outside that allowed seals to swim around.  Once done with the seals, it was time to head back.  I thought for sure we’d re-trace our tracks back.  But no, the GPS took us to a place where we could take a ferry across the water over towards where our ship was.  While waiting we started up a conversation with a person who was born a girl and now wants to be known as a boy name Felipe.  He/She was very kind and did his/her best to share information about the area.  She also directed us to the right ferry that turned out to be a free one for students going back and forth.  And funny thing, once we arrived at the ferry stop on the other side near our ship, it was the exact spot where we picked up the bikes.  We did not have to ride a single bit to return them.  We were shocked!

After returning the bikes we started walking back to the ship.  We got a few hundred yards away when Denise asked me if I had the back pack that we had brought.  I did not.  I had left it on the basket on my bike.  So off I went in what I’d call a sprint…others would say a slow run…and fortunately it was still there.  But I have not run like that for years.

Once back on the ship, we ate some lunch.  It is interesting that this ship boards people in Kiel and Copenhagen.  Both are roundtrip excursions.  I guess the crew never gets a break.  After lunch, we retired to our rooms for a break.  In the end, we just started packing and did a little reading.  We also began a couple of movies I downloaded.  The first said 13+ rating…but 5 minutes into it we could tell the content and language was not what we had hoped, so I deleted it.  The second one we began, it seems much better.  But we only are half through it.

At 3:30 PM, we went to do some crafting.  The craft was to make a Dreamcatcher.  I think mine will only catch nightmares.  But I did.   Pictures will definitely be worth a thousand words!

Some pictures:

Dreamcatcher makers…except that guy sitting in the back.  He was our supervisor in the end.  We had a lot of fun doing this.

This is interesting.  I’ve never seen this before.  The boat is operated by one person.  And to dock the boat, everything is automatic.  You can see the yellow arm that comes out of the boat.  There is another one at the back.  They clamp on to the post and then the ramp automatically unfolds and you can get on.  Pretty cool!

This is our friend Felipe.  We appreciated her/his information so much.

That’s another look at the ferry we took.

This harbor is full of sailboats.  I’m sure on warm summer days, the harbor is full of boats sailing out to see.

That’s a seal in one of the small ponds outside the aquarium.

Lots of people all around the marina watching skull racing.  Kinda cool to see.  

As we road our bikes, we went through a variety of retail areas.  We stumbled on this one where there was a stature honoring who knows what.  But it was there.  So we took a picture.

This is the park that we rode through.  It was pretty large and very green as you can see.  I believe it was called Werftpark.

Our pharmacist.  I’m starting into a nice cold and Ilene is a walking pharmacy.  It’s fantastic and I hope the cold solutions do their trick!

Another shot of our seal friend.  Is this a better one?

Happy bikers!  

2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 09 - Sea Day

 September 11, 2026

A sea day for us today.  Obviously it has been a lazy day.  Denise and Ilene chose to sleep in.  Kim and I met at 8:30 AM to put the feed bag on.   After eating, I decided to do some laps around the deck and then I brought Denise some breakfast.  They make some amazing sticky buns which Denise is in love with.  So with that and some eggs and croissants, she had Tim delivery service for breakfast.  But I wasn’t even offered a tip.  Eventually, all of us met in a diner and played Five Crowns.  It is such a luck of the draw, but I never have the luck.  I really enjoy just chillin and playing such games.  It is fun.  

At lunch time, none of us felt overly hungry.  But Kim has to eat to keep his system balanced due to his diabetes.  So he and Ilene went up to get some food.  Denise and I went to a Waltz dancing class.  I have such lousy footwork.  But in the end, we kind of did it.  It was fun.  I was actually sweating a bit when I was done.  After dancing, we headed up to the buffet to find Kim and Ilene.  We told ourselves that we would walk the buffet and just choose one thing.  Yea…right.  We got more than one thing…but we did just get sample portions.  So I think we did pretty good.

After lunch, we separated again.  Due to Ilene’s bad experience at the Spa and her saying something, they have bent over backwards to make sure they fix that bad experience.  So they invited her to come back today and enjoy some part of the spa.  Ilene asked if she could bring her friend.  They kind of him’d and haw’d and didn’t really answer.  Nonetheless, Denise went with Ilene and they allowed Denise to go with her.  I think the value of this part of the spa would normally be around $90.  So thank you Ilene!  Kim and I put on our swimsuits and went to the indoor hot tubs (with everyone else on the ship).  It was pretty crowded.  But we did a cannon ball into the middle of the hot tub and they all cleared out for us!  Naw, we just squeezed ourselves in.  While in there, I had a lovely visit with an Italian family.  The father said that I seemed to have an English accent.  That made me smile.  They spoke very broken english.  So we were able to chat a little.  Later, I got out and went for a swim in the pool.  They keep the pools around 90 degrees.  It was pleasant and nice to swim.

After returning to my room, I checked on our wash…yes…we washed clothes in our room today.   So we have things hanging all over the room.  Outside on the balcony and looking into the sea, it is very low foggy, a bit wet and quite windy.  The boat has actually been moving quite a bit.  But after being in the hot tub it felt nice to sit on the balcony a while and cool off.

We’ve had a nice trip.  It has been fun being with Kim and Ilene.  I hope they feel the same about us.  I do get a little tired and then talk a bit less.  I don’t talk much at all normally.  But I can get into a space where I talk even less.  Anyway, I hope they are ok being with us/me.

Dinner is at 6.  Show at 7:30 and 9:30 with cards in between.  Same agenda the whole trip thus far…and we love it.

Both shows were quite good.  All evening it felt like this was the last night for the cruise.  And by golly, it is for some.  Apparently this cruise can begin and end from Kiel, Germany and begin and end from Copenhagen.  Fascinating.  Anyway, the main show had lots of fun acts and good singing and dancing.  But the lounge show, with the Big Band of the Sea and a guy named Lance Ellington who is the son of the famous band leader Duke Ellington, took the night.  What an amazing performance by him and the band.  I love good instrumentals and we got great instrumentals from this band our whole cruise.  Really nice job.

Pictures to follow:

Us in the panoramic elevator that goes up and down looking out over the sea.

Ilene and Denise catching some sun rays in reserved seats in some lounge.  It’s the wine bar and some group had it reserved.  It didn’t stop them though.

You don’t see this much any more on cruises…but they did have some carved fruit in the buffet.

Us learning how to waltz…not pretty…but we got the job done.

Ilene and Denise back in the spa.  They’ve had a great time there.

Our waiter.  I don’t think he’s got our orders completely right any of the nights.  But he’s a great guy who likes to laugh with us.

This is the only night that the ‘partied’ in the dining room.  Different from Carnival Cruises whom party every night.

These 4 guys are the acrobat team on the boat.  The flip and flop and do all kinds of crazy things.  They performed tonight in our main show.

This guy and girl are so strong and flexible.  They do all kinds of crazy stuff with their bodies.

Lance Ellington…the video below will allow you to hear him sing a bit.

The ship dancing team.

It was wash day in the flat.   We’ve had things hanging all over this place drying.  It works quite well actually.

Defying Gravity from Wicked!  Love it.