Reflections of Travel to Europe

 As a four-decade Certified Travel Agent, international airline employee, hypothetical, writer, learned, and photographer, travel, whether for pleasure or matter purposes, has always been a significant and an integral part of my dynamism. Some 400 trips to all share of the globe, by means of road, rail, sea, and environment, entailed destinations both mundane and exotic. This article focuses regarding those in Europe.

Ireland:

Ireland, the emerald green isle, was moreover visited harshly a number of occasions, and its attractions included Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Phoenix Park in Dublin. A Glens of Antrim itinerary included Belfast; Ballycastle, Dunluce Castle; the Old Bushmills Distillery; the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge; and the Giant's Causeway, which was comprised of volcanic hexagonal basalt columns, all in Northern Ireland.

Morning tea in the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle included scones, butter, jam, whipped cream, and pots of the tea itself, and lunch in the Royal Court Hotel featured light fruit; a topside of beef, gravy, horseradish, a pastry cup, roasted potatoes, boiled potatoes, carrots, and cabbage; strawberry and kiwi pavlova after that whipped cream and strawberry sauce; coffee; and chocolate mints.

Great Britain:

Great Britain accounted for numerous, compound-mode trips to its three England, Scotland, and Wales divisions and several of the British Isles.

Sightseeing in London encompassed every one of of its totally symbols, including the Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the Jewel House, St. Paul's Cathedral, Number Ten Downing Street (the credited home of the English Prime Minister). Buckingham Palace, the changing of the Guard, a cruise almost the River Thames, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Cutty Sark, the Royal Naval College, and the Greenwich Observatory, where Greenwich Mean Time was complimentary.

A stay at the Hansel and Gretel Hotel in London, whose fairytale served as its trimming theme bearing in mind gingerbread and witches' brooms in the dining room, included a daily English breakfast of eggs, bacon, and racks of toast.

Southampton was a frequent pre- and tallying-cruise and -crossing harbor of embarkation and disembarkation.

Scotland coverage included Glasgow, Greenock, South Queensferry, and Edinburgh, the latter once visits to its New Town, the Old Town, the 12th century medieval Edinburgh Castle, and the Royal Mile.

The primordial archaeological site of Skara Brae, dating from 3,000 BC, he Skaill House, the Ring of Brogar, Scapa Flow, and Kirkwall were each and every one explored in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland.

A narrow-gauge rail journey threaded its showing off through Snowdonia National Park in Wales.

Travel to Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, accounted for sightseeing to St. Peter Port, Sausmarez Manor, and an island dream that took in St. Martin's Parish, St. Pierre du Bois, Rocquaine Bay, St. Saviors Parish, Reservoir, Little Chapel, and St. Andrew Parish.

Scandinavia:

Numerous trips were made to the four Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in Continental Europe.

Denmark:

Denmark, the first of them, saying both walking and motor coach tours of Copenhagen's significant sights, including the Radhuspladsen or City Hall; Nyhaven or New Haven, a canal lined as soon as shimmering 18th-century houses and enjoyed upon a ship cruise; Christiansborg Palace, Rosenborg Castle, Amalienborg Palace, the famed Little Mermaid, the Ny Carlsberg Glyypotek art museum, the pedestrian-and no-one else Stroget shopping street, the Round Tower, and Tivoli Gardens.

A ferry created disaffect from Copenhagen to the island of Funen, its city of Odense serving as the gateway to the Hans Christian Andersen House, the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, the Manor House, a Danish Country Church, a Danish Farm, and the Oak Forest Castle.

Copenhagen hotel-included breakfasts always featured wienerbrod, or Danish pastries, and a smorgasbord fat the central railroad station entailed on summit of 60 dishes, from appetizers to dessert.

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Finland:

Coated in spacious snow, Helsinki, an overnight decrease upon an easterly global circumnavigation flight, entailed sightseeing of its Market Square, its Helsinki Cathedral, its Railway Station, and stone-built Temppeliaukio Church.

High prices necessitated "tourist fixes" of crusty baguettes and soft cheese for breakfast purchased in the bakery re the corner from the hotel and smoked salmon for lunch eaten in the airfield past departure to Tokyo.

Norway:

A cruise through the Norwegian Fjords, and no-one else a prelude of what was to higher come, proved a highlight to Oslo, along taking into account visits to the Fram House, which contained the restored, adequately-rigged ship that undertook both North and South Pole expeditions, the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Norwegian Folk Museum, Viigeland Sculpture Park (dubbed unselfishness in the world's largest sculpture park), the Viking Ships Museum, the Holmenkollen Ski Jump taking into account than used in the Olympics, Stortovet Cathedral, the Flower Market, the Royal Palace, and Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle in Oslo that was constructed to find the maintenance for a royal in flames in the city.

Extensive coverage of the Norwegian Fjords was along with made.

From Olden, sights included Kjonesfjorden, the valley; Undeelva, the glacier-fed river; Tverrfjellet, the mountain across the road; Ostedal Glacier, Northern Europe's largest; the Norsk Bremuseum, the Norwegian Glacier Center; Jostedal Glacier, from a second vantage mitigation; the Julestova Christmas Shop; the Audhild Vikers Verstove; and Nordfjorden.

A typically Norwegian buffet lunch, served in the Skei Hotel in the town of the thesame publicize, included smoked salmon bearing in mind mustard sauce, egg salad, potato salad, and skinny, crispy Norwegian flat bread; gratinated fish, roasted potatoes, lasagna, and dark Norwegian goat cheese; and chocolate flan, Norwegian rice pudding, and animate raspberries.

From Flam, a steer to Stalheim upon the Stalheimskleiva Road, Europe's steepest like 13 hairpin turns, preceded a decline at the Stalheim Hotel for flaky apple, raisin, and nut Danish pastries covered when maple syrup and served once tea, in the past continuation to the ski resort town of Voss to see the Tvinde Waterfall. A lunch buffet in the Hotel Voss itself, which included smoked salmon and smoked trout; a salad of lettuce, cucumber, Norwegian cheese, and Russian dressing; French bread; a meatloaf patty, frikadeller, and boiled potatoes; chocolate flan and caramel custard; and coffee, became the prelude to a rail ride from Voss to Myrdal upon the Bergen Railway and later a transfer to the neatly-known Flam Railway, which pursued it mountain-hugging, tunnel-tiring, 886-meter track origin. A visit to the Kjosfossen Waterfall along the quirk and a visit to the Flam Railway Museum at its terminus capped the incredible daylight of experiences.

Alesund afforded sightseeing of the Burgund Church, the Sunnmore Museum, and the Fjellstua Overlook, even though Bergen entailed visits to Bryggen; the Fantoft Stave Church; and Troldhaugen, the Edvard Grieg Museum, once a piano concert of his music. The Hanseatic Merchant's Warehouses, a UNESCO World Heritage site, became the first to visit after a brief ride, and it was followed by sightseeing of Schotstuene and the Old Guild Hall.

Sweden:

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, redefined the word "city" behind its 14 islands and more than 50 bridges nestled upon an extensive Baltic Sea archipelago. Within the cobblestone streets and ochre-colored buildings upon Gamla Stan (Swedish for "Old Town") were the 13th-century Storkyrkan Cathedral, the Kungliga Slottet Royal Palace, and the Nobel Museum, which focused upon the Nobel Prize.

New perspectives were gleaned during sightseeing boat excursions surrounded by the islands. Skansen, the first dealings-look museum and zoo in Sweden and located upon the island of Djurgarden, archaic by now to 1891 and showcased liveliness in every choice parts of the country since the Industrial period.