Assembling the puzzle

Storyline: Scandinavia

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Our Scandinavian trip was anything but short of adventures. In the next little while we’ll take you through Sweden and Norway: perhaps as usually happens, first my posts and then Alex’s videos. Finland was not part of this trip, but we hope to get there one day. The posts will not necessarily follow our itinerary. But here is the summary of it.

The adventures began during planning. Scandinavia has been a vague idea for at least 10 years. I have multiple Excel spreadsheets with itineraries, timetables, transport and hotel prices. Returning from our fall travel last year I decided to have a new look into a Scandinavia trip. From the medical insurance perspective we only can do 31 days, departure and arrival included, without breaking the bank. And even then, Alex is only insured for his heart condition. His CLL is not considered stable since he is on daily targeted therapy, a pill like for his heart.

When planning our trips, I make sure the major items – flights, accommodations and intercity connections are identified and, when possible pre-booked. Knowing that Scandinavia is very popular in summer, I didn’t want to risk finding ourselves stuck in one place when our pre-booked accommodation was elsewhere and transportation to our destination unavailable. This approach has worked well for us over the years, but as you’ll see, booking accommodations early and anticipating that existing intercity rail or bus timetables will not change by the time the booking window opens may not always work…

To kick things off, Air Canada announced a new direct flight from Toronto Pearson Airport to Stockholm Arlanda. The first flight was scheduled for June 4, 2025. I watched the prices for a while until I found tickets for a decent price and booked it. It was exactly for June 4^th, returning from Copenhagen Airport on July 4^th. This gave me the time span of our Sweeden and Norway travels. Itinerary adjusted to these dates, initially was:

1. A week in Stockholm, which later would change
2. Two nights in Kiruna, Sweden, staying in a Sami lodge and museum and a visit to a Sami village
3. Two nights in Narvik, Norway
4. Two nights in Tromsø
5. Five nights in Bergen
6. One night in Flåm, so we could take the world famous, scenic Flåmsbana train
7. Five nights in Oslo
8. One night in Göteborg, Sweden
9. Two nights in Helsingborg
10. One night in Malmö and a morning train to CPH airport. We’d been to Denmark in 2015, so revisiting Copenhagen (which we loved) wasn’t on the list. Our itinerary was already full.

The train timetables were not yet released in November last year.  To use my Thanksgiving discounts on Booking I had to book most of the accommodations in early November. Even at that time there was almost nothing in our price range in Oslo for the end of June! I managed to find an Airbnb apartment for a decent price and grabbed it. Alex did some research and informed me that there was a big rock festival that week and perhaps that’s why Oslo was fully booked. When we arrived there, we discovered that it was actually their Pride week. And the Norwegians take this seriously. There were millions on the streets, but this for later. I also wanted to stop at Finse Hotel 1222 (1222 meters above the sea level). This hotel can only be reached by train. It would have been instead of the night in Flåm.

Unfortunately, even over 7 months in advance it was fully booked. Once the dates were worked out, I began booking accommodations. Flexible to change and cancel. We’ve heard that eating out is very expensive and having a drink is prohibitively expensive. I booked short term rentals (via Booking and Airbnb) where we stay more that a day or two, so we can grocery shop and cook our meals.

In the meantime, I had already booked our 2025 winter trip to Portugal and Spain. So early January we took off for our winter escape, regularly checking the Swedish train website SJ. There was something strange. Timetables were released, but the night train from Stockholm to Kiruna wasn’t showing.

Most of the train tickets are released 90 days in advance so I had to wait. In March I grew uneasy. Still, no trains were showing from Stockholm to Kiruna for my dates. Finally, called SJ customer service. There was track maintenance every weekend in June. My dates were falling on weekend. The only train going from Boden, Sweden to Narvik, Norway within my timeframe was on June 12. Of course, their winter would just have finished and their construction season would begin. Just like home in Canada.

And so many changes were awaiting. Cancel Kiruna booking first. Then the 7 days in a Stockholm apartment. To take this last train from Boden to north of the Arctic Circle we had to first book a sleeper train from Stockholm. It is about a 13 hours journey. Then another 7 or 8 hours to Narvik. Made sense to have a one-night break in Boden. This meant that we had to leave Stockholm on June 10, two days earlier. Given the lack of available accommodations in Oslo, I had to stick to my dates there with the Airbnb. Didn’t want to change Bergen either because of the location and price of the apartment I had already booked. The rest of the accommodations were either changed or canceled. Cities changed too.

Our new itinerary that fit the schedule was:

1. Stockholm – 5 nights
2. Boden – 1 night
3. Narvik – 2 nights
4. Tromsø – 2 nights
5. Bodø – 1 night
6. Trondheim – 2 nights
7. Bergen – 5 nights
8. Flåm – 1 night
9. Oslo – 5 nights
10. Malmö – 4 nights

As you noticed we now had a lot of one and two nights stay. Arriving sometimes late at night it didn’t make sense to book short term rentals for these places. Are we going to look for a grocery store at midnight, and spent the only day cooking our meals?

What were my other options? I was quite lucky with the timing. Early November Booking.com sent an e-mail giving me 17% Thanksgiving discount if I booked then. My Rogers Mastercard partnered with Booking. I had another 7% discount if I used this card. Having a long relationship with Booking (I’ve need using it more or less since it was founded) gave me 20% discount on selected accommodations. Needless to say, I use all my discounts and booked a few hotels here and there through Booking.com. They all had breakfast and some in the north had also dinners included. This saved us a lot of money on food.

There was still Stockholm and a few more. Then I remembered that I have Best Western membership since I was traveling for work some 20 years ago. It gives me some discounts and we’ve used it here in Canada.  There was Best Western Plus at a reasonable price, though some distance from Stockholm centre, and about 30 to 40 min Google walking time from the train station. I booked it. This probably was the best decision for the trip. It was cheaper than the short-term rental apartment I had and it included the best breakfast buffet (in variety and quality) we’ve ever had. Later I’d also book Best Western in Malmö. By early May all accommodations and means of transport were booked. For Norway there was one government app, Entur, that handled all the transport. I downloaded it and did the booking through it. For the Swedish part they sent tickets to my e-mail and I had them printed at home. Booking and Best Western had their own app. So, we were all set to go.

Our carry-ons took lots of cold weather clothes, too many actually, a spare pair of shoes each, rain coats and rain ponchos (the latter we never used), tons of technology: Alex’s Insta360 video equipment has grown to a much bigger monster with microphones, attachments, etc. some of which we never used. Power bank, many converters, computers. Alex’s big medicine bag was joined by his new immunotherapy equipment and supplies – liquids, pump, syringes, etc. They all fit in a backpack.

The second backpack I took was almost empty, having my neck pillow and my purse in. But we had two SAS flights and their website stated a limit of 8 kg for carry-ons and personal items. For us this totaled to 32 kg for all luggage. Our suitcases were around 9 or 10kg, but the total of all luggage was around 28kg. If needed I could redistribute.

Please join us as we relive this trip. Follow our stories centred around these cities and the public transport we took to and from them, trying to cover some of the vast Norwegian coastline, only second in length to Canada’s.