Summer 2025 - Copenhagen to Stockholm, 12 days on a cruise. Twenty years ago, Tiffany and I got married and took a cruise for our honeymoon. With fond memories of friendly staff, staggering weight gain from endless food and many ocean adventures, I booked us on our second cruise to celebrate our anniversary.
June 10, 2025 - Departure SFO to Copenhagen
Getting ready for takeoff in the Air France lounge.
Yo! Sydney found the ultimate Coke, bro.
Arrived in Copenhagen and our Hotel Nimb is directly connected to Tivoli Gardens, which is a combination garden and amusement park.
It is said Tivoli Garden inspired Walt Disney - this ride sure looks a LOT like the Matterhorn!
Main square in Copenhagen.
Georgia enjoyed the two peacocks that acted like they owned Tivoli. They were quite stunning!
Pedestrian street in Copenhagen. One of the most shocking and “disturbing” aspects of Copenhagen? NO one was glued to their phones! People actually walked the streets with their heads up, looking around. Groups of young people sat at bars and restaurants and TALKED to each other and actually seemed to be enjoying each other’s company! It was sadly shocking how notable it was, and unlike what we are used to seeing, but such a pleasant surprise. No wonder Denmark ranks #2 in the World Happiness Report! #1 is Finland, their Nordic neighbor, but of course they have reindeer so no surprise there.
It’s such a beautiful city with all the water, which the Danish take great pride in. Apparently the river is clean enough to drink (we did not test this!)
We couldn’t figure out this wooden ramp into the water. Not a slide, bike seems dangerous?
The golden statue of the girl on a bike is on a turntable with multiple statues that indicate the weather (ie. there’s a guy with an umbrella that comes out when it’s raining) and you can see the thermostat below her!
More photos of beautiful Copenhagen! We took a two hour bike tour which was a great way to see the city.
The Hotel Nimb in Copenhagen had maybe our favorite hotel buffet breakfast ever. It wasn’t huge but everything was delicious! Like Georgia’s french toast.
The best. Strawberries. Ever. We ate an entire platter one morning and after that they stopped replenishing them. I think they pegged us as the “Strawberry Monsters”. Which we were, they were SO good!
The famous Little Mermaid statue.
Tiffany found her namesake building (in gold above left).
Christiania was an old hippie commune in Copenhagen. The apartments are free, if there’s one available, and they are collectively owned, so you can’t buy it or sell it.
On our last morning, Sydney and I took the plunge, literally. We joined the Nordic tradition and jumped into the canal. Yes it was freezing! But it definitely woke us up!
Alive and well post cold plunge.
We boarded our ship, the Oceania Sirena, with no problem in Copenhagen. The girls made the mistake (again!) of visiting our room first (bigger room) before their room, which was still a nice room! In fact they had the same room Tiffany and I had on our honeymoon 20 years ago. But it’s true, our cabin is really nice. We have a living room separate from a nice sized bedroom and two(!) bathrooms. A dedicated butler handles all our needs and they let me choose 6 bottles of liquor for our bar for the trip, which is ridiculous, because I chose things like Buffalo Trace whisky and Casamigos tequila. Who is going to drink 6 bottles in 12 days?!? I gave a bottle of Belvedere vodka to our tour guide in Visby and gave the others away as well.
Sunday, June 15-16 Warnemünde, Germany
Beachtown - we saw a youth handball tournament. Sydney got earrings (blue possibly tanzanite).
Tuesday, June 17 Karlskrona, Sweden
Sydney and I found a park with a soccer ball and started playing, then two teens came over and challenged us to a game (or just wanted to kick the ball around with us), but we were too confused and scared (too friendly, ack!) and left. Somehow we are always able to find churros in our travels, it’s really a universal snack apparently. Also found some delicious potato chips on a stick.
Wednesday, June 18 Visby, Sweden
Bike ride through a medieval Swedish town that still had castle walls that stood to protect from Danish invaders. Apparently the Swedish townspeople inside the walls gathered the farmers outside the wall with the plan to join them upon Danish attack. They did not, nor did they open the gates. Needless to say it did not go well for the farmers.
Here’s the girls in front of our Sirena ship.
Thursday, June 19 Mariehamn, Finland
Pizza vending machine. Tiny bed store. I got a replacement wedding band from the store by the dock. Mariehamm is Finland but most of the people working here are Swedish according to the store owner, who made a lot of the goods she was selling, along with her mom and sister. Very cute stuff!
Pizza from a vending machine is indeed hitting the Jackpot!
Suffice to say, there were no surviving slices of pizza.
Friday, June 20 Vaasa, Finland
At this point in the cruise, the girls felt very comfortable ordering smoothies to their room, so much so that one waiter would spot them around the ship and call out, “Hey Smoothie Girls!”
We stopped in Vaasa apparently during a holiday so there wasn’t much open to see, but we did find a fresh orange juice machine in a supermarket that was super fun to use and even more delicious to drink.
We also grew to love the various restaurants on the ship, in particular the Italian steakhouse, where Sydney discovered a love of seafood via an excellent Dover sole, filleted tableside no less. We could really get use to this cruise lifestyle…
Saturday/Sunday, June 21-22, Kemi, Finland
Kemi had a museum dedicated to the snow experience and a gemstone gallery. Interesting combination and perfect for our family.
The girls do their best Han Solo imitation:
Snow and ice everywhere in this exhibit, including some slides. We were given thin fleece blankets which did little to keep us warm.
The second day in Kemi we decided would be a ship day so we explored the ship. Ping pong corn hole, and of course, lots of food.
Monday June 23, Lulea Sweden
It was a cold rainy day in Lulea. We basically walked a bit, went inside a mall to get a snack, then caught the first bus we could to get back to the comfort of our ship!
We noticed in the street that they seemed to be selling super stretchy underwear? Big enough to fit a hula hoop!
Sydney is amused by the super stretchy underwear vendor.
June 24, Sundsvall, Sweden
It was another chilly day and I can’t find any pictures of Sundsvall, oh well. Instead, knowing that our cruise days were coming to an end, we spent most of the day enjoying the ship.
Sydney loved the pizza at the lunch buffet and waited by the station for a fresh, hot pizza to arrive!
Luckily the pool was heated! Even so, we also spent plenty of time in the hot tubs!
Playing Scrabble in the ship’s game room.
Dinner at our other favorite ship restaurant, Red Ginger.
June 25-26, Stockholm, Sweden
The main dining room on the ship where we ate most our breakfasts. The waiter hunted down two chocolate donuts for the girls! Being the youngest guests onboard by several decades definitely worked to their advantage!
Our first day in Stockholm we spent enjoying yet another beautiful water-filled city with charming architecture. And of course we had to go to the ABBA museum!
Sydney and Georgia doing their best to blend in…
One last order of chocolate covered strawberries and sushi for afternoon snack.
One last tableside Dover sole for Sydney.
Beautiful Stockholm background for our final dinner onboard.
The girls got VERY comfortable with all the delicious food and great service.
Alas it was time to say goodbye to our beloved Sirena. So long on-demand smoothies, thank you to all the amazing, kind staff, we will remember it with full hearts and fuller bellies!
Luckily it was easy to get over our lovely cruise ship as we quickly fell in love with Stockholm, a city of islands with beautiful water views everywhere you look.
Outside the Grand Hotel, our residence for the next few days.
Obviously the Swedes have a strong spa culture (think “Swedish massage”) and our hotel was no exception. The heated spa pool inside the hotel was magical and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
Next, if there’s a theme park in a foreign city, we will find it! Stockholm has Grona Lund, which was a short ferry boat ride from our hotel.
Tiffany clearly enjoyed the fun house, which started with a steep, moving staircase that has definitely bruised many a fallen shin.
The fun house ends with a trap door that sends you flying down a slide to everyone’s great delight!
The rest of our too brief time in Sweden (#4 Happiest country by the way) was spent enjoying more waterways, a visit to the Royal Palace, exploring colorful neighborhoods, and of course, Swedish meatballs!
Our summer adventure ended with one last moment of terror. As we were driving to the Stockholm airport, we realized that one of our bags was missing, and it was Georgia’s backpack! As we navigated through airport security, we managed to get hold of the Grand Hotel staff and they immediately located the backpack and sent a car flying to the airport to try and get the bag to us in time.
As I waited anxiously back outside the airport, I checked my watch every few minutes trying to calculate how long I could wait before I’d have to abandon my post to still make the flight. Finally, a car with flashing headlights screeched up to the curb, with the driver dangling the missing backpack out the window.
With an effusive but brief thank you, I made like the anchor leg of Sydney’s 4 x 100 track squad and grabbed the handoff. I took off running back into the airport, through security, had thoughts of gratitude for my gym membership, only briefly glanced at the tantilizing Duty Free deals, jogged back through the entire terminal, realized I needed more cardio work in my gym membership, and arrived at last, a heaving, sweaty mess to the boarding gate where a lineup of passengers hoped to themselves that I wasn’t seated anywhere near them.
Overall it was a hugely enjoyable vacation and
