Lots of Amazing Places

Helsinki, Finland's capital, has a population about 600,000 people.  It is located in the south of the country. Finland has a total population of about five million.  Finlanders (or Finns) generally enjoy a comfortable standard of living and are consistently rated among the happiest people in the world.  I spent about five days here, exploring the city and some nearby islands and parks.  Lots to love here! Welcome!  I found Helsinki people to be friendly and helpful.  They generally love their country and are proud of it.  I spent most of my time in Helsinki, where the vast majority are multilingual, speaking Finnish, Swedish, and English. Here's the Helsinki waterfront.  A big fish market, including a floating market like this, selling fish directly to customers Facing the waterfront is this massive Lutheran Cathedral, a place where nationally important services are held, and a wonderful venue for concerts (I attended one while I was here; the ac...

Spent about ten days in Sweden, including two days in Malmö, three days in Gothenburg, and four days in Stockholm.  It was a wonderful tour through southern Sweden, with interesting old/new cities, lots of history, cool architecture, and even a few outdoor and nature adventures. Sweden, one of three Scandinavian countries (the others are Norway and Denmark), is a country with about 10.5 million people in an area about the size of California or Spain.  It is the largest Nordic country by size, and the fifth largest country in Europe. It has the world's 14th highest median income and ranks very highly in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality and prosperity (from Wikipedia).  Top global brands headquartered in Sweden include Spotify, Volvo, Electrolux, Ericsson, and IKEA. The Swedish flag MALMO is Sweden's third largest city (pop ~350,000) and is across the Öresund Strait from Copenhagen....

  Where in the world is Denmark?  It's the smallest Scandinavian country, about one third the size of Pennsylvania and about the same size as the Netherlands or Switzerland.   It is home to about six million people. Denmark has a large peninsula, two large islands beside it, and about 444 other (smaller) islands scattered along its roughly 1,000 mile /  1,700 km main coastline.  The peninsula, called Jutland, has the largest land mass and "juts" north from Germany.  The island  east of Jutland is called Funen, and east of Funen is the island called Zealand.  Copenhagen is on the far east side of Zealand; Odense is the largest city in Funen, and Esbjerg is a largish city on the western side of Jutland.  I visited all three of these cities while I was in Denmark. COPENHAGEN:  Capital of Denmark, greater metro area is home to about 2 million Danes.  It is densely populated, efficiently organized, comfortable to visit, and easy to ...