Tour Managers Tales

Saturday 17 th July Stockholm, Sweden Things to do Skansen Open-Air Museum Skansen consists of the oldest open-air museum in the world and the Stockholm zoo, with a beautiful location on Royal Djurgården and a view over all of Stockholm. Skansen is a favourite both among Stockholmers and visitors passing through, and it’s a perfect family outing. At Skansen you can learn about traditional crafts and traditions. This is the place to visit historic Sweden in miniature. 150 farms and dwellings from different parts of the country were disassembled and transported here. You’ll find charming town districts with glass blowing, pottery, a tinsmith’s workshop and a bakery, a gold coloured manor house, the Skogaholm manor house, the beautiful eighteenth-century Seglora wooden church and the The museum shop is a must for fans of traditional handicrafts. You can also see all of the animals native to Scandinavia such as moose, bears, lynxes, wolves, wolverines and seals. There is also a...

Friday 16 th July Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm  - is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish  G overnment , the Riksdag, (parliament), and the official residence of the Swedish M onarch  as well as the  Prime Minister . Since 1980, the monarch has resided at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm and uses the Royal Palace of Stockholm as his workplace and official residence. The Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population, Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden with a population of 841,612 in the  municipality , 1.25 million in the urban area, and 2 million in the metropolitan area. Founded circa 1250, Stockholm has long been one of Sweden's cultural , media , political , and  economic  centers. Its strategic location on 14 islands on the south-central east coast of Sweden at the mouth of  Lake Mälaren , by the  Stockholm archipelago ...

Hello, I know its been a while since I last posted, no excuses ...  so to catch up real quick here we go day by day .... Thursday 15 th July Jonkoping, Sweden Perched at the southernmost tip of Lake Vattern, Jonkoping (pronounced “yurn-shurping”) is one of the oldest medieval centres in the country, having won its own town charter in 1284. Today, it's famous for being the home of the matchstick, the nineteenth century manufacture and worldwide distribution of which made Jonkoping a wealthy place. History Jönköping is an old trading center ( Köping ), since it was located on a crossroad for the roads following along the rivers  Nissan  and  Lagan , and the road between the provinces Östergötland  and  Västergötland . This was rather natural due to the geographical position of the city at the southern end of lake Vättern, which divided the two counties. On 18 May 1284, Jönköping received rights as a  City in Sweden  as one of the first c...

Hello, it has been a few weeks since my last update, been having some well enjoyed rest .... but its back to work, and I am now in Copenhagen, arrived here yesterday, after the short SAS flight from London. Arrived at the Hotel, The Admiral, just a short walk from Nyhavn, an area with lots of restaurants right next to the canal. Had a nice dinner last night, then it was an early night, which turned into the longest night, it was a really warm night, and this Hotel has no air conditioning, had to leave the window open and it faces the main street lots of traffic and people shouting and just when it got quiet ... the deliveries started .....in the end I just got up .... We started today with a sightseeing tour of the city, starting off at the Amalienborg Palace, the Queens, winter residence, then it was on to see the Little Mermaid .... but unfortunately she is away on holiday this year to Shangai for the Expo. Finished the tour around 12 midday, and that was it for the da...

We are now back in the UK at least the sun is shining, nearly as warm as it was when we left LA. The last day (Wednesday) seen us heading to Hollywood, most of the group went off with Redline Walking Tours for an insight into the Hollywood "life", after lunch we travelled through Sunset Strip and Beverley Hills before arriving at the airport for the flight to London with Virgin. Alas it was time to say our farewells and hopefully take home some great memories of the 2, 493 miles that we travelled since arriving in LA on the 9th June, just a quick recap, San Diego and its old town, Phoenix and its heat, Sedona with its beautiful red stone rock formations, to the Grand Canyon and the memorable flight, to the glitz and glamour that is Las Vegas, through the desert to Calico the old silver mine town, and not forgetting the afternoon stop in Tehachapi, for that wonderful cream pie !!! next it was off to Yosemite to walk among those old sequoia, and marvel at the scenery and of cou...

Hello, from Anaheim, arrived here on Sunday after a lovely drive down the Pacific Coast from Santa Barbara, staying at the Clarion Hotel in Anaheim, nice and easy for Disneyland, Monday I took the group to Universal Studios for the day ... some got wet !!!! and it had nothing to do with the weather which was a nice 75 F. Today everyone is free to head to Disney whenever they please, it is open until midnight, so lots of time, another nice weather day today (Tuesday) again in the mid 70's. Another paperwork day for me today get everything finished, and ready for home tomorrow evening on the wonderful Virgin .....

Hello, had a great day off in San Francisco, really had a quiet day, got my haircut and just done a load of paperwork, it was good. Today (Saturday) travelled south from San Fran through to Monterey, I think this is a lovely city, would love to spend a few days there, later we went to Carmel and then travelled down Highway 1, Big Sur and a stop to view the elephant seals at San Simeon, then arrived at our Hotel in Cambria, have had Crab Cakes and a Ceaser salad for dinner they are wonderful... off to Solvang an old Danish town in the morning no doubt will have to try out the Danish Pastries !!! then its on to Santa Barbara for lunch and down the coast towards LA and into Anaheim for Disneyland.