10. Abandon Ship! Plan S: Scandinavia!
- writedanielwatson
- Jul 23
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 1
Featuring canceling 3 weeks of carefully designed plans and making it up as we go.
(There are way more pictures below after you hear me rant about the heat wave.)
Today is our scheduled change to the next leg of our trip. Mom flies home from Geneva. Dad and I should train to southeast France to start our tour. Well, I don’t know if you watch the international weather forecast for France — or the entirety of Western Europe — but it was dangerously hot.
Two days before this scheduled next-leg change, we realized that a horrible, historic “heat dome” was scheduled to arrive in 48 hours in the heart of southeastern France, and pretty much all of France, and pretty much all of Europe. The weather was predicting highs of 104.F.
Looking back on what actually happened, the heat dome weather was even worse than what I had predicted. The heat dome lasted 16+ days. France repeatedly had daily highs of 99, 100, 101, 102, with as much as a spike at 114 one day. France and most of Western Europe don’t have the infrastructure to handle this. Something like 10% of homes in England (who also got this heat) have air conditioning. Buildings, homes, apartments, residences — they just don’t have A/C. Also, there is warmth-holding and -emitting stone and surfaces everywhere that trap heat. It’s super dangerous for many reasons, one of them being that the night is particularly unsafe with temperatures not dipping below the 80s. That’s not just a comfort thing, but the body needs lower temps at night for healthy sleep, blood circulation, and other functions.
Same day comparison with no temps, just colors.
So, when things are bad, it’s pretty obvious what we needed to do: abandon ship! We did not want to be in these places for all the reasons. So I threw out all plans for the next 3 weeks and started working on plan B. Well, plan B’s location(s) were too hot also, so I want to plan C. Did a bunch of research, not the right fit.
Earlier, Dad had said that we could fly to Copenhagen, Denmark. I laughed and dismissed that thinking “it’s too far away” for some reason. Well, um, fun fact, Europe is compact. Copenhagen is like a 2 hour flight from Geneva!
So…. I arrived a Plan S: Scandinavia! Literally the only place in central Europe with temps below 85.F for the next two weeks.
What I spent weeks, months, and hours researching for France — threw it out the window — and started building Plan S! I knew I had less than 5% of the time to research, plan, and execute, so I locked into hyperfocus mode and started making real quick and dirty itineraries and plans. Kinda stressful, but in those sorts of situations, using the stress/pressure to motivate is more helpful than worry — so that’s what we did!
I booked two tickets to Copenhagen for 48 hours from then, and said, “Well figure all the rest out!”
I’ve never, ever traveled with this kind of plan before. And by that I mean, I booked a plane flight to Copenhagen and said we’d figure out the rest. This was the wild feeling and excitement that permeated the rest of these three weeks (which I’m writing now, so we survived)
General process for making it happen:
Pick first destination (Copenhagen, Denmark) then get the heck outta Dodge.
Isolate the desired major port cities (Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Bergen, Norway; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki, Finland)
Create a logistically sound route: (plane, train, ferry, tram)
Decide the number of days desired in each and make a general schedule.
Keep booking any transportation to the next place at minimum 24 hours before it leaves (😂); book accommodations 24h in advance or during en route transit (😂); research and establish main locations/activities of importance/interest.
Travel and figure it out!
If it sounds a little zany and crazy and by the seat of your pants, it was!
It’s worth noting that when I was dreaming up what I wanted to do to apply for this Lilly grant. One of the two options I was between was the original plan and Plan S, exploring port cities of Scandinavia. I didn’t actually plan any of that dream because I didn’t get that far and decided to go with Plan A. So, most serendipitously, I was able to make this dream happen. To be honest, I truly forgot about this idea because 1) it was so long ago 2) I was under a lot of pressure to make a decision and get going. It literally wasn’t until like a week into our Scandinavian Adventure before I connected the dots to this old idea and the new idea. That sounds silly, but so it goes.
Day 30. Saturday 6/20/26
We waved Mom goodbye at the Geneva Airport and she cried the whole way home. I wasn’t there so I can’t actually speak to that.
Dad and I got on a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark! (I don’t speak Danish. Haven’t learned any phrases. I don’t know what the currency is. I don’t have the city center map generally memorized. I don’t even know technically where on the map exactly city center is. I don’t have the public transport app downloaded.) Let’s go to Denmark!
Getting off the plane, we walked past tons of pictures/info stations advertising highlights of Copenhagen and Denmark at large. I took pictures of all of them and laughed. I kind of felt like I was landing in London for the first time and being like “Oh, that’s a cool big clock tower, doesn’t it have a name?” Or “Wow, you sound like you have a little bit of an accent.” — I knew nothing and everything was new. This ignorance was strangely fun and freeing throughout the trip.
Bike Tour. Schlepped our stuff and dropped it behind the counter at the bike company, threw on a helmet, and off we went! A guide toured us around the city and we had the best time seeing everything for the first time and asking dumb tourist questions.
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. In Denmark, they speak Danish and English. Folks from Denmark are called Danes. If you were born in Sweden, but lived most of your life in Denmark, you are Dann-ish. HA!
POP QUIZ
We don't have many buildings and structures around the world prior to the 1700s because:
A) caught fire and burnt down.
B) wars be bustin' stuff up.
C) modern folks tore it down to build H&Ms.
D) buildings just fall apart, yo.
Answer: Like your favorite fast-food meal, it’s a combo choice here. It’s both of the first two, with usually everything burning down between around the 1700s and if they were lucky, some places lasting up to 1920, before catching fire and burning down. So many cities were destroyed by fire. Meals were cooked with fire, and fire was used for light. And for burning cities to the ground. If not fire, many cities were severely damaged during WWII or other wars before or after.
We landed the plane, stored our stuff at the bike shop, and hopped on a bike tour!
Here are some highlights I learned about Copenhagen (skip this if you just want pretty pictures):
Town hall was rebuilt in a Neoromantic national style, marking the line between old town (within the city walls) and new town. Like all old historic cities, there’s “old town” — where the, um, old history of the city’s civilization exists- and the “new town” — which is, um, developed after that.
Tivoli Gardens is the second-oldest amusement park in the world. Actually have one made of wood with the operator on the ride.
Visited the “Island of power”. All 3 branches of government are here. (The Danish Parliament (Folketinget), The Supreme Court, The Prime Minister's Office). They had 5 castles on these premises; a series of unfortunate events: the Germans destroyed the Danish fortress because the Danes started going into a competing herring business. (Not a joke). Since the Germans are "tidy”, they took all the stones with them back to Germany so the Danes couldn't rebuild it. Christianborg Palace is below.
National Joke: Danes have 5 weeks of vacation; the royal horses get 6.
All rulers' names are always Christian and Fredrick. Mostly the Christians were the "important" ones. You remember their number (IV, VII) more than the name.
The Black Diamond is the newly built library that attaches to the old national library. It's made of a special granite from Zimbabwe, which shimmers in the canal each morning, reflecting the sunlight. The Black Diamond is below.
Danish architecture museum is in Blox. Lego is a Danish company
Up until 1990, an active harbor. Factories went bankrupt; economic problems grew. The city was shrinking in population. The city decided to get their act together and start investing in infrastructure. Built a lot of housing, reshaped the geography of the harbor, cleaned up the water. They crushed it because now Copenhagen tops the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Livability Index as the world's most livable city. Globally recognized for
it's pristine environment,
world-leading green technology (CopenHill waste-to-engery plant). See below. You can literally ski down it.
carbon-neutral district heating,
swimmable harbors (like 14 official bathing spots, but most locals just jump in wherever), c
cycling culture (60% of residents commute to work/school via bike,
smart, creative, sustainable urban planning
Walked through Christiana. An unofficial “city” within Copenhagen. They were described to us as hippies, progressive, bohemian folks. They have their own set of town rules ( like a little government), live simply, like Woodstock, and being chill. Used to have a big drug, gang, and violence problem. Police got involved. Now no gangs and violence. Here's our photo in what I realized later was a "no photo" alternative city.
Saw “The Little Mermaid” statue. Hans Christian Andersen (Danish) wrote the story; Disney made it popular. Like most children's fairytales, the original story doesn't have a happy ending. The sculptor of The Little Mermaid was inspired by a particular dancer, who agreed to be the model for the sculptor, but only after the fact realized it was going to be a nude, and didn't do that. What's a sculptor to do? Solution: paint the face of the dancer on the naked body of his wife. Brilliant.
After Bike tour, sat down for a bevi at what we thought was a super casual street patio. Turns out it was a fancy Michelin-star-recommended restaurant. We enjoyed a really good bottle of wine, highly recommended by our young, experienced server… who has never tasted wine. She said she doesn’t drink; she does all her work based on smell and book/sommelier research. This is the first I’ve heard of this, and I would have to say that is weird and cool.
Had a swag full apartment to ourselves. Expensive and lots of windows. Beautiful, but had a lot of broken pieces, like the window frame that swung out of it’s stripped screws and fell out and and hit me on the head. Not kidding.
