The day after my brother Danny, his wife Cindy and I arrived in the Netherlands, we left Eddie and Quiding's house before sunrise to start this year's 10-day family European road tour. Our sister Violeta (Baby) and her husband Peping arrived a few days earlier to join the family road tour for the first time. Danny and Cindy live in the Philippines, Baby and Peping in Pennsylvania, and I in California. It was the end of July and after months of planning, our international family was finally ready to embark on another European road tour.

The first leg of our journey took us to Hamburg, Germany. The ruins of Nikolaikirche (St. Nikolai Church), with everything but its bell tower razed to the ground, are a lasting reminder of the wide destruction from air raids during World War II. Later on towards the end of our journey, we would see a similar site in the center of Berlin.

We were on our way to Denmark by mid-afternoon when we happened to see a sign by the autobahn directing us to a Schloss (palace) in Schleswig. Allowing our sense of adventure to take over as we have done so many times in past road tours, we exited the autobahn and followed the sign.

Though Schleswig was unfamiliar to us, we were immediately attracted to its charm and historical significance. Schleswig evolved in the 11th century as a trading link between the North and Baltic Seas. The Schlei, a fjord of the Baltic Sea, extends to the city of Schleswig.

After sauntering around Gottorf Palace, which is now a museum, and stopping briefly at the Zentrum for some Eis (ice cream), we settled in a bed and breakfast hotel by the Schlei, with rooms that overlook the palace. The following morning, we were treated to a traditional hearty German breakfast of fresh bread, cold cuts, eggs and various kinds of salads and cheeses. There was plenty of food to spare for lunch. We capped our stay in Schleswig with a relaxing morning stroll by the Schlei before proceeding to Denmark. We were happy to add Schleswig to our list of fine discoveries.

We spent most of the afternoon on a walking tour of Copenhagen, occasionally stopping for pictures at landmarks like the mermaid, a monument to Hans Christian Andersen. Unable to find rooms for the night in Copenhagen, we drove north to Helsingor. We were disappointed that we were again unable to find a place to sleep in Helsingor, and therefore, would have to miss Hamlet's Castle (Kronborg Castle). Since it was getting late, we decided to take a ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden. Our disappointment vanished when upon getting on the ferry, we were greeted at the deck with a scenic sunset view of Hamlet's Castle. It was in Helsingborg that we learned about the chain of Scandic hotels. We ended up in a Scandic hotel throughout our stay in Scandinavia. By the fourth day, we were so familiar with their buffet breakfast that we knew exactly which items to feast on and which ones to avoid.

As in past road tours, we brought along portable cooking stoves and food for lunch. Our lunches consisted of roadside-cooked rice, marinated meat (tocino, complete with achara), fish, vegetables, corned beef, bread, sausages and cheese.

On our way to Norway, we took a detour to Lake Vänern close to Vänersborg in the Halle-Hunneberg area of Sweden. We were not aware that the lake is not directly accessible by car. Hungry and caught in the rain while driving, we found a picnic bench in the woods and ate our lunch as it drizzled. We were just about ready to give up looking for the lake when the sky started clearing up, so Danny, Cindy and I braved the hilly woods to find the lake. A brief hike led us to a wonderful view of Lake Vänern. Soon, the rest of our reluctant party would follow, not wanting to miss out on the chance to see the lake that we drove so far to see. After taking some pictures and enjoying the lake view, we were on our way to Norway. The sky would remain clear and sunny the rest of our time in Scandinavia.

The following day, we were eager to start our Norwegian adventure. We spent the day touring Oslo using "Hop-On-Hop-Off" bus passes. Oslo struck me as a modern, vibrant city. Its people spoke with a welcome smile on their faces and went out of their way to be helpful. We quickly found out that Norwegians are a very hospitable and friendly people. This, combined with the beautiful views in every place we visited in Norway, made our stay in this Nordic nation very enjoyable.

The bus tour took us to various Oslo landmarks including several museums, the city hall where the annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held, the Royal Palace, the Oslo Cathedral, the Akershus Castle and Fortress, and Vigeland Park. We did not have time to stop at all of the landmarks, but we made sure we spent some time at the Akershus Castle and Fortress, and at Vigeland Park.

The Vigeland sculpture park was the highlight of Eddie and Quiding's trip to Norway about 40 years ago, when they had just moved to the Netherlands from the Philippines. The park contains a huge fountain and many, many sculptures with hundreds of figures, all modeled in full size by the Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland who also designed the architectural setting and the layout of the park grounds. A monolithic column is the prominent feature of the park. Made from a single block of stone, the entire column is covered with carvings of over a hundred human figures.

Our next target destination was one of the fjords in the western part of Norway. However, the drive to get to the Norwegian fjord country is long and arduous. We were about to give up the plan when we discovered in the tourist information office in Oslo a one-day tour to the Sognefjord. One of the longest and deepest fjords in the world, Sognejord extends more than 100 miles inland, halfway to the Swedish border.