Helsingborg, Sweden

Our first port of call was Helsingborg, Sweden.  Since we are traveling with a toddler we decided it would be easier for us to do our own shore excursions.  It's cheaper and we can tailor them to our needs.  We looked at the shore excursions offered by Holland America and then decided what we wanted to do from there.

The Swedish people were very kind and welcoming.  Most everyone spoke English.  We decided that going to the open air museum would be the most enjoyable for our family.  Our son loved it and so did we. The open air museum is called the Sofiero Gardens.  We took the local bus to the gardens and walked up the hill.  It was about a 15 minute bus drive from the town center, very easy to get to.  The bus driver even told us when to get off.  The gardens had a lot of neat things in it.  You learn about farming and how to grow a garden, there are farm animals, a children's activity house where kids draw pictures of what they saw, we even got to hang our son's picture on the wall.  It was a beautiful place to run around and explore, perfect for a little guy with a lot of energy.

One of many garden plots

Children fishing in the little pond

Old town

Sweet boy in the children's learning center at Sofiero Gardens

After touring the gardens we headed back to the town center.  I wanted to buy a dress from Sweden.  Thankfully there was a H&M.  H&M has less expensive clothes than many places and the style is usually more alligned with what I would wear.  Sweden is expensive, not as expensive as some of the other places we visited but more expensive than Germany.  I lucked out with finding a beautiful blue and white dress for half off. 

Enjoying our balcony in my new dress

My husband enjoyed going in one of the electronic stores and seeing a 3-D TV.  On the ship we met a man who had a 3-D video camera, which was neat.  I'm not a big TV person so it will be a long time before we make a purchase like that but it was neat to see.