This blog entry is to educate travelers on 1) traveling to London, Helsinki and Tallinn and 2) the unique aspects with traveling with someone 37 years younger than oneself. This all occurred in August 2023 in great summer time weather.
First, I will focus on the unique aspects. Obviously, typically the much younger person has more energy, stamina, and speed of walking than someone 64 years old. Yes, of course, at 64 you can be in excellent shape and be an athlete even, but it is very hard to “keep up” with someone young enough (technically) to be your grandchild. You can try mightily to keep up, or just simply lag behind and then catch up at times. Both strategies were employed by me during this trip.
How about dehydration ? Yes, it can easily happen during a one day trip in London, in warm summer weather, if you do not religiously drink water. Water, not any soda drinks with caffeine that will further dehydrate you due to caffeine’s mild diuretic effect.
How about “mild hyponatremia” ? Yes, it can easily happen if you get dehydrated because sodium is excreted during sweating. If your blood sodium gets too low, you get the symptoms of mild hyponatremia (vertigo, unsteadiness on your feet, fatigue, etc). It is a very uncomfortable condition and cripples your traveling. I had to see a “private physician” in Helsinki to address this, and he (a very competent young doctor perhaps early 30’s) simply said, stop drinking too much water and don’t take any sodium pills, just eat “normally” to get your sodium level back up. I had drunk about 5 liters of water to cure my dehydration (it worked, for sure) but the risk is that your blood sodium can dip a bit too low. So, dehydration and drinking too much water can both cause this condition
Back to unique aspects: Again obviously, typically the interests of the much younger person do not coincide with yours. You can have some interests in common but of course, he or she will have different interests during traveling. Shopping and fine dining were the two interests I did not share, but the $750 dinner for two in Helsinki was wonderful, I must admit. https://olo-ravintola.fi/en/ is the restaurant, and I highly recommend it if you don’t mind spending that kind of cash. A once in a lifetime experience.
Spending time together ? You really cannot spend 100% of your time with the younger person. He or she needs to go off by himself or herself to get some space and just do what he or she wants for a while. I would think cases of a much younger person choosing to be with the older one 100% of the time are limited to special situations, or if the younger person is, maybe, over 30 or 40 years of age. I do think the vast majority of people in their 20’s want some time alone or with others their age. Totally normal.
My son and I have an excellent relationship, so the unique aspects were not bothersome at all. He did tease me once about having lead in my legs *insert big smile* I do think it behooves an older person to take an active interest in how the younger perceives the trip and just to educate him/herself about the overall experience of the younger. Mutual understanding is good.
I would highly recommend that the older person at least make an effort to improve their health and stamina before such a trip. You will not regret it, at all.
Now onto the fun of the trip. I will address London first.
London in August 2023
First, the negatives. It is swarming with tourists, obviously. The British are non-existent in some places.
A temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) is very pleasant and not too warm to me. However, I am from Florida. We get 80 degrees on a nice warm winter day. 27 C might bother you. So, be prepared for this.
London is not cheap, in the least. Just ordering a small soda in a small glass costs 3 GBP minimum ($3.82 USD right now). Your hotel will not be cheap, unless you really search hard or don’t mind, ahem, sub-par conditions. Use a hostel or AirBnb (maybe?) if you want to save money. I know nothing about camping in or near London.
Taking a taxi from Heathrow (west of London), even without a tip, will set you back at least 90 GBP ($117.90). Taking a taxi to Gatwick (south of London) will set you back at least 125 GBP ($159.38). Of course, taking a train saves you a ton of money, which is what we did on the first leg of the trip (Florida to London several hour layover).
The commuter train from Gatwick to London (on a Thursday) was packed to the gills with commuters. It was a decent trip, just super crowded. The Heathrow Express train out to Heathrow was also a decent trip, also crowded.
Do not expect your taxi driver to helpfully load your large heavy suitcase into their vehicle. If they do, consider yourself fortunate. The taxi driver from Heathrow to our hotel near the Tower of London did absolutely nothing to help me. The very worst moment of my trip occurred here: all the super-trivial frustrations and hassles had built up inside me, and this was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I did get a bit angry, tossed my 40 pound-ish suitcase into his vehicle and got in, grumbling a bit. Then my son loaded his suitcase and got in. The taxi driver did notice this and, amazingly, commented on how strong I was. I was immediately extremely embarrassed and apologized to my son, who very kindly said it was no problem (he’s very tactful, usually). The taxi driver from London to Gatwick did load my suitcase, which pleased me immensely. So, I do not think it is a British or a London thing, but again, do not automatically expect the helpful loading of your heavy suitcase.
If you use the trains, know exactly what train you want and exactly what platform it uses, etc. You will thank me later.
Now, onto the positives ! All of the British were great. Even that one taxi driver. One bored desk clerk spent two hours talking to me about the UK and USA, and I learned some interesting things about the UK. It was well worth talking to her at 2 AM when I could not sleep.
Buckingham Palace, Soho, Parliament, and Whitehall-area were all fun to see and experience. We only had 6 hours, so there was only so much we could do by walking. The last leg of our trip (Tallinn to Helsinki by ferry, and Helsinki to London) was really only overnight and my son really was not motivated to go do see anything. I think he was tired and lacking in sleep from the previous night in Tallinn.
London is endlessly fascinating to me, and I was disappointed my son did not share my great fascination. To be fair, he had moderate interest but London is not, overall, that fascinating to him. I could easily spend a month in London.
Helsinki in August 2023
We spent 3 full days in Helsinki. Helsinki was great. All Finns were very nice. Yes, it is “ideal” to speak the native language but almost everyone in Finland knew workable English. I started out feeling guilty I did not speak minimal Finnish but by the end of our visit, that guilt had left me.
Unfortunately, I got sick in Finland from the dehydration in London and resulting mild hyponatremia, so one full day was ruined due to that. The Finland health care system is excellent and cheaper than the USA. You get two alternatives: you can go directly to a public hospital and wait X hours to be seen, or make an appointment with a “private physician”. Two Uber rides had to accomplish this. If I had still been sick 24 hours later, the doctor told me to go to the hospital with a lab test order form and get tests run. Thankfully that was not needed.
In Helsinki, London and Tallinn, you never need cash. Sometimes the merchant does not like American Express but I had a VISA to use also. Be sure to call your bank or financial institution ahead of time to warn them you will be traveling in Europe, or you will have problems, guaranteed. American Express, for whatever reason, does not care about this, and I had zero problems using it for my main credit card.
My poor son lost his wallet somewhere in London, but took it in stride, amazingly. I think it is well worth it to regularly check the whereabouts of your wallet, etc. It is very easy to forget things or misplace them.
Roughly 30% of Finns have natural blonde hair. It is amazing. Every time you turn around, you see this. Dark hair has roughly 40% of the population, with the remainder being red hair and other shades.
We took a super crowded train from Helsinki to a city north of Helsinki named Tampere, just to see Finns outside of the big city of Helsinki. It was a fun excursion. Just try hard to purchase a reserved seat on the train from Helsinki to Tampere, or you will be standing up a long time.
We took a tour of the Helsinki harbor and nearby islands. It was wonderful. You might need a sweater or light coat to stay warm. I certainly did.
My son did a lot of walking around Helsinki and seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, due to my lack of great physical shape and the illness, I was not able to do this. However, I did look around as much as I could. It is a very clean, seemingly crime-free city (only a few police seen). The Finns are friendly, up to a point, but they tend to be reserved and on the quiet side, which suits me perfectly. I assume once they know you or you are considered a friend, things get more boisterous.
I did spend a few hours talking to a bored and maybe lonely desk clerk at our hotel in the middle of the night. We discussed Finland and the USA. It was an interesting discussion and I learned some fun things.
I could easily move to London or the UK, and Finland would be a great place to move to, provided you make a very serious concerted effort to learn Finnish and know upfront that winter can be brutal, with almost no sun during the peak of the winter.
Tallinn, Estonia in August 2023
I assume most of you know nothing about Tallinn. It is the capital and largest city in Estonia. Estonia is the most northern country of the Baltics, and is next to Russia and Latvia. It is only 50 miles south by ferry from Helsinki.
Tallinn, like Helsinki and London, is a very old city, dating from the 13th century. The streets are still uneven cobblestone-paved and the roads tend to be narrow. Seemingly a lot of its buildings seem to be at least 100 years old, if not much older. We took a castle tour, which was interesting and involved a lot of stair-climbing.
The Estonians seemed to be nice people in general. Sadly I was not able to really talk to any Estonians due to lack of time.
Summary
As you can tell, this blog post is not highly detailed on purpose. We had a great time, and this was my son’s first trip to Europe. I am sure he will return and see more of Europe. Seeing 3 countries in 7 days was a bit much, but I did add 2 new countries to my overall list *smile* . To really see 3 countries decently, I would recommend at least 14 days, bare minimum. A month or more would be better.
I could say more but you might get bored. Thanks for reading !
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