Randomness

We're sitting in the hotel lobby having seen everything we're going to see in Sweden, waiting to go to the boat that will take us to Estonia tonight.  When we get there tomorrow morning, we'll be 1 time zone further east, or 10 hours ahead of PST.  Anyway, this seems as good a time as any to observe some of the things that we've noticed here (meaning Denmark, Norway and/or Sweden):
1. heated towel racks.  Nice to have a warm towel after a shower.  And helpful to dry clothes in a hotel room.
2. free water in some restaurants.  Not in Denmark (or Belgium), but in Sweden and Norway. 
3. taxes. on everything. Grocery stores are only 12%, restaurants 25%.  With one notable exception, restaurant tax has consistently been included in the menu price, though it's broken out on the receipt.
4. movie theatres (based on a sample size of 1): buy your ticket at the vending machine, and choose your seat which is then printed on the ticket.  
5. every toilet has its own brush.  'nuff said. 
6. bedding. each double bed comes not with the arrangement we'd have at home but rather with 2 "rolls" that go from head to foot.  Each "roll" is upper sheet and blanket combined.  A nice idea, especially if one has a blanket-stealing partner.
7. currency, part 1.  The smallest bill is for 50 kroner (except Sweden's 20 kroner bill)....coins are for 1, 5, 10 and (except in Sweden) 20.  At about 6 kroner to the dollar, that means the 20 kroner coin is worth over $3, and the smallest bill (50) is worth about $8.  Pockets get heavy fast....
8. currency, part 2.  Things are nearly always rounded to the nearest krone.  None of that 99 cents stuff to make something look cheaper.  We did see some 1/2 kroner coins in Denmark, but nowhere else. 
9. hotel breakfasts are worth going to.  Each has had bread, jams/preserves, meats and cheeses, fish (nearly always lox, sometimes also gravlax, often herring), fruit, vegetables, juices, coffee/tea, milk, and hot dishes -- often bacon, sausages, eggs (scrambled, hard boiled, soft boiled), etc. One place bragged about it's 101-item buffet.

Time to think about walking to the subway that will take us to the boat....