A Danish in Denmark

I made the most of my only full day in Denmark by exploring as many castles as I could. I had bought the "Copenhagen Card" at the airport and this turned out to be a pretty good purchase. It was only good for 24 hours, but got me in free to nearly every place I wanted to go.

After seeing the Danish crown jewels (insert joke here), I hopped on a train to Hillerod, a little village about 45 minutes outside of the city. There sat another castle and one of the most impressive places I've been. Many parts of the castle were restored and the rooms were all decorated as they had been when people lived there with lots of original furnishings. The best part though is just the building itself. It's a true castle surrounded by a large moat and is just very impressive to see. I will post pictures on my return.

I spent the rest of the day walking around the city. Had a monstrous salad for lunch at Nyhaven, which is probably the prettiest area of Copenhagen. After that I walked up and had a Wienerbrot (a Danish) and a cappuccino at one of the oldest confectionary shops in Denmark. It was excellent.

This marks the end of my continental European tour and now I head back to England. I'm flying to Manchester and then taking the train to Liverpool. Maersk-Air offers super cheap flights to Manchester. I'm only paying about $85 for a one-way flight to get back that I only booked a few days in advance. Very nice.

Copenhagen

Luckily, I got to the airport in Stockholm more than two hours ahead of my flight because the line at the SAS check-in was enormous. It took more than an hour just to check in, but fortunately, I had no problems.

I arrived in Copenhagen in the afternoon and set out to explore the city for a bit. I walked around, tried to get my bearings and then stopped to eat at a traditional Danish restaurant. I ordered what they had on special and waited to see what it would be. Well, it turns out that traditional Danish food is not much different from traditional Southern U.S. food. When my plate came it had two hamburger steaks covered in onions, potatoes, and pickled red beets. Perfect! One of the best meals I've had on my trip.

Since I was quite tired from my three nights in Stockholm, I made it an early night and went to bed. I stayed in the Hotel Mermaid, which had a great location, but was unimpressive other than that.

Beautiful People

There is definitely an impressive gene pool in Stockholm. The people here are all very good looking. Even random people working in McDonalds or grocery stores are attractive. I could quickly get used to living here.

Peter and I explored a bunch of museums and saw some very cool old Viking stuff. The best thing was probably a recovered Viking ship that had sunk in the harbor in the 1600's. If you only do one thing in Stockholm, I would probably pick this. It's very impressive in person and also on an island, so you have to take a little ferry to get there which adds to the fun.

At night Peter and I went to the Opera Bar. This is clearly the place to be on Sunday and we had a great time.

Next up, Copenhagen!

The sun won't go down!

One of the strange things about Stockholm in the summer is that the sun never really goes down! At around 11pm it gets a bit darker, but it's more like dusk than night time. At around 1am or 2am it starts to get brighter again! This is very strange when you are out.

Peter and I spent the day exploring the old city and walking around checking everything out. We decided that tomorrow we would get the "Stockholm Card" which gives you the ability to travel around on the public transportation and gets you in free or at a discount to most of the main monuments, museums, and attractions.

We spent the evening on a boat/bar called the Patricia. Luckily, we were there on Saturday night and not Sunday as we later heard that it turns into a different kind of place on Sundays.

One of the interesting things about most of the bars in Stockholm is that they all have roulette and blackjack in them! It's very low stakes (minimum $3 bet and maximum $6), but it still provides a nice distraction if you get bored. Of course I played and managed to win enough to pay for the cover charge and a few drinks. Not bad.

On to Stockholm!

Had to be up early to catch my flight to Stockholm. After another very long walk to the train station, I got to the airport nice and early. I went to check out the Diners Club airport lounge and hung out in there for a while. This is one of the few member benefits I had never taken advantage of before and it was very nice. Just by being a cardholder, you can go to these lounges and have free drinks and newspapers in a quiet environment. The funny thing is, you hardly need it in Amsterdam. The airport there is outstanding. One of the best I've ever visited.

After the relatively short flight to Stockholm, I caught the bus into the city (about a 40 minute ride), but half the price of the train. My hotel (Scandia Continental) was right next to the bus/train station, which was super convenient. It's also by far the nicest hotel I've stayed in during my trip so far. My room was a little cabin room made out to be as if you were on a ship. Small, but perfect for me and very comfortable and affordable. Apparently, they are affiliated with Hilton, so that's another benefit. I should be able to get some Hilton Honors points as well.

One of the things I first noticed when I arrived at the airport is that it seemed unusually quiet. I mean, there were NO people around! Strange. I later learned that it was "midsummer holiday". Apparently, I picked one of the worst weekends to be in Stockholm because nearly everyone who lives there went out to the countryside to celebrate this holiday, which is almost like a Christmas in summer celebration. Not in a religious sense, but in terms of everything closing!

After a short rest, I went to meet Peter Rankin (KFBS class of 2005). Stockholm is BY FAR the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It really can't be described in words. When I get home, I'll post some of the pictures I have. You really have to see it in person to appreciate it though. The city has such a majestic feel to it.

One of the neatest things about the city is the water that flows through and around it. The water has a strange color that I noticed right away. It's very clear and has more of a blackish hue rather than blue or green like you normally see with seawater. Well, it turns out that the water is half fresh water and half seawater!

I met Peter and we had a few drinks at a bar down by the harbor and ended up staying out far too late.

Biking in Amsterdam

Rented a bike today and rode all over the city. It's quite easy to get around on a bike in Amsterdam. In most of the streets, there are specific pathways just for bikes. You have to be careful walking around because it's easy to forget and walk in front of an oncoming bike.

I stopped at a cool coffee place (not the drug kind) and had an iced latte. I really liked the menus there. They had pictures of all of the different kinds of coffee drinks which made it easy for people to see the difference between say a cappuccino and a latte. Great idea.

Amsterdam

Had to be up pretty early to catch my train to Amsterdam. Despite being in a shady area, the location of my hotel (Garnia Astoria) was good because it was only a short walk to the train station. The station is one of the coolest buildings in Hamburg. It's VERY big and has lots of good shops, bakeries and restaurants.

My train was 20 minutes late, which wasn't good because I had to make a connnection in Osnabruck with only 15 minutes to connect. I asked if it will still be okay and the conductor said to get on board and we would see. When we got to Osnabruck, I had to run, but managed to catch the train to Amsterdam along with several other people. After the 5 hour trip, I arrived in Amsterdam pretty much on time. It was a beautiful day, but a bit hot. I had a long way to walk to the hotel, but I wanted to see some of the city, so I pushed ahead. I got to the Hotel (Hotel Atlanta) and checked in. It was nice, but like most hotels in Europe, no A/C! This was not good because it was over 80 degrees outside. Worse still, my room was in the middle of the hotel, so no air flow. It was actually hotter in my room than outside!

Anyway, I dropped off my stuff and grabbed a quick falafel lunch at Maos, a veggie place. Apparently there is one in Philadelphia too. I then began exploring the western part of the city. It is absolutely beautiful. Once you get off of the main streets with all of the "coffee shops" which are really marijuana hangouts, the city is very picturesque with lots of bridges and canals much like Venice. There are also loads of bikes everywhere. Must rent a bike tomorrow. Later, I had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant and went to bed relatively early.