Sweden

11.5: SWEDEN

While Sarah and I were in Copenhagen, we took a day trip over to Malmö, Sweden, which is just a 30 minute train ride from Copenhagen. While researching what to do, we read about the Oresund Bridge, which connects the two countries, and subsequently discovered a TV show called The Bridge...we watched the trailer that morning and were completely hooked. When we got back from Sweden, we bought and watched the entire first season of 10 episodes in four days. But, I digress.

Our trip to Sweden included a little walking tour through the square, a walk through a beautiful park and cemetery to get to the Malmö Castle, and seeing the Malmö Cathedral. We thought we could go into the castle, but we had to pay an entrance fee and we weren't so keen on that. So, we wandered through Malmö, visited a cathedral instead, and got back on the train to Copenhagen to start The Bridge.

"The Knotted Gun" by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd

I loved this windmill!

Malmö Cathedral celebrating pride week/month

Headstones of the wealthy inlaid in the cathedral floor

Sweden was a lovely little day trip, and we had gorgeous weather for all of our walking!

København

11.4: DENMARK

Back in March when plans were becoming more firm for Europe, I was looking for any excuse to extend my stay as long as I could. Since Julia couldn't take two weeks off of work and I didn't want to travel on my own, I needed to find another travel buddy! Cue texting Sarah and asking, "What are you doing in August? Wanna come to Europe and travel with me?" It worked out, as long as we could go to Copenhagen (astonishingly it was one of the cheaper places we were considering) and so a day after Julia left Europe, Sarah arrived!

As it would happen, Julia's connection was through Copenhagen from Berlin and she had a long layover--14 hours--so we explored the city! We went up the tour of the Church of Our Savior to get a good view of the city from above. We also went to Nydhavn, the famous canal with the beautiful houses/businesses.

The Copenhagen Opera Festival held a free outdoor concert and we caught the very end of it right on the water!

Nydhavn: much more commercialized than I expected, but still iconic!

While on my own, I explored the area of Copenhagen where The Little Mermaid statue lives, and even though it was crazy crowded, I managed to get a picture with no one else in it!

Once Sarah arrived, we packed a lot into every day, so I'll just be giving you my highlights of the trip!

We spent a day in Helsingor, where we did a walking tour of the city as well as visited Kronborg (aka "the Hamlet castle"). The castle was huge and my favorite part was the tour of the casements, or the underground portion of the castle where they kept the kitchens, soldiers, and staged battle practice. It so super creepy, but also very cool.

Hamlet and Ophelia greet you as you come out of the train station

Composer Dieterich Buxtehude's house!

Spotted in an alley

The famous Kronborg!

Legend has it that Ogier the Dane sleeps in the casements of Kronborg,
ready to awaken and help Denmark when the country is in need.

Tivoli, the amusement park in the heart of Copenhagen, was also amazing. Though we didn't go on any rides, the whole feel of the park was more classy than any American amusement park I've been to, and there was actually great shopping as well!

Beautiful gardens at Tivoli

In Roskilde, we went to a Cathedral with tombs of previous kings of Denmark, as well as the Viking Ship Museum. Back in the Viking Age, five ships were sunk at the entrance of the Roskilde Harbor to prevent an attack from enemies. In the early 1900s, researchers discovered these scraps of wood at the bottom of the harbor and identified them as part of Viking ships, and then reconstruct them for the museum--it was incredible!

Viking Ship Museum

Sarah's going for a sail!

Train snacks!

Christiansborg, the palace in the middle of Copenhagen where the Parliament resides and where the Queen still uses some rooms for dinners and meetings, was great to see because it's still a working castle in some regards. But, the coolest thing about Christiansborg to me is that it's built on top of two other castles that once existed in the same place--and you can see the ruins! The Bishop of Absalon built the first castle in the 12th century (it was plundered in 1259) and then the Copenhagen Castle was built at the end of the 14th century (but it was destroyed in 1730 to make way for the first Christiansborg). 

The dining room, where food is prepared for Danish state dinners.

Christiansborg Palace

Amalienborg, where the Queen lives today, was crowded with tourists and generally unimpressive--but I did see the changing of the guard, which was totally worth it.

Copenhagen was an AMAZING city and had great food, coffee, and people. The best food we had was in Helsingor (the Smorgasbord, open faced sandwiches) and on the last night of our trip, where splurged, went to a restaurant that Rick Steves recommended, and had some pretty amazing small plates.

Two fish dishes and gazpacho for the first course. The next course had
risotto with peas and hazelnuts, and a beef dish that was divine.

I absolutely loved Copenhagen and am SO glad that Sarah pushed for us to visit this city. I would go back in a heartbeat!

Guten tag!

11.3: GERMANY

While discussing where Julia and I should jet off to after Switzerland, we settled on Germany because 1) neither of us had been there; 2) Julia had already been to Milan which was my first choice of city to visit; and 3) I was in a "let's go for it regardless of how much it costs" mindset when we finally made the decision. Berlin ended up being an awesome choice. While I had of course studied some of Germany's history in middle/high school, it was incredible to be in some of the places where so much has happened in just the last 100 years.

We got to Berlin on Thursday morning around 6am and were semi-dumped on the train platform from the sleeper train (that's a little dramatic--we had 2 minutes to get off the train and it was a hustle!). After finding the luggage lockers and storing away our suitcases and backpacks, we set off on the Rick Steves Self Guided Tour of Best of Berlin. First, we saw the Reichstag, or German Parliament.

Close to this were two monuments: one to the parliament members who opposed Hitler, and one to those who were killed while trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

The walk continued on to a memorial of the Roma killed by the Nazis, the Brandenburg Gate (my favorite!), the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe, the VW shop, Humboldt University, the Berlin State Opera House, St. Hedwig's Church, the park outside the Berlin Cathedral, a quick organ concert at St. Marion's Church, the TV tower, and finally Alexanderplatz. 

In this square, Nazi students and professors burned books in 1933. There sits a plaque with the quote:
"That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well."
-Heinrich Heine, 1820

The State Opera House, under construction

We were treated to a lovely organ concert in this beautiful church!

After these, we took our own little tour to the Berlin Philharmonie Hall and the Memorial of the German Resistance. 

At around 4pm, we decided we had done enough sightseeing for one day (we were exhausted, our feet hurt, and we needed to check into our Airbnb) and hopped onto the train to pick up our luggage. From the train station, we got into a taxi, checked into our Airbnb, and then explored our neighborhood to find dinner. We settled on an Indonesian place, where we both had delightful dinners and drinks! 

Day 2 found us first at the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was just a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. Here we found an entire outdoor museum on the Wall, which was really helpful for me to understand the history behind it, though it did start to get somewhat redundant after a while. 

After a quick bite, we hopped on the train and went to the DDR Museum, and then checked out the largest chocolate shop in Berlin. YUM! We ended with a trip up the French Cathedral spire to get a look at the city from above, and currywurst for dinner--this food definitely lived up to its expectations and did not disappoint! 

Berlin was an amazing city with such deeply profound history and incredible sights. Given the current political climate in the US, it was all the more sobering to see Germany's history so closely. Seeing exactly how the ideas of white supremacy and creating a "perfect race" and building a wall were so detrimental to the country and destroyed millions of lives filled me with a new energy to fight what this American political administration is trying to do. One only needs to see the raised brass plates on the sidewalk all around the city indicating the homes of Jews who were taken from their homes and murdered in concentration camps, or the brass circles around the Wall indicating where those who tried to flee oppression were shot to realize that such a dark time in history should be condemned and never, ever be repeated. 

Walls don't work.

Never, ever again.