Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float. To gain all while you give. To roam the roads of lands remote. To travel is to live.

      Hans Christian Andersen

We spent four wonderful sunny days in Copenhagen.

Opened in 1843, Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in the world.

The light show in the evening.

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

A trip on the ferry.

The Marble Church

Rosenborg Castle

The Carlsberg Brewery

A symbol of Copenhagen and a tribute to Hans Christian Anderson is the statue of the Little Mermaid who turned her back on the sea.

The city is gaining a strong reputation for its dynamic cuisine and we were not disappointed. We had one of the best meals of the trip which included this crayfish salad with so many ingredients that we forgot them all.

One of the most unique things about Copenhagen is the commune of Christiania. While we can't advocate the neighbourhood's anarchist ideals after just a short visit, it was inspiring to see a simple, peaceful and alternative way of life within a major city.

Christiania residents enjoying the sun by the banks of the Stadsgraven (Church of Our Saviour in the background).

Our visit to Copenhagen was very fortunate for two reasons. Firstly, the weather was amazing at around 25°C every day. The locals made the most of this rarity by wearing very little in parks, streets and even a bridge.

Our second piece of good luck came with the fact that our visit coincided with the Copenhagen Carnival. There were colourful parades in the street...

..and live entertainment in the Fælledparken.

Jutland

Our first night in Denmark was the scariest night of our trip. We were to stay at a place called the Institut For Kunstterapi. We were told by email that no one would be at reception but that a key would be left in our door and that we should leave the payment in the post box. We arrived late in the afternoon to find the place completely empty.

It seemed to us to be an abandoned old age home with its long dark corridors and large disabled bathrooms. Only when Josh walked into the office did we think something was a bit crazy. The bookshelf contained works such as "Schizoid Phenomena, Object-Relations and the Self", "The Inner Wold of Mental Illness" and "Dynamisk Psykiatri". We were spending the night alone in a psychiatric institution.

Since that night, Josh has had trouble differentiating between reality and fantasy. But things are much worse for Yaz since she doesn't even exist.

Moving from mental illness to mental regression, we spent the following day frollicking around Legoland!!!

We continued our trip up and down Jutland (the bit of Denmark that juts out of Germany) with a visit to its largest city Aarhus.

Den Gamle By, a collection of 75 historic buildings from around Denmark.

With real olden days people...

and real newen days people

Salmon served with Scandinavian Stuff

South of Aarhus is a replanted forest demonstrating Denmark's prehistoric flora.

And a museum which is home to the Grauballe Man who was buried in a bog almost two thousand years ago.

We then journeyed to Denmark's northernmost point, where the mighty waves of the Skagerrak crash against the powerful current of the Kattegat.

On our way back down the peninsula we stopped off in the picturesque Danish lake district.

P.S. We found out later that kunst means art.

Hanseatica

From Berlin we headed north to Hamburg and some of Germany's prettiest towns. 

We started with a visit to the castle of Schwerin. Here it is behind a camp of protesters campaigning against poor public funding of the arts.

By complete chance we managed to make it to Hamburg over the weekend celebrating the 823rd anniversary of the port opening. This may sound a bit arbitrary but it was a pretty big deal.

The Chilehaus

St. Nicholas' Church has been left in ruins to remember the 42,600 killed in 1943 during the Allied bombing of the city, code named Operation Gomorrah.

Within the church ruins is also a memorial to Jewish residents of Hamburg. 

The warehouses of the old port

Women aren't allowed to enter the street of Herbertstraße in the famous red-light district. Josh went in but unfortunately he dropped 200 euros and spent an hour trying to find it again.

The worlds biggest model railway with 890 trains, an airport and other cool stuff.

Of course, we couldn't visit Hamburg without going to the Beatles museum. (If you didn't know, they played over 100 shows in the city in the early 60's.)

Before leaving we went to Lüneburg with its wobbly walls

And Lübeck with its pleasant courtyards.

The Hospital of the Holy Spirit, built in 1260 and still in use as a retirement home.

Next we are heading further north to Scandinavia. By the way, we've added some new pages to our blog recently including pictures of our car and statistics about our trip. Just click the links in the menu on the right.

Berlin

When you ask Londoners why they live in London, they will tell you about the night-life, the cultural diversity or the tube. When you ask Parisians why they live in Paris they will tell you about the food, the art and the history. But when you ask Berliners why they live in Berlin, you get a very simple answer, "Because it's the best city in the world."

We don't have many photos from our 5 days in the German capital, mostly because we were too busy having fun. On that note we'll start with some shots from our nights out. Clockwise from top-left: the ping-pong bar, the absinthe bar, green white beer and the horror bar.

You can't visit Berlin without finding yourself confronted by the city's unique history.

The Berlin wall

The outdoor museum at Bernauer St

The former site of Gestapo headquarters, now and forever reduced to rubble.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

In complete contrast to its cold and infamous past, modern Berlin is youthful, colourful and exciting. We took a tour of the city's graffiti and street art.

And later in the day had a chance to make some of our own.

The East Side Gallery is a section of the Berlin Wall covered with 105 paintings. It is an apt representation of a vibrant new Berlin with fresh memories of a very dark past.

We also said goodbye to our friend Chantal who is continuing her own European adventures.

Flower Power

We spent three days trying as best we could to be Dutch, by cycling. The 120km cycle tour began in Amsterdam and finished in The Hague.

View The Cycling Tour in a larger map (By the way, you can see a map of our whole trip by clicking "Odyssey Map" in the menu to the right)

Our first stop was Zaanse Schans, a delightful touristy village which is designed to look like the olden days. 

Our friend Chantal joined us.

You can go inside the windmills which each make different things, e.g. saw mill, mustard mill, oil mill and paint mill.

Unfortunately we couldn't cycle across the North Sea Canal so we got a free ferry.

Late on the first day we arrived in the beach town of Zaandvoort.

The second day was flower day and if you don't like flowers you should probably skip the rest of this post.

We rode past many properties that grow mainly tulips...

(and daffodils.)

The most floral part of the trip was of course the world famous Keukenhof

Josh took so many photos that his vision went blurry from closing one eye all the time.

So from 7 million flowers and 400 photos, here are the best

Before we reached the hostel at the end of day 2, we hit trouble when Josh's chain snapped. Here's Josh looking sad and Chantal looking nonchalant.

Unfortunately this didn't happen, so Josh, his bike and the camera caught the bus. Meanwhile Yaz and Chantilly rode along the coastal dunes to The Hague.

The Hague was lovely. The End.