Viking

Vacation

I'm back from my (second) great European adventure. I started with a visit to my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Katie in London then travelled around Zealand/Øresund in Denmark and Sweden (i.e. Copenhagen). Afterward I went on the Berlin to Budapest Contiki tour (that also included intermediate stops in Prague and Vienna).

It was a lot of travelling (14 towns and cities in 8 countries, 6 airports, 6 train stations, 2 boats, well over 100 km of walking, and far too many buses, subways, and taxis to count), but I had a great time and so many unforgettable experiences - an English picnic in Hampstead Heath, sailing a Viking ship across a fjord, visiting the Tivoli amusement park, World Cup parties in Berlin, enjoying plum wine with friends in an open-air cafe on Prague's Old Town Square, cruising down the Vltava River, riding the famous Prater ferris wheel, and relaxing in the Gellért Thermal Baths.

I'm always willing to try new food and drinks, especially while travelling - salmon carpaccio (oops, I thought it was going to be cooked!) smoked eel smørrebrød (interesting...and I learned that the point and pick method of choosing food can yield some unexpected choices!), a giant pork knuckle with a 1 litre beer mug in Berlin (this meal can only be described as 'massive'), Sacher Torte chocolate cake at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna (very yummy), and a shot of absinthe ("Prost" to the 'green fairy'). And of course, I would be remiss if I did not have a 'Danish' pastry (weinerbrød) in Denmark!

I visited a lot of churches including Vor Frue Kirke with Thorvaldsen's beautiful marble statues of Jesus and the twelve Apostles, the ornate Berliner Dom, the singular Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächniskirche (the shattered bell tower is all the survived World War II), the beautifully rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche, and St. Vitus in Prague Castle.

Of course, I also stopped at museums (e.g. HMS Belfast on the Thames, the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, and the famous Pergamon in Berlin), as well as palaces and castles (e.g. Kronborg Slot, Christiansborg, Prague Castle, the giant Schönbrunn (summer) and Hofburg (winter) palaces in Vienna).

The sights - Charles Bridge, the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, Fernsehturm TV tower, etc. - and history - a walking tour through Berlin (e.g. Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz book burning commemoration, etc.) as well as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the Berlin Wall, etc. - were also numerous.

With all that, somehow I also made it to three concerts! - The Red Hot Chili Peppers in Prague (awesome), a classical music concert in Vienna, Pink in Heroes' Square in Budapest.

Lastly, I should mention all the wonderful people I met - the friendly and polite Danes as well as all the great people and new friends from the tour.

I'll post pictures (with stories) once I have time to sort through all the photographs that I took.

Vacation Planning

In my spare time I've been slowly perusing info about Europe. I'd like to visit there again for my next vacation. When I visited there two years ago, I didn't make it to Scandinavia so I'd like to spend some time in Denmark (in and around Copenhagen) with maybe a short detour to Sweden (e.g. a day in Malmo). I'll probably spent a few days in London too because my cousin lives there. But I'm not too sure what else to do. (The "masterplan" is to go for about three weeks).

A few of my ideas are:

• Scotland (or the UK in general).
• Stop for a few days in various places between London and Copenhagen, such as Paris, Brussels/Brugge, or Amsterdam.
• Spend about a week in Berlin, or some other part of Germany.
• Tour a few places in Eastern Europe such as Budapest or Prague.
  

Like Denmark, Scotland is another place I'd like to visit, but didn't make it to on my earlier trip. The pictures of the Scottish countryside are always so scenic. I'm not too sure what specific things there are to see and do though.

Stopping along the way between London and Copenhangen would be convenient and I don't think you can run out of things to see and do in Paris. However, I've visited Paris and Amsterdam (and London) before, so half of places on the trip would not be "new".

Last time, we only spent a day in Germany and it was in a village along the Rhine, so Germany would be "new" and I think there are lots of famous sights, museums, etc. in Berlin.

I haven't been to Eastern Europe before, so that idea is appealing. If I can't find anyone to go with (which seems likely), I would be tempted to go on a short tour of Eastern Europe. Contiki, has a few tours to choose from: Berlin - Prague (8 days), Berlin - Prague - Vienna (10 days), Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest (12 days), as well as Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest - Krakow - Warsaw - Berlin (14 days).

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Kronborg Castle

When the school term is over I want to travel in Europe for 3-4 weeks. I haven't really planned much though. I want to go to England, France, Denmark, Germany, and maybe Scotland and Italy.

Kronborg Castle is one of the cool sounded places that I'd like to visit. It is 45 minutes north of Copenhagen or so, in Elsinore (Helsingør). The castle was build over 400 years ago ago to protect the sound between Denmark and Sweden (although there were fortifications at the site since the 1400s). Among the castle's claims to fame is that it is where Shakespeare's Hamlet takes place.