Europe 2016

We'll just have to Cope with leaving

JULY 25TH, 2016

Our final day in Copenhagen (and Europe) was spent at Tivoli Gardens. It is the second-oldest amusement park in the world and was very cute. We rode most of the rides and since the park is so small that was pretty easy. They have a wooden roller coaster that is still operated by a person on board and was built in 1914. We enjoyed a picnic in the gardens and walking around the different areas of the park. It was a fun, relaxing end to our month-long journey around Scandinavia. (continue)

Copenago...We Both Appreciate Summer!

JULY 24TH, 2016

The next day in Copenhagen was spent with the same as the one before, taking in all the sights while relaxing. The city is very walkable so we made our way to the Old Neighborhood and Christiansborg Palace. Here we checked out the Palace Chapel, horse riding complex, and Parliament. (continue)

A Royally Dane Time

JULY 23RD, 2016

We got an early start to our day with a walk along The Lakes of Copenhagen. Barely anyone was out yet except for a few runners so we enjoyed the quiet morning. Being the end of our trip, Copenhagen became the perfect spot to spend our last few days. There was enough to see and explore, but it was small enough for us to enjoy the city slowly and  simply relax. (continue)

Haaans Across Denmark

JULY 22ND, 2016

Our first day in Denmark, we decided to travel outside of Copenhagen since we had one more day with our rental car. We first drove Mon to see the white chalk cliffs here. We were not prepared for the full hike this would become and how hot it was! We still had a great time and enjoyed the views. The base of the cliffs are accessible by a tons of stairs and quite the hike back. Needless to say, a dress and sandals were a poor choice. While the views were amazing, the walk was tough and the smell of rotting seaweed was hard to handle. (continue)

Oh Slow (down)!

July 20th - 21st, 2016

After the peace and calm of the last week in the fjords, coming to Oslo was almost shocking-we are back to city life with tons of traffic and people. Before we got to Oslo, we felt like we received a grand finale from Norway! Every turn was another epic view of what Norway has to offer and it became dangerous since it was hard for Chuck to keep his eyes on the road. We made sure to pull over when it felt appropriate. Without logic, we even decided we had to put our feet in the water, maybe just to see if what we were seeing was real? It sure was real, reeeaaaal cold, but it was a warm day! (continue)

It's Bryggen Glorious!

July 17th & 18th, 2016

After a wonderful time staying in the fjords, we moved onto Bergen (still also at the edge of the fjord) and had another stunning drive. After stopping to ooh and aww at every waterfall and view we finally made it to Bergen and loved how cute and small the town is. (continue)

Is this Fjord-real??

July 15th & 16th, 2016

We spent the next couple days in exploring the other areas around us. With the fjords and mountains it takes a long time to get anywhere, so we drove out a bit to explore. We headed to the Stegastein Overlook near Aurland first. The drive here included some incredibly steep roads and hairpin turns on a one lane road with traffic coming both ways. It made for quite the terrifying ride! Either way we made it up to the incredible view. Not surprisingly, there were a ton of people, but the view was well worth it! From here we could see para glider from the next contain over, kayakers below us, and quite a few bike riders actually making the trek up the mountain by bike! (continue)

Glacier! Dead Ahead!

July 14th, 2016

Today we had another adventure in Norway! We went to Jostedalsbreen, which is the largest glacier in Europe. The glacier has over 50 branches and we headed to Nigardsbreen, just one of those branches. Right when we turned the corner into the parking lot, we were in awe of the massive glacier that sat ahead of us. What we didn’t realize is just how huge it is in person. The entire tour we would become more and more stunned as we went on. (continue)

There's Norway We're Doing That!

July 12th & 13th, 2016

The drive from Stockholm to Lillehammer was beautiful, and apparently only the start of the beauty of Scandinavia. We are only in Lillehammer as a short stop between Stockholm and Slinde (a small town near Flam), so we knew we had to get as much in as possible during the short stay. We had to stop once due to a double rainbow being in our periphery... (continue)

Bad Engineering Sometimes Equals the Best Museum

July 11th, 2016

We heard the weather was going to be stormy so we got an early start to our day and we headed to the Skansen open air museum and zoo. The entire place it made up of old homes and buildings from all over Sweden and was made to show the way of life here before the industrial revolution. The zoo houses Nordic animals and we got to see reindeer, moose, and a wolverine, among all the other animals here. (continue)

Archipelagoing

July 10th, 2016

We began our second day in Stockholm with a trip to City Hall. This is also where the Nobel banquet is held every year. It takes place in the Blue Hall, which was originally supposed to be covered in blue tile, but apparently when the architect saw the sunlight hit the red brick, he decided to change his plans so it would look that beautiful. We walked around the courtyard and attached gardens and were able to see a lot of the city from here.

We climbed to the top of the tower and got an even better view! Stockholm is made up of 14 islands and from atop we could get a clearer picture of the city. The tower also houses a small museum which held some statues and artifacts from the city. (continue)

Nobel Rang on Our Arrival

July 9th, 2016

Our first day in Stockholm, started out nice and early as the cruise arrived before noon. It was sunny and beautiful, which was a nice change from the cool rainy days we just had, and we were welcomed by the archipelago!

We were looking for lunch and all the restaurants we had found on yelp happened to be closed because all the shop owners seem to be on their own summer vacation. We grabbed sandwiches at a local cafe before heading to Gamla Stan, the historical old center of the city. We wandered around the cobblestone streets turning down random streets to try to avoid as much of the crowd as possible. (continue)

Ballin' in Tallinn

July 7th & 8th, 2016

We arrived in Tallinn by ferry fairly late in the day and it was just beginning to rain a little. We went to grab dinner and decided that we needed burgers again. We aren’t sure what it is about Scandinavia but there burger restaurants are rated very highly and every time we see that pop up in reviews we begin to crave them. We went to the Estonian Burger Factory and enjoyed some BBQ burgers and cheese balls with beer. The beer everywhere has been very good, even for there most basic beers are delicious! We are also noticing that the prices here are incredible cheap! So far, this seems like our most reasonable country in terms of cost! (continue)

Finnished With a Picnic

July 6th, 2016

We woke up today to notice that there were Finnish flags hanging right outside our window and all along the streets. As we walked around we noticed so many we decided to look up the date and saw that today is one of Finland’s Flag Days which we assume are like national holidays for us. Today they are celebrating the birthday of Eino Leino, a Finnish poet. We have noticed that Helsinki is very proud of their literary history and most of the statues we look up are of writers as well. (continue)

Some Russians, Some Americans, and the 4th of July

July 4th & 5th, 2016

We made our way from St. Petersburg to Helsinki by train and arrived in the afternoon. The weather was a nice change of pace since it was cooler and the minute we got off the train we knew we would love this city! We took the tram to our hotel and realized it it very easy to navigate and the city is fairly small. It was already late enough for dinner so we headed to Sea Horse to try some Scandinavian food. Not surprisingly the menu was very seafood heavy and we were excited to order! We were also excited when they brought out a pitcher of tap water! We realized while in Russia how much we take clean tap water for granted. (continue)

The Underground Palaces

July 3rd, 2016

For our last day in St. Petersburg we decided to begin the day with a visit to St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is huge and beautiful! Unfortunately we don't know too much more about it because we needed to break our money to rent an audioguide, but Anna got yelled at when she asked the gift shop after being told by the information desk to do so. Apparently the information desk and gift shop at St. Isaac's do not get along and we found out the hard way. Clearly we were not bitter about this at all.

We wandered around a bit and looked at the pictures of the cathedral over time. Then, we climbed the staircase to the dome and enjoyed the amazing views of the city from above. (continue)

A Toe Rub Can Go a Long Way...

July 2nd, 2016

After such a late night, we got a bit of a late start today. Around noon we made our way to the Hermitage to take in our second day, English audioguides in hand! We walked through the gorgeous palace rooms and learned about the history of the palace. It is insane how many palaces are in the city of St. Petersburg, but this one is by far the most ornate. This was Peter the Great's Winter Palace and included both a large and small throne room, because of course that's a necessity. There was gold in every room and views of the rivers, canals, or ornate gardens outside every window. We really enjoyed seeing all the artwork in the building and seeing just how much they possess. During our hour tour we only saw a portion of the palace and still saw more than most other museums. (continue)

All The Bridges Coming Up!

July 1st, 2016

We began the day trying to get tickets to the Russian ballet, but the websites don't accept foreign credit cards and the ticket offices were all very far from where we wanted to be. Although a little disappointed, we will make the most of what we can. We are finally starting to grasp some elements of the language after realizing that Pectopah translates to restaurant and is somehow pronounced "restoran" so now we know p=r, c=s, and h=n. While still incredibly confusing, this is helping us try to figure out other signs. Although we are still mostly relying on TripAdvisor and Google to figure everything out. (continue)

PetersBurgers

June 30th, 2016

We began the day by taking the hydrofoil to Peterhof, which is considered the Versailles of Russia. After a very stressful line of everyone pushing each other out of the way, we boarded the boat and made our way to the Peterhof. We took some time to walk the lower garden, which is absolutely stunning and explored the fountains which run using only gravity to power! The main fountain was massive and surrounded by gold statues and designs. As we walked the grounds, we also enjoyed watching the trick fountains that were made to splash visitors as they walked through the gardens. All the tours taking place were in Russian and we realized we would need to spend most of this trip looking up our own facts on the places we are visiting. Although a little disappointing, we are getting by thanks to Google! (continue)

Engage-amoon!

June 29th, 2016

Our engage-amoon began in the most perfect way. After quickly checking in and then having no security line, we flew through and had over 2 hours to wait for our flight. During this time, Chuck decided to try our luck and see if we could be upgraded since we just got engaged, and low and behold, we got Business Class! Who knew that would actually work?! We knew we were in for a treat when we arrived to our seats to a pre-flight champagne and hot towels. Chuck was just excited that we were flying in a 747-8 in the upper deck! We spent the flight pampered with the best flight food we’ve ever had! A three course meal including scallops, charcuterie, and filet mignon. We proceeded to try to sleep for the rest of the 8 and a half-hour flight in our chairs that turned into beds, and decided that there is no other way to fly ever again…except for every other flight we take because there is no way we can ever afford these tickets. Also, neither of us could actually sleep because it was still about 8pm our time so we spent most of the flight trying to sleep and then periodically telling the other how excited we were to be in business class. (continue)