Copenhagen

Since we had spent the first couple of weeks of the trip traveling every few days, we decided to make our next stay a little longer so that we could take some time to relax. After reading that Copenhagen is one of the most enjoyable cities in Europe, we thought it would be the perfect place to spend 7 days. Well...don't believe everything you read! Although Copenhagen is a very nice city and would be a great place to live, it does have a couple of major drawbacks for travelers: the weather and the prices. Almost every day was cool, windy, cloudy and had rain for at least some portion of the day. We did have one perfect weather day (sunny and in the high 70's) and we took full advantage by taking the metro to the beach at Amager Strandpark. It was beautiful! The beach is actually on an artificial island that was built in 2005, but it feels just like a real beach. The water was too cold to get in, but we enjoyed walking in the sand and watching the wind and kite surfers. The second challenge that we encountered was the prices...most things seemed to cost about double what they would cost at home. For example, a cup of hot chocolate at a coffee bar was about $8 and the dinner entrees in most restaurants were $25-$30. Needless to say, we didn't do much eating out! We also tried to take full advantage of the various free activities/museums that the city offered, including the National Museum, the Museum of Danish Resistance, and the Danish Design Center. As always, we spent a lot of our time just walking around the city and enjoying the sights.

Our the night train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, where we spent approximately 12 hours sharing this closet with 4 other people:


The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbor (from the Hans Christian Andersen story):


At the beach:




Trying out the indoor swings at the "It's a Small World" exhibition at the Danish Design Center:


Assistens Cemetery, where we saw the graves of Hans Christian Andersen and Niels Bohr:


Rosenborg Castle in The King's Garden, which was used as a royal residence until around 1710:

Amsterdam

After Ghent, we continued heading north to Amsterdam, which was actually kind of similar to Ghent, just on a larger scale. More canals, more cobble-stoned streets, more beautiful old buildings. We really enjoyed the city and we especially loved the bed & breakfast that we stayed at (Seven Windmills Bed & Breakfast). We had a kitchen, dining room, living room, parlor, bedroom and bathroom all to ourselves! It was a very welcome change after sharing rooms with 2 other people (in Paris) and 6 other people (in Ghent). The owner of the b&b was great, too - she even took us on a 3-hour walking tour of the city at no charge. It was great to hear about the city from a local perspective and really helped us get a feel for the city. When we were on our own, we visited the Anne Frank house (where she and her family hid during World War II) and the Van Gogh museum, both of which were great.

Seven Windmills Bed and Breakfast. (1st & 2nd floors of the middle building):


Living Room:


A view of the canal from the bridge nearest our b&b:


Jesse's afternoon snack, raw herring from a street vendor:

Ghent

After the whirlwind that was Paris, we decided to take a couple of days to explore a quieter part of Europe and Ghent, Belgium was the perfect choice. Never heard of Ghent before? Neither had we! We found it through some internet research and ended up loving it. Ghent is a college town of about a quarter of a million people and is a 30-minute train ride away from Brussels. We spent the majority of our time just wandering around the canals and cobble-stoned streets and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. We tried all the local specialties, including chocolate, fries, and of course, waffles! The waffles were especially delicious...sweeter than the American version and covered with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Yum! Our hostel in Ghent was also very cool - it was on a barge!

Our hostel (Ecohostel Andromeda):




Pretty canals and old buildings:

Paris

We kicked off our trip with five days in Paris and believe me, five days is not long enough to see everything there is to see there! We went to as many museums, churchs and landmarks as we could and spent the rest of our time walking around the city, just enjoying the sights. By the time we left, we were exhausted (the constant noise and construction outside the window of our hostel room might have also contributed to our lack of sleep!). Overall, a great start to our trip.

Absolute Paris Hostel:


Bunks:


Sacre Coeur:


American Cathedral, where my grandparents got married during World War II:


Inside of American Cathedral:


Arc de Triumphe:


Eiffel Tower: