The Danes Hated to See us Leave

The above title is a reference to a beer commercial here – Dublin readers probably recognize it. And I have to comment on the above picture - that was taken while we were walking! An in-motion photo - I thought that was pretty impressive given the circumstances. Check out that enormously toothy grin of mine. What goofy kids we are.
So we just got back from a weekend in Copenhagen. Denmark was our quickest and most unexpected trip. Since it's starting to sink in that we're moving back to the states in less than five months, we’ve come to terms with the fact that we won’t see all of the countries on our wish list. It’s too bad, but we feel lucky to have been so many places as it is. Anyway, we’d pretty much accepted that we weren’t going to make it to Denmark . . . and then we caved and booked a quick flight anyway. Not good on our budget, but when else are we going to do this?!
It wasn’t as cold as I’d expected it to be in Copenhagen. We were pretty comfortable with sweaters and coats – I only had to pull out my gloves when it got dark. It’s a beautiful city with lots of tidal rivers running through it. The buildings are colourful, and there are plenty of statues hailing from Danish folklore. We made a point to visit The Little Mermaid, who gazes forlornly toward land at the edge of one of the harbors.





















We also visited the Nazi Resistance Museum, which was very interesting. I took tons of pictures for possible use in my future classroom – I especially liked the exhibit on the underground press that supported the resistance movement.
We missed the best action by a week – Copenhagen is gearing up for Christmas, but the festivities haven’t quite kicked off yet. Our biggest disappointment was that the Tivoli Gardens amusement park was closed – we missed it by four days! So unfortunately our Saturday evening was somewhat uneventful. Here’s my wistful picture of the entrance to the Tivoli at night:















Our final half-day in Denmark was spent whisking around the city doing some easy sightseeing – we climbed a historic roundtower for a great view of the city and did a final exploration of the shopping district (lots of great clothes here, but most stores are closed on Sundays). We also ran through an interesting Danish history museum for about a half hour before we had to leave.
All in all, it was a much quicker visit than either of us wanted, but we were lucky to get to Copenhagen in the first place. Perhaps we’ll be able to dig deeper if we ever make a trek out to explore the rest of Scandinavia some day. Then again, that’s what we’ve been saying about every place we’ve visited!

Another Great Weekend

With this post, I can finally say we are largely caught up on the major events in our lives. Luckily, our October was fairly quiet and uneventful. Now I can start giving more regular updates and thoughts on current experiences, rather than reminiscing on trips that occured weeks in the past.
Toward the end of the month, we distracted ourselves from the realities of the approaching winter with a quick trip to Glasgow, Scotland. The last time we visited Scotland, we decided to return to catch a Celtics football match. We were finally able to get there last weekend. Our friend Des played host yet again for us (we really owe him now). We were also joined by Ismet, who we visited in Cyprus, but is actually living in London. Nate, Ismet and Des all knew each other back in the states when they worked on the same client in the small town of Decatur Illinois. Are you confused yet?
Anyway, it was a fast but fun weekend. Nate and I were delighted to watch a match that included a win for the team we supported! We celebrated the victory with a short pub crawl that evening, where my wild and crazy husband climbed a pole in a bar to touch the ceiling, and later nearly killed Ismet by running him down the street in an abandoned shopping cart. Oh the memories! The guys were thankful that I'd forgotten my camera, preventing any documentation of their various hijinks.
So, after a sleepy Sunday of maxing and relaxing, we returned to Dublin, ready to face the week yet again. Maybe we'll bring some of the good fortune that the Celtics are enjoying back to the Irish football team - here's for hoping!

Traversing Bavaria

After my esteemed cohorts left for their various destinations, I boarded a train for the south of Germany. In all, I spent three days wandering Bavaria solo. That’s an impressive feat for a gal who’s nervous about going to movies by herself, let alone wandering through a country that doesn’t primarily speak English!

This was a short but fulfilling trip for me. I’d never travelled by myself before, but it’s something I’d always wanted to do. The practical, no-nonsense, paranoid/safety-conscious side of my brain always made me avoid striking out on my own, but I’m glad I ignored that side for a few days.

My first stop was Fussen, Germany, near the Austrian border. Fussen is very close to the fairy tale castle known as Neuschwanstein (pronounced noy-shvan-shtine). It’s the castle that Walt Disney modelled Cinderella’s Castle after when he made Disney World. I’ve seen pictures of this place before, and I knew I REALLY wanted to see it! It’s fairly “new” as far as castles go, built in the 1800s, and the king who built it simply wanted to build his dream palace. If I were royalty, I’d probably do the same thing! Neuschwantstein definitely tops my castle list as my favourite, although I love the Scottish castles we explored back in May. It just had the total package – a beautiful mountainous setting (it was quite a hike to get there), an interesting history, gorgeous furnishings. The only thing lacking – it had never completely been lived in. The king was either murdered or committed less than a year after living there – they still don’t really know what happened to him. Weird!



















The day after Fussen, I boarded a bus and travelled up the Romantic Road – a medieval trade route that takes you through tons of cool little historic German towns. The bus driver was not the friendliest, but I got to know a very nice girl from Japan who was also travelling by herself! We spent the day hopping between these little towns and marvelling at the scenery. I loved the architecture in Bavaria – lots of half-timbered houses, and churches with onion-domes. And the cows in the south were adorable – they had little bells tied around their necks, which made them look like pets to me. The bells would jingle as the cows grazed, so a meadow full of cows made for a lot of clinging and clanging. I tried to get the cow below to look up at me, but my efforts were fruitless.














In the evening, our bus stopped in Rothenburg, Germany where I had 24 hours to explore. Rothenburg is a picturesque medieval walled town. It was a trading hub back in medieval days, but fell into hard times during the Thirty Years’ War. Then it was almost destroyed during WWII, but was fortunately saved by an American general. Now it mostly draws tourist crowds, but it’s uber-cute, and has a lot of interesting history. I particularly liked the Nightwatchman’s walking tour, but didn’t bring my camera for it because I thought it would be too dark. Here’s a panorama of the town though, taken from the top of the wall.














In addition to its history, Rothenburg has a lot of great shopping – its Christmas Market in particular is pretty famous. So, without a husband to get bored, I had lots of time to ooh and aah at all the ornaments and Christmas decorations. The pic below is the inside of the Christmas shop - it looks like a little winter wonderland village!














On my final evening, I boarded my bus again and headed to Frankfurt. This was the least exciting part of my journey, as it was dark for most of the ride. Frankfurt is a big city, so I didn’t do much solo exploring there – it was mostly just a resting spot before I caught my plane the next morning. But it gave me plenty of time to reminisce over what I had seen and done. I hope to do another trip on my own before we leave, but at the very least, I know I won’t be as intimidated to do this again some day if the opportunity ever avails itself.