Tag: europe

Copenhagen in less than 24 hours (2024 Europe)

When we were planning our flights for the cruise, we found that making a stop in Copenhagen on the way back from Bologna was just as cost effective as if we tried to book directly from Bologna (we would still have had to layover somewhere). Our early afternoon flight out of Bologna brought us to Copenhagen around 3:30 pm. From the airport we took a train into the city center and made a short trek to our hotel (Axel Guldsmeden Hotel). The hotel had many green initiatives to try to reduce their carbon footprint and be more environmentally friendly.

Since we didn’t have a ton of time in Copenhagen, we dropped our stuff and immediately headed out the door to do some exploring before our dinner reservations. The biggest change, a huge welcome one, was the weather. We left southern Europe where it had been 90+F with humidity to a high of low 60s F and drizzly/rainy.

We didn’t have a ton of time before dinner so headed east northeast toward Strøget, which is an area with stores and restaurants. Along the way we passed by Tivoli Gardens, which is an amusement park and the inspiration for Walt Disney to create his parks. Just past this we arrived at City Hall Square, which had a cool fountain and a nice picture spot of City Hall.

We then walked through the shopping area and hooked back around toward the hotel to make our way to dinner. Along the way we also passed by Wallmans Cirkusbygningen (Wallmans Circus Building) and stopped for a picture at Saint George’s Lake (Sankt Jørgens Sø).

D had made reservations at a restaurant called Maple Casual Dining, listed as a place with homemade food in a casual, cozy setting. This description was spot on and they had both yummy cocktails as well as delicious food. Ironically the main was a steak from Colorado.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep as we had an action packed morning prior to checking out and heading back to the airport by noon. We had planned to check out at least one bakery since they are well known for their pastries (hence the “danish” pastry that is popular in the US). D had found one place that was well known called Hart Bageri. Right across from this location was a coffee shop that I had been recommended (my cousin is a big coffee person). We woke up early, got ready and went to both Hart Bageri and Prolog coffee, which was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. This was in the opposite direction of the sights we were planning that morning but overall I found Copenhagen proper to be a very walkable city. There were also tons and tons of people on bikes everywhere with many bike lanes/lights set up.

After some delectable pastries and coffee, we made our way to Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). This castle was built by Christian IV during the Dutch Renaissance and served as the royal residence until the early 1700s. Now it is filled with many historical artifacts along with the crown jewels. We wandered through the Castle and then went into the basement/armory area where the jewels were kept along with weapons and wine.

We then made our way to Nyhavn, which is a 17th century waterfront and canal area with colorful building facades. Lots of tours were at this location taking pictures. We took some quick pictures and moved on, passed by a large square, Kongens Nytorv and The Royal Theater’s Old Stage. A quick pick me up at Coffee Collective and then a stop in Illum Department Store. The prior day we had also stopped at the flagship Hay House (a great place for interior designers).

The sky opened up as we started back toward our hotel as check out time was looming and we also had to make our way back to the airport for our flight back to the States. We were able to quickly dry off and then take a train back to the airport (we initially got on the wrong one but at least we had time to get on the right one). We had a layover in Paris before flying back to LAX (it was interesting as it was July 4th so there were fireworks going off all around us as we made our final approach and landed).

And that concluded our almost 3 week Europe trip. Definitely a good time in our first big trip post-COVID.

-StewsCat

Venice and Bologna (2024 Europe)

Venice and Bologna (2024 Europe)

Previous post here.

Our flight landed at the Venice Marco Polo Airport. It was a short walk to the Alilaguna, which is the water bus that you can take into Venice proper. While it did take over an hour to get to our stop (we probably stopped at 5 or 6 locations before our stop), it was a nice tour of Venice from the water. The first bus stop was actually another island (Murano) which was neat to see (I know some people will actually take a water taxi there to explore and eat some food but we didn’t do that so it was nice to see it here). We got off at the St. Mark’s Square stop since our hotel was quite close to that location. Art Biennale (La Biennale d’Arte di Venezia) was happening while we were there. I guess this is a famous art festival that is held here. During our trip we did end up checking out some exhibits (they were scattered through the city).

Our hotel, Al Codega hotel, was tucked inside of a square so at first was a bit confusing trying to find it. It was a cute historic hotel and while the room was small, we didn’t spend much time in it.

After checking in, it was time for dinner so we walked around and had dinner at Osteria del Lovo. D ordered the fish pasta dish which was yum and we shared some polenta with meat and finished with a tiramisu.

The following day after a nice breakfast at the hotel (another hot one), we walked over to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) where we saw Basilica di San Marco, Campanile di San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Torre dell’Orologio (Clock Tower). The square was crowded with people taking pictures but also waiting in line for the Basilica and the museum. We had some time to kill before our lunch reservation.

Athens (2024 Europe)

Athens (2024 Europe)

We disembarked at the Port of Piraeus (outside of Athens) on my birthday. We bid farewell to my folks who were flying back to the States while D and I and my sister and her family were staying on for an additional few days to explore Athens. I never really had a big desire to visit Greece but felt this would be a nice opportunity to see one of the oldest named cities in the world and learn more about ancient civilizations. After getting off the boat, we queued up for the taxi line to bring us into Athens and to our hotel.

After about a 45 minute drive (due to some abnormal traffic – I guess we arrived the day after a big holiday) and almost to our hotel, we passed by the Arch of Hadrian and Syntagma Square, where the Old Royal Palace is. This is also where you can see the Presidential guard change every hour at the tomb of the unknown soldier (we weren’t around on a Sunday but I guess they have a bigger guard change then).

We got checked into our hotel (Elia Ermou Hotel), located in a bustling shopping area (Ermou Street) and then walked over to see the guard change (above).

My sister invited us over to check out their vacation rental (about a 5 minute walk from our hotel). They had a nice apartment with multiple bedrooms, living room, kitchen, laundry. We ended up hanging out there quite a few times and also were able to use the laundry. At the end of the cruise, I gave one of my carry on luggages to my folks and D and I both were going to finish our trip traveling minimally (with just a travel backpack each).

We had dinner reservations for later in the day and had some time to kill (again it was quite hot here as well so finding something indoors was a priority). We elected to walk over to the Acropolis museum, but first had lunch nearby.

The Acropolis museum is filled with archaeological artifacts from the surrounding area from Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Athens. It sits over some Roman ruins as well – you can actually go underneath the museum to see some of these ruins. It was neat to see these artifacts up close. On the 3rd floor, you also had a nice view of the Acropolis with the museum’s floor to ceiling windows.

The address of our dinner spot was a little confusing as first it said it was only 1.5 miles from our hotel, but then I searched the address on the restaurant web site and it said it was over 6 miles away. I have never had either the Uber or lyft app before but realized that to get to the restaurant (especially given the heat), we would need to find transportation. I downloaded the Uber app and luckily it wasn’t too expensive. However there was still traffic going on so it was going to take almost an hour to get there (our return trip by contrast took like 20 minutes).