Europe Trip!
We went, it was amazing, we got back, I uploaded all the photos, told my parents all about it.....and entirely failed to make a report here. So, three weeks late: my trip to Europe!
For those of you who like to make up your own captions, here's the full album (start at page 15 and work backward):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/europe/page15/
Massive wall of text ahead!
Day 1:
We were supposed to fly from San Fran to Chicago, then to Gotenburg, Sweden. When we went to check in our bags, the machine said San Fran to Frankfurt, Germany. After a bit of research we found that our original flight had been canceled and we were taking a surprise trip to Frankfurt.
We were planning on sleeping on the way over...except it never got dark. It turned twilighty, but we were taking a high enough arc that after a couple of hours the sun came back up without ever having a true night. WEIRD!
So, onto Frankfurt! The Frankfurt airport was really funny- the ceilings were super low....like low enough that every sign in the building was a Michael hazard.
We had a 9 hour layover in Frankfurt so we did the only thing reasonable- figured out the train schedule and jumped on the soonest train into town proper. Please not that Michael speaks some German, and I speak...basically none at this point. It was amusing. We ended up getting off a stop earlier than anticipated, but it was totally worth it because the train station was stunning. We hopped back on and found the correct stop for the shopping district and staggered around in a sleep deprived state for a couple of hours. We found a hamburger place (Bitburger) that looked good, and had burgers and beers at 11:30 or so local time (3:30 am body time.)
Sleepy and stupid, but glad to be in Frankfurt:
This shot was taken in a lovely little park...we spent some time simply sitting and people watching. There was an absolutely cut-throat game of bocce ball happening.
The architecture was really, really cool (my first real taste of European architecture), and I found myself fascinated with the cobblestone designs in all the sidewalks and roads. So cool!
There were a lot of really good street performers, and we heard a lot of really neat music. We also ran across the first of many Italian celebration festivals.
We learned many things, for example, always remember to stand on your bike:
It became apparent after a very short time that there were an abundance of smokers, as well as rather tall folk. I am, in fact, pocket sized in all of the countries we visited (except for Ireland, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
Managed to get back to the airport in time or our flight. Almost lost Michael twice to angry golf cart type things that appear to rule that airport. One MUST be aware, or you WILL be run over.
Frankfurt photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/frankfurt/
We jumped on the plane and finally landed in Gotenburg, Sweden. Only us crazy San Fransiscian/ Santa Cruzian Californians would think that flying into Sweden while wearing shorts was a good idea. Everyone else bundled up- we were comfortable. haha. It was way more amusing than it should have been- I blame lack of sleep.
After checking into our hotel (rather lovely, and on Volvo's dime!), we wandered the city for a while. We finally decided that as it was getting dark we should do that dinner thing. So we did. We ended up eating the very best fish and chips I've ever had (and likely ever will have...they were amazing).
We managed to find our way back to the hotel, had a good giggle over the fact that the bathroom had a beer opened on the wall, and finally went to bed. We did the math...we had been awake for a grand total of 30 hours at that point.
Day 2:
We woke up 4.5 hours later (6 am local time).
We enjoyed the hotel breakfast, witch was a really interesting mix of familiar and foreign. I tried pickled herring for the first time. I could see how it would be good- but not as a breakfast food! I also discovered a mellon that was amazing....but I have no idea what it was. >.<
Then it was time to go to Volvo to pick up our little orange car!
*For those of you who don't know, the Volvo was the entire reason for the trip. Volvo offers a European Delivery program: 8% off the car, we get to customize it completely, we have access to the European only options, and they fly us out and put us up for two evenings. Once the car is picked up, you have free reign to drive around for up to three months, then you drop the car off in one of 20 or so drop off points and they freight it back home. It meets you about a month and a half later at your local dealership.*
Our car was perfect. It's super cute, fierce, and just right for the two of us.
We took a trip to the Volvo museum...which was pretty cool. Geeked at the gift shop and snagged a couple of presents for family members, then headed back to Volvo for our lunch (they fed us, it was quite good).
We headed back to the hotel, and grinned like idiots every time we caught people looking at our car. <3 We stowed the car away for the evening, then hit the town on foot.
We walked to a neat little section called Haga. It was a rather charming old town in Gotenborg. Boy were we amused to find a "California" shop selling Santa Cruz brand clothing. Hehe. We stepped into one of the MANY 7-11's and finally picked up some local currency.
That afternoon we met up with our dear friends Anna and Mats. It was so good to see Anna again, and to finally meet Mats (whom I had heard much about, but had not before met in person). What a wonderful couple of people! They came bearing gifts, and we ended up with some beautiful hand made jewelry and some lovely art prints. (You spoil us so!) We had a great dinner at a nice local place, then ended up taking what turned into an excellent walking tour. I LOVED hearing stories and perspectives from a pair of locals. ( as well as some help in figuring out what the more obscure local street signs meant.) Lots of history, and many neat stories. And ice cream, there was ice cream. <3
We stumbled upon a little classic car meet up, and it was amusing to wander through and see only three classic American Muscle vehicles. Hehe. Lots of really lovely foreign (local) cars. We ended up at the harbor, and spent a lot of time simply looking at the various ships (including a really amazing sailing ship). The weather was absolutely beautiful- almost too warm, but a nice breeze kept it comfortable.
Our little group ended up wandering through the mall and found a place selling candies. We grabbed a small selection of things we'd never seen before, and giggle like mad when we found "Swedish Fish":
(it was even more funny when I tried to explain why I was laughing to our natives.)
Full Gotenburg photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/goteborg/
Day 3:
Woke up at 5 am, managed to snooze until 6. At 6:30 we opted to go out and find a bakery or something...only to find that NOTHING was open. The streets were empty. It was the strangest thing!
After a bit of wandering we decided that the town was asleep, and it was time to go! We began our road trip, heading down to coast toward Denmark. It rained on us a little- it was really very lovely. The country side was really pretty, and we greatly enjoyed our drive.
We arrived at our first stop (a neat fort that had been built up over the years and had various tech levels). We got out and enjoyed wandering and climbing all over the (largely deserted at that hour) fort. We were pretty hungry at this point, and managed to find a really inexpensive pastry place...that made some of the best baked goods I have ever had the pleasure of consuming.
We continued our trip, setting forth to find our next scheduled stop: a castle. We had some really basic info, but apparently were missing some key points....such as the fact that it was on an island. Nuvi (our GPS) insisted that we needed to take the ferry. It was so insistent, in fact, that it became a running joke. Any time it gave us directions it turned into "Turn right" (and then take the ferry). I don't see this trend getting old anytime soon.
Quoth the Michael: "Nuvi wants us to take a ferry. On the map, it looked like the castle had a neat moat. My scale might have been off- it might be on an island."
Quoth the Katie: "Nuvi: in one mile, keep left...then turn around, drive an hour, and take ferry."
Alas, we did not see that castle. Instead we headed onward, and took the longest bridge in the world. It was POUNDING rain. Part of me is sad I didn't get to see more, the other part of em is amused at how HARD it rained on us. We hit Denmark and BAM, torrents of water. Hehe.
Once we located our hotel in Denmark, we wandered into the rain to hit the local mall (easiest place to get to, highly recommended by hotel folks). We wandered, enjoyed the shops, had some lunch and had a generally mellow afternoon.
We had one hilarious moment back at the hotel that involved a flock of Asian tourists and Michael stepping out of an elevator scattering them. They had never seen anyone as tall as him, and this brought on a lot of laughing and photo taking. It was hilarious. I <3 my elevator Godzilla.
We opted to drive into Kopenhaven that evening, and took a rainy walk around town. We had dinner at a really neat brewery that had a glass ceiling so it felt like we were outdoors. They had some really huge copper brewing equipment:
We saw a crazy number of bicycles, as well as the most terrifying parking garage ever. They were trying to punish us for having a car! Seriously, the Little Orange Car is not that big. >.<
Kopenhaven shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/kobenhavn/
Day 4:
Woke up at 4am. We stayed in bed and read until 5, then got going.
(Nobody around Kopenhaven at 5am...funny that.)
Nuvi finally got to go on the ferry. We took the boat from denmark to Germany. The ride was a little rough due to the fact that it was still rainy, but we both survived well enough.
We headed to a really lovely town called Lubek.
Lubek was amazing, there was so much lovely architecture. We spent a good part of the day simply walking through the town and enjoying the sights. Late lunch amused me: we were in Germany, sitting at an Italian place, and I ordered a shandy.
We made it to Hamburg that evening, and once again enjoyed a rather nice hotel (even if the surrounding neighborhood looked questionable.) We spent some time in the pool, then laud down to take a nap as we were exhausted at this point.
We managed to sleep through dinner, so ate at the hotel's bar. The tenders were very nice, and even printed an english wikki article on gooseberries when we asked what they were.
Quoth the server: "No cheddar, just normal cheese."
We staggered up to our room about midnight and enjoyed a little ipod movie time and reading before bed.
Days 5-11 coming as soon as is reasonable. Whew, epic write up is epic.
For those of you who like to make up your own captions, here's the full album (start at page 15 and work backward):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/europe/page15/
Massive wall of text ahead!
Day 1:
We were supposed to fly from San Fran to Chicago, then to Gotenburg, Sweden. When we went to check in our bags, the machine said San Fran to Frankfurt, Germany. After a bit of research we found that our original flight had been canceled and we were taking a surprise trip to Frankfurt.
We were planning on sleeping on the way over...except it never got dark. It turned twilighty, but we were taking a high enough arc that after a couple of hours the sun came back up without ever having a true night. WEIRD!
So, onto Frankfurt! The Frankfurt airport was really funny- the ceilings were super low....like low enough that every sign in the building was a Michael hazard.
We had a 9 hour layover in Frankfurt so we did the only thing reasonable- figured out the train schedule and jumped on the soonest train into town proper. Please not that Michael speaks some German, and I speak...basically none at this point. It was amusing. We ended up getting off a stop earlier than anticipated, but it was totally worth it because the train station was stunning. We hopped back on and found the correct stop for the shopping district and staggered around in a sleep deprived state for a couple of hours. We found a hamburger place (Bitburger) that looked good, and had burgers and beers at 11:30 or so local time (3:30 am body time.)
Sleepy and stupid, but glad to be in Frankfurt:
This shot was taken in a lovely little park...we spent some time simply sitting and people watching. There was an absolutely cut-throat game of bocce ball happening.
The architecture was really, really cool (my first real taste of European architecture), and I found myself fascinated with the cobblestone designs in all the sidewalks and roads. So cool!
There were a lot of really good street performers, and we heard a lot of really neat music. We also ran across the first of many Italian celebration festivals.
We learned many things, for example, always remember to stand on your bike:
It became apparent after a very short time that there were an abundance of smokers, as well as rather tall folk. I am, in fact, pocket sized in all of the countries we visited (except for Ireland, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
Managed to get back to the airport in time or our flight. Almost lost Michael twice to angry golf cart type things that appear to rule that airport. One MUST be aware, or you WILL be run over.
Frankfurt photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/frankfurt/
We jumped on the plane and finally landed in Gotenburg, Sweden. Only us crazy San Fransiscian/ Santa Cruzian Californians would think that flying into Sweden while wearing shorts was a good idea. Everyone else bundled up- we were comfortable. haha. It was way more amusing than it should have been- I blame lack of sleep.
After checking into our hotel (rather lovely, and on Volvo's dime!), we wandered the city for a while. We finally decided that as it was getting dark we should do that dinner thing. So we did. We ended up eating the very best fish and chips I've ever had (and likely ever will have...they were amazing).
We managed to find our way back to the hotel, had a good giggle over the fact that the bathroom had a beer opened on the wall, and finally went to bed. We did the math...we had been awake for a grand total of 30 hours at that point.
Day 2:
We woke up 4.5 hours later (6 am local time).
We enjoyed the hotel breakfast, witch was a really interesting mix of familiar and foreign. I tried pickled herring for the first time. I could see how it would be good- but not as a breakfast food! I also discovered a mellon that was amazing....but I have no idea what it was. >.<
Then it was time to go to Volvo to pick up our little orange car!
*For those of you who don't know, the Volvo was the entire reason for the trip. Volvo offers a European Delivery program: 8% off the car, we get to customize it completely, we have access to the European only options, and they fly us out and put us up for two evenings. Once the car is picked up, you have free reign to drive around for up to three months, then you drop the car off in one of 20 or so drop off points and they freight it back home. It meets you about a month and a half later at your local dealership.*
Our car was perfect. It's super cute, fierce, and just right for the two of us.
We took a trip to the Volvo museum...which was pretty cool. Geeked at the gift shop and snagged a couple of presents for family members, then headed back to Volvo for our lunch (they fed us, it was quite good).
We headed back to the hotel, and grinned like idiots every time we caught people looking at our car. <3 We stowed the car away for the evening, then hit the town on foot.
We walked to a neat little section called Haga. It was a rather charming old town in Gotenborg. Boy were we amused to find a "California" shop selling Santa Cruz brand clothing. Hehe. We stepped into one of the MANY 7-11's and finally picked up some local currency.
That afternoon we met up with our dear friends Anna and Mats. It was so good to see Anna again, and to finally meet Mats (whom I had heard much about, but had not before met in person). What a wonderful couple of people! They came bearing gifts, and we ended up with some beautiful hand made jewelry and some lovely art prints. (You spoil us so!) We had a great dinner at a nice local place, then ended up taking what turned into an excellent walking tour. I LOVED hearing stories and perspectives from a pair of locals. ( as well as some help in figuring out what the more obscure local street signs meant.) Lots of history, and many neat stories. And ice cream, there was ice cream. <3
We stumbled upon a little classic car meet up, and it was amusing to wander through and see only three classic American Muscle vehicles. Hehe. Lots of really lovely foreign (local) cars. We ended up at the harbor, and spent a lot of time simply looking at the various ships (including a really amazing sailing ship). The weather was absolutely beautiful- almost too warm, but a nice breeze kept it comfortable.
Our little group ended up wandering through the mall and found a place selling candies. We grabbed a small selection of things we'd never seen before, and giggle like mad when we found "Swedish Fish":
(it was even more funny when I tried to explain why I was laughing to our natives.)
Full Gotenburg photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/goteborg/
Day 3:
Woke up at 5 am, managed to snooze until 6. At 6:30 we opted to go out and find a bakery or something...only to find that NOTHING was open. The streets were empty. It was the strangest thing!
After a bit of wandering we decided that the town was asleep, and it was time to go! We began our road trip, heading down to coast toward Denmark. It rained on us a little- it was really very lovely. The country side was really pretty, and we greatly enjoyed our drive.
We arrived at our first stop (a neat fort that had been built up over the years and had various tech levels). We got out and enjoyed wandering and climbing all over the (largely deserted at that hour) fort. We were pretty hungry at this point, and managed to find a really inexpensive pastry place...that made some of the best baked goods I have ever had the pleasure of consuming.
We continued our trip, setting forth to find our next scheduled stop: a castle. We had some really basic info, but apparently were missing some key points....such as the fact that it was on an island. Nuvi (our GPS) insisted that we needed to take the ferry. It was so insistent, in fact, that it became a running joke. Any time it gave us directions it turned into "Turn right" (and then take the ferry). I don't see this trend getting old anytime soon.
Quoth the Michael: "Nuvi wants us to take a ferry. On the map, it looked like the castle had a neat moat. My scale might have been off- it might be on an island."
Quoth the Katie: "Nuvi: in one mile, keep left...then turn around, drive an hour, and take ferry."
Alas, we did not see that castle. Instead we headed onward, and took the longest bridge in the world. It was POUNDING rain. Part of me is sad I didn't get to see more, the other part of em is amused at how HARD it rained on us. We hit Denmark and BAM, torrents of water. Hehe.
Once we located our hotel in Denmark, we wandered into the rain to hit the local mall (easiest place to get to, highly recommended by hotel folks). We wandered, enjoyed the shops, had some lunch and had a generally mellow afternoon.
We had one hilarious moment back at the hotel that involved a flock of Asian tourists and Michael stepping out of an elevator scattering them. They had never seen anyone as tall as him, and this brought on a lot of laughing and photo taking. It was hilarious. I <3 my elevator Godzilla.
We opted to drive into Kopenhaven that evening, and took a rainy walk around town. We had dinner at a really neat brewery that had a glass ceiling so it felt like we were outdoors. They had some really huge copper brewing equipment:
We saw a crazy number of bicycles, as well as the most terrifying parking garage ever. They were trying to punish us for having a car! Seriously, the Little Orange Car is not that big. >.<
Kopenhaven shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastofdreams/tags/kobenhavn/
Day 4:
Woke up at 4am. We stayed in bed and read until 5, then got going.
(Nobody around Kopenhaven at 5am...funny that.)
Nuvi finally got to go on the ferry. We took the boat from denmark to Germany. The ride was a little rough due to the fact that it was still rainy, but we both survived well enough.
We headed to a really lovely town called Lubek.
Lubek was amazing, there was so much lovely architecture. We spent a good part of the day simply walking through the town and enjoying the sights. Late lunch amused me: we were in Germany, sitting at an Italian place, and I ordered a shandy.
We made it to Hamburg that evening, and once again enjoyed a rather nice hotel (even if the surrounding neighborhood looked questionable.) We spent some time in the pool, then laud down to take a nap as we were exhausted at this point.
We managed to sleep through dinner, so ate at the hotel's bar. The tenders were very nice, and even printed an english wikki article on gooseberries when we asked what they were.
Quoth the server: "No cheddar, just normal cheese."
We staggered up to our room about midnight and enjoyed a little ipod movie time and reading before bed.
Days 5-11 coming as soon as is reasonable. Whew, epic write up is epic.