Hello again... so we have left Edinburgh and started our latest big adventure! Here is what we've been up to:
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| The Travellers! |
Helen and I wrapped up our time in Edinburgh working our last days on Friday the 7th of November and spent the weekend trying to fit everything we had into our two bags and backpacks - it turns out we had collected a fair amount of stuff in the year we were in Edinburgh. We each had great goodbye dinners at work (mine more focused on beer than food) and handed over the keys to the flat.
Monday morning the 10th of November Helen and I woke up early, made sure we hadn't forgotten anything in the flat and headed for Waverly Train Station, stopping at Leo's to grab one last awesome coffee and to say a final farewell. From Edinburgh we travelled by train to Newcastle to catch an overnight ferry to Ijmuiden in Holland. Helen had the foresight to buy Lonely Planet guides to Norway, Iceland and Ireland - and it was time to put all our research to work.
The Budget Traveller is easily identified by its sparse habitat, typically located on the lower decks of a ship (never above deck three) and within the interior of the hull carefully constructed without windows in order to minimise attacks by the Ticket Price. The Budget Travellers' cabin makes efficient use of space with two sets of bunk beds opposite each other with the top bunk able to fold away to give the female more space while the bunk above the male remains lowered to provide a shelf on which to place the bags. This top bunk also provides amusement for the female when the male's head repeatedly encounters the top bunk in the confined space. The Budget Travellers' ablution facilities are equally efficient with the toilet located within the shower. Should the need ever arise, the Budget Traveller may use the basin and toilet simultaneously by sitting on the toilet and simply leaning forward, and even shower at the same time. The life of the Budget Traveller aboard a ferry is uneventful during most of the voyage however the morning is a festive time as the Budget Traveller is able to gorge on the buffet breakfast. The Budget Traveller has been know to frequently acquire 'souvenirs' of this feast (pastries and pre-packaged butter, jams and honey) for consumption later thus saving a few euros.
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| Our ferry cabin |
After arriving in Ijmuiden Helen and I were transferred to the coach for the 45min trip to Amsterdam. We arrived at the Central Station in Amsterdam and while looking for the bus ticket office we heard a very South Africa 'no ways' and spotted an ex-colleague of mine from Cape Town who had emigrated to the U.K. and was in Amsterdam for the weekend - small world! After a catch up Helen and I made our way to our hotel, dumped our stuff and bought tickets for the Hop-on Hop-off bus. It was strange driving around Amsterdam since, because Amsterdam is so flat, we could never get a view of more than 10m unless it was along the street or across a canal. After living in Cape Town, the rest of South Africa and Edinburgh we had become so used to expansive views and hills that driving around flat Amsterdam felt strange. We also immediately noticed all the hundreds of bicycles... we had heard about the bikes in Amsterdam but we didn't come close to imagining the numbers!
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| Amsterdam bikes |
We only had the one day in Amsterdam so sight-seeing was limited. We did a loop of the city on the bus to get our bearings and check out the main sights. We enjoyed a tour of the Gassan diamond jewellers which was interesting (and no, I did NOT spend any money there!) and walked through the Rijskmuseum's grand entrance to the museum square and famous "I Amsterdam" sign. The canals running throughout the city are beautiful and such an iconic European experience for us Africans.
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| Spot the tourists! |
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| Amsterdam canals |
After the bus tour we took a walk along one of the canals to the Dam square with the Royal Palace and then back to the station via the Oude Kerk - look it up on a map, there were some VERY interesting sights and colourful red lights along the way...
The next morning Helen and I went to a fantastic little street market where we got lunch for our train trip to Copenhagen in Denmark, passing our first Dutch windmill, excitement!
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| De Gooyer Windmill |
We then arrived at the train station eager for a scenic trip through The Netherlands, Germany and finally Copenhagen. Can you sense the impending failure yet? Well, it turns out that just because there was one transfer indicated when you booked online and even though this was corroborated by a ticket for each leg of the journey, the ONLY time printed on the first ticket is in fact the time of an unmentioned change over in Hamburg which was meant to be 2 hours after we were supposed to leave Amsterdam. There was a train about to leave the station which was headed for Germany so we jumped aboard without any real idea of where we were headed! Suddenly we'd gone from being 1.5 hours early to 2 hours late. Luckily there was a 15 minute window just inside Germany while train engines and crew were changed where I was able to plead my case to a German ticket seller who validated our tickets for the new trains we had to catch thereby saving us 160 euro.
That evening we had the very surreal experience of remaining on the train as it was loaded onto a ferry in the pitch black for the trip to Sjaelland, the island Copenhagen is on. We had to leave the train for the actual crossing so we stepped from a train platform, onto a train, onto the same ferry as the train and then the reverse again to a new train station in a different country. Very weird!
So, hello Denmark! It was late, dark, cold and we were exhausted after a rather stressful day but we made it... and without any tears...
Seeing as it is the land of fairy-tales and princesses, I though I would take over from Tim, so hello! After a bit of a sleep-in to recover from the previous day and night, we headed out to explore Copenhagen. We made our way across to Nyhavn, a beautiful, old part of the city which used to be a busy commercial port. It is also where Hans Christian Andersen spent most of his life and wrote many of his stories. We found a little canal-side cafe with outside tables and blankets and had a light lunch and amazing Gluwein to keep us warm!
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| Happily exploring |
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| Beautiful Nyhavn |
We spent the rest of the day exploring the festive streets of Copenhagen and enjoying the atmosphere of the pedestrian-only 'stroget' streets.
The next morning we caught the bus to the other side of town and walked along the promenade to find the famous 'Little Mermaid' statue in Copenhagen harbour. She is a lovely little bronze sculpture sitting on a rock in the water, waiting for her Prince. She was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's original story and Copenhagen ballet in 1909. The poor stature has been vandalized a number of times, had her head sawn off and paint thrown on her, but she has been restored each time and turned 100 years old last year. :)
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| The Little Mermaid |
We continued along the promenade and found the Gefion Fountain, the largest monument in Copenhagen. It is rather spectacular and shows the legendary goddess Gefion driving four huge oxen. According to the legend, the Swedish King Gylfe offered the goddess as much land as she could plough in one day and one night. She transformed her four sons into very powerful oxen and they ploughed so deeply that they raised the land and pulled it into the sea, thereby forming the island of Zealand on which Copenhagen is found. If you look at a map, the island is roughly the same shape as Lake Vannern in Sweden so perhaps the story is true?
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| Gefion Fountain |
A beautiful old Anglican church is found next to the fountain and the old Kastellet star-shaped fortress is just behind it, surrounded by a green park and interesting sculptures. All-in-all a very, very pretty side of town!
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| The Church |
Carrying on through town, you get to the Amalienborg Palace, home of the Danish Royal Family. The Palace actually consists of four identical buildings all facing in on each other around an octagonal courtyard. In line with the Palace is the spectacular Frederiks church, or Marble Church. It is the largest dome in Scandinavia, probably inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (woohoo - been there!). We arrived at the palace in time to watch the changing of the guard, quite a relaxed affair since none of the royals were home!
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| The Marble Church |
We then walked back to the 'stroget' streets and explored some of the roads we had missed the previous day. We found an awesomely festive little Christmas market made up of little wooden stalls selling all sorts of things. We found a typically Scandinavian lunch of a massive hot dog (not to be confused with dodgy South African viennas) followed by chocolate covered bananas and strawberries on a stick! Yum!
And with a bump our last morning in Copenhagen hit us! We packed up, which we were getting rather good at, and made our way to the ferry terminal with a detour through the Kings gardens and past the fairytale Rosenborg Castle. You can really picture a prince and princess enjoying their fabulous dance and living happily ever after in that castle!
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| The Rosenborg Castle |
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| Walking through the Kings Gardens |
And with that we found our ferry and little cabin, dodged some very, very drunk Norwegians and goodbye Denmark! Onwards to another country, another city...
More news soon! Miss you all and think about everyone constantly.
xxx H
