6/14
As our stay in Stuttgart was only two nights, today was our travel day again and a bigger one at that. After waking up, we had breakfast at Anna and Chris' place again, then checked out of the hotel and after one last picture together Chris gave us a ride to the train station.
We had to get to Copenhagen. There would've been a flight out of Stuttgart but it was much more expensive than flying out of Frankfurt, which is only a 1h train ride away. So we hopped on the ICE train around lunch time and then had about 2.5 hours to spend at Frankfurt airport until our flight to Copenhagen departed.
It was a quick 1.5 hour flight and once we arrived Matt sorted our luggage while I tried to figure out how to take the train across the channel, the Øresund, to Malmö. We had opted for a hotel in the small Swedish town across from Copenhagen (Denmark) because it was quite a bit easier to find an affordable hotel there and we had wanted to see Malmö anyway. The downside was that the train across, known as the Øresundståg, was quite expensive at about $20/person round trip.
It was a quick ride across the North Sea and from the Malmö Central Stationen we had about a 1km walk ahead of us to the hotel. During our walk we soon noticed that Malmö is basically dead on Sunday nights. Nothing was open, except for a 7 Eleven. After checking into our hotel, which we realized was right next to one of Ubisoft's big studios, Massive Entertainment, we ventured out to find dinner. We quickly had to give up as we were unable to find a restaurant that was open at 9:30pm on a Sunday night and opted for sandwiches from that 7 Eleven....
Being so far North and so close to Midsommar (Summer Solstice) means that it was still basically daylight out at that time. Even in Germany and the rest of central Europe the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm. I had forgotten what those long summer nights are like given that every place I've lived in the US is so much closer to the equator than central Europe so I never get to experience it anymore.
The only thing that didn't want to play along for the "long summer nights" was the weather. At 13 degrees Celsius/ 55 degrees Fahrenheit Malmö was half of what we had in Stuttgart. And it didn't look much better for our longer trip to Stockholm either. My dreams of spending a warm summer night during Midsommar in Sweden were thwarted.
Comfort also wasn't too high as this was the Swedes' idea of a queen bed. But otherwise the hotel was great, especially the amazing breakfast buffet that was included.
6/15
We got up early, well what we call early on the trip. 8:30 AM certainly isn't early. But for two funemployed people on vacation, it certainly is. Two reasons: for one, breakfast closed at 9:30AM and we had a full day in Copenhagen ahead of us and needed to take a 35min train back across the Øresund to get there.
We arrived at Copenhagen's central station, and right across from it is the well known theme park Tivoli. Matt seemed pretty tempted to go on a few roller coaster rides.
We turned to the right and walked by the historic post office and eventually reached the Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament. To our surprise parliament has horses and a lot of white ones at that.
From there we just kept walking to things that looked interesting on the map and eventually reached the Nyhavn area with the famous colorful houses. It's kind of the painted ladies of Copenhagen.
From there we just followed the waterfront and ended up at the Konserthuset (concert hall) with a great view of the new modern Opera House.
It was a short walk to the Amalienborg Palace from there. This is where the Danish Royal Family resides during the winter months.
Right next to it is the Frederik's Church.
A bit North of that then is the park/canal that surrounds the Kastellet a fortification of the Danish Army. But before we got to that we took a right turn towards the English St. Alban's Church.
From there it was only a few minutes until we reached the famous symbol of Copenhagen, the little mermaid, or as the Danish say, den lille havfrue. She was surrounded by throngs of tourists and it was hard to snatch a good picture without a million people in it but I managed to get one.
From the little mermaid, we backtracked a bit to a lunch place I had spotted, right by the water side. It turned out to be a really cool place that served great Scandinavian food and beer.
After our lunch we walked back into the star shaped park/canal structure that houses the Kastellet, the old fortification.
We continued with the rest of the park and then made our way back into the the rest of the city, past the art museum, in search for the next castle.
We soon found it as it was surrounded by large fancy gates and a large groomed park. It is called Rosenborg Slot, as in Rosenborg Palace.
After exiting the park we now were on a mission to find the big church where the royal weddings are being held as well as the one that has the tower you can visit.
We stumbled upon the latter first. For a small entry fees you could walk all the way up the tower and visit an exhibition about the history of tattooing in Denmark. The tower also featured a creepy attic, great views from the top as well as a scary interior "hole" that was only covered with a thick piece of glass. No stepping on from this gal here.
The Church of our Lady wasn't far away. This is where most of the royal weddings were held, including the one of the Danish Crown Prince, Frederik, to his Tasmanian wife Mary Donaldson, who is now Crown Princess of Denmark.
From the church it was a quick walk back to the main train station and back over to Malmö in Sweden. We relaxed a bit for 2 hours or so and then walked to a hotel just around the corner from the hotel that I had spotted on Yelp for having great reviews. It was a traditional Scandinavian restaurant so I opted for the famous Swedish meatballs, known as köttbullar and Matt went with a char.
6/16
Today was dedicated to the city of Malmö, which isn't that large so we dilly-dallied for quite some time after breakfast.
Once we finally left our hotel we just walked around the center of town, through the royal gardens.
From there we headed into a part of town that was clearly less than 20 years old, large parts were probably built on the old docks. Now they're a prime example of modern Swedish architecture and design.
The entire reminded us a lot of San Francisco's Mission Bay area that only features new developments and was an industrial wasteland until a few years ago.
Once we reached the end of the area we got a great view of the Ocean, the Øersundbridge and Copenhagen in the distance.
After leaving the new construction area we walked back into the older part of town and passed by the Malmö Castle.
From the castle we continued on into the old part of town, across the large town square and back into the newer part of town where our hotel was where put in a pit stop at the Malmö Brewery.
We weren't too far from our hotel and walked back up towards the town square after relaxing for a bit. We had wanted to check out a restaurant there but ended up going somewhere else as we stumbled upon this second town square full of restaurants and a great atmosphere.
This concluded our time in Copenhagen/Malmö. Next stop Stockholm!
As our stay in Stuttgart was only two nights, today was our travel day again and a bigger one at that. After waking up, we had breakfast at Anna and Chris' place again, then checked out of the hotel and after one last picture together Chris gave us a ride to the train station.
We had to get to Copenhagen. There would've been a flight out of Stuttgart but it was much more expensive than flying out of Frankfurt, which is only a 1h train ride away. So we hopped on the ICE train around lunch time and then had about 2.5 hours to spend at Frankfurt airport until our flight to Copenhagen departed.
It was a quick 1.5 hour flight and once we arrived Matt sorted our luggage while I tried to figure out how to take the train across the channel, the Øresund, to Malmö. We had opted for a hotel in the small Swedish town across from Copenhagen (Denmark) because it was quite a bit easier to find an affordable hotel there and we had wanted to see Malmö anyway. The downside was that the train across, known as the Øresundståg, was quite expensive at about $20/person round trip.
It was a quick ride across the North Sea and from the Malmö Central Stationen we had about a 1km walk ahead of us to the hotel. During our walk we soon noticed that Malmö is basically dead on Sunday nights. Nothing was open, except for a 7 Eleven. After checking into our hotel, which we realized was right next to one of Ubisoft's big studios, Massive Entertainment, we ventured out to find dinner. We quickly had to give up as we were unable to find a restaurant that was open at 9:30pm on a Sunday night and opted for sandwiches from that 7 Eleven....
Being so far North and so close to Midsommar (Summer Solstice) means that it was still basically daylight out at that time. Even in Germany and the rest of central Europe the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm. I had forgotten what those long summer nights are like given that every place I've lived in the US is so much closer to the equator than central Europe so I never get to experience it anymore.
The only thing that didn't want to play along for the "long summer nights" was the weather. At 13 degrees Celsius/ 55 degrees Fahrenheit Malmö was half of what we had in Stuttgart. And it didn't look much better for our longer trip to Stockholm either. My dreams of spending a warm summer night during Midsommar in Sweden were thwarted.
Comfort also wasn't too high as this was the Swedes' idea of a queen bed. But otherwise the hotel was great, especially the amazing breakfast buffet that was included.
6/15
We got up early, well what we call early on the trip. 8:30 AM certainly isn't early. But for two funemployed people on vacation, it certainly is. Two reasons: for one, breakfast closed at 9:30AM and we had a full day in Copenhagen ahead of us and needed to take a 35min train back across the Øresund to get there.
We arrived at Copenhagen's central station, and right across from it is the well known theme park Tivoli. Matt seemed pretty tempted to go on a few roller coaster rides.
We turned to the right and walked by the historic post office and eventually reached the Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament. To our surprise parliament has horses and a lot of white ones at that.
From there we just kept walking to things that looked interesting on the map and eventually reached the Nyhavn area with the famous colorful houses. It's kind of the painted ladies of Copenhagen.
From there we just followed the waterfront and ended up at the Konserthuset (concert hall) with a great view of the new modern Opera House.
A bit North of that then is the park/canal that surrounds the Kastellet a fortification of the Danish Army. But before we got to that we took a right turn towards the English St. Alban's Church.
From the little mermaid, we backtracked a bit to a lunch place I had spotted, right by the water side. It turned out to be a really cool place that served great Scandinavian food and beer.
After our lunch we walked back into the star shaped park/canal structure that houses the Kastellet, the old fortification.
We continued with the rest of the park and then made our way back into the the rest of the city, past the art museum, in search for the next castle.
We stumbled upon the latter first. For a small entry fees you could walk all the way up the tower and visit an exhibition about the history of tattooing in Denmark. The tower also featured a creepy attic, great views from the top as well as a scary interior "hole" that was only covered with a thick piece of glass. No stepping on from this gal here.
6/16
Today was dedicated to the city of Malmö, which isn't that large so we dilly-dallied for quite some time after breakfast.
Once we finally left our hotel we just walked around the center of town, through the royal gardens.
From there we headed into a part of town that was clearly less than 20 years old, large parts were probably built on the old docks. Now they're a prime example of modern Swedish architecture and design.
The entire reminded us a lot of San Francisco's Mission Bay area that only features new developments and was an industrial wasteland until a few years ago.
Once we reached the end of the area we got a great view of the Ocean, the Øersundbridge and Copenhagen in the distance.
This concluded our time in Copenhagen/Malmö. Next stop Stockholm!
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