Europe Fall 2022

Oooh. Our first First Class train. After changing trains in Aalborg, we got to sit in the first train that offered First Class seats. For only a couple dollars more per day of our trip, we decided to spring for it mostlly because it will allow us to take the trains we want. Eurail passes allot a certain amount of seats for passholders in each section, but they don't tell you how many. So, if 2nd class is full for pass holders, we can almost always get a seat in First. This one included free instant coffee, magazines, and candy. But the best part is we were the only ones in it, so we could spread out. Gone are the days of sitting on a bag of cabbage and having an old lady sleep on my shoulder (I'm looking at you, Myanmar).

The town is pronounced Our HOOS. We immediately liked Aarhus as soon as we walked out of the station. Sometimes you get an immediate sense for a city. But as luck would have it, this is the week of the annual Aarhus Festuge https://www.aarhusfestuge.dk/, or Arts Festival. It seems to be a combination of art, music, and beer. Lots and lots of beer. At check-in, the host at our aparthotel told us it's like a mini-Octoberfest. There's beer tents everywwhere and stages for bands and people walking around with open beers or sitting in the parks drinking at 4 on a Thursday. What luck.

It was Deanne's 62nd birthday, so I made a reservation at a Michelin starred restaurant called Moef. But after 9 days on the road, laundry was calling. Laundromats are hard to come by in Europe, so we book places with laundry every week or so. Between loads, we explored the neighborhood and enjoyed watching people learn Swing Dancing in a tent and went grocery shopping.

The dinner was amazing. The chef and waitress explained everything and the chef told us which berries and herbs he grew and picked himself. We almost never order the same thing and since I wanted the Haddock with a french curry sauce, Deanne opted for a Confit pig with polenta, "the neighbor's currants", corn, and a sauce made from the roasted corn cob marinated with pork stock. Newsflash: Iowa girl orders Iowa food! Kidding aside, both dishes were amazing and we did the 'ole trading dishes across the table trick. Why doesn't anyone else do that?

The next day we explored ARoS, the modern art museum. The highlight is the Rainbow Panarama on the roof. You walk in a circular, glass enclosed walkway and the windows are tinted the colors of the rainbow. It's like walking through ROYGBIV. And besides that, it was probably the best modern art museum I've been to.

After that it was just walking around Denmark's 2nd largest city. We just missed the Queen's boat at the harbor. She came in on a boat for the fest, apparently. It's vibrant city, mostly because of the university and it's thousands of students. This weekend, they were all drinking but it was pretty mellow and everyone was well behaved, even when we walked through a park with lots of drinking games going on. The Latin Quarter is a quaint area with old buildings, tiny shops, and lots and lots of coffee shops and bars. All of them were pretty full on a Friday afternoon. Lunch was at a cool food court in an old warehouse. Each food cart was in a shipping container. There were maybe 25 carts. I opted for Jamaican and Deanne had Korean.

That night we made a picnic dinner and had wine with the locals in the park nearby. EVERYONE was out eating and drinking in the parks. After sunset, we walked around town looking for bands in tents. We danced a bit to the silent disco where you get to use free headsets and dance with about 50 other people. We saw this in Australia once. Basically, it's a really weird scene to see so many people dancing but not hear any music, unless you have a headset of course.

Later we took some Baltic dancing lessons in a tent and we ended up seeing a really fun Irish band in the tent Deanne first noticed as we walked out of the train station. We danced a lot to that one and especially enjoyed the version of Monty Python's "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life." We collapsed at home after midnight and regretted that we only booked 2 nights.

More photos and videos of Aarhus are here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/SdXR135SKCPQFZcU9

Photos of just the ARos Art museum are here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/W5KH7wQipTYGPxWDALeia mais

What a lovely city. Situated on bluffs above the Aare river, Bern is Switzerland's capital. It's less than 200,000 people, but seems much larger because of tourists and the fact that most people use public transportation. We had 2 perfect weather days and booked a new, trendy hotel high up on a hill with great views of the city and Alpine peaks from the rooftop terrace. We walked around the city a lot and there was a family bike riding event going on. There were bike riding demos, stages, and blocked off streets kind of like Ride The Drive in Madison.

We opted to rent a car to see the village where Deanne's Funkhouser clan came from. It was my first electric car, and I loved it. The best part was not having to find a station and then pay for expensive gas ($8+ a gallon?) We had plenty of range to visit an Emmentaler cheese factory.

What we call Swiss cheese is Emmentaler, from the valley (Tal) of Emmen. At the adjacent restaurant, we went full Swiss and ordered fondue and raclette, which is cheese and bread and cheese and potatoes. Oh, they included some pickles with my raclette. Kidding aside, it was delicious but not something we can eat often since it was so rich. Outside our windows, we could see the cows grazing as the bells around their neck created a steady chime.

The Funkhousers came from nearby Strub and Fankhous. So, not only is Deanne a cheesehead, she's a Swiss cheesehead. Fankhous itself had about 9 houses and was along a stream that was bone dry when we visited. It's an absolutely gorgeous area though. From there we just drove around the area admiring the wonderful houses with blooming red flowers in the window boxes.

We meandered up to a ski village called Sorenberg. There were hikes from here, but we didn't have time. So we drove back to Bern to drop off the car and have some wine from our hotel rooftop. In Europe, breakfast is included in most hotels, and unlike American hotel breakfasts, these layouts are pretty impressive. Uusally, there are high-end cappuccino machines making a variety of coffee drinks at the press of a button. There's lots of fruit, muesli, yoghurts, cheeses, sliced meats, eggs, etc.

It was a short but sweet visit, but a couple days was probably enough, especially since the Bernese Oberland was waiting. We plan to spend 4 nights there to zip among alpine peaks on trains, cogwheel trains, buses, and cable cars, and to get some hiking in. The forecast calls for rain for 3 of the days, but we bring the sun.

More photos and videos are here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/NstrJB17J9Dfcz6m9Leia mais