Schleswig Part 1
June 3 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Today we headed off for a short trip to Denmark. We haven’t explored much there, only driven through to go to the ferry and forever ago before we moved over here we stopped in Copenhagen for a few days. There is a Pokémon event happening next weekend in Copenhagen and Raymond had gone there for a work trip a few years ago and really enjoyed it so we decided to make a trip of it!
First stop was Schleswig Germany, just for the night. Raymond was supposed to have a work meeting later this afternoon so we headed off this morning to get here before then, but then it was canceled so we had lots of time to explore! The town is on a big lake which is why I chose it as it looked nice and we have never been. We are staying right next to Schloss Gottorf so first we went to spy on that. I wasn’t expecting to see much, but you could wander the grounds and there was so much art outside (and we saw people going around cleaning them!) and the biggest baroque garden north of the Alps! So was a lot more to see than I expected and we spent more time there than I thought we would.
Oh, if you zoom in on the tree branch in the water in the second photo there is a heron!Read more
Schleswig Part 2
June 3 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
After exploring all the things at the palace we headed on to explore town and the lakefront. There is a lot of Viking stuff here because there was a Danish Viking age settlement here! I had no idea so that was fun to stumble across.
There were also some nice parks and the lakefront had a nice path to wander (one for people and one for bikes which was nice). The weather said rain all day today when I looked this morning so I thought the drive might take longer and we might not get to see all the things, but it was raining when we were eating breakfast at home and then nothing until we were almost back to the place where we are staying after our wander (and that didn’t last long so we ate dinner out on our balcony overlooking the lake). We did see lots of dark clouds just south of us and heard lots of rumbles of thunder, but not much here. Tomorrow it says rain all day as well so we shall see! Hopefully it is not pouring all day as we don’t have that far to go to our next stop.Read more
Rømø - Tvismark Plantage Walk
June 4 in Denmark ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
Today we got up and set off to explore Rømø Island in Wadden Sea National park which is all the mud flats! We stopped on the way in to the island in the mud flats on that side and they went on forever! It was 8.5km from where they started to the island! It was pretty cool. We walked down to the mud and it was not as squishy as I thought it would be (at least not near the edge). You didn’t really sink! There were rocks along the edge and it looked like there was sand on them, but they were really teeny tiny shells!
After that we headed in to walk to Tvismark Plantage which is a small area and had 15 of the 50 bunkers that were on this island in WWII! It also has the highest point on the island (19m - it’s the hill to the right of the path in the 12th photo - just after the first frog). We saw a few of the bunkers and from the highest point you could see the water (the two photos after the pine trees close ups) so that was nice. The next photo of the trees if you look closely there are so many right or almost right angles on the branches which was odd!
There were also so many caterpillars! The first one my app said is a Swan Moth, the Second an Oak Eggar, the third (he was all black on the back) a garden tiger! Then the frogs were a Moor frog and a European toad! All the animals! Really the Oak Eggars loved the one plant and were all over them!
This was a very easy walk, but super nice! It was windy and mostly overcast so not too warm which was perfect!Read more
Rømø - Lakolk & Sønderstrand
June 4 in Denmark
After our walk to see the highest point we went to check out the beaches on the far side of the island and they were so much fun! You could drive on the sand (we didn’t know we could and parked in the parking lot before the beach) and the water was way out! It took us 12 min to walk from the start of the flat beach to the water! And the tide was coming in so it was closer than if it would have been low tide! Crazy! And it was sooooo windy! But walking along the beach with the sand blowing like it was was so much fun! I loved it! And lots of people flying kites and out windsurfing and stuff. I loved it so much!! Lots of really dark clouds, but no rain on us which was nice!
Then we went down to the far beach and it was much wetter (a large “lake” on the beach so we couldn’t drive on it and couldn’t walk way out, but the water was farther than the other beach cause we couldn’t even see it!). When we got there there was a boat going by and it looked like it was going through the sand!
Then it was off to where we were staying, but stopped at the same spot as we did coming in as it was so different! The tide had definitely come in as it was all water! The last three photos are the same spot as the first one in the first post! And the last one has an oystercatcher! I love them!!Read more
Esbjerg
June 4 in Denmark ⋅ 🌧 15 °C
After exploring Rømø island we headed off to Esbjerg where we are staying the next few nights. We had nice weather on the island, no rain even though there were such dark clouds around, but as soon as we left and until just before we got to our place it was pouring! So much rain on the drive so we lucked out!!
The place we are staying is this small house with a gorgeous view of the water! And you can get down to the beach in 2 min! The tide was in when we went down after dinner so we walked along the pathway up a bit which was really nice. So many pink and white Rugosa roses! It was so pretty! And the sun started to come out, the clouds started to clear up! It was perfect!
A little ways down on the beach was a pier to go swimming off of and it is still super windy so it was fun watching the waves travel up it!
We really got lucky with the weather today and missed all the rain when we were outside. The next few days now say mostly sunny so that should be perfect for exploring!Read more
Marbæk Walk Part 1
June 5 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Today we got up and it was really windy so we decided to do this walk from where we are staying through this bird sanctuary area and see what we could see. If you look on the map we are staying just south of Sjelborg and walked up to the little bump above Marbæk through the forest/fields/whatever then looped back along the water. I was sure it would be nice and I would enjoy it, but it was amazing! I loved it! We kept going through different areas with different plants and animals and all the things! It was so much fun!! (Though we saw that sign in photo two posted and that seems like but of an overreaction ;) we saw lots of farm animals as there were lots of farms and we found these posts with a three by three grid on the bottom with different arrangements of number and placement of spikes that I guess if you have the paper for the area with a map of the trails then there is a spot to punch the corresponding holes into the paper. We’ve seen ink stamps before doing the same thing, but not these spikes! So that was kind of fun.
We got to these two small lakes and there were a ton of bright blue Common Blue Damselflies! They were so bright! And there were tons of Garden Chafer all day too! Especially where we stopped for lunch! They kept crawling all over us :) oh we also saw a Sabre Wasp! And another European Toad and a common shiny woodlouse (that is on the mossy stump).
We stopped for lunch by the sheep, but we first walked up to the “big rocks from the ice age” which were a bit disappointing and not that big. But back to the sheeps we went and had lunch at a nice picnic table and you could see the water from there and watch all the house martins flying around which was fun. And all the sheep coming up to the gate to scratch.
Then it was on to explore more! If you zoom into the photo after the second sheep photo, on the right is a horse with a rainbow jacket! I was like did they dress up for pride? Fun!
Then there were all these posts reaching you about what happened forever ago which we also enjoyed. And saw a bunch of Northern Lapwings in the fields and flying around and they were so fancy! We’ve never seen them before! It was such a nice area! I had thought do we really want to walk the whole way out there, but yes! Yes we did! I was so glad we didn’t turn back earlier!Read more
Marbæk Walk Part 2
June 5 in Denmark ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
Continuing on we got to this area that was so pretty with all these bright yellow flowers (Scotch Broom). They were all over the hills and I loved walking though there, plus the water was on the one side! And we saw a deer! The deer is in the fourth photo just above the yellow flowers just to the left of center. In the seventh photo just to the left of center are two giant goats! We saw them from behind and in the bushes and thought they were cows until we walked around and got a better view cause they were so big!
The rest of the way was walking along the cliffs along the water or on the beach itself (the trail started up higher but kept going up and down the gullies and was super sandy and I eventually decided to just walk along the beach instead). We found a super purple jellyfish which is not a color I see often in nature! And another bunker was just below the cliff by our place that we walked on top of yesterday and never knew it was down there (the tide was in at the time so we couldn’t walk in the beach last night). All in all it was a great walk! I loved the variety of the plants and all the fun animals we saw! It was an easy walk since everything is relatively flat (the cliffs are not that high) and I am really enjoying this area! We are definitely going to have to come back and explore more!Read more
Esbjerg Town
June 5 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
After our walk we headed into town to see what we could see and spy on places for dinner. First up was a gelato place with vegan cookie ice cream which was…not great. Not awful, but the base was like carmel fake butter flavor which was not very good. If you had pieces of cookie in the bite it was okay, but I wouldn’t get it again.
Then we went to this place where we got lots of treats in Norway to see what they had and they had a cardamom bun and blueberry tart so we got them and tried a bite and…neither was very good. It was very sad. Then we spied on the restaurants I had marked and…none of them looked very good either! And the health foods grocery store was mostly clothes? It was odd! Very disappointing food here so we went to the store and made dinner instead.
But the town was nice, but super empty! We were like it is Friday…why are the stores closed and no one is here?? Well it is constitution day! We saw them taking down a band on the stage in the park so we missed that!
There was a very tall bench in town and I tried to get up on it, but it was way to tall and wobbly so I couldn’t…then we were walking to the car and Raymond was like what about this chair? And it was a big stone chair I had missed because it was behind another stone sculpture! So I still got a pic with me in a big chair! Hooray! All in all we had a fun wander.
On the way back to our place we stopped at the Men By the Sea sculpture which is odd as they are so big and look kind of uncomfortable (I think it’s their eyes), but a fun stop! And the back to our place. Phew! We did a lot of walking today! My watch says almost 18km!
It was really windy today and much colder than yesterday. I had to wear my jacket all day and once we got to the water on our walk I had to add my sweater as it was too cold without it. I’m glad I brought clothes for pretty much every temp (and got much colder than forecast)! We did have dinner out on the patio here and sat out there a bit until we froze. Tomorrow isn’t supposed to be as windy so we are going to go spy on the peninsula that is across the way from us and the beaches over there. Maybe a more relaxing day of it is nice enough to lounge on the beach - we shall see!
It also gets dark so much later here! It doesn’t feel like we are that much farther north than home, but we went to bed last night and it was still light out! It was after sunset which was 10:01, but it stayed light so long!Read more
Near Oksby Part 1
June 6 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Today we got up and headed out to the northern most point of the Wadden Sea National Park and the westernmost point in Denmark! There was a lighthouse there and lots of dunes that were smash hills with small houses nestled in that was really fun! Really gorgeous and different! It had said it wasn’t supposed to be super windy and when we woke up there was no wind here, and it wasn’t as windy as it had been on the beach, but there was wind and it was cold! We spied around there some and found a new to us lizard! Bright green!
Then we headed into Oksby to see what we could see. We had driven through town on the way to the beach and it looked cute and I’m glad we did! We found lots of treats at the bakeries! First was a pastry with strawberry jam inside and poppy seeds on top - super good! And some rye bread with seeds for breakfast tomorrow. Then a bakery with cardamom buns which we are hoping will be better than yesterday (no photo as I didn’t take one). And lastly these pastries with either vanilla of chocolate frosting that I was expecting to be crunchier like a palmier when I saw what they were, but was absolutely delicious! It was soft flaky pastry with lots of cinnamon rolled up like a cinnamon roll and flattened. So so good!
The rest of the town was nice, not very big, but the Main Street was fun to wander down. Lots of pottery for sale, but it seemed like everyone had the same thing. Still fun. Oh and the one place had chicken ice cream for your pup!Read more
Near Oksby Part 2
June 6 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
After exploring Oksby we headed out to the beach right there by town to have lunch and spy on the horse bunkers! There were 4 of them on the beach and so much fun! I had seen these on the map when planning and was like obviously we need to go there, but I didn’t realize there would be bunkers everywhere! These were definitely the most fun ones! We hung out on the beach until we got too cold and then headed on.Read more
Near our Place
June 6 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
After our adventures near Oksby we headed back towards our place to spy on the beach (and ice cream) by our place. Every time we have gone into town/to the store we have driven down the beachfront road not that far from us and it looked really nice so we decided to explore. It was gorgeous! Only an ice cream place and one other restaurant, but the beach and waterfront walkway were really nice. There were lots of people on the pier crabbing just like we used to when I was younger so that was fun! I did finally test the water and I expected it to be freezing like always, but it was actually warm! Like we probably could have gone swimming it was that warm (but then it would have been even colder when we got out!). While talking with Raymond about it he suggested that it might be because it is so flat so it is easier to warm up in the sun so maybe that is why it was so warm!
We wandered down the beach until we decided to head back to our place and relax for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner we did take a walk from our place down to the town area near us as I didn’t realize we were that close until we were there this afternoon and saw the housing area where we are staying from the beach! And we found another caterpillar! My app says a Ground Lackey.
In the wind on the beach it was chilly today, but without the wind it was warm in the sun! And it was definitely not as windy as it has been. Had to keep putting on and taking off the layers! And sitting out on our deck in the sun was too warm for Raymond this afternoon. And now the dark clouds are rolling in again.
When I had planned this trip I had planned on switching today and yesterday as I thought it might be busy today, a Saturday in June, and it might be hard to find parking, but it was really empty still. Not like yesterday, but not as many people as I would have expected! I was telling Raymond that even in the middle of winter in Poland there are more people in the beach which is true! Polish people are always out walking the beach whenever we are there! Plus this worked out better as yesterday everything was closed so we could have missed all the tasty treats!
Tomorrow we move on to the next stop and hopefully it is not rainy as I am excited for our outdoor adventures! We shall see! But I really enjoyed this area and will definitely have I come back to explore more.Read more
Faxe Kalkbrud & Rødvig
June 7 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Today was a great day, but phew I am tired! We got up and packed up and it was drizzling while we were loading the car so glad that was today and not the prior days! We once again drove through lots of rain, but eventually it cleared up and we were good to go. When we were driving through Sweden after our Norway adventures last time we had tried this day food chain, Max Burger, which had a lot of vegan options and was really good! When planning the trip I saw there was one here and it would be perfect timing for lunch on the way to our next stop so we stopped for lunch today. It was just as good as I had remembered! Super healthy lunch ;)
Then it was off to our stop for the day - Faxe Limestone Quarry! It is an active quarry during the week, but no one was working today. You can rent a hammer and chisel and break rocks apart looking for fossils! And boy was it fun! The rocks were super hard to break apart and after a while I gave up on that and just looked at the pieces on the ground and found so much fun stuff!! I brought back way too many pieces with coral fossils in (there were a few shells also), but they were so cool!! They were all over the place.
We did see one “pro” lady when we got there that was leaving and one kid when we were leaving that had good chisels and hammers and that probably helped a lot. Our chisels were very dull and flat and a lot of work. But we got there about 1:30 and we were wandering and some dark clouds kept rolling through and drizzling for a few min just enough to get slightly damp and then moving on which was nice as it was hot so it cooled us off. But glad it wasn’t pouring on us! We were wandering around seeing what we could find and suddenly I realized it was almost 4!! We had been breaking rocks apart for almost 2.5 hours!! I was like man, no wonder I am tired!
So then we headed on to our overnight stay - Rødvig. We are staying in the house you can see by the harbor! There is a patio up a bit that you can watch everything from which is great! We had gotten a message from the owners that they gave a corgi pup that likes to greet new people, but if we don’t like pups just let them know so they will keep them away, but I was like yes!! Pups!! Well we got moved in and no pups :( but then I went to check out the higher patio and pups came running! He was so silly and full of energy! We also found that there are two large drawers full of nerf guns in the house! We are prepared!
After dinner we took a short walk around town (it super small) and spied on the beaches. The first one was super smelly so we didn’t stay long. Then through town the other way spying on the cafes (I did find some ice cream I will have to try!) and the start of the Stevns Klint (cliff) trail! We saw the one kiln they used to use to heat treat flint. Tomorrow we will walk along the cliffs as far as we can and see what we can see (they are in the last photo)! And maybe find more fossils!Read more
Stevns Klint Walk day 1 part 1
June 8 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Phew! Today was another long, fun day! We got up and had a little later of a start, but then headed out to hike the first part of the Stevns Klint trail. The whole thing is 21km which would be way too far so we walked about 7km one way then turned around and came back. It said it was supposed to be cloudy all day, but was nice and sunny when we left. The walk was on the top of the cliffs through the fields and was nice, but man it was warm up there! Especially when the sun was out! Every now and again you would get a cool breeze, but if you went down to the beach it was nice and cool.
On the way to the first stop we saw a bunch of Cherry Ermines in the bushes! The first stop was the location of an old limestone mine and you could get down to the beach from there so we went to check it out. At first we were like there are no fossils, but we sat and had a break and looked at the rocks around us and broke some open and found some! They were much different from yesterday and the rocks themselves you could easily break apart by hand so not very stable, but still fun to look for!
When we continued on we went by some old limestone kilns before wandering through more fields (with some fuzzy cows! This one has a baby on the container behind!), and the views of the cliffs were pretty nice.Read more
Stevns Klint Walk day 1 part 2
June 8 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Our last stop of the day was Højerup old church which was right on the edge of the cliff (part had fallen off in 1928 when part of the cliff fell). Here you can see the limestone on top, then a very thin layer of fish clay (the sign said proof of the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs!), then chalk underneath. There were lots of buildings in this area on top of the cliff and it was pretty nice to wander.
Then we went down to the beach (the sign said steep stairs to get down and they were not kidding! It was almost vertical! But not actually that bad going up or down. Not as bad as it looked from the top). We spent so much time looking for fossils there and again the rocks were very easy to break apart and we found lots of cool fossil impressions! Just break a rock open and find some. We spent so much time wandering the beach and finding all the things. So many of the rocks with fossils were so fragile there was like no way to take them with us, but I did bring a few back with me. Though they make a giant mess and I’m going to try and find something at the store tomorrow to wrap them in. We shall see what survives the trip home!
Once it was finally time to head back we wandered back the same path. Found a Six-Spot Burnet caterpillar and a very bright red Cinnabar Moth! Really I cannot believe I actually got an okay photo of the moth as it was flying around so much! When we got back to the rocky beach by town I went out on the pier there (same one as in the first photo of the first part) and put my feet in the water. It was absolutely freezing! But felt really nice on my tired feet! There were also a bunch of baby and mom Red-breasted Merganser on the beach that were fun to watch. One mom had a couple really little babies and they kept trying to ride on her back and they would get on and she would drive under the water to get them off and so they would swim back and get on and repeat. It was pretty funny.
Later we stopped by the one ice cream place as they had an elderflower sorbet and I loved elderflower so had to try that. It was amazing! Raymond got a mint chocolate chip (not vegan) which he also enjoyed, but my sorbet was so tasty!
All in all this was a great day! Long, hot on the top of the cliff, but we love hunting for fossils! Tomorrow we will drive to the other end of the cliffs to explore and hunt more fossils!Read more
Stevns Klint Walk Day 2
June 9 in Denmark ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
Today was another great fossil day! We woke up to rain, but it stopped around 9:30 so we got ready to go and headed out. First stop was Mandehoved where there are old Cold War watchtower and missile defense center! The one tower is now a radar tower and the other is a birdwatching tower so that was fun.
When we walked out to the cliff edge after spying on the tower we saw a sign saying how there are Peregrine Falcons that like to nest in the cliffs (they apparently disappeared in the 50’s, but came back on 2004), so we went to the edge and looked and there was one right there! So nice that he was right there right next to the sign!
Then we headed on to our next stop, the old Holtug Chalk Quarry. There were so many snails on the trail on the way! We got to the quarry at lunchtime so had a break and then tried to get down to the water and the one way we went there was just a very steep cliff with a rope to help and I was like maybe we won’t be going down to the water…but we sat and explored the quarry there looking for fossils and found so many! All the sea urchins!! It also said in the sign we might find some sea urchin fossils so I was like I hope we do…and then we did! The best was right at the end of the day before we headed back Raymond found a rock with a shell impression on the outside and he broke it apart and found a small urchin! It broke in half when we broke the rock, but it goes back together well! And it had a worm or something on it - so fun! In the first photo where I am holding the rock that was a piece of urchin shell that came off and you can see the impression too! We spent like 2.5 hours looking at fossils there. And we were the only people there. We saw one person as we were leaving that was up above.
We did eventually make it down to the water as we found another path, but the fossils weren’t down there. Though in the photo after the all the rocks with the water if you zoom in on the right you can see a bridge and that is the bridge that goes to Malmo, Sweden and on the left near the trees you can see Copenhagen!
There was also a sign when we came in that said keep your dogs on a leash as there are Hares in the area and we were sitting having a break and one almost ran into us! He turned to go down the slope at the last second (I think when he saw us), and then sat about halfway down for a minute so I could take a photo. It was very nice of him to do that!
Then we headed back to the car and drove out to the last stop on the trail which sounded nice in the brochure…but there was nothing there except one restaurant (the last water photo)! So that was a very quick stop. I was really glad we did not walk the 6km from the quarry to the along the road!!
We had to stop at the store on the way home and in town found this rock with rainbow pieces in it which was odd. Then back to our place to relax.
The last photos are what I brought back - some tiny little shells that came out of the rocks (Raymond loved getting them out) and my other urchins and one full shell still in the rock! You can’t see, but both sides are there! So it was a great day. We’ve found way more fossils than I ever expected here! So much fun!Read more
Rødvig final day
June 9 in Denmark ⋅ 🌬 17 °C
We went out for a walk after dinner and I took a few more photos so thought I would do another post :) first pups was sitting by our gate when we went out which was nice. We walked down to the beach and spied, then walked out by the little red houses in the harbor and found some fun statues! Though there was not much room in front/to the side of them so I was very impressed with Raymond’s photo skills! The two were across from each other at the entrance to that part of the harbor and when we got to the second one I realized Raymond should stand at one and I should go over to the other and that’s what we did.
This evening has been gorgeous and sunny, but with cold breeze that was really strong and you could hear it whistling through the boats! Tomorrow we move on to Copenhagen after some morning adventures! No more fossil hunting, but that was honestly way better than I ever thought it would be! This trip so far has been way better than I expected so it’s been really nice. We did have a few sprinkles on us this afternoon, but only a few drops before the clouds moved on and the sun came out again. Perfect weather for the day!Read more
Jægersborg Dyrehave & Copenhagen
June 10 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Today we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day! We headed off to Jægersborg Dyrehave (deer park) which is just north of Copenhagen. It is right by the water and it was still gorgeous when we got here! There was also some interesting art in the park on the water. Then it was into the deer park to see if we could see some deer. It is the location of the old royal hunting grounds and I thought there were a ton of deer in there, but when we were first wandering we only saw a couple, one really close and 3 farther off. We stopped and had lunch and 2 of them were in the trees in the distance, and I told Raymond I thought there would be a big group of them.
Well after lunch we walked up to the kings hunting lodge and all of a sudden in the field there were a ton of deer! They were pretty far away and we figured we shouldn’t walk out to them and scare them, but if you zoom in you can see them! (And in the video which is not that good). There was also a golf course on the other side of the lodge and there were a ton over there too! Lots of white/light tan deer that I have never seen before! So that was fun. We ended up walking way more than I had planned and had to quickly walk back to the car as we had to be at our next place at a certain time to get the keys. But it was fun wandering and spying on the deer! I just looked at the website and it says there are over 2,000 that live there! It is a huge park and we only saw a small part as we didn’t have that much time, but maybe next time we will explore more.
Then we headed into Copenhagen and man I do not like driving in this city! We just drove to where we are staying to unload the car and then to a parking garage and it want far, but was not fun! Sooooo many bicycles and people just crossing in the middle of the street and just people everywhere you have you watch out for! We are staying until Saturday and when we got here there are signs everywhere about this bike race on sat/sun so…I had originally thought we might wander more and then leave after lunch, but with roads closed all over the city after 1 we are probably just going to head out in the morning. I am already anticipating it will take forever as there will probably be more people/bikes everywhere.
But once we parked the car we spied on some treats and found a bakery with tons of good sounding things! We tried a cinnamon roll and it was delicious! We well definitely have to try more!
Then back to our place to unpack and everything before heading down to pick up some dinner - pad Thai and pad see ew! It was from this takeout Thai place and it was amazing! I loved it! There are so many food options here, but I can’t get Thai food many places over here and I love Thai food so we might have to go back again it was that good…we shall see!
We sat by the water for a bit in the sun (the wooden island in the middle was covered with cormorants!), then headed back towards our place and stopped for ice cream - chocolate for Raymond and rhubarb vanilla star anise for me which was amazing! I loved it! If none of the other ice cream places have anything fun to try I would definitely go back there for more!
We sat by the water (and saw a Great Crested Grebe!) until we got cold and then back to our place for teas and relax until bed. It was a really great day, but so much walking! I’ve been trying to not do that much so my feet aren’t already exhausted for my Pokémon day on Friday, but it hasn’t been working out. Oh well! We have been having all the fun adventures!Read more
Copenhagen Day 1, part 1
June 11 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Today we got up and wandered around Copenhagen all day! To start we headed towards this food cart area that Raymond had been to when he was here with work and it was really nice, but very far from everything! We walked through town and while we were I kept seeing a lot of people on their phones, like very on their phones and I was like what is going on?? Then we passed a park and I saw a bunch of people with Pokemon shirts and stuff and remembered that we could have bought a city ticket to place today, Saturday and Sunday if we had wanted (in addition to the park ticket we have for tomorrow). Now I love Pokémons, but the ones you can catch for this event don’t looks great to me, plus 4 full days of playing is A LOT. Normally I do the global one they have every year and that is two days, but that has also been better Pokémons. We shall see how tomorrow goes, but 4 days would have been way too much for me!
After walking through town and getting to this area south of downtown that is a ton of little islands and fancy shops we we walked through some lakes/nature area and finally arrived at the food carts for lunch. It was right on the water and you could see across to downtown which was nice and there were tons of options! We started with a tofu bun bao, gyoza, and sesame balls which were all amazing! We were still a bit hungry so we got some pad Thai which was pretty good, but still not the right flavor. It started raining once we got out food, but luckily they had a few areas with a small covering that we could sit under and stay dry.
After taking a long break there waiting for the rain to stop we got a taxi back towards town. It was a 5 minute drive, but would have taken about 40 to walk so it was definitely worth it! By the time we got to where we were going (the bridge across the water to downtown) it was sunny and gorgeous! We wandered around that water area near downtown seeing what we could see, got a rhubarb lemonade which was sweeter than expected (it was like jam), then headed to this vegan restaurant that had key lime pie. I’ve never had that before so I wanted to try it as I love lime, but then we saw it was coconut based and well I don’t like coconut…but they did have another treat that sounded interesting - flødeboller. It was like marshmallow on a marzipan cookie base and covered in chocolate and was absolutely delicious! We got a plain one and a strawberry rhubarb one and they were both super tasty. We thought we will have to go back tomorrow, but then later in the day we found a stand at a market that was all vegan flødeboller and we think they might get them from there as the decor on them was the same, but either way we will get some more tomorrow to snack on!Read more
Copenhagen Day 1, part 2
June 11 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
After our treats we headed on and really wandered the city spying on all the food places I had marked on my map and seeing what we saw along the way. We went by Christiansborg Palace which was pretty nice, then over to Tivoli amusement park as I had a patisserie listed that had vegan treats, but it was inside the park where you needed a ticket! So I was sad about that…until we walked on a little farther and found a storefront on the street! And got a raspberry yuzu pistachio cake which was amazing! I love yuzu and it really enhanced the raspberry and pistachio. We may have to go back and get another one tomorrow!
After that we went by the Rathaus and I realized I remembered that from our first trip over to Europe before we lived here, but I thought it was in Hamburg! I even vaguely remember going to Hamburg after we moved over here and being like where is that one building with all the fun little statues on the side?? And now it makes sense - it was here not there!
We got some treats at another cafe - a chocolate mousse cake which we tried a bite and it weirdly tasted of nothing. And a cinnamon bun that we will have tomorrow, but I’m not too hopeful it will be good as it seems pretty hard already…then we wandered on and it started raining a bit and it looked like it was going to really rain and we put in our rain coats and I was like let’s just wait a minute under an overhang and I am glad we did as it poured for like 5 minutes. We would have been soaked! Once it let up some we wandered through a food market and found some thing we will go back for later, and then on the way back to our place we saw a rainbow! It was so bright (and on the left there is a bit of a second fainter one). We ordered some pizza for dinner from a vegan pizza place which was okay. Not as good as the place we get in Poland! The cheese wasn’t the best and the dough was just okay, but one was with pumpkin purée and zucchini and the other was with spinach, asparagus and pesto. The toppings were good, but overall just an okay pizza.
I had tried to not walk so much today, but again failed at that…oh well. We only have tomorrow and then we shall see what we get up to on Saturday and then home.Read more
Go Fest Copenhagen
June 12 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Phew!! What a day! Yesterday I was not that excited for today…not like I normally am. Like I knew it would be fun, but I thought we might not actually play Pokémon all day. I can be crazy with this game for these events and basically walk for 8 hours straight, but the listed Pokémons for the event were not very good. Mostly things I have a billion of so I was like well…if that is all they have then maybe we will just explore the city more instead…only there were lots more and ones I really wanted and it was amazing!! Plus I got almost all of the ones I really wanted!! Amazing!
The way it worked was we had a ticket for 4 hours of playing time in Fælledparken that was set up especially for Pokémon. Lots of things to see and do (which I mostly forgot to take photos of) and it was so nice! It was close to where we are staying and not too big, but big enough. It was split into zones where different Pokémon were so it was small enough that you could easily go between zones without having to walk forever which was nice (last one of these events we went to was in Dortmund Germany and that park is huge!). There were also powerbanks to charge your phone so we took breaks occasionally to do that which was nice. We had the morning pass which was 9-1 and then we sat and ate lunch and charged our phones some.
Afterwards you had city game play which was just everywhere on Copenhagen until 6pm. The city was also split into zones and there were things you had to do in each zone so we wandered the city catching Pokémon. We started our city game play with a stop to get some ice cream - melon for me and pistachio for Raymond. Delicious! We then wandered through town to the patisserie that was out of vegan cake yesterday and had a break to try that and they were both amazing! The little one was hazelnut praline, pineapple and passion fruit jelly and praline mousse on cocoa shortcrust pastry. The layer cake was light base with lemon, blue birch and vanilla, blackcurrant jelly, burnt almonds and a lemon mousse with white vegan chocolate. The layer cake was almost like a cheesecake which I am not the biggest fan of, but not and was actually my favorite of the two, but they were both so good. I love getting fancy vegan cakes!!
We then wandered over to the cake place from yesterday and got another raspberry yuzu pistachio cake which is so good. All of the cakes we have had here have been good, and I would get them all again, but if I had to choose and only get one it would be the raspberry yuzu pistachio. It’s just so light and refreshing and delicious!
Then more wandering through town and we somehow managed to make it back to our place right as it ended! Right at 6pm! I don’t know how we managed that, but it was so nice cause we were both exhausted by that point. I had thought about going out for dinner, but we were both like I am not walking more! So deliver it was - ramen this time and it was super tasty!
My feet are still tired and sore right now and parts of my back/arms are sore and are probably going to be really sore tomorrow from carrying my phone and playing all day! It uses different muscles so we shall see. It was so much fun I did think maybe we should get a city play pass for tomorrow as well and play some more…We got super lucky with the weather today, no rain, mostly sunny (with a pretty cold wind so was glad I had my layers, but), but tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day. Plus the bike race is tomorrow and I’m sure it will be a bit busy, though the race doesn’t stretch until the afternoon, but we shall see what we get up to (and how tired we are). If it’s nice out it might be hard to resist playing another half-ish day!Read more
Copenhagen last day
June 13 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Today we got up and basically gathered all the food to bring home with us! Yesterday I had thought maybe we should play Pokémons again until we have to leave! But I got up this morning and not as sore as I expected, but my one side is pretty sore and there is like no way I could play very long. Doing the motion too much wind really start to hurt. Plus I looked last night at what I still needed and didn’t get and it wasn’t very much so made the right decision to just let it go and have yesterday as the Pokémon day.
Today we started by packing up and moving our things to the car, then going by that vegan restaurant where we got the chocolate treats the first full day here. They have breakfast on the weekends starting at 10 and everything sounded really good so we decided to have breakfast there. We got the tofu Benedict and a croque monsieur to eat there, and a white miso French toast to take with us. Everything was delicious! I had seen the breakfast menu when we were there earlier and thought it sounded good and was glad we got to try it! They also had hot chocolate and since it was still cold we got some to go and they were really good too! Though the graphic on the cup makes it look like don’t pick up garbage, throw cups into the water!
I had heard someone else ask the waitress if they had pastries and the lady was like no, but I can tell you where to find the best ones so as we were leaving I asked for her recommendations. We stopped by the one place and got some cardamom buns and cinnamon rolls to take home with us. Then it was on to collect more cinnamon rolls from the bakery we first got them from, some chocolate covered marshmallow things from the stall in the market hall (which some other people were talking with the worker and the worker guy was telling them that they sell them in Zurich and where so while we were driving Raymond looked them up and they sell them at a cafe in Berlin! So we can go get some wherever we want!), and some empanadas for dinner.
Then we started to head off, but first stop was another bakery on the outskirts of town. Getting it of Copenhagen was a bit of a mess with the closed roads, but not actually as bad as in thought it would be. No traffic (we we had seen a ton of stopped traffic while walking around), just had to figure out how to get to the main road around the roads that were closed. The bakery had lemon meringue pie and a strawberry thing that both looked amazing! We tried both of them this afternoon and they were odd. The strawberries and chocolate and cookie base were good, but the whipped cream and custard stuff that was under the strawberries had no flavor. Then the lemon cream tasted weird to me and the meringue was incredibly gritty and not appetizing. We ended up not eating the lemon meringue one after tasting it cause it as not good. It looked so good!! So sad.
Then there was an ice cream place along the coast along the way to our overnight that was supposed to have a ton of vegan flavors so we stopped there…only they only had 2 and nothing fun. But it was on the water so we ate lunch on the beach. A black headed gull came and was staring at us while we were eating and I was like just wait till we leave then you can have the crumbs! But when we got up to go he flew away and didn’t come back that we saw. All that waiting for nothing!Read more
Marielyst
June 13 in Denmark ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
After lunch we headed on to our overnight in Marielyst which is near the ferry we take in the morning. We walked down to the beach and through the small town which had a pedestrian area which we were not expecting. It was pretty nice and they even have a wooden walkway to go out on the water and go swimming so you don’t even have to walk in the sand if you don’t want to. And a path running along the dunes which looked pretty nice.
After a wander it was back to our place for dinner - our empanadas (chili sin carne and Mediterranean eggplant - both super tasty!) and our fresh toast. Everything was so good! After dinner we took another walk downtown just because I like a short after dinner walk and also I had forgotten about this tower you could walk up and spy out on. It has started raining when we were out earlier so I had forgotten about it until we got home. It is not that high, but still nice to see a bit out over everything.
The weather today has been a bit colder (though this morning at were dying as it was so humid!) and raining off and on. When as got to breakfast this morning it started to rain, but luckily we had an awning over us, then when were were ready to leave it stared pouring for about 10 min so we waited to get going, and it rained off and on all day. It was just small 5-10 min rain clouds rolling through with a lot of wind, then super sunny afterwards and not as windy. I was really glad we had Pokémons yesterday! We would have made it work, but trying to play in the rain is a pain as your screen gets wet and then it doesn’t work right and you have to try and dry it off and yeah it is not the best. Plus if you get wet that’s not fun and the cold wind = colder when wet so not good. We got really lucky with the weather yesterday! And for the most part we were not out in the rain today, just saw it.
I’m also really glad we are not staying at that apartment in Copenhagen anymore. It was…okay. A good location, but it was someone’s apartment they live in, which is fine, but I guess there is a company in Copenhagen that facilitates renting it out when you are gone that brings in cleaners to do a clean before renters get there and probably after as well. Well the apartment felt not very clean. Like the cleaners vacuumed and wiped counters and stuff, but it didn’t seem like the people who lived there really cleaned much. We wipe everything down that is non-fabric when we get somewhere and Raymond did the light switches and he said when he wiped them a thick layer of dirt came off…plus their hairdryer and stuff was in a box on the shelf in the bathroom and I have never seen a hairdryer that was that dirty…I don’t even understand how it got so bad so it was not great. But the worst part? It was freezing! Like it has been a high of 16C during the day and down to 10C at night and there was no heat. A lot of places in Berlin have the same system where I guess there is a central boiler for the heating of the apartment building that is only turned on once it gets cold in the fall and then turned off in the spring, and we wrote them to see if there was a way to turn the heat on and they were like umm…the heating get turned off for the building on May 1. We might be able to find a space heater somewhere… Which is crazy to me!! When we travel in the winter our temp setting is 16 to make sure things don’t get moldy or freeze and that was the high temp outside while we were here (and inside definitely stayed colder than outside)! I cannot believe it is turned off so early and the people don’t seem to mind? Like we were the crazy people not wanting to still wear every layer I was wearing outside plus needing the blankets from the bed and drinking hot tea to stay warm? Raymond was even cold and he normally is fine at colder temps than me…it was so strange! I don’t know how they do it. I in would need a space heater from May 1 - ? if it actually gets warm there! Next weekend there is supposed to be a heatwave in southern Germany and we will get a bit warm in Berlin (31C), but Copenhagen is only going to be 21C (which is a nice temp especially if the wind Is not cold!), but not really hot.
Copenhagen was also the most expensive place I have ever booked accommodations for! Norway might be as expensive or more I don’t know as we were in a camper, but the place we stayed was the cheapest place I could find when I looked in February and it was over 300 Euro a night which is crazy. It was definitely not worth paying that much for! I had originally planned to stay longer in Copenhagen as I wanted time to explore everything and eat all the things, but once I saw how expensive it was I changed my mind and only stayed as long as we needed to (I wanted a day of wandering and a day for Pokémon). I definitely would go back to Copenhagen for another visit, but phew it is expensive! But tomorrow we head home!Read more
Travel Home
June 14 in Denmark ⋅ 🌧 14 °C
Phew! Finally home and it is chilly here too! We got up today and headed to the ferry from Gedser to Rostock (the same ferry we took home from Norway last time!). I thought it was going to be freezing on the boat as it was cold waiting for it standing outside, but it wasn’t that bad. Somehow there wasn’t as much wind (even though it was windy and the water was rough). And we got super lucky that there was only a few minutes of rain on the whole 2 hour ride! Though we could see lots of rain clouds behind us. Really we got super lucky with the weather on the entire trip! There was so much rain everywhere, but not really where we were which was nice. Only a few raindrops here and there (or more rain when we could stand somewhere dry and wait it out in Copenhagen). It was much colder than I expected and I am glad I brought so many warm layers! I used all of them!
The whole trip was really nice. I was not that excited for it before we left. I knew we would have fun regardless as we always do, but…as Raymond said on the way home - we have driven through Denmark numerous times, but it doesn’t look like it would be that nice to explore. It is just farmland and meh. And I agree! Really I thought all the hikes we did looked the same online and kind of just meh, but I loved them all! They were all so different! The first place we went, Wadden Sea, I thought 3 days was going to be way too long there and I almost decided to leave Berlin on Thursday morning instead of Wednesday morning and skip the island adventures we had because it didn’t look great. Plus it was supposed to rain the whole time and eh. I was so glad I didn’t do that as the island was so much fun! When we were leaving there I was like we definitely need to come back and explore more! And then all the fossil areas were so much fun and everything was so much better than we thought it would be. So we will definitely be going back to Denmark to explore all the things again! It was such a nice trip!Read more
