Sights of the day

• Headed off for a run in the nature reserve near our eco lodge in the morning, it was so beautiful and idyllic. Kirsten tried her hand at walking on water, not quite as impressive as Jesus! We saw a few locals with what looked like a mix between skis and ice skates, skating around on the frozen over lake.
• Morning walk around a couple of the islands, beautiful castles and views across Stockholm, it really is an amazing city
• Today was really nice weather, a lot warmer than yesterday. The sun does set at 2:55pm though!
• In the afternoon after lunch we headed over to the Open Air Museum- Skansen. It is set up as an olden day Swedish town with a working bakery, woodshop and has Nordic animals. Nathan was VERY excited to see some of the dangerous animals like wolves, wolverines and Lynx. It got dark while we were there so we got to see some of the nocturnal animals come to live, sadly the bears were hibernating. We really enjoyed our visit.

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Eats of the day

Can’t believe I have gotten this far through the blog without talking about the food, we could write essays on today’s experience. Today was a beautiful eating experience, one that we will not forget anytime soon. Sweden have a Christmas tradition of eating ‘Julbord’ which is a buffet feast of traditional Christmas foods. Most people go at least once a year with colleagues, friends or family.

After a bit of searching we found our ideal ‘Julbord’ and booked. It had traditional and yummier options with a really amazing Christmas set up, we seemed to be the only tourists in there. It felt like a big Christmas party, very festive. We had a plate of cold foods first and then hot foods. We were thinking of going back for seconds of hot food, then we found the dessert ROOM (I know!) and scrapped mains totally….

Before getting to the main event (dessert) we tried curried apple, reindeer meat and lots of yummy meat balls.

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We originally couldn’t see any desserts and were worried, we asked the server and she took us to… the dessert room. We started our seating early and so were left alone in this beautiful paradise. There may have been thirds involved, but you can understand why.

There was a roasted nut station, warm and fresh berry cobbler and cake and many small pastries, a cheese station and chocolates. Chocolate mousse in an edible chocolate cup, donuts, ginger brownies and chocolate raspberries were among some of the favourites.

If you are interested, click here for a video tour:

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DAY 7- Travel to Barca

Sightseeing

• Headed out for a morning bike ride and then hike through the nature reserve. We saw a deer run across the path, very cute.

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• Arrived in Barcelona and were out for Tapas for dinner at 9pm- perfect in Spanish time. We are enjoying how lively it is here in the evening and how warm it is! Top of 14.

Travel idea

Late morning headed to the airport to travel to Barcelona with Ryan Air. You do get cheap flights but they just love their add ons. Even though there were a few sets of two seats next to each other they purposely separated us to try and get us to pay for a seat choice. They didn’t get us. They have add ons where you can pay for a seat, customer service, extra bags and food. We have a new business idea for them- pay for friendly service. For 12 euro you could get a special badge where the staff will be nice and friendly to you. Service with a smile (if you pay $$)

A slightly slower paced day as the weather was freezing cold and it was a day where being inside was more desirable than being outside. Despite this, Stockholm was still beautiful.

Sights of the Day

• We had a free city tour with our guide Francesca, she was excellent and gave us a run down of some key Swedish history. Turns out they were pretty powerful back in the day. We also learnt the origins of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ which was very interesting.
• Next was on the Vasa Museum, this was the ‘must-see’ attraction in Stockholm and it lived up to its billing. Very impressive! With the added bonus that it was indoors as well. It is a ship from the 1600s which, after being built as one of the kings regal ships promptly sunk after 20 minutes of being on the water and has been beautifully preserved. Our guide was very excited and felt we were very lucky to be there on a day that the historians unscrewed a plank of wood on a side of the boat to check the quality, we weren’t quite as chuffed as her but enjoyed the excitement all the same.
• Checked out the ABBA museum seeing Kirsten is a fan but was a bit overpriced. Enjoying the ABBA music and display playing out the front= Priceless (and also free!)
• In the afternoon it started snowing quite a bit, still very novel and exciting for us. After a relaxing break in a warm bakery by the water we visited the little Christmas markets in the ‘Old Town’ of Stockholm. Importantly this kept up our average of over 1 Christmas market per day. This is something we are hoping to maintain until Christmas day.

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Eats of the Day

Not much to report today aside from some delicious Swedish meatballs and Lasagna for dinner. Kirsten also enjoyed her hot chocolate in the cafe. All other food was simple and homemade.

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Streak Broken

Our streak of hitting over 20,000 steps per day ended. Tragic, but we have vowed to go at least 10 days in a row this time.

Swedish Takeover

Our beloved tour guide Francesca told us that Sweden are planning to take over the world through IKEA, Skype and H & M. By controlling the way you relax, communicate and dress they feel they can becomes the world’s powerhouse nation again. They have also coined the tagline of ‘Capital of Scandanavia’ for themselves just to annoy Denmark. Best of luck to them!

Well my friends, it starts off slow when you are married to a passionate runner. First it is the occasional run together with strong ‘encouragement,’ then it becomes a weekly run with the occasional park run. Fast forward 6 years of marriage and you are waking up early in single digit temperatures in a Nordic country to go for a jog, luckily- it was beautiful.

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Sights of the day

• Kronborg Castle- Beautiful castle in a harbour town 45 minutes by train outside of Copenhagen. The castle has a huge moat around it and is remarkably well preserved although the building itself has been plundered multiple times over the years. There was a 1st of December celebration happening with lots of live music and of course- more Christmas markets! Kirsten bought a leather over the shoulder bag for equivalent AUD $40.

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Country of the day

Today it undoubtedly goes to Sweden! While on the way to Kronborg Castle we realised it is also the harbour you can take a ferry for 20 minutes over to Helsingborg in Sweden. We decided to pop over for a couple of hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We arrived as crowds started to form as well as a stage set up, we spoke to someone who told us it was the 1st of December Christmas Tree lighting and ‘Lucia’* was coming to play.

We walked up to the top of a big set of stairs above the crowds and enjoyed an amazing view while there were performances of ‘I’ll be home for Christmas’ and ‘White Christmas.’ It was really incredible.

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*We never saw Lucia but Googling it afterwards it looks like it is a tradition of a choir dressed in white singing for Saint Lucia, not quite the pop princess we had imagined her to be.

Music of the day

We stumbled onto a line for a free violin concert in the beautiful chapel of Kronborg castle. A Danish woman played Christmas songs beautifully, click on the link below to check it out.

https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/376892739/f50ed46b68

Eats of the day

• We have been planning to try the Danish Smorrebrod (rye bread topped with meats and vegetables) for a while, today was the day. We got too hungry though while at the castle and ended up buying a sandwich from the Christmas market. Fresh bread, chorizo, loaded with salad and fresh pesto. While the Smorrebrod we found afterwards was yum, it sadly couldn’t compete.
• Kirsten had been waiting to try Abelskiver since watching them be made on the Great British Bake Off on the flight over. They are little domes of pancake like mixture that traditionally had apple inside but don’t tend to anymore. We had them with jam and icing sugar and they were delicious (7.5/10- keeping our standards high).

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Day 4- A planned adventure to Sweden

Today was a travel day to Stockholm on the train (5 hours), it was a beautiful train ride through the countryside and quite enjoyable and relaxing.

Before hopping on the train we went on another beautiful run and stopped in at the bakery and supermarket to get supplies for breakfast and lunch (delicious bread and salad).

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Our Airbnb is in an eco village about 15 minutes outside of Stockholm and is near a beautiful nature reserve that we look forward to checking out tomorrow. A quite night in with some soup bought from Co-op and a movie. It is a bit colder here than Copenhagen and there is snow on the ground!

Day 2 saw us cramming in as many activities as possible to learn everything we could about Copenhagen.

Sights of the Day

Nathan went for a run around the harbour in the morning, it was delightful and ‘almost as nice as the Ponds.’ He was delighted to hear he had accidentally done Princess Mary’s preferred running route.

We then went to ‘Juno the Bakery’, you could tell it was a pretty special bakery as the streets were completely dead but Juno managed to have a long line going down the street. To be discussed and rated further in the ‘Eats’ section.

We dashed across town from Juno to the Rosenborg Castle. This was amazingly beautiful and also had lots of historical significance for the Danes. In the absence of Rick Steves to give tours Nathan has been improvising tours with questionable ‘facts’ and off the cuff comments on what he sees. Questions are permitted but generally dismissed or ignored.

We then went on a bike tour with Alex all around Copenhagen seeing the sights. Alex started off a bit flat but got more passionate and charismatic as the tour went on, we give him a 7.5/10. We saw the ‘Little Mermaid’, Princess Mary’s house (Kirsten pictured out the front, she was home but sadly did not invite us in), the Marble church of Denmark as well as some fancy castles.

Straight after the bike ride we went across town again to the Cisternerne, a former water reservoir which has been deliberately flooded as an art statement to show the potential effects of global warming in ending humanity (but not the world). It was fine.

Then we travelled across town again to the Tivoli Gardens, these were amazing! It is a massive park done up with lights and set up as an amusement park. The lights were stunning and the park was awesome. It was very crowded and had a fairly long wait to get in, but definitely worth the wait and we certainly understand why it is the number 1 ranked tourist spot in Denmark.

Eats of the Day

‘Juno’ is by far the stand out for today, the Cardamom bun and the Almond Croissant were game changers, whilst a more standard chocolate croissant was a nice finishing touch. It was also their second birthday so we got free Glogg (sweet wine with spices) and a Ginger biscuit, had a chat with 2 Aussies that work there! Kirsten’s favourite was the Almond Croissant (10/10), with the Cardamom bun a close second (9.5/10).

For dinner we had very nice wood fired pizza (brie and potato and chilli salami), these were excellent and on another day could have easily been the best meal of the day. Unfortunately for them, they were competing with Juno and so came off second best.

Aussie Achievement of the Day

Our tour guide says that Princess Mary is now the most popular royal in Denmark, far more popular than even her husband Frederik, it is to the point that Frederik is now referred to as ‘Princess Mary’s husband’. It was a proud moment for us Aussies.

Game Changing discovery about the Little Mermaid

Apparently it was originally a tragedy, Ariel gives up her voice and tail and lives in pain for the rest of her life only for the prince to reject her and marry someone else! She then sacrifices herself to the sea. Very gloomy ending.

Walt Disney has tricked us with his movie edition! Can’t believe it.

Welcome to our travel blog, thanks for following along on our trip with us.

We arrived at 5:45am in Copenhagen from Sydney, thankfully we slept quite well on the plane, unfortunately we were done sleeping at about 2am Copenhagen time so it was a challenge to stay awake. Neither of us having been to Copenhagen before, we fell in love with the city despite our bleary eyes.

Sights of the day

• First stop- our Airbnb, staying in the Old Town of Copenhagen with a mother and her daughter, pretty nice place and excellent location. Got to have a early check in and shower before heading off.
• Quick stop at the shops to get a winter coat for Kirsten
• We got a ‘Copenhagen card’ which includes lots of the attractions and all transport. Headed to find Christianborg Castle, on the way got caught up in wind and a bit of snow! Beautiful but a bit chilly. Castle was interesting, has been burnt down twice.
• Looking for somewhere to eat and sit our sandwiches out of the rain/ snow we walked past the canal tour (included on our card) so we jumped on and had an hour around the canals. Our guide was a historian with a dry sense of humour.
• Popped in at the Guinness Book of World Records museum. Kirsten gave it a 4/10 (run down, sometimes disturbing and not up to date), Nathan a respectable 6/10 (enjoyed trying to beat some of the records).
• A walk around the Harbour of Nyhavn with beautiful Christmas markets and coloured buildings. Grabbed a casual 4:30pm dinner (in our defence it does get dark at 4pm!) and went to bed at a respectable 7:14pm.

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Eats of the day

• Delicious bakery rye bread (they really know their breads) for brekky with a traditional Danish ‘Flodebolle’, choc coated marshmallow with a cake bottom layer for breakfast dessert. We give it an 8.5 out of 10- pretty but still tasty.
• Nutella and Banana crepe from a Christmas market stall playing Hillsong music. Europe= Nutella and banana crepes in our minds.

Highlight of the day

Every building is beautiful here, love the architecture and style. We enjoyed seeing everything lit up and super Christmassy.

What we learnt today

• One layer of pants is not enough! More layers needed tomorrow.
• Denmark has the longest reigning succession of monarchs in the world and they are very proud of it.