12: Paris day 1

It was still dark at 7:30 so we slept in till 9:00.  Once daylight illuminated the street below our balcony, we spotted a nice looking café on the corner.  Becky had an omelette and tea, Jon had fried eggs, croissont, baguette, and coffee.  Now by coffee i mean a dixie-sized cup of espresso, not a giant mug.  It was all very good.  Onward to the adventures!

First we stopped by the paris tourism office to pick up our museum passes (used to gain speedy entry to over a dozen museums in the paris area).  

Second stop was the louvre!

Only a few steps out of the metro station we could see the renovated castle of the Louvre, inside of which lived so many treasures of marble and canvas.  The famous glass pyramids of the museum sat in a sheltered square cradled by the arms of the castle.  It was there that our museum passes first showed their use: with our passes in hand, we were allowed special entrance into the museum, bypassing a queue of people that was probably a half mile long. 

Inside the museum we wandered around many nude statues and ancient artifacts.  We descended a couple floors to view the stone foundation of the Louvre castle.  

We got our bearings and navigated over to the classic oil paintings.  Some paintings were very very large, displaying epic battles between angels and demons.  Some paintings were mesmerizing in their brilliance, appearing more like photographs than like works of the human hand.  Other paintings were nice but forgettable (*cough* Mona Lisa *cough*).  Though some were better than others, each painting exuded enough dignity and authority to attract its very own crowd of camera-wielding tourists--and not everyone obeyed the 'no camera flash' rule.

After an hour and a half we were 'all museumed out'.  We sat in a corner between Italian Classics and Mesopotamian Pottery to snack on the tangerines and baguettes that Becky had smuggled into the museum (HEHEHEHEHE).  We decided then to leave the Louvre and head over to the Notre Dame cathedral.  Little did we know how long that excursion would take.

From our map we could see that the Notre Dame cathedral was only a mile or two from the Louvre, on an island in the Seine river.  We walked along the river, stopping occasionally at the merchant stands to buy a postcard or to look at artwork.  Before long, we could see the iconic notre dame spire.  We crossed the street and entered a cafe across from the cathedral to eat lunch (french onion soup and spaghetti).  As we ate, we admired the cathedral's Gothic architecture (my, those flying buttresses were very buttressy).  

We took a brief tour of the cathedral sanctuary (full of brilliant stained glass, statues, vaulted ceilings, prayer candles) and then walked outside and around the corner to tour the famous towers.  We joined the queue for access to the towers at around 15:30, just as staff began turning people away.  We waited in line for over 2 hours, with one of us periodically leaving the line for refreshments (we used cups of hot wine to thaw ourselves when the idle queue left us frozen).  

Once admitted to the towers, we faced the task of climbing 69m in a spiral staircase, which under the circumstances (cold weather, slow-moving line), was a very welcome bit of physical activity.  

The views from the tower were incredible.  In the company of charismatic gargoyles, one could see many parisian monuments (unfortunately, we were only able to snap a single photo before the camera's battery died).  Up a second, tighter, spiral 147-step staircase, we arrived near the roof of the tower, where we enjoyed even more incredible views (360º view of the city... really awe-inspiring).  

An hour after ascending the towers, night fell and we headed back to hotel prince.

Adjusting her contact in the Louvre square

See the pyramid in the background?

Getting ready to Louvre it up

Some large, Mesopotamian statues.

Pausing for a photo in front of a massive oil painting.

Becky and Mona.  For being such a small painting it attracted a large crowd.

A photo taken by a stranger in the Louvre square.  Eiffel Tower in the background.

Have fun with it

Smile fer the camera

Love padlocks (cadenas d'amour) on the Archbishop's bridge

French onion soup, spaghetti, and Bordeaux wine across from Notre Dame cathedral

Becky and the pensive gargoyle.  Keeping them apart is a metal fence.  Too bad.

11: Copenhagen/Paris travel day

After a very lazy morning of packing/TV/baths, we took the Copenhagen metro to Lufthavn (Danish for 'airport', pronounced something like 'loof-in', weird†), arriving at the terminal fifteen minutes prior to noon.  After discovering that we misread our itinerary (we thought the flight departed at 14:30 but really it didn't depart until 16:00), we lugged our bags over to an  escalator and found a cozy hang-out spot upstairs.

† A quick note about Danish pronunciation: every consonant that would have strong pronunciation in English is glossed over and ignored in favor of the soft vowels and phlegm sounds.  

Bottles of Carlsberg pilsner and Tuborg Julebryg (Tuborg Christmas Brew, yum) were on sale for a fair airport price of €5, so we bought a few and passed the hours drinking and playing cards at a table by the window. Around 14:00 we got hungry and ordered Bacon Whopper meals (with an upgrade of beverage to Tuborg Julebryg for only €2) from Burger King.  Neither of us could remember the last time we had eaten Burger King prior to this experience.. and when they were offering beer on tap as part of a combo meal, neither of us could pass it up.

Come 16:00 we discover our plane was delayed due to fog in Paris.  By 17:00 (after dark) we were in the air.  All in all, we spent 5 hours and 15 minutes in the airport. 

After landing, we took the RER B train from Charles d'Gaulle airport into the heart of Paris.  We checked in to our quaint, centrally-located hotel, Hotel Prince.  What a great balcony view of the street!

We walked 10 blocks to the eiffel tower for a glimpse of the city.  Ordered crepes and hot wine from a food stand next to the Seine river:  Jon ordered a plain nutella crepe and Becky ordered a deluxe ham/cheese/egg/hotdog/french-fry crepe that could have fed a family of 4.  

The streets emanate such culture! Looking forward to the rest of our stay.

A view of a central Copenhagen square.  The glass pyramids offer a view down into the metro station.

Delish Tuborg Julebryg at our window table in the airport.  Carlsberg pilsner in the foreground.

Jon's salt-laden right shoe.  I blame it on the snow control in Copenhagen.

Goofing off 1

Goofing off 2

Goofing off 3

Burger King and beer!

The oblong spiral staircase in our Paris hotel.

See? We're in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower glowed a brilliant gold at night.

Massive crepe and hot wine

A view of the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  Typical E.T. knick-knacks for sale in the foreground.

The view from our hotel room balcony.  We didn't spit on anyone, promise.

10: Copenhagen 2 / Malmö day trip

Woke up at 9:00 this morning and took a train from the airport to Malmö, Sweden.  

Spent the day wandering around.  Happened upon another art exhibit, though this time the art was very modern and homo-erotic, weird. 

Walked through a graveyard (a cemetary has a church next to it).

Had coffee at an Espresso House, which like Starbucks in the U.S., could be found once per block in Malmö.

Had dinner at a Pilsener Urquell (Czech beer brand) restaurant in the cute Lilla Torg (little square).  Becky's beer/beef goulash was palatable but Jon's fried pork knuckle almost turned him vegetarian.

Overall, the city of Malmö felt like Copenhagen's twin.

Enjoying a Caramel Apple Pop on the train ride to Malmö.

A frozen fountain (!) in a city square

Becky and the art gallery.  That woman in the corner studied the stick for over 20 minutes.

Becky's inner child 

Malmö had the filthiest snow!

Giant lamp in the Lilla Torg.  It's illuminated at night.

"My glühwein is too small and too grapey" :( 

Becky's beer/beef goulash.

The scene of a murder?  No!  It's Jon's plate after an attempt to eat the enormous pork knuckle. GROSS.

9: Copenhagen Full day 1

We arrived in Copenhagen last night at 18:00 and took the ("best in the world"!) Copenhagen metro to the center of town.  Checked into the Admiral Hotel.  Discovered a very friendly stretch of restaurants and bars along a Nyhavn waterway adjacent to our hotel.  The Nyhavn waterway contained a number of boats frozen in place.

We settled on a cozy pub that resembled the crew lounge on the inside of a sailing ship, with low ceilings and low lighting, sailing memorabilia on the walls.  We enjoyed a couple of Tuborg Julebyrg beers and shared a fancy world-fusion cheese burger.  The bill was around 200 Danish Kroner, a common price for one meal in the area.  

This morning we set out to explore the town.  Despite having a list of attractions and destinations, we opted to wander around a bit to soak up the environment.  We wandered up to a peculiar tower building, inside of which an art exhibit was setup in honor of Henri Rousseau.  One ascended the tower by walking a spiral brick corkscrew.  The tower, named Rundetårn, was used for a long time as a library and observation tower for the Copenhagen university.  There was a lovely view of the snowy city at the top.

We spent much of the remaining daylight walking through shopping areas, stopping occasionally to browse or to eat snacks.  Copenhagen, like other European cities has a very pedestrian-friendly environment, with whole districts dedicated to foot traffic.   

A hidyhole in the Rundetårn.

Another hidyhole.  Look at the slope of the brick corkscrew!  It would be fun to rollerblade down this thing.

Beautifully formed snowflakes on a window sill in the Rundetårn.

Rousseau had a friendly, cartoony, post-impressionist approach to art.  It was all very pleasing.

Jon had purchased some cool wool socks at a Copenhagen department store and decided to put them on while inside the art gallery.

Becky and the gallery.

Becky trying to break-in to a locked pew inside the church that was attached to the Rundetårn.  Fun fact: the Rundetårn held the church's bell in its loft. 

We were there!  Trying to navigate to the Denmark National Museum, which turned out to be closed.

Becky posing in front of a statue.  We don't know what the statue represents or anything.

Irish coffee with a rock candy stirrer 1

Irish coffee with a rock candy stirrer 2

A typical Copenhagen walkway.  Note that this snow is not slushy at all; the snow stayed entirely solid due to the very cold temperatures.  It was very soft to walk on.

Black bikes were everywhere!  

OMG look how expensive Red Bull is in Denmark!  Just kidding, that's about $4.

Becky and the city.

Jon and the city.  Watch out for those cars slipping all around.

One of many tasty treats: chocolate-covered waffle on a stick.  This lady was laughing at us because we had a hard time giving her the right combination of Danish Kroner coins and because we didn't speak Danish.

Jon modeling a sexy jacket in H&M.  Sorry everyone, he decided not to buy it.