Denmark/Sweden Christmas Markets

This trip began in an interesting way.  One day at work I was talking with some co-workers, and one of them mentioned Kopi Luwak coffee.  It was one of the most expensive coffees in the world, and for good reason.  You might want to skip this part if you get queasy easily.   The reason the coffee is expensive is because of what it takes to make it.  There is a type of coffee bean that a certain animal (can't remember which) has to eat.  It does not fully digest it.  The bean(s) travel through it's body, and when it hits it's stomach, it's stomach acid doesn't dissolve.   But it does change it's chemical makeup.  The animal then poops the bean(s) out, and the bean(s) are then harvested.

It got me thinking.  I wondered if any breweries brewed a Stout beer with it.  Sure enough, a brewery named Mikkeller in Denmark did.  I'd had their beers before, but they are not easy to come by in the US.  Each one I'd tried had been amazing.  We talked about going on a trip there, so I started looking in to it.  It turns out that Copenhagen has two Mikkeller bars where they only serve their beer.  They also have a famous Christmas Market.  The market is in Tivoli Gardens, a famous garden/amusement park.  I sent the info about the market to Shanna, and she was all in.  I had a four day stretch in Mid-December where I wasn't working, so we booked our trip.

Our friends ended up not being able to go, which was disappointing.   But if there is one person in the world I can always have a good time with, it's Shanna.  Last Thursday we got on a plane, and in a few hours, landed in Copenhagen.  The airport is so close to the border with Sweden that when we got outside, we had our choice of Swedish or Danish taxis.

We'd heard before how expensive things in Scandinavia were, but we still were not fully prepared.  Through out the weekend, EVERYTHING was expensive.  Even the 10km cab ride from the airport to the hotel cost $60.  We eventually got to the hotel and were checked in.  I'd read mixed reviews on the hotel, but we really liked it.  It was an old building, but had obviously been renovated inside.

After we got settled in, we figured we'd head to the Mikkeller bar for dinner and drinks.  Non-alcoholic for Shanna, of course. :)  It wasn't too far a walk, and we were there.  I have to admit, I was excited.  I love microbrew beers, and this brewery had some amazing beers with a great reputation.  With that came a large crowd, though.  We got lucky and were able to get a table for two.  Shanna had an alcohol free IPA that blew me away.  It tasted like a real IPA...had I tasted it without knowing there was no alcohol, I would have guessed 6 to 7 percent.  It was amazing.

When I had researched the Kopi Luwak beer, I'd seen the name of the beer they brewed it in.  What I hadn't realized at that point, though, was there was actually two beers they used it in.  That night, they happened to have one on tap, so I ordered it.  No beer there was cheap, but they were all amazing.  We spent several hours there enjoying the local brews before calling it a night.

The next morning we found a city tour bus that had a pick up point right in front of our hotel.  It was an interesting tour.  We learned about Hans Christian Anderson, and the places he frequented when he lived in the city.  We also got see the Little Mermaid statue which was built because of his story.  The highlight, though, was definitely the Changing of the Guard at the Copenhagen palace.  We've been to London, but didn't see the changing of the guard there.  So my expectation was to see a new set of guards come out and relieve the previous shift.  Boy was I wrong.  They put on a huge display.  They had a large marching band come out, parade around us playing music, then ceremoniously relieve the guards at each post.  It was really neat to watch.  What I expected to take 5 minutes ended up lasting for almost 30 minutes.

Once the bus tour was over, we got off and hopped on a boat tour through the canals.  I didn't post too many pictures from that since it was such an ugly day, but it was neat flying through the canals.  I had to laugh at one point.  When my friend at work and I were discussing going, he mentioned a restaurant he and his wife wanted to visit.  I had no idea how exclusive this place was...not only was there a six month wait list, but the average cost of a meal was $275.  I'm not kidding...$275.  Needless to say, he and his wife would have been dining by themselves that night. :)

When the boat tour was over, it dropped us off near a Christmas Market, so we walked around.  The irony is, with all the local food offered, we decided on German brats to eat.  After walking around the market, we headed into a local shop.  It advertised itself as a Sephora, which Shanna wanted to visit for their makeup.  I had to find a toilet while in there, and stumbled upon a beer shop in the basement.  Imagine that. :)  So Shanna walked out with makeup and I walked out with some new beers to try.

While walking around, we also came across a LEGO store.  We'd seen a LEGO store in the airport, and several around town.  It was later that we found out that LEGO is based in Denmark.  I had no idea.  We had to get a picture of the front of the LEGO store...they had a giant replica of the Copenhagen Palace guards we saw earlier.

From there it was on to one the famous Tivoli Gardens Christmas Market.  I have to admit...not only was I impressed, it was by far the best market we'd been to in Europe.  Year round the gardens have rides, arcades, and other things to entertain visitors.  During December, they also have a Christmas Market.  In walking through, we saw replicas of famous landmarks like St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Taj Mahal, old buildings in China, etc...  They even had a small area with live Reindeer that you could pet.

One of the more incredible things we saw were Willow Trees.  If you've ever seen one, you know how many branches they have.  Whoever set up the park painstakingly tied a strand of lights to each branch on the trees there.  The end result made each tree look like fireworks going off and raining down light.  It was amazing.  Shanna and I dipped fruit in chocolate, played classic carnival games, saw a light/fountain show set to Christmas Music, and had an amazing time.  We didn't ride it, but we marveled at the 100 year old Merry-Go-Round.  Shanna read later that this park was the inspiration for Disney World.

We eventually found a restaurant to eat at in the park.  It wasn't just any restaurant though...it was a brewery.  We started with creamy Lobster bisque, then Shanna had fish and I had a steak.  The food was outstanding.  Remember how expensive I said things were?  I normally don't talk about money, but to illustrate that fact, in addition to the food I mentioned, I had 2 beers and Shanna had a sprite.  So, two bowls of soup, a steak dinner, a fish dinner, 2 beers and a sprite.  Total cost with tip?  $200.  CRAZY.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day I was on a mission.  The Mikkeller bar we'd been to the first night didn't sell bottles to go, but their bar 4km north of us had a bottle shop.  Shanna wanted to relax at the hotel, so I hopped a cab and headed up there.  This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip.  When I walked in, it was just myself and the bartender.  I ordered a beer off the tap that looked interesting, then asked where the bottle shop was.  He pointed to the door, and I asked if I could take my beer.  When he responded "The only way to shop for beer is with one in your hand", I knew we could be friends.   When  I walked in to the shop, I sent a text message to Shanna saying we were lucky our suitcase had a weight limit on the plane.  She accurately replied, stating we were lucky this place wasn't near our house.  I wanted one of everything.  The bartender walked in and began recommending beers.  I ended up talking with this guy for 30 minutes...he knew his stuff.  Every question I had, he had an answer.  He was incredibly knowledgable about beer, and the Mikkeller brewery.  If we had an extra day, I could have spent the whole day talking with this guy.  I ended up trying the other Kopi Luwak beer they had, and loved it also.  I bought a bottle of each Kopi Luwak beer for myself and a few friends back in Germany, then cabbed back home.

Shanna & I had talked about visiting Malmö, which was across the border in Sweden.  We decided to do it...why not?  That way we could say we visited two countries on this trip.  Plus we'd heard their Christmas market was nice.  After a short 30 minute train ride, we were there.  The market was actually really disappointing, especially compared to Tivoli.  The "draw" was all the lights on the historic old street.  We did find a neat old building.  It was an old Warehouse built in 1595 in a Dutch style.

Other than that, and the Texas store we stumbled across, Malmö was disappointing.  Maybe we had too high expectations based on Tivoli in Copenhagen.  That night, after a train ride back to Copenhagen, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and called it a night.  I know, everyone who travels should avoid American establishments and try local cuisine, but I'm not going to lie...their burger was amazing.  It's hard to find a good burger made from good beef in Germany, so I was ecstatic to have this burger in Copenhagen.

The next day was pretty low key.  We slept in, got breakfast from the local 7-11, and headed to the airport via the train.  That's right, they have a 7-11.  Not just one, but a TON of them.  In a 1km radius of the hotel, we probably saw 10 of them...if not more.  I haven't seen a 7-11 since we moved here to Germany, so it was strange.

Copenhagen was amazing.  We had a great time, and now I want to visit more Scandinavian countries.  Maybe we'll hit the Fjords of Norway in the summer!

To see pictures, click here or any pictures above.

This might be the last post for awhile.  We're talking about Iceland in January for the Northern Lights, though...if we do, that'll be the last trip until the baby comes in April.  We'll see!

Salzburg/Berchtesgaden Christmas Markets

My work schedule for December was all over the place, but Shanna & I looked at it and found two extended weekends for us to take some trips.  The first three day weekend we had, we decided to head down to Salzburg, Austria, for their Christmas market.  We'd both been to Salzburg several times, and absolutely loved the city.  I could easily move there and live the rest of my life.

We would normally drive since it's only 4 hours away, but we booked in November, and every December we've been here there has been significant snow.  This time, to play it safe, we booked a train.  Go figure, we've had unseasonably warm temps all month.  But it was actually nice to sit back and relax, and have the train take us all the way there.  We had one quick lay over in Munich, then it was on to Salzburg.

Having been to Salzburg multiple times, I knew the street to look for hotels on.  Every other time we've visited, though, it's been in the summer when rates were astronomical.  So staying on the main shopping street was too expensive.  During the winter, though, tourism is down and the prices are reasonable.  As a result, we got a great hotel right on the main shopping street.  The Goldener Hirsch has been around for hundreds of years, and was a really nice hotel.

After we got checked in, we went for a stroll.  I knew about the Christmas Market by the Cathedral, but one of our friends told us the Fortress that over looks the city has a small one as well.  We decided to hit the Fortress one that first night.  When we got to the top, you couldn't help but be awed by the surrounding mountains.  We'd been up there before during the day, and it was beautiful.  Being up there at dusk was incredible.

I'm glad we did...it was small, with only 10-15 booths, but it was not crowded, and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around.   We found one vendor selling Raclette.  I'm not sure how to describe it other than melted cheese on top of bread and Prosciutto with some fried onion bits on top.  It was...no kidding..amazing.  I could have downed a few right there.  We washed it down with Glüwein for myself and Kinderpunsch for Shanna.  I normally don't like hot drinks, but this stuff is good.  Every Christmas market in Europe sells it.  When we were finished, we took the cable car down to the bottom.  We stayed out a little bit longer, but were beat after a long day, so we called it a night.

The next morning we got up and headed out to find breakfast.  The hotel was charging off season prices for the room, but not for breakfast...35 Euro/person was just a little too much.  We ended up finding a great cafe nearby that had a delicious breakfast.  Instead of 70 Euro total at the hotel, we paid 18 Euro total.  After breakfast, we headed to the Christmas Market.

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather.  The entire weekend there was not a cloud in the sky.  We walked through the market, finding all kinds of interesting things.  Without me knowing, Shanna found a Scotch flavored Chocolate bar she bought for me and gave to me this morning in my Christmas stocking.  One of the highlights of the market was the ice skating rink.  I enjoy ice skating, but Shanna never did that or roller blading as a kid, so she's not a fan.  We ended up standing there for awhile watching the kids ice skate.  It was fun to watch...some of them flew around the rink, others held on to the rail for dear life.

By the time we'd finished up, it was only around 1pm.  So we ended up looking up the bus schedule to Berchtesgaden.  Berchtesgaden is on the German side, and only about a 45 minute bus ride from Salzburg.  We'd driven through the town when visiting Hitler's Eagle's Nest before, but never actually stopped in the town.  We had talked about visiting their Christmas Market if we had time, so we took the bus and were on our way.  The ride there was breathtaking...I have to say it again, the entire area is one of the most beautiful places in Europe.

When we got there, we took a taxi to the market and walked around.  We loved the market.  The people were friendly, but I found the history there to be fascinating.  One thing that stood out above all others to me was a Mural and memorial dedicated to the soldiers from the area who died in World War I and World War II.  Travel around Germany enough, and you'll start to notice that a lot of areas gloss over or ignore 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.  Not Berchtesgaden, though...they had a memorial to their war dead right in the center of the Altstadt (Old Town) area.

It was really neat walking around the town.  For those that don't know, we have two dogs, a Rat Terrier and a Jack Russel.  While going through the market, we came across a store that had a dog out front playing with a deflated ball that looked exactly like our Jack Russel.  He would take the ball up to people and drop it in front of them.  They would either ignore him, or kick the ball.  He would fetch, and come back.  I know our dogs, though...when they drop something in front of you, fetch isn't what they want.  They want tug of war.  So when he dropped it front of me, I picked it up and held it.  Sure enough, he lunged and grabbed the other end.  He proceeded to shake and twist it, just like our dogs, trying to pull it loose.  The dog was awesome...if we could have brought him home, we would have.

We eventually finished, and took the train back to Salzburg.  When we got there, we wanted to find a place to eat.  We walked to a few places, and they were all booked.  We finally found a hole in the wall tavern that we absolutely loved.  I had a big pot of mussels, and Shanna had fried liver.  I had a few beers, so I was willing to be adventurous and tried the liver.  I have to admit...it was delicious.  It was the epitome of a dive bar, complete with cheap Christmas decorations.  But sometimes those are the best places to eat.  We headed back to the hotel from there, and called it a night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the same cafe, did a little more shopping, then headed to the train station to go home.

Salzburg is an amazing city.  If you ever have the chance to visit, don't pass it up.  It's full of history (our hotel was a few houses down from the one Mozart was born in), the people are friendly, and the area is beautiful.

The next post should be up shortly about our recent trip to Denmark for their Christmas Market.  In the meantime, you can click here or any picture above to see our pictures from the trip.

We made it on German News

Normally this is a travel blog, but every now and then I'll post something non-travel related.  Two weeks ago I was working over night.  Normally I get home around 7:30am when I work over night, but this particular morning I needed things from the grocery store, which didn't open until 8am.  So I got off work at 7am, waited an hour, got what I needed, and was home by about 8:45am.

As I pulled up to our house, I noticed Shanna's SUV was still parked in the street.  When I opened the door to the house, Shanna came from around the corner.  Turns out that she had placed her key ring in the car, accidentally hit the "lock" button on the door, and she closed the door so she could scrape the ice off.  With her keys locked in the car, along with her phone, all she could do was sit outside and wait for me.  Normally she would have had to wait about 15 minutes, but because I went to the grocery store, she was sitting outside for an hour and a half.

We've had ADAC since we got here, and it's more than paid for itself.  It's the German version of AAA back in the states.  I called them, told them what was going on, and they sent someone out.  When he arrived, I noticed a van behind him that said SWR.  I knew that was the local German news station, but didn't think they were together.  Turns out, they were.  When the ADAC guy parked, the van did too and three guys got out.  One had a big camera, the other a boom mic, and the third was the reporter.  The ADAC guy told us they were following him around all day filming a documentary, and asked if we minded them filming.  We said sure, and they proceeded to film the entire experience.  I had been at work all night, and had seriously considered changing into comfy pajamas before the ADAC guy arrived.  Now I was glad I was still in work clothes!

Every few days I've gone to SWR's website and searched for ADAC.  Finally, the video showed up a few days ago.

So, without further ado, here is Shanna & my's segment on German news.

The next post will be a normal travel one.  This weekend we're heading to Salzburg, Austria, for their Christmas Market.  Next weekend we're flying to Copenhagen, Denmark, for theirs.  But for now...enjoy the ADAC guy unlocking our SUV!