In June 2003 we flew to Brussels, Belgium to start a nearly 3-week vacation. We planned to drive a rather odd shaped loop through Belgium, Netherlands, Northern Germany, Denmark, Southern Sweden, and Luxembourg. Our main focus was Denmark, and we threw in Southern Sweden only because we could catch a ferry from there to get back to Germany without back tracking through Denmark. Now take a deep breath, ‘cause here we go.
Our trip started in Brussels, Belgium. Despite its' size, this was a good city to walk around in to see the sights. The streets of the Quartier de l'ilôt Sacré are lined with outdoor cafes that just welcome you to sit down, people watch, and play 'try to guess the tourist' (most likely they are sitting next to you). The ornate buildings of The Grand-Place, the elegant Place Royale, and the strangely famous Manneken Pis all have to be seen. The city of Antwerp, Belgium famous for its' diamond trade had a lot more to offer in ambience than in sights. It was a big city that still had old town charm. In Waterloo, Belgium we saw the Champ de Bataille (battlefield). Here you can't help but see the Butte de Lion, a pyramid with 226 steps to the top where a 28-ton lion stands as a monument.
A lot of people confuse Holland as The Netherlands. Holland (North and South) is really a small part of The Netherlands, like a state or province. Outside of Amsterdam (and windmills), there was more here to see than I originally thought and because of this we will be coming back to The Netherlands. With sights like the walled medieval town of Amersfoort, Paleis Het Loo (Het Loo Palace) in Apeldoorn, and the Nederlands Openlucht Museum (Open Air Museum) just outside Arnhem it seemed like we were on a roll with towns starting with the letter 'A'. When we finally made it to Amsterdam the tone of the city was set when we first got there and on a public bus a fight broke out which involved having the police called. No one on the bus seemed to mind or even got off the bus, so I think this happens all the time. The tone was further reinforced as we were approached for money on 2 separate occasions. Good-bye Amsterdam.
Since we had seen a lot of Southern Germany on a couple of our other trips, we used this trip to see Northern Germany. We knew there was not much in the way of scenic sites, but we did have a couple cities, towns, and villages to see. Our main destinations were Hamburg and Berlin. Hamburg has a lot of historic significance and even though it was a large town we were able to walk around and see what we wanted. Unfortunately, Berlin had some bad rain so we left after spending the night in the city. Since we really wanted to see Berlin, we plan on going back in the future (because we travel on our own and we know we'll be back, we can do stuff like this).
Since we crossed into Denmark very late, we were desperate to find a place to stay. We had 2 options, either use the guidebook showing the 1 hotel in the area where the royal family stay ($$$$$) or drive around aimlessly in the dark in a foreign country where we couldn’t read the signs or speak their language until we chanced upon a place to spend the night. Needless to say, we tried to enjoy the aimless driving. Eventually we found a small hotel in Tinglev, Denmark. Yes, small. Our room had no bathroom facilities and barely a bed. The bath was down the hall in 1 direction and the toilet in the other direction (try to remember that in the middle of the night). The door couldn’t even open up all the way because it was hitting the bed. There was also a desk hinged to the wall that we could only use if we moved our luggage off the floor and on to the bed. But honestly, that did not distract from being in Denmark and enjoying the trip.
For our time in Denmark, we were able to see a lot of the country. We went to Århus where they have Den Gamle By (Old Town), a restored open-air museum in the middle of the city. In Ribe, which is the oldest town in Scandinavia, we saw the Ribes Vikinger (Viking Museum) and Vikingecenter (Viking open air museum). Odense has the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, which is a story book village in itself. All along the way to Copenhagen there was a multitude of towns.
Finally, we spent several days in Copenhagen as the highlight of the trip. It was a very clean and safe city, excellent public transportation, and a lot to see. We saw the Amalienborg Palace where the royal family lives as well as the changing of the Royal Guard. We took a tour of the Rosenborg Palace, where the crown jewels are, and strolled through the surrounding Kongens Have (The King’s Garden). At Vor Frelsers Kirke (The Church of our Savior) I climbed a 400 step winding inside and outside staircase to the top for magnificent views of Copenhagen. At Nyhavn ("The New Harbour") there were buildings dating back to 1600 along the waterfront. We spent part of a day at Tivoli Gardens amazed at some of the strange carnival type games they have. Also, we couldn’t pass up seeing Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid statue), which is a landmark. There was a whole lot more we saw before we left Copenhagen. Like other cities, we used the Copenhagen sight seeing tour bus to get around most of the time.
From Copenhagen, we took the 5-mile long Øresund Bridge to Malmö, Sweden. This bridge was completed in July 2000 and took 2 years to build, but 7 years to plan. We were able to spend a couple days in Malmö, giving us a chance to walk around this nice town (Poland tourism was in the old town square promoting their country, but I thought we had enough countries this trip). We drove a mini-loop around Southern Sweden with part of this along the Baltic Sea. Further inland and north was 'The Kingdom of Crystal' in the province of Småland between Nybro and Växjö. Here are many glassworks in this area that produce world quality glass.
Even though the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is small, it is very hilly and scenic. We pretty much traversed the whole country across and up and down. The City is built on ramparts that give the city a dramatic feeling and very unique look. Luxembourg City center is very nice and because of its’ size, it is very good for walking around. As small as the city is, the only problem came trying to get out of Luxembourg City center. We looped around the city center main circular road numerous times trying to find the road heading north. Finally we had to ask for directions. The city is so small; it was almost like asking for directions on how to get out of a parking lot.
top