Copenhagen - August 11 - 14, 2017

We having been trying to put together a Copenhagen trip for a while, but could never find the right price or timing. Finally for an extra long weekend in August it came together for cheap (well, Copenhagen cheap). 

Friday, we landed at noon and went straight for lunch in the Nørrebro neighborhood. Sliders provided their namesake with all different kinds of meats and toppings, plus a strawberry milkshake that blew us away. We wandered around the neighborhood a bit before taking the metro out to our hotel. We stayed at the AC Bella Sky which was three metro stops out of town at the convention center, but it was a nice place to make our home base. After resting for a bit, we headed back into town to explore more. It was a nice evening and it was a great atmosphere to wander around in. Copenhagen is a very approachable and livable feeling city. We loved just sitting in the park and watching the locals relax on a sunny evening. Finally, we headed to dinner at Alabama Social. We picked it for the southern connection and because they offer a three course fixed menu for 300 DKK which is a decent price for a nice meal in Copenhagen. The hot wings and strawberry rhubarb pie were the highlights. 

In front of city hall

Saturday, we were up early to catch a Sandemans free walking tour. Before the tour, we stopped at Grod for some killer porridge. Yeah, it was that good. For the tour, we had a pleasant and entertaining guide, and she showed us all the main city center sites. The palace and Nyhavn were the visual highlights. For lunch, we trekked across a couple bridges to get to "paper island". Named for the previous function of the building (paper mill), it is now a haven for food trucks. A BBQ sammy with curly fries hit the spot. We took it easy in the evening after racking up 20k steps during the day.

Awesome porridge

A few of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen

Nyhavn

The opera house

We slept in a bit on Sunday (a little bit because someone wouldn't turn off the track and field world championships - two Vols running in all of the sprints) but were ready to go by lunch. We headed over to Hija de Sanchez in the meat packing district to get our Mexican fix. Very authentic place with the green salsa being especially tasty. We explored a bit in Vesterbro neighborhood before heading to our next walking tour. This alternative tour focused on the hipper/seedier/stranger parts of Copenhagen. We didn't love the tour, but we did get to see several of the breweries that we had been looking for! For dinner, we returned to the meat packing district to Biomio organic bistro (BOB). Great healthy fair served with a hip vibe. After dinner Tyler caught a beer at Warpigs which is a collaboration between a Danish brewery (Mikkeller) and an old favorite from back home, Three Floyds (Munster, IN shout out). 

For our last day in town, we hit the big tourist spots we hadn't seen yet: Tivoli Gardens and Christiania.  Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in the world and is said to have been one of Walt Disney's major influences in the design of the Disney parks.  We wandered the park and watched the carnival like rides.  It was amazing to find an amusement park in the middle of a capital city, it really felt like you had left the urban madness behind.  From there, we headed to another place trying to leave the city behind, Christiania.  Christiania is an autonomous anarchistic district located in Copenhagen.  Christiania was founded in the seventies by a group of hippies with their own rules, operating outside those of the Danish government.  The area is open to all visitors but they are very protective of their way of life.  We walked through the town to get a sense of the vibe and an understanding of why people would choose Christiania as their home.  

Some awesome almond croissants

Tivoli Gardens

We had a full weekend in Copenhagen and really enjoyed the Danish way of life.  Copenhagen is a very livable city, if it wasn't dark for most of the winter!  

London July 21-23

We had a long weekend for Belgian national day and decided we needed to get out of town for a few days.  We have run out of creative ideas for 3 day weekends, so we are playing the greatest hits album. Back to London! We did not do a great job planning as there have been a few other things going on that we need to plan for, but we figured we would just show up and see what happens. Thursday dinner was Wahaca (again) in East End. It was fun to see all of the finance crowd out and about for their after work drinks. On Friday morning, we returned to a breakfast place we struck out at last time: Breakfast Club. A classic English breakfast hit the spot. The weather was nice so we decided to hit a park we hadn't seen before. Hyde park is a massive green space capped at one end by Kensington Palace and the accompanying gardens. We rented city bikes to take it all in efficiently, but for some reason they really don't like you riding through the park, only around the outside. So we ended up ditching the bikes after a half hour and strolling through the pretty park. The afternoon was dominated by attempts at baby clothes shopping at all the hot spots (Harrod's, Regent and Oxford streets), but it turns out London isn't the place for bargain shoppers. We also took a break from shopping at the famous Dominique Ansel for Molly to try their "cookie shot" creation (a shot glass made of chocolate chip cookie and filled with milk). Dinner was a great pork steam bun or four at Bao in Soho.

A HUGE breakfast

Kensington Palace

Hyde Park

The Kensington gardens

Cookie shot!

On our next morning, we returned to Bill's where we had enjoyed breakfast before.  Although we didn't have a run in with the Queen this time, the food was still really good.  After breakfast, we headed to Coveant Gardens to check out the street performers and shops.  As the typical London rain started to settle in, we searched for some indoor activities.  We headed to the London City museum to check out their exhibit about urban living before visiting the British library.  The library of course had tons of old books but the coolest display was one of the original versions of the Magna Carta.

Coveant Gardens

Books everywhere!

Before catching the train home the next morning, we spent our time wandering through a few of London's markets.  We stumbled upon a really cool organic farmers market that we decided would be our go-to if we lived in London.  For lunch, we hit the Southbank food market and had nachos and a London take on the po boy.  We strolled the river walk to get back to our hotel and pick up our bags before a return to Belgium.  We had another great weekend in London, one of our favorite city trips in Europe.  

Karen and Allison visit - June 2017

We returned from Crete on Friday and on Sunday, we headed to Brussels for the day to visit Allison and Karen.  They flew into Brussels to start their European adventure.  It was their first visit to Belgium so we spent the day exploring Brussels, looking for comic wall art and eating the delicacies of Belgium (read: pastries, fries and beer!).  After an awesome Sunday with them, we left them in Brussels to catch their train to London the next morning.  They spent a week in London while we headed back to the real world and work.  But our visit with them wasn't over, they returned to visit us in Antwerp the following weekend.  We showed them the sites of Antwerp, and Belgium really pulled through with some extremely warm Summer weather for mid-June.  We did plenty of eating, walking and board game playing.  We are so glad that they got to come visit us before Allison entered the working world.

The medieval fair we ran across

You can't leave Belgium without a waffel

Because they are delicious!

Crete

With Mandy in tow, we headed for a 5 day trip to Crete.  We hadn't seen any of the Greek islands yet, and we chose the largest as our first adventure.  We took a direct flight from Eindhoven to Chania, Crete.  There were stunning views of the Alps along the way.  Landing in Greece, we were surprised by cool weather, but fortunately, it was the only day we saw rain and low temps.  After dealing with a bit of graft at the car rental place, we headed into the center of town.  Chania is a cute town on the water with a historic lighthouse and Byzantine church decorating the harbor.  We stopped for lunch and poked around town a bit.

Chania old town

Our Air BnB was another 30 minutes down the road in a very small village. It took us a minute to adjust to the local driving rules.  It seemed that 2 lane road were treated as 4 lane roads, with active use of the shoulders as lanes 3 and 4.  We got it sorted out in time to get off of the national road and enter our one-stop-sign village.  The cottage was just outside of "downtown" and a block away from the water.  It was very cute and comfy, probably one of our best Air BnB picks of all time.

The next morning, the sun was out, and we got going to Elafonissi beach.  While it didn't look too far away on the map, the drive took over an hour with the majority of it being on a 1.5 lane road over the towering and beautiful mountains in the center of the island.  The drive was worth it to see the expansive beach, pink sand, and crystal clear water.  We hung around all day enjoying the view and water.

Elafonissi beach

Pink sand!

The next day brought more great weather and another beach adventure.  This time we were off to Balos beach.  Again, the drive didn't look far, but the going was even slower and trickier than the way to Elafonissi.  There were paved roads up to the park entrance, but from there on in it was a winding gravel road on a seaside cliff.  There were certainly some white knuckle moments.  Even after the long drive in, we still had to hike a few kilometers to get to the beach itself.  Yet again, it was worth the effort. It is certainly one of the most picturesque coves we have ever seen.  We enjoyed the day there, and headed back to the cottage ready for bed.

The road to Balos beach

The cove from above

Our last full day in Crete was spent hiking the Samaria Gorge.  We started early and took a tour bus up to the top of the gorge.  The trek through Samaria Gorge is a 16 km (10 mi) hike that starts at the top of the mountain.  It requires a couple miles of down hill hiking before you begin the hike along the waterbed to the ocean.  Of course, we deceived ourselves into thinking it wouldn't be too hard since it was downhill, but it was no easy hike!  We hiked until the Samaria settlement, a village that was inhabited up until the 1960's.  From there we finished the hike along the river and stopped in the fishing village of Agia Roumeli for a late lunch and dipped our feet in the Libyan Sea.  We looked around the town while waiting for the ferry to pick us up and take us to our tour bus for the return drive home.  All in all, it was our longest day, starting at 5 am and returning after 8 pm.  We were exhausted but very glad to have experienced the gorge.

Waiting on the bus, it's too early!

Samaria Gorge

Agia Roumeli

The next morning we had to pack up our stuff to return to Belgium.  After checking out of our AirBnB, we had time to stop in Chania for lunch and a bit of souvenir shopping before heading to the airport.  We had a great time in Crete and would love to return someday.  The island had the perfect mix of beach and mountain adventures!  After returning to Belgium, we had to say goodbye to Mandy and send her back to the US.  It was great to have her visit and take the adventure to Crete with us!