After dreaming about a trip to Europe for a long, long time, my wife and I finally took the step. We managed to carve out some time around Thanksgiving scoring some good deals on flights to and from Europe on Norwegian Airlines.
Arriving in Copenhagen around 11:45 local time we determined to fight the effects of jet lag by hitting the streets. We walked around the Kongens Nytorv area, Nyhavn, and the Christiansborg Palace area and went up the tower to get a bird's eye view of the city.
With it being the start of the holiday season, we stumbled onto a Christmas market. It was small, but packed with stalls selling food, drink (the glogg highly recommended), all rolled up in a cozy Danish experience complete with a choir of young girls singing holiday songs.
The next day we took the Netto Boat harbor tour (highly recommended). The overview of the area and information provided was fascinating. Afterwards, we saw the Marble Church, the changing of the guard at Amalienborg, and joined the small crowd gathered around (and on) the Little Mermaid. Then we met up with some Danish friends we hadn't seen in over seven years and strolled down the Stroget, got a private tour (think extended look see) of the University of Copenhagen's historic library -- our friend works in the IT dept. Then to Tivoli to take in the holiday lights, capping the evening with an amazing and authentic Danish holiday meal.
The next morning we flew to Munich and spent the next two nights at Pension Lindner (highly recommended) located within a ten minute walk of Marienplatz. The first afternoon and evening we filled with a quick subway ride to the Allianz Arena where my favorite football (soccer) team was playing a home game. I tried to get tickets several months in advance, but the waiting list was at 100,000+ so it didn't happen. No worries. After soaking up the atmosphere in the area, we headed back to Marienplatz and walked over to the Hofbrauhaus. It was packed, mostly with tourists like us I'm guessing. Yet it was still an experience I highly recommend. We weren't able to score a couple of seats. So after checking out the action, we discovered a much quieter and more authentic experience within a few minutes walk. The rest of the evening we strolled around before calling it a night.
The next day we did the Rick Steve's city walk. I highly, highly recommend his audio tours for the information and insights. We saw inside a handful of historic cathedrals and got back to the Hofbrauhaus for some veal sausage, spaetzle, and beer, of course. We took our time on this walk and managed to fill the day.
In the morning it was on to Paris for the next three nights. I probably did the most research on Paris as I had some preconceived notions of what it would be like and had also heard that the scammers runneth wild here. Well, upon exiting the secure area wouldn't you know we were met by the petition girls, right in the airport. But having familiarized ourselves with their game ahead of time, it was no big deal. I'm amazed they're tolerated inside the airport.
Despite many warnings, we took the RER B to Chatellet Les Halles station downtown wondering all along what all the fuss was about. I mean sure, the trip goes through some shabby looking suburbs, but the people on the train were either travelers like us or locals going about their business. If one has any experience using rapid transit in the US or Canada, Paris's metro system is a cinch.
With that said, being newbies, we wore money belts and were glad we did, if for nothing more than the peace of mind. I will say though, considering I used my smartphone the whole trip, carrying it in an outer zipped pocket, when not in my hand, along with a generous amount of daily cash in a pants pocket, I think that common sense and some experience/confidence can be almost as effective as an actual money belt. But that's another discussion.
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