Being a Tourist in Copenhagen Again

A few weeks after arriving in Copenhagen, I made a list of things I wanted to do or see while here. Now with my near constant travel and the need to do some school work, I had not done anything on the list in over a month. So on Tuesday, I decided to go into Copenhagen and do some touring.

Rundetaarn

My first stop was Rundetaarn, the Round Tower. The tower was built by Christian IV as an observatory. You climb up a spiral ramp to the top of the tower. Along the way there are some items of interest. First you pass the Library Hall, which is no longer a library but has art exhibitions. The day I was there, there was a textile exhibition. Next you pass the Bell Loft which has some historical items in it. A little further up you can step into the hollow core (don’t worry, it’s covered with glass). The center of Rundetaarn was used as the zero point when first surveying Denmark. You then climb up some stairs to the very top, where there is a beautiful view of the city. The day was hazy, so I couldn’t see very far but it looked cool.

View from the top

Planetarium

Textile Exhibit

Spiral Ramp to get up the Tower

Textile Exhibit

Rosenborg Castle

My next stop was Rosenborg Castle, another attraction built under Christian IV. It was originally built as a country summerhouse, but now holds a museum and the crown jewels. Walking through the museum (which is just the rooms of the castle) was lovely. Each room was more richly decorated than the last. The best part was the Long Hall on the third floor. The room was lined with tapestries depicting the king’s victories in the Scanian War.  At the end of the hall is the coronation chair of the kings and the thrones of the queens. The treasury, which is located under the castle, has many ornate items including swords, pistols gifted from Abe Lincoln, and other tchatkas. The centerpieces of course are the crowns and the crown jewels. Overall, Rosenborg was a great place to visit, especially if you want to see the wealth of the royal family without leaving the city.

Selfie to prove I was there

View of the Gardens

The Long Hall

Lions in the Long Hall

Tapestry in the Long Hall

Christian IV’s Crown

The Crown of Absolutism and the Queen’s Crown

Close up on the Queen’s Crown

Crown Jewels

My last stop was the Botanical Garden, which is owned by the University of Copenhagen. It was a perfect fall day, so I enjoyed just walking around and taking in the beautiful weather. I had a great day in Copenhagen, which reminded me that I need to take the time out to explore this great city while I am living so close to it.

Legoland

I spent most of last week catching up with blog posts from break and recovering from vacation. By the weekend, I was getting back into life in Denmark: Friday, I went on a pub crawl through Copenhagen, Saturday, I baked pumpkin cake with a friend, and Sunday, I went to Legoland.

ESN (Erasmus Student Network) organized a trip to go to Legoland, and knowing that my brother would kill me if I didn’t take the chance to go (since it will be closed by the time my family comes to visit), I quickly signed up. Legoland is in Jutland which is the part of Denmark connected to Germany so it was a 3.5 hour drive to get there.

We started off in Miniland, which is where there are all the models of different places in Lego. They were really fun to see and very detailed. Some of the vehicles moved around and some models had been decorated for Halloween.

We then started going around the rest of the park. There are a lot of rides, which while not the most thrilling, were still a lot of fun. My favorite, by far, was Polar X-plorer, a roller coaster. There was also a shooting game ride and a ride where you had to power a fire truck and a water pump to put out a fire while racing other teams (my team won).

I had a great day, and as it was off-season the longest line we waited in was 15 minutes. It was a fun day that made me want to go home and build something out of legos.

H.C. Anderson

Nyhavn

Amalienborg

Amsterdam

Living the good life

Not sure why Mt Rushmore is in a Danish park

Star Wars Models

Star Wars Models

A Last Day Away: Fall Break Day 10 – Prague

Sunday was our last of break. We were tired but I would have kept travelling. Unfortunately, Nicole convinced me that I should probably stay in school.

We started our morning off by going to the Jewish Museum, which despite its name is not one building, but a bunch of synagogues and other Jewish buildings housing different exhibits. The exhibits varied from various Judaica to Holocaust memorials to Czech Jewish history.

The two most interesting parts were the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Old-New Synagogue.The Old Jewish Cemetery has many gravestones sticking up everywhere. Famous Jews, like Rabbi Low, the creator of the mystical Golem, are buried there.

The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Europe. Its name comes from when it was built in 1270 it was the New Synagogue. After they built more synagogues they changed it to be the Old-New Synagogue. It is said that the remains of the Golem of Prague are in the attic.

Spanish Synagogue

Old New Synagogue

Ceremonial Hall

Old Jewish Cemetery

We then found a small restaurant with great food and prices. We then dropped off our stuff and did some shopping while we were in a cheaper country than Denmark.

We decided to walk over to the New Town part of Prague and see some of the sites we had missed. The New Town is still old, just newer than the other sections of Prague. We saw the New Town Hall, where a mob of Hussites (Protestants) threw councilors and officials out of the window in 1419. We also saw the Dancing House, also known as “Fred and Ginger” after the dancing duo. It is a very modern building in the middle of a lot of older architecture, which causes some people to dislike it, but I thought it look very nice.

Powder Tower

New Town Hall

Dancing House

Prague Castle

National Theater

For dinner, we ended up going back to the place we were at for lunch. We then just headed back to the hostel as we needed to pack to go home.

My alarm went off at 4:30 Monday morning. We caught a taxi to the airport where we got back on our flight to real life.

Bones and Churches: Fall Break Day 9 – Prague

Nicole and I (since Josh had left) decided to take a day trip on Saturday to Kutná Hora, a town about an hour outside of Prague which is famous for a bone chapel (more on that in a bit). There was a tour that included train tickets and entrances to all the sites that we decided to go on.

Jerusalem Synagogue

The tour picked us up at our hostel from which we walked to the Old Town Square. We watched the Astronomical Clock strike 11 and then we were off to the train station.
We passed the Jerusalem Synagogue on our way which is one of the only synagogues outside of the Jewish district an was gorgeous.

We then took a train for an hour to Kutná Hora, where we then took another smaller train. Our guide said one of the best reasons to go on a tour there is because the Czech public transport is rather hard to navigate.

Our first stop was an old Cistercian monastery. Our guide used it as a way to start explaining the history of the Kutná Hora. The town was found to have silver, so there was a silver rush around the 13th Century. The city was prosperous to try and compete with Prague. The monastery also had the skeletons of two saints which had been gifted to the church by the Pope.

Relics of a Saint

Relics of St. Felix

Inside the Monastary

We then went onto the main attraction, the Bone Chapel, which is officially called the Sedlec Ossuary. The ossuary is a popular tourist attraction for the bones that are the decoration of the church. So why the bones? A priest brought back some holy dirt with him and sprinkled it over the cemetery, which made it a very popular place to be buried. Between the Hussite Wars and the Black Plague, the cemetery was overwhelmed and bodies were removed and placed in the ossuary of the newly built church in the middle of the graveyard. After a while, the Schwarzenberg family bought the church and was trying to figure out how to decorate. The artist suggested using the bones that were currently stored there. After deciding this was not an awful thing to do they did so. The result was very cool to see.

Outside of the bone chapen

The artist’s signature

Crest of the Schwarzenberg

Graveyard outside the chapel

The tour then had hired taxis to take us to the other side of town. There we went to Saint Barbara’s Church, an impressive building that took 500 years to complete with building starting in 1388 and not completed until 1905. Construction was halted many times because of wars and lack of money. It was built to rival the churches in Prague. It was certainly an impressive church, although at this point of the trip, I was fairly tired of churches.

St. Barbara’s Churh

We then went for lunch. The restaurant was fantastic and super cheap. Prague was cheap for us (especially after having lived in Denmark for a few months), but the rest of the Czech Republic is even cheaper. I had beef in a cinnamon cream sauce with bread dumplings which sounds strange but tasted great. Note about the dumplings in the Czech Republic, they are nothing like any dumplings you would ever imagine. They are slices from a rolled loaf of whatever the type maybe (bread or potato is what we saw).

We then finished our tour by walking to the old mint. With all the silver that was mined in Kutná Hora, it was a good place to mint the coins. At one point, during the Habsburgs’ rule, Kutná Hora was producing a third of the money in Europe.

Back in Prague, we found we were not hungry enough for dinner, after having such a late lunch, so we strolled back to the Old Town Square where we bought some dessert and enjoyed the beautiful Prague night.

Graffiti and Grandeur: Fall Break Day 8 – Prague

The National Museum

Friday morning it was raining again. It was also Josh’s last day as he had an earlier flight to Copenhagen. We decide to head off to the National Museum. When we arrived, we discovered that it was closed for renovations for a few years. No worries, we headed to one of the other National Museum’s collection which was located across the street. However, that was closed as well for two months. At this point we gave up on the National Museum and decided to go back to Prague Castle.

Statue of Wenceslas

We walked through Wenceslas Square on our way to the Metro. Wenceslas is considered the patron saint of the Czech Republic. You may have heard of him from the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas”. The square used to be a horse market, but now is just a street lined with shops.

View of Wenceslas Square from the National Museum

We got off the metro and made our way through the Royal Gardens on our way to the castle. Once at the castle, we bought a joint ticket for a bunch of the sites. Our first stop was St. Vitus Cathedral, which is a gorgeous Gothic cathedral.

The many stops our tickets included had many exhibits about the castle that were very informative. We got a little bored of reading all the exhibits by the end and rushed through the last few stops. Still we enjoyed our visit greatly.

Royal Gardens

Royal Gardens

Good picture of us, not of the Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

Inside St Vitus Cathedral

St Vitus Cathedral

St George Basilica

Golden Lane

Trdlo

In Prague, I have found my favorite new dessert, trdlo (I don’t know how it is pronounced. It is dough covered with cinnamon and almonds (or sometimes walnuts) that is roasted. This means the outside is crispy but it is still doughy on the inside. I had one everyday.

We walked over to the John Lennon Wall. After Lennon was shot, someone painted his face on the wall as defiance against the communist regime. Since then, the wall has been covered with layers of graffiti and at least one Lennon face. We saw one confused tourist who could recognize Lennon and also though it was the Lenin wall.

Charles Bridge + tourists

We decided to see the Charles Bridge by day and it was filled with tourists.  The statues along the side were now accompanied by stalls with vendors selling trinkets or doing caricatures. There were about five different types of stalls which then just repeated the span of the bridge.

The rest of the afternoon we lazed about, until we headed for dinner. Then we saw some more of the light festival, with one projection being in 3D. After, we headed back to the hostel so Josh could pack for his morning flight.

A Sleepy Fairy Tale: Fall Break Day 7 – Prague

Our train pulled into Prague around 6:40 in the morning. Having not found the sleeper train that comfortable, as the beds sloped towards the wall, we were all fairly tired. We made our way through Prague in an early morning drizzle. We dropped off our luggage at our hostel before finding a cafe to have some breakfast out.

Under the Old Town Hall

We headed over to the Old Town Hall, as it was one of the few sites that was open before 10am in Prague. We arrived in time for a tour of the buildings, which turned out to be excellent. Using the buildings (the Old Town Hall is made up of five houses) as a base, the tour talked about the history of Prague and the Czech Republic. We saw inside the Astronomical Clock and many important rooms. One of the coolest parts was going into the Underground of Prague. Early Prague was very prone to flooding so to avoid the problem, they just rebuilt the city on top of the old one. This means that under the old parts of Prague is an identical city, that has been used as jails or to house resistance while Prague was under attack.

Chapel in Old Town Hall

Detail from 14th Century

Apostles from the Astronomical Clock

Apostles from the Astronomical Clock

Model of Monument celebrating the Hasburgs’ victory in the 30 Years War which was destroyed as soon as they left

Jesus being unfairly judged statue (He looks at where the Judge sits to remind them to judge fairly)

Old Arms of Prague

Different Arms of Prague

14th(?) Century wall decorations

Under the Old Town Hall

Statues of Patron Saints of Prague

Mosaic in the Old Town Hall

We then went up the Astronomical Clock Tower where we got a beautiful view of the city. We could also see the tourists gathering underneath us to watch the clock strike 11 so we rushed down to join them.

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The Astronomical Clock was built in 1410 and is the oldest astronomical clock still working. The clock was heavily damaged in WWII but has been restored. The top of the clock is where the apostles poke out their heads every hour, while figures below ring bells. The clock face has four main moving components: a zodiacal ring, an outer rotating ring, a Sun icon, and a Moon icon. Below that there is a calendar plate.

We then strolled around an open air market, where I picked up some souvenirs. We then stopped for lunch at a Czech self-service restaurant. We walked back through the Old Town Square and admired the sites, along with many other tourists. Prague by far has the most tourists, or obvious tourists, of the three cities we visited.

Open Air Market

Statue of Jan Hus, famous Protestant reformer

Astronomical Tower

It was then late enough for us to check in at our hostel, so we headed back for a shower and to rest.

We headed back out as Josh only had two days in Prague and decided to visit Prague Castle. The climb up to the castle gave us some beautiful views. We watched the changing of the guards outside the castle (which was rather unexciting) before heading in. Most of the attractions at the castle were closing in less than an hour so we decided that we would come back to fully explore the castle at a later time.

Prague Castle

Charles Bridge

Stairs to climb up to the Castle

Petrin Tower (modeled after the Eiffel Tower)

Gate of Castle

Changing of the Guard

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral

View from the Castle

We strolled down by the river where we found the Kafka Museum and decided to go in. Kafka lived in Prague most of his life. The museum was as weird as one would expect it to be, with strange sounds and exhibits detailing his life

Kafka Museum

Fountain outside the Kafka Museum

Coming out of the museum, it began to pour, so we decided to go to dinner right next to the museum. It thankfully stopped raining while we ate so we headed to the Charles Bridge.

The Charles Bridge was completed in the early 15th Century.  It is lined with statues on either side, which were all lit up. We could see the city at night which was beautiful.

Statue on the Charles Bridge

Prague Castle at night

Signal Festival light projection

Wandering through the city, we noticed many light displays. It turns out that the weekend were were in Prague was the Signal Festival, a light festival with different art installations around the city. The coolest ones were the projections onto buildings which were set to music and transformed the buildings into a canvas.

We headed to the Propaganda Bar for a few drinks. The bar was covered with old Soviet memorabilia which interesting to see. However, we realized how hard it was to keep up conversation as we were so tired during our first beer so we called it a night and headed back to the hostel.

Torah Scrolls and Dripstones: Fall Break Day 6 – Budapest

Wednesday morning, we headed back to the Great Synagogue (also known as the Dohány Street Synagogue) to actually tour it. It is the largest synagogue in Europe and one of the largest in the world. The full complex includes the Great Synagogue, the Heroes’ Temple, a graveyard, a Holocaust memorial, and the Jewish museum. The graveyard contains many people who died in the Jewish ghetto during WWII.

The Jewish Museum had a lot of Judaica with signs explaining their significance. Josh and I (both Jewish) explained different parts of Judaism to Nicole (goy). There were some very interesting pieces from the Holocaust as well. It’s interesting being in Europe where WWII has left scars whereas the war was never fought on US soil. We all enjoyed seeing the synagogue and the museum and were glad we returned.

The Great Synagogue

The Great Synagogue

Graveyard

Tree of Life Memorial

Tree of Life Memorial

Heroes’ Temple

In the Jewish Museum

Drum skins made out of Torahs from the Holocaust

We then met some other students from DTU and headed off to go caving. We had made arrangements to go on a caving tour through a private company, but since I trusted the others to have looked up how long it would take to get to the caves, we did not make it in time. The caves were a lot further that we anticipated but we were still able to go on a walking tour through them.

Szemlõhegyi Cave

The hot water that heats the thermal baths of Budapest, also has created extensive caves under the city. The caves are a constant temperature of around 10°C (50°F) year round because of the hot water.

The first cave we visited was Szemlõhegyi. This cave was formed by the stone dissolving and does not have dripstones (although in a few centuries it will). Instead there are these cauliflower like formations that cover the walls. The cave has very clean air, so it is a protected site and a place asthma patients will come to get treated. The tour guide was very informative and we enjoyed strolling through the cave (which had a paved path through it).

We then went through the Pálvölgyi cave which had the traditional dripstones. We climbed a lot further in this cave, at one point ascending a ladder/steep staircase seven stories. Unfortunately, we were joined by a school group on this tour so it was very loud and hard to hear the tour guide. Pro tip: When you see 60 middle school age kids and wonder if they are going on the tour too, they are.

The Witch

Cauliflower formations

Elephant formations

Pálvölgyi cave

Shells from when the limestone was under water

Pálvölgyi cave

 

After caving, we had to head back to pick up our bags before heading onto the train station, where we would be taking a sleeper train to Prague. Since I still had quite a bit of Hungarian forints on me, we went out for a nice dinner which still turned out to be under $20 US per person.

We then said goodbye to Budapest and headed off on our train for a new city.

Baths and Basilica: Fall Break Day 5 – Budapest

Széchenyi Baths

Tuesday morning, we started by going to the Széchenyi Baths, one of the many thermal baths in Budapest left from the Ottomans’ time. We soaked in the outdoor pool, enjoying the peace after the several hectic days of sight seeing.

Széchenyi Baths are located in the middle of the Városliget, City Park, so after we left the baths we decided to explore the park. The highlight of the park is Heroes’ Square with the Millennium Monument. Vajdahunyad Castle was also beautiful to see. It was great to just walk around outside and enjoy the wonderful weather.

Heroes’ Square

Heroes’ Square

Városliget

Vajdahunyad Castle

Vajdahunyad Castle

 

Budapest Synagogue

We decide to walk over to the Synagogue in Budapest, but we got there 10 minutes before closing, so we were unable to go in. However, we did go back the next day, so I will leave you with a teaser of the exterior of the synagogue.

We then headed over St. Stephan’s Basilica. This and the Parliament building are the two tallest structures in Budapest and no other buildings are allowed to be taller than them. This symbolizes the importance of Church and State and how they are equal.

We arrived just in time to go up to the top of the Basilica to the Panorama tower, where we got gorgeous views of the city as the sun was beginning to set. After we were told we had to head down we checked out the interior of the church, which was also very nice.

St. Stephan’s Basilica

View from the top

Me in Budapest at the top of St. Stephan’s Basilica

Liberty Monument

Group photo

Royal Palace

Interior of the Basilica

Interior

For dinner, we went to another Hungarian restaurant and had another great meal (we all really liked Hungarian food). We then bought some falafel (because why not) and enjoyed it in front of the Basilica.

We ended our night by getting some gelato and heading to the Danube. We talked and enjoyed the beautiful Budapest.

History and Food: Fall Break Day 4 – Budapest

Sunday night, our train arrived in Budapest. We then had to figure out a new public transport system to make our way to the Airbnb lodging which we were staying at. Our host was there to welcome us and offered us some tea. We then sat around and looked at the maps and brochures she provide us with. before going to bed.

Budapest Street

Monday morning, our host made us breakfast before we headed off to a free walking tour. The tour was very good, giving a good overview of the city and the history of Hungary and Budapest.

The nomadic Magyar tribe conquered the region of Hungary in 896 CE.  The first king of Hungary was Stephan who introduced Christianity. In 1541, the Ottomans conquered Hungary. The Habsburgs kicked the Ottomans out and moved in 1718. The Hungarians gained equal footing with the Habsburgs in 1867 with the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Budapest was originally two cities, Buda and Pest which were merged into one city in 1873. In 1918, Hungary was it’s own country but was greatly damaged in WWII. From 1949 to 1989, Hungary was under Soviet control after which it was an independent state.

The walking tour took us from the Pest side of Budapest, where we were staying to the Buda side. There we saw the changing of the guard and had a great view of the city.

“Budapest Eye”

Love locks

View of the Buda side

On the Chain Bridge

The Royal Palace

A view of Parliment

Changing of the Guard

Changing of the Guard

View of the Chain Bridge and St. Stephan’s Basilica

Parliment

View of the Pest side

Statue which engineering students rub the balls of for good luck

Nyugati Train Station

After the tour, we headed into Matthias Church, which was beautiful. We also strolled around the Fisherman’s Bastion outside of the church which provided another great view of the city.

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One course of lunch

We then headed to lunch where we were all pleasantly surprised with how cheap Hungary is. We each got two courses and a beer for less the $15 US. Of course this left us all barely able to finish our meals since Hungarian food is very filling.

Side note: despite the existence of the euro, our trip still involved three currencies: the euro, Hungarian forint, and Czech koruna. It super annoying to remember how to convert each one, especially each was a different factor of ten.

Our vehicle of choice

After lunch, we headed to Margit-Sziget (Margaret Island), located in the middle of the Danube between the Buda and Pest sides of the city. The island is named after a princess who was sent to a convent on the island in a promise her father, the king, had made with God. We were in time to watch the water show at the fountain which runs every hour. We then rented a bike cart and rode around the island. Despite Josh and Nicole trying to leave me behind at one point, it was a great way to see the island and the ruins from the convent.

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We then wandered our way towards dinner. At this point you might have noticed my many pictures of the Parliament building. The building was just gorgeous. We did not have time to take a tour of the building (have to leave something for a return trip) but we all could not stop taking pictures of the building.

For dinner, we met Nicole’s friend who is another exchange student at DTU at Hummus Bar, which as its name suggests has many hummus plates. Since we had had a late lunch and will still quite full we split a few hummus plates which were delicious.

Szimpla Kert

That evening we heading to Szimpla Kert, a ruin pub. The bar was decorated with random knick-knacks and had a great atmosphere. You could even buy a carrot to enjoy with your drinks. This was a great way to end a great first day in Budapest.

A Day in the Gardens: Fall Break Day 3 – Vienna

When we headed out Sunday morning, Vienna was very quiet. Naschmarkt, which was right outside our hostel, was closed so we had to walk further to find breakfast.

We then spent the day at Schloss Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn Palace), a former summer residence of the Habsburgs. It was gorgeous. We didn’t even bother going inside (it cost money, and we didn’t feel like seeing a bunch of rooms). We spent hours wandering around the gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We started by walking up to the Gloriette structure designed to glorify Habsburg power. From there we got a beautiful of Vienna. We walked around the edges of the zoo, enjoying the perfect fall day. Other notable attractions we saw were the Roman Ruin, which was actually constructed in 1778 as a symbol of “the decline of once great powers and the preservation of the remains of a heroic past”, and the Obelisk Fountain.

The Gardens

Neptune Fountain

Detail of Neptune Fountain

Gloriette

Emu

Japanese Garden

Roman Ruin (built in 1778)

Obelisk Fountain

Detail on the Obelisk Fountain

It was then time to head back to the hostel and onto the train station. There, Nicole and I made the discovery that buying a train ticket in Europe does not guarantee you a seat, a fact Josh had neglected to enlighten us on. We were able to grab a table in the dining car so we did sit the whole way to Budapest. It was sad to leave the beautiful city of Vienna, but we were excited to see Budapest.