So, we started in Copenhagen. It's a beautiful city, but there isn't a whole lot to do. We went to the WWII Resistance Museum, the little mermaid statue, the Round Tower, and walked around the different neighborhoods. I'm happy we went but its not a city I NEED to go back to. I wouldn't mind seeing other places in Denmark, however. I really wanted to see the castle that Hamlet's castle was based on, but we didn't have the time to do so. We were also there in the wrong season, no one was there. We could walk down completely empty streets. It was also really cold, but we were lucky enough to have really beautiful skies while we where there.
Then on to Amsterdam. Again, not a lot to do besides heading to the coffee shops and eating. But we went to the Anne Frank House which was moving and very depressing. It was weird being where she hid for so long. It made the whole thing way more personal. We also ended up going to the Van Gogh museum which was really cool but I didn't get as much time in it as I would have liked. I also really wanted to go on a bike tour of the area surrounding Amsterdam, but no one else was really down. I'm flying out of Amsterdam in June however, so maybe I can get my bike riding in then. We went to the Red Light District during the night time and quickly left. All the creepy guys standing around watching the women in the windows was a little much for me. I had seen an episode of Rachel Ray's 40 Dollar a Day years ago on Amsterdam and had been so excited about a pancake place she went to. So, I found it and we ended up eating there. Pretty good. the cakes were weird though, more like crepes than American style pancakes, which was a bit of a downer. Oh well.
Then on to Barcelona. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to, largely thanks to the Modernisme movement and Antoni Gaudí. It's on the coast making it a beautiful beach town with a bunch of harbors. The weather was great and things are cheaper there than in Italy, which I also very much so liked. But really, I was just super impressed by Gaudí's works. We went and saw la Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Le Pedrera, and Park Güell. We only went into a little bit of Sagrada Familia while a mass was being held--and it doesn't yet have a celling inside. The construction for the building began in 1882 and won't be finished for ~50 more years. I really hope that it does get finished in my lifetime however, since it is the most impressive building I have ever seen. I didn't go into Casa Batllo or Le Pedrera either cos had planned to go inside the last day, when I ended up getting sick and didn't feel like walking around. Batllo actually costs 16 euros to get into so odds are I probably won't ever go inside, but Le Pedrera is cheaper and it's a museum as well, so I want to go back to explore that. Park Güell was really cool. Gaudí was really an amazing architect. I still can't get over how amazing his works were. I didn't get enough, so Emily and I are gonna head back to Spain for a week and a half or so after Greece and go to Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, and maybe some other towns. I really was so impressed with Barcelona, I think it is probably my favorite city I've been to in Europe thus far.
Copenhagen pics are up and I'll get around to putting up the rest in the next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment