Copenhagen and Stockholm

So it has been a while....

First semester was busier than any of my previous semesters.  I fell behind on the blog and felt like I was too far behind to catch up!  My goal is over the next couple weeks to try and catch up on the many posts that I missed and then stay up to date.  I'm not making any guarantees but I will do my best!

So time for a flashback to September:

After returning from the Faroe Islands my parents and I did some touristy things for the day.

First off we went to visit Linlithgow Palace.  Like most palaces and castles in Scotland this palace had its history of destruction (fires, wars etc) and rebuilding.  Its first form was built in the 12th century and was occupied until 1745,  In this year Bonnie Prince Charlie came to visit, however he didn't stay overnight which was quite a disappointment for them.  In 1746 much of the palace was destroyed in a fire.  (For any Outlander fans, Linlithgow Palace served as Wentworth Prison in the TV show).

The Entrance with the fountain behind

An engraving on the fountain

View of the Palace from one of the towers

We then headed to the Kelpies (in a post a while ago I have a picture of the Mini Kelpies).  The Kelpies represent the horse powered heritage of Scotland.  They were impressively tall in person.

The following day my parents set off for Islay, famous for its Scotch Distilleries and a friend and I left for Copenhagen, Denmark.  When we arrived the weather was incredible, 25 degrees and sunny. Neither of us were quite prepared for such warm weather.  We took a train in from the airport and got off a few stops before our hostel to walk around.  We spent most of the rest of the day just touring around.  In the evening we got a pizza from a little pizza joint and sat in a park overlooking the water to eat.  We headed back to our hostel, got a pint of Carlsberg each and sat out in the garden for the remainder of the evening.

The next day we went out to a bakery for breakfast.  They had incredible pastries!  After breakfast we walked around for a couple hours and then returned back to our hostel to rent bicycles and take a bicycle tour.  Copenhagen is an incredibly bike friendly city.  Every road has a bike lane, major roads have bike traffic signals and there are several bike only roads.  We had a blast biking around the city and we got to see so much more than if we had just walked.

Our wonderfully unhealthy breakfast

Waiting at a pedestrian/bike drawbridge

National Gallery of Denmark

The Little Mermaid -The fairy tale the Little Mermaid was
written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen

St. Alban's Church

Nyhaven - Definitely the most picturesque part of Copenhagen

 After biking around the city for most of the day we decided that we hadn't had enough exercise so we climbed the tower at the Church of Our Saviour.  The 400 steps to the top were worth it when we got to see the views.  We really did have incredible weather while we were in Copenhagen.

You can just make out Sweden in the distance

View of Copenhagen

At the base of the tower

At the end of the day we were pretty tired so we went for a nice dinner and then headed back to the hostel for bed.  The next morning we had a few hours before our train to Stockholm so we walked around the city some more.  We stopped off at the botanic gardens which were very pretty.  Before our train we made a detour back to the bakery for some more pastries for the 5 hour train ride.

After our 5 hour train ride (which ended up having a couple delays and turned into 6.5 hours) we arrived in Stockholm.  When we got to our hostel they told us they had upgraded us from a group room to a private double so we were very excited.  After checking in we walked around a little bit and then went for dinner.  We went for the traditional Swedish Meatball meal with mashed potatoes.  We were thoroughly satisfied with our meals.

Much nicer than bunks in a group room!

The next day we headed out walking.  Stockholm is made up of lots and lots of little islands.  We started out on a very small island that housed the Swedish Parliament.  We then headed to Gamla Stan which is the Old Town.  It was an interesting mix of stores selling authentic Swedish art, crafts and gifts and your classic touristy shops.  We managed to kill quite a bit of time perusing the stores.  I also saw many things in stores that my mom had bought when she had travelled to Sweden.  And even managed to replace a christmas figurine that one of the dogs had chewed up!  After Gamla Stan we headed over to another island to go to the Vasa Museum.  The line up was incredibly long so we decided to wait and go to the museum the next morning.  We toured around the island and looked at all the boats moored in the piers.  We finished off our touring with walking down Drottninggatan which is the main shopping street.  For dinner we headed to a cool buger place called Vigarda.  We headed back to our room and tried a bunch of Swedish candy that we had bought earlier in the day.

Pretty Building near the Hostel

Swedish Parliament

The Old Town

"Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes"

Royal Palace

One of the many sailboats moored along the piers

Such a pretty view

The next morning we headed straight to the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa ship capsized and sank in 1628 after sailing only 1300 metres.  Because the water was so cold and and poorly oxygenated the wood of the ship was very well preserved.  333 years later they raised the ship from the bottom of the sea.  It was reassembled and is now on display in the museum.  The ship that is on display is incredibly 95% original, only the metal bolts were replaced and a very small amount of the wood.  The details in the wood carving was amazing.  However just looking at the ship you could tell it was far too top heavy.  The ship never stood a chance!

The intricate carvings on the stern

I couldn't do the ship justice

After the museum we headed back to Gamla Stan where we both bought some gifts and some pastries to bring home.  It was then time to head to the airport and head back to Edinburgh.

Our trip to Copenhagen and Stockholm was so much fun and I would definitely go back to either city.