"We never had to put a wall up to keep our people in"
We often forget with Germany’s political & economic success that the country was only formally reunified in 1990. Our visit & most of the activities we did wouldn't have been possible 30 years ago; it never would have been allowed. That fact continues to be a reminder of how quickly things can change.
Read MoreYou know where is a lovely city to visit? Hamburg. Know when it’s an inconvenient time to visit? Right before the G20 summit. Whoops.
We’d heard from numerous people how much fun Hamburg was, with its rich downtown & various “up & coming” artsy areas. Its listed on a “go here - not there” type of review of major European cities. Plus, it was on our train route to Berlin so we decided to stop over for a few days. We seemed to neglect checking the world event calendar prior to booking.
Read MoreStockholm is an absolutely beautiful city (I think she knows it) & it feels like a proper city. I’m not completely sure what I mean by that but it makes sense walking around. While traveling through the Nordics we’ve gotten a taste of cities, a bit of the unforgiving natural elements that define this region & have found places we could call home, but now in Sweden everything feels a bit more posh, elegant & refined. To put it shortly, we felt fancy & smart, falling in love with the city.
Read MoreAfter a few low-key days enjoying the crisp, clean outdoor version of Norway, we crossed our way over the Norwegian countryside (pretty sure I saw a moose) & found ourselves in Oslo. Of any of the places we’ve traveled thus far, this feels the most like home for us (hopefully no Norwegians take offense to that).
Read MoreIf you are having difficulty pronouncing “Åndalsnes” don’t feel bad, so did I. I won’t share how I was calling it but it ended in “sneeze”. We found this little underrepresented (in our opinion) gem by scouring the railway maps in the Nordics. We have been on trains for so many days, I’ve lost count of where we are & my bum is sore from sitting for so long. Looking down the long list of Norwegian towns we knew nothing about, a quick google images search of Åndalsnes & we were sold.
Read MoreBen made the mistake of pointing out that we were within a night train ride to Rovaniemi, Finland (or perhaps he secretly wanted to go) & once I learned we could spend the day in Santa’s Village meeting the man himself there was no stopping me. Besides, what self-respecting 30-year-old wouldn’t want to spend their wedding anniversary meeting Santa?!
While we came for the opportunity to hold meeting the legendary Saint Nicholas over our future children’s heads for years to come, we ended up being utterly charmed by Rovaniemi itself.
Read MoreIf you've been keeping up with the last couple of posts you have probably noticed each one isn't only a different city, but a different country. We're spending most of the summer months taking the train around Europe (which is incredibly easy) trying to hit as many places as we can. Occasionally when you’re moving around as much as we are you find yourself needing some down time & instead of doing a city "like a tourist" you're just looking to relax.
Read MorePeople always ask us if our travel plans are preset or if we “go with the flow” in picking our destinations. The answer is that it’s both; a few places we have set itineraries, locations or events we need to be somewhere by, but the other half we do on a whim or by suggestion of the people we’ve met along the way. Estonia was in the latter category.
Everyone said we had to visit, especially Tallinn, the capital city. We heard descriptions of a thriving city, for techies & hipsters alike, set amongst the old medieval backdrop of European fortresses & Soviet architecture. We decided if there was all this fuss about it, there must be something worth seeing so why not pop in for a visit? We were certainly not disappointed.
Read MoreI had George Ezra's Barcelona on repeat in my head well before we ever reached the city. It’s a beautiful, passionate song for a beautiful & passionate place. Barcelona is a rare find, even for Europe; a city where the residents always love being there & enjoy showing it off. We simply cannot wait to come back.
"I'll be laying right by your side, in Barcelona" - George Ezra
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