Copenhagen - 72 Steps

                                                                       

Tamed Heron

Well here it is July and we are in our third country; Denmark. The Netherlands was a great month, and a relaxing month, Friesland is a beautiful and quaint part of The Netherlands unlike Amsterdam. We spent 2.5 days in Amsterdam and although it had its charm and beauty I can honestly say it was not my favorite. Maybe it was because of the constant rain or the short amount of time we had there or the need to constantly be on the lookout for cars and bicyclist. Had I become a country girl? I am not sure but I was ready to go.  

Rainy day in Amsterdam

Canal charm

We are house/cat sitting in a wonderful neighborhood in a nice apartment that sits on top of a 7-Eleven. We arrived here the night before we were scheduled to start our duties so we booked a room through Airbnb down the street so that I could meet the owner. By the time I started my journey to the apartment it was close to 9pm, I decided I didn't need a bus I could walk the mile and half in no time. Well after picking myself up off the sidewalk and leaving some elbow skin behind, over walking by a half mile I finally arrived around 10pm. The owner was waiting for me outside on her step, she led me inside to where I was pleasantly surprised with 72 stairs to the apartment. So here I am, sweaty, bloody and out of breath and here to watch your fur kids...uggg. As I walked home all I could think of was how were we going to do these steps with our backpacks and Tatum but quickly changed to look at it as an opportunity to burn some additional calories - trust me I remind myself over and over as I climb the stairs with bags of groceries swearing I will not buy this much again. Oh and taking the garbage out through the backdoor is like a Mt Everest expedition...steep, steep steep, I feel like I need to tether myself to something or I am going to tumble to my death.

The stairs out the back door - aka Mt Everest

             
Besides the physical challenges Copenhagen is beautiful, full of water, canals and pretty people. It is also very culturally diverse, much more than I could of ever expected. Had a wonderful conversation with a Danish couple in the park that made me proud to be from the US. As we spoke about where we were from and how much we enjoyed Europe, the couple stated they loved the US, the energy and President Obama, I could do nothing but smile (okay we had a political conversation but not blogging about it). No matter what your feelings are about our POTUS, how awesome is it that other countries have a fondness for him and what he stands for. We chatted about health care, education and taxes. How cool would it be to complete medical school and not owe a single penny? The flip side is the amount of taxes they pay but as they put it  they don't have to worry about saving for their children's education or worry about health care..gave me something to think about.

My two favorite dragons

Hammock swinging in the park

So far the downside to Copenhagen is how expensive it is. The US dollar is strong here, $1 to 5Kr but a loaf of bread from the bakery is $7-$9, a Coca-Cola is $6, the average price for a grab and go lunch (without a drink) is $12...sure you can find things less expensive but so far we have not seen any "deals" and thankfully our housing is free. Check out the price for a bottle of Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, this was not in the import section, it is in every grocery store as a standard item.
Looking forward to seeing much more of this beautiful country, a train ride to Louisiana for some art, a day in Tivoli (where Walt Disney got his inspiration for Disneyland), a picture next to The Little Mermaid oh and we can't forget all the parks.

This is in Kroners - $1 - 5Kr

Famous Rod Polcevogn (red hot dog)

                                                     Family picture in Frederiksberg Park 

Chinese Summerhouse bridge - 1801

Guided park tour

Frederiksberg Palace

Danish brewery

Elephant beer - 1959 strong beer and alcohol 7.2

Carlsberg Jutland horses

Beer tasting - Carlsberg Special

Pacifier Tree - so long binky

Flea market - Boxland

Ropes course at Carlsberg Brewery

Amazing but would never fly back home 

Det NY Theater

Friesland - kaas and cows

Sneek

Well here we are in The Netherlands, where most people would go to Amsterdam or Rotterdam we chose Friesland, a providence in the northwest of The Netherlands with a total population of about 646,000 people. Maybe you have heard of their horses and cows or ice skating? Friesland has been a total 180 from our month in Paris, not in bad way though. There was a part of me that was disappointed to leave Paris as I loved all the food and culture that Paris offered and there was a part of me that was looking to slow down a bit and just sort of sit with it all. Well life has s-l-o-w-e-d down, we went from monuments, museums, crazy drivers and sensory overload to farmland, canals, wooden shoes and a head spinning language. We are staying at a camp ground but there is no "roughing it" here. (OR/WA peeps envision Campers Hideaway) We are in an adorable 2 bedroom A-framed house, w/d, full kitchen, flat screen TV and a backyard. The closest town is about 3 miles away and we do not have a car or a bicycle so we are the strange Americans walking on the bike path. We actually have been enjoying all the walking and our bodies are starting to show it, but 3 miles in Paris consisted of shops, cafes and people whereas in Sint Nicolaasga its cows, slugs and bicycles. 3  miles feels a lot longer here than in Paris.
We have explored a few towns/villages, Joure, Sint Nicolaasga, Sneek, Heerenven and Langweer. They are all very charming but sadly all look alike, lots of shopping (the Dutch love to shop) bakeries, cafes and did I mention shopping. The villages all have that coastal boardwalk kind of feel and look, everyone is on a bike, tan and smiling.  Everything for the most part is very affordable if you don't do the Euro to Dollar conversion, plus they have some great affordable shops, HEMA is the Dutch IKEA.
Not sure I am a fan of the Dutch cuisine as we haven't tried very much. There is a lot of fried food that all has the same red breadcrumb coating, pickled foods and fries with mayo (okay they were tasty). The kaas (cheese) and rye breads are amazing!! Decided we needed to try a local libation so we bought a bottle of Beerenburg, a liquor made of 71 herbs and gin...sort of a tamed version of Jaegermeister and mixed it with coke it wasn't to bad. Before we leave we promised each other that we would try the raw herring (served with raw chopped onions). We were told to think of it as sushi...gulp.
We have two weeks left so working on our trips to Amsterdam and the capital of Friesland, Leeuwarden - can't say I am not looking forward to a museum, a coffee shop and a few more people.

Kaas aka cheese

Our backyard

Bike Path

Dutch house

Shopping

Yes we are connected

10:00PM sunset

All about the Oranje

Lilly Pads

Heerenveen

Fotbol

I want to ride my bicycle

Cow!

Local libation

Ducks?

Pillow jumping

Reflections

Reflective sphere at science museum

What have I learned my first month in Europe..hmmm. I learned that playing in the park is really fun, fresh baguettes are amazing, trying to communicate in a foreign language is a challenge, walking 50 miles a week isn't so bad and breaking up a gypsy scam is fun, okay and scary. So much has happened in this last month and I can't believe I still have 8 more to go. The biggest lesson so far has been leaning to slow down. Traveling with a two year old forced us to physically and mentally slow down. Imagine trying to maneuver through a museum full of people from all over the world, everyone is there to admire the art - now insert a two year old strapped in a stroller who has absolutely no clue who Monet is and could care less about water lilies. How do we both find enjoyment in this adventure and also not create havoc for the other museum visitors?  You play games. we decide ahead of time what we want to look for and we go in search of it. We searched for bananas, kites and of course elephants. We didn't have much luck with the bananas but Ce'zanne's Pommes et Oranges was a beautiful piece of art work that we spent at least 4 minutes looking and talking about..3 more minutes than I would of spent without the goal of finding bananas. We broke into song while looking at Monet's Woman with a parasol because Tatum thought it looked like a kite. So we sang "let's go fly a kite" we got some interesting looks and lots of smiles too. I would have to say that I probably had the best time in a museum because I had to slow down and look at things differently.

So I decided to be a good samaritan and thwart someone from getting taken like I did with the "found your gold ring" scam. Except I didn't realize my scammer had a pimp and they would chase you down. We had just crossed over from the Louvre as we were going to indulge in another cup of Angelina's Chocolate chaud, it was pouring and we needed a pick me up. I noticed a girl standing with a couple showing them her discovery of the infamous gold ring. The man walked away with the young girl so I approached the woman and informed her it was a scam, she then called out to her husband and I told him the same thing. I foiled the scam, take that you gypsy scammers!!! I look up and there is this guy starring at me with a certain look upon his face (it wasn't a happy look), as we passed him he yelled something at me. At that moment is when Laura and I realized that was the "pimp". Next thing I know the gypsy girl is behind me saying things in broken English, the only part I really caught was "kiss my ass" (made me sort of giggle, really that's all the English cursing skills you have?) then she proceeded to try and trip me by kicking at my feet. We never turned around, we never engaged  we just kept on walking, I wont lie I was having thoughts about the gypsy mafia coming after me, every time someone came up from behind us and passed I was on guard. Laura and I decided we are going to research all the other countries we are traveling to and find out the scams so we don't get scammed but everyone else is on there own...but hey for one Euro I have a couple of great stories. Next stop Friesland, The Netherlands.

Seafood anyone?

Homemade pizza 

Le Cordon Bleu'

Street Art at The Pompidou  

The Pompidou fountain

Pepsi sample

Park faces

American bookstore but that green statue is a water dispenser 

Canal  St.Martin 

Locks

St Martin bridge

Lunch in the park 

Random

Another carousel

Foggy

Clear

Musee d Orsay 5th floor

Whats a little rain?

Fishnet

Yep  we are happy!