The Eternal City

For our first extended vacation of the year, Brandon and I visited a city that's been on his "must-see" list since I've met him: Rome. I had been to the city nine years previously when I studied abroad in Florence, but every church and piazza still left me awestruck the second time around. We stayed in a fabulous hotel - one of the nicest I've ever stayed in - directly next to the Pantheon.

I took this from the bed!

The Pantheon is a former Roman temple dedicated to all the gods, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC. In the 7th century it was turned into a Christian church (the Roman Empire started accepting Christianity in the 4th century.) One of its main characteristics is the oculus in the ceiling - the world's largest unsupported dome.

Piazza della Rotonda

Oculus open to the sky - there are holes on the ground to drain rainwater

On our first day, we took a guided tour that included the Coliseum, 

a walking tour of the main city sights,

On top of the Spanish Steps

and finished at the Vatican museums and St. Peter's Basilica. It was an epic, eight-hour tour!

High altar in St. Peter's

View of Vatican City and Rome from atop Aventine Hill

The next morning we self-toured the Roman Forum, the main city of ancient Rome. We spent four hours wandering among the ruins, and we didn't even see everything! It was huge. Everywhere you look in Rome, you see excavations and ancient buildings. It's like no where else on earth (except maybe Athens?) 

Panorama from the gardens of Emperor Augustus's palace

Taking in the history

One of my favorite pastimes we adopted during our trip was popping into a church on our way to/from other sites. There are over 900 churches located in the city, and we stumbled upon some really beautiful ones. I loved seeing the architectural/artistic differences of the decor. Most were dark inside, so our photos didn't turn out too well. These are some of the best:

Tenth-century church - Byzantine style

Seventeenth-century church - Gothic style

One of our good friends from home put us in contact with his father who lives in Rome. He generously took us around for a day, including driving down to Naples to climb Mt. Vesuvius. Such a fun adventure!

With Enzo on top of the volcano

Roadside sandwiches - so good!

The food - I never remember to take photos of food, but suffice it to say we stuffed ourselves with pizza, coffee, pasta, wine and gelato...usually all in one day! I'm still dreaming about the tomato sauce. We had a fantastic five days in Rome - enough time to really fall in love with the people and culture. Ciao Roma!

The Emerald Isle

Last month, on a rainy and chilly morning, we met our DC friends in Dublin for a long weekend. We had a blast walking around the city, visiting the Guinness factory (obviously) and strolling around the city.

Photo opp

The second day, we rented a car (driving on the left!) and drove south to the city of Brey to take a hike in Greystone National Park.

View of the loch from above

View of the loch at sea level

The moody clouds held off the rain for (almost) the entire walk. So we got to enjoy the park's breathtaking views! We hiked around the hills for a few hours, taking in the scenery. It was glorious.

My favorite photo of Brandon's

I could easily see how leprechaun and fairy stories originate in these woods. Totally worth a day outside the city! The walk ended with this view of the Irish Sea. 

Back in Dublin after our hike, we refreshed ourselves in the city's oldest pub, The Brazen Head. Locals say the Vikings drank here since 1198. The front maintains the original building, while the bar expands to three more additional rooms in the back. 

They have live music every night, including the night we went. I may or may not have ended up singing along onstage...

The next day we polished off our weekend with a tour of the Jameson factory. It was a much smaller museum than Guinness and had a clean, informative layout. We actually preferred the Jameson tour to the Guinness tour for its more personal feel and fun tasting room.  

Dublin is more fun with friends! Thanks for visiting, guys!

Home of King Henry VIII

Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived...

A voice whispered those creepy words from hidden speakers in the castle where King Henry VIII lived.  At first I thought it was Brandon trying to scare me, but in reality it was the curators trying  to scare everyone! The words represent the fates of Henry's six wives. And the ghost of the beheaded second wife, Kathryn Howard, is rumored to wail down one of the hallways in the castle.

Entrance to the medieval side of the castle

On a sunny and windy Sunday morning, Brandon and I hopped on a train and rode southwest for 30 minutes to visit Hampton Court Palace, the former home of many famous English royals, including King Henry VIII, James I (first king of combined England and Scotland) and Charles I (who was executed during the Civil War.)

Beautiful!

The building dates from the 14th century, and before it was a royal residence, the palace belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's advisor. Henry liked the manor so much, that he "asked" Wolsey to hand it over. The succeeding rulers frequented the palace (they had others to rotate, of course) until the Civil War, when Oliver Cromwell's troops seized it in 1645.

Learning from professor audio guide

After the restoration of the monarchy, King William III and Mary II (College of William and Mary fame in Williamsburg, Virginia) had the palace renovated by the famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren (Wren designed St Paul's cathedral in London.) Wren demolished 2/3 of the original palace and rebuilt it in Baroque splendor. The resulting view today is a mixture of Medieval (see top photo), Renaissance and Baroque styles - quite a sight to see!

Wren architecture

Renaissance architecture

And the gardens are a lovely place to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Wren side of the castle - note the wind!

Traveling in Europe is teaching me to slow down. When we started to make our way through the gardens, I caught myself mid-step: Why am I power walking through this English tulip garden? This is where I'm supposed to "stop and smell the roses," literally. Moving at a "normal" pace is not natural for me - I blame living in Ann Arbor/Philly/DC! But I'm finding our weekends much more enjoyable and relaxing when I make a conscious effort to slacken my pace and do one thing instead of three. Good thing the English countryside is a perfect place to practice. :)

Thanks for the visit King Henry!

The City of Light!

I would love to start this post with a beautiful French phrase, but my language attempts in that country only receive painful expressions from locals, so I will spare you all (also the blog doesn't do accent marks!) Brandon and I popped over to Paris for a long weekend earlier this month via the Eurostar (high-speed train from London to Paris.) It only took four hours to get from our flat in Notting Hill to our rental apartment in the neighborhood of Saint Germain des Pres just off the River Seine - amazing! Our AirBnB host had a gorgeous, Parisian apartment decorated with vintage furniture and wild Louis Vuitton shoes. If the shoes weren't so tiny I would have tried them all on!


Let me explain why we just got around to visiting Paris after living in London for over nine months when it is such an easy trip. Rewind to August 2006, my first trip to Paris. It's hot (read: smells like urine), insanely crowded with tourists, my friend and I have been traveling/studying in Europe for two months, and I have a stomach bug. Neither of us speak any French and all waiters and service people give us the cold shoulder. The fact that I can't remember the hotel we slept at is probably a bad sign.

Fast forward to the present, and you see why I may have been putting off Paris. But now I am a convert! Paris is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. Yes, some Parisians suck, but who cares. Brandon's petit French helped immensely (thanks, Mark, for those lessons in the Markley dorms!)

Because it was Brandon's first time to Paris, we needed to check off the big guns from the list - the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.

Selfie in front of the Arc de Triomphe

In addition, we did a 3-hour walking tour of the city and learned some interesting facts about the city's founders (Celtic tribe) and its current architecture (Haussmann.) Other than those sites, we just ate tons of cheese, bread and pain aux chocolat and drank Bordeaux wine, yum! Oh yeah, and shopped on the Champs Elysees of course!

Musee du Louvre

They are going to have awesome photos of the Mona Lisa

Notre Dame

Notre Dame stained glass

My favorite meal was Saturday morning brunch at Laduree, most famously known for its macaroons. On a recommendation from a friend, we ordered the French toast or pain perdu (literally: "lost bread" for the day-old French bread used), covered in homemade raspberry coulis and creme freche and a side of scrambled eggs. For good measure, we added mini pastries, which included a croissant with German strudel filling (swoon!) To top it off, they had the best coffee we tasted all weekend.

The Laduree bakery has been around since the 19th century, and the decor in the cafe (Asian tea garden) alludes to the oriental fads in Europe at that time. It was a perfect meal in a lovely location. On our way out, we purchased the obligatory macaroons (my favorite was pistachio!)

I think our approach to the weekend was a big part of why we enjoyed the two-day trip. Paris is a substantial city with an insane amount of things to see, do and taste. We knew we couldn't come close to seeing everything we wanted to see, so we made a short list and stuck to it. We didn't make ourselves crazy rushing from one museum to the next. We took our time walking along the Seine and around the winding, cobblestone streets just enjoying each other's company and the scenery.

Suffice it to say we loved our little hop over the English Channel so much, we've already booked a return trip at the end of May! Interesting fact: Paris is nicknamed the "City of Light" after the scientists who philosophized at the famous Sorbonne university during the age of enlightenment (17th century) and for being one of the first cities to adopt gas street lamps. Au revoir!

Copenhagen

I didn't forget about this blog! I was sidetracked by a new job and a broken computer, but now all is well! Going back in time to recap our weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark, today.

We traveled with our fellow DC-er, Ben, and donned hats, gloves and umbrellas for our first venture into Scandinavia. It was early February. What were we thinking?! So we opted for an indoor activity as our first stop - the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

The museum started from the sculpture collection of Ny Carlsberg of Carlsberg beer brewery fame. He really loved ancient Greek and Roman statues (glyptotek means sculpture museum). I could picture his huge office filled with random marbles like these:

Peek-a-boo! Ben and I stare creepily at Brandon from the upper gallery.

The city's buildings were beautiful - a mix of old and new construction and styles. They reminded me of Amsterdam's with their pointed towers, slate-colored roofs and dark red brick.

City Hall

After the museum, we searched for a lunch spot, and since we weren't too keen on pickled fish, we made a beeline for a hot dog stand recommended by good ol' Rick Steves. It served organic meats AND sauerkraut and pickles from Germany! Food highlight of the trip.

Epic hot dogs

Once it stopped raining, we walked around the palaces and found these dudes guarding them. There were four buildings in a square where the royal families live, and the guards rotate around each door.

Center of the square facing a palace

Another palace

The red stalls in the above photo had an adorable cut-out heart, alluding to the nine red hearts on Denmark's coat of arms (left). While the design has changed over time, the hearts date back to the 14th century version. So cute!

For even more cuteness, check out the city of Copenhagen's coat of arms (right) - a princess castle! When your garbage trucks, sewer plates and trash cans have cute castles, you know you're in a happy place. In fact, Copenhagen is ranked the happiest city in the world, in large part to taxes paying for all health care, child care, college education - pretty much anything that would cause worry and stress. That and employers allotting tons of vacation time!

One of the prettiest spots in Copenhagen is the neighborhood of Nyhavn on the canals. It's the part of the city you usually see in postcards with brightly colored buildings and picturesque boats bobbing in the clear canal. You could see all the way to the sandy bottom. This is no Thames, Seine or Potomac River!

Nyhavn at dawn - thanks to Brandon for rising early!

Brandon may have gotten minor frostbite for taking photos that early, but he said it was worth it! Group shot:

B is realizing his frostbitten hand...

The only site on my must-do list for Copenhagen was the tribute to one of the city's most famous residents, Hans Christian Andersen. The author is most known for his fairy tales like The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue.) And in 1913 sculptor Edvard Eriksen dedicated this statue of den lille havfrue to the city. She looks longingly towards land in search of her prince. She's actually bummed because every time a group of people want to make a statement to the Danish government, she gets stolen, covered in paint or decapitated! True story.

I'd be blue too! Poor havfrue

We had a great little trip to the Danish land. The people were the friendliest I've encountered outside of the Michigan. At the bars in the evening strangers make friends over foosball and pool tables. The Danes LOVE foosball - every bar had a table. Thanks Copenhagen for being such a lovely host!