København

Way colder than Reykjavik, it was hard to get out of bed. Still, braved the cold to visit these places:

Amelionborg Palace, home of the Danish royal family, consists of four identical classical palace façades with rococo interiors. Below is one of the four buildings. Perhaps since it’s being used as the royal family’s residence, entrance to the other buildings is limited.

Changing of the Guards at noon

Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament. It is also where the Prime minister holds office. If you have to choose between the 2 palaces, I suggest you go for Christiansborg where you can visit more rooms vs Amelionborg.

Nyvahn , Copenhagen’s waterfront, canal and entertainment district. It makes for a delightful visit as the place is lined with colourful buildings. Building #67 and #18 is famous as its most famous citizen, the fairy tale writer, Hans Christian Andersen lived for a few years.

The Little Mermaid statue – probably the most famous landmark of Copenhagen but sadly vandalised, was based on the HC Andersen’s fairytale, this statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg. He was fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale and asked the ballerina to model for the statue. The statue’s head was modelled after the ballerina but the body was modeled the sculptor’s wife.

I love taking pictures of manhole cover 🙂

And ticket machines too!

Amstelredamme

I’ve always wanted to visit this place and in this trip, we did! Our first stop was our hotel. It’s a bit off the center, as it is 8 stops from Amsterdam central. But the hotel did not disappoint. It was quirky and funky in a nice way 👍

Oookkkaaayyy.

The beautiful facade of their central station.

Its easy to fall in love with the city with its romantic canals.

Don’t fail to visit Rembrandt museum which used to be his house.

Rembrandt purchased the house in 1639 and lived there until he went bankrupt in 1656, when all his belongings went on auction. The auction list enabled the reconstructions of all his belongings which are also on display in the house.

Some photos from the inside

Amsterdam’s manhole

Another must see art museum is the Van Gogh Museum. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go in as you need to purchase your tickets in advance. Too bad as I was looking forward to see this 😞

While in the vicinity, don’t forget to take a photo of the I Amsterdam sign ☝🏽

Bruxelles

First stop – Cathedral of St. Michel and St. Gudola, the patron saints of the city of Brussels. This beautiful church reminds me of Notre Dame, but that’s just me.

Grand Place is Brussels most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark. It is also considered as one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and it is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1998.

Should’ve take a panoramic view of the wonderful architecture, but just the same here’s my attempt to capture all 3 grand buildings in one shot.

Manneken Pis is the best-known symbol of the people of Brussels. The statue embodies their sense of humour. It can be found about 5 minute walk from the Grand Place. Learned that the original statue is found in the city museum.

Jeanneke Pis is the female counterpart of the Mannekin Pis.

On our way to Jeanneke Pis, chanced upon the famous Delirium Cafe, bar with the biggest beer selection in the world, and probably the most famous bar in Brussels.

We planned on visiting the Royal Palace but was told it opens in the summer 😣

Belgium is well known for being the home of the best waffles so here’s a pic of what they offer. I was trying very very hard to stick to my keto wow but I just have to give in. Im in the land of beer, waffles and frites (aka 🍟) after all 🤩

Lounging in our sala (I wish!)

The tranquil park near our hotel. Good place to run! People go out and have a picnic here when the sun’s out.

Deutschland

I didn’t want to go to Germany initially, thinking theres nothing to see with a highly industrialised country. I was dead wrong.

Cologne (the city not the fragrance) 😅

1 hour train ride from Cologne is the City of Bonn. We visited Bonn Minster, which was built between 11th and 13th centuries and one of Germany’s oldest Churches. Notice the head sculptures in front of the church – they depict the heads of Saints Cassius & Florentius , Roman legionaries who were beheaded for refusing to follow the emperor’s orders to kill fellow Christians or to worship Maximianus Herculius as a god. Unfortunately, the church was closed for renovation when we visited.

Beethoven’s house at #20 Bongasse, is the birthplace of perhaps Germany’s (if not the world’s) famous composer. Today it houses the largest Beethoven collection in the world. No pictures are allowed inside the museum so we can only hope to retain in our minds what we saw.

Enjoying a cold beer one warm day with a view of the Rhine river.

Central station’s photo bomber

Right outside the Central station, you’ll be greeted by this marvelous edifice -the Koln Cathedral. This renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. Because of its grandeur, it attracts an average of 20,000 people a day, making it Germany’s most visited landmark . It is also currently the tallest twin-spired church at 157 m (515 ft) tall.

Nic’s photography skill’s better than his parents 😀

The Cathedral houses the relic of the Three Kings. It is traditionally believed to hold the bones and garments of the Three Wise Men. This is the closest I can get to the altar to take a pic 😊

Modern stained glass windows which looks like Tetris to me 🙂

Entrance to the spiral staircase.

Climbed 533 stone steps of the spiral staircase to a viewing platform about 100 m (330 ft) for a scenic view of the Rhine.

There’s this bakery which I blame for making it so difficult for me to run when I came back. Look at the pics and you’ll know why 🤪

Last stop for this trip is Munich. Our flight though was cancelled because of strike so we had to take a 6 hour train ride. It’s fun taking a long train ride – the little boy always enjoyed it plus its a nice way to explore the city.

First place we visited is the Nymphenburg Palace – one of the most famous sights of Munich. Some rooms still show their original baroque decorations redesigned in rococo or neoclassical style.

Today, it continues to be a home for the head of the House of Wittelsbach – Franz, Duke of Bavaria.

Staying in the shade in the enormous Nyphenburg Park

Right smack in the city, you can visit the Residenz, the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is open to visitors for its architecture, room decorations, and displays from the former royal collections.

The 130 room estate features a rich accumulation of furniture, paintings and sculptures. The highlight for me is the Treasury which houses the jewels of the Wittelsbach dynasty. The collection is one of the most important in the world and spans 1000 years from the early Middle Ages to Neo-classicism. Aside from Royal insignia, crowns, swords, goblets, goldsmith works, rock crystal, ivory work, icons and numerous other treasures , the reliquary is the best part for me – it has over 60 pieces of incredible relics.

According to the audio guide, relics were collected by the royal family then as reminders that heaven is obtainable — so long as we recognize what made the saints holy and work to apply those qualities to our lives. In the presence of these relics, lives of the saints are remembered and prayed to for the grace to achieve what they’ve achieved — eternity with God in Heaven.

The one in the middle is supposed to be a relic of Christ’s crown of thorns. While the one at the bottom, the one with crown is supposed to be the skull of Pope Eleuterus.

Below is a relic of the bones of the innocents killed by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus.

Cradled on a pillow is said to be the relic of the skull of Saint John the Baptist.

The private chapel of one of the monarchs.

Again, if you have to choose between Nymphenburg and the Residenz, I suggest the latter. It’s very grand, elaborate, opulent place thriving with history.

The City Hall in Marienplatz or Mary’s square, is the city’s main square since 1158. The Christmas market opens here three weeks before Christmas.

There was a Champion’s league game between Bayern and Sevilla – and look at the crowd, considering it was a weekday!

The English Garden, is an enormous public park in Munich. Spanning 370 hectares, it is one of the world’s largest public parks. Total length of its paths and walkways: roughly 75 kms -you can actually run a marathon here or even have the bike leg of a half Ironman!

You can even surf! In one of the artificial streams flowing through the Englischer Garten, surfers line up along the bank taking turns entering the water with their boards.

Check out my 28 second video here! https://youtu.be/qPJipXpTMJQ

Its name refers to its English garden form of informal landscape, a popular style in England in the 1800s.

Munich is steeped in history and this is obvious in the city’s architecture, including its many impressive churches. I’ve never been to a city with so many churches in one square. Munich is that. In Marienplatz alone, there were 11 churches! We were able to visit 10. I cant recall which photo I took corresponds to the particular church 😞 so I’m posting this one of the Theatine church which was the last church we visited. I was looking for a book on Munich churches so I can treasure each one’s history and architecture but I can’t find any 😑

My favourite place in Munich – the Viktualienmarkt , is a food market and a square in the city center. It has an area covering 22,000 m2 (240,000 sq ft) with 140 stalls and shops offering flowers, exotic fruit, spices, cheese, fish, juices, meats and of course the famed German beer.

We ate here everyday either for lunch or dinner for the duration of our stay ☺️

We kept coming back for its roast pork belly sandwich (in my attempt to do keto 😂)

I’m not much of a beer drinker so here’s my choice of poison. Hoping these will be soon available here 🥃

What’s fun about travelling ? Being exposed to new places, meeting all kinds of people, experiencing diverse cultures, getting a wider world view. I think our newfound friends will say cheers to that 🍻