BALTIC SEA CRUISIN’

Leaving Germany for now and moving on to Copenhagen. Just thought I would share a quick snap while on the ferry. It was an entertaining ferry ride however, as I had never been riding on a train, only to immediately pull into ferry. I did not know ferries did that or were even big enough for that! But sure enough, away we went from train, to ferry, back to train, and then to bus for the final leg of the journey to Copenhagen. 

PERFECT OXYMORON

Has there ever been a more perfect naturally occurring oxymoron in the world other than visiting the world’s largest miniature museum? Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg had several exhibits featuring different countries. They had an American table which was intriguing to me as it featured the southwestern canyons, the Las Vegas Strip, and Florida. I thought they would at least have New York. Of course they are still building more exhibits which means we may have to come back. If they happen to build a Paris exhibit…I do not want to know.

But everything was beautiful and expertly crafted. You look at all the tiny details and easter eggs and think about who would have thought to do that and how to even plan for something like that. Miniatur Wunderland had some amazingly engineered pieces as well, including an orchestra hall that opened and closed so you could see the whole opera house, a huge cruise ship that actually floated and docked in real water, working space shuttle that would blast off, working airport where planes would take off, land and return to their terminal, and of course, periodic switching between night and day. Although it got annoying at times for the sake of taking photos, the day actually ended and started again with their timed lighting. You could see all the lights turn on in the night, cars had their headlights turned on, buildings were illuminated, it was all so real. All of the detail was so impressive and creative. They really wanted to make it as lifelike as possible.

Because Miniatur Wunderland holds the record for the longest connected model train set, the railways connect all over the museum. So you would see trains going by under your feet, in the walls, and even over head. 

Its little ole’ me in little Switzerland. No I do not even feel the need to visit the real Switzerland!

HERNDON HAMBURGERS

The next stop on our European journey was the second largest city of Germany in Hamburg. We were there for one reason and one reason only, to go see the world’s largest miniature museum. I will share my post about that shortly, because it really does require it’s own post as it was a genuine blast. While we were in Hamburg, we hunted for hamburgers which, oddly enough, were harder to find than one would think.

But here we are, gourmet hamburgers, made from 100% prime American grown human meat (my father really hated that joke but I can’t help it, I think it’s clever).

Also I picked up my German Vogue, so now I have Netherlands and Germany!

REMBRANDT ROOM

The Dutch really pride themselves on their people, as they should. My family and I stayed at the Rembrandt hotel while we were in Amsterdam. Just thought I should bring it up since the room was so aesthetic. I feel that I truly did have the whole Dutch experience given that I was sleeping under Rembrandt every night!

CYCLICAL MOTION

Part of the reason why Amsterdam was one of the best places I visited while in Europe was because of it’s city-wide bike-friendly attitude. From the wide and spacious bike paths on the side of every single road, to specialized bike traffic lights, finally to extraordinary amount of rights given to bikers over both pedestrians and automobile drivers, it truly is far better to a cyclist in Amsterdam. Being American born and bred, car culture is a core identifying feature not like anywhere else. It is so refreshing to know a place where biking is so highly respected.

In order to truly live like the locals, my family rented our own bikes. It made all the difference immediately as we were able to move around the city with incredible ease.

The mass of bicycle behind me, that is just a small section of bike parking around the train station. Amsterdam makes it so stupidly simple and convenient to have a bike in the city.

So what would be the most touristy way to get around the city that is the complete opposite of biking? Would it surprise anyone if I said, of course we did that too. We took a boat tour around the canals, complete with tour guide, and an audio tour with all languages. But you know, you win some and you lose some. We are tourists after all…

LAND OF A MILLION WINDMILLS

Apparently we caught the windmill bug after we saw the little city windmill earlier. We just thought, this is not nearly enough mills. The thing about traveling anywhere with my mother is that she wants the full fairytale, stereotypical experience of anywhere she goes. That is not always the worst way to be. But it not always the goal when you want to feel the current vibe of the city the way the locals see it.

But we are here for the touristy things at the moment. So we ended up here at Zaanse Schans just outside of Amsterdam to understand all of the most Dutch Ducthings that ever Dutched. We basically double dutched through all of Holland. I finally learned what delft is(previously I thought all blue and white floral patterns were considered just China), and we saw too many clogs, tulips, and cheese to even process.

Does anyone know what a size US 9 would be in European sizes? I really want to buy some clogs!

I do not think Cal knew his size either!!!

Just the most amazing amount of clogs making this pattern on the wall as they were hung up. It is crazy, given how colorful these pieces of wood look, that they were used only for the purpose of working on soggy farmland. But the clogs were so beautiful that I wanted to take so many photos of just how they looked from far away.

Honestly tourist gold but I do not hate it! It is like the crown jewels of the Netherlands!

Well it was pretty hard to ignore that delft

I do not think it would be possible to starve in the Netherlands because there are so many free cheese samples all over the place. They just really want you to taste their cheese. I mean they probably want you to buy it too but…oh well!

Every part of these place was beautiful despite the gray and rainy day. Even the marshy land was absolutely picturesque.

And of course we ended our little day trip in the famous Amsterdam Centraal station with the letters of the city spelled out in red and yellow on top of the station. I think I would have missed this if we had not gown out by bus. And that was actually really spectacular to see. And, of course, it made for some beautiful pictures with that nice worm’s eye view.

DUTCH MORNINGS AND DUTCH MASTERS

Our morning in Amsterdam begins with the great hunt for food as per usual. The thing about Dutch breakfast/bring cafés, that I suppose is not much different from the rest of the world but it seemed more pronounced here, was how tiny the restaurants were for sitting and enjoying. We tried one café first and were promptly turned away due to lack of space. The next one we went to was luckily nearby and we were fortunate because it had a second floor. This second floor was so nice for viewing the street below as well as the canals. And we got to this café right as the only couple on the second floor was leaving and so therefore, I quickly managed to get in a cute little cafe photoshoot with the large windows.

My family and I then took our rented bikes and found our way to the Rijks Museum to see some works by some of the mot amazing Dutch old masters such as Rembrant and Vermeer. 

Of course behind the museum there are more opportunities for photos with the giant I AMSTERDAM letters, the large pond and the little garden.

So many greedy tourists were hogging all of the letters. People just do not care about your cute photos so long as they get their cute photo. This one girl would not move from the letter D even though I was standing there for a good two minutes.

ARRIVING IN AMSTERDAM

I would like to believe that I am finally figuring out how to conquer airports. I am deathly afraid of taxi scams now thanks to watching dozens of Youtube videos related to the tragedy in various airports. But when I arrived in Amsterdam and met up with my dad, we took a bus, a subway, and a tram all to get to our hotel. It makes me feel savvy. First thing you notice about Amsterdam is all the bicycles and their never-ending bell-ringing at you to move out of their way. It is a bit of culture shock to see that bicyclists have greater rights than both pedestrians and motorists. Amsterdam is incredibly accommodating to cyclists as the city has a million different bike paths. 

The second thing that I noticed from Amsterdam(which really should have been the first but it was not as loud and obnoxious as people on bikes) was the amazing canals all throughout the city. I suppose this is why they call it the Venice of the north, because it really is a floating city—with all the same sinking risks of Venice too! But the city views were everything I wanted from the city because every angle looking down the canal with the building wrapping around it looked like a work of art. I could very easily imagine Vermeer or Rembrandt getting so much inspiration from the city. 

My family and I ended up stopping at a few different grocery/market type places in deep search of food as always. We went to this little one called Hema, the one that was the most our style was Albert Heijn, and then this one, Marqt, the fanciest and most aesthetic of the three. I just had to take a pic with that sign, it was calling my name.

This windmill was just a little one in the city, we went to more and bigger windmills. But still, it is just something you have to do as a tourist in Amsterdam is pose with all of the windmills

EVERYDAY EDINBURGH-ERER?

From my first time in Scotland back in 2015 to now being here, apparently I never knew that the best spot to take photos was literally right on top of Waverly Station…aka the station I have now been going in and out of at least 10 times. I suppose i cannot be too hard on myself the first time I was there. The train station was the very first and very last place we went. However, we did spend a decent amount of time shopping around in the Princes Street Mall.

But of course the one time I go to Edinburgh with my friend who lives there, the first place she takes me because of my giant camera was like the best, simplest vista point. She just took me right up on top of the station. And even though there were nice little benches set up for people who want to overlook the city…no one was there. You literally could not ask for a better place to take photos; I was so in awe! Always travel with a local if you want the best shots!

ON HIGHER GROUND

I crossed one major to do in Scotland off my list and that was getting a chance to tour the highlands. We started our trip visiting Doune Castle which apparently is one of the only untouched castles left in Scotland with the others lying in ruin due to the British. Then we pressed on into the thick of the highlands. Completely not what I expected at all. My only impression of the highlands was one of rolling hills probably in a similar vein to the Great Plains in the midwest with a bit of a rougher feel perhaps, maybe a colder wind. And there was a good amount of that (mainly dotted with giant, fluffy, Scottish sheep) but the highlands that I saw was something far more cinematic and epic. I saw massive, snow-topped mountains. These mountains were even more bizarre to me as they gradually faded from opaque white snow on the top to lush grasslands as their base. It felt like you could be driving though the tundra at some points and just change back to mild hilltop in an instant. We stayed overnight at Fort Augustus as the mouth of Loch Ness, basically at the most famous view. Then we drove through Inverness which was quite a strange place to me too as it was a fully developed, cosmopolitain city just randomly set up in the midst of these harsh mountains and northern highlands. I got to see Culloden battlefield which vaguely reminded me of home in Virginia with all the Civil War battlefields. Then we finished our journey at the Hermitage. It was an amazing trip given how much I saw that I probably would not get to experience on my own.

So this time, for this post, I wanted to experiment with a different format for my photos. Some will be the same that they have always been, but others are formatted slightly differently.

This is Doune Castle built and owned by Robert Stewart Duke of Albany in the 1400s. It is not so famous for it’s day but it is currently for it’s use on shows like Outlander, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and one episode of Game of Thrones as the very first Winterfell.

You quickly realize as you tour it’s interior that Doune Castle is not the most luxurious of castles. 

I think few people can understand how happy it made me that I decided to wear that sweater that day because it looks incredible against the Loch. The cable knitting almost looks like the water itself. 

Even though I wore red, I was not rooting for a side…I swear!

Every brick on that wall that sticks out slightly represents a fallen soldier.

This flag was one of the positions held by the government forces. The blue flags for the Scottish Jacobites were too far away given the amount of time we were given to explore.

The Hermitage is located in Birnam Wood, which is famous as the wood that moved in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that ultimately led to Macbeth’s demise.