Tag: Holiday

A Trip to Copenhagen – Part Two

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

We decided to visit Rosenborg Castle on the second day of our trip to Copenhagen. We booked tickets the same morning via the official website. The castle staff are very strict and won’t let you enter even a minute early. The castle and its surroundings are so beautiful. A little like at Buckingham Palace, soldiers march up and down outside and woe betide anyone who gets in their way. One member of the castle staff screamed to a toddler to get out of their way, it was a little harsh but the little boy’s dad didn’t seem too perturbed. Inside there is so much to see including portraits of various members of Danish royalty, many of whom were a bit… strange looking. There’s a whole room dedicated to glass wear but it would have been helpful to have an audio guide so we could know exactly what we were looking at. The Renaissance castle is home to the Danish crown jewels which we didn’t see because my daughter needed the loo, which is outside, and we could not get back in. It was a hot day and, to be honest we had had enough of the stuffiness. The castle is located in perhaps the most beautiful spot in Copenhagen, next to the Kings Gardens where you can go for a stroll afterwards. The cover image of this post is the view from the castle windows.

A sign for the Kings Gardens, A soldier outside Rosenborg Castle, The Glass Cabinet, Rosenborg Castle

The following morning my dad called to say that Mum had been taken ill and that the GP had called an ambulance. I spent several hours worrying but my brother and his wife live in the same town as the hospital and they were able to go and help. Fortunately Mum wasn’t admitted and is now recovering from an infection. As you can imagine, it did rather blight the day but, after I knew that Mum was going to be alright and I didn’t need to fly home, we went to Tivoli Gardens. This is the theme park that inspired Disney World and the second oldest theme park in the world, opening in 1843. It is a must if you are visiting the city with young people. There are more than thirty rides which I am sure my daughter would have loved had she been with friends but we paid around £20 each for entrance to the park, not including the rides. We then paid an additional £12 to go into the aquarium . There are numerous food stands, cafes and bars dotted around and plenty of places to sit and relax. The atmosphere is just lovely and the gardens are very pretty.

Photos from Tivoli Gardens, the aquarium, me trying not to worry about my mum, the gardens

On our final full day we visited the Botanical Gardens and the Natural History Museum . There was an icy wind and it was drizzling so we didn’t stay in the gardens for long. They are free to enter but you do need to pay to go into the Palm House. There is a very charming old building in the gardens which houses the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence research, an odd stetting for something so futuristic. The centre is not open to the public. The museum was well worth a visit. There is currently a wildlife photography exhibition showing which we really enjoyed. There is a whole room of fossils, stuffed animals, tusks and shells that visitors can touch and there was a children’s workshop taking place. It did make me sad to see the stuffed tiger, polar bear and other creatures but they have all been long-deceased. The museum staff were all very friendly and enthusiastic. Afterwards we went to the farmer’s market opposite our hotel for the most delicious (and pricey) sandwiches. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant, again the meal wasn’t fantastic.

Our flight wasn’t until 9.30pm on Friday so we went into town to have pastries and coffee for breakfast at a bakery called BUKA. Afterwards we returned to Nyhavn Harbour and took another boat trip but, like most things in life, it wasn’t as enjoyable the second time. Then we headed into town for a look around the shops, a light lunch and an ice-cream. We finished our trip back at the King’s Gardens where my daughter fell asleep on a park bench, a few passers-by gave me very disapproving looks. Then back to our hotel who had arranged our taxi to the airport. Our flight was delayed by an hour or so and we were very pleased to be home when we let ourself in at 1am.

We loved Copenhagen, I had no idea there was so much to do and see. At no point was I worried about pickpockets or phone snatchers and the city is so clean. If you are thinking of taking a solo trip it feels like a very safe destination. Highly recommended!

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Breakfast at BUKKA bakery

A Trip to Copenhagen – Part One

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

My daughter has been working very long hours at her work placement, and I have not taken any time off since Christmas so we decided to take a five day break, just the two of us. We chose Copenhagen because it supposedly wouldn’t be too hot and there is so much to do and see. I booked through Expedia, we flew out with Norwegian Air, back with Easyjet. There were lots of hotels to choose from and I selected the Ibsens Hotel based on the wonderful reviews and the fact that it is very centrally located. The location was indeed fantastic, within walking distance of almost everywhere you would want to visit, but I wouldn’t stay here again. The rooms are a little basic, a little like a slightly posher Premier Inn or Travel Lodge and the bed linen was very scratchy. Also we had no choice but to open the windows because the room was unbearably hot but then there was noise outside until 2am and some unidentifiable machinery started up every morning at 6.30am. We didn’t have one decent nights sleep for the entire stay. The staff were very helpful though and the room was clean. I did appreciate that they have a luggage room so, after you have checked out, you can lock your cases away and utilise the time before your journey home begins. You can have breakfast at the hotel at the cost of around £25 each but we preferred to eat somewhere different every day. A taxi to the airport cost about £40.

We averaged 24,000 steps every day we were in Copenhagen. Many of the locals use bicycles to get around and crossing the numerous busy roads can feel a little dicey as not everyone stops when they should and you do need to take care not to accidently step into the cycle lane. I saw lots of cyclists scrolling thought their phones while speeding along.

We arrived in the city at around 12pm and, after checking in, we went straight out for lunch at a quirky bookshop/restaurant called Paludan. The food in Copenhagen is extremely expensive, even a simple sandwich picked up at a farmers market will set you back around £15. At Paludan we both had chicken and some vegetables. We then went further into the town and had a look around. If you enjoy shopping, there is everything in Copenhagen from H&M to Hermes. My daughter spotted a couple of shops made famous by Tik Tok and I ended up making a totally unnecessary purchase at Anna August who sell cotton tote bags with snarky phrases or images printed on. I had checked the weather before leaving England and was expecting it to be much cooler but the city was sweltering. I was very pleased to have a sunhat. There are many benches so you can sit and enjoy an ice cream or just people watch. There are also lots of spotlessly clean public loos which are free to use.

Tote bags in Anna August, Reffen Street food market, The famous statue of The Little Mermaid

The next day we visited the famous Nyhavn Harbour which is simply stunning. We had a breakfast of yoghurt, fruit and coffee at a cafe on the side of the harbour known as “The Sunny Side”. The houses are all painted different colours so that drunken sailors could easily find their way home. Hans Christian Anderson lived in one of the houses and apparently wrote The Ugly Duckling after his failed attempt to become a ballet dancer. These nuggets I found out when we took a fabulous hour-long river trip costing only £7 each, probably my favourite part of our stay. After our boat trip we attempted to catch a bus to Reffen, a famous street food market. We weren’t very well prepared for this. We tried to use Apple Pay and then tapped our debit cards onto the scanner while the bus driver and other passengers sat there with a look of contempt. Unhelpfully, there is no information at all on the bus about how you are supposed to pay but my daughter asked another passenger, an American tourist, who said it’s via an app. As there was no signal our attempts to download said app were futile and we ended up unintentionally fare-dodging which was a little stressful but we were more successful on the return journey. If you intend to use public transport then download the DOT and Rejseplanen Apps before you travel. You can buy just about any type of food at Reffen but we had hotdogs which were delicious followed by ice cream. There is a lively atmosphere and, like the rest of Copenhagen, it feels very safe.

After Reffen we went to see an interactive exhibition entitled The Viking Sourceress at The National Museum. There was so much to see here but my feet had had enough for one afternoon so we plodded back to the hotel before going out for dinner at Europa where we waited about an hour for our food which, when it arrived, was dreadful. Then back to the hotel for another noisy, sleepless night.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Displays at The National Museum and a poster advertising The Viking Sorceress exhibition

Exploring Florence: A 30th Anniversary Celebration Trip

On By samanthaIn GOING OUT2 Comments

Here we are in Italy with a sun hat and a dictionary, from “Lonesome for a place I know” by Everything But The Girl. This is my current earworm. I used Duolingo rather than a dictionary but I did buy a rather nice sun hat from Accessorize for £4,50.

My husband and I celebrated thirty years of marriage last week. Time really does seem to speed up as you get older, when I look in the mirror I am always shocked to see my fifty something self looking back at me. Anyway, I really wanted to go to Venice but my friends warned me against it in August. It will smell, they said and be impossibly crowded. So, instead I booked four nights in Florence through Expedia. A friend gave me an official website to book tickets to various museums, gardens and churches, all very reasonably priced I thought. Three outings for two people cost less than £100. Picking up the tickets when we arrived at each location was very simple and I would definitely recommend pre-planning any sightseeing.

Before we talk about Florence can I just give the dump that is Gatwick airport a special mention. We arrived a little early and sat in a cafe where a roaring trade in stolen mobile phones was clearly going on. I do not blame the cafe workers at all for not intervening but it didn’t make for a very pleasant atmosphere. A woman in fluffy sliders and a “Juicy” tracksuit kept coming over and handing off more phones to three lurking men. We were flying with Vueling, the assistant helping people with the self-check-in was incredibly impatient and made a poor job of putting the bar code sticker onto my case, it went around the corner. There are no actual human beings to put your case onto the conveyor belt and weigh it, you do it yourself. Predictably, the machine could not read the bar code on my sticker and it was rejected. I was sent to the “ground services” desk where half the world’s population appeared to be queuing. It was impossible to see whether there were several queues or one big, smelly huddle and I began to feel a bit stressed. My husband suggested we try the automated conveyor belt one more time and, thank God, my case was accepted.

I only wanted to buy some Estee Lauder lip gloss in duty free but, according the the Sales Assistant, Estee Lauder don’t make lip gloss, so I gave up and bought two books from WH Smith, both thrillers that I chose in a hurry. One, The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas, was a real page-turner and I will write a little review soon.

The flight was two and a half hours and then we arrived at Florence airport where, thankfully, my suitcase was waiting for me. We got a taxi to the city centre where we were staying which cost around £35. We stayed at the Hotel Calimala which is brilliantly located. The staff were very welcoming and our room was lovely, particularly the marble bathroom. The hotel has a stunning rooftop bar which is featured in a number of guide books. We went out for a walk around the city and were immediately struck by the evening heat and the beauty of the place. There is a lovely atmosphere with street musicians and performers and endless places to stop and have a drink or bite to eat. Everybody is a little dressed up which is a refreshing change.

Like many tourist destinations, Florence has a problem with aggressive street hawkers who slip a bracelet on your wrist and then tell you to pay an extortionate amount for it. I had heard Heather McDonald, a podcaster, talking about this exact scam just before we left. She had been to Rome and been scammed by people selling fake tickets at The Colosseum. Unfortunately my husband encountered one of these people when he popped out on his own and the man was extremely hostile when my husband politely declined to buy. I gave a woman who came up to us, begging, some coins and she screamed obscenities and threw them back at me. During one meal a man randomly bumped into our table and the restaurant manager came up and explained that he was a thief trying to steal my husband’s backpack. I would advise not walking around with more money or cards than you need for the day and leave your passport in a safe somewhere if you can.

On our first morning we visited Boboli Gardens. Fortunately I had booked to go in when they opened at 10am. There are a great many steps and it would have been too hot any later in the day. The views are spectacular. Afterwards we had brunch at a little café where the waitress brazenly stole ten euros from us. It was a shame because the food was delicious but we wouldn’t return after that.

There must be a million handbags for sale in Florence. The leather market was a two minute walk from our hotel and there are countless shops all selling much the same thing. Then, of course, there are the luxury stores, Chanel, Prada, a huge Gucci, Celine and branch of YSL where the staff literally stand and sneer at the passers by. I am not much of a shopper, I had a look around the market but there were too many people and I really do not need another handbag. The quality of most of the goods seem to be excellent and they were all reasonably priced. There are also numerous jewellers and inexpensive clothes shops such as H&M and Zara.

The next day we visited the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s statue of David is displayed. The statue is quite breathtaking and much larger than I’d realised. The gallery is very impressive and air conditioned! There is a room with hundreds of marble busts, everywhere you look eyes seem to be watching. Of course, most of the artwork has a very religious theme and so much of it is stunningly beautiful, so much gold leaf. Despite being August, entry is managed so that there aren’t too many people in the gallery at any one time.

On our last day we visited Santa Croce The tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are inside this magnificent church. If you plan on visiting remember that it is a place of worship and dress accordingly. If you wear a vest top and shorts they won’t admit you. Knees and shoulders have to be covered. Although I usually enjoy looking around churches, it was so stuffy and hot inside that I am afraid we did not stay very long.

We were not overly impressed with the food in Florence. It was nice but nothing special, we probably just went to the wrong restaurants. We went for a pizza one evening, my husband I chose different dishes but they were both too salty to eat. I had a lasagne another evening that could have come from Marks and Spencer. We went to a cute little café one morning but the waitress told us, at 9am, that we were too late for breakfast. I had a dry croissant, or cornetto, instead. I got the impression that some of the hospitability staff aren’t overly fond of the tourists.

One thing to mention is that, if you tire easily, Florence may not be the best city for you to visit, especially during the height of summer. Unless you are eating /drinking at a bar or café there is absolutely nowhere to sit and rest. There ae no benches where you can take a breather and enjoy a gelato. The best you can hope for is to perch on a low wall or even a doorstep.

Florence is a stunningly beautiful city packed full of gorgeous architecture and history. If you enjoy shopping you will not be disappointed. I hope to visit again, maybe in June or September next time when it will be a little cooler. It would be a great location for a girls trip. Everything is within walking distance and I loved the lively, bustling atmosphere.

Grazie per aver letto

Samantha