Table for Two with a View

We arrived in Beilstein, Germany around lunch on Thursday. It was definitely the most relaxing stop on our trip to date. With a total population less than 150 residents and a beautiful Mosel River Valley setting (but without a single traffic light, ATM, or grocery store), we spent most of our time enjoying the view with a beer or glass of wine. Our hotel room directly overlooked the river and the countless vineyards that lined the surrounding hills (see picture from our room below)! We quickly discovered, even if we added our ages together, we were still the youngest tourists in the town by a fairly large margin. After Spain’s tradition of late-evening meals, eating dinner between 6 and 8 (when the restaurants were open) each night took a little getting used to and really made us wish we had some snacks for later at night!


On Friday, we spent most of the day driving up and down the Mosel River. Unfortunately our car was a manual this time, making Heather the driver. The roads were extremely winding and our tiny Fiat didn’t have much power. All in all, we got off to a bit of a rocky start. Things didn’t improve much when we finally arrived in Trier, one of the largest cities on the river and the oldest city in Germany (dating back to 16 B.C.). It was impossible to find a parking spot! After driving down a pedestrian filled street (scary), we finally found a place to park and were able to explore some of the Roman ruins. Below is a picture of us in front of the ruins of the Porta Nigra Roman city gate. On the way back to our car (crossing our fingers there would not be a ticket on the windshield) we made a quick stop by Karl Marx’s birthplace and then hit the road.


After a long day of driving, we were ready to get back to Beilstein and enjoy some cold German beer. Unfortunately our GPS had another idea. After taking us completely out of the way, we arrived at the ferry stop on the opposite side of the river from our tiny town – only to be directed by the GPS to take the ferry across (which wasn’t free by the way). We spent the previous day wondering who actually paid to take this joke of a ferry when there were several bridge options. Well at this point, we just wanted to get back to our hotel, so we paid the five euros and drove on. Heather thought the situation was hilarious, but Jonathan was less than amused.

Amy and her friend Kim arrived on Saturday, ready for the full day we planned! Our first stop was at a medieval castle called Burg Eltz. We picked this castle out of the numerous options in this area because it is Rick Steve’s (the Europe travel guru) favorite in all of Europe. The castle was pretty but unfortunately under construction (as many of the “must see” sites have been during our trip). The tour of the interior was also fairly limited and very crowded – not the most impressive site we’ve seen so far.


Luckily our wine tasting in the evening was much more exciting! We all agreed that our tasting at the H.H. Hieronimi Winery in the neighboring town of Cochem was the best any of us had ever been to – and this was an experienced group! The winery is still family owned and currently the sixth generation is running operations. Below is a series of pictures with us inspecting the color and smell of the wines, and then joining in a “cheers” before tasting. The Mosel River Valley is known for their Riesling wines, Amy’s favorite, so of course we all had to pick up a few bottles (see final picture below). Hopefully Amy made it back on the plane with all of hers!





Sunday was Happy Mosel Day in the Mosel River Valley. Once a year, they close the roads on both sides of the river to all traffic except bikers and pedestrians – and the occasional rollerblader. Each town sets up tents with local food, beer, and wine. We spent most of the day walking between the towns and dodging several rain showers. The highlight was a stop we made for some really delicious strawberry wine. The vineyard owner was extremely friendly, and not very busy, so he gave us a quick tour of his wine cellar and “estate.” He even gave us each a bottle of free jam when we left. Germans are so friendly!

Thanks for meeting us Amy! We had a great time! Today we are on our way to Munich and Jonathan can’t wait to explore the beer gardens!

Beer List:
• Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel (a German Dunkelweizen)
• Erdinger Weissbier Kristallklar (a German Kristalweizen)
• Gemuender Kroenes Eifeler Landbier (a German Kellerbier)
• Bitburger Premium Pils (a German Pilsener)

Hostess with the Mostess

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Madrid with Paige! On Friday, we started the day exploring Paige’s favorite shops in her neighborhood, including a really awesome wine store, and then met her at the U.S. Embassy (where she works) for a tour. Unfortunately the Ambassador missed our visit, but we did get to see his house and swimming pool. We’ll catch him next time we are in Spain! Friday night we went out to dinner in one of Paige’s favorite parts of the city, followed by drinks at a a nearby bar. The Spanish have a very interesting idea of customer service. It took us no less than 45 minutes to get our check at the bar, after the bartender did everything to avoid our table – including making out with another customer.

After sleeping in on Saturday (did we mention how great it was to take a break from living in hotels?), we explored the major sites around Madrid, including the Royal Palace and major city squares. Below is a picture of us in the gardens of the Royal Palace (one of the largest palaces in Europe).


Madrid hosted a huge soccer game on Saturday night between an Italian team and German team, providing us the opportunity to experience what soccer “tailgates” are like. It made us really miss college football season! On Saturday night we went out to a traditional tapas dinner (boy do these people love their ham), followed by an authentic flamenco music/dance show featuring Spanish gypsies at a place called Casa Patas. The show was fantastic and a must on any visit to Spain! Heather and Paige even elbowed their way through the other groupies to take a picture with the flamenco lead singer (see picture at top).

Sunday was an extremely relaxing day. We spent some time exploring a local market, followed by a long picnic in Retiro Park (the “Central Park” of Madrid). Paige should definitely consider a career change after having another one of her fantastic home cooked meals! Below is Jonathan with his part of the ginormous sandwich she made.


Monday morning, after profusely thanking Paige for being such a wonderful hostess, we took the metro to the Madrid airport. Little did we know that the short ride on the metro could have greatly impacted our overall vacation…

As we were boarding the train, we found ourselves in the middle of a large group of people pushing and shoving, who then proceeded to immediately jump off the train. Thanks to Paige’s warning us about some common pick-pocket tactics, we realized what was going on. Jonathan quickly checked his pockets only to unfortunately find out that the pick-pockets took our passports! We jumped off the train and Jonathan ran after the group, leaving Heather behind with the bags. Jonathan actually managed to catch up with one of the thieves (who of course denied everything), but the most amazing part is what happened while he was gone. Apparently at least one of the pick-pockets had a change of heart and actually brought the passports back to Heather. We aren’t exactly sure what made them change their minds to return the passports rather than just throw them away. Several days later we still can’t stop talking about what happened! We thought we were pretty savvy travelers before the incident, but needless to say, we are significantly more careful now. Any person that happens to walk too close receives a distrustful glare from Heather, and Jonathan is now wearing the money belt whenever we use public transportation (in case you notice a little extra stomach girth in some of the pictures).

After that rather intense experience, we arrived in Barcelona and immediately loved the city! The first thing we did on Monday was explore the Olympic Village (see picture below), followed by a long walk to the oceanfront, and ending with evening stroll down Barcelona’s most famous street – La Rambla.


Tuesday was jam packed with tourist sites, starting with Gaudi’s famous architecture. We visited Parc Guell (see picture below), La Sagrada Familia (the coolest cathedral we’ve ever seen), and two of his residential designs – Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. After picking up lunch at an amazing outdoor market (Mercat La Boqueria), we visited the Picasso Museum. Our evening plans were courtesy of Paige’s recommendations and included dinner at her favorite Barcelona restaurant (Dos Palillos), and a dessert tasting at a local cooking school/restaurant (Espai Sucre).


Wednesday we took the train to Figueres, focused on visiting the Salvador Dali Museum. So far, this is our favorite museum of the trip and definitely worth the train ride. The museum itself is the largest surrealist art piece in the world. We were really lucky during our visit because the Dali Jewels Collection was also on display. Here is a picture in the “Stage” room at the Dali Museum (the large painting changes when viewed at different distances – super cool).


Today we had to get up way too early to catch a flight to Germany. Have we mentioned how much we “love” Ryanair and their luggage weight restrictions (sarcasm intended)? We just arrived in Beilstein, Germany and are excited to explore the Mosel River Valley and spend a few days with Amy!

Beer List:
• Mahou Clasica (a Spanish brewed American adjunct lager)
• Mahou Premium Light (a Spanish light lager)
• Estrella Damm (a Spanish brewed American adjunct lager)
• Xibeca (a Spanish Euro pale lager)
• Cervesa del Montseny + Blat (a Spanish brewed American pale wheat ale)

Can I Get a Venti, Please?

Last Sunday we took the train from Brussels to Luxembourg City – the capital of one of the smallest countries in the world. A lot of time and effort was put into trying to think of something exciting to write for the blog about our short stay in Luxembourg, but frankly, we just couldn’t think of anything. To be blunt, the city is just kind of boring. Everything closes early in the evening, there aren’t really any great places to eat, and the people are not all that friendly. With that said though, the “old town” historic city center is very charming and much of it looks like it is right out of a storybook.

The best part of our visit to Luxembourg was spent at the Casemates du Bock – a vast network of underground military passageways built in the mid 1600s. It was really cool to explore (and get lost in at times) one of the city’s most popular attractions. We spent the rest of our visit roaming around the city and enjoying the huge parks that surround the city center (see picture below). We’re definitely glad we decided to make a quick stop in Luxembourg, but also very happy we didn’t schedule more than one day there!


On Tuesday afternoon we took the train to Paris. Initially, we weren’t going to stop in Paris on this trip since we’ve both been before, but we eventually decided on a short layover there before heading to Spain. However, our quick (and wonderful) visit to “the city of lights” definitely made us wish we had allocated more time for it on our itinerary!


Since we’ve collectively already visited most of the major museums and sites, we decided to instead focus our time on strolling through the city, shopping, and eating wonderful food. However, we did devote a bit of time on Tuesday afternoon to taking pictures at some major landmarks (as you can see above at Notre Dame and below at the Eiffel Tower).


We also made a stop Tuesday afternoon at Heather’s new favorite bookstore, Shakespeare and Company (see picture below). The place has an entire floor of books that are just for browsing and reading, but not for purchase. Anyone can come in and spend the entire day reading without a salesperson pressuring them to buy anything. There’s also space for writing workshops, and even couches/cots available for struggling writers. Instead of charging for them to stay, the owner just asks the writers to write a one-pager on their background for his collection. We would definitely recommend a stop here!


We happened upon a fantastic French restaurant for our first dinner in Paris – Les Fines Gueules. This was our favorite meal of the entire trip so far! Everything was delicious, but Jonathan’s steak tartare was just beyond amazing – and neither of us really like tartare! The staff was also incredibly welcoming and helpful, which made the experience even better. Here is a picture of Heather at the restaurant – they don’t have printed menus in the place, so the waiters just lug a big board around.


We started Wednesday with a classic croissant and the “huge” coffee pictured with Jonathan above. Somehow, we keep ordering coffee and ending up with espresso. We devoted the entire day to just exploring Paris, shopping, and eating lots of pastries. As you can see from the picture below, it is FINALLY getting warm! Despite a thorough application of sunscreen, we did get the first (certainly not the last) sunburn of the trip!


Yesterday we only had half a day in Paris, so we just shopped a little more and grabbed crepes for lunch. We took a late afternoon flight to Madrid where we were where warmly greeted by our good friend Paige who is graciously hosting us while we are here. Paige has spent a lot of time traveling and knows the extreme shortage of good Mexican food in Europe, so she cooked a delicious Mexican meal for our first night in Spain (including cheese dip and chips of course). We are very excited about what she has in store for us over the weekend, and also really looking forward to using her washer and dryer!

Beer List:
• Diekirch (a Luxembourgian pale lager)
• Kronenbourg 1664 (a French pale lager)
• Grimbergen Blonde (a Belgian pale ale)

Too Many Beers, Too Little Time

As you can see from our beer list below, we were quite successful in our attempt to try as many Belgium beers as possible (Jonathan's trying to decide what to order next at a bar in Bruges in the picture above). Needless to say, we are going to give our livers and waistlines a bit of a break until we get to Germany. American beer is going to seem pretty weak after what we’ve been drinking this past week, and we’re pretty sure Jonathan is now fully ready to show off his drinking skills at school!

Beers weren’t the only things we double-fisted while in Belgium.


While we did eat quite a bit of Belgium chocolate and sampled the double-fried fries, the waffles were by far our favorite food on this leg of our trip. Jonathan just couldn’t get enough, and already has plans to purchase a waffle maker when we get back! Here is Heather in front of one of the many waffle stands we visited.


The architecture in Belgium was our favorite so far. Brussels was absolutely beautiful (although rather cold and rainy)! The city was very walk-able, allowing us to easily visit most of the major sites on foot (which is a good thing considering all the beer and waffles we consumed). Below is a picture of us in Brussels’ most famous square, Grand Place (you can ignore the street-cleaning machine in the background).


Brussels is also the primary capital of the European Union, which occupies an entire section of the city. Heather was excited to visit this area, but unfortunately it was a little boring and disappointing. There might have been some sort of tourist center or museum, but if so we missed it. Mostly we just saw nondescript, large office buildings, with many angry looking Europeans going in and out. They must have read the news about the uncertain future of the EU!

Since we had almost a full week in Belgium, we were able to take day trips from Brussels to both Bruges and Antwerp. On Thursday we headed to Bruges, known as one of the most historically preserved and beautiful towns in Belgium. Coincidentally, we happened to arrive on one of the busiest days of the year – a religious holiday called Ascension Day. Even though most of the shops were closed and the town was really crowded, we were able to take part in many of the festivities of the day - including the Procession of the Holy Blood (a tradition that started in 1291). Bruges is beautiful and definitely worth a half-day trip, although we can imagine how crowded it must get during the height of the tourism season! Here is a picture of us in the main “Market” square. You can see the bleachers set up behind us for people to watch the parade.


On Friday we took a day trip to Antwerp, Belgium’s second largest city and the Diamond Capital of the World. We didn’t do a lot of research before we arrived but were pleasantly surprised at just how much we enjoyed the city! We definitely liked our visit to Antwerp more than Bruges, and wished we had more time to spend there. Most of the day was spent strolling the main shopping street, visiting the major sites, and of course, window shopping in the diamond district. Unfortunately, everything Heather picked out would require us to cancel the rest of our trip and return home immediately! Here is a picture of us in front of Antwerp’s Central Station – one of the most beautiful rail stations in Europe.


The most interesting part of our time in Antwerp was spent visiting a beer bar rated 2nd in the world (Ratebeer.com) - the Kulminator. The bar is owned and operated by an older couple and according to the reviews online, the husband is a bit of a beer tyrant. Apparently they have a huge inventory of vintage beers, but the owner will only discuss his collection after he deems someone to be a true beer lover. Well, we must not have met the criteria because he didn’t interact with us at all. He sat at a nearby table and read the newspaper the whole time we were there. The bar was practically as quiet as a church, with classical music playing in the background and several cats roaming around. It was really strange, but a must for any beer lover visiting Belgium! Here is Jonathan enjoying a N’Ice Chouffe at the Kulminator.


Our train arrived in Luxembourg this afternoon, and we’re excited to explore the city before heading to Paris on Tuesday!

Beer List:
• Leffe 9 Degrees (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Leffe Blonde (a Belgian pale ale)
• Chimay Grande Reserve (a Belgian strong dark ale)
• Chimay Premiere (a Belgian dubbel)
• Chimay Tripel (a Belgian tripel)
• Hoegaarden Grand Cru (a Belgian witbier)
• Vedett Extra White (a Belgian witbier)
• Blanche de Bruges (a Belgian witbier)
• Orval Trappist Ale (a Belgian pale ale)
• Trappist Achel 8° Blond (a Belgian tripel)
• Trappistes Rochefort 8 (a Belgian strong dark ale)
• Blanche De Hainaut Biologique (a Belgian witbier)
• N’Ice Chouffe (a Belgian strong dark ale)
• Gordon Finest Platinum (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Watou’s Wit (a Belgian witbier)
• Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor (a Belgian IPA)
• Nostradamus (a Belgian strong dark ale)
• Valier Extra (a Belgian IPA)
• St. Feuillien Blonde (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Mort Subite Gueuze (a Belgian gueuze)
• Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel (a Belgian IPA)
• Duvel (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Delirium Tremens (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Ramee Blonde (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Maes Pils (a German Pilsener brewed in Belgium)
• Erdinger Weissbier (a German hefeweizen – warming up for our next big beer country)

The Smallest House in Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam late in the evening last Wednesday. We don’t typically like to blog about our hotels, but this one was so freaking cool! It was definitely the most high-tech hotel we’ve ever stayed in, and we would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam. It’s called CitizenM, and everything in the room was controlled by a remote and completely customizable – down to the color of the lighting. Our room was purple for most of the week!

Thursday was a very busy day spent exploring the city. We went on another walking tour and saw most of the major tourist highlights, including the eye-opening (or more like eye-closing) Red Light District. We also visited the Anne Frank House, definitely the most memorable museum we’ve been to thus far. Both of us read “Anne Frank” in middle school, but forgot some of the specifics over the years. We were able to walk through the actual house her family hid in, including Anne’s room with her magazine cut-outs still hanging on the walls. It was a really moving experience. Her diary is second only to the Bible in copies sold world-wide. Below is a picture of us in front of the museum and house. The house is on the left (just behind the tree) and the museum is the glass building to the right.


Friday we explored some different parts of the city, including a visit to a brewery housed in a windmill – Brouwerij ‘t IJ (see picture below). We’ve both been on quite a few brewery tours, but this was one of the coolest.


After sampling a number of very strong beers, we decided to head over to another cool bar we found called Café Gollem. It was a tiny pub, but served hundreds of different beers. We finished off the evening with some savory pancakes that are a must on any visit to The Netherlands!

On Saturday we took a day trip to Delft, a small city famous for the white and blue hand-painted Royal Delft porcelain. There was a huge antique and food market going on during our visit, which was a lot of fun to explore. We bought some local produce and cheese, and had a picnic near the city hall. The town was absolutely charming, and we definitely recommend it for a short excursion from Amsterdam. Below is a picture of us in front of their beautiful city hall.


After arriving back in Amsterdam, we spent the rest of our evening listening to jazz music at a really cool place Jonathan found called the Cotton Club. The bar was packed with locals, and we had a great time!

There must have been some sort of trash man revolt because by Sunday there was garbage everywhere - attracting even more pigeons for Heather to fight off. We spent part of our last afternoon in Amsterdam on a canal boat tour of the city, taking in a relaxing view of the major sites. We also stopped by the smallest house in Amsterdam (see picture at the top of Jonathan). The house is less than two meters wide (about the same as Jonathan’s arm span). When it was built, taxation was based on house width, so to save money the owners built a really narrow home. We were told that the man that lives there is actually quite tall, and ironically, it’s located right next to the widest bridge in the city!

Our only regret leaving Amsterdam is that we were not able to visit a museum that we are sure Heather would have loved (see below)!


Yesterday we arrived in Brussels where we celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary! Jonathan had reservations at a really popular Moroccan restaurant, Kasbah, followed by listening to jazz at one of Brussels’s most famous jazz clubs – L’Archiduc. Below is a picture of us at the restaurant.


We loved our visit to Amsterdam, and are very excited to explore Brussels over the next week – which means, of course, sampling lots of beer and chocolate!

Beer List:
• Brouwerij ‘t IJ Columbus (described as a “special” amber ale)
• Brouwerij ‘t IJ Struis (a strong, dark beer)
• Brouwerij ‘t IJ IJwit (a white beer)
• Brouwerij ‘t IJ Zatte (a golden yellow tripel)
• Pauwel Kwak (a Belgian strong pale ale)
• Blanche de Namur (a Belgian white beer)
• Wieckse White (a Netherlands white beer)
• Westmalle Tripel (a Belgian tripel)
• La Chouffe (another Belgian strong pale ale)

Happy Wedding Day Tom and Christina!

Although we are having a wonderful time on our trip, we are very sad to be missing the wedding today of our close friends, Tom and Christina. We just wanted to wish them the best and let them know we will are thinking about them! We know the wedding will be incredible and that everyone will have such a great time in New Orleans!

Love you guys!

Like Riding a Bike… Sort Of

This city is crazy! We read that Copenhagen was a bit of a party town, but were surprised when it actually lived up to the description. We must be getting old, because we were kind of amazed by the scene! We arrived on Saturday night and quickly found out there isn’t an open container law in this city – or any drinking age from what we could tell. Our first stop was Stroget, the longest strolling/shopping street in Europe. Mayhem! Drunk people were everywhere – singing, yelling, dancing, shot-gunning beers, and throwing bottles on the ground – it was crazy!

On Sunday morning we had the city to ourselves for a while as the population recovered from Saturday night. We decided that we wanted to relax a little more than we’ve been doing on the trip thus far, so most of our day was spent at a coffee shop and then later drinking beers at the New Harbor canal/waterfront (see video below). That was our favorite place in the city!



Our plan on Monday was to sample some local pastries (YUM!!) and walk to the Tuborg Brewery for a tour and tasting. After a 7 km walk, we arrived at the “brewery” to discover that it either didn’t exist or was closed for renovations. Disappointing! We drowned our sorrows with more pastries and then took the bus back into the city center. We found a really awesome microbrewery called Brewpub (very creative name) and had dinner at their restaurant, along with a couple of their beers/ciders. We highly recommend this place for anyone visiting the city. The beer was great and Heather claims the cider was the absolute best she’s ever had!

Yesterday we grabbed two free “city bikes” and planned to visit many of the remaining sites around Copenhagen. Well, that didn’t go exactly as we thought it would. Apparently it isn’t impossible to forget how to ride a bike – just ask Heather! It took a while for her to get on the bike to actually “ride” it, and just after she finally started getting some momentum, she crashed into metal scaffolding on the sidewalk. Finally, she pulled it together and we were off and riding through one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. Now we know who will NOT be teaching our children how to ride a bike!


Our first stop of the day was the city’s most famous attraction – The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid statue, situated on Copenhagen's waterfront, represents a character from a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tail (the basis for Disney’s The Little Mermaid movie). When we finally arrived at the site, we discovered the statue was in China for the World Expo. In its place was a non-functioning multi-media installation designed by the same person behind the Beijing Olympic stadium (we found this out while being interviewed for a Chinese newspaper).


On our bike ride, we also stopped by several of the city’s castles and palaces. One of the stops we made was at the Rosenborg Castle and gardens – located in the middle of one of the largest parks in the city center (see picture below). The scene was absolutely crazy – kind of like Panama City during Spring Break (seriously). There were about 500 middle and high school kids running around drunk and causing pandemonium. It felt like a bad after school special! Again, we must be getting old because we were shocked!


Last night we had a picnic dinner at New Harbor, followed by drinks at Heather’s favorite bar in the city – Library Bar. We would definitely recommend this bar to anyone visiting the city.

All in all, this wasn’t our favorite city so far, but we definitely enjoyed our time here. Today we leave for Amsterdam!

Beer List:
• Tuborg Green (a pilsner that is essentially a Miller Lite/Bud Light in Copenhagen)
• Brewpub Cole Porter (a deep black microbrew porter)
• Brewpub Armstrong (a microbrew IPA)
• Brewpub Rose (the cider that Heather claims is the best ever)

Ice Ice Baby

We were welcomed to Stockholm this past Wednesday with cold and rainy weather after a full day of travel, but luckily had two beautiful days thereafter to enjoy the city!

On Thursday we started out exploring on foot after a Swedish breakfast at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel (a little weird but still tasty). We spent most of the day walking around Stockholm, taking in the people and surroundings, and trying not to spend all of our money at the really cool stores (we are both suckers for the modern Swedish designs). Jonathan felt right at home after running into a restaurant and bar called the Texas Longhorn Smokehouse (don’t worry, we didn’t go in)!


After weighing some of the really cool museum options, we decided on the popular Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a massive Swedish war ship that set sail on her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628 – only to unfortunately sink after traveling just 1,500 meters from the harbor. In the 1960’s, after being submerged for more than 330 years, the ship was pulled out of the Baltic Sea, salvaged, and put on display in a really cool museum. About 95% of the original ship is on exhibit, including many of the personal articles found from the crew members on board. Unfortunately, it was really dark in the museum and most of the pictures didn’t turn out very well (below is a picture of Heather touching an original piece of the ship).


Thursday night we went to dinner at a really good restaurant in the more artsy, non-touristy part of the city, and then made a stop for a couple beers at Akkurat - voted the World’s 3rd Best Beer Bar in 2010 (RateBeer.com). As a side note, the Brick Store Pub, in Decatur, GA (the city we’ve lived in the past three years), was actually ranked 6th on the same list. Here is Jonathan enjoying a pint of a delicious Swedish micro-brew IPA.


Yesterday we stopped by the Nobel Prize Museum, but couldn’t visit because of some local events taking place. We did, however, get to see the City Hall, which is where the Nobel Prize Banquet is actually held (see picture below). We also saw the Royal Palace and caught some of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. It seemed much less organized than the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, with the soldiers somewhat haphazardly marching around.


After much debate, we decided that we couldn’t leave Stockholm without going to the “Ice Bar” (pictures at top and below). Nearly everything in the bar, including the glasses, was literally made of ice, and they even make you wear these Eskimo type coats inside because it is so darn cold. It was a bit touristy, but we had a lot of fun! We tried to look as “Swedish” as possible to stand out from all the tourists.


We left Stockholm this afternoon and just arrived in Copenhagen. The city looks really cool and we can’t wait to explore!

Beer List:
• Spendrups Lattol (pretty much the Miller Lite/Bud Light of Sweden)
• Jamtlands (a Swedish micro-brew IPA)
• Bedero Bitter (a Swedish micro-brew pale ale)
• Chimay (Heather keeps warming up for our Belgium visit)
• Brauerei Wagner Weisse (Heather also keeps warming up for our Germany visit)