The north of France
The ferry between Dover and Calais is only about half an hour. Calais is a weird little town, and I have to say it didn’t feel very “French”. It’s all circa 70s architecture, and the vibe of the place wasn’t helped by major building work going on in the main square. I decided to only stay a night and move on. I stayed a few nights in Lille, which is a very pretty little town right near the border. From there I used a car sharing website, which is a really interesting idea. People who have to get somewhere put up details about where they’re going, and you can pay them a small amount to hitch a lift. It’s way cheaper than a bus or a train and you get to meet some people along the way. Good fun.
Belgium
I have to admit to not super-connecting with Brussels. It’s surprisingly quiet, given it’s the European capital and all. Still there are some beautiful places in it, like the Belgian Arc de Triumph.
One of the weirdest “sights” is this – a statue of a pissing boy. Apparently it’s quite famous. I guess when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.
I went to the European Parliament museum, which was kind of interesting and ran through the history of the EU. The buildings themselves aren’t really that pretty. And the museum is completely separate to the Parliament itself (apparently most of the parliamentary work is done in Strasbourg) and the European Commission building, which is the executive of the EU and where a lot of the power is centralised is down the street.
Of course Belgium is synonymous with beer, and boy are there lots to try. A few beer bars have literally thousands of beers in their cellars. I found one with sixty beers on tap and about seven hundred bottled varieties. It’s hard to know where to begin! Some of them are 14 per cent alcohol, so you can’t knock them back like you would tinnies of Gold at a Top End rodeo. Well you can, but it’s going to get messy. One of the most interesting is Lambic. There’s several varieties and it’s super sour. Some people describe it as tasting like vomiting up beer, except you’re drinking it down. The one I had certainly is odd, but I liked it.
From Brussels I caught a train to Bruge. Everything is so close in Belgium, and this was less than an hour away. It’s a very pretty old city but absolutely chockers with tour buses. Keen readers may have notice I like climbing towers to get a view of a city. There’s a famous one in Bruge, but everytime I walked past it the line was around the corner, so I never got around to it. The canals of Bruge are very pretty and make a nice place to sit and read for a while.
My favourite city I visited though was Gent. It’s between Brussels and Bruge and I just had a really great time there. There is a 12th century castle pretty well right in the middle of town which is interesting to visit.
I had a few really great nights in Gent. I read about this little jazz club that I wanted to visit. It was pretty hard to find, and involved walking down a dark alley which didn’t look very inviting. But at the end was this great little venue, really tiny, but with free good quality jazz! Gent is a student town and apparently is well known for its student musos. It was super cozy, had an excellent beer menu and was easy to start up conversations with people. My second night there I thought I might branch out a little and go somewhere else, but I realised I had such a good time at this place I just wanted to go back!
After Gent I headed to Antwerp, where I had a very nice Couchsurfing experience. Antwerp is a big fashion city – there’s a well-known design school based in the city. I was taken along to a party full of gay fashion students and blonde models. I can’t help but think that an unshaven Australian backpacker in jeans with holes and a t-shirt probably stood out a bit.
The Netherlands
Disclaimer: this post acknowledges the existence of prostitution.
From Antwerp I caught a train to Rotterdam. This city was completely destroyed by the Nazis in World War II, so it’s a bit of shrine for modern architecture. I have to admit some of the buildings are just kinda weird, like these cube apartments.
I went to the European Parliament museum, which was kind of interesting and ran through the history of the EU. The buildings themselves aren’t really that pretty. And the museum is completely separate to the Parliament itself (apparently most of the parliamentary work is done in Strasbourg) and the European Commission building, which is the executive of the EU and where a lot of the power is centralised is down the street.
Of course Belgium is synonymous with beer, and boy are there lots to try. A few beer bars have literally thousands of beers in their cellars. I found one with sixty beers on tap and about seven hundred bottled varieties. It’s hard to know where to begin! Some of them are 14 per cent alcohol, so you can’t knock them back like you would tinnies of Gold at a Top End rodeo. Well you can, but it’s going to get messy. One of the most interesting is Lambic. There’s several varieties and it’s super sour. Some people describe it as tasting like vomiting up beer, except you’re drinking it down. The one I had certainly is odd, but I liked it.
From Brussels I caught a train to Bruge. Everything is so close in Belgium, and this was less than an hour away. It’s a very pretty old city but absolutely chockers with tour buses. Keen readers may have notice I like climbing towers to get a view of a city. There’s a famous one in Bruge, but everytime I walked past it the line was around the corner, so I never got around to it. The canals of Bruge are very pretty and make a nice place to sit and read for a while.
My favourite city I visited though was Gent. It’s between Brussels and Bruge and I just had a really great time there. There is a 12th century castle pretty well right in the middle of town which is interesting to visit.
I had a few really great nights in Gent. I read about this little jazz club that I wanted to visit. It was pretty hard to find, and involved walking down a dark alley which didn’t look very inviting. But at the end was this great little venue, really tiny, but with free good quality jazz! Gent is a student town and apparently is well known for its student musos. It was super cozy, had an excellent beer menu and was easy to start up conversations with people. My second night there I thought I might branch out a little and go somewhere else, but I realised I had such a good time at this place I just wanted to go back!
After Gent I headed to Antwerp, where I had a very nice Couchsurfing experience. Antwerp is a big fashion city – there’s a well-known design school based in the city. I was taken along to a party full of gay fashion students and blonde models. I can’t help but think that an unshaven Australian backpacker in jeans with holes and a t-shirt probably stood out a bit.
The Netherlands
Disclaimer: this post acknowledges the existence of prostitution.
From Antwerp I caught a train to Rotterdam. This city was completely destroyed by the Nazis in World War II, so it’s a bit of shrine for modern architecture. I have to admit some of the buildings are just kinda weird, like these cube apartments.
I can’t say Rotterdam stood out to me too mcuh, but I met up with a friend I made in Berlin who lives there. Having a tour from a local is always interesting.
Which leads me to Amsterdam. All I can say is wow. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can’t walk far without catching a scent of pot, and walking around the red-light district at night is quite an experience. For those of you who don’t know, prostitution is completely legal and rather in your face. There are street and streets of buildings with glass doors with women wearing practically nothing on the other side beckoning people in. It’s really quite an amazing sight, and I do kind of love the brazenness of it all.
The weird thing is that it’s so obtusely seedy that it doesn’t really feel seedy. If you’re out in Kings Cross at two in the morning it just feels dodgy. Plus you’re worried about being randomly king hit or mugged. I don’t know if it was a false sense of security, but I felt pretty safe in Amsterdam.
On top of this Amsterdam is an outstandingly beautiful city. It’s kind of based on a series of concentric canals, and at dusk it’s really interesting to sit down and watch all the boats go by. There are huge tourist boats of course, but also a lot of little boats with people just cruising around with cheese platters and bottles of wine. Alas, I was unable to work out where they were coming from.
A real highlight was the Vincent van Gogh museum. I’m not an art connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve always found his work fascinating. And to know a little bit about his life and mental health always seems to explain so much about his paintings. They have a works from across his career, and show his development as an artist. The museum own one of his famous sunflower paintings, and they had another one on loan from London – there are five altogether.
(In case you’re wondering, you are allowed to take photos of some paintings in this museum).
One of my favourite paintings was this one, which I had never really looked at before. He painted it when he found out his brother’s first child had been born, and I just think it’s a beautiful story and a beautiful work. You know, blossoms, new life and all that sentimental stuff.
And then of course there are the paintings he did right before he killed himself. Dark skies, crows, broad, angry and haunting brush strokes.
I met up with my Canadian mates Wayne and Nikki who I met in Valencia in Spain. They bought a van, which has some bullet holes in it after the Spanish police shot at them and they spent a few nights in gaol. It’s a great story that I won’t go into here, but suffice to say it was a very big misunderstanding. They’re great fun, and it was excellent to catch up with them again.
I also caught up with my mate Quirine, who lives in a city about half an hour out of Amsterdam. I met her while walking the Jatbula Trail in the Northern Territory. She was doing the working holiday thing in Australia, and her and her friend Inge were doing the hike too. I had Yahtzee with me on the hike, and that’s how we got to know each other. They were going to sleep in the back of their car after the five day walk, so I offered them my living room floor and a shower. So it was great to be able to visit her house, and she cooked me a traditional Dutch dish (I forget the name). It was delicious, kind of a well-seasoned rissole on mashed potato with spring onions and bacon with gravy! Though apparently it’s a winter food (makes sense) and it weird to make in the summer time. But hey, I ate it! We also had a few epic Yahtzee rematches. Twice I beat her by one point! She was not too happy about that.
So all up Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities I’ve visited so far. Four and a half stars.
Hamburg
On my way to Scandinavia I stopped for a few nights in Hamburg. I must confess that I was a little bit sick after my time in Amsterdam, so I had a few quiet days here. Now there’s no non-awkward way to say this, but let’s be clear: I am not a sex tourist. The reason I clarify that is because there’s another famous red light district in Hamburg, the Reeperbahn. It’s mentioned in a Paul Kelly song, and is the area where The Beatles played eight hour sets in the early 60s back when Pete Best was still their drummer. So whilst I’m not a sex tourist, I am fascinated by famous red light districts. I have to say this felt seedier than Amsterdam. It had more of the Cross style of big burly guys trying to usher you into strip shows.
Århus
This is Denmark’s second city, and site of the most expensive hamburger I’ve ever eaten. They don’t use the euro, and I forgot to check the exchange rate before I went out for dinner. I left it too late – 8.30pm i.e. not really that late – and a lot of places were closing. I’m too embarrassed to say how much I paid for a ‘gastro burger’ but when I got back to my hostel and googled it I almost had a heart attack, aided in no small part by the extremely greasy and poor value burger.
Copenhagen
…wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen for me. Or so goes the song I sang (in a chorus line – Miss Brain never gave me a solo, not that I’m bitter or anything) in a Parkes Public School concert one year. I was really looking forward to visiting Copenhagen because I had heard it’s exceptionally beautiful. It is very nice, but I do have to admit to being a little bit underwhelmed by it.
Now, the weather seems to play a big role in how I feel about a city, and for my stay here it was pretty awful. I was also couchsurfing with a really nice guy, but was out of the centre a bit so maybe that affected me too. I don’t know. There are some very pretty parts of Copenhagen. The water in its canals is crystal clear, unlike very other canal city I’ve visited. And the old town houses and warehouses are nice. But I don’t know, it didn’t grab me.
Here’s the centre of the old part of town, in the area near the Royal Palace. As you can see the weather is not inspiring.
And man, those Danes go nuts for Hans Christian Anderson. This is a sculpture commemorating one of his most famous fairy tales. But where is the crab playing the marimba made from crustacians?
And this is the view from the top of a church tower. It is kinda pretty. But it’s also very quiet and I guess it didn’t feel like there was that much going on.
Which leads me to Amsterdam. All I can say is wow. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can’t walk far without catching a scent of pot, and walking around the red-light district at night is quite an experience. For those of you who don’t know, prostitution is completely legal and rather in your face. There are street and streets of buildings with glass doors with women wearing practically nothing on the other side beckoning people in. It’s really quite an amazing sight, and I do kind of love the brazenness of it all.
The weird thing is that it’s so obtusely seedy that it doesn’t really feel seedy. If you’re out in Kings Cross at two in the morning it just feels dodgy. Plus you’re worried about being randomly king hit or mugged. I don’t know if it was a false sense of security, but I felt pretty safe in Amsterdam.
On top of this Amsterdam is an outstandingly beautiful city. It’s kind of based on a series of concentric canals, and at dusk it’s really interesting to sit down and watch all the boats go by. There are huge tourist boats of course, but also a lot of little boats with people just cruising around with cheese platters and bottles of wine. Alas, I was unable to work out where they were coming from.
A real highlight was the Vincent van Gogh museum. I’m not an art connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve always found his work fascinating. And to know a little bit about his life and mental health always seems to explain so much about his paintings. They have a works from across his career, and show his development as an artist. The museum own one of his famous sunflower paintings, and they had another one on loan from London – there are five altogether.
(In case you’re wondering, you are allowed to take photos of some paintings in this museum).
One of my favourite paintings was this one, which I had never really looked at before. He painted it when he found out his brother’s first child had been born, and I just think it’s a beautiful story and a beautiful work. You know, blossoms, new life and all that sentimental stuff.
And then of course there are the paintings he did right before he killed himself. Dark skies, crows, broad, angry and haunting brush strokes.
I met up with my Canadian mates Wayne and Nikki who I met in Valencia in Spain. They bought a van, which has some bullet holes in it after the Spanish police shot at them and they spent a few nights in gaol. It’s a great story that I won’t go into here, but suffice to say it was a very big misunderstanding. They’re great fun, and it was excellent to catch up with them again.
I also caught up with my mate Quirine, who lives in a city about half an hour out of Amsterdam. I met her while walking the Jatbula Trail in the Northern Territory. She was doing the working holiday thing in Australia, and her and her friend Inge were doing the hike too. I had Yahtzee with me on the hike, and that’s how we got to know each other. They were going to sleep in the back of their car after the five day walk, so I offered them my living room floor and a shower. So it was great to be able to visit her house, and she cooked me a traditional Dutch dish (I forget the name). It was delicious, kind of a well-seasoned rissole on mashed potato with spring onions and bacon with gravy! Though apparently it’s a winter food (makes sense) and it weird to make in the summer time. But hey, I ate it! We also had a few epic Yahtzee rematches. Twice I beat her by one point! She was not too happy about that.
So all up Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities I’ve visited so far. Four and a half stars.
Hamburg
On my way to Scandinavia I stopped for a few nights in Hamburg. I must confess that I was a little bit sick after my time in Amsterdam, so I had a few quiet days here. Now there’s no non-awkward way to say this, but let’s be clear: I am not a sex tourist. The reason I clarify that is because there’s another famous red light district in Hamburg, the Reeperbahn. It’s mentioned in a Paul Kelly song, and is the area where The Beatles played eight hour sets in the early 60s back when Pete Best was still their drummer. So whilst I’m not a sex tourist, I am fascinated by famous red light districts. I have to say this felt seedier than Amsterdam. It had more of the Cross style of big burly guys trying to usher you into strip shows.
Århus
This is Denmark’s second city, and site of the most expensive hamburger I’ve ever eaten. They don’t use the euro, and I forgot to check the exchange rate before I went out for dinner. I left it too late – 8.30pm i.e. not really that late – and a lot of places were closing. I’m too embarrassed to say how much I paid for a ‘gastro burger’ but when I got back to my hostel and googled it I almost had a heart attack, aided in no small part by the extremely greasy and poor value burger.
Copenhagen
…wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen for me. Or so goes the song I sang (in a chorus line – Miss Brain never gave me a solo, not that I’m bitter or anything) in a Parkes Public School concert one year. I was really looking forward to visiting Copenhagen because I had heard it’s exceptionally beautiful. It is very nice, but I do have to admit to being a little bit underwhelmed by it.
Now, the weather seems to play a big role in how I feel about a city, and for my stay here it was pretty awful. I was also couchsurfing with a really nice guy, but was out of the centre a bit so maybe that affected me too. I don’t know. There are some very pretty parts of Copenhagen. The water in its canals is crystal clear, unlike very other canal city I’ve visited. And the old town houses and warehouses are nice. But I don’t know, it didn’t grab me.
Here’s the centre of the old part of town, in the area near the Royal Palace. As you can see the weather is not inspiring.
And man, those Danes go nuts for Hans Christian Anderson. This is a sculpture commemorating one of his most famous fairy tales. But where is the crab playing the marimba made from crustacians?
And this is the view from the top of a church tower. It is kinda pretty. But it’s also very quiet and I guess it didn’t feel like there was that much going on.
Helsingor
“The undisover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns.”
- Hamlet Act III Scene I.
I’ pretty sure Shakespeare’s talking about the travel bug here, right?*
Helsingor, or Elsinore, is the home of Hamlet’s castle. It’s unknown whether Shakespeare ever actually visited here, but apparently it was pretty well known across Europe in its day.
It’s at the narrowest point of the sound between Denmark and Sweden. When it was built the south of Sweden was part of the Danish kingdom, and the king decided to charge ships a toll to rake in some coin. It is very pretty, and I had a great afternoon wandering around. The weather was beautiful and sitting by the sound looking across to Sweden was a great place to have lunch.
Here’s the main banquet hall. You can kind of imagine having a pretty good renaissance piss up here!
Sweden
Across the sound, about 20 minutes by ferry, is Helsingor's sister city Helsingborg. It has one tower remaining from a big old fort here, and you can see across the sound back towards Denmark. I only stayed a night, but had a very nice Couchsurfing host who showed me around the town. You can just see Helsingor and the castle from this lookout.
From there I caught a bus to Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. Here I spent a day watching the Australian election result. I do have to say I’m pretty disappointed with what happened, but entirely unsurprised. I Couchsurfed again with a student who took me along to a regular Couchsurfing meeting, part of which involved pub quiz night. Happy days.
From here I went to Stockholm, which is a pretty long seven hour bus trip. Stockholm is a very pretty city. Well at least part of it is. It’s built on heaps of islands, and the oldest part of the city, where the royal palace and parliament are is very picturesque. Other parts are modern and kind of like any other city I guess. This is the view from the tower above the town hall, where they hold the Nobel Prize dinner each year.
One of the highlights was visiting the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a 300 year old Swedish warship which sank in its first hour of active service. Sweden was at war with Poland and the king designed this ship with two gun decks, which was revolutionary at the time and double the fire power. But the king and the ship builders didn’t make the draught deep enough and the beam wide enough to handle the extra height. It didn’t have enough ballast to right itself. As it was leaving Stockholm harbour in front of the population of the city it had its gun holes open to show off its new canons. A gust of wind tipped the ship over to the point where water started coming in the lower gun deck holes, and then it was all over. It was supposed to be the flag ship and pride of the Swedish fleet and it never made it out of the harbour.
But the brackish harbour water meant the worms which decay wood weren’t there, and the thing has been perfectly preserved in the mud. It was found in ths 50s, raised in the 60s and had a purpose built museum built in the 90s. Apparently 98 per cent of the timber is original. It’s amazing to see it close up, and the museum really is fascinating and very well done.
So that pretty much brings you up to date. Right now I'm in Abisko National Park, at the visitor centre waiting for someone to come back from lunch to give me advice on where I should hike to, so I don't, you know, die. As you can see it is right up in the north of the country, and within the Arctic Circle. I am super excited to do some hiking in such an interesting landscape!!
I am flying from Oslo to Munich on October 6, so my plan is to head north through Sweden and south through Norway. I want to, you know, climb ev’ry mountain, see every fjord etc. So I’m spending less time in the cities to have more time in the wilderness. I’m hoping I’m prepared for the Arctic!
I’m super excited about seeing this part of the world. The train trip was 17 hours long, which I’m less excited about. It’s by far the longest overland journey I’ve done so far, but I’ve had to prioritise what I want to do with the time I have, so I think it should be worth it.
*Sarcasm is hard to express via blog. I just want to point out I know this is about death.
I’m super excited about seeing this part of the world. The train trip was 17 hours long, which I’m less excited about. It’s by far the longest overland journey I’ve done so far, but I’ve had to prioritise what I want to do with the time I have, so I think it should be worth it.
*Sarcasm is hard to express via blog. I just want to point out I know this is about death.
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