Munich: Home of Beer Gardens & Beer Halls

With a bit of reservation, we packed up and headed toward the capital of Bavaria, Munich. The drive from Český Krumlov to Munich is fantastic. The quintessential countryside is picture perfect with rolling hills of pine forests, wheat fields and other images that look like BMW commercials and illustrations on German beer advertisements.

Our first stop was none other than the famous English garden in the heart of the city. With a clear blue sky and warm temperatures we luckily found a table in the busy area around the Chinese Tower. Here you can find all kinds of German fair: Bratwürst, smoked fish and of course, delicious German Bier. Purchasing this tasty beverage is kinda fun. You need to pay a deposit for the stein; apparently they have a reputation of leaving with the tipsy tourists. If you need a refill, just turn in you glass and grab another (after you pay of course).

"Beer booth" in the English Garden (click for more Munich images)

It’s hard to find a better experience than sitting in the warm sun listening to German Oom-pah music and laughing with family. Well, that is unless you are in the Hofbraeuhaus listening to German Oom-pah music and laughing with family — which is what we did the other part of our time in Munich

Fun at the Hofbrauhaus (click to see the video)

Spending some “quality time” in Germany, while enjoying refreshing alcoholic beverages made me wonder a bit about Scandinavia and what I would call its “unfriendly” relationship with alcohol. Scandinavia has some of the strictest consumption laws in the world. In Sweden, buying alcohol over 3.5% requires that you go to Systembolaget, which is the state-run liquor store. In Norway, a beer at a restaurant can cost in upwards of $15-20. And in Denmark… well in Denmark they are a bit cooler, so it’s not such a big deal. Anyway, I find it interesting that European countries take such different approaches to the governance of alcohol. What I have witnessed is that there are more out of control intoxicated people in Scandinavia than in Germany (locals I mean). In Norway they practice something called “vorspiel.” It involves drinking heavily before hitting the town because liquor is so expensive. Same thing happens in Sweden. Even more interesting is that the Germans, French and Italians seem to “control” their consumption better. I can honestly say that I have not seen a drunk French or Italian person (ok, I have seen some Germans having too much fun ). In the EU, Scandinavia has some of the lowest per capita consumption of alcohol, however, I would argue that the way they consume is more unhealthy compared to their neighbors (yes, that was a huge generalization).

Systembolaget store in Sweden

Český Krumlov – A Southern Bohemian Favorite

After two fun days in Prague, we adventured deeper into Southern Bohemia to our favorite destination of the trip, Český Krumlov. This small city is best known for its fine architecture, art of the historic old town and the Český Krumlov Castle.

Český Krumlov (Click for more images)

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The Český Krumlov Castle is big. Its large size seems disproportionate to the size of the little city. There are several tours running throughout the day including a “night watchman” tour which unfortunately we missed. Another miss was the famous music festival that was schedule to start three days after we departed. This was yet another lesson for me in the importance of detailed research before a trip. These small events can often turn a good trip into a great one (like visiting The Vatican on Christmas day).

A highlight of our stay was a float down the Vltava river, which meanders through the beautiful countryside, passes by ugly closed industrial factories, and finishes in beautiful Český Krumlov. We found it fun to stop at the local “watering holes” to enjoy a beer, people watching and the occasional canoe turnover at the spillways.

We stayed near the city center in a place called Pension U Náměstí. This nice little place is perfect walking distance to all the sights and close enough to the Church for the bells to keep you up at night (should have closed your window mom )

Pension U Náměstí

Back in Prague

Back in the car we continued to travel south towards our next stop, Prague.

This was my second trip to Prague and it was no less amazing. Prague is a fairy tale city and has a very Harry Potter-esque type feel. We explored Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, listened to a Jazz concert in the Old Town Square and took our chances on public transportation (where I got us lost). We stayed just outside the old town in a family run operation called Lovely Prague Apartments which came with the “exciting” extras that are common when renting local (like cash only & weird parking set-up, etc.). These small things aside, the huge two bedroom flat with full kitchen was even equipped with four Pilsner Urquells to get our vacation started!

Jazz Festival (Click for more images of Prague)

The one downside of Prague is the hoards of tourists that come from all over the world. Outside of the Vatican city, Prague’s Charles Bridge and Old Town are the most crowded places I’ve been in Europe. Despite this draw back, Prague is not to be missed.

Busy Prague Old Town Square

Dresden: A City Reborn

From Berlin we headed south towards the Czech Republic to its capital city, Prague. This is a relatively boring 4 hour drive with a nice optional stop in Dresden. The city of Dresden was a leading European centre of art, classical music, culture and science until its complete destruction by Allied bombs on 13 February 1945. After a turbulent 60 years, the historic center has been returned to its original glory through meticulous restoration and it’s definitely worth a visit.

Some interesting history around the reconstruction: Günter Blobel, a German-born American, saw the original Church of Our Lady as a boy when his refugee family took shelter in a town just outside of Dresden days before the city was bombed. In 1999, Blobel won the Nobel Prize for medicine and donated the entire amount of his award money (nearly US$1 million) to the organization for the restoration of Dresden, to the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche and the building of a new synagogue. It’s nice to see the Swedes had a small part in the restoration

Dresden even made the “Best Trips 2012″ list from National Geographic. We spent about two hours exploring the city and enjoyed fantastic Brätwursts near the river Elbe.



Dresden (Click for more images)

“Ich bin ein Berliner”

The short Ryanair flight from Stockholm to Berlin takes about an hour. Berlin Germany is a city soaked in history with an exciting mix of old and new. With only one day to explore, we set out to see the “standard” American tourist sites including Checkpoint Charlie & the Berlin Wall Memorial. It’s been 22 years since the Berlin wall fell. While many Americans in Berlin reflect on Ronald Reagan and the Cold War, Germans in Berlin focus on economic prosperity and leaving their turbulent past behind.

Checkpoint Charlie (Click for more images of Berlin)

Despite its age and “heavy” history, Berlin feels young and vibrant. There is a strong art culture and several great universities which attracts talent from all over the world. Berlin is Germany’s capital city and home of the very cool Reichstag parliament building. Prices are also pretty cheap (compared to most European capital cities) which attracts traveling students and cheap Swedish/Americans citizens living in Europe. One day in Berlin is way too short and we will be returning soon.

Click image to ride with us through Berlin!

Family in Europe

In July we were very fortunate to have mom and Steve with us for two weeks in Europe. The first week we enjoyed the great summer weather in Stockholm while visiting the cities best sights: Vasa Museum, Skansen, Gamla Stan and the Archipelago town of Vaxholm. We also managed to spend a couple night at the summer home in Vätö swimming, barbecuing and communing with nature (while using the outhouse )

Vaxholm ferry to Stockholm

It’s so much fun to share our Scandinavian experience with family and friends. DUS and I for forget sometimes how “isolated” we’ve been here in Northern Europe and often we need to remind each other to stop boring our guests with fun facts and experiences from life in Sweden (ok, I guess I’m mostly the culprit here).

Summer home fun in Vätö

After a week of “relaxing around town”, we venture off to the heart land of Europe, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Bad blogger

I’ve been a bad blogger the last few months. To make up for it, I’m on a marathon blogging/photo catch-up run to attempt and close out 2011 before the New Year. Hopefully you will enjoy the upcoming posts from my adventures in 2011 (sorry if they seem a bit crud )

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and are ready for 2012!

-Erik

The Crossroads of Rhodes

Returning from Turkey after an exciting afternoon we settled for the next few days in the medieval town of Rhodes, Greece. Positioned on the islands northern most point, Rhodes city is at “a crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.” It was formed in 408 BC and has since been inhabited by the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Empire and even the Knights Templar. It was also home to one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – The Colossus of Rhodes (built between 304 and 293 BC).

Rhodes City Images

The old city is completely enclosed by doubled wall fortification which makes it quite a unique place to stay. On our first night as an engaged couple we stayed at a privately owned B&B call Sofia Pension. From my experience travelling throughout Europe, staying in locally own and operated establishments is the only way to go. It’s difficult to get the feel of a place when you travel — especially when you only spend a few days in one location. For me, sleeping at a Clarion, Day’s Inn, Hilton or other chain resort feels like I’m cheating myself out of an important part of the travel experience.

You want the small bathrooms, weird doors, funny looking furniture and unique beds. You without a doubt want caretakers to greet you with a smile, personally show you the room and if you’re lucky make a friend.

Travel allows a unique intersection of people, places and cultures. These experiences provided a connection that cannot be learned from books or pictures. It’s a tacit knowledge that stays with you and almost forces your evaluation of what is “normal.” Travel can provide a world of perspectives, but only if you let it

Rhodes City Images

Hornswoggled by a Turkish Jeweler

May 18th was one of the best days in my life — Exciting, romantic and unusual.

After months of planning a creative way to get engaged, I struggled to find a unique way to pop the question. The old cliché of ring in the spaghetti, desert or other type of food item wasn’t working for me. Nor was the one knee on a beach, mountain peak or a billboard at some sporting event. I wanted to do something different.

So on our last day in Turkey, we headed to the bazaar for “souvenir shopping” before travelling back to Greece. We had cruzed by the area a few nights before and I scoped out a few jewellery shops that might work for the occasion. With three hours to go before our boat left, I was ready to make my move. Walking by a few shop windows looking at rings I said, “Which one do you like?” DUS went back and forth on the virtues of one ring verse another and that I should “remember” what we were looking at. As we passed the next shop I casually asked, “Which ring should I get?” Again, she explained her preferences and said she liked the Swedish way of getting engaged – and this was the moment I was waiting for (In Sweden, both the man and woman get rings to wear until they are married. It is also common for couples to pick out rings together).

I agreed and confirmed we should get engaged the Swedish way. “So, why don’t we pick out some rings” I casually asked. She looked at me confused. Then smiled and said “really!?!” Yes I said. “We should get engaged today.”

With a smile from ear to ear and eyes welling up, we headed inside to have a look.

My thought was that we would get two gold bands as symbol rings – you never know what you’ll get in Turkey… So we sat down with the middle aged Turkish man and started looking and rings. At first we stuck with the two gold bands until a beautiful little diamond ring came out and once it was on her finger there was no going back. I was prepared to pay whatever (within reason) as long as the experience was fun — little did I know my little “Swedish bull dog” was ready for action. DUS engaged the man with “ahh, come on, you can do better than that” and “too much, I can get it cheaper than that in Sweden!” The Turkish jeweller replied with “the diamonds will never fall out” and that he’d “drop it on the floor” to prove the quality. “These are real diamonds, let me show you with this testing tool…” and so it went. After about an hour, we settled on one small diamond ring for her and one gold band for me. Turkish tea was served and we enjoyed the moment by talking about the city and the many fun things to do.

Turkish tea & engagement rings

While the rings were being sized we took a walk outside. My wonderful bride to be turned around and looked at me with tears streaming down her beautiful cheeks. “I am so happy” she said. “I’m very happy too” I said. “I love you.”

We said our goodbyes to the Turkish jeweller and thanked him for a fun experience. The man assured us we got a great deal and was happy to help a young couple just starting out.

On the ferry back to Rhodes we both looked and laughed at the small hole that once held a “diamond” just a half hour prior. We then laughed again when a kind Greek jeweller explained that unfortunately the diamonds were not real and worth about half what we paid. It didn’t matter — We got engaged. In Turkey. On a one of a kind adventure that will never be forgotten. Funny thing is that even though our rings are worth next to nothing; they mean more to me than most of my prised possessions. Life should be valued on relationships and experiences – not on price.

The happy couple

P.S. We only spent about $500 and DUS has a “proper” engagement ring now

Experiencing The Turkish Riviera

Turkey. Part East – part West, bridging the continental gap both geographically and culturally. From Rhodes, we jumped on the one hour ferry to Marmaris, Turkey. We were filled with anticipation about what was to come: Mosques, bazaars, head scarves, distant sounds of a call to prayer and obvisouly much, much more. What we found in Marmaris didn’t quite meet this vision.

Marmaris is located on the “Turkish Riveria” which should, by most accounts, tell you a bit about the atmosphere. To put it mildly, it’s a budget tourist destination for Europeans. A barrage of sales pitches awaited us among the long strand that connects the beach resorts to the old town. Comments such as “Helsingborg, Helsingborg” and “Australians eat here” were around every corner. Soft Northern Europeans are suckers in this environment, and that included us. After the first day we needed a break. Every time some asked us a question or started talking to/at us we, as naïve Stockholmers who are never talked to in the city, kindly engaged. Bad move. We must have spent half our day trying to get out of buying a tour, having a drink, eating a kebab, or stopping for a special all day “English breakfast.” On day two we had a plan. No more small talk and we bargain, for everything.

Marmaris from the bay (click for more pictures)

So we head off to the alley of boats that offer all day tours of Marmaris Bay. There must be at least 50 different boats offering basically the same thing: Boat ride, food, drinks, entertainment. Armed with this information, we went out and searched for a bargain. Together, DUS and I have four business degrees, each having one in sales and marketing. Given that, who did we end up buying from? The first guy who spoke with us and we paid more than any other tour we saw that day. Why you say? 1) We’re suckers 2) Good marketing. The pitch man had an answer for everything: free drinks, wild parties, even a guest book with comments from Swedish people about how great their tour was. Fantastic we thought. It’s more expensive, but look what you get! If we only knew… When the trip was over, I had never been so happy to get off a boat in my life. Here’s how it went.

Tour boat row in Marmaris

First, most people buy the tour on the day before departure. The boat company will pick you up at your hotel and drive you to the dock where the boat leaves. From there you get on the boat find a seat, and enjoy the day. Sounds good right? When the bus came to our hotel that morning, two young families greeted us inside. When we got to the dock and boarded the boat, we realized the boat was full with two categories of people: Parents with wild young children (ages 6-10) and pensioners over 65. Mind you that this is an 8 hour trip that you’ve already paid for. What to do now? Drink. A lot. But, here’s the problem. The “free” drinks were served in 8 oz glasses and you had to pass though the worst guilt trip ever to get one. Turks don’t drink alcohol so when they poored a drink you got the look of death as if your grandmother was pouring you a shot of moonshine. Funny thing is, if you didn’t pay for “all drinks included package,” beverages were served in regular glass and they were all very happy to sell you another — Capitalism at its best.

Swimming break? (video)

The rest of the day was filled with screaming kids, cheesy carnival style sightseeing stops, and discussions about retirement plans in the U.K. To save you from the same mistake, here is a check list of how to buy your Marmaris boat tour:

• Wait until the morning to buy your ticket. Go to the harbor early and watch the people boarding boats and find the one that looks most “fun.”

• Find the boat captain and haggle for a good price. They want to fill their boats for the day, so be strong. Remember though, all boats leave at 10:00 so don’t get left behind.

• Ask if kids are free. If they are, DON’T go.

• Don’t pay for the all-inclusive package. Get the one with lunch and buy drinks on board.

• Bigger the better. If you do end up on a dud boat, at least you can find a corner to relax.

The one gem from this trip was discovering the little village of Turunç. This great little place reminded me of Avalon in Catalina, California. Nice beach, sea-side bars/restaurants and a good atmosphere. If we go back to southern Turkey, Turunç will be our destination.

Small village of Turunç