Copenhagen

Last weekend we went up to Copenhagen, Denmark, to meet some friends who were there for a week.  I wish we could have spent more time with our friends, but our schedules only allowed us to overlap for a day or so.  We did manage to fit in plenty of time playing with their adorable baby girl and a delicious dinner at El Meson.

We stayed in an apartment that we rented through AirBnB.  We’ve used this website to find apartments for a number of our trips, but this was one of the best places we’ve found so far.  The apartment was very cute and had an amazing view.

We had a pretty laid back weekend and spent it walking around the city and exploring different neighborhoods.  I did some research ahead of time and booked a lunch at Restaurant Schønnemann and a dinner at Kødbyens Fiskebar the week before our trip.  Both places were excellent, but were on opposite sides of the Danish food spectrum.  Restaurant Schønneman specializes in smørrebrød (traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches) and has been open since 1877.  The menu had an entire page of herrings to choose from and J took full advantage of this opportunity.

Kødbyens Fiskebar was very sleek and elegant, with modern seafood dishes.  It is in Copenhagen’s meat-packing district, which was an area we had not visited previously.  I mapped out the most direct route from our apartment to the restaurant and after passing by some of Copenhagen’s gorgeous canals and the Tivoli Gardens, we found ourselves in a strangely desolate area.

As J said, it looked kind of like where people would go to dump dead bodies.  Luckily we were able to use the maps stored in my phone to make our way back to civilization and to the restaurant.  We were a little early, so we grabbed a beer at Mesteren & Lærlingen (a neighboring bar) before going to dinner and enjoyed how much the bar (and its hipster clientele) reminded us of the Hideout in Chicago.

A few days in Scandinavia was an interesting change of pace from France.  J had been to Copenhagen before, but I had never been north of Frankfort in continental Europe.  I loved Copenhagen.  People were so friendly and everyone spoke English fluently.  It was so clean, uncrowded, and the look was very different from what we are used to here because of the canals and harbors shaping the city.  It is still amazing to me how many different places are in such a small geographic area.  Going from Paris to Copenhagen, Barcelona, or Florence, the food, language, architecture and culture change (sometimes dramatically), but all of those flights are shorter than going from Chicago to New York.

Here are a few of the (many, many) pictures we took of the city.

A different side of Strasbourg

On our last day in Strasbourg we spent the morning walking around the European Union (“EU”) and Council of Europe buildings in town.  We had noticed that they were quite close to our hotel when studying a city map after we arrived, but it was when we spotted them from the top of the cathedral that our interest was piqued.

As we walked there, we passed through a neighborhood of lovely single-family homes.  We are not used to seeing single-family homes with yards because they are very rare in Paris.  When my parents were visiting, my mom asked a few times if any of the buildings we saw was someone’s house and the only one I could point out was the Élysée Palace, which is the official residence of the president of France.  We have since run across a few neighborhoods of row houses, but I haven’t seen anything like this in Paris.

We crossed a small bridge over the river into a neighborhood of smaller homes that looked more like what I’ve seen on my two excursions to the Parisian suburbs (for an IKEA trip and to pick up a package from a DHL facility).  

The building that was looming over the neighborhood of cottages houses the European Parliament (“EP”).  The EP is a law-making institution for the EU and its members are elected through a direct election by EU voters every five years.  The EP meets both in Strasbourg and in Brussels, Belgium.

The Council of Europe (which is unrelated to the EU) is based in the building on the other side of the river.   It was formed in 1949 with the goal of strengthening democracy and human rights across Europe and currently has 47 member countries.  The Council adopted a European Convention on Human Rights which, in turn, created a European Court of Human Rights.

The last building in the area was the Palais des Droits de l’Homme (Palace of the Rights of Man), the home of the European Court of Human Rights mentioned above.  This court rules on applications alleging violations of civil or political rights.  Individuals and countries can apply to have their case presented to the court.  

All of the buildings were set along the river and paths for walking and biking ran past all three.  The extremely modern architecture was worlds away from most of the the buildings we are surrounded by in Paris.

Strasbourg

This past weekend we took a short trip to Strasbourg, France.  Strasbourg is a city of around 275,000 people near the border between France and Germany.  It has been part of both countries at different points in time and the city is a blend of French and German culture.  

We have had fairly cool and rainy weather in Paris this summer but arrived in Strasbourg to find it very warm and sunny.  Strasbourg is not south of Paris — it is almost directly east — but the weather that we enjoyed all weekend made it feel like a tropical vacation.  

We were staying a short tram ride (or pleasant walk) away from the city center.  

It was interesting to be able to walk from the more modern area where our hotel was located, through an area of 19th century buildings, into the narrow winding streets and medieval buildings of the city center all in the space of a mile or so.

Strasbourg is home to a gorgeous Gothic cathedral that was constructed between the 12th and 15th centuries out of rose-colored stone.  

As we were inspecting the outside of the cathedral, we noticed that the stairs taking visitors up to a viewing platform appeared to have more windows and be less claustrophobic than most, so I was able to join J in admiring Strasbourg from the top of the cathedral.  We loved the peaked roofs of the older buildings in the center of the city.  

The Ill River winds around the city creating a few islands.  We spent one afternoon sitting outside at a café next to the river.  It was a perfect break in our day.

Strasbourg is located in the Alsace region of France, which is known for its white wines.  We tried some sweet and dry rieslings and gewurztraminers while we were there.  We’ve had these wines before, but usually pair them with spicy food rather than the milder Alsatian cuisine.  It was interesting to see how the flavors of the wine went with Alsatian specialties like coq au riesling and tarte flambée.

France is roughly the size of the state of Texas, but there is a lot of variety in the cuisine, architecture, and topography across the different regions.  After spending a weekend in Normandy this spring and this visit to Strasbourg, I’m looking forward to seeing even more of France while we are living in Paris.

Coulée Verte

One of the (many) things we love about our neighborhood is the walking/running path that runs through it.  One end of the Promenade Plantée (planted walkway), also known as the Coulée Verte ("Green Flow"), is a block or so from our apartment.  It runs about 3 miles from just behind the Opéra Bastille out to the eastern edge of the city.  The stretch of the path by our apartment is elevated above street level and the space underneath the path houses boutiques selling antique maps, paintings, musical instruments, clothing, jewelry, furniture, and many more things.

  

The elevated part of the path is beautifully landscaped.  It is a peaceful space in the middle of the city and we have enjoyed watching the flowers bloom all spring.

Being elevated above street level also gives you a better look at the details on higher floors of the buildings around the path.

The path even cuts through a few newer buildings.

The elevated portion of the path ends in a bridge stretching over a large park where people picnic on weekends.  A branch of the path completely encircles the park's green space.

(The people at the far right of the picture are some teenagers dismantling a sculpture)

After the bridge, the path runs at street level for a few blocks before disappearing into a tunnel.  When we first took the path all the way to the end, we weren't sure if we had missed something when we hit the tunnel. We decided to go through it and see where we ended up.  The path emerged from the tunnel below street level and runs through a lushly planted canyon.

It comes up to street level at a few different points as the path continues out to the city limits, but there are long stretches where you would never realize you were in the middle of a city if you couldn't see the buildings peeking above the trees.