Staying at the CABINN Hotel in Copenhagen. Cheap, with crappy net, but it does the job. The rooms look and feel like cabins on a ferry, down the bunk bed and the shower that takes up the entire bathroom. The last hotel really spoiled us, so we'll have to get used to more sparse amenities. Started the day by getting some local currency. Copenhagen is way more expensive than Stockholm despite the fact the Danish Krona (DKK) is stronger than the Swedish Krone (SEK). I got a hair over 500DKK for 100USD (in Sweden I got 650SEK), so I treat these 100SEK bills like they're twenties. Problem is, you just burn through them. For instance, beer is about $10 a pint. If I lived here, that would put a serious crimp in my beer drinking, though it would significantly up my brewing. There are some bargains, though. We took a great canal cruise for only 30DKK each, and ended the day with a visit to the free National Art Gallery. In between those activities we walked the Strøget in the Latin Quarter, a very touristy pedestrian mall. How touristy? They have a Ripley's *and* Guinness World Records museum. Yeah, that touristy. In fact, Copenhagen is far more touristy in general. I think I prefer Stockholm between the two of them. Though Copenhagen does have the wonderful Mikkeller Bar, serving 9 taps of Mikkeller and 6 guest taps (all quality US brews while I was there, and all of which I could get back home). I had a Simcoe IPA and a small glass of George, their Imperial Stout (12.12%! Named after George Foreman). Tisha had a glass of their Spontanale and their "Brett" yeast series. I recommend checking this place out if you're in the area. Tomorrow, we'll check out a palace, and make our way out of town in the late afternoon, on our way to Malmö to catch an overnight train to Berlin. Sleeping on a train, woohoo! I'll get pics uploaded to Flickr at some point, but can't right now as my net is craptacular.

Today we left Stockholm, and started making our way to Copenhagen. We have a Eurail pass, which is nice, but I forget that some trains require a reservation, or in some cases it's really smart to make one. We hopped onto the train to take us to Copenhagen, only to find we kept having to change seats as people got on the train. Finally, when the ticket taker came by, we learned that all the seats were sold on that train. This left us with three options; float fro empty seat to empty seat in the hopes that someone wouldn't make it, hang out in the bistro car, or hop off at the next station and get reserved seats. We opted for the last one, and got off at Norrköping. Turns out it's a popular travel day -- the next train with available seats was in 3 hours. No matter, it gave us an opportunity to explore a new town. We popped our bags into a locker, and walked the main street, checking out varied shops, stopping for coffee, and relaxing in their quaint park near the train station. Finally, at 4:30, our train arrived and we were under way to Copenhagen. Or, at least, Malmö; once we got there we would have to change trains as that particular run ended there. The X2000 train from Stockholm to Malmö is quite nice, with comfy seats, readily available power, and wifi. It's also a high speed train, which I love riding. The train to Copenhagen is a local, and certainly nice, though not the same (I miss my wifi). We arrived in town around quarter to 9, just as the sun was starting to go down. A late dinner at Wagamama, and it's off to bed! A handful of pics here.

The second day in Stockholm was living up to the weather forecast right away, as we began our day with an overcast and rainy morning. After breakfast, we made our way to the Bridges and Locks boat tour through Stockholm, a near two hour (covered) boat ride that takes you around many of the islands that make up Stockholm. The boat takes you through the locks that separate Lake Melaren and the Baltic Sea, around the lake, and back out into the sea again. You get a good overview of the history of the city, and an appreciate of its size; spread out over 14 islands, it's an impressive city! Following the boat ride, we made our way into the old city and spent the day walking around and exploring that. Little shops, cafes, and pubs dot the cobblestone roads that are quite full of tourists on a Sunday afternoon. It made for some interesting people watching as despite the fact that it's very touristy, your tourists are from all over. Some may be just from a neighboring town, and some may be from further away than we are. We caught lunch at a cozy sidewalk cafe (again, the coffee here is *very* good), walked around the royal palace, then stopped into a place called the Glenfiddich Warehouse for some local microbrews. There are some very good takes on the IPA being done here in the area, I must say. Very tasty, indeed. Following that, we made our way to an Irish pub that happened to be having a session. It was an odd experience sitting in a pub listening to live Irish music while sipping a Kilkenny, knowing that the musicians were Swedish, and that I was in Sweden. After chatting with one of the musicians about his bodhran, they asked me to join in on a song. A fun time, for sure. Today, we're making our way from Stockholm to Copenhagen by train. It'll be a little over a 5 hour train ride, and I'm looking forward to it -- I love riding the train. Pics here.

Woke up without an alarm at 8AM. I love a successful switch to a new time zone! The hotel we're in is very nice, and surprisingly cheap (especially given what an expensive city Stockholm is). Prices here are hard to get a handle on, as one US dollar is about $6.50, so you get a bit of sticker shock when you see something costs over 100. Of course, even after you do the math, it's still expensive. After a wonderful breakfast we hit the road to begin our adventure for the day. Our intention was to ride the subway to get a bus to the modern art museum. Alas, it became evident I really was lost without my smartphone, as with no compass and only the maps at bus stops we managed to walk all the way back to where we got on the subway while looking for the bus. After buying a compass, things got better. The forecast was calling for rain, rain, rain, but it was sunny and high 60s, so I was torn on whether we should do the outside stuff or not. We settled on the plan we made and went to the museum, which was very much worth going to. After stopping for a coffee in the cafe (the coffee here is sooooo good), we made our way to the second museum of the day, the Vasa Museum. This involved either catching a few buses, or a single ferry. We opted for the ferry, but the schedules were not working out the way I thought since many ferries all stop at the same dock and it wasn't clear which one our transit cards worked with. Of course, by this time the forecasted rain started falling. Thankfully, one of the ferries gave us a free ride across the harbor. The Vasa museum is a large museum built around an enormous ship. It's a giant wooden ship that was finished and launched in 1638, and which sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage as it was built too top-heavy. It sat under the harbor for 333 years before being raised, moved to its current location, and turned into a museum. Pictures from both museums are included below. We left the museum as it closed at 6, and came to the realization that just about everything here closes early. So we headed back to a beer bar that caught our eye in the morning while we were lost. It was called Monk's Cafe, and had lots of interesting beers from all over the world in the window. They had an impressive collection of US and Canadian beer, including Unibroue, *lots* of Goose Island, including Honker's Ale beer signs hanging in the bar, some Three Floyds... it was a weird experience sitting there as a Chicagoan sipping a Stockholm brew while a local came in and ordered a Honker's Ale. A quick dinner and a chinese buffet and we're back at the hotel. Full day, fun day.

Sorry for the somewhat incoherent writing -- over the past 36 hours I've had about 4 hours sleep here and there. At around 2PM yesterday, we made out for O'Hare via taxi, in our usual manner. We've got the packing light thing down to a science -- we each have one carry-on size suitcase (that converts to a backpack) to do us for three weeks of travel. No checked bags, no wheeling unsteady stacks of bags through the airport. Each time I do it, i get better at it. The last time I checked a bag was because I wanted to bring some beer home, and the various authorities still seem to think a six pack of beer is a threat to national security. Speaking of which, a few posts back I vowed not to fly again after the Christmas debacle that my air travel became thanks to Captain Underpants and his Unpossible-to-fail plan. In the intervening months, I had some work travel that went well, and a personal cross-border trip that also was hassle-free, so I decided it was worth it. Glad I did, though I was unhappy to see the Porno-scanners at ORD. Thankfully (for the person who has to look at those pics) I did not have to go through. The flight went well, though I only managed to snag an hour or so of sleep. Thankfully, our layover in Heathrow was tempered by the arrivals lounge, where we both could take a shower and change our clothing, then have a nice hot breakfast. Granted, since neither of us slept well, our breakfast felt like it was coming at 1AM -- it still hit the spot. After killing a few hours in the lounge, we made our way to Terminal 5 for our British Airways flight to Stockholm. A very full flight, but it was okay -- that one I managed to sleep through. We landed at Arlandia airport just after 3 -- and if you've never flown into Stockholm, let me tell you that airport is out in the middle of nowhere. There's a high speed train that whisks you from the airport to the city center in 20 mins, though. Our afternoon was spent getting some local currency (SEK or kronor - just under 7 of them per USD), making our way to the hotel, planning out the day tomorrow, then heading out to pick up some supplies we didn't pack and grab a bite for supper. The outside temperature is so damn pleasant! Mid 60s, low humidity... It's heavenly compared to what we left behind in Chicago. Alas, tomorrow looks to be rainy, so we're going to stick to indoor activities then, it seems. The pub we went to was featuring lots of North American beers; I ended up drinking a Brooklyn Lager in Stockholm. And now we crash at the hotel, dead tired. To sleep!

This is correct. Over the next three weeks, we'll be enjoying a combination of planes, trains, and automobiles (plus one of the trains goes onto a ferry), visiting Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Germany in general (via a BMW, woo!), Brussels, London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Phew. Oh, and the London part includes the Great British Beer Festival. Ain't research grand?