Epic Honeymoon - Day 52 - (Stuck in) Copenhagen

The flight we were supposed to take to Reykjavik!

Day 52 was supposed to see us make the trip from wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen (as the song goes) out to the supposedly accidently discovered Viking expansion of Iceland. As I previously mentioned, my fondness of the TV series Vikings got me right into the history of these sea-faring people. Having seen into season 5 after we returned from honeymoon, they would have you believe Floki landed on these fabled shores after handing himself to the gods and the tides. While Floki maybe have been a real person, this is not quite how Iceland was found, but Floki did live out his days on this intriguing and beautiful island.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 51 - Copenhagen

Having had a good taste of Copenhagen, we planned for Day 51 to add another country to our list – pretty much just because we could! Just across the water from Copenhagen lies the city of Malmo, Sweden. Back in the day, it would be a boat trip to get across there, but in more recent years, those ingenious Scandinavians built a bridge! Now, it’s just a short drive to get there.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 50 - Copenhagen

Den Lille Havfrue.

One of the main attractions of Copenhagen is of course the culture and history. As a child, I grew up with some of the poems of Hans Christian Andersen, as most kids do. As an adult, in the last few years, I have got right into the TV series of Vikings, so that’s seeing the history of this part of the world from a completely different angle! After returning from this epic adventure, I also watched a Danish drama on Netflix called The Rain, so it was cool to spot a few landmarks in that which I’d seen with my own eyes in this fabulous city.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 49 - Copenhagen

Venturing down Strøget.

The great thing about Copenhagen is that it’s an easily walkable city. Of course, there are trains and other public transport, but you’ll also notice that they love bicycling everywhere. There’s a real hipster feel about the place - but not in the annoying way that a lot of hipsters often are!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 48 - Copenhagen

The iconic Nyhavn docks.

No trip to northern Europe is truly complete without a visit to the Vikings. Of course, there are few of them left these days, but the lands they once called home are still just as fascinating. Our next stop on the Epic Honeymoon was predicated by wife’s insistence on visiting “one of the Vikingland countries”. True story! And so, we set our sights on wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 47 - Hamburg

Our last full day in Hamburg fell on Halloween – or as the Germans know it: Reformation Day. This was the day that Martin Luther nailed writings, known as The 95 Theses, to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, calling for changes to the Christian faith in light of the control and power that the Catholic Church had over the people. Unfortunately, that meant it was a public holiday, and so most things were closed!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 46 - Hamburg

The gorgeous bar at Brauhaus Joh Albrecht.

Hamburg is a charming city, but certainly has a more industrial than tourist feel to it. In hindsight, we probably should have detoured slightly further en route to Denmark and visited Berlin instead. But having said that, it was still a nice place to drop in and have a few easy days – it’s just a shame about the weekend and public holiday in our timing!