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Posted: Tue 23:33, 13 Aug 2013 Post subject: A capital idea for winter-spun4 |
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A capital idea for winter
Does Northern Europe exist in snow? The travel industry disapproves. Ski areas aside, most tours and cruises venture to Scandinavia,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Germany and the Netherlands in June and July,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], when the days are stretched out and soft, like fondue melted in a pot.
Like you, I enjoy a midnight sun. But I'd always wondered what went on up here in the quiet of winter. What secret stuff did locals do -- and eat -- just for fun? Have there been seasonal bargains in normally pricey neighborhoods within the big cities? And just how could I,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as a tourist, make the most of minimal touristy time of year?
To discover, I bought myself a 10-day Eurail Pass and sketched out an earlier February train route between Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Round-trip flights to Amsterdam were unusually cheap and, after i checked a seating chart online, I discovered I had acres of aisle and window seats to select from. So far, so great.
Winter in the Netherlands' biggest city should really deliver rain and sleet. However the day I check into my hotel in Amsterdam I get a room-service dusting of snow. Still, you will find swans paddling around on fog-shrouded canals. White on white.
A local I talk to, Nicolette Corputty, urges me to rent a bicycle to get around. Hundreds of city bikes are rocketing past on the sidewalk at this very moment. Most look like the model utilized by the Wicked Witch from the West. And the Dutch ride angry, ringing and ringing their bells.
"Yes," she insists. "You just placed on leggings, your scarf. You are fine."
I did not pack any leggings. So I choose to walk instead. I weave interior and exterior rows of gabled houses and wind up in the ice skating rink close to the Rijksmuseum,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], where I drink a thick hot chocolate and check out some items of a puffy pancake known as a Poffertje to maintain the cold.
The halls of the world-famous Rijksmuseum are all but deserted, aside from knots of art students furtively sketching. I meticulously, imagining that it is my personal gallery and i also have plans to sell off some of the darker Dutch masters and rearrange the paintings on a massive scale. The footsteps of a guard snap me from my reverie. By late afternoon, I'm back outside.
Everywhere there are pinpoints of brightness that trigger the gray of street and snow. A window glints with its stacks of yellow cheese wheels. Shutters are painted an unexpected blue. For a long period, I recieve lost in side streets. But as flakes of snow float past,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I recognize I don't care. I've got a long brick sidewalk and arched iron bridges all to myself. And not a stray bicycle because.
On the train to Denmark I am handed a voucher that entitles me to free "coffee, tea or water" the entire way. My compartment is empty -- that is, except for me. I spread out, crank up the heat, and start my shoes.
Nearly as far north as Moscow, Copenhagen depends on ocean winds to mellow out and melt its snow. Whenever a day is icy, like the one on which I arrive,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the Danish concept of coziness -- or hygge -- is necessary. "Hot Tea and Hygge!" shouts a sign in front of a caf Inside, candles are lit, there's a scent of soup, and out come platefuls of Sm -- open sandwiches of ham and egg and salmon.
After lunch, I go to the Copenhagen Amber Museum on Kongens Nytorv. It's a very hygge museum. Quiet and warm. "Amber is actually fossils," explains Biyun Chen when i inquire about ships and clocks made from the stuff. "Fossils of pine resin in the forests of lengthy ago."
I end up buying a souvenir of Denmark's ancient forests. When I ask Chen how I can be certain the amber is real,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he laughs. "Burn it!" he says. "It will smell of pine trees."
Before leaving, I walk to see the statue from the Little Mermaid. She isn't dressed for February and appears hunched and cold. But the orange and rust-red facades that line the famous port of Nyhavn reflect a secret sun. As if it were a few hours in August, they radiate and glow.
Reaching Stockholm, Sweden, means catching a train which will carry me 325 miles farther north, and the farms and houses that fly past look as rich as pastries with their frosted tops.
The Stockholm air is sharp during my nostrils but no one here notices the cold. Commuters wear boots with their suits and kids in their DayGlo snow pants slide around like jelly beans within an icy jar.
At the top of my list is seeing the salvaged wreck from the Vasa, the earth's only preserved 17th-century ship. When i find out, "wreck" is the wrong word. This 1628 Swedish warship is immense. And it is almost entirely intact -- as if hammered together in the cavernous museum.
Like seeing a blue whale, or bones of a brontosaurus, you want to walk around the display over and over. The museum's chilly balconies allow you to peer in the Vasa from every imaginable angle, lacking sitting on its deck. To try and absorb it, I get a mug of the strongest and hottest coffee that the cafeteria can offer.
"You look just like you require it," says the girl pouring. I smile and swallow slowly. The sugary liquid is sort of a taste of summer. I'm able to feel my fingers. Inside gloves,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I wiggle them around.
The dark strength of the drink, as well as the ship, did their work. As if fired from the Vasa cannon, I skid around Stockholm's Old Town -- busy with shoppers -- and cross a bridge that leads me for an avenue in a neighborhood called Elegant apartments light my way up a slippery hill.
After i get to the top,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], something catches my attention. It's a golden ornament. A statue of a stork standing guard over its neighborhood shop. "Storken Apothecary," says its sign. "Oldest in Sweden."
It's a fierce-looking bird. But due to the weather he's got just a little hat of snow. There's something about him that says "Sweden." Saying: We survive,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
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