Amsterdam and Copenhagen

Becca and I flew from Gothenburg to Amsterdam and had one night to settle in before my mom arrived in the morning. As it turns out, April is the perfect time to visit the Netherlands because the weather is pleasant and every single flower in the country is blooming.

Obligatory canal photograph.

There was a little carnival in Dam Square. We weren't brave enough to ride any of the rides but we did take the opportunity to eat some carny food when we got caught in a rain storm while walking by.

We took a five hour bus tour out to the Keukenhof gardens. We drove by many farms like this one.

The flowers in Keukenhof were all basically perfect because they are grown somewhere else and then selectively replanted inside the park.

There were several water features in the park. It is a pretty big park.

A walk in the park is a great way to recover from an international flight.

The three of us spent one full day in Amsterdam and then headed back to the airport the next afternoon for a short flight to Copenhagen. Our main objective in Copenhagen was to see the zoo and we were not disappointed.

We hustled across the zoo so we could see the otter feeding event. We were horrified and delighted to discover that they were being fed baby chickens and mice. Becca still wants one.

The baby elephant was absolutely our favorite part of our visit to Copenhagen. He was mischievous and hilarious.

We decided to spend an evening in the Tivoli Gardens because the weather was nice and we wanted to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, a bomb threat at a nearby parking lot caused the park to be evacuated before the fireworks started.

We really like the ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo despite its reputation for being a rowdy booze cruise.

In Oslo we spent a couple of hours having lunch before boarding the six hour train to Trondheim. The trip was beautiful and we were home before the sun set.

We were in Trondheim for a total of six nights. During our stay we ate reindeer at Ai Suma, had The Natives over for a BBQ, took a drive around Jonsvatnet with Håvard, rode the train out to Stjørdal to have a delightful dinner on David's patio, and took a drive to see Hegra fortress with David. The girls also watched the Nordic soccer team lose 15 - 0.

Most of the tunnels were closed because it's early in the season but this was one of the main entrances to Hegra fortress.

There was still a bit of ice floating around the edges of Jonsvatnet.

On Sunday morning my mom and I boarded a plane and headed to Belgium.