Europe 2018

I was fortunate to spend almost 3 weeks in Europe this past spring. I hadn’t gone to Europe at all the year prior, which is strange for me. I often prefer to focus on visiting one or two European countries at a time. This way I can absorb as much culture and history as possible. However, this time I decided to jump in and out of several countries in one trip.

We started out in Amsterdam. Honestly, I had high expectations for this place because people always tell me how much they love it. The canals were pretty cool, and I had the most fun riding a bike with all of the locals. I also enjoyed the Anne Frank Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. Seeing tulips in the Dutch country was a nice bonus as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we went to Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately, winter lasted forever this year so we ended up stuck in a snow blizzard while we were visiting. The food was quite on the pricey side, an average meal (without drinks) costing $30+.

I didn’t care for Copenhagen much; the people are pretty stoic and all look alike. It made me feel like I was in a fake world.

I was relieved when we arrived in Berlin, Germany. I ended up liking it much more than I expected. First of all, it is very diverse. There are tons of middle eastern and eastern Europeans there. It felt nice to interact with normal people. In addition, there was so much history there and I liked how the Germans made their history free and public through outdoor museums. I respected how they did not try to hide their history but encouraged the community and tourists to learn about their dark history, and factors that had caused it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fourth country on our list was Belgium. It was definitely a plus in my book since they spoke French and I felt like I could finally understand what everyone was saying (despite them being able to speak English in all of the other countries we visited). It was an amazing culinary experience. From chocolate, to mussels, to Belgium waffles. I think we were all in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, we ended the trip with Switzerland. Our first stop was Geneva and it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The snowcapped swiss alps in the surrounding lakes of clear blue water was breath taking. Switzerland was by far the most expensive place I have ever been to. The average meal was $40 and a bottle of water cost $7. You could tell everyone there had money. They all dressed well, even better than Paris. Most of them had luxury cars such as porsche and ferrari’s.

Halfway during our stay, we participated in a chocolate factory tour for Nestle. It was interesting to learn about how it is manufactured and we were able to sample various types of chocolate. Afterwards we drove to Zurich and Lake Lucerne. They were also marvelous towns but seeing the swiss country on the way over there provided the best sights. In Geneva, the Swiss spoke French, whereas in Zurich they spoke German. I was told that in southern Switzerland they speak Italian. Pretty cool that the countries they border have some cultural influence on them.

I had a great time but was pretty exhausted by the end. I will make a follow up post to this, to show you how I saved a lot of money by booking my trip with miles and points.