| Aug 30, 2012 |
| Copenhagen’s Café Scene: Top 5 Places to Enjoy Coffee and Wienerbrød |
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| So, you’ve walked every inch of Copenhagen’s Indre By (Old Town) and are ready to branch out into other neighbourhoods. Here’s a list of five fantastic cafés frequented by locals so you can experience a slice of the city’s vibrant café culture on your wanders through the Copenhagen’s fascinating and eclectic neighbourhoods. |
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1. Granola (edge of Frederiksberg)
Sitting pretty on Vaerndamesjev (the city’s popular foodie street), the long-running Granola boasts a classic art deco interior, delicious breakfasts and smoothies to die for. Enjoy a seat inside or spill out onto the sidewalk with the locals.
2. Café Taxa (Norrebro)
Our guide Anders recommended this particular local gem to me, and we met here for a cool mint-infused lemonade. If you’re riding a bike around the city, this is a classic place to stop, sitting right beside a bike path at the entrance to Norrebro Park.
3. Kaffe & Vinyl (Vesterbro)
Some people avoid Vesterbro because of its long-faded red-light district. Ignore this tiny pocket of sordid history and delve into Copenhagen’s hippest neighbourhood. At Kaffe & Vinyl, you can browse an eclectic selection of music while waiting for your morning brew. The café sits on Skydebanagade, one of Vesterbro’s most charming streets.
4. Café Bopa (Osterbro)
The posh, leafy, left-leaning academic neighbourhood of Osterbro has been nicknamed “the latte district” – so how can you not find a pleasing café scene here? Café Bopa sits on a quiet courtyard, where locals play Pétanque and children have access to a small playground. If you go, ask the serving staff about the café’s connection to the Danish Nazi resistance.
5. Café Lagkagehuset (Christianshavn – and everywhere else too!)
No matter where you are in Copenhagen, you’re never far from a Lagkagehuset. Recently voted the best bakery in the city by Copenhagen-ers, the great coffee and a superb selection of Danish pastries (including the delicious “chocolate bowl”!) make this a popular local chain. Remember to grab a number when you get inside to ensure prompt counter service.
Now that you’re in the know there’s no excuses for sticking to the tourist centre – branch out! And don’t forget to do as the Danes do, and use a bicycle to get there. |
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| Aug 24, 2012 |
| "Vélibs" and “Boris Bikes”: using community cycles to get around Paris and London |
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| While traveling through Europe this August, I took a different approach to getting around than I have in the past. Usually I buy some sort of multi-day public transit pass that allows me extensive use of a city’s public transit system. Paris and London in particular have superb bus and subway train systems (the “Metro” and “Underground” or “Tube” respectively). But since my last visits, both cities have introduced a new way for its citizens and visitors to get around: community bicycles. |
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Paris did it first. Their “vélib” system is remarkable in its scope: with 20,000 cycles for use throughout the city, you are never further than 300m from a vélib station. While the system was initially designed for Parisians, it has been tweaked to also make short-term cycle hire easy for visitors too. How does it work? Like this:
• Bicycle docking stations are scattered throughout the city, usually with room for about 20 cycles. The cycles are simple city bikes with 3 speeds, a basket and a handbrake.
• To purchase access to the bicycles for 1 day, the cost is 1 euro 70 centimes (approximately $2). (Locals can purchase yearly passes). If you’ll be there for a week, there is also a 7-day pass option. You simply use a credit card to purchase your day pass (it must have a “chip” and PIN number associated with it to work in the machine) and you’re given a personal access code.
• Once you have bought your access pass, you can use the bikes as often as you like in a 24 hour period. They are designed for short distances: use the bike for 30 minutes or less and it’s free. There is a 1 euro charge to use it for an additional 30 minutes. If 30 minutes is not enough time to get you where you want to go, simply return the bike to any docking station (remember you’re always close to one, no matter where you are in Paris!) then check it out again after a 5-minute waiting period.
London’s Boris Bikes (officially “Barclays Cycle Hire”) work nearly identically and the cost is 1 pound (about $1.55) a day. The beauty in this system is you can start and end your journey wherever you want, as many times as you want, and never need to worry about having a bike to look after all day, returning it to a rental shop, or bringing it back to a hotel. It’s absolutely the perfect way to explore a city like Paris.
A typical morning with the vélib: leave my rental apartment and grab a bike from the station just around the corner from Avenue de la République in the 11th arrondissement. Cycle about 15 minutes down Boulevard Richard Lenoir (with its lovely cycle lanes) to Bastille. Turn right and park my bike at the convenient vélib station near Place des Vosges, leaving me free to walk around one of Paris’ most beautiful squares in search of a café for breakfast. Satiated with a café crème and pain au chocolat, I pick up another bike from the next vélib station I see, then go for a quick ride to Rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian street I’d wanted to see in the second arrondissement. No cars allowed on the road, but bikes are fine. I zip back down to the Seine and cross over to the Latin Quarter in the 5th, where I park the bike again and stroll through its medieval streets, wandering towards the shops in Saint Germain des Près. I have a picnic planned at the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, so once I’m done window shopping, I find another bike and cycle alongside the river until the Eiffel Tower looms large in front of me. I spot a docking station near the market street Rue Cler and drop off the bike to go in search of picnic fixings at the local boulangerie.
I’ll admit that at first I was a bit nervous about riding with the car traffic in Paris. You certainly want to be cautious, and keep your wits about you, as you would when riding a bike in any unfamiliar place. But I found that drivers respected cyclists, and that the city’s wide streets and designated cycle lanes made for a very pleasant cycling experience. If you’re not with a guide, keep a good map handy! You’ll still get a bit lost at times, but luckily Paris is one of the most rewarding cities in the world to get lost in.
London presents a bit more of a challenge to the urban cyclist. It’s a bigger city, a more congested city, and you have to get used to riding a bike with the double decker bus traffic on the other (left) side of the road. But even if you don’t feel comfortable riding around Oxford Circus on a bike, you can still use the Barclay’s Cycles for leisurely rides around the perimeters of the city’s famous parks; cyclists abound in Hyde Park, Saint James Park and Kensington Gardens.
We have many guides who would love to incorporate bikes into their city tours of London and Paris. So far, they find that most tourists are nervous about this option, preferring to stick with walking and public transit. I recommend giving it a shot! You’ll have your own guide there to walk you through using the bike system and talk to you about the rules of the road. After a few hours touring around by bike and on foot with your private guide, your enjoyment and confidence will probably be so high you’ll want to use the cycles on your own the next day. |
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| Aug 19, 2012 |
| Ich bin ein Berliner! |
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| Having never been to Berlin (or Germany for that matter) I was surprised to realise I had so many expectations for the type of city I was headed to. I pictured a lot of frenetic energy, urban density, concrete and graffiti – something maybe a bit like Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Berlin is really nothing like this. |
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First off, it’s an incredibly green city. Trees everywhere! (This is courtesy of a centuries-old royal decree that insisted trees be kept or planted along major boulevards, rather than cut down, as was the case in most European cities.) Indeed, one of Berlin’s most famous avenues, Under dem Linden, literally means “under the linden trees”. Berlin is also a city of water: lakes and canals are scattered throughout the city centre and surrounding area, and are popular recreation spots on sunny days.
Second, it’s not a dense city, nor does it have any sort of singular city centre where most people congregate. Instead, Berlin has evolved into a series of neighbourhood boroughs in the city’s former east and west halves, each with their own “heart”.
Finally – and this was one thing I had anticipated heading into Berlin – this city has been so seriously impacted by the major historical events of the 20th century as to be unrecognizable to its earlier self. Decimated by the first and second world wars, then by the rise and fall of communism, this is, in the wise words of Pen, one of our local Berlin guides, “a city that is always becoming.” It is constantly evolving into what it wants to be, then changing again just before it gets there.
I was lucky to be able to join Pen for one of her tours of Berlin this week. Pen’s passion for her adopted city and its history shines through in her delivery: every word she speaks is imbued with energy and sincerity. You won’t need to be a history buff to enjoy Pen’s re-telling of the history of Berlin – I found myself hanging on to every word. (Of course it helps when the details themselves are so fascinating.) And a good historian is what you need if you’re exploring this city. While it has a scattering of attractive buildings, on the whole Berlin isn’t a city of beautiful heritage sights. It’s a modern city layered with history where it’s quite feasible that the spot you’re standing on was significant to the Prussians, Nazis and Communists for vastly different reasons – reasons you won’t know by simply wandering around on your own.
While Pen is originally from Australia, she has lived in Berlin for 8 years now and has strong roots in the city, with both a German husband and German-born son. Thanks for letting me join you on your city tour, Pen! Next time I’ll allot more time to spend exploring your fascinating city. |
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| Aug 15, 2012 |
| How to be mistaken for a local in Europe |
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| When traveling in Europe, many North Americans hope they will find a way to blend in with the locals, so they don’t stand out as a typical “tourist”. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a traveler! We’re privileged to be in a position to travel beyond our own borders. Still for many of us, there’s a hankering to look and feel like we belong in the places we’re visiting. |
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Those traveling to Paris and other fashionable European cities often wonder about what to wear: how stylishly do you have to dress to fit in? Is it “OK” to wear running shoes? What sort of bag should you carry to keep your money safe without looking like an obvious target for pick-pockets?
In my past few days in Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen, I’ve been stopped and asked for directions by tourists a half-dozen times, which is leading me to believe that I must sort of look like I belong here. And I’ve realised it has nothing to do with my fashion sense, or whether or not I was carrying a baguette, currywurst or danish at the time.
What are the secrets to looking like a local? Three simple behaviours:
1. Walk briskly and with a sense of purpose. You might not know where you’re going, but until you get to the next street sign, fake it! (And this should go without saying: if you need to look at a map, do it discretely or it’s game over.)
2. Cross when the light is red. (Don't tell my kids I said this!) Now, I’m not suggesting you take your life in your own hands, here. And only do this if you’re comfortable bending the rules a bit. But in summer, car traffic is light in Paris, yet the red lights don’t get any shorter for people waiting to cross. Take a cue from the locals and cross when it’s safe, rather than waiting with the tourists for the green.
3. Ride a bike. Not only is this a simply marvelous way to explore a city, it also marks you as someone who knows how to get around.
And that’s it! Be purposeful, know which rules you can break, and take a spin on two wheels: soon people will be asking you if you parlay-vooz-onglay. |
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