Erik pointed out that I have been in five European capital cities within the last two years. That seemed rather impossible, but he was right. Granted, we were in Copenhagen for all of 8 hours on a long-layover on our way to Paris. But that enabled us to explore the downtown for a few hours in the days leading up to Christmas.
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| LONDON April 2011 A Royal Wedding |
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| COPENHAGEN Pre-Christmas 2011 A half-day layover tour |
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| PARIS Christmas 2011 Eiffel Tower at night |
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| OSLO June 2012 The Royal Palace |
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| STOCKHOLM August 2012 Drottningholm Royal Palace |
As we wandered around the charming streets of Stockholm last month, Erik wondered out loud if having lived in Europe for the past two years has somehow made us a bit more jaded when it comes to fully appreciating the historic richness of these cities and the feeling of "OMG, I am walking down the streets of PARIS. I am in STOCKHOLM of all places!" We agreed that yes, we are perhaps a little jaded. We certainly don't respond to these cities like a Minnesotan who has never traveled further than the borders of the state might upon arriving in Europe for the first time at the age of 40. But, on the other hand, we're not so jaded that we can't admit that Stockholm really impressed us, Paris overwhelmed us, we only skimmed the surface of Copenhagen, and Oslo (while charming in its own right) was obviously the resource-poor capital of a very poor nation while all those other aforementioned cities were booming.
Beautiful pictures! I know what you mean about feeling a bit jaded by our ease in being able to "pop in" on the places we used to dream of seeing when we lived in North America but maybe jaded in the wrong word... Spoiled perhaps? :-) It's these low-cost airlines that have done it! Traveling is too easy and cheap and is ruining the environment to boot, and I'm beginning to feel guilty every time I fly. Luckily I grew up Catholic and know all about how to manage guilt; we're going to Bruges in a couple of weeks. :-)
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