It took many, many hours, but we made it!

The alarms went off at 5am so we could give ourselves a little bit to finish getting together both ourselves and our belongings. Peter and Alicia gave us hugs goodbye before we hopped in the car with Alina at 6 to go to Düsseldorf Airport. Given the news stories over the summer, I was curious to see how our time would be spent getting home. We had to get a connecting flight from Düsseldorf to Heathrow, and then we caught out flight to Philadelphia.

We got to Düsseldorf about 20 minutes to 7, which was nice. Then, we waited about an hour and a half before the British Airways desk actually opened so we could check our bags. It was kind of annoying to have to have waited that long, but once they opened, it didn’t take long, which was nice. We then headed to security, which only took 20 minutes (I was shook!). We still hadn’t eaten, but Brandon wanted to get to the gate first so we knew where to go. I agreed that made sense. We walked past a bunch of food places, went through Passport Control, and then made it to our gate. The caveat, we found, was that once you get to gates at Düsseldorf…there’s not really a feasible way to get back to ANY of the food places without having to go back through Passport Control. Lesson learned *shrugs*!

We boarded our flight to Heathrow, which provided a nice granola bar to tide us over. The flight itself was uneventful and quick! At Heathrow, we *unfortunately* had to go through security a second time before going to our connecting gate. That took about 45 minutes, which again, isn’t terrible. The nice thing about going through security at both airports was that we didn’t have to take our shoes off! It’s a little thing, but I enjoyed it tremendously :) Cleared for takeoff, we found a Korean noodle place to get some lunch before we went to our gate to fly to Philly. It was VERY good, and I don’t think that was just because I was starving lol. We had to take a tram to our gate, and we got there shortly before they started the boarding process, so our timing was great!

The flight to Philadelphia was going to be about 7.5 hours. It passed slowly, I felt, despite watching a few movies and listening to some music. They gave us SO MUCH FOOD during that flight, though. We got a small bag of sour cream & chive pretzels to start, then there was a full blown meal (I had chicken; Brandon got stuck with the vegetarian option because that’s all that was left), some cookies, a savory pastry thing, and multiple rounds of beverages. It was wild!

We landed on time around 4:30 pm local time in Philadelphia and began the (not wildly lengthy) process of getting through customs. Word to the wise, Philadelphia now has Automatic Passport Control machines kiosks that make the process a breeze! It took 5 minutes, if that, and then we found our bags (which were some of the first off the plane!), gave the DHS man our customs slips from the kiosk, and then we only had to wait another 5 minutes for my parents to come pick us up!

We went to dinner at one of our favorite diners before heading to their house and going through some of our souvenirs. Then, the exhaustion hit and it was time to crash. Souls and bellies full, we fell asleep pretty quick!

I thank you once again for following along on this adventure with us! I’ll have other posts related to it as time passes to reflect, but for now, enjoy this last round of photos :)

‘Twas the last full day in Germany today…it’s a weird feeling…

We got up and had some breakfast before going into Hattingen Mitte one final time. We took the Straßenbahn. We headed into the Altstadt because I wanted to revisit a bookstore we had gone to early on where we found Hattingen postcards. I was hoping to relocate something small to get our nieces and nephews as a souvenir.

At the bookstore, they had some newer things I didn’t recall from the last visit, but they also no longer had a couple things I thought they had last time. For example, I thought that our first trip there involved a display that had some tote bags with a cute Hattingen/Ruhr logo. There were t-shirts with the same design, but no bags. Since I was really not trying to get anything big (or we’d have to ship things again), I was a little bummed. However, I had forgotten that the shop sold some souvenir euros that had recognizable buildings from Hattingen on them. I decided to get those as something different and compact to give to our nieces and nephews. I hope they’ll like them!

From the bookstore, we went to a few other shops in the Altstadt, and we picked up a couple other little things. Brandon found another German language book at the first bookstore, but nothing at the other one we visited. We got some lunch after shopping around and then headed back to the house.

In the mid-afternoon, Peter, Alina, and Alicia left for a few hours to go visit Alicia’s new school. It was the first day, but it was a short one that allowed for some “getting to know you” activities and handing out of supply lists and such. When they got home, Alicia had a lovely green drawstring bag with her school’s name on it full of goodies, including a pencil case (with colored pencils), a USB drive, COVID rapid tests, and some other things to start her year off right! She also opened the Schultüte from Alina and Peter, which was filled with sweets :)

We left shortly after this as a group to get dinner at Fabrica Italia where we enjoyed some pizzas. Then, it was back to the house for ice cream and bedtime :)

We’ve got an especially early start tomorrow as Alina is graciously dropping us off at the airport in Düsseldorf. Lots of flying lies ahead! Thanks again for sticking with us on this journey! We hope you’ve enjoyed!!

It’s going to be a double post day today. Just a fair warning…

It’s so hard to believe that yesterday was our next to last full day of our trip! We’ve had so much fun and so many adventures…even as I write now, it doesn’t seem quite real that we get on a plane back to the States tomorrow *sigh*

Even with the reality of our trip ending sinking in, we had quite the special adventure for Day 61! It started, as they often have, with breakfast before we got on the Straßenbahn to Hattingen Mitte. From Mitte, we hopped on the S-Bahn and made our way to Essen Hauptbahnhof. Our destination today was in Essen, but once in the city, we had to hop a couple of additional buses to get to our final point. Where were we going? Let me give you some background…

A few years ago, a video popped up on my Facebook feed of three alpacas in bow ties. That video explained that there was a woman in Germany who owned those alpacas and she would post videos on her Instagram of them going on walks on their farm, as well as being requested at events, such as weddings (hence, the bow ties), I IMMEDIATELY started following the Instagram page and have been quite obsessed with the adventures of Alfi, Willi, and Fritz. As we got ready for our trip, we did some digging and found out the farm where they lived is in Essen! When we got to Germany, I reached out to their owner, Vicky, about setting up an alpaca walk, and that’s just what we did!!

The farm the alpacas and all their friends now live on is a different one from the original video I saw them in. There are also three more alpacas: Frank, Bruno, and Oskar! Vicky and her husband bought their current farm about 2 years ago and moved in last summer. Before that, they lived on her husband’s family farm. But circling back to the alpaca walk, we were scheduled for a noontime slot, so being me, we were there 20 minutes early. I called Vicky to let her know we arrived and she came out a few minutes later, her daughter having just finished lunch.

Because we were early and she had been doing a few other things prior to our arrival, we got to assist her with bringing the alpacas in from the small pasture to the corral where she put their halters on. She gave us branches of hazelnut leaves to lead them, and it was so fun! They are such eaters! Once the big ones (Alfi, Willi, and Fritz) were in their harnesses, we went for a GORGEOUS walk around the property and its surrounding woods. We stopped pretty frequently as the alpacas ate grass, leaves off of trees, and acorns that had fallen on the ground. Vicky led us walking with Alfi, Brandon had Willi, and I had Fritz! They were so easygoing! As we walked, Vicky asked us about how we had found her Instagram, where we were from, and how our trip has been. We asked her if she’s been busy with walks and she told us that she’s actually booked up through November! In fact, she made an exception for us because she had another walk scheduled in the evening yesterday, but because we were a special case and there would be time between walks, she put us on the schedule! We were so very grateful :)

At the end of the 90 minute walk, we got to watch the alpacas get hosed off before going back to the barn where we got to help feed them some pellets. We even got to go help feed the pigs! It was just the absolute best way to finish up this incredible trip! We then went back to Essen city to grab some lunch.

Back at the house, we chilled for most of the rest of the evening, playing cards and watching a movie before calling it a night. As I write this, it is our final full day in Germany, so we are going to putz around Hattingen one final time for good measure :) Enjoy the pictures!!

The sweet tooth got a workout today!

We were out the door just after 9 this morning following a not so great night of sleep for me (yay anxiety :P). Still a bit sleepy, we headed to the Straßenbahn to head into Bochum where we then got an IC to a locale from early on in our trip: Köln!

Thankfully, the train ride was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Köln just after 11. From there, we had a little adventure to find the bus stop to head to our actual destination for the day. Where did we go, you may wonder? The Lindt Chocolate Museum!! We had seen the museum from the water the first time we went to Köln, and since we have these last few days open, we decided to revisit the city so we could check out the museum :)

The museum was very neat! You began by getting a piece of chocolate at the start of the “tour”. It went through the history of the Lindt company at the start before going into production. The production sections started at the very beginning with the growing and harvesting of cocoa beans. There were multiple maps showing the regions of the world where Lindt sources their cacao from. There was also a small greenhouse in this area that was set up with tropical plants one would find in the rainforest and other tropical regions.where cacao trees are found. From there, the path of the museum went into the process of shipping the beans, discussing things like travel time for the ships to get from the different areas of the world to the chocolate factories. The section after this was the most interactive, and most delicious. Why was it delicious? It was all about the production of Lindt’s chocolate products. They had all the machines set up in order with accompanying videos showing things like the cacao beans being broken and milled, the addition of sugar and milk powder to liquidize the mixture, and the heating, cooling, and molding processes. In these later stages of production, they actually have an active assembly line in the midst of the exhibit that makes little nibs, and there’s a button here that you can press that causes a robotic arm to pull a nib from the line for you to eat!! It was cool to watch and the chocolate was SO GOOD!

Following the “assembly line,” you get to watch Lindt chocolatiers creating some hollow chocolates using molds in shapes, such as a panda or a horse. This area also allowed for you to create your own chocolate bar! There was a sheet you filled out to select the kind of chocolate you wanted to use as a base, and you could add up to 4 additions/toppings to your bar…all for 6€! Brandon and I both made a bar. We’re both dark chocolate fans, so we both used that as a base. I put crushed vanilla beans, crispies, and amaretti cookie pieces in mine. Brandon had vanilla beans, hazelnut, and strawberries.

The final parts of the museum went through the marketing of products, displaying posters and signs that have been used in candy stores. There was also a really neat section at the end going through information about ancient peoples and how they used cacao. Overall, a really neat experience! When we finished going through the museum, we had a snack at the Grand Cafe, where they serve a variety of yummy, chocolatey things. Brandon and I shared a triple dish of ice cream, each scoop being a different flavor of chocolate (milk, white, and dark). They were all quite good! Then, we went outside and rode the Ferris wheel that is next to the museum! It was part of our ticket as Brandon had bought a combo ticket with the ride included.

Satisfied in soul and tummies, we debated what to do next, but Brandon quickly alleviated that issue by finding us a route to a bookstore where we bought a book from the extensive section of Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language) materials :). By the time we finished there, I was very tired, so we headed back to Hattingen.

The ride was, again, mostly uneventful. We got back to the house, said hello to Alina and Peter, then headed downstairs to chill for a little before dinner. I napped (apparently, I was “completely out” and snoring…I’m not convinced lol) while Brandon watched things on his phone. We enjoyed a nice light dinner of bread, meat, and cheese, and then we played a few rounds of a card game we bought Alina and Peter early in our trip called “My English Is Under All Pig” while enjoying the chocolate bars we created!

It is baffling to me that we head back to the States in 3 days, but we continue to try making the most of our time! Tomorrow is something really special, but that’s all I’ll say for now…stay tuned, and enjoy the pictures!

Today started with breakfast made by Brandon and I and ended with a nice little catch up moment…

We were up earlyish today so Brandon and I could don our chef hats once more! Today, we were making “American style” pancakes for breakfast. I have never made pancakes from scratch before, and thankfully they were fairly straight forward. The recipe I had found online said it made about 8 pancakes, so I tripled it since there was 5 of us eating. That turned out to be A LOT. So much so that I am pretty sure if Alicia hadn’t asked me to make some really big pancakes, I’d still be working on them right now (kidding, but it really was a lot of batter!)! Nevertheless, the pancakes got made and were enjoyed by all :) We did have several left over, so…pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!

Following breakfast, Brandon and I headed to Oberhausen. There is an old natural gas storage building there called the Gasometer that has been refurbished into a rotating exhibition space. When Brandon went in 2010, he said the exhibition was about the planets. Currently, they are running one on climate change. The exhibition features a series of award-winning photos of animals, plants, people, and places in a juxtaposed set of levels where the first level has images featuring the natural beauty of the planet and the second level features images showing man’s effect on that beauty (aka climate change). The pictures on display, whether of cute baby turtles or showing the devastation of the bush fires in Australia, were incredible and came paired with write-ups that really made you think. In the exhibit, there were also 20 holographic Earths showing a variety of things, such as CO2 emission levels around the world. One of the other really cool things at the Gasometer was a GIANT holographic Earth projected in “the arena,” which is a dome-shaped space on the third floor that would make a great space for a planetarium show (for example). The projected Earth rotated and changed from day to night, it showed what looked like electrical connection lines around the globe, weather patters like clouds and hurricanes. It was constantly moving and changing; it was SO COOL! The Gasometer has a set of viewing platforms outside all the way at the top of the structure, so we waited in line for the elevator up so we could do that, too. The views from the top were incredible! You could see a really nice “slice” of the Ruhrgebiet region.

From the Gasometer, we got some lunch at the on-site restaurant. It was delicious :) Then, we headed back to the house to chill and prepare for Peter to break in his new grill! For dinner, the five of us had our own little grill party. As you can imagine, everything was cooked to perfection :) There was sausage, steak, potatoes, veggies, bread, and salad. We were very full when all was said and done! Alicia and I played a little more Subway Surfer on my phone before she FaceTimed with her grandparents. By the time she was done, it was time to FaceTime my parents. I *finally* (sort of) got my iPad to connect up with them long enough for them to say hi to Alina, Peter, and Alicia! The signal still wasn’t great, and I am convinced my iPad is simply trying to be dramatic for no reason… Alicia and I played a round of solitaire when I finished chatting with my mom and dad, and then it was time to call it a night.

Tomorrow, we revisit a place from our first week to check out stuff we missed the first time, so stay tuned! Enjoy the pictures!

We found a very neat little gem in the midst of a very random place today…

Alicia got home from a trip to Hastings sometime in the wee hours of the morning, so when Brandon and I got up, we could hear Alina and Peter were awake, but they were not yet downstairs before we headed out the door today. On the agenda was going to Mönchengladbach, which is a town about an hour and half’s worth of train travel time away from Hattingen. We were going to a place called Stars of the Galaxy (which I will give more details on later).

The train trips to Mönchengladbach were good. We encountered quite a number of football fans headed to the game today, so that was an interesting time. When we got there, we had to take a short bus ride to the area of town where Stars of the Galaxy is located. What is Stars of the Galaxy, exactly? That’s a great question! The best way I can describe it is a collector’s museum of Star Wars stuff. Genuinely, it was like someone (or multiple someones) gathered together all the Star Wars memorabilia over many many years and created their own small museum to display all their things. To be fair, it was not messy or unorganized. It was incredibly cool to see signed photos from actors, limited edition figures, props, busts, full-sized models, scale models of key scenes from the Star Wars movies, and so many other things. It just felt so random for this kind of place to be in the midst of a town that arguably didn’t seem to have anything else outside of a typical small city (mall, restaurants, football stadium, etc.). The exhibit, though multi-leveled, did not take a very long time to go through. There were also some neat setups that were designated as Photo spots, including a replica of the scene with Greedo in the cantina (SW fans know the one).

After we finished with our Star Wars adventure, we went to the local mall for lunch and to wander around. I had already fallen asleep on the train to Mönchengladbach, and by the time we finished lunch and wandering, I was extra very tired, so we made our way back to Hattingen.

Coming back to the house, we were (aka I was) shocked to have the alarm go off when we entered the house. I jumped and freaked out a little bit, but it soon turned off and Brandon and Alina determined the police would not need to be sent by (lol). He and I played cards for a little until Alina, Peter, and Alicia got back — bringing with them a big box. Peter had bought a new grill, so it became a semi-group project in working together to construct it ahead of dinner time. Eventually, it was just Peter and Brandon doing the work as Alicia and I played a game on my phone together and Alina prepped food.

The grill came together, and so did we to eat :) We asked Alicia about her trip and Brandon pretended to eat the plush ice cream cone she bought us (it was very unexpected, but incredibly appreciated!). We all talked for several hours, eventually having to move inside because it was cooling off so much. It was a lovely (and late) evening :)

Tomorrow, everyone has something on the agenda for some portion of the day, but Brandon and I will also be whipping out our chef skills, so stay tuned and enjoy the photos!!

Today involved another store run, some relaxing, and organized chaos in the kitchen…

We got up and had some breakfast while enjoying the fact it had cooled down from yesterday. Rain had moved in overnight, and it was still a bit damp through early afternoon. Thankfully, the temperatures stayed pleasant once the sun came out :)

Today, Brandon and I were in charge of dinner for us, Alina and Peter, and the next-door neighbors, Frank and Cathrin. Per yesterday’s post, I went with Alina and Peter to get most of the necessary ingredients already, but today, we needed a few additional items I had forgotten…plus fresh bread. The menu for dinner was to be homemade lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. We took the Straßenbahn to Hattingen Mitte, which backs up to the parking lot of Rewe, one of the local grocery chains. We wandered over to the store and grabbed some veggies for the salad and a VERY BIG ciabatta loaf. We originally planned to use a baguette for the garlic bread, but the ciabatta just looked too good and was definitely calling out to me, so we went with that instead :)

We returned back to the house and set everything in an *initial* prep spot, but it was far too early to start anything, so things just sat. We had a small lunch and played some cards for a while. Then we went downstairs to chill and watched a little TV. Brandon took a small power nap and I played on my phone before going back upstairs to get some of the baking dishes, pots, and pans out so we were ready to go at the time we decided to start cooking!

Four o’clock rolled around and it was off to the races! I got the lasagna noodles cooking and the meat sauce underway. The cheese mixture for both lasagnas got mixed. Veggies were cut, garlic butter was made, lasagnas were formed (eventually, and with much argument from the noodles that decided to all STICK TOGETHER *grr*). Then, it was into the oven with the lasagnas! We finished preparing the garlic butter for the ciabatta and took a break. When the lasagnas were done their foil-topped cooking period, Brandon got to work putting the salad together. By the time that was nearly ready, the garlic bread had been baked and was resting, as were the lasagnas. And, right on schedule, Frank and Cathrin arrived! … I forgot to mention that in between things, we also set the table. Oh, and we had made “sun” tea (there wasn’t much sun today) that turned out quite good (if I do say so myself)!

With everything at the table, we all dug in to all the food :) I was hoping the lasagnas turned out okay flavor wise, and I was told many times throughout the evening they were very good! The garlic bread was PERFECTION! Brandon’s salad was also very very delicious :) After dinner, we relaxed a bit before Alina brought out the Apfelkuchen she made for Brandon’s birthday. We had some strawberries and cream ice cream to go along with the cake, and I think they were perfect complements to one another! Bellies full, we spent the next couple hours chatting about a variety of things, and then it was time to turn in for the night. Peter and Alina are “on call” as Alicia comes back from her week-long trip to Hastings tonight (sometime).

We’ve got plans to make an outing to a Star Wars thing tomorrow, so stay tuned!!

It was a relatively lax day today, but we managed some minor adventures!

We got up and moving around 10; we had woken up prior to that, but we were comfy :) After a nice breakfast of toast, we went back downstairs to go through ALL of our goodies we’ve accumulated over the course of our trip. If you recall, we did a Deutsche Post run once already to ship some souvenirs back because we were running out of space. Today, the goal was to ship back the remaining souvenirs we’ve picked up in the time since, plus some from early on in our adventure. After sorting through everything, and packing some smaller items inside bigger things when appropriate, we had a nicely stuffed tote bag from Köln full of souvenirs and clothing we planned to use for packing material! Therefore, it was on to Deutsche Post for us!

We honestly weren’t certain if we would be able to fit everything in one box, but we got to Deutsche Post and asked for a large box to start. Unlike last time, this one was given to us broken down, so we had to put it together. The process, once we figured out the directions, was not hard. Some of the parts were glued down, so we had to use the Google Translate lens of our phone cameras to determine what got detached and what stayed glued. Box constructed, we got to packing! Thankfully, all the items we brought along fit in the one box, so that was helpful! Shipping costs were the same as the first box, and we had gotten cash out before going to the post office, which was good because they didn’t take VISA *shrugs*.

From the post office, we headed into Bochum’s center city area to get lunch. We decided to revisit a place we went to a few weeks back called Emma’s. I’ve been craving their lavender iced tea, and it was PERFECT for the hot day today! We both got veal cordon bleu, which came with potatoes au gratin and creamy spinach (or some kind of leafy green). It was SO GOOD!

We had a couple hours of relaxing when we got back to the house before I went out with Alina and Peter to the grocery store. Brandon and I are cooking dinner tomorrow for all of us, plus the neighbors, Frank and Cathrin! Back from the store, Brandon and I folded our laundry and watched some shows. Then, it was time for dinner! We had some leftover pasta salad Alina made, plus some bread, meat, and cheese. It was a lovely meal!

Tomorrow, we have a couple additional items to pick up for our special meal. Then, it’s prep, cooking, and *hopefully* a lovely evening of yummy things! Only food photos today, but enjoy nonetheless!

It was a TRAVEL day today…

To our credit, we knew it would be a little involved today. It’s hard to believe that, just this morning, we were in Malmö, and now (finally) we’re back in Hattingen!

We got ourselves together a little early today so we could catch breakfast at the hotel around 8:30, as opposed to 9. We wanted to give ourselves time to eat at a leisurely pace, as opposed to scarfing things down. We weren’t far from the central station, and there are a number of buses we could have grabbed, as well as a series of regional trains leaving from Malmö fairly regularly.

Because we were a little early, we caught a bus just after 9 to the central station and then a train around 9:30 that took us from Malmö back to Copenhagen. *Note: Our travel plan today was *almost* destination-for-destination our week-plus adventure in reverse.* In Copenhagen, we were to catch our first long-haul train that was going to take us to Hamburg. The train was on time, but, unfortunately, neither the air-conditioning nor the outlets worked. The train staff recognized this fairly early into the journey but could not do anything for a bit, so we made about half the journey sweating our butts off until we stopped at a very small station and switched trains.

Honestly, the replacement train wasn’t much better. We still sweat our butts off, but if you sat at the right angle, you could kind of feel the air. Once in Hamburg, we (thankfully) didn’t have to go very far to catch our next train. We arrived at Platform 11 and had to depart from Platform 14. That train was running a little behind, but it was meant to be the final long-haul of this return trip, though a shorter ride than the previous one (Copenhagen to Hamburg was about 5 hours, this one was a bit more than 4). This ride would put us in Essen, where we could grab an S-Bahn back to Hattingen.

It was pretty uneventful getting into Essen and getting to the S-Bahn. Unfortunately, for us, the easy part of the trek turned into a little bit of a mess right towards the final stages as the S-Bahn stopped one stop short of where we planned to disembark so that it could turn around. That meant we had to figure out the final 2ish miles of travel. Fortunately, there was a bus that picked up right from the station that has a stop across the street from Alina and Peter’s backyard. The caveat we had to deal with there was that the S-Bahn kicked us off about 20 minutes before the bus was going to be there, so we had to stand around for a little bit. Nevertheless, we made it back in one piece: tired, sweaty, but glad to be back :) We caught up with Alina and Peter briefly before turning in. Tomorrow, we have a few “housekeeping” items to deal with as we contend with the thought of going home in a week…

​Next to no photos today, but enjoy nevertheless!

It was a lovely day today in Sweden! Between the weather and the vibes, we really had some fun :)

We got up around 8 and gave ourselves a good bit of time to get moving since we had already established at check-in that we would eat breakfast around 9. I think the hotel does this so they don’t have a zillion people all in the breakfast area at once, but I don’t know for sure. Breakfast itself was a delightful spread of the usual meats and cheeses, yogurt, bread/rolls, etc. There was also some eggs, sausages, and bacon available!

Bellies full, the birthday boy (Brandon) took us on a little walk to a beautiful park nearby. The whole thing is about 10 km and can be done by walking a loop. We just kind of puttered around randomly. It was nice and cool this morning, so the walk was PERFECT! There were lots of dogs, and we got to see a really neat old windmill. It looked like it had been partially converted into something you could go in, but the doors all had locks.

The walk in the park then took us across town a little bit to the bus stop. We ended up on a bus that very much resembled one of the high speed trains. It was, in fact, a bus, but it was designed with a kind of pointier nose and looked like the driver could switch from one end of the other to drive the bus the opposite direction once it got to the end of the line. It was pretty nifty! The bus ride took us over to the St. Petri Kirche, which is a beautiful church built during the Middle Ages. There is some INCREDIBLE artwork amongst the already impressive sanctuary. From the church, we went to Malmöhus, which is a lovely castle-turned-museum. We weren’t interested in the museum today, but we walked the castle grounds; we also found a tactile model of the castle! I was so excited!

From the castle, we went back towards the center of town and the central station so we could do a canal tour. The tour, like in Copenhagen, was bilingual, but this one was in Swedish and English (as opposed to Danish and English). We saw many cool buildings and learned lots of fun facts about Malmö, and Sweden, in general. Our tour guide was a lovely young lady who made me laugh with some of her commentary because it reminded me of some of the “disclaimers” I put on things when I definitely have more to say but don’t want to…over express myself (for a lack of better wording).

Brandon found us a place for lunch after the tour called Bullen. We had some very hearty and incredibly flavorful meals. He had a lamb dish that came with potatoes au gratin and bacon wrapped asparagus. I had Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, and lingonberries. Everything was incredible! We wandered around for a bit after that, shopping around, before we went to the only other place we were interested in that required an admission fee: The Museum of Disgusting Foods.

The museum is one floor of *primarily* plastic replications of various…delicacies…from around the world. They have one section that discusses a number of food items that are actually toxic or deadly to humans. Some of the items on display come with scent jars (many are cheeses). At the end of the experience, they have about 25 of the 80 total items available to try for yourself. One thing I failed to mention initially is that your ticket to the museum is actually a barf bag you are provided upon payment. Brandon and I both opted to not try anything (we weren’t risking it). After the museum, it was back to the hotel to chill…kind of.

While we both walked back to the hotel, I did not go upstairs to relax. See…one of the things I have seen A LOT of on this trip, besides bikes, is people on electric scooters. They are highly popular and easily located; plus, you can rent them. I was dying to try a scooter, and I wanted to try and find some birthday cupcakes, so I got a scooter outside the hotel and zipped off for a bit. Unfortunately, my cupcake run was unsuccessful :/ But, I had fun scooting (lol).

Following a little more chill time, we grabbed some dinner at an Italian place behind the hotel. It was very good, particularly the garlic bread :) Then, we went back to our room and chilled out for the night. Tomorrow is a big travel day for us, so the post is likely to be a recap of how it all went (fair warning!). Until then, thanks for sticking with us! Enjoy the photos :D