Europe 2024 Trip Report So Far: Back from 18-day Europe Trip, Review: Iberia Business Class DFW to MAD, Hits and Misses from my First MSC Cruise, DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station Review, Two Days in Amsterdam, Visiting Efteling the Dutch Fairytale Theme Park, Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Slumming it in Economy on KLM from AMS to Houston, Two Nights at Holiday Inn Hamburg–Hafen City, Visiting the Beautiful Fjords of Norway
On my recent European vacation, the main draw was the Norwegian Fjords. But, our cruise also stopped in Copenhagen, Denmark and Alesund, Norway.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Our cruise ship, MSC Euribia, docked at the Ocean Quay port in Copenhagen. We decided to skip an organized excursion and enjoy Tivoli Gardens amusement park on our own. To get there, we took a cruise shuttle to the downtown area. Then, we took the subway a few stops to get to Tivoli Gardens.
Tivoli Gardens has been around since 1843, and the park inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland. Since neither my daughter nor I don’t love crazy thrill rides, we decided to pay for individual rides instead of buying the all-inclusive pass.
We only went on 4 rides, but we still had a great time walking around the entire park. One of our favorite rides was The Flying Trunk, which featured 32 fairy tales and reminded us of Disneyland.
Some sections of Tivoli have a strong Asian influence.
We walked by two stages. One had a live ballet performance, and the other had a full symphony orchestra playing.
It was hard not to be happy at Tivoli Gardens. There were lots of families enjoying the park, and the employees were friendly and upbeat.
At the end of the day, we headed back to the subway to take us to the cruise shuttle. Just like Amsterdam, Copenhagen has a ton of bike riders all over the city. I love how Europeans embrace walking, cycling and public transportation.
I would love to return to Copenhagen to explore the area more.
Alesund, Norway
If you’ve ever been on a Caribbean cruise, you’ve probably noticed that most if not all port stops have a fair amount of shops and restaurants right at the cruise port. For our stop in Alesund, I thought we would have a low-key day and explore the shops at port. Well, European cruise ports don’t have all the shops and fanfare that we’ve found at Caribbean ports. There was nothing of note near the pier. So, we booked a city tour on the Alesund City Train.
Each seat had a headset to listen to the narration along the tour, which was available in several different languages. We learned about the tragic fire in 1904 and how it necessitated a complete rebuilding of the city in the Art Nouveau style.
The train took us up to the top of the Aksla mountain with a scenic view of the city and port below.
It was nice learning about the city and seeing the view. But, if I were to visit Alesund again, I’d book an excursion to nearby Runde island to see the puffins.
In Copenhagen, I have to watch out for the bike riders in a rush. The runner up of places where I get that close that often to getting hit by bicyclists is Manhattan.
In Alesund, there is at least one hotel where you can jump off the room balconies into the waters down below. “Don’t try this at home” doesn’t apply at a hotel.
@GUWonder Interesting about the hotels in Alesund! We didn’t see any jumpers on our trip.