Christmas Markets in Copenhagen

Another Marathon sports and social club weekend excursion took Julia and I to Copenhagen for the Christmas markets at Tivoli Gardens.  A few months ago Julia and I were compiling our last minute bucket lists since we both figured we would be moving back across the pond in the near future.  Two items on our list were Christmas markets anywhere and Copenhagen, so when a weekend excursion trip was announced through work, I jumped on the opportunity to combine two bucket list trips into one.

We flew out on Friday and arrived just after lunch.  It was a raining first day but Julia and I braved the weather and headed out exploring.  We stumbled onto an small Christmas market full of little log huts selling goods.  After getting wet and cold we headed back to the hotel to relax before heading over to my friend Henrik's house for dinner.  That evening we enjoyed good company, wine and food.  It was nice to catch up with an old friend from Houston.

Saturday was spent relaxing, canal exploring and the Tivoli Gardens Christmas market in the evening.  Julia and I were a bit disappointed in how commercial Tivoli's market goods were.  We thought we were going to markets where locals sold their craft and goods.  Instead it was a bunch of permanent huts filled with stores that stocked mass produced goods from places like China.  Not even made in Denmark goods.  Oh well, we did enjoy walking around and the evenings water/laser/light show.

We flew back to Aberdeen late morning on Sunday, so overall our weekend in Copenhagen was short but since we both agreed it felt so similar to Amsterdam we didn't leave feeling like we had missed out on too much.

Video of Tivoli Christmas Lights and Water Show

Birds of Prey Photography Workshop

Back in April I signed up for a birds of prey photography workshop that was sponsored by Marathon sports and social club.  Basically it was a weekend get away where you got go take a photography course in the Czech Republic and have a day seeing Prague at the end.  Since Prague is one of my favorite cities and I am an avid photographer with little experience taking birds of prey photos, this sounded like the perfect opportunity!!  The entire weekend package was airfare, hotel, and workshop for 400 pounds, another great deal!

We flew out of Aberdeen on Friday and arrived in Prague early afternoon.  We were met by our photography workshop guides and transferred to the hotel in the country side of the Czech Republic.  Saturday and Sunday were spent in the field taking pictures of some magnificent birds and learning about rescue and conservation efforts by some local falconers.  It was truly a great experience and I think I have improved my photography abilities, just a little.

After wrapping up the photography workshop on Sunday we headed back to Prague.  A group of us went out to dinner in the old square and then I played tour guide to some co-workers on Monday before our flight out that evening.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.

If you are interested in taking the same photography workshop or any others, the company we booked through is Tatra Photography and they do workshops all over the world!