Europe

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

September 11 - 15, 2017

Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.

ICELAND - THE WEST FJORDS

ICELAND - THE WEST FJORDS

August 1, 2016 - August 2, 2016

We couldn't visit Iceland without seeing puffins. Iceland is known to be home to 60% of Atlantic Puffins during the breeding season. Did you know that these puffins spend most of their time at sea and only return to land during the spring and summer to breed? We made our way to Látrabjarg Cliffs to see if we catch a glimpse of these cute animals. 

ICELAND - THE NORTH COAST

ICELAND - THE NORTH COAST

July 29, 2016 - July 31, 2016

From Jökulsárlón Lagoon, we drove almost 3 hours to our next waterfall. Hengifoss is the third tallest waterfall in Iceland and is surrounded by basaltic strata with thin, red layers of clay between the basaltic layers. It was a nice 2.5km hike from the parking lot where we got to enjoy the scenery of rolling hills and smaller waterfalls up to Hengifoss. 

ICELAND - THE SOUTH COAST

ICELAND - THE SOUTH COAST

July 27, 2016 - July 29, 2016

With a week to spare before going home, we decided to make our way to one of our must-visit places, Iceland. Thankfully, flights with the new WOW air also made it the cheapest destination we could go to for a week from Amsterdam. Even better, Brexit made our flights even cheaper when we purchased them in British Pounds. Thaaank yoooou, Brexit! 

CINQUE TERRE

CINQUE TERRE

July 20, 2016 - July 22, 2016

Arriving midday from Florence, we found parking and headed in to Rio Maggiore via train. Upon arrival in the first of the five towns of Cinque Terre, we discovered the coastal path was closed due to a collapse of the trail during a previous rain storm. Instead, we found a trail that went up and over the hill to the next town. There were lots of stairs and it was hot and humid ... let's just say we were pretty happy when we got to Manarola and had an amazing meat and cheese spread and plenty of wine. 

VERONA

VERONA

July 13, 2016 - July 14, 2016 

We arrived in Verona mid-afternoon and journeyed up a winding hill at the edge of town to a small campground that claimed to be the best in the city. After paying for a spot in their lower section we tried to drive the van up an extremely narrow and tight turn. After coming close to getting the van aligned to make the turn, I ventured up to the campground to check out the site. Let's just say the campsite we paid for was basically a parking lot. More like it WAS a parking lot and there was no way the van was going to fit. Instead, we took a tent spot and Allie and Jason parked overnight on the street. Way easier and way cheaper!