Category: Uncategorized
-
Chasing Tulips Across the Netherlands
Despite my mixed feelings about the season of winter (as I’m sure you can understand, given my very sunny California upbringing), the one undeniable benefit of a wintery winter is the joy that comes with the arrival of spring. The effect the return of color to the world can have on a person after months…
-
Setting Sail for France
With all of the frolicking we’ve done around Lake Geneva, we were shocked to realize that we hadn’t made use of its extensive network of boat routes to get around the region. And, given that a beautiful scenic cruise across the lake costs the price of public transportation, it’s the best ticket in town! We…
-
From Bergen to Oslo on One of the World’s Most Beautiful Journeys
Back in one of our favorite countries, Norway, we used trains, buses, boats, and our feet to make our way from Bergen to Oslo on a route that is often listed as one of the most beautiful in the world. We laced up our boots, threw on our backpacks, and hit the road across southern…
-
Chasing Alpine Views
The theme of our winter so far has been the pursuit of Alpine wonderfulness. And in the Alps, there is no shortage of wonderfulness to be found. In fact, we can sometimes be so spoiled for choice in Switzerland, with its 48 peaks over 4,000 meters and unlimited opportunities for outdoor fun, that deciding where…
-
Strolling the Canals of the Venice of the Alps
At only an hour away from Geneva, Annecy, France, has been somewhere we’ve been meaning to visit for a long time, and we finally made it to perhaps one of the prettiest towns ever recently. Often called the “Venice of the Alps” for the canals that run through town, Annecy sits on the edge of…
-
Wintry Fun in Wales
With a sigh of relief from us, in December the accelerators at CERN finally took a break and Kurt ended his final shift after nine months of 24-hour shift schedules. So, with only three hours of sleep separating Kurt’s final data-taking and our flight taking off, we hopped across the English Channel for a few…
-
Arctic Bucket-Listing: Norway Part 2
The second leg of our trip to Norway took us further into the interior of northern Norway. We set our sights on Camp Tamok, a couple of hours inland from Tromso. Once again, the car ride out to Camp Tamok was a sightseeing trip in and of itself, full of fjord and mountain views—at least…
-
Returning to my motherland: Norway Part 1
Of the amazing trips we have been lucky enough to take over the years, Norway in winter may tie for the top spot of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This is evidenced by the 3,000 pictures I have spent the past few weeks parsing through. Not only is it a spectacular destination in its own right, but it…
-
Gruyères. The place, not the cheese. But also the cheese.
A few things come to mind when thinking about Switzerland. Snow-capped mountains. Beautiful towns. Cheese. Chocolate. Gorgeous countrysides. Medieval architecture. It’s pretty amazing, then, when one destination combines all of the above in one fabulous package. That is exactly what we were met with when we arrived in the town of Gruyères, a two-hour train…
-
A Swiss Holiday
We just arrived back in Switzerland after a month of being back in the States to our apartment still decorated for Christmas, which had me reminiscing about our Swiss holiday fun. While some holiday festivities were still canceled this year (sadly, we still haven’t been able to experience the 1602 dress, parades, and cauldron-crushing of…
On A Grand Tour 