Finland. There is nothing like snow laden forests of bare trees: the stark brilliant white against the almost night black trees. The snow outlines forms you never noticed before. A simplification of the world, everything becomes dark or light, lines and shapes, like a map of the tracks and roadways. The eyelets on the birch catch your eye and you suddenly feel all the trees staring.
We left the comparably mild winter weather of Netherlands and arrived at the Copenhagen Airport late afternoon the second week of January: the sky already beginning to darken, old snow on the ground. The airport was quiet, sterile lighting led the way while a oddly comforting smell of artificial fruits wafted through the cold air, reminding me of Vita gummies.
Netherlands made its way off and on our list as we debated our route around the world, weather conditions, and my general disinterest in Amsterdam’s famed offerings, however we’ve agreed that we’ll have to make it back during warmer weather. Netherlands in winter, specifically around early January was very cold and wet, it rained half the week that we were there. We didn’t catch any snow, which surprised us a little since we’d just come from Prague for the New Year (post coming soon) and it was snowing there, however the cold weather and the shorter daylight hours definitely played a role in our experience or lack thereof for the Netherlands.
When we arrive in Netherlands, we still had one more day on our Eurail pass, so we made a day trip out to Brussels and tried to hit all the main points. To be honest we were underwhelmed despite our love for all the “must eats” in Brussels: waffles, fries, chocolates, and mussels – but […]
Prague is a city with old charm magic; a place where you can wander endlessly, live on beer, and walk around laughing in delight under a gentle snowfall that quickly whips up into a full on snow storm. We spent the perfect New Year’s week at Christmas markets and celebrating with 2 back to back nights of fireworks because New Year’s Day is their Independence day.
Our train reached Berlin by 8:00 am, which was a too early even for our earlier check in, so we hung out at Rubens Coffee Lounge, a nearby cafe, and got a couple pastries and large coffees for breakfast. We were drained, but that didn’t stop me from celebrating the much more affordable food prices here when compared to Switzerland.
We spent the first half of our week in Switzerland in Geneva and the latter short half in Zurich; meeting a friend and visiting Christmas Markets. Zurich felt significantly colder than Geneva, especially with all the frozen snow on the ground
Switzerland is notorious for being an expensive destination (and we can now confirm it) however you really don’t have to break the bank. The major costs to traveling are lodging, food, and transportation and unfortunately AirBnB is still fairly new in Geneva, so our choices were really either hostels or hotels. On the other hand, with any hotel or hostel booking in Geneva
It’s been over a month since we hopped on that first flight to Paris and began this crazy adventure around the world. While it’s been incredible, it has also been a bunch of *facepalm*s, “time to reroute”, and “we’ll just have to make this work”. While Carl has traveled extensively with his family, prior […]
From Nice we took a long train ride to Lyon and we arrive just in time for the very last night of their Festival of Lights! As soon as we’ve checked into our AirBnB we do a search for a quick dinner and you already know that the second we saw an option for hand pulled noodles, (recall our Lisbon favorites?) we were ready to go.
