April: Iceland and Tuscany

Iceland

Like I mentioned before, Iceland has been on Andy’s bucket list for as long as I’ve known him, so we had pretty high expectations going into it – and I would say that for the most part, they were totally met. If you love to travel, you need to add Iceland to the list. It’s unlike any place we have ever been before: it almost looks like you’re on another planet. There are very few trees, and instead of grass, everything is rocky and covered in moss. It stays pretty gray and cloudy, but the sun also doesn’t go down until quite late, so it’s kind of weirdly half-light outside for a very long time. All of this makes it so strangely beautiful.

Icelandic horses - they look like really furry ponies.

We arrived in Reykjavik super late on a Friday night and went straight to our hotel/apartment. Pro tip: Book your transfer from the airport to your accommodations ahead of time. The public transportation system in Iceland is practically non-existent, but there are shuttles and transfer services that are much cheaper than the taxis.

We used this one: http://grayline.is/airport-transfer/
And we stayed here: http://downtownreykjavikapartments.is/

These “apartments” are nothing fancy – kitchenette, very small bathroom, and a bed. But it was certainly all we needed, very clean, good location reasonably close to downtown, and 24-hour check-in, so it worked for us.

Our first full day in Iceland, we did the “Golden Circle” – it’s basically a driving route through some of the more popular sites in Iceland, including a geyser/hot springs area, a gorgeous waterfall, and a national park. Lots of people rent cars and drive the route themselves, but we chose to do a tour; I think you can really enjoy it either way, I just prefer the commentary from a tour guide. Renting a car in Iceland is very easy, and there are also tons of tour companies who will take you on the Golden Circle.

That night we also did a Northern Lights tour, which was the highlight of the trip for me. There are all kinds of tour companies offering different ways/locations to see the lights (Jeeps, buses, boats, etc). We did a boat tour that took us just a few kilometers off the coast to get away from the lights of the city. The tour left at about 11 pm, so it was FREEZING – but they provided these awesome snowsuits that made it super comfortable.

And then we saw them! It was amazing. April is a tricky time to go to Iceland, because it’s right at the end of the winter tourist season (when your chances of seeing the lights are best) and right at the beginning of the spring/summer season (when it’s best for hiking), so we were very fortunate to see them so well.

The next day, as Andy’s birthday present, I had hired a fishing guide for the day. You can do all kinds of fishing in Iceland – deep sea, fly fishing in the rivers, and ice fishing – our guide (we’ll call him Chris for the purposes of this story) took us to a river to catch arctic char and trout. Chris picked us up at our hotel at 8:30 am and drove us about an hour away to the river.

Chris was a very nice guy: had been a fishing guide for about 10 years, lived in Iceland his whole life, and was very friendly during the car ride. When we got to the river, he quickly got our rods set up and showed us where to start.

We casted. And casted. And casted. Every 20 minutes or so, Chris would point us in a different direction, or change our lure, or switch out our rod. We fished for 3 hours before stopping for lunch, and neither of us had a single bite. And strangely, Chris wasn’t fishing with us. At one point, Andy half joking/mostly serious told him, “You know, my wife really just wants to take a picture of a fish, so if you catch one and she doesn’t, she won’t be upset if you just let her take a picture of it.” i.e., somebody needs to catch a fish here, and if it isn’t going to be us, then you need to. Chris didn’t take the hint though, and switched out Andy’s lure.

Chris dropped us off at a local restaurant for lunch, and I was so frustrated and grouchy. Andy of course had a great attitude and was just happy that we were spending the day outside fishing…probably because he didn’t know how much we were paying this guy. But when Chris came back to pick us up, I was resolved to have a good attitude and catch at least one fish.

After about thirty minutes of fishing, Andy had a fish on, a decent-sized arctic char. Chris ran over with his net slung over his shoulder, and as Andy had just about reeled it in, Chris decided to stop and snap a picture. Interesting choice, but whatever. After he got the picture he wanted, Chris bent over to net the fish – HAD THE FISH IN THE NET - and in the process of standing back up, tripped over himself, fumbled the net, and lost the fish. I had dropped my rod and run over with my camera just in time to get a picture myself, and I didn’t really see what happened:

Me: Wait, where is it?
Andy: It’s gone.
Me: What do you mean it’s gone?
Andy: It got away.
Me: I thought he was netting it? (Chris walks away, embarrassed.)
Andy: Yeah, me too.

And from that moment on, Chris was forevermore known as Tipless.

(Not to his face or anything, we aren’t that mean.)

We stayed out there for about 3 more hours and didn’t have another single bite. My mood steadily declined with each cast, so I eventually stopped and just talked to Andy while he fished. The ride back to the apartment was quiet to say the least, and I was happy to say goodbye to Tipless.

Not catching fish

Also not catching fish

Our last day in Iceland, we rented a car to drive around a bit and go for a hike. We drove about an hour to get to this place: https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/hiking-to-icelands-highest-waterfall---glymur

It was a great hike and absolutely beautiful. Hindsight, we wished we had rented the car for two days to do some more hiking; there are countless hikes to waterfalls and hot springs all over Iceland.

That evening, we drove to the Blue Lagoon: http://www.bluelagoon.com/ This place is so weird, so cool, and a must-see in Iceland. It’s basically a really huge geothermal pool that they’ve built a spa around. Because it’s located in the middle of a lava field, the water is full of sulfur and silica, which is what gives the water the cloudy-blue color and is supposed to be really good for your skin. We only went to soak in the water, but you can also purchase all sorts of spa treatments and skin care products.

The fishing trip aside, Iceland was a really incredible experience. You should go!

Tuscany

The last weekend in April, we met my aunt and uncle in Montepulciano, Italy for the weekend. Aunt Anne, my mom’s sister, and my Uncle Eric were in Italy for something like 2 weeks, visiting all of the best places, and graciously invited Andy and I to meet up with them wherever our schedule permitted.

The plan was to fly to Florence pretty early Friday morning and get to Montepulciano around lunch time – but when we got to the airport, we were informed that our flight had been canceled, due to “operational issues.” The line at the Swiss Airlines helpdesk was incredibly long with all the people trying to get on different flights, so I called the helpline phone number instead and had this conversation:

Me: Hi, our flight to Florence was canceled, so I need to get on a different flight. Our booking reference is blah blah blah.
Swiss Airlines rep: Of course, hello Mrs. Giblin. Actually, we have already proactively rebooked you on another flight; you are scheduled to fly out tomorrow afternoon, Geneva to Rome.
Me: …Um. Thank you for proactively doing that. But I don’t need to go to Rome, I need to get to Florence. And I need to get there today, as we are returning to Geneva on Sunday.

The only flight that would get us to Florence that day was a connection through Frankfurt. After considering renting a car and driving to Montepulciano, and seeing how long it would take to get there by train, we decided it was still best to take the flight.

We got to Montepulciano just in time to drop our bags off at the bed & breakfast and join Anne and Eric for a glass of wine before dinner. The place we stayed was great - charming, great view, and the cutest little old couple running it: http://www.ilriccio.net/en/index.html

We spent the next day exploring the Tuscan countryside by car and visiting three wineries:

Montemercurio: http://www.montemercurio.com/ The first winery was the smallest of the three that we visited. The property is beautiful, and we had a private tasting to ourselves. The Vin Santo (Italian dessert wine) here was really delicious.

Castiglion del Bosco: http://wine.castigliondelbosco.com/ This was my favorite. The winery is owned by the Ferragamo family (pretty famous Italian designer) and is just really, really pretty. Their wine was my favorite too.

Altesino: http://www.altesino.it/eng/azienda.php I thought the Super Tuscan here (http://www.altesino.it/eng/prodotti/alte.php) was delicious and also super affordable.

In between wineries, we did a bit of exploring in neighboring towns Montalcino and Pienza before heading back to Montepulciano for dinner.

The next morning, we headed to Florence early in the morning to spend a few hours there before our flight back. We didn’t have enough time to formally tour anything, but we had a really nice morning just walking around in the sunshine and looking at all the beautiful architecture. Florence was the next stop on Anne and Eric’s travel itinerary, so we were also able to have lunch and gelato with them before heading to the airport.

I think I could easily spend a couple weeks in this region, but there are a couple of things in particular that made this one of my favorite weekends we’ve had in a while:

1. A lot of our traveling lately has been to large cities, which generally means city tours, exploring on foot, museums, etc. We love it, but it was nice to switch it up and do something kind of different.
2. I love red wine.
3. Anne and Eric had rented a car, and it was definitely the perfect way to get around this area. Andy and I are so used to being dependent on public transportation and train schedules for our travels, we really appreciated the convenience of being able to just hop in a car. Shout-out to Uncle Eric for being the DD for the group!
4. We don’t get to see family and friends nearly enough living over here. It was so nice and refreshing to spend some time with people who (i) we’ve known longer than 8 months, (ii) are from “home,” and (iii) we love so much! 

Next stops: Berlin, Germany; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Interlaken, Switzerland; and Bordeaux, France!

February and March Update

It’s been awhile! Life has been busy over here in Switzerland, and I just haven’t been able to make myself stop/sit down, reflect, and document everything. Part of the reason for this blog is to tell friends and family all about our adventures, but it’s also for me and Andy to look back and remember everything we’ve seen and done – so I figured I better catch up before I forget it all.

We’ve settled into a bit of a rhythm for our travel plans that seems to be working well for us – we travel two weekends each month and stay in Geneva the other two weekends. We try to alternate them, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way because of holidays. We have two dog sitters that we alternate using, and Sam loves them both. Our weekends in Geneva have been spent skiing, hiking, and just relaxing, as well as any “life administration” we need to catch up on – cleaning, laundry, bills, etc.

So since my last post, we’ve been to London, Vail, Porto, Barcelona, Budapest, and Vienna…

London

London is a city that you really need to visit a few times to see it all, or you need to stay for a longer period of time than just the two days that Andy and I did. It’s just so big! It was also a very different experience culturally from our other trips so far, because it just doesn’t feel that…foreign. It’s very reminiscent of New York to me – HUGE city, people everywhere, culturally diverse, but everything is in English. 

Our first night, we got a late dinner and drinks here:

http://www.oriolebar.com/

It’s a Prohibition-style speak-easy, so unique and fun. We had fancy drinks with ingredients we had never heard of, Andy had one of the best burgers of his life, and we enjoyed live jazz music. 

We did our best to hit the London highlights: we had afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, and we took a “Big Red Bus” tour and saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. My absolute favorite thing we did was attend the Choral Matins service at Westminster Abbey. The church is obviously absolutely breathtaking, but the choir is even more stunning. It was one of the more profound worship experiences of my life, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting London. 

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/worship/general-service-times

Sidebar: I don’t think I’ve mentioned my work bestie Shannon on the blog before – Shannon is also American and started at my job the same day I did. In short, Shannon keeps me sane. There are many times when I feel overwhelmed/confused/frustrated by something I don’t understand about this country and culture, and Shannon is my sympathetic ear at work (and I’m the same for her). Experiencing this together has made her what I imagine will be a life-long friend.

Anyway, she’s originally from the Philadelphia area but moved to London in 2014, and she still “lives” in London on the weekends and in Geneva during the week (her boyfriend is British). She and Nick took us to dinner Saturday night at the Smokehouse, where we had an amazing meal:

 http://smokehouseislington.co.uk/ 

 

Vail, CO

What a fun and refreshing trip this was. Even though we lived in Colorado for 2 years, i.e., not in the same state as our families, being this far away is much different and much harder. Trips home are just not frequent enough, and the time change makes communication a bit trickier. The 6 days in Colorado were so wonderful and just what we needed. We flew in one day earlier than my family, so I got to see my old coworkers for a happy hour in Denver, and we were able to spend some time with two of our favorite people, Nicole and Michael Evans. 

We had an AWESOME time in Vail. Family + skiing in the Rocky Mountains = my happy place. Snow conditions were perfect, the weather was beautiful, and we made some great memories.

 

 

 

Porto, Portugal

Our weekend in Porto came at a perfect time. Basically, Porto is a charming coastal town where people go to eat yummy food and drink Port. That’s it. After some busy weeks at work for both of us, it was just what we needed. It was one of our more relaxing, un-scheduled trips, but here are some of the highlights:

• We took a food tour with this company: https://www.tasteporto.com/downtown-porto-food-tour. Portuguese food is kind of like Spanish food but not, and this was a great way to experience the town and try a little bit of everything.
• We toured two Port wine makers, Sandeman and Taylor’s. Neither of us really love drinking Port on a regular basis, but it was still a fun and interesting experience.
• We walked around a whole lot. We’d walk, stop to get a glass of wine, walk, stop to get a pastry, walk…it was great.

 

 

If you’re traveling to Spain, Porto is a great place to add on to the beginning or end of your trip to visit for just a couple days.

Barcelona, Spain

I had been to Barcelona before (I spent part of summer 2007 studying in Spain) and really loved it, so I was excited to go back and experience it again with Andy.  Barcelona is known for its pick-pockets, so I think everyone goes expecting it to be this scary, dangerous city – but it’s really not so bad. The streets are actually incredibly well-lit at night (I assume because of the pick-pocketing), so it’s really nice to walk around and explore. I think the key is to try not to look like a tourist and just blend in, and you’ll be fine. And bring your tall, 200-lb. husband with you. 

It was a pretty quick weekend trip – landed late Friday night, left Sunday afternoon – but we managed to get in a Fat Tire bike tour and a tour of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (and plenty of delicious Spanish food, obviously). 

It’s kinda weird to have brand-loyalty to a bike tour company, but we do, because: (i) Fat Tire Bike Tours was founded by an Aggie (actually a pretty cool story, you can read it here:  http://www.grouptravelparis.com/about/company-history) and (ii) they do a really good job. We did a bike tour through somebody else in Madrid, and it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. If you find yourself in Paris, London, Barcelona, or Berlin (the four cities in Europe that Fat Tire offers tours), I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to spend the day outside exploring the city, and also to learn a lot about the history and culture. 

The Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic basilica and the most visited place in Barcelona. The most interesting thing about it is that construction began in 1882, but the building still isn’t finished; it’s been started and stopped multiple times throughout the years, because the building is funded entirely by private donations. It’s the most unique church I’ve ever seen, and a lot of progress was made during the 9 years since I was last there, so it was really cool to see it again.

Budapest

Andy and I had been looking forward to visiting Budapest basically since we moved to Europe; everyone we know who has been to Budapest has loved it, and it was also one of the places we most strongly considered moving to besides Geneva. 

The city has a fascinating history, is full of beautiful architecture, and has tons of interesting places to visit and explore. 

BUT…it smells. 

Like, really bad. 

There’s a prominent homeless population, Budapest is somewhat of a party destination for Europeans, and there are no public restrooms. So. Yeah.

Also, we found Hungarians to be pretty unfriendly. Not just unfriendly, but often times downright rude. I got a lot of eye rolls and head shakes from waitresses, ticket vendors, bartenders, etc. when I opened my mouth and English came out. We usually try to make some effort at the local language (at least asking if they speak English first in their language), but that was kind of difficult for us to do in Hungarian. 

I know plenty of people who did not experience any of this in Budapest, so I still think it’s worth visiting and seeing for yourself. It just made us even happier about choosing Geneva, and we still had a very enjoyable trip. 

 

 

We toured the Hungarian Parliament building, took a cruise down the Danube River, visited Buda Castle, and checked out the thermal baths at the Gellert Spa. Dinner at this restaurant was one of the best meals I’ve ever had: http://www.onyxrestaurant.hu/en Aaaand that was Budapest!

Vienna

We went to Vienna straight from Budapest (they’re only a 2 hour train ride apart) and immediately fell in love with it…mostly because there was just an immediate, HUGE contrast as soon as we got off the train. It’s so very orderly, clean, and civilized, and with even more of the beautiful history you find all over Europe.  

This was another city where we spent just a whole lot of time walking, getting a coffee, walking, getting a pastry, and then walking some more. We did a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace (the last residency of the Habsburg dynasty) and visited the State Opera House, but mostly we just wandered.  

 

 

We were in Budapest and Vienna for the 4-day Easter weekend, so we managed to find an English-speaking church to attend in Vienna on Easter Sunday. Holidays over here can be bittersweet – we are of course creating lifelong memories, but we also miss our usual traditions, rituals, and our families. This church service will be a particularly sweet memory for me though; in Vienna, Austria, we sang some of my favorite worship songs and shared in the Lord’s Supper. Thousands of miles away and with a bunch of strangers we’ll never see again, we remembered His sacrifice for us and celebrated His resurrection, and it was awesome.  

Next on our list is Reykjavik, Iceland, and honestly, I’m pretty nervous about it. This is one of Andy’s lifetime bucket list trips, so I’m excited that he’s so excited, and it looks just beautiful. But it’s going to be cold (duh), and we’re going fishing in the cold…and I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that they eat puffin there. This is a puffin.

 

So I’ll report back on the puffin.