Tag: Travel

Lübeck: Family, Marzipan & the Baltic Sea

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Old men are stubborn. This saying is notoriously true, and was a prominent part of our trip to Lübeck. We stayed with Richard Wolf, who was my grandmother’s neighbour before her and her family left Germany in 1952. Richard turned 90 this year! His wife of over 60 years, Barbara, who I met last time I visited Lübeck in 2008, passed away three years ago. Richard’s English is minimal at best and thus we were thankful that Brigitte, Richard’s current partner, was around to help translate, although sometimes things get lost in translation. Continue reading →

Travel Day Blues

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We were literally flying from one paradise to another: from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia to the Greek Islands. However, travelling is not always as fun, easy or as perfect as it sounds. And today was one of those days. On paper it was clear that it wasn’t going to be a great day: we had an early morning flight out of Split, Croatia with an eight hour layover in Rome, arriving well after dark in Mykonos, Greece; but we were hoping for the best. Continue reading →

Entering Continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel

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The Channel Tunnel is one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Modern World’ selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It connects the UK to continental Europe. I remember thinking: wow, you can drive across the English Channel. Of course, being in England and on our way to Belgium, we wanted to go across the Channel Tunnel. The high-speed train is the obvious choice, until you see ticket prices. We went with Megabus (a coach bus company) and expected it would take the ferry and we would miss the tunnel altogether. So, when we arrived at the Channel Tunnel Border Crossing we were slightly surprised, a little excited and vastly disappointed. There was a train stuck in one of the tunnels and we had a minimum three hour wait ahead of us. Continue reading →

Seven Day Stopover in Iceland

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Our plan was to fly from Vancouver to Europe and we were looking for the cheapest city to land in – Paris, Frankfurt, London, etc. We checked prices to Reykjavik out of curiosity (I had always wanted to go Iceland) and they turned out to be surprisingly cheap. While Icelandair offers a “free stopover up to one week” en-route to Europe, it was even cheaper to only book a flight to Reykjavik with them and then another airline to England (we flew into Bristol with EasyJet). Continue reading →

Our Vacation from our Vacation (Quintana Roo, Mexico)

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After a 12-hour journey from San Igancio, Belize (and four buses) we arrived in Playa del Carmen – our one week vacation spot. During our relaxing week in Playa del Carmen, it rained over half the days. Now, if we’d actually been on a one-week vacation (like most of the tourists here) we’d have been very upset – but given we were just here to chill out and enjoy some spicy Mexican food before flying to Cuba, we weren’t too concerned. It did however mean that we didn’t get up to a whole lot. We had planned on visiting Cozumel and maybe a couple cenotes but we axed all that. On the few sunny days we had, we ventured down to the Mayan ruins of Tulum, visited Akumal for its beach and sea turtles and hit up the beaches in Playa – which were absolutely covered in seaweed that the stormy weather brought in. We also ate out at least once a day, breaking our “we cook 80% of our meals” rule – oops. But Mexican food is just so tasty. And Mexican ceviche – omg.

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Argentina’s Famous Wine Region: Maipu

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From El Chalten we took a 12 hour bus to Los Antiguos (a small lake-side town famous for it’s delicious cherries) where we spent one night. From there we bused another 12 hours to Bariloche – an extremely over-priced ‘resort’ town (we paid 90$ CAD per night for a tiny private room and shared bathroom). *No post on Bariloche* After three nights, we hopped on a ‘super-cama’ bus (executive class) to Mendoza. 19 hours later, we arrived in Argentina’s famous wine region.

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