We just spent two amazing weeks camping our way through some of the Islands and Highlands of Scotland. We have much to say about this stupefyingly gorgeous place but we’re back on the road in the morning so for now, just a handful of pics to share.
A few of the best days of our 11 months of European travel were spent at the Fringe Festival, walking aimlessly through Edinburgh’s dreary and magical streets.
Vienna encompasses all that Europe has to offer: If you want to see Turkish influence in Europe, you can go to Nachtmarkt. If you want to see the best museums in Europe, go to the Museum Quarter.
Even when when you can’t hear it, the city of Salzburg is ensconced in music. With the Salzburg Music Festival just starting it seemed like everyone had taken to the streets to play Beethoven Quartets, especially its many music conservatory students.
Driving on Austria’s Glossglockner Road reminded us of the quintessential trip to a National Park in the United States where tourists hop into a car and spend the day seeing the sights from the road.
At the top of the gorge the climate is dry and hot, feeling almost like the Sierra Nevada, though the Tirolean architecture and Alpine peaks in the distance remind you where you are.
Molly, Tom, Barb and I spent a week in a chalet at the Ropferhof Guesthouse in the Tirol region of Austria. The property is set next to a large network of hiking trails and consists of a chalet, large guesthouse and the Ropferstub’m restaurant which sit high above the Inn Valley, overlooking Alpine peaks . The owners,…
On day two we ascended three times higher than the previous day on Alta Badia, and landed on what looked and felt like the moon. It was unreal, and such a total departure from the lush meadows and rolling hills of the mountains below. As I write this two weeks later, we’re still drunk off…
Previously unknown and unimagined by three of us (except for Adam who had placed the Dolomites at the top of his list of things to see in Europe), we were collectively FLOORED (like jaws on the ground) by the vast landscape of uniquely laudable mountains in every direction.
On the rocks along the steps there are signs of where the glacier was in previous years and you as you descend you begin to comprehend the massive amount of ice melt that has occurred in the last 20 years and continues to accelerate.
The first thing we noticed about the Alps is that everyone is using the hiking trails: we’ve seen numerous 3 year-olds scaling peaks with their parents and an endless string of 80 year-old couples have passed by us on trails above the treeline.
Talmont is one of Pam and Fred’s favorite places to spend an afternoon and it quickly became ours too, when we visited in February. A fact which will surprise no one: the village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the most beautiful villages of France) association.
This time around, Bassac felt familiar and yet entirely different – this time we had the pleasure of being accompanied by my parents, of visiting with Pam and Fred and witnessing the astonishing transformation of France in bloom.
When Molly and I strolled through the Jardin des Plantes on a Saturday afternoon it was full of families and kids running through the lined bosquets trees.
Adam and Molly Go 