We are a family of 5 traveling the world for one year. We are attempting this entire trip around the world via trains, ships/boats, and automobiles -- yes, that's right, no planes.
It must be said that the Higmans have a lot of luggage. (OK, I will get a better picture when we are above ground.)
And, are eating their way through Scotland…. Our tour guide kept saying “it must be said” so I’m figuring it’s a Scottish saying.
Big Scottish Breakfast
“American Pancakes”
Smoothie bowl
Burger
Dinner at the Castle Pub
Drinking J20 – their new favorite drink of passion fruit and orange juices
Udon
Bento Box
aubergine
Black pudding is not our favorite but everything else was good. Their American pancakes were baked, I think. Texture and look were a little different but tasted good, nevertheless.
Edinburgh Castle was crazy. It sits on top of this huge rock. Did you know that many parts of Scotland were formed via volcanoes. The landscape is a lot like what we saw in Norway. I can see why they put the castle up here. It would have been very difficult for anyone to get into. As with anywhere in Europe during the summer season, there were a lot of tourists.
Edinburgh Castle
So detailed
castle tower
Looking to the new(er) area of Edinburgh
So many tourists
In the living quarters
the Crest
chandelier
Ready, set, shoot!
way up on the rocks
On to Inverness we go. It is definitely a lot colder here. We went from 90 degree weather in the Netherlands and London to 60 degrees in Scotland. The landscape is beautiful and very green. We will be exploring Inverness more tomorrow.
Beautiful landscape on the way north.
River Ness
Streetsof Inverness
Finding cute streets in the center of town.
Cute street
Is this Scottish?
We will be heading to Lochness tomorrow to find Nessie! I’m determined to find her so stay tuned!!
We struggled our way to the car rental and finally, we are off!. Oh no, I didn’t get a picture of it. I’ll get one for the next post.
Getting out of London took a long time but we finally arrived in Scotland! It is as beautiful as we had expected. The kids were really excited. Justin is mastering driving on the right side. We only had one “oopsie” but we are still alive. Jayden saw the ocean and said she really missed seeing the ocean. Ummm, haven’t we been on a ship for the last 19 days??????? Our silly girl.
We are finally off the ship and are embarking on the road trip part of the trip! From Rotterdam we took the Eurostar to London. It was very comfortable and fast! Amtrak definitely needs an upgrade!
Through the Chunnel on the Eurostar
Jevy and me.
St. Pancras station.
London lifts are very small.
sushi in Lodon.
Noodles that were not so great.
Of course we had to visit a pub.
Kids and their orange/mango soda.
Cheers, mate!
Of course we had to have sushi on our first night then off to a pub. The kids thought it was pretty funny that they could go into a “bar.” We were told that most pubs are family friendly so we took advantage of it. Cheers! On to our next adventure!
We have two days here so we decided day 1 will be Amsterdam (only a 40 minute train ride) then day 2 will be Rotterdam.
First order of business – Apple Store. We needed to unlock Jayden’s phone because she locked it on day 1 of the cruise. We hadn’t even left the U.S., for Pete sake! But, we discovered that a teenager can be without her phone for 2 weeks. It’s possible!!
It took us about two hours to get her phone up and running but we all got to use the wifi to update our iOS and apps, and Justyne got an art app lesson from one of the employees. The app is really cool and can get really detailed.
Justyne’s drawing with ProCreate on an ipad
Justin had a long conversation with Dennis, an employee, who told us about a great restaurant – Cannibale Royale. I tried a traditional Dutch Bitterball. I had no idea what it was so wanted to try it. Wasn’t really my favorite but wasn’t bad. It’s an acquired taste. The rest of the food was amazing!
Wings and BitterballPastrami SandwichBurger with baconPulled Pork Sandwich
Next stop river cruise. But we had an hour to spare so stopped in the Rijksmuseum. We lost the kids a couple of times but ended up finding them. Oh well, we tried.
We forgot to take a picture of our tour guide, Roy, but he was hilarious. He spent some time in Michigan and worked at a Dutch village. When he first started the owner was giving him a tour and he showed him “Tom” plugging a hole in the dike with his thumb. Roy had no idea what the owner was talking about. Apparently, in the Netherlands they don’t learn about the little boy who plugged the dike with his finger to save the entire country from flooding. 😊
Gay pride was the previous week so we got there in time to miss the mayhem. One houseboat was half under water from the partying.
river cruise
Sunken house boat
River cruise
Oh look, there’s Roy!
I think this is one of the Prince’s houses.
What a pretty city. Will definitely be coming back!!
Next stop, Rotterdam! The end of our first leg of the trip…or is it the second leg. I’m sure I’ll mess it up more than once during the year. Rotterdam is Europe’s busiest port and the 3rd busiest in the world, after Shanghai and Hong Kong. We also learned the pilgrims left from a neighborhood here in Rotterdam, Delfhaven. The pilgrims settled in the Netherlands before leaving for the U.S. I need to brush up on my European history!
Welcome to Rotterdam!
There’s our ship – home for the last 19 days.
We learned that they used the windmills, among other things, to grind grains – for consumption as well as for distilleries. The neighborhood we loved is Schiedam and was known for having many distilleries. Many windmills are now museums or even restaurants.
Windmill
Schiedam neighborhood
The highlight was definitely the Markthal and the cube houses. A smart person bought one of the cubed houses and turned it into a tourist attraction. Just seeing the number of people in and out I bet they make close to $250 a day. That’s good income!
It was definitely small but looked quite comfortable. Europe has been experiencing a heat wave, too, so it was quite hot on the top floor with all the glass. The kids want to buy one as a vacation home.
Our favorite was the Markthal. Anything having to do with food is our favorite! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Everything was so beautifully displayed, too. We discovered that there are hot dog stands everywhere in Europe. Our new favorite snack is the Stroopwaffle. So so delicious!
Markthal. The downstairs is the market. All those little windows are homes. I love the use of space.
The most decadent chocolate cake, ever!
Yummy candy.
They love hot dogs in Europe.
Iberian ham.
DONUTS!
mini donuts/cupcakes
Our new favorite snack – Stroopwaffles!!!
Oh, we cannot leave the Netherlands without a shot of bicycles! Now, this is parking!
We LOVED Norway. What a beautiful country. Though the weather didn’t completely cooperate with us, we found both towns to be charming and the people very nice. Scenery was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Reminded me a lot of Colorado, without the fjords, obviously.
Norway’s population is about 5.2 million and it is the size of California. The most interesting thing I learned about Norway is how they treat mental health. Since the winters are so long there is a lot of depression. Apparently, they have therapy centers for said depression but it’s in the Canary Islands. Sometimes your partner can also be sent there with you. So, I think I’ll move to Norway, get depressed, then get sent to the Canary Islands. 🙂
First stop was Alesund. Though it sprinkled a bit we were able to see everything we wanted. The town was rebuilt after the 1904 fire in art nouveau architectural style. So, it’s very pretty and colorful.
The Vikings were tough people. They sailed across the ocean in little boats (literally a boat, and hot a ship) with no cover. They even carried goats and sheep in the boat for food. We visited the Sunmore museum where they had replicas of viking ships and old style Norweigian homes. Many of the homes have grass roof to keep warm.
Viking Ship
Back to the olden days
what a beautiful lake
Homes with grass roof
Then, we went above the town to Fjellstua to get the best scenery! Jevyn then found a troll (they were everywhere in Norway) and saw an antique…a phone booth!
Fjellstua
Overlooking Alesund
Trolls were everwhere!
What is this antique????
Then we were off to Eidfjord. This little town is at the end of the Hadangerfjord and was so cute. This is a wealthy little region due to the Sysendam which produces a lot of hydroelectric power. All kids between the age of 2-5 are in kindergarten and 70% of kids between 1-2 are in kindergarten. These are all private schools so families need to be able to afford to send the kids. The area also wants to attract more people so it will give you land and 200,000 kroners to build a house. Hydro power in Norway can run 90% of the country. Norwegians use 3X the electric than other Europeans. The dam is made with no concrete, only rocks. Our tour guide’s father worked on the dam and wanted her to make sure we all knew that no concrete was used! Hadangerfjord is the 2nd largest fjord and the longest fjord in Norway. This area also has northern Europe’s highest mountain plateau and hosts about 10,000 reindeer. We didn’t take a lot of pictures because it was rainy and foggy but it was beautiful. Interesting fact: Norway is a “right to roam” country. That means, you can camp anywhere there’s open space but must be 150 meters away from any house or cabin. Everyone is expected to be thoughtful and considerate. Of course, there are other rules but it’s pretty cool that you can just pitch a tent somewhere in the wilderness.
Eidfjord
Sysebdam
Family at the dam. It was raining.
We also took a trip to the Voringsfossen waterfall. It’s the most famous waterfall in Norway and has a free fall of 145 meters and total fall of 182 meters. Here was our view.
Here’s what we should have seen.
We visited the Norsk Natursenter. Really amazing displays of now Norway was formed. There was a panoramic movie taking us through the area and we finally got to see the fall! The highlight was seeing the goats on the roof. Since the roof is made of grass it grows in the summer. So they put goats up there to “mow” the grass. They even built little houses for them up there.
We then went to have lunch in a really cute restaurant. The owner is from the area and her husband’s grandparents lived just a few houses over. The structure was built in the traditional norsk way using only pegs so no nails. It also had a grass roof. The meal was reindeer! Kids absolutely loved it. Jevyn and Justyne both had seconds. I don’t eat game animals but even I have to admit it was really delicious.
We were sitting getting ready to listen to Greta Salome. She’s an Icelandic musician, mostly known for her fiery violin skills. We have to get to most events an hour before the start time in order to get a seat. I think the average age of the guests is about 75, maybe even 80. They like to get to events early!
So, we are sitting there and a woman comes up to me and says “there’s a beautiful picture of you and your daughter out there in the gallery. Have you seen it? It’s gorgeous.” I’m thinking, Jayden (she was pointing to Jayden) and I didn’t have a picture taken anywhere by the ship’s photographers. The only pictures were when we disembark at the ports and it’s always of the entire family. So, I’m thinking what is she talking about? Did they maybe take a candid shot that I didn’t see? I go out to the gallery after the show and it dawned on me what she was talking about. There’s a photo that the photographer brought on board from her studio as a sample and the old lady thought it was me and Jayden. Looks nothing like us except they are Asian. See blow. We laughed our asses off when we realized that this was the picture she was talking about. Apparently, all Asians still look alike to senior citizens 🙂
Day 2 got us out of Reykjavik and into beautiful landscapes. We drove around the south west of the island through some interesting landscape. It’s basically all lava fields. We went to some hot springs and I wish I could have jumped in because it was really cold outside. We ended the tour with a “taste of Iceland” of what they call lobster but I think it was too small to be lobster. The gentleman next to me thought they were crawfish. “Lobsters” were thrown away until very recently. They used to get caught in the fish nets and the fishermen though they were such a nuisance. It wasn’t until recently they started eating it. But, it’s really not everyday food…more for special occasions. It was good but there was no dessert!!!
Jev up on lava rocks
Hot springs
Restaurant where we ate lunch
The yurt room
Jevy had the lamb
lagostas!
Church of Mary
Little houses built into the ground for elves (I made that up)
We finally arrived in a big port — Reykjavik. This is a very interesting country. There are no indigenous people on this island. The first settlers were the Norse but there are some documents that say that the Irish had discovered the island before the Norse. They speak the original Norse language so if someone time traveled from 1000 years ago to present day Iceland, they can communicate with modern folks. That’s so cool! Interesting fact, beer was illegal here until 1989. There are no McDonald’s but we saw Pizza Hut, Domino’s, KFC, and Subway.
We visited the Blue Lagoon on day 1. I enjoyed it because it was very warm water and the weather wasn’t great, though we did see the sun. It was very busy but I never felt this was unbearably crowded. There is plenty of room for everyone…except at the walk up bar. I finally had a green juice after weeks of unhealthy foods. They also gave us masks full of nutrients. We were supposed to come out of there 10 years younger. I don’t think it worked for us.
The kids were also a little nervous about the changing room. They were supposed to shower with soap, naked, before entering the pool. The thought of being naked in front of people freaked them out. I’m used to this as I grew up going to public baths. Jayden reported that it wasn’t as bad as she thought.
The family
Masks
Dad and the girls
Kids
Walk up bar
We then spent the afternoon walking around the center of town looking for wifi to fix Jayden’s phone. So so cute. Justin and I keep commenting on how clean all the cities/towns we visited have been. Most people spoke English very well. Our tour guide was hilarious. “They say we are one of the happiest countries in the world, but that’s crap! With three months of the year without sun it’s really depressing!” He had lines like that all day. “They also say we’re one of the most religious countries in the world, that’s bull shit! We have a lot of churches but they’re all empty unless there’s a special event!” Seriously, it’s the people that really make it fun. General population didn’t seem very happy, though. Just chugging along. The Church of Hallgrimar was amazing. It’s a Lutheran parish church and the largest church in Iceland.
Church of Hallgrimur
The organ inside the church
A long word
Subway in Iceland
View of the Church from end of the street
Cafe Loki (Jevyn has a friend named Loki who’s mom is from Iceland)
A grass rooftop
View from top of the Church
Cute colorful street
Church of Hallgrimur
The organ inside the church
View from top of the Church
Cafe Loki (Jevyn has a friend named Loki who’s mom is from Iceland)
Today is a ship day. Notice how I’m finally catching up and am in present tense? We cruised for about 7 hours through Prince Christian Sound. The first couple of pictures will show where we were. The most amazing scenes. I cannot imagine being here in the winter. We also saw a little village of about 150 people, only accessible by boat or helicopter. Justin and I always wonder about sanitation in these towns. They are settled on rocks so there cannot be a septic system, right? Hmmmmm. Where does their trash go?
There are way too many pictures to share here and I will update some later but here’s the beginning. Justin and I were glued to the views for hours. I’m grateful that I can be on the elliptical machine while enjoying the views.
Jevyn also joined the Viking Polar Bear Plunge. It was a little anti-climatic because the water was about 85 degrees, they dropped 2 buckets of ice in, then said it was cold. Haha. Not quite cold enough for the Jevster.
Southern tip of Greenland
Prince Christian Sound
Beautiful Reflections in the water
Beautiful peaks
Amazing Glacier
Beautiful Ripples in the water
different ripples
more ripples
Blue face Viking
Ice to cool the 85 degree pool. Not quite enough, folks.
We finally made it to land today … Greenland!!! Yaaaayyy. The water was smooth and it was a beautiful day. Qaqortoq is a small village on the western side of Greenland. They use Danish Kroners and speak Greenlandic. It’s a place where they still hunt seals and sell seal fur. It’s a little weird for us Californians to experience all this but we have to respect that this has been their way of life for thousands of years. (note: if you click on the photos you can read the captions.) On the ship’s visitor information for the ports they listed a Thai restaurant called Bon Thai. We thought it would be fun to have Thai food in Greenland so after walking around town we followed the map to find the restaurant. As we were walking Justin sees 3 Thai ladies and he says “follow them.” We gave him a hard time because we thought it was very insensitive of him to think that every Thai person would work at the Thai restaurant. So, we walked in circles for about 20 minutes and asked several pedestrians and no one could understand us. We finally get back to the center of town and asked a store owner. He tells us that the restaurant moved and it’s now called “In Box.” We go to the other side of town (which is a 5 minute walk) and go into a building. We tried 2 doors in the building and no luck. We get out of the building and see there are 2 Thai ladies and ask them. Apparently, lunch doesn’t start til 2 pm (it was 12:15). Hmmm. Very weird business model – ship is in town, lots of visitors including a lot of Thai workers on the ship, and they don’t open while we are in town???? So, the lady was very nice, we thanked her. Justin was right, one of the ladies was a woman we saw earlier. Moral of the story is that we should have followed the Thai people.
Higman Travels 