The night brought mighty gusts of wind down the fjord, which could also be written to say that we didn't sleep a bit. By early morning, the rain followed and I rushed outside to gather in Ben's wet hiking clothes (read:basically all his clothes) so that he'd have something to wear today. Then, still chilled […]
Ben: One of my must-do's in Norway was to hike to a nice overlook over one of the fjords. Gudvangen has supposed easy to access to one such hike – Bakkanosi Peak. The hike was a little more than Bree was comfortable completing on her aching hip so she sent me to the peak solo, […]
Though rain splattered on our fly early this morning, by the time it we were packed up and ready to go, things had dried out a bit. We aimed our bikes north, left Voss, and got to pedaling up a series of river valleys with a gentle incline. The canyons were thick with forest […]
I cannot overstate how weird it is to live with this many hours of daylight. We went to bed last night around eleven, our tent still illuminated from the sun. (I end up burying my head under the covers to convince myself it is dark enough to sleep). This morning, the early dawn woke me. […]
With the arrival of morning (you know, at 3 AM) came a persistent bout of hip pain. We’d clearly be staying put today. Ben had loads of work to get done anyway, and our campground has a decent internet connection and a lovely fjord view. I’d never been so glad to be sitting tight. […]
With the weather as cold as it was yesterday, we let the morning settle a while before hitting the road. I left camp wearing a base layer, a jacket, and leg warmers. As we warmed up, we shed layers and then later, as we rolled through shade or downhill, we’d add some more. Temperature challenges […]
Weeks of research had left us with a bit of a puzzle. We didn’t have time to ride all the way to Norway, but land travel was seeming to be completely ridiculous. To get from Krakow, we’d need a long train or a car rental, a 19 hour ferry, and two seven hour train journeys. […]
Our last day in Krakow has snuck up on us a bit too soon, but our flight has been booked for weeks, so today we’ve simply got to get ready for our flight to Norway. First though, we wanted to visit the Jewish quarter of the city. Naturally, we didn’t do much prep work […]
We were on the fence about whether visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Krakow was something we wanted to tackle. We visited a salt mine in Germany a couple of years ago, and while we had a nice time, salt mine visiting isn’t something you need to complete really frequently. Still, this one boasted some […]
With plans for a real rest starting today in Krakow, we planned to visit Auschwitz concentration camp today. From our campground, the endeavor involved a bus, a tram, and a minibus, (roughly two hours of transit in one direction) and an extra shuttle between the two camps making the visit an all day endeavor. Traveling […]
Ben: After some long debates about whether or not to make an extra hard push and ride all of the way to Krakow, we decided it was in our best interest. The ride was 120-130 km, but covered some steep hilly terrain as we dropped out of the high Tatras and involved a border crossing […]
We woke to clear skies and cool temperatures – a perfect day for a hike in the High Tatras. We ate breakfast at the hostel and set out. I intended to complete a 7 hour hike up the mountain to a saddle and down the other side where I would take the bus back. Bree […]