June 2010 – Globitrotter

Weather…

When planning to do a long Via Ferrata the weather forecast is quite important. You don’t really want to get stuck on a mountain secured to a 1 km long metal wire when a thunder storm arrives. So right now I am obsessed with the weather report. Until yesterday it was going to be brilliant in the area we are planning to go to but now it looks like this:

Damn. I hope they are wrong…. Guess I should start looking for something in another area where the weather might be better. Well, looking forward to going to the Swiss mountains and I am bringing my own sunshine anyway. 🙂

Glad midsommar!

The Royal Wedding

I guess many of you know that this weekend there was The Royal Wedding in Stockholm. An event that attracted an amazing amount of people, including some friends of mine and myself… Our plan was to drink something bubbly, enjoy ourselves and look at the spectacle.

We found a what we thought was a good spot to see the happy couple when they would go by in their carriage. Naturally we ended up seeing basically nothing (see picture above) because at the last minute loads of people who had been standing in front of the castle now came our way to see the crown princess again. And on top of that the glasses for the bubbly were stuck in the crowd somewhere else. Bummer. However we managed to take care of that in a bar close by, where they also had big screen tv’s. That’s where we should have been all along, of course…

The night ended well though with rooftop bar hopping and many glasses of champagne. This is the view from Hotel Anglais’s champagne bar.

My new favourite subway

This past weekend Andy and I visited our friend Birgit in Copenhagen. On our way to Christiania we caught the subway. This is the first time I have been able to sit in the very front of a subway train and look out the window when going through the tunnels. I was fascinated and this quickly became my favourite subway. Until now the Beijing subway topped my list where they have very long cars with poles down the middle which enhances the movement of the train. They also have these cool displays in the tunnels. But this was so much more fun. Like it!

Iceland – just the way it sounds

For Easter this year I went with Andy and his company to Iceland. I guess we were 20-30 people and the schedule was full. We spent in total 6 days on the island. We drove from Reykjavik to Akureyri on the north coast and spent most of the time in the area around Akureyri. The landscape around Reykjavik was not too impressive but as we came further north the views were simply spectacular.

Reykjavik.

The view from the house we stayed at in outside Akureyri. This is a very beautiful area which I would like to visit during the summer sometime. Unfortunately there was still a lot of snow in the north which made it difficult to go hiking and horse back riding. But of course perfect for the ones who wanted to rent snow mobiles.

Naturally we had time to visit a few of the many hot springs. This is the famous Blue Lagoon close to Reykjavik.

We also passed a number of water falls, this is Godafoss.

In Reykholt we learnt more about Snorre Sturlasson, the famous writer, who lived and was murdered here in 1241. You would think that such an important historic place would also look impressive but this was a tiny village with about 10 houses, 2 churches and a what looked like an oversized hotel.

I would like to return to Iceland but then in the summer and spend more time hiking or horse back riding. The best thing about this country is the beautiful and vast landscape. The worst thing is the stinky hot water…

Unexpected view of Manhattan

A few weeks ago I got stuck over night in New York on my way to Phoenix. I was not in a very good mood because it was a stupid mistake from the airline that made us come in a few hours late to JFK and I just missed my connection to Phoenix. They set me up at one of the crap hotels close to the airport and I basically just checked in, had dinner and went to bed (in smoking room which was all they had, yuck).

However I did get a beautiful view of the sunset over Manhattan as I came into the room which saved the day and improved my spirit some.

Nice

At the end of April I went to Nice with my friend Helena. The plan was to get away for a weekend, hopefully sit in the sun, eat good food and drink some wine. We managed with all of it, no problem. The weather was perfect, between 20 and 25 degrees and sunny the entire weekend.

We stayed at a hotel at the water front in the old town. It was the perfect location, very close to everything. Just a few minutes away was a square where they had a market during the day and outdoor restaurants at night.

We walked all over town, here we are on our way up the Chateau Hill which has a stunning view of the city and the coast line.

From the top of Chateau Hill you could also see the snow covered mountains in the north. Beautiful!

The old town had lots of winding streets with small shops and restaurants. The colours in Nice are amazing, the houses have the warm yellow and red tones, the blue water and all the flowers with many different colours. I remember thinking the same the first time I was at the French Riviera a number of years ago and it was as striking as back then. I still love the colours.

The small boats in the harbour were also colourful where they were squeezed in between the huge yachts.

A champagne picnic on the beach was an absolute must. Lovely! Could have stayed there for a long time.

Thanks for a great weekend, Helena!