I asked Matt to write something about his family's visit. See below.
My family visited...
I'll translate for you - We spent a great two weeks in Oslo, Geiranger, Prague, & Munich with my family. We hope they enjoyed traveling with us as much as we enjoyed having them!
*Most photo credits to Matt, his mom, and the automatic timer!
Oslo:
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| Vigelandsparken |
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| Frognerseteren |
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| Sognsvann |
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| experiencing typical Norwegian weather |
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| the captain |
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| and his crew |
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| Oh, big brothers. |
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| The sun came out for dinner! |
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| The family drove up to another lookout point and came across this beautiful, crystal clear river. |
Matt & I had an incredible day kayaking on the fjord and hiking up to an abandoned farm, Skageflå. Fueled by the best freaking cup of hot chocolate ever and the determination not to let my fears make Matt miss out on yet another hike, I was ready.
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| Look to the middle of the picture for the abandoned farm. Not pictured is a small bay among the trees at the bottom right where we docked the kayak. |
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| Redemption hike, b*tches! |
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| Matt will even tell you that, although a shorter distance, this hike was much more challenging than Sentiero Degli Dei in Positano, Italy. MUCH steeper! |
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| for my dog nieces & nephew - Juliet, Wendy & Gerry |
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| We had the place all to ourselves, so... |
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| a flock of kayakers |
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| I'm pretty much a badass now. |
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| Hiking & kayaking in the rain felt like an official induction to Norway. |
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| We paddled in front of the cabin. Luckily they were looking out for us! |
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| Best day ever. |
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Prague:
It was great to share a favorite city of ours with family and to also enjoy it with the warm August sun, rather than the cold March rain.
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| Duty called, so Matt had to stay back at the hotel for a full day of work. C'est la vie. |
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Munich:
There are some cities we have visited that make us think, this would be a nice place to visit again. Then there are others that make us think, I could live here. Munich is one of the others.
Contrary to what I just wrote, we have one picture from Munich. It's just another reason to go back.
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| Pints at the Chinese Tower in the English Garden |
We took one day out of Munich to travel about 2 hours south to the Neuschwanstein Castle. This fairytale castle was commissioned by a real weirdo, King Ludwig II. The poor guy lived here only 6 months before his mysterious death. It later became the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle and I imagine rakes in loads of money for the Bavarian government with more than 1.3 million visitors a year.
Our advice for this tour would be to book a bike ride and hike along with it. The tour of the actual castle was less than 30 minutes and quite lame, but the surrounding area does the castle justice quite nicely.
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| The bike ride was 5 km around a beautiful lake. |
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| Someone's prince charming could be in there. |
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| The clouds parted at lunch time to reveal the Austrian Alps. |
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| Up the mountain we go, first passing a water mill that is the castle's water source. |
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| Queen Mary's Bridge |
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| Hohenschwangau Castle, the more modest castle where the king's family lived |
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| the view from the bridge |
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| looking down from the bridge |
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| check me out getting over my fear of heights |
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| the view of Queen Mary's bridge from a castle window |
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| And everybody lived happily ever after. The end. |
