Faroe Islands

Have you ever heard of the Faroe Islands? Until about a year ago, I had never heard of this small country situated between Scotland and Iceland. My husband revealed that it had been on his travel wish list from before we even met. It struck me as funny that it took about 17 years before he let me in on this long held desire. 

We visited in September which is at the end of the ideal travel season. I was anticipating dreary, rainy days. Upon arrival, it was a little misty and grey. But we lucked out with some amazingly beautiful days, too!

Fishing accounts for about 97% of exports for the Faroe Islands. Needless to say, boats are plentiful around the islands. 

The Nix, represented here as a horse, is a fascinating tale from Faroese legend. It lives in the lakes of the Faroe Islands lures people to him and then drags them into the water to meet their end. But if you shout his name, he loses his power and you will live. 

If you know me at all, you probably know that I love church pictures. Charles and I jokingly said that we should create a book of all the churches on the Faroe Islands. We tried to capture as many as we could, but we definitely missed several. 

I also love ruins. These were beautiful!

One of our days was spent with a guide hiking up to a tiny little light house. The area around the light house was used in the filming of the most recent James Bond movie. Charles and I are not James Bond fans, so that part didn't really matter to us. But it was beautiful! 

The seal woman statue represents another legend from the Faroe Islands. I cannot do the story justice, so please go read it for yourself. The more I travel around Europe and hear local folklore, the more I wonder why Hollywood keeps making the same movies over and over. These legends would make really great films.

This church was in the town where our Airbnb was located. It was sunny in this part most of the time we stayed.

Our Airbnb! This place was fantastic! The views alone were worth staying here and the house was cozy and well stocked with everything we needed for our stay. 

The Airbnb was located on a sheep farm and we were allowed to wander around the fields. We made friends with several sheep. 

Hanging out with the sheep was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

The art museum in the capital was really neat! 

And because I can, a couple more churches to end our trip! 

The Faroe Islands were beautiful and peaceful. I am so glad that Charles made it a priority to visit. If you have a chance, please go! You will not regret it. 

Bergen, Norway

Our next big trip was a two-part one. The first part being Bergen, Norway. If I am being technical, it was really three parts. One night in Bergen, several nights in the Faroe Islands and then back to Bergen for a few more nights before heading home. But for the purpose of this blog, I am going to lump all of our Norway information together. 

Bergen is famously rainy. I went in with low expectations in regards to the weather. We were pleasantly surprised with decent weather while we were in town! Sure we had some rain and chilly wind, but we also lucked out with some sunshine!

On our first day in Bergen we took a walking tour which led us down cute alleys. We learned some of the history of Bergen.

Bergen was rife with street art! 

Another outing while in Bergen was a "fjord" cruise. It was pretty much just the fjords closest to Bergen, so it was more populated and less scenic than I would have liked. But it was a relaxing boat trip. 

We rode the funicular up to the top of the mountain for some panoramic views of the city. 

We did not eat nearly enough pastries while in Bergen. This was like a cheese Danish. Charles was happy to see mochas on most of the café menus. Surprisingly, we haven't seen that a lot in Germany.

We mostly avoid Mexican food in Germany. It's just not good. I saw a taco place with good ratings and thought we'd give it a try. It was actually pretty tasty!

We also enjoyed some Thai food while in Bergen. Yum, yum, yum!

This was the view from our Airbnb which was located outside of Bergen. Downstairs is an Italian pizzeria with some of the best pizza we have had in a while. The owner was so friendly and brought us fresh croissants every morning of our stay. His story about living in Italy and how he came to relocate to Norway was fascinating!

Vielsalm, Belgium

We had a random long weekend and decided to drive up to Belgium. We have visited Belgium once before, but it was quite awhile ago. On our previous trip we stayed in Bruges which would be great to visit again, but we did not want to drive quite as far on this trip. 

Originally we were looking at visiting Liege, Belgium. Have you heard of liege waffles? Yup... same liege. After searching the map on Airbnb, though, I found this converted military bunker and thought it would be a neat place to stay. 

And now Suzie has visited six different countries!

We're not sure what the metal piece on the top means, but we joked that the place is owned by the Illuminati. 

The location of the Airbnb was so idyllic! We were surrounded by fields. It was exactly the peaceful and quiet location I was looking for. 

This general area of Belgium is significant in WWII history, specifically because of the Battle of the Bulge. There are museums dedicated to this history in the area, but we did not visit any. On our hike, though, I felt like I was in scenes from Band of Brothers. 

Adjacent to the town center was a lovely promenade around the lake. It was the perfect spot for an evening stroll!

Vielsalm is also known for its folklore, especially their witch history. The town has a museum and annual festival dedicated to it. We did not visit the museum since I could not tell from the website if the displays were in English, but we found this broom on our stroll. 

Vielsalm ended up being surprising. I was expecting a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere, but the town had quite a lot going for it! You could tell that it is a popular place for hikers and the town had a variety of restaurants. It was perfect for a weekend getaway!

Sunflowers, Lavender and Aix-en-Provence

Not only can you find fields of lavender in Provence, but also fields of sunflowers! This one was up the road from our Airbnb so on our last night in Rians we drove over and took pictures. 

On another evening we drove out to Valensole to see if we could find these famous fields of lavender. Upon arrival, we discovered that most had been harvested already. We saw only one field that still had blooms. I was prepared for this, especially because it had been a hot summer already. It was still a bit of a let down. 

But before heading home, we found a spot with a great view. 

I did not see a lot of street art on this trip, so I had to snap a photo of this one.

The final city in our tour of Provence was Aix-en-Provence where we booked a food tour through Airbnb. Charles and I agreed afterward that it was our least favorite food tour out of the few we have done since being in Europe. The food was pretty good and our tour guide was friendly, but it did not provide a lot of detail about the city and why we were eating the things we ate. The French desserts were tasty, though!

Aix is known as the city of fountains and they were EVERYWHERE! Thank goodness, too, because it was soooo hot. We splashed water on ourselves from just about every fountain we came across.  

Gorges du Verdon and Moustiers St. Marie

A highlight of our trip to France was a visit to the Gorges du Verdon. When I saw pictures of the Gorges during my research phase, it looked too good to be true. I have learned that many bloggers edit photos to look more amazing than the locations actually are. But in this case, it was just as impressive in real life. 

A popular activity is to rent a boat and cruise along the water. You can rent a paddle boat, kayak, canoe or an electric boat. Because it was ungodly hot, we opted for an electric boat to reduce the amount of effort we would have to exert. It turned out even better than we thought because the electric boats have covers unlike the other boat options. This is a win for us pale skinned folks!

In anticipation of this trip, I searched out tips on how to pose in pictures. This is my attempt to be more "Instagram worthy". The water was a beautiful turquoise color! 

If I am correct, this was a first for Charles--driving a boat. It was so easy and relaxing. 

These sandals are amazing! If you need some cute, but super comfortable sandals for walking, check out Ecco! 

After our boating time came to an end, we visited the nearby town of Moustiers St. Marie. We parked below the town in a lot off the main street and took a little train up to the town. It was perfect because it was hot, hot, hot! Luckily there were fountains scattered throughout the town. We splashed water on ourselves to try to stay cool. 

The town was adorable! We stopped for cool drinks at a café and had gelato at another place. 

If it had been cooler, we probably would have spent more time in town. But it was just ridiculously hot and uncomfortable. Before heading out, we did stop at a market vendor selling pottery. Charles picked out a mug and we chose a cat figurine to add to our little collection.