Category Archives: Europe

When we flew into Reykjavík on Monday, the weather was beautiful.  I saw Surtsey from the plane.  Surtsey is a new island, created by a volcanic eruption in 1963.  I have always been fascinated by the fact there is land … Continue reading →

Our main UK destination was Devon, but I could not resist taking a quick look at Wales on our way to Manchester Airport to fly to Iceland. So our Wales visit had to be “American style”: very quick! The first … Continue reading →

Arjan went on a hike on the Devon South Coast at Hope Cove. I couldn’t walk that much, so I took the car up to the heights and did my own walking tour with my camera. It’s a beautiful place. … Continue reading →

On the day with the worst weather, we decided to go do a “town thing” and went to Plymouth, from where the Pilgrims once sailed to the new world. Plymouth is a beautiful town with lots of non-Pilgrim history as … Continue reading →

Arjan: We made an afternoon trip to Dartmoor National Park. The English moors have a character all their own. We had afternoon tea at the Two Bridges Hotel.  We kind of got into an afternoon tea habit in England.  When … Continue reading →

Next we visited friends, who live in a house that was converted from a barn that used to belong to the manor house just up the road. The barn house had a separate flat with an independent entrance, which became our quarters … Continue reading →

It was a relief to escape the London crowds on Sunday, when we rented a car at Heathrow airport.  After a rainy start, courtesy of ex-hurricane Bertha who visited England that day, we went towards the English south coast.  The … Continue reading →

London was incredibly crowded.  You had to stand in line everywhere or shuffle in a crowd.  We had three nights and two days planned.  On our first day we went to the British Museum, within walking distance from our hotel.  … Continue reading →

Next day we traveled from Groningen, in northeast Holland, to London by train. We had to change trains twice, once in Rotterdam with only a 13-minute connection, and again in Brussels on the Eurostar.  We were concerned about the tight … Continue reading →

One of the places I always wanted to visit is Schiermonnikoog, an island off the Dutch north coast.  Conceptually, it resembles Nantucket, off the Massachusetts coast.  It is an upscale tourist trap, famous for beaches and good restaurants, and it … Continue reading →