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Great Smoky Mountains National Park: fog and lots of rain
We visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2015 on our 6 week road trip through the USA. Sadly, we couldn’t admire the Smoky Mountains that much, since we had rain and fog all day. Just before this we had driven the Blue Ridge Parkway. Where is Great Smoky Mountains National Park? The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in the states of Tennessee and North Carolina. It’s roughly between Cherokee in North Carolina and Gatlinburg and Townsend in Tennessee. Some facts about Great Smoky Mountains National Park The Great Smoky Mountains National Park covers some 521.490 acres and protects a great part of the Smoky Mountains. The park…
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Shenandoah National Park: bears and endless views
Back in 2015 we did a road trip through the USA, we drove from New York to San Francisco in 6 weeks. On that road trip we stopped at Shenandoah National Park. It was our first acquaintance with the Blue Ridge Mountains. They’re so beautiful! Where is Shenandoah National Park? Shenandoah National Park is in the Northwestern Part of the state of Virginia. Its located on a mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The park starts in the Northeast at the town of Front Royal and runs all the way to Waynesboro in the Southwest. Some facts about Shenandoah National Park Shenandoah National Park covers over 200.000 acres and…
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Grandfather Mountain: climbing rocks and a swinging bridge
Back in 2015 we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was simply beautiful. During our drive we stopped at several attractions just off the parkway. Grandfather Mountain was one of them, and was well worth our time. Yuri loved climbing the rocks and we enjoyed the grand views on the Blue Ridge Mountains. Where is Grandfather Mountain? Grandfather Mountain is located close to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. It’s in the vicinity of the town of Linville. The detour is about 3.3 mile or 5.3 kilometers, which is approximately an 18 minute drive from the parkway. Some facts about Grandfather Mountain The elevation of Grandfather is 5946 feet,…
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4 days in Switzerland: camping, mountains and cheese
In the Summer of 2016 we had a roadtrip through Europe and Switzerland was included. We hadn’t been there before, but were curious to see the beauty of Switzerland. We had 4 days in total in Switzerland and loved it. Our days were marked by camping, the beautiful mountains, cheese, glaciers and sadly rain. 4 days in Switzerland: itinerary In this blog I describe the route we took on those 4 days in Switzerland. Lots to see and do on the route. 4 days isn’t enough to explore the whole of Switzerland. We roughly followed a route, from Italy to France, through Switzerland and took 4 days for that in…
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A week in Austria: roadtrip itinerary
In the Summer of 2016 we spent a week in Austria, during a 6 week European road trip. We had such a fun time, before this week we had only been to Austria in the snow, which is magical on its own. Below I give an itinerary for one week in Austria. Austria is a perfect country for road trips. Where to start a week in Austria We started our week in Austria in Breitenwang. It’s close to the German border and to Füssen, Germany. Füssen is home to the famous Neuschwanstein castle and the Hohenschwangau castle. Both are beautiful and both are among the fairytale castles in Europe and…
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A dream come true: visiting Petra
Ever since I saw pictures of Petra in National Geographic years ago I wanted to go there. In 2015 that dream finally came true. Visiting Petra was everything I expected it to be and more. We visited Petra as part of our tour through Jordan. Visiting Petra: some history The start of Petra goes back to before Christ. The Nabataean, nomad people from Western Arabia, took over caravan routes. This way they founded a sort of ‘caravan kingdom’, with Petra as the blossoming capitol. Most of the buildings in the centre of Petra were built between 9 BC and 40 AC. The water plumping through the Siq is from the…
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Tour through Jordan
We went to Jordan on a grouptour with a tourcompany called Koning Aap. We went with a group, not because you can’t go on your own to Jordan, because you definitely can, but because we wanted Yuri to have some friends. We imagined Yuri would look for 5 minutes at Petra and then have enough of it. While we would be fascinated longer by everything there was to see. Our tought was that if Yuri had friends to play with, he wouldn’t mind us staying longer at the places. We were right. Petra was already a long time high on our bucket list. So when we had the money and…
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5 Things to do in the Gorges du Verdon with kids
France has so many beautiful regions to explore! A few years ago we visited the Gorges du Verdon region in spring. Our lodgings were at campsite RCN Les Collines de Castellane in the town of Castellane. The weather was warm already (most days even hot) and there is plenty to do in the Gorges du Verdon with kids. A visit to the Gorges itself is not described in this article. We planned that for the last day of our trip, but since rain was predicted, we weren’t in for a day out on the water. So no Gorges, but a visit to grottes and Grasse that day. Things to see…
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4 Winter walks in Götzens
Almost every year we take a winterbreak and go to a ski destination. Not to ski, but to enjoy the snowy landscapes. But this time we had a bit of bad luck; Yuri got a fever and couldn’t do anything. Paul and I decided to go for short walks in the area separately. One of us stayed with Yuri and the other one explored the surroundings. After lunch we switched, and the other one followed the same route. This way we made 4 beautiful winter walks near Götzens in Austria, before Yuri felt better and could go out and explore a bit with us. Mind you, we didn’t follow specific…
