Claire and I undertook a three-week trip to Europe in August 2018. The first leg involved air travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, a three-night stay in a Copenhagen Airbnb with our friends from Australia, Marg and Murray Osborne, and then an eight-day Norwegian Fjords cruise with Marg and Murray to the Norwegian ports of Stavanger, Bergen, Alesund, Geiranger and Kristiansand.

Many thanks to Tamara Hellman at Classic Travel & Tours in Jefferson City for arranging our cruise and setting up some great flights (with well thought out layover times between transfers) to Europe and for our return flights to Kansas City.

First, the Airbnb.  It was a beautiful second-story apartment, and gave us the opportunity to experience the way that the locals live.  It was located in the Cuban district, and we got an immediate idea of what that meant when we put our belongings in our respective bedrooms and noticed the packages of earplugs in bowls beside our beds.  The old buildings in Copenhagen do not have air conditioning.  At the time of our stay, Copenhagen was experiencing record heat (daytime temperatures in the mid to high 90’s and night time temperatures in the mid to high 70’s).  This required the windows to be open at night, which allowed the cacophonous reveling of the bar patrons on our street to be heard just like they were in bed with us!  Nevertheless, it was an adventure and one that we were grateful to have experienced.  Copenhagen is a beautiful city and I highly recommend both day and night exploration.

The eight-day Norwegian Fjords cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship Serenade of the Seas was a great experience.  The ship is a smaller one (2,490 guests and 891 crew), so there aren’t wall to wall people, which makes getting off and on the ship relatively easy at ports.  We only took one cruise-associated excursion, which was out of our first port (Stavanger); the Lysefjord Cruise.  I highly recommend it.  You will see amazing fjord landscapes, and a water’s eye view of Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), which is the site of the showdown fight scene in the recently released Mission Impossible: Fallout (it can be seen at the 13-second mark of the trailer – click here).  Photos taken during this excursion will be processed and posted as soon as I receive them from the company that was hired to extract them from the SD card that failed and could not be read by my camera or computer.

At the ports of Bergen and Alesund, we rented cars and went sightseeing on our own.  I highly recommend touring Hardangerfjord (from Bergen) and Trollstigen (from Alesund).

At Geiranger, you MUST rent a Renaut Twizy from eMobility and drive to the Dalsnibba summit.  It is an experience that you will never forget, and if you’re a photographer you’ll have access on your descent (because you are instructed not to stop on the way up) for some absolutely stunning photo opportunities.  Granted, it’s not a cheap endeavor (almost $300 for the three-hour rental), but it is worth every penny!

At our last port, Kristiansand, we took a taxi to the Cannon Museum and a promontory point from which the Nazis during World War II built Movik Fort to deter the Allies from traversing the Skaggerak Strait between Norway and Denmark.  At the site there remains a 38 cm caliber cannon that had an effective range of 34 miles.

Upon our return to Copenhagen, we took a taxi with Marg and Murray to the airport, where I got to introduce Marg (who loves licorice) to Jagermeister at an airport bar!  She loved it (or at least she let on like she did).  After saying our goodbyes until a western US trip that we have tentatively planned next September/October 2019, we flew to Edinburgh, Scotland (via Amsterdam) and met up with my brother, Corby, and sister-in-law, Renate.

We went on a six-day, self-drive photography tour that was arranged for Corby by Hannah of Wind and Cloud Travel in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Wind and Cloud specializes in making travel arrangements for Germans traveling in Scotland.  Hannah took care of everything (rental car, accommodations, trip plan, etc.).  All we had to purchase were our lunch/evening meals, tickets for tours, etc., and our fuel).  She did an outstanding job, and I highly recommend Wind and Cloud Travel (if you are German and, for some strange reason, end up reading this blog post.)

The Edinburgh bed and breakfast at which we stayed for two nights was The Torfin.  I highly recommend it!  They have great accommodations (the rooms are named after Scottish whiskeys…we stayed in Laphroaig) and the bar and pub food is top notch.

As far as Edinburgh goes, it is a great city, but I would NOT recommend going there during the August high tourist season.  Between being the most popular time for Europeans to take vacation and the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is held every night for three weeks in August, the streets of Edinburgh and all of the tourist sites are so full of people that you can hardly walk.  We spent time downtown, toured Edinburgh Castle and had High Tea at the famous Balmoral Hotel.  I hired a cab driver for 90 minutes one night and got a ride to a point near the top of Arthur’s Seat for some night time time exposures.  During the ride I engaged in some great conversation with the cab driver, who was a retired Edinburgh firefighter.

From Edinburgh, we drove to Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands.  The Highlands are stunning!  Photo opportunities everywhere you turn!

Our Fort William bed and breakfast was Torlinnhe, which is situated on the banks of Loch Linnhe.  The hosts, Andy and Sue Keen, are wonderful people and excellent sources of local knowledge.

One morning, upon the advice of Andy Keen, Corby and I got up early and drove to the Steall Falls trailhead, from where we hiked a couple of miles to Steall Falls, the second largest waterfall in Scotland.

On our final full day in Fort William, we drove to the Isle of Skye and took a car ferry back to Lochart (at Mallaig) and drove back to Fort William.  During our stay, we saw many amazing, beautiful and stunning sites.

Our last night was spent in Callander, at Coppice House, which was an elegant bed and breakfast.  We spent the night packing and getting ready for the driving trip to Edinburgh and our flights back home.

Finally, our three-week trip came to and end, and we had to say goodbye to Renate and Corby.  We returned the rental car, after seven days of driving on the other side of the road, without any new dents, dings or ouchies!

There are many photos from the trip, and more to come after photos from our Lysefjord excursion from Stavanger are extracted from a SD card that went bad.  If you’re interested, I publish my photos on my SmugMug page, which can be found by clicking here.

This trip proves what Claire and I have always found to be the case; the most enjoyable and fulfilling way to travel is with friends and family!