Journeys and destinations...

After our trip to Iceland we were looking for the next destination to match the natural beauty of Iceland. I came across some pictures from Norway & started looking into the possible places to cover and things to do. Norway looked promising with not just natural beauty but also many new activities for us to do. The summer and winter activities were quite different. I am drawn more to the cold snowy places after living in western India most of my life. So, after experiencing the mid-night sun in Iceland in summer we got ready to face the polar nights of the Arctic Norway in winter. T his trip was before the covid chaos and regulations so it was a good time to travel. We visited three cities -  Tromsø Bergen Oslo Tromsø We began our trip from Tromsø in the north of Norway on 23rd December. It is located in the arctic  circle  and one of the best places to witness the  magnificent  northern lights. The weather was stormy and the temperature was -10 °C   on the day we landed. Neverth

  For the long Easter weekend, I was looking for a place in Netherlands to spend some time in nature, cycle around and look at spring flowers. Amsterdam and the surrounding areas are generally too crowded so I started looking at other places in Netherlands & found Texel! Texel is an island north of the mainland Netherlands. Why specifically Netherlands you might ask. Due to the pandemic, we had not travelled  outside Germany in the last 2 years and I was really missing the natural beauty of the Netherlands, the classic windmills, endless tulip farms and the tasty hot chocolate! The way to reach the island is with a ferry. Tickets can be booked online & the website has all the required information https://www.teso.nl/en/ .  The island is very popular with families with little kids. Somehow also very popular with families with dogs . Literally every family we saw had a dog. After a while my husband started missing having a dog 😄. The island has 7 little villages. The official we

The variety in flowers in nature always amazes me. Majority of the flowers in Germany were alien to me. Except roses, I guess roses can be found everywhere in the world.  This year due to travel restrictions and work-from-home, we explored Düsseldorf in spring like never before! Two more things helped. One we bought a car a couple of years ago & second I joined Instagram 😄. Up to last year we would visit a few parks in spring to admire the magnolias or the cherry blossoms but this year we planned special trips an hour away just to admire some specific flowers. The inspiration came from looking at photos on Instagram. Spring season here lasts from March to May. Every month nature (with the help of hardworking farmers & gardeners) creates displays of flowers of different colors, shapes and sizes. In this post, I am writing the timeline and places where we captured some gorgeous flowers. Every year timing of the bloom and location  could be a bit different . Hundreds of different

Germany is famous for the black forest region,  snow capped mountains,  numerous castles and picturesque villages frozen in time.  We (me and my husband) have checked off most of the typical touristic attractions in Germany. In t hese strange times we did not want to leave the country so I started looking for a summer vacation destination inside Germany.  Even after living in Germany for many years we had still not visited any beach in the north nor seen  Hamburg , the second biggest city in Germany. As I read more and started making a sightseeing list, I realized there is a lot more to see in north Germany beyond Hamburg. I was excited that this trip is going to be like no other as we would see amazing red brick architecture, white sand beaches, white chalk cliffs and hike through a national park😎.  I love the planning process before a trip and thoroughly enjoy creating a document with a detailed 'to-do' list for each location. Being child free allows us to be spontaneous an