After a long day of travel, we slept in and took our time getting out to see the city. Brad booked us an Air BnB in the city so it was pretty convenient to walk… we started at the Louvre, had some crepes, learned about the locks on bridges, then ended the day at the Eiffel Tower.
Day 5 was an 11 hour train ride from Rome to Paris…. Long day!
Day 4 in Rome started out WET! Brad had arranged for a small tour of the Colosseum with two other families… both happened to be from the states and one family was from southern Oregon!
After the Colosseum, we rented bikes and rode outside of town down the Appian Way. It’s one of the original Roman roads originally built in 312 BC. And of course, more Italian food and gelato…
We took the train to Naples and then on to Rome. Trying to get on track with our sleep schedule, we dropped our luggage at the hotel and went for a walk. We passed the Colosseum, stopped for gelato (again), and wandered the city.
Today we explored Pompeii. Kenzie did a lot of research about the city for her 4th grade independent project so she was able to tell stories about the places we saw including the House of Stephanus, the Garden of Fugitives, and Pompeii’s Coliseum.
Tonight ended with another torrential downpour, this time with huge hail!
The day started off with a 6am flight to Newark then an 8 1/2 hour flight to Naples. From there we took an hour bus ride to our hotel in Sorrento, passing Mount Vesuvius along the way. Since our room wasn’t quite ready, we explored the town then returned for a 5 hour nap. We ended our first day with gelato, more exploring, then a torrential downpour!
After visiting the rural parts of Iceland, we wrapped up our trip with some time in the only major city in Iceland (Reykjavik). We started with a Segway tour (that’s our go-to move in a new city to get an overview of the place, hit all the popular spots, and see what we want to go back and spend more time visiting). Having rental scooters in town was also a great way to get around. Some of the highlights included visiting the Reykjavik fire department to trade patches and check out their engines, walking around the downtown shops, and visiting the Icelandic penis museum. Yep, that’s right, who knew, but we wandered by an “interesting” storefront and sculpture that caught our attention and discovered that Reykjavik is home to the Icelandic Phallological Museum. You just know we couldn’t pass on checking that out. The museum was ok, but the gift shop was definitely worth a stop! 
We did skip the Phallic Cafe after learning about traditional Icelandic food (shark that has been buried 6 months to ferment, puffin, and horse). I’d rather not know what was on that menu.
After a week away, it was time to head home and pick Kenzie up from grandmas house in California. Great trip, and a perfect place to venture out after the last year in lockdown!
On one of our last days in Iceland, we did the Golden Circle, which is a popular day trip from Reykjavik. It was an easy day, with some great scenery. We saw the original “geysir” (where the word comes from), an incredible waterfall, and some of the most historic areas of Iceland where the origins of government developed over 1000 years ago.
So after a day of recovery from hiking the volcano, we were ready to try another long hike. This time it was to the hot springs thermal river. This river is created by geothermal springs and so the water is the temperature of a hot tub. It’s was a long hike to get there, but a pretty amazing experience relaxing in a 100-degree river for our now daily Icelandic “soak.”
After hiking the volcano we headed down the south coast of Iceland for a few easy days of sightseeing. Lots of waterfalls and beautiful scenery. We went as far as Vik (which you might recognize if you’ve been watching the Netflix series Katal, that red church should look familiar). We ended the first day at a restaurant serving traditional Icelandic food. But we were not feeling that adventurous so we played it safe and ordered fish and chips from the tourist menu.
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