In the summer of 2015, we traveled to the US, and this is how I had summarized that trip:
“10 weeks, 6 cities, 1 wedding, visits to a few national parks, a U.S. Open tennis final match, a musical on Broadway, a cirque du soleil show, about 3000 miles on the road, rides on a ferry, few on a bus/train/tram too, but the best part of it all – so many cherished moments with family and friends. All this with an 18 month-old in tow. What a trip!”
At the time, I never thought I’d write a travel post to better it, but here’s how the summer of 2018 went: 9 weeks, 5 countries, 12 flights, a baby shower, a wedding, waterfalls and volcanic mountains, geysers and glaciers, hot springs and great big gorges, about 2000 miles on the road, rides on ferries, buses, trains and bicycles, 3 crochet projects, but once again, the best part of it all – so many cherished moments with family and friends. All this with a 4 and a half year old AND an 18 month old in tow. What a trip!
This is a short summary of that trip. Traveling with two kids is in general not easy, and a vacation does not feel like a restful time. But this trip was certainly rejuvenating, and totally worth it, just for all the time we could spend closer to nature.
First stop: Seattle. On the way to Mount Rainier National Park near Seattle
The elusive peak of Mount Rainier. It was almost always covered with clouds so getting such a clear view was a rare treat.
Next stop: Toronto. The smallest chapel in the world, near Niagara Falls Village, Canada.
Niagara Falls, what a sight!
The horse shoe falls part of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side
A bridge between two countries. We need so many more of these.
Next stop: New York. This was part of a special sensory and illusion show at the Museum of Natural History, New York. Replace “species” with “human being” and you have some very wise words there. Tolerance, tolerance, tolerance.
Next stop: Iceland. The spectacular view from our Airbnb in south Iceland. Just rolling green countryside with horses grazing, and mountains on the horizon. The mountain in the center is the infamous Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
This is the stuff holidays are made of!
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
A geyser at Geysir. Boiling hot water shot up every 7-10 mins up to 50 feet in the air. Rahul has much better pictures of course 
Gulfoss waterfall. Two cascades in this waterfall and then water rushing into the gorge.
This was a view from our cottage at nearly midnight. There was in fact a double rainbow which I didn’t capture with my phone.
Seljalandsfoss. We could walk behind the waterfall in a cave like depression, and got thoroughly wet.
The gorge at Skaftárhreppur. What a majestic sight this was! Water eroding and carving hard rock over millions of years to create these deep gorges with sheer rock faces. These kinds of places make you feel the weight of time, and how infinitesimal our lifetime is in the grand scheme of things.
Glacier at Mýrdalshreppur.
Next stop: Copenhagen. A cafe in Copenhagen, or København as its locally called. They used books as decor, grouped together by the color of the spine. My book loving friends with OCD might be having a fit now. Surprisingly, food was the highlight of our stay in Copenhagen. We found some really unique cafes, that served delicious vegetarian fare, smorgasbord style. The joke was that we would bike for 20 minutes and stop at a cafe for 2 hours to refuel.
This was one of the rooms in the place we stayed at in Copenhagen. I loved this house for many reasons. It had a whole wall full of books. There was no TV. There was no sofa in the living room, just a huge table with about 10 chairs, that seemed to invite people to sit around, play board games, eat, read, write, talk. It was an old style house that was furnished sparsely but comfortably. The place gave us an idea of how Danish people lived, and why they are supposed to be the happiest people on earth. This place oozed hygge: the Danish term for a way of living that’s supposed to be focused on happiness.
Next stop: Malmo. The original plan was just for 4 countries. But since we have the time, and Sweden is just a 30 minute train ride away, why not hop over and try some food there? So here we are, at the beach in Malmö . The highlight of course was the meal that followed the beach visit.
