Page 3 of Downes Family Travel Blog Posts


Europe » Switzerland June 22nd 2008

Dear Friends and Family, Today will be in our top 3 for sure, but more on that later. I am typing on a strange keyboard, so this will be brief. Mostly to catch you up a bit...Our last full day in Paris included the Louvre (WOW - it is huge, but the Mona Lisa was one Big Dissapointment), Cathedral Chapelle (the stained glass window panels each tell a story from the bible and are the majority of each wall), icecream at Bertillions, as recommended, and then a wonderful dinner with some friends from back home. Nice to see familiar faces. On Tuesday, we walked almost a mile to the train station to take the train to Blois, about an hour and a half southwest of Paris, to stay with family. It was wonderful - their home ... read more
Chalet Fontana
Climbing from Birg to Schilthorn
On Top of Schilthorn

Europe » France » Île-de-France June 15th 2008

Dear Friends, Well, we promised you wouldn't be innundated with blog entries and, as it turns out, despite having regular and often-free access to the internet, we are too busy to write anything! Our typical days are 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.or 11:00 p.m. and we are all loving every minute. Our next to last day in Iceland was truly amazing and the best there. After spending the night at Sudur-Bar, a farmhouse on the north coast of the Snaefellsnes Penninsula in Western Iceland, we drove as far west as you can get in the remote National Park. After viewing a traditional fisherman's shack with sod-covered roof, we turned off the main road and headed inland on foot to do a short loop trail which took us to the top of the volcanic Rauoholl crater. Some ... read more
Hole in Rock
Traditional Sod Roof House
Sudar-Bar

Europe » Iceland » Northwest June 7th 2008

Dear Friends, We have arrived safely in Iceland and are trying to get into the groove of traveling together as a family and adjusting to life in a new country. As you can imagine, our final preparations to leave for three months and the emotional pressures of such a big trip hit us hard--especially after only a few hours of sleep on the plane and the four-hour time change. Thankfully, our first stop was to visit the world-famous geothermal hot springs called the Blue Lagoon just as soon as we got off the plane. As you can see from the photo, it is the most surreal blue water at just the perfect temperture to soak the day away with caves, waterfalls, and silica 'mud' to treat your skin. The weather has been windy, rainy, and overcast ... read more
Volcanic Crater
Sheep Everywhere
Long Drop


Dear Friends, This cartoon says it all! Bon Voyage to all. Love, Ken, Kate, Sam & Lauren PS--Click on cartoon for larger version... read more


Dear Friends and Family, We had some problems with our first travel blog. It seems that we signed up for a very low-tech knock-off of the much better version. We have canceled our old blog and you are now all signed up to receive an email notification whenever we add new content. Our apologies for any inconvenience to those who had to struggle to sign up with the old blog. If you received this message you need to do nothing else. When we officially depart in just 18 days (ouch!) you will start to receive more of these links from us. If you want, you can also log on to this site by going to http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Downes-Family/ A summary of our trip is below, which you can also find on the map section of the blog. Love, ... read more




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