cyclingdiva

San Sebastian was the destination I was most looking forward to on this trip... It is a resort town located on the north coast of Spain, full of beaches, and a hot culinary scene with a total of 16 Michelin stars! They are also famous for pinxtos, essentially this is what they call tapas in Basque Country... but they are often served with a toothpick through them and almost al restaurants and bars serve up a least some Pinxtos. When we first got to San Sebastian, Maxine and I BOTH blew our wheels on our suitcases - what are the odds of that happening! So unfortunately suitcase shopping was now on the itinerary. Too many cobblestones i suppose :( We had some lunch on a patio in the middle of an old bull fighting arena-now-turned plaza ... read more

After a great day in Sintra, we hopped on a train and headed north up to Porto.... Porto is Portugal's second largest city, and in my opinion, the most beautiful... It is situated on the Douro river and known for it's picturesque bridges, Baroque churches and old school Port houses. Our first intro to Porto was unfortunately a bit dicey lol! It had been raining when we arrived by train, it was damp, grey and misty... We used trusty Google maps to find our way from the train station to our apartment that had some rave reviews on both trip advisor and Expedia.... apparently it was only 500m from the station... yay right?? Google maps sent us up this street - aka steep cliff-like-hill who's name LITERALLY translates into 'Body Guard" in Portuguese.... We started our ... read more

Finally arrived in Lisbon after an overnight flight from Toronto... Underground metro took us within meters of our Airbnb! After we got settled, we took a stroll down our street, Rua Augusta - a busy pedestrian street with mosaic cobblestones, lots of shops, restaurants and buskers - anchored by Arco de Rua Augusta and Praça do Comércio, which is right on the river. Baixa was constructed after the massive earthquake of 1755. It is a very touristy area, but fun, with a great vibe. We sat and had a few beers on a patio before cleaning up for dinner. For dinner we met a friend at Sommelier Lisbon in a district just north of Baixa... The food was spectacular, but even more impressive was their wine selection and tasting bar... You get a card when you ... read more

After an intense 2 days of sightseeing, we decided to give ourselves a bit of a sleep-in, have a decent breakfast and tour around ReykJavik. For the past few days, we have been eating Skyr for breakfast…Essentially Icelandic Yogurt that is more like cheese. Its really good, but filling! We headed to a great little “Koffihaus” about a block away from our flat. In case I forgot to mention, our place is in a GREAT location in central Reykjavik, walking distance to everything. We had a nice breakfast, latte and decided to start with the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour. I’ve done these in a few cities and they are great especially for getting you bearings. This one wasn’t quite as remarkable, but we got to see the city and it got us to the locations we ... read more

Our first full day in Iceland! We had a tour pickup scheduled for 8:30... Alarm set for 7, and at 5:30am I am appalled to wake up to the upstairs neighbour blasting (and singing) Baby Got Back... WTF SERIOULSY!?! We later found out that like Canada, Iceland also has a national holiday today. Asshats upstairs didn't get home until 5:30 and decided to have a singing party upstairs. So jetlagged as I am - Maxine and I were up early to start our day and first full day of vacation. :( Todays tour was a full day through the Reykjanes peninsula - which contains Reykjavik, Grindavik, The Blue Lagoon and a number of other important towns. the peninsula is also where the North American and European tectonic plates are divergent plates, meaning they are opposing each ... read more