For our 15th wedding anniversary we chose to revisit two of our favorite countries.
Scotland featured us traveling for 9 days exclusively on the western side of the country, while in Iceland we spent 3 days sticking closer to the capitol city of Reykjavik.
We hiked, we drove, we hiked more, we learned how to make our own rum and then went on another hike.
Check out some of our other posts to dive into more of this adventure. (Editor’s note: Including the fact we got to see COLDPLAY LIVE)
They say if you visit a place at least 3 times, it’s time to start looking for property. Ok, maybe they don’t really say that, but its definitely crossed our mind.
After booking our flights with Icelandair, we decided to take advantage of their stopover option and spent a few extra days at some of our favorite places in Iceland. Stops at the Blue Lagoon, Gjain, Stong, Geysir, Gullfoss, Efstidalur’s HLÖÐULOFTIÐ Farm to table restaurant (twice), Brúarfoss and Sky Lagoon filled our 3 days. The weather wasn’t perfect but when visiting Iceland you need to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature dishes out.
Check out a few photo highlights from our most recent trip.
So many distilleries to choose from when visiting Scotland and so many different flavors and regions to explore. This time around we visited The Oban Whiskey Distillery. Fun fact, this distillery, founded in 1794, is actually older than the town itself, and just mere feet from the harbor. Our guide Mike was fantastic and I’d highly recommend the tour if you ever visit Oban. They may be small in size but are a huge exporter of whiskey to the US.
The other activity we planned was attending Rum School at Pixel Spirits Distillery in the west Highlands. This was a 3 hour class on how to make rum by the master distiller at Pixel Spirits. In this class, we learned the process of how to make rum, and got to create our own concoction from an array of botanicals, bottle our own booze, and finally create and apply our label. This was a great hands on experience taking you through their own operation. Again, highly recommend if you want a unique small group experience. If rum isn’t your thing, they also hold a gin making class.
Scottish Highland Games- There can only be one!
After spending a few days in Glasgow, we headed north west to Oban. Our first stop was the Argyllshire Gathering Oban Games for an afternoon of culture and competition. We lucked out and were able to catch this 1 day event while we were arriving in Oban.
The Argyllshire Gathering began back in 1871, as a way of bringing families of Argyll together. The Games happen 1 day a year in different communities across the Highlands and include various track and field events, performances by the local piping bands, dancing and tug of war.
One of the signature events is Tossing the Caber; an event where a competitor must raise a tree trunk, weighing about 130lbs and measuring up to 20’, to a vertical position, balance it, and then run to build up momentum and throw the trunk in a way that the larger end hits the ground with the smaller end making a semi-circle in the air. The crowd was getting into it as each competitor made their attempt.
Another game that we were entertained with was watching the Scottish Hammer. In this competition. The contestants swings the hammer around their head and then releases it with the winner being the one who throws it the furthest distance.
Finally, no trip to the games is complete with the piping band.
Bucket list item checked off…seeing Coldplay in concert. Jason and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see them in Glasgow, Scotland and plan our vacation around the concert. #vincentadventure #ColdplayGlasgow #Scotland #vacation #bucketlist
Too much time has past since our last post and trip. We celebrated our birthdays this year with an escape from the cold Minnesota winter, and headed out to Palm Springs. We rented an Airbnb with amazing views just outside of Joshua Tree, and spent our time hiking at the national park and exploring the city. We visited Coachella Valley Nature Preserve, Pioneertown, the iconic Cabazon Dinosaur roadside attraction and visiting Mount San Jacinto NP. The trip was short but exactly what we needed to get away and recharge.
Part 2 of our adventure around the Ring Road. #Iceland #vincentadventure #travel #ringroad #sayyestotravel
If you’re interested, check out the video highlights of our trip as we made our way around Iceland’s Ring Road. In this first video, we traveled from the Blue Lagoon, around Snæfellsnes Peninsula, through Akureyri and to Egilsstaðir. #iceland #vincentadventure #ringroad
After being sidelined from traveling for a year, and having to reschedule our previous trip, we were so looking forward to getting back to travel adventures. With our vaccine cards in hand and negative Covid tests complete, we were off to explore. Iceland was exactly what we needed.
On this visit to Iceland, we spent 11 days, putting over 2000 miles on the rental car, traveling the ring road and the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Highlights of the trip included: hunkering down in our cottage on a horse farm in a storm with 40mph wind gusts,
a whale watching excursion where we saw a humpback and several pods of pilot whales,
conquering the roads of the eastern fjords with their high, narrow passes and no guardrails,
taking an upgraded “private boat” tour in the glacier lagoon,
hiking to the active volcano,
gazing at countless waterfalls,
soaking in geothermal pools,
seeing the northern lights for the first time ever,
and being tortured by Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habbits on repeat due to an apparent lack of songs to play.
The best part of the trip though was getting to spend time on this adventure with Jason celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary. There is no one else out there who would put up with pb&j car sandwiches and jam packed days cramming in as much sightseeing as one possibly can during daylight hours. Time to start planning the next adventure.
We're going on an adventure! 