I don't have a good shot of the Art Centre, so here's a nifty sunset instead

Edinburgh: sightseeing for free

Edinburgh: view from the World of Illusions

As I mentioned in the comments of my castle post, tourist attractions in Edinburgh tend to fall into one of two categories: free, and rather overpriced. Travelers on a budget can focus in on the free sights, as there are plenty. I chose to do a lot of both, because I was in Edinburgh for a long time, and because the average price per attraction is still pretty low if you average the free stuff with the expensive stuff. This post covers my favorites of the free sights.

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Faroe Islands: the expedition

Hey look, a post by Scott! 

As part of our trip to the Faroe Islands, we were treated to a one-day nature excursion run by CoastZone North Atlantic. When we got up that morning we had no idea what to expect. The first hint that it would be more than a simple hike came when one of our travel companions was told that her boots were inadequate and she was offered a pair to borrow.

mountain stream

Our head guide, Eyðun, had worked for several years as police officer in the Faroe Islands and looked the part.

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Germany has lakes and mountains, too

On Sunday we headed out of Munich with some friends to do a little hiking. The drive there took us past some beautiful scenery including green pastures and clear, aqua-colored lakes. It was not long until snow-capped peaks could be seen in the distance. It was almost as if we were back in Switzerland. The … Read more

Bernese Oberland, oh how I will miss you

And now for a more beautiful side of Switzerland… this weekend found us back in one of our favorite destinations, Murren, where we stayed at the Hotel Eiger. We paid a bit extra for a ‘superior’ room, which was superior, I imagine, only in the fact that it came attached to a balcony with a … Read more

Day trip: Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed north to the Rhine Falls (Rheinfall in German). It’s one of those places that has been on our we-should-get-around-to-going-there-someday list for quite a while, so the trip gave us a nice sense of accomplishment, too. We took the train to Schaffhausen and wandered around … Read more

Warning: Crumbling Alp Ahead

Alternate title suggested by GenevaGal: Alple Crumble Inspired by this Reuters article, we jetted (ok, trained) off to Grindelwald this weekend to see what all the fuss was about. It doesn’t take much of an excuse to get us into the Alps, especially when the weather is nice (for me, nice = anything but hot … Read more

Just another weekend in the Alps

This weekend we headed to Flims, a small town surrounded by panoramic Alpine views that are snowy in the winter and cowy in the summer (can you believe spell-check doesn’t like the word “cowy”?). There is nothing like a trip to the Romansch-speaking part of the country to suddenly make Swiss German sound familiar and … Read more