BEST OF TRAVEL 2020

JANUARY 2021

First of all, I want to wish you an amazing 2021! Compared to 2020 it should be a good year, hopefully with a lot more adventures. We are currently expecting our biggest adventure of the year, because little Huug is due in a few weeks. I always love reading highlight lists, so therefore I decided to do a travel round up of my 2020 travel highlights. It might be a little less adventurous and exotical than usual, but given the circumstances we have really made the most of this partypooping year.

1) Sintra (Portugal)

Sintra in Portugal was high on my bucket list and I was able to visit it just before the Corona madness started. I convinced my mother to come with me on a last minute trip in February, a week before I was about to start my new job. Sintra is famous for its many castles and sweeping views of the Portuguese country side. The absolute highlight of this trip was being the first to enter Palácio da Pena and having the fairytale like red, blue and yellow castle to ourselves before the crowds started photobombing this place one hour later. Visiting Portugal in February was magical, there were significantly less crowds, while we got super lucky with the weather having 23 degrees every day. Read my blog about Sintra here.

2) Lavender fields in Sault and Valensole (France)

I couldn’t believe I was in France’s lavender fields, even though I was standing in the middle of a heavily smelling purple sea of lavender. We visited Sault and Valensole in the beginning of July, when the borders of France had just opened again and I couldn’t believe we actually arrived to this lavender heaven. We bought a drone especially to capture the beauty of the lavender fields and had so much fun as we were allowed to fly pretty much everywhere above the fields. After staying at home for so many months, this trip felt like an absolute dream which I am super grateful for. You can read my blog about the lavender fields here.

3) Dolomites (Italy)

The pictures of this trip might not be as spectacular as I hoped, but the Dolomites still are number three on this list. We suffered from bad weather when we visited the Dolomites at the end of September, we had to plan things early in the day to avoid the rain and often had cloudy views. The Dolomites are still number three on this list because this is the spot I want to get back to as soon as possible to explore more. We only had a few days to spend in this area, which is much too short. The Dolomites reminded me of Patagonia and a time where we could freely travel. The combination of being able to do hikes of all sorts of levels in the most stunning surroundings and eating amazing food is an important reason to come back! You can read all about our hike in Alpe di Siusi here. And while you are in the area, check out the Zillertal as well.

4) Tuscany (Italy)

To be honest, Tuscany had never been high on my bucket list, but it was one of the only regions with little restrictions for Dutchies in September. And I was very happy that we ended up in Tuscany during this weird year. This gave me the opportunity to visit Florence again, but now with a better camera and photography skills. We also fell in love with the Tuscan landscapes and cypress trees, which was a lot of fun to capture with our drone. The only unfortunate about this visit was that I couldn’t do any wine tastings because of the pregnancy and I love Italian white wines 😉 You can find our itinerary in Tuscany here.

5) Kew Gardens London (UK)

When you visit bucket list items they are super epic or a great disappointment. My visit to Kew Gardens London fell in the first category. Kew Gardens is a botanical garden with beautiful glass houses, just outside the city center of London. I visited with my great friend who lives in London, which added a lot of excitement to this day! The glasshouses were the stunner of the day, but we also were super lucky that some cherry blossoms and daffodils were already in bloom when we visited. I loved my visit to Kew so much that it deserved its own blogpost.

6) Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Germany)

Before 2020 I definitely did not know that Germany so much to offer, so that is one good thing that can be traced back to 2020. Germany is an incredibly diverse country, with charming towns, metropolitan cities, beautiful mountain lakes, stunning castles and ugly industry taking turns. Rothenburg ob der Tauber had never been on my radar before, but having visited this perfectly preserved medieval town I can only recommend everybody to bring a visit. Maybe we get lucky next year and we are able to visit the Christmas market of Rothenburg! You can find my blog about this colorful town here.

7) Paris (France)

I make sure to visit Paris each year as Paris never disappoints. France was one of the only countries that allowed non-households to rent a house together, so I was able to bring my mother and sister along on this trip. Every time I visit Paris I discover new things to visit, while I always try to visit oldie favorites such as Montmartre, Galerie Lafayette and the Eiffel Tower. This year we combined our visit to Paris with a visit to Versailles, where I hadn’t been for over 10 years. Read my most recent blog about Paris here.

8) Vlieland (NL)

One location that really surprised me this year was Vlieland. My father in law has a love affair with Vlieland and took us to Vlieland for a weekend. I was in constant awe of the natural beauty of this island and loved being able to go to the beach for sunrise and twirling in the mossy dunes in the afternoon. If you are looking for the perfect weekend break in NL, look nu further than Vlieland! I have written an extensive blog with all the activities that we did on Vlieland.

9) Partnachklamm (Germany)

Sometimes you encounter a true hidden gem on a holiday and to me the hidden gem of the year was the Partnach gorge, which can be found near Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany. My family yearly goes on a skiing holiday in this area and I convinced them to visit the Partnachklamm with me. The Partnachklamm is often closed in wintertime because it gets obstructed by snow easily, but we got lucky and visited on a bright day, which was cold enough to enjoy all the icy stalactites, a true magical sight! You can read my blog about this experience here.

10) Pilatus mountain (Switzerland)

Little did I know that this would be the last time I would see snow in at least a year, so looking back I appreciate our day at Pilatus mountain even more. Hielke and I visited Switzerland by train in February and did a day trip to the Pilatus mountain near Lucerne. We had some issues getting there at first, but finally we were able to ascent the mountain with a super expensive gondola. On top of the mountain you will find yourself in a James Bond movie, you will understand what I mean when you look at the last picture 😉 We were not prepared for how snowy Pilatus mountain was, otherwise we certainly would have brought a sleigh, so do not make that mistake! You can read about our fun day here.

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