Touring Montpellier - Mom's Visit

We live in Montpellier.  So, naturally, in the year that we have been here, we have done almost none of the "touristy" stuff.  That's just how it goes right?  You assume because a city is now your home base, that all of it's offerings will always be available - "we'll go another weekend when we are bored".  And then, three years later, you find yourself surprised that you never even been inside the city's most prominent museum or gone for a walk around it's most beautiful park.  So when mom came over for a two week visit, we took the opportunity to don our tourist hats and explore the Languedoc!

Here are a few of the highlights...

An afternoon trip to Aigues-Mortes - a well preserved medieval city with a lively interior for both locals and tourists alike.  We stopped in on a Thursday, and the main city square had a live band set up and a fairly large crowd busy indulging in the party atmosphere - do these people not have jobs?  We toured the old city walls and hiked up the Constance Tower for a view of the pink water salt marshes.  The water really does look pink!  This is where they harvest all that delicious sea salt and fleur de sel you pay $11 for at Williams-Sonoma.  It's quite cheap here of course - one of the perks of living in the region.

Constance Tower, City Walls, and Canal at Aigues-Mortes

Pink waters of the salt marshes

Vineyard visits for some authentic French wine tastings - you can't come to France and not try some French wine.  And don't worry, I spit most of mine out.  Fortunately, this is not considered rude around here.  While vineyards around here generally don't tend to be as tourist friendly as the ones in the US, there are a handful of them catching on to the growing trend in wine tourism and who will accommodate drop in visitors for a tasting session.  The first one we tried had an actual website (this is a BIG deal here - businesses don't have websites!) posting their opening hours - seemed like a pretty safe bet.  Too bad they don't bother adhering to their advertised hours: closed with no explanation at all.  Irritating, but sadly typical around here.  With our itinerary foiled from the start, we had little choice but to the roll the dice and see what we could find.  On a whim we turned off at Chateau Lancyre.  It turned out to be a great choice - they were extremely welcoming and the girl running it even spoke English - what a treat!  Le Chemin des Reves was our other vineyard of choice for the afternoon.  The tasting room here looks new, and reminded me a lot of the wineries out in the Texas Hill Country.  It made me very eager for porch-sitting weather and the days when we can enjoy a bottle of rose on the patio again.

Chateau Lancyre

Vineyards at Chemin des Reves

La Plage - the beach!  During summer holidays, the beaches around here become jam-packed with tourists.  People will rent RVs and park it beach front for three or four weeks of pure beach vacation.  As an American, a four week vacation is unimaginable.  I would think after a week or two the clean clothes would run out and I'd be forced to do laundry, and then it wouldn't really seem like vacation anymore!  But it's standard around here.  During the summer, everyone is expected to take at minimum two weeks for vacation, and the beach is the place to be.  We even get "bonus days" for taking enough time off at once.  As in, take 10 consecutive days, get 2 free.  When I was working back in the U.S., I had 9 days total, which now seems inhumane compared to what they are doing over here in Europe.  Anyhow, since all of France vacations in the months of July and August, for the rest of the year, the beach is fairly empty on weekdays.  And on the day we went, it was completely empty - good for us!  Really, it seems like a waste of beautiful beach space, since no one is around to appreciate for nine months out of the year, but I suppose it's really too cold to swim outside of the peak heat of the summer anyway.  We passed a few hours with a nice mid-morning stroll in the sand under the bright Mediterranean sun, followed by a yummy pizza lunch.  I find few things to be as relaxing and calming as an empty, serene, sparkling beach.

The Med!

Picnicking at the Pont du Gard.  One of the most notable attractions of the Languedoc, the Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge dating all the way back to 19 B.C.  Obviously, the historical significance is huge, making it one of the most visited sites near Montpellier.  There is an onsite museum, a couple restaurants, and plenty of walking trails and green space to immerse yourself in the natural surroundings.  It is also a very popular swimming spot in the summer, although the Texan in me found the water a bit cold.  For the more adventurous folk, canoe rentals are available from a few kilometers up the river, so you can take in the aqueduct views from the water if desired.  Since it was a nice, sunny day, we opted to pack up the dogs and a picnic basket and found ourselves a shady spot with a magnificent view.  Lunch was followed by a stroll across the bridge itself and we topped the afternoon off with gelato before making the hour drive back home.              

Le Pont du Gard

Give me your sandwich....

We finished mom's two week visit with stopover in the city of lights - Paris herself!  I've been a few times now, and the city never disappoints.  In three short days, we took in our fill of the Eiffel Tower, trekked across the monstrosity of a museum that is the Louvre, took an evening ride on the River Seine, enjoyed classic breakfasts of croissants, yogurts, espressos, and orange juice, dinners with wine and cheese plates, hunted down the city's best chocolates, caramels, and macaroons, toured the Notre Dame Cathedral (did you know they have the original crown of thorns on display?) and partook in a little shopping along the Champs-Elysee.  While Montpellier proved a worthy and entertaining destination, in my eyes, nothing sparkles quite like beautiful Paris!

           

Cafe Gourmand - three deserts in one, plus coffee!  Easily one of the top ten french inventions

Swarming with visitors on a rainy Sunday

Babymooning in the Baltic - Part II

Continuing northwards from The Shetland Islands, our floating hotel next docked in the Faroe Islands.  Another set of land masses we had never heard of, belonging to some European country that seems in no way related to said grouping of islands - in this case, Denmark.  But when on a path towards Iceland, the choices for cruise ports are literally, few and far between, so to the Faroe Islands we go.  Of all the places we stopped on this cruise, the Faroe Islands were probably the biggest surprise.  It helps of course, that we had zero expectations of the place to begin with, but the pure beauty of the islands was breathtaking and mesmerizing.  We came back with about 400 photos, of which maybe 3 do the place some justice.  It's just that every new angle or change of the sun produced a stunning new view, all of which seemed photo-worthy.  Technically, we docked in the capital, Torshavn, but aside from driving through it, we spent zero time there (no souvenir shopping :( ).  Instead, we managed to get the very last two spaces available on a boat tour of the sea cliffs.  We had a scenic bus ride passing countless waterfalls, green valleys, and cloud topped mountains out to the cliffs, where we boarded a small, open top boat to go exploring the outer islands.

Within minutes, the only land formations in sight were towering green and gray cliffs that dropped straight into the dark blue sea.  We had a guided tour almost the entire time, but were so busy gawking at the scenery that we didn't pick up much.  We did learn that during the warmer months, these cliffs are covered in puffins, but they had already gone south for winter by late September.  We also saw old metal chains hanging from some of rocks, and were told they are left behind from when workers used to scale the cliffs and collect bird eggs out of nests.  From our vantage point, the cliffs looked to be pretty close to a vertical drop.  And yet, thousands of mountain sheep have no problem navigating them daily.  Not to worry though, the guide said they sheep are very good at it, and *almost* never fall off...                

This cruise was all about Iceland.  It's the real reason we all signed up for this otherwise uninspiring itinerary, and everyone on the boat knew it.  When people asked us where our cruise was going, the answer was always "Iceland!  And some other places too."  Well we finally made it all the way up to the big attraction.  And?  Well?  What was it like??  Pretty similar to a lot of other places actually.  Roads, cars, buildings, people, sea and mountain views (ok this was exceptional, but by now we were used to seeing this on a daily basis).  So fairly normal looking, until that is, you get out of the city.  A good 20 minute drive outside of Rejykavik (ray-kah-vick) and suddenly the landscape more closely resembles the moon than planet earth.  And we aren't the only ones that think so - astronauts come to Iceland for training because of the resemblance.

Moon rocks!

The downside of seeing Iceland (or any interesting place really) on a cruise, is that you only get about 8 hours for exploring.  So of all the exciting things and natural wonders Iceland has on offer, we had to pick just one, and like many first-timers in Iceland, we opted for the Blue Lagoon.  The Blue Lagoon is a natural geothermal hot spring nestled in the middle of a giant lava bed.  And yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.  Of course, man has interfered a bit in the past few decades to turn it into a full spa experience, blocking off sections and making it suitable for public swimming, complete with a swim up bar.  But the water at it's source is naturally heated, and naturally bright baby blue.  It's honestly hard to believe it's real when seeing it in person.  The steam rising from the water is easily visible on a chilly day, which in Iceland is every day.  It was about 50 degrees and didn't rain when we were there, "very pleasant!" according to the natives.  The water itself is more opaque than clear; it's full of natural "healing" minerals rumored to be great for the skin.  Free mud masks!  The cloudy blue water blanketed in steam gives it a glowing effect, made even more evident by the strong contrast of the surrounding black lava rocks.  It really is a one of a kind place.

Empty Blue Lagoon, before the crowds came in

Full of tourists!

By the time we left Iceland, we had been on the boat for 8 days.  The general consensus was that it was time to go home.  Iceland was over, and that was the only reason we were all there to begin with anyway, so let's just call it done.  But the cruise captain had a different opinion.  Instead, he took us to Sweden.  What is Sweden famous for?  What is there to do or see in Sweden?  We still don't really have those answers.  Granted, Helsingborg is probably not Sweden's number one tourist city, but the city itself seemed a bit dull.  We did explore "The Keep", a 14th century castle tower with a view to Denmark - literally, you can see Copenhagen across the channel.

We peaked into the cathedral, outfitted with your standard decorations, and as a Swedish touch, miniature viking ships hanging from the ceiling.

And we browsed a few shops, but leave it to Scandinavia to make France look affordable.  Besides, what's a good Swedish souvenir?  We couldn't find anything.  The town center itself was lively enough, attractive and well kept (a nice change from Montpellier), but aside from that, it seemed enjoyable, although a bit unremarkable.

Swedish Cafe

Last up on the schedule was one of the only big name cities we visited: Oslo, Norway.  Oslo is full of museums, many of them viking in nature, and has a fairly well established art and architecture scene.  We passed our hours in Oslo wandering around the famed Vigeland Park, an impressive green space decked out with 192 sculptures of humans in various odd forms.  And seeing as we were there in late September, we had the added bonus of fall colors on many of the trees, making for a gorgeous afternoon walk.  One of my biggest complaints about Montpellier is the lack of parks and green space, so this was a nice treat for us.  I miss having a great park nearby to take the dogs and a picnic on a nice day.  We also walked the town center a little, which was surprisingly busy for a Sunday afternoon when all the shops and restaurants are closed, but perhaps for a city as large as Oslo there is always a fair amount of activity.  We had only a short afternoon in the city, but I could see Oslo being a fun place to return to for a few days - exploring museums by day and plenty of nightlife and vibrancy for evening entertainment, not to mention the great day trips to nearby ski spots and some of Norway's famous fjords.

All in all, we had a great two weeks sailing through the North Seas and visiting unknown territories.  The cruise also had four "at sea" days built in, which were wonderful opportunities to curl up with our hot cocoas and good books and be lazy for a few days.  We are doing our best to take advantage of our last few months of child-free life before this baby arrives!  And for those of you that heard the honeymoon cruise dance competition story, you will be pleased to hear there was a repeat performance, and wouldn't you know it?  First place again!      

Receiving his 1st Place Dancing With the Stars trophy!