hiking – Wandering Watsons

Santorini, Greece!

We just got back from an AMAZING trip to Greece! It was absolutely beautiful and a perfect, relaxing vacation. We hiked, walked around town exploring the awesome & unique Greek architecture, chilled on our Airbnb porch, ate a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, and Greek fava, & loaded Ryker up with so much sunscreen haha. Great trip! More details in the captions below!

Baby is asleep, time to enjoy some wine with a view from our Airbnb!

Our Airbnb was AMAZING! What made it such a great experience were our hosts. The host’s mom lived next door and she adored Ryker and brought us homemade Greek treats almost every day. We felt like we were part of the family!

Enjoying the sunset while eating Tomatokeftedes Santorinis (fried tomato fritters) that she made us!

Our awesome cave Airbnb! We stayed in the town of Finikia, which was about a ten minute walk from Oia. It was perfect! We were able to live among the locals, but could easily access the restaurants, wine bars and beautiful streets of Oia.

One of the many stunning views of walking around Oia. Oia is the town on the island known for its beauty and sunsets as well as a romantic and more quiet feeling. (On the other hand Fira is the capital of Santorini and is known more for shops and nightlife.)

This was the rooftop of a library/bookstore in Oia – so cool! Also a perfect diaper changing spot because nobody was there ;)

Santorini wine! At a cute little spot called Meteor Cafe in Oia.

Oia! From here is where we hiked down to Amoudi Bay.

One afternoon we ventured down many steps to beautiful Amoudi Bay. The water was perfect and refreshing and it was so much fun to watch Ryker play in this little tide pool – he loved it! His favorite thing to do was move the rocks around in the water!

Freshly caught octopus in Amoudi Bay, we ate some of this (after it was grilled in delicious spices) and it was amazing!

Amoudi Bay – Ryker just woke up from his nap on the go and is ready for the water!

Ryker loved playing with and sorting these rocks! He would make piles and move them from one side of Eric’s legs to the other, back and forth :) Ryker loved playing in this little ocean puddle!

Delicious calamari from Dimitris Taverna! So fresh!

One afternoon we did a little wine tasting at Domaine Sigalas. It was about a ten minute walk from our Airbnb and had great wines!

Ryker and Eric ready for our big hike! We hiked from the town of Fira all the way to Oia, which is about 6.5 miles.

The Fira>Oia hike takes you through several towns as well as some volcanic landscape right along the coast.

Sweaty and extremely lathered in sunscreen! Amazingly none of us got sunburned on this trip :)

We picked up gyros and kababs one night for a picnic dinner with an epic view.

On our last day, we spent an afternoon at Kamari beach! We didn’t stay long because of the heat and sun, but we all got to get in the water and cool off!

Definitely a trip to remember! I highly recommend a Santorini vacation! :)

Ronda

Another rented car and another beautiful trip! We took a day trip to Ronda which is the quintessential white hillside town in Andalusia.

We didn’t fall in love with the town, it’s pretty touristy and doesn’t have a ton to offer.

BUT – Ronda is split in two (the new Spanish part and the old Moorish part) by an amazingly deep river gorge with the bridges connecting the town. It’s really dramatic and picturesque. Amanda and I hiked down into the bottom of the gorge on a wandering “trail” with old ruins to explore scattered along the way. At the bottom we climbed down a rope and tree to a swimming hole between two big waterfalls. This part was incredible.

The Sierra Nevadas of Spain!

We took a fascinating, adventurous and gorgeous trip back to Granada and the Sierra Nevadas of Spain. Just like last time we really enjoyed Granada. There is so much unique culture in one place. Amanda and I agree it’s our #1 recommended spot to visit in Spain and it’s one of my favorite cities in Europe to visit.

It’s only about 1 hour in a tiny blue car to Granada from our house in Nerja! It’s fun to jam on the freeway and look down to see the speedometer at 130 (km/hr that is). Then, after marveling as we walk through the Alhambra, exploring the many caves of Sacramonte, watching the sunset with a beer in hand from a cave bar, and enjoying the odd but delicious tea, silly hookah bar, colorful knick knack markets, and African food of the Albaycin, we continued on to the mountains!

It’s a 40 minute drive in a red lining little car in 2nd gear up to the ski resort of the Spanish Sierra Nevadas. It’s way up there and it’s an amazing view from the top! We took a great hike up to we think around 12,000 feet.

Then… We decided to take the long way home. That means a curvy, dirt road filled, trip about 5 hours down, around, up and over the mountains and then back to Nerja. It was worth every bit. Gorgeous and way too much fun.

We saw a huge damn, a fake stag on a rock off a dirt road that tricked us for too long, the most amazing fall colors I’ve ever seen, and interesting geology similar to a mini grand canyon at times.

This was a really fun and freeing trip!!

In the Alhambra in Granada with our “Watson” sign written in Arabic

Norway: The Land of Stunning Scenery & Adventurous Folk

Norway was absolutely beautiful! We went on several amazing hikes and had a very relaxing 5 days through Norway.

From Stockholm we traveled to Oslo and spent one day there. Then Eric and I headed to Bergen! As we traveled to Bergen we did a Norway in a Nutshell Tour that took us on a scenic train ride, a fjord cruise, and a few bus rides to see many different parts of Norway – all of which where breathtaking. Here’s just a few photos…

After leaving Oslo, we headed on a scenic train ride to Flåm. From there, we took a 2 hour fjord cruise!

IMG_20150922_090213 — After the fjords, we made it to Bergen! A beautiful, adventurous city on the coast. This view is from the top of an epic, half-day hike up Mt. Ulriken along the ridge to Mt. Fløyen.

IMG_20150922_095058 — Another picture from our Mt. Ulriken hike – stunning! PS – While we were on this hike, we saw a Norwegian 8th grade class! There were about 35 kids with backpacking gear and a few teachers; they go out on the tough trail for a few days as part of their PE class – no wonder everyone is adventurous and athletic in this country!

This pretty strip of colorful buildings is Bryggen (a street in Bergen) and it’s full of restaurants and shops. Right around the corner from Bryggen is an amazing sandwich cafe called Godt Brød – and boy do they have good bread!

This is inside Bryggen (the colorful buildings). There are 3-4 stories of wooden hallways like this with various shops, restaurants, and cafes.

We decided to have a little photo shoot in Bryggen because it was fairly empty and there was really cool lighting haha :)

Overall, Norway (Bergen especially) was a nice relaxing part of our trip. Lots of hiking, nature, and cooking dinners in our apartment. The air was crisp, clean, and refreshing!