Planes, Trains & Rental Cars: Our favourite experiences...so far.

I asked each family member to name their top 3 experiences and top 3 places visited, intentionally keeping it tight to force everyone to name what stood out as the most memorable. The risk in doing it this way, however, is that by distilling it down to a confined list there is a feeling of injustice done to everything else not listed - a bit like being forced to choose your favourite child. In fact, even just looking through the photos to include in this blog post reminded me of all the random special moments over the past few months which may not technically be considered an 'experience' for purposes of this blog post but will always remain special. (Maybe a Most Memorable Moment list will be next).

Given that we still have a few months ahead of us this is likely to change but, nevertheless, this is the result of our family 'survey' on our favourite things done so far. There were many similarities but also some surprises.

Scandinavian/Arctic Winter including Northern Lights – Finland, Sweden, Norway in January (Kat, John, Cindy)

Somewhere on the road between Muonio and Rovaniemi, Finland

Northern Lights captured from Tromso, Norway
Photo credit: John Matias

Northern Lights captured from Tromso, Norway
Photo credit: Katrina Matias

Standing in sub-zero temperatures in total darkness, in the middle of the night
to see and capture the lights on camera.
It was worth it. Tromso, Norway.

Life and culture in Seville (Feria, Semana Santa, Spanish Lessons, Flamenco Show) - Seville, Spain (Kat, Bea, Miguel)

Feria de Abril

Semana Santa

Flamenco Show

Photojournalism Workshop – London, England (Kat)

Kat with photo journalists (L-R) Anastasia Taylor-Lind (work featured in National Geographic, Human Rights Watch, published a book on work about Maidan, Ukraine) and Alice Aedy (work featured in The Guardian, Help Refugees UK, Greenpeace)

Husky sleigh ride - Abisko, Sweden (Bea)

Play time with the huskies was just as fun as the ride.

Afternoon husky sleigh ride during the Arctic Polar Nights makes this look like dusk. This was early afternoon.

Jet skiing - Antibes to Monaco, France (Bea)

Rest stop in front of Nice

Watching a West End musical and sightseeing landmarks – London, England (Miguel)

Getting ‘man shaves’ and testing out hipster barber shops in different cities - (John)

Barber shop in Lagos, Portugal

Trying local dishes in different places - (John)

Surprised by the size of the calzonne - Dolomites, Italy

Seville, Spain

Hiking in the French, Italian and Swiss Alps – Mont Blanc, France; Dolomites, Italy; Ebenalp, Switzerland (Cindy)

Col de Balme, Mont Blanc-Chamonix, France

Plan de l'Aiguille, Mont Blanc-Chamonix, France

Tre Cime, Dolomites, Italy

Hike from Ebenalp to Seealpsee, Switzerland

Seealpsee, Switzerland

Prehistoric Caves - Lascaux*, Font de Gaume, Combralles – Les Eyzies, France (Cindy)
*This was my favourite of all and what I thought was the most impressive but no photos are allowed inside the cave and I forgot to take photos prior to entering.

Waiting in the rain at 7am for limited tickets to Font de Gaume -
the last original cave with polychrome (coloured) painting open to the public. Other cave paintings, such as Lascaux, are viewed in replica caves which are still impressive.