Category: #bdtravlin

In June, Dan and I had the huge honor of photographing an intimate wedding in Reykjavik, Iceland. Of course we took the opportunity to spend a few extra days there after the wedding and headed up to the Westfjords, that we have been pining after for ages. We have seen the westfjords in the neverending amazing work of Chris Burkard and even a wedding shot by the incredible Ben and Erin Chrisman. Dan’s obsessed with Puffins, and I love to be in far away, hard to get to, alone places so…. it was time! We packed up our camping gear into a teensy tiny “car” and headed out on a long long road trip.

We hit gravel roads almost immediately, curving up over and around the peninsulas along the sea. I always find it fascinating how I can drive through the most incredible landscapes for hours on end, so much so that they become commonplace. Then I have this “back to reality” moment and see it all with fresh eyes and it takes my breath away again and again. Nothing like a knifes edge road to snap you back either. Road trips are my favorite thing to do, always wanting to keep driving and see more and more till we hit the end of the road. On this trip we hit a few of those: the westernmost point in Europe at the the Látrabjarg bird cliffs, and at Krossneslaug in Nordurfjordur. I have to say, that this trip to Iceland will always be one of those trips that I’ll hold dear for the rest of my life because I was just so happy to be in those places in those moments… so alive and full and present. Enjoy a little taste of what we saw and make sure to check out Dan’s vlog of the trip at the bottom of this post! Boom!

See more on our instagram with the hashtag #coxesturntoice

The last time we went to Iceland we blogged too: Iceland Part One, Part Two

Purchase a few prints on our etsy shop!

And last but most certainly not least, here is our Vlog from the trip:

I’ll willingly admit we didn’t take a ton of photos on our trip to Detroit. We really only had one afternoon in the city itself. The rest of the time we were photographing Becky and Kevin’s wedding (coming on Thursday to ze blog) and sleeping. In our one afternoon though, we headed into the city to see what it was all about, or at least what we could glean in that tiny amount of time.

We first just drove into the city to get a feel for the layout and also to scout out a mural we wanted to photograph Kevin and Becky in front of. After that we drove over to see the Heidelberg Project, which had been on my bucket list for years. We also drove past the Monument to Joe Louis, but the light turned green before I could get a photo of it from the car. Whomp. Clearly we were a little more set on seeing rather than photographing.

Our tiny one sided take on Detroit is that it is nestled between hope and despair. We saw a lot of sad things but we also saw a lot of happy things. The art was bursting from every wall… but a lot of walls were falling. Can you get a picture of that in your mind? I felt safe and in danger. I felt good and bad. I really liked it honestly. It has a palpable soul and thats something that I am always drawn to. The struggle was and is real… but its not hopeless. If you get a chance… visit. We plan on going back one day and spending an actual real amount of time.

Note: The images of the Heidelberg Project are not for our profit or commercial use. We just want to share them so you can see and perhaps visit. Please see their website to learn more about the artists.

As a child of the 80’s I was an avid reader of the American Girl Books, particularly Molly and Kirsten. Sadly both are phased out in the American Girl world but I’ll never forget. I can also trace back my interest in Sweden right back to reading about Kirsten and St Lucia! Anyone with me? All this to say, we needed to visit Sweden since it was possible in our Euro Trip.

We only had two real days in the city so we spent the first day going to two museums: Fotografiska and the Abba Museum. Both were so so so good! Fotografiska is a museum of just photography. While we were there they had two special exhibits happening. The first was the Bettina Rheims I’ll Be Your Mirror exhibit, which reminded me a lot of a feminine Mario Testino. Big bold photos, Bright Colors. Celebrities. I was feelin it. Next was an exhibit called Ikoner which was photography of people with Down Syndrome and their right to exist. You guys. This was so powerful! The images were paired with short films, introducing you to the lives of the people in the photos. I particularly loved “The Rockstar” and “The Diva.” The Abba Museum was simply pure fun. I loved everything. The colors. The music. The vibe. The story. It’s a definite must do if you enjoy their music. Its also not very big so it doesn’t take your whole day. I’ve always been a fan so it was no question we would go. I also enjoyed the fact that we took a ferry boat to get there and that it’s right next to an amusement park.

The food was delicious for us. We ate at two notable restaurants. First we were craving burgers after all our museum-going so we headed to Barrels Burgers and Beers. I dont know if it was because we were so hungry but I still remember how delicious this was. We follow them on Insta too now so I think of them often and REALLY want to go back. I also had one of the best beers in my life (and also one of the most expensive at $15) and I cant remember what it was!! Another reason to visit again amiright? It has something like sunset or sunrise or tropical or something in the title. Gah! We also ate at Meatballs for the People. Yaassssss!!!! We had to have meatballs… i mean… when in rome right? They were delish and a perfect send off on our second day which consisted mainly of shopping. Obviously.

After Stockholm we flew back to Oslo and hung out with Deanna (see Norway Post). It was an huge long and wonderful trip that Dan and I will never ever forget. Im so glad there’s space in our lives for trips like this. When we got back to America we headed back to Maine and began and month-long search for an apartment, which eventually led us to living on the sailboat last summer. It’s funny to think of how unpredictable life is. Before this trip we had no idea we would be going to Europe or that we would be living on a sailboat. We were just innocently doing our off season thing and within a few months we had been on an epic Euro trip and fulfilled a huge number of bucket list items. Now a year later, we have a beautiful apartment in Portland and are planning a trip back to Iceland this coming June for a wedding. Im so so thankful for our life and what we have been able to do and look forward to our next adventure!

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I would have to say that this was the most tiring day of the trip by far but only because we went at a record pace. Amsterdam was another layover city for us on our flight from Dublin to Stockholm. We decided to do as much as we possibly could and ended up almost passed out on the train from the Stockholm airport to the city center. It was a loooooong day but so worth it because we did so much while in Amsterdam.

Right off the plane I noticed the distinctly tall and attractive border patrol men heading into the netherlands. Of all the passport stampers in our travels, these guys looked the most like models who could knock you out. The tall gene extended out into the city and I finally felt I was among my people! TALL! Hurrah! We headed straight to a boat ride through the canals because it’s just one of those things that you gotta do that we wanted to do. We got to see the city from the water, which felt like a beautiful way to get your bearings. We were the only ones in our boat so it was a private tour unexpectedly. Gotta love that. After the tour we headed to Rembrandt’s house, where you can do just what you imagine: walk around Rembrandt’s house. This was unbelievable to me. THE Rembrandt. Europe is amazing. Next we lucked out and were able to get tickets to see Anne Frank’s Home, which was beyond description you guys. I literally could not soak up  how significant it really was. I was in awe and sad and overwhelmed. So many original and personal details are still visible in the rooms. Visiting places like that always just being history into real life for me, rather than having it sit in books.

The rest of the day we just walked around, had a meal, and headed back to the airport for our flight to Stockholm. I hope we make it back to Amsterdam one day and get to spend some quality time taking the city in. There’s still so many things on my list!

Our Day in Amsterdam

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Putting my love for Ireland into words ain’t easy my friends. My entire life I have longed for this place. I tried to learn to play the Tin Whistle. I bought maps of the country and poured over them for hours. I emailed kayak shops along the coast when I graduated college, offering to move and work for them, (they pretty much all thought I was nuts). For some reason, it took me until May 7, 2016 before I finally touched down. The moment we arrived I knew that all those years of longing were spent on the right place. I could barely handle my happy.

We spend almost a week and decided that since we already knew we would be coming back (no doubt about it) we didnt have to cram every single thing into our short time. We decided to see the absolute must-do items and then come back with lots of time to discover more.

The must-do’s on our list were pretty basic:

• See Sheep
• The Cliffs of Moher
• Dublin
• Drink lots of pints with the locals
• Hear live music in a pub
• Guinness Storehouse

Easy peasy right? I also really really did not want to be locked into a schedule in order to allow room for magic, so we booked our hotels as needed. That’s kinda my travel philosophy but it’s also a huge stressor for Dan so we try to book a couple days in one place so he can relax and know what’s happening in the next fews days, but I don’t have to feel like my whole trip is locked in. It works for us most of the time.

In Dublin, we stayed at the Generator Hostel, which was way hipper than we are, thats fo sho. It was great because it was really close to the train and bus stops, making getting right into the center of things super easy. We visited the Guinness Storehouse first thing the first morning we were there because#obviously. I loved seeing the whole city from way up in the Gravity Bar at the top of the building. We’ve been to a lot of breweries so the story of “how to make beer” isn’t all that interesting but the story of Arthur Guinness was so it was still super fun.

We also went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. We also went to the National Gallery of Ireland, where one of my favorite paintings lives! They only show The Meeting on the Turret Stairs two times a week for 1 hour only because it is so delicate. Thankfully we were in Dublin on the right days so we planned our touristing around that. One evening we also went to Mulligans for a pint and it was dreams you guys… dreams.

The next days we headed over to the west coast to see the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way we stopped at Sean’s Bar, claiming to be the oldest pub in Ireland. Sounds good to me! We met some good folks there are stayed for hours, literally. Dan kept sober and got us to Galway where we went to sleep with an Irish band playing late into the night at the bar across from our hotel, (I loved it. Dan hated it). The Cliffs of Moher are just as incredible as you would imagine and they are a must do for sure. I loved the drive there from Galway. It’s so so PRETTY! We also just popped into a Castle along the way because when in Ireland, you drive by castles. Like you do.

All in all it was a dreamy trip and I was in heaven the entire time. I am still absolutely in love with the place and will be returning as much as humanly possible throughout my life. I wish I hadn’t taken to long to finally get to see it but it was definitely worth the wait.

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