On April 7th, 2019, the first kayakers of 2019 set foot on the Marker Wadden islands. The islands are nestled in the northeast corner of Markermeer, a large manmade lake east of Amsterdam. 

When we recieved an invitation to Tanya and Ken's wedding in Switzerland, I jumped at the opportunity to go on another kayaking and hut trip in the Alps! My first kayaking trip in Switzerland, on Lake Brienz, was (and still is) one of my most beautiful paddling experiences, and I hoped to recreate it on another Swiss lake. We planned to attend the wedding on Saturday, do a hut trip on Sunday/Monday, and go kayaking on Tuesday before flying out Tuesday evening - busy to say the least! Before building it up too much, I'll warn you that the paddling experience was a bit disappointing, but the wedding and hut trip were wonderful! 

This is the fifth post in a 6-part series about trip planning. If this is the first time you're seeing this post, I recommend you start here! For an overview of the complete series, please visit the Trip Planning 101 page.

What do you think of when you hear "packing list"? Does it invoke stress or a feeling of control? How often do you leave something important behind? When traveling with friends, do you try to coordinate so everyone can pack as lightly as possible? In this post I'll share my approach to packing, which involves a simple spreadsheet and step-by-step process for filling it in. 

This is the fourth post in a 6-part series about trip planning. If this is the first time you're seeing this post, I recommend you start here! For an overview of the complete series, please visit the Trip Planning 101 page.

Do you make an estimate of trip expenses before going on a trip? How do you keep track of who-paid-what? In this post I share the next tab of the "Best Trip Planning Spreadsheet Ever": the Budget! I'll explain how it can be used to estimate trip costs, log transactions during the trip, and keep all travelers happy and content by keeping costs low, transparent, and well documented. ​​Here in the Netherlands, it's a cultural norm to split costs equally (e.g. "going Dutch") and keep track, sometimes to the cent, via easy bank transfers and payment request apps. I hear this is also catching on in the US, so hopefully this precise approach won't alienate any of you readers! 

As a bonus, I also share the ways that I keep my travel costs low!

​After starting out the weekend with a fantastic cabrewing tour of Lauwersmeer, it was rise-and-shine at 6am on Sunday for a truly Dutch adventure: WADLOPEN. Wad = mudflat, lopen = walking (in Dutch. In Flemish it means running, which would have been ridiculous). While I've done my fair share of mudflat walking as part of my job in California and the Netherlands, I've never attempted it in a recreational way. We put on our rainbow basketball shoes and trudged 16km across bare mudflat to get to Schiermonnikoog, the easternmost Frisian Island in the Netherlands.

It's been a while since the Water Nerd (and the Naked Kayaker, for that matter) has made an appearance on this blog. But have no fear - a quick analysis of the blog data shows that there's always a huge spike in posting frequency starting in May, continuing through August. Let's hope that's the case again this year - we have some new kayaking destinations coming up soon! 

This weekend the Water Nerd and her partner-in-crime, HJ, took a long-weekend trip to the UK (thanks Belgian Catholic holidays!). They visited the Thames Barrier in London (huge moveable flood barrier) and hiked the gorgeous Seven Sisters cliffs of Sussex...

Our second adventure in Norway took us to some fantastic stealth campsites and kayaking and hiking on a glacier. What we thought would be a simple kayaking trip and glacier walk turned into quite a suspenseful event involving crevasses and ice caves. Read on... :)

Norway might be the most beautiful place I've ever been. It's not that there aren't equally beautiful places in the US (or other places I've visited), it's the fact that everywhere you go there are incredibly dramatic landscapes: fjords flanked by vertical rock walls, mountain tops covered in 3 meters of snow just a 15 minute drive from the fjords, glaciers, dense woods, and more that are constantly changing. Take this with a grain of salt: we've only been here for 4 days and driven about 15 hours from Bergen. But I'm excited for the adventures coming up, and also excited to tell you about the ones we've already survived (yes...).

Click Read More to see photos and read about the Trolltunga hike!