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Day 2 in Oman

Early start to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Was definitely one of the highlights of the trip - stunningly beautiful both in and out. Only open for non-muslims in early mornings.

After ticking off the culture part of the day it was time to begin the roadtrip. Starting point was Muscat and destination for the night was Sur, some 2hrs away. On the way we stopped at two ”wadis”: bimmah sinkhole and wadi shab.

Bimmah sinkhole was the picturesque hole in the ground. There was a long staircase leading to the bottom and then just to take a dip (really refreshing on a +32c day).

Wadi shab was more adventurous. First a mini boatride to cross the river, then a 45min hike to the start of the pools and then swimming and crawling some 30mins to reach the last pools. We even went thru the really small crack to reach the last pool/cave.

Arriving in Sur later the same evening, a short visit to the hotel and then we got lucky to find this Indian restaurant with shabby looking tables (plastic tablecloths, anyone?) but great food.

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Day 1: Muscat

After a tough night flight and arrival at 7:30am (plus immigration around +1,5hr…) we jumped into our rental and after a short death at the hotel made our way to ”Mutrah” area. Famous for its fort (visited), souq (jap) and fish market (not for us) we had a nice sunny day walking the streets and getting a first glimpse of #ThatSun. Finding a good (= more authentic, vegetarian friendly) spot to eat was surprisingly hard so we went to one of the tourist spots on the main street. Quick stop on a beach and dipping feet to the warm Omani sea, and we ended the night with a short gym session and evening pool.

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Next up - we in Oman!

”You are going where?” ”Oman, is that a country?” ”_Why_ Oman?”

Everyone we’ve told about our plans to go to Oman has been really surprised to hear our destination of choice. The criteria for our trip this time was sun, warmth and nature for a week - Oman came as a suggestion from a friend and ticked all those boxes. Why not Oman? It’s a really safe destination, has wonderful nature, is not overly touristy and takes you deep into Middle-Eastern culture.

We decided to do a 7-day roadtrip across the country and so far have not been disappointed 😎

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Day in Calgary 🍁

Calgary was definitely more our type of city (and the +32 sunny weather did not hurt either). Started off the morning by running in and around Prince’s park and doing some sightseeing in the center, including Calgary tower, 17th street, some cute artist/book stores and compulsory bubble tea stop.

Then it was time to take our dear rental car back and do a quick pitstop for food (tacos). For the evening we had reserved a king Arthur -themed escape room just a km away from our rental drop-off. A quite OK room but a major fault in one of their puzzles where they say you should get something physically lined up when in fact the lines were about 5cm off in the real solution.. Oh well, otherwise well-built room and we solved it within the 15min extratime we got 🤭

After that it was off to a boardgame cafe we found by accident when looking at the map - it was literally in the block next to our escape room 😅 D6 turned out to be not just an EXCELLENT boardgame cave (with 200+ titles of all challenge levels and game types) but also a great cafe (with amazing drinks and pastries)! The evening went a bit long with some good games and we had to skip our hotel pool for that 😢

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Morning in Edmonton - Evening in Calgary 🍁

Only two pictures from Edmpnton - somehow the city did not convince us at all. Perhaps we just didn’t find the right areas but for us Edmonton seemed not to have a nice walkable area, cool sights or enjoyable cafe/restaurant scene. Running was tho good as always and we found our way to some nice bridges and parks 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏼

In the afternoon we started our drive to Calgary with a standard TimH stop and a stop to a Calgary pet store and mall.

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Jasper - Edmonton 🍁

Roadtrip day included a standard stop at TimHortons (getting some Biebs brews) and some benchmarking at a local PetSmart.

The main activity of the day was then the largest mall in North America - West Edmonton mall. Highlight there was definitely this arcade we found and we spent a good 1-2 hours playing all the games 🤭 (our favorites in the pictures - clown and piano keys games)

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Jasper second hiking day 🍁 Trail: Bald hills (ca 13km)

We had a hard time deciding between this one and Indian ridge (both were high up day hikes which was our criteria 🤭) but decided to make the 1-hour drive to Bald hills. Even if the pictures don’t look like it we were again extremely lucky with the weather - around 27c and sunny with some clouds up the mountains ofc 🏔

Bald hills as a hike started with a boring fire road section which got way better when taking the ”shortcut” which was marked challenging but was just more steep (but not long or technical at all). After the shortcut the view opened up to a beautiful meadow-ish terrain above the treeline. From there it was a great hike up to the summit of two different hills - Bald and Old Baldy (or something like that anyways). We were also once again among the first ones up so we had a private picnic on top and met all the groups when we were a long way coming down. So hikers in Jasper also seem to be a bit late starters - we started the hike around 9am.

After day’s hike we had a short stop at the cabin and continued to Jasper ’city’ for Grandma’s ice cream and a beavertail 🦫 Evening was then a meal at the cabin and a deer observation right at our home river 🏞🦌

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Jasper first hiking day 🍁 Trails: Valley of five lakes (8km) and Pyramid lake (6km)

Day of ”rest our legs a bit” and thus we had to choose some of the less impressive and less steep hikes. First picture is not a hike at all but our cute cabin in the cabin row of Pine Bungalows (can highly recommend) 🏡

Firstly, the difference between Jasper and Banff was quite notable. In Banff, we mainly had native English-speakers around us (from Canada and US), everyone was super friendly and the hikes were long & less signed. In Jasper, the people around were quite international, rude & pushy and the hikes were more ”touristy” in terms of length and signage (for example that steep hill sign 😅 It was not even steep). We definitely liked Banff more but Jasper is probably more beginner-friendly 🥾

Five lakes was five pretty lakes near each other - deep turquoise colors and famous red chairs. Ok hike but the views cannot be compared with the mountain hikes 🏔

Pyramid lake was quite unimpressive. Better lakes can be found in the area, perhaps this one would have been better for fishing or boating? 🧐

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Travelling from Banff to Jasper via Lake Louise and Icefields Parkway 🍁

Another early start but not early enough - on the day before we learned that parking at Moraine lake, aka the new instagram favvo, fills up at 4:30am each morning so we were forced to skip that (shuttle buses were also fully booked with our last-minute planning) 😅 So instead we headed to lake Louise (which was also 98% full at 8:30) and did a small 4km viewpoint hike there (first 2 pictures)

After touristy Lake Louise area we headed to the famous Icefields Parkway towards Jasper. First stop was our day hike to Helen lake & beyond, totalling at 14km. Helen lake was a pleasant hike with after a boring-ish forest section opened up to a beautiful meadow above the mountains 🏔 We also attempted to summit Cirque peak (at 2990m) but only made it halfway as 🦸🏼‍♀️’s fear of heights took over at that point (it was mostly the wind + exposed high ridgeline combined). Pictures 2-4.

Picture 5 is from our second-to-last stop was Peyto lake. Basically just a picture stop - was a pretty lake tho 🤭

We also tried to make one last stop at Sunset lookout but as we were taking out our picnic stuff a couple came out of the forest screaming that they saw a bear 200m from the trailhead. So we decided to pass that and continue to Jasper instead 😁

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Banff city - doing the ”touristy things” aka taking a picture with the Banff-sign and going to hot springs (3km uphill with bike - was definitely more fun coming down at 50km/h 🚴‍♂️🚴🏻‍♀️)

Overall, we really liked Banff as a ”city”. Large free parking area, main street closed for cars during summer and mountaneery scenery all around 🤩🏔

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Second hiking day in Banff 🍁 Trail: Cory pass, 13km

Another early start and we got lucky finding another hikey couple from Denmark at the parking lot at 8:15. We decided to join forces (= bear safety) and got to enjoy a good 5hr hike & talk with them.

Cory pass was marked as one of the most difficult hikes in Banff as it had some steep ascents, snow patches and sections of loose rocks. Despite or perhaps just because that we really added this hike to our list of favorites! Lots of good views; limited time in forest; more time spent on side of the mountains.

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First hiking day in Banff 🍁 Trail: Lake Bourgeau + Harvey Pass

We started off early and were the first ones on the trail at 7:15am, which was nice but also made us afraid of bears being the only ones in a thick forest 😅

The hike started with a 6km forest portion (= no views) and at 7,7km we were at lake B. Decided to continue to Harvey Pass which had a couple of snowy patches and some loose stone sections on the way (= doable). HarveyP section was definitely a high point on the trail and would not recommend doing the trail without that. Also worth to mention, no bears, many marmots and the promised rain/thunder never arrived.

Evening meals consisted of veggie bowls and famous beavertails 🦫

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On the road again - this time in Canada 🇨🇦

First leg was 2 days in Toronto, flights were a bit late but went well. Weather was also on our side the whole time with a solid 31 and sunny 🌞

Day1 was spent shopping in a outlet village (findings: sports clothes, jeans, sneakers, sunglasses).

Day2 was Niagara Falls. We played the classic tourist part - funicular down, views of Niagara and Hornblower cruise. Only downside of the day was waiting for Flixbus for 2 hours, only to get it cancelled and having to take a shared Uber back to Toronto.

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Long weekend in Luxembourg is done. Impressed by the multi-layered city, selection of vegetarian/vegan food and a good run on the marathon.

#BuckTheDuck #Luxembourg

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Buck rides again!

#BuckTheDuck #LuxembourgMarathon

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Greetings from Riga!

We did a short weekend trip to Riga to run the marathon & half-marathon there! Weather was on our side, bubble tea surprisingly popular and Buck enjoyed some famous sights!

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Höga Kusten - Day 6: Travelling southwards to Härnösand and Sundsvall today. In Härnösand we were sad to learn that though they claim to be #2 summer city in Sweden they have actually been only #3 for two years in row now… Still a good coffee stop!

Final destination was Sundsvall which felt like a big city after Övik. Sunny and warm day, we found a good organic cafe for food and Hemmakväll for final hotel night 🏨