A couple of weeks ago, we set off on a trip that was many years in the making. We first designed the trip before Covid, had to put it on the back burner, and then, when we thought we might do it after Covid, the war with Ukraine made travel in that area a bit risky. We had other travel opportunities arise and become more favored options as well as some years of limited travel time meaning that this trip had to wait about six years to come to fruition. But finally, we have taken the past two weeks to traverse the Baltic countries.

Day 1

Our trip began with a ton of driving (spoiler alert-it ends that way too…and pretty much driving was the theme throughout). We spent the entire day to cross Germany and end up for the night in Poznan, Poland. Arriving fairly late, we went straight to dinner. There happened to be a small Georgian restaurant right next to our apartment, so we decided that was our best bet. We had some Ukrainian pierogi which was filled with potato and some Georgian dumplings filled with cheese. We also had khachapuri which is a famous Georgian dish of bread filled with egg and cheese. We paired it with some Georgian beer and wine and tried the fruit filled dumplings for dessert. It was a great meal to start the trip.

After dinner, we walked to the old city square to have a look around. There were quite a few interesting buildings and several fountains featuring gods and goddesses. We grabbed some pastries for the morning and got to bed to prepare for another day of driving.

Day 2

Before heading out of Poland, we ate our pastries from the night before which consisted of little fried balls, kroller, a yeast bread with streusel topping and a berry filled pastry. I think the kroller was a top hit with most of us.

We spent a lot of time driving through rural Poland before reaching Lithuania. Our accommodation was a very cute place in the forest. After dropping our bags and taking a small sip of a local liquor that was awaiting us in the rental, we drove into the nearby town for dinner. We had kepta douna (fried rye bread sticks), saltibarsciai (cold beetroot soup), mushroom soup (the region is apparently well known for mushrooms), potato pancakes with mushroom sauce, and fried dumplings. We also tried Gira which is a non-alcoholic drink from fermented rye bread and a local beer. After dinner, we went to a grocery store where we found some dessert of sakotis raguolus (spit cake) which was okay and grybukai (mushroom cookies) which were a bit strange. Though, I will say, both things kind of grew on us.

Day 3

We tried some store bought spurgos (filled donuts) for breakfast. They were not too good.

But, we were in good spirits as we had a really highly recommended hike planned for the morning called Marcinkony’s trail in Dzukija National Park. Unfortunately, the biting flies and deer keds (kind of like flying ticks) were out of control, and we were not prepared for that, so after about an hour, we had to quit the hike. It was disappointing, but everyone was so freaked out by swarms of these two creatures that we were kind of glad to get out of there. We went to a lake area nearby where we found a circle of pagan carved statues and a sign explaining them which was interesting.

We drove to our next stop, Trakai, through some dirt roads in forests. In Trakai, we went out for lunch where we had the fried rye bread again though this one was covered in cheese. We also tried three types of kibinai (a dish originating with the ethnic group that settled in this area)-spinach and curd, mushroom, and cabbage. We also tried cepelinai which is like a stuffed, steamed potato ball. We tried Midas, which is a sweet liquor, and a local beer. We can’t leave without dessert, so we had pyragas simtalapis which is a traditional cake and kibinai filled with curd cheese.

After lunch, we walked along the lake and crossed the bridge to Trakai Castle to walk around it’s perimeter. We also walked the main street of the old town. After that, we rented a four-person paddleboat and spent an hour on the lake where we saw an old manor house and a hilltop fort.

After the paddling was done, we walked to the fort and an old post office.

We later went to dinner where we had potato pancakes, potato dumplings and mushroom dumplings. We also tried a Lithuanian beer. After dinner, we strolled along the water a bit and saw several hot air balloons and some unusual sand art.

Late that night, we got a call to let us know that our rental car was detected driving in a Baltic country, and it was not authorized for those countries because of the high rate of theft of premium foreign cars. Needless to say, this threw us into a bit of a panic, and we scrambled for many hours trying to figure out what to do to salvage our vacation but not find ourselves stranded or owing a ton of money for a vandalized or stolen vehicle. At about 1am, we had a plan and we tried to get some sleep to continue on with our plans the next day.

Day 4

We started with an early drive to our next planned destination, Vilnius. Our first stop was at the airport where we parked the “premium” car and rented another vehicle that was authorized to drive in the other Baltic countries. We said a quick prayer that the car would be fine parked in the airport garage for ten days, and we headed into the city with our new rental car.

Vilnius was a nice city and we walked around for several hours seeing an art institute, the president’s residence, a wall to commemorate literary heroes, a city gate with a chapel inside, a large wall mural, a woodworkers shop and a portal to see live images from populous areas in other countries (this was pretty cool).

We also saw several churches which were all nice and had different styles. Our favorite was probably the Orthodox church which was a very dark green inside and had three dead bodies enshrined in the center.

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a cafe where we had a much better spurgos (filled donut) and a cardamon bun.

We went to a city market where they had a lot of large fruit (both in size and in the quantity you got) as well as some really pretty flower arrangements. We stopped at a cheese stand in the market to buy varskes surelis which was like a chocolate covered cheesecake.

We went to a restaurant for lunch before leaving the city. There we had spiced fried cheese, cheese and meat filled cepelinai, potato pancakes with truffle sauce, and a pork dish.

After leaving Vilnius, we drove to Aukstaitija National Forest which has a lot of lakes. We checked into our apartment and went for a quick walk down the road to the nature center and an old church.

A nearby town was having a city birthday celebration, so we went to check it out. There were a lot of tents with food and other products. We bought a pastry for breakfast, but nothing else was too exciting, so we went to dinner.

At dinner we had another version of the fried rye bread with cheese, potato pancakes and kugelis (a baked, potato casserole dish) with garlic sauce and mushroom sauce. For dessert, we tried tinginys cake-one vanilla, one chocolate. These are like a harder cake with chopped pieces of spit cake inside-very nice.

To walk it all off, once we were back to our apartment, we walked to a cemetery and through part of the forest.

Day 5

Today, we tried our bread that we bought at the town celebration the night before. It was filled with kiwi preserves and strawberry preserves, but no one was a huge fan.

We did two hikes in the first part of the day. The first was about three hours through the forest, along the lake and through some grassy fields. We saw two young foxes with a parent. We went to a water mill as well.

The second hike wound through the forest and swampy areas as well as some waterways. We really liked this hike. We saw a pike fish, a snake in some grasses, and a little green frog. After our hiking, we had lunch at the lake and tried a few nice Lithuanian beers-white, lager and dark.

In the evening, some of us walked to an ancient burial site which was set up like a museum display and a nice garden with lots of bees and beetles.

We found some dinner and decided to rehike our second trail of the morning before going back to our apartment to watch the World Cup final.

Day 6

Today, we left Lithuania and moved into Latvia for our destination-Sigulda and Gauja National Park. Our drive in was eventful as we spotted a deer, a fox, some common crane, which are quite interesting despite the name, and a lot of storks right at the side of the road.

Once we arrived in Sigulda, we stopped in the small town to have a lunch of potato pancakes and two kinds of karbonade (kind of like schnitzel). We tried the Latvian version of fried rye bread with cheese and their version of the fermented rye drink called Kvass. We also got a popular Latvian beer and Black Balsam Riga which is vodka.

After our lunch, we hiked (in the rain) to Gutman’s Cave and the Turaida Loop Trail. The cave wasn’t much of a cave, but the hike was nice, and we saw a lot of giant snails, tiny frogs, and two running deer. We made our way to Turaida Castle where we looked at the ruins, some artifacts, and a sculpture garden. That trail was nice, but there were a lot of steps and a lot of uphill climbing.

After hiking, we went to dinner where we tried the grey peas, a pasta dish with mushrooms, another with Latvian green cheese, and an ancient recipe dish of blood sausage with barley. We paired it all with some sparkling Latvian wine. We found that a nearby place had a traditional dessert of rupjmaizes kartojums (sort of a rye bread trifle) which was good. As an added bonus, we ordered some sea buckthorn tea with honey which was quite nice and apparently has a ton of health benefits. It seemed to be a popular tea in the Baltics.

Day 7

Today, we woke up with enough time to go get breakfast in a cafe. We had some eggs, a cinnamon roll pastry, a berry pastry and a kind of cheese curd pastry.

To work it off, we spent the next four and a half hours hiking the Cecili Trail. It was a super nice forest trail with some challenging uphill/downhill spots and tricky water crossings. It was just the right amount of difficulty. We heard a lot of sounds that might have been beavers and otters but only saw some frogs, insects, and a lizard.

After the hike, we found a super inexpensive place for lunch where we tried girki (buckwheat) and some maizes zupa (rye bread pudding) for dessert.

We decided that we would do dinner in our apartment, so we went to a market hall to get some local cheese called janu siers and some local breads (burkanmaize and klijumaize) and to a grocery store for a few other items. We fried up biezpiena placenisi or syrniki (cottage cheese pancakes) and ate them with strawberry jam along with our cheese and bread. We also had a little raspberry filled pastry for dessert which was nice.

Day 8

We spent the morning driving into Estonia-specifically, Tallinn. Once we arrived, we made our way to the old town and looked around a bit.

We could not find many traditional Estonian restaurants at all, so we decided to try a Russian restaurant. We ordered wild boar stew, two kinds of dumplings and a cabbage soup. One of the dumplings and the soup came in a kind of bread bowl that was interesting. We did manage to have a few Estonian drinks-Saku beer, a honey beer, and Vana Tallinn which was a liquor.

After our lunch, we explored the old town more which was decidedly medieval in nature. We saw a Baptist church, St. Mary’s church, a Russian Orthodox church, old city walls, several towers, the town hall and a government building.

Because we were having so much trouble finding traditional food, we went to a grocery store and bought a few things-rosolje (beet, potato, and herring salad)-no thanks, kartulisalat (potato salad with peas and egg), mannavaht (fluffy whipped cranberry dessert), kama (a milled flour mixture whipped with a fruit topping), kohupiimakreem (similar to yogurt), and leviasupp (rye bread pudding). We also bought some Ale Coq beer, Pohjala beer and Kohuke which was another version of the chocolate covered cream cheese.

Day 9

Today was a very early day because we were catching a ferry to Helsinki, Finland. The ferry was a two hour ride, but it was more like a cruise ship, so it was very comfortable.

On arriving, we took a taxi to the design district of the city and stopped in a cafe (I’m going to preface it now-this day was a lot of eating) for some korvapuusti (cinnamon bun), mustikkapiirakka (bilberry pie-it’s different than blueberry, look it up) and a salted caramel bun. They were all really good, but the bilberry pie was the favorite.

We walked to the Esplanadi (a park area) to look at the various statues and to have a salted black licorice ice cream which was surprisingly good. From there, we walked to the train station and the national theater.

Next, we went to the outdoor market where we ate again. This time we got munkke (a fried donut), karelian pie and karjalanpiirakka (a bread filled with potato and vegetables).

We looked around at all the stalls-produce, souvenirs, other foods and bought some cloudberries which are only found in the northern regions. They were a bit tart. We decided to have our lunch in the market (I know you can’t believe we were eating again). We tried paistetut muikut or muikku (fried fish), lohikeitto (salmon soup) and reindeer meatballs.

After lunch, we went to Uspenski Cathedral for a quick peek inside. There were also a lot of great views from outside.

And, because more than ten minutes had passed, we went to the indoor market for Leipajuusto (squeaky cheese) with cloudberry jam and a lingonberry pie.

We walked to Senate Square and sat for a while enjoying the sun and drinking a Lonkero-Finnish long drink of gin and grapefruit juice.

After our relaxation time, we stopped in the public library and continued to Kallilo district which is supposed to be quite Bohemian. That wasn’t really the vibe we got, so we didn’t stay there too long.

Instead, we went to (you guessed it) eat more. We had a dinner of Russian style blinis (pancakes) with cabbage and egg filling, potato, onion, and mushroom filling, and a meat filling.

We walked back toward the market square taking in some cute side streets as we headed toward the water where we spent a few minutes looking at all the islands.

We stopped in the market square for a bit to listen to a concert that was happening and then walked the streets (about 45 minutes) back to the port where we boarded the ship and tried some Estonian cheese and Salmiakki Koskenkorva which is a salty licorice flavored vodka. It was a long day, but we got 30,000 steps in, tried a lot of nice foods, and had a good time.

Day 10

We took today easy since we got in so late from Helsinki the night before. We made our way to Soomaa National Park further south in Estonia. After checking out our apartment which was a house from 1890, we went to the Beaver Study Trail which was a calm walk through a bog forest. There was nothing too exciting about the trail, but there were trees that had been felled by beavers and the gnawed stumps.

We went into the town of Tori, which was incredibly small, to look at their church and have dinner next to a horse stud farm. We had a traditional Estonian dish of chanterelle mushrooms in cream sauce with potatoes (apparently this was the right time of year for the mushrooms as it is the foraging season). We also tried some pear cider and strawberry drink from a local distillery.

Once dinner was done, we walked the Riisa Study Trail which was a boardwalk style trail through the bog. The trail was a bit boring, but there were some forest areas and open areas with small lakes that were pretty. But, don’t let the scenery deceive you. It looks like firm ground, but the ground was super soft, and you could sink right in if you stepped off-sometimes as much as six feet.

Day 11

Started our day with a quick breakfast of pirukad filled with cabbage and a short hike in a meadow area where we had to struggle against swarms of biting flies.

The trail was a bit flooded in one area, and that put an end to the hike. That meant it was time to move on to Riga, back in Latvia. On the way we stopped at the beach of the Baltic Sea.

In the city, we walked to a really huge city market-think five large buildings and an outdoor space. We also saw a monument in a large square where there was also the Black Head house and the old town hall. There were many large squares in the city as well as a ton of churches. We weren’t able to go in many of the churches, but, one that we did enter had an area with very well categorized human bones.

We walked along the river and saw a large statue for the legendary city founder and read his story. We found some medieval houses and an old city gate. There was also a building with two cat statues on it that had to do with an old feud in the city between a resident and a guild that he wanted to belong to.

At dinner, we tried a Latvian beer flight, rye garlic bread, Latvian black currant wine, gray peas and an old-style dish with buckwheat risotto. Our son actually ate a footlong schnitzel and won us a free beer for being able to eat it all! We finished the meal with two traditional Latvian desserts- ponciki which are fried beer balls and cielavina which is meringue cookies with a chocolate and berry filling.

Day 12

We left Riga with a quick stop for some pastries and headed to Kaunas in Lithuania. In Kaunas, we first stopped at the Ninth Fort which had a long history of tragic events. One of the worst parts of its history was mass executions during World War II. We were able to see museum style exhibits in the fort and some commemorative areas outside. It was a heavy experience.

Next, we made our way into the heart of Kaunas. We went to the Devil’s Museum which was the former home of a local artist who had an extensive collection of devil artwork and figures. There was some nice information about the cultural and historical significance of the devil. It was an interesting place.

We walked around the city to several churches, historic buildings, and the town hall. There were many sculptures around town, and we also went to a yard art gallery which was different.

We walked into a nice city park and saw the Kaunas Musical Theater. Then we strolled down the pedestrian shopping streets and through a few squares. There were so many restaurants everywhere. We walked down to the river and to Kaunas castle.

We had dinner of fried cheese, local beer, pork dumplings, potato pancakes with chanterelle sauce, cepelinai with cheese and a pancake from the Dzukija region that was made from buckwheat. At the end of the meal, we tried Krupnikas which is an ancient Lithuanian spiced honey liquor and was very good.

After dinner, we walked to a square with a World War I museum, the tomb of an unknown soldier, and the eternal flame. We sat in the pedestrian street to have a little dessert, and we got to see the Archangel Church all lit up.

Day 13

Our morning started with breakfast in Kaunas where we had some varskes spurgos (fried round donuts) and cottage cheese pancakes.

Then, the moment of truth, we drove back to Vilnius to make sure the original rental car was unscathed. It was. In fact, we saw no reason on the entire trip to believe that it would have been a problem at all and we probably could have driven it the whole time. But, as all was well, we returned the second car and started driving back in the original.

It was a long drive through a lot of small side roads, but we finally made it to Grudziadz, Poland. We got in late but had enough time to get a dinner of potato, mushroom, and chicken pierogies. We also had a local beer which was nice after the long day in the car. Since the pierogies for the main dish were good, we decided to get some strawberry ones for dessert.

We walked around the square of the city which housed a church, town hall, and several statues. We also walked along the granaries (a fourteenth century fortification) which the city is famous for. Overall, Grudziadz was a bit tough because most people did not speak much English, and they were a little flat, but there were some interesting things to see there.

Day 14

Our last day was a long day of driving-twelve hours. But, we made it, and everyone was very happy with the trip after the six year wait. Though, I have already promised that our next trip will not contain driving!

One thing about having a child at school in another country means that you tend to visit there more than other places.  So, for our recent holiday, we were in Spain again.  A few of our days were spent in Madrid.  Having been to Madrid several times now, we didn’t see a lot of sights there, but we did go watch the annual running of the sheep (and goats) through the city center during Fiesta de la Trashumancia.  In truth, it was a lot of standing waiting for the sheep and the herders to arrive and a lot less watching them, but it was something different, so we figured we’d check it out.  

The rest of our time in Spain, we took day trips to two cities that we had never seen before: Segovia and Toledo.

Segovia is mostly known for its Roman aqueduct.

But there was a lot of nice architecture in the city.

And the views around the city weren’t too bad!

And while we were there, our son tried a Segovia specialty-cochinillo asado (roasted suckling pig) which is served by cracking it into pieces with a plate.

After roaming around the city, we went to a nearby area to check out a palace and its grounds including the Giant Sequoias brought from the US in the 1800’s.

Our second day trip was to Toledo which is well known as the origin city in the book, Don Quixote.  We found the statue of Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, as well as many shops focusing on the medieval theme with countless swords on display.

We toured many of the various houses of worship in the city including a synagogue and a former mosque. 

One of the churches also housed a famous painting by the Spanish artist El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.

The small streets, bridges and city gates were also quite charming.

And of course, what would one of our trips be without food?  We tried a few local specialties for lunch: sopa castellana (soup), carcamusas (stew), manchego cheese, migas (fried and seasoned bread dish), and sangria.

For a sweet treat, we got some Toledo marzipan from a shop in which the treats are made by nuns and part of the purchase price goes back into supporting the abbey, as well as a kind of cookie.

Our day trips were an easy hop from Madrid, and we had a relaxing few days exploring more of Spain, eating well, and enjoying the sun and warmer temperatures. And getting to see our college student was a pretty nice perk as well!

 

After traveling to a handful of small cities in Brazil multiple times over the last nearly 30 years, we finally decided to stop in the much more tourist-centric, Rio de Janeiro.  Last week we spent about 3 days exploring some of the top destinations in the city.

Our first stop was the botanical gardens.  There were several interesting trees there and many cool animals. We spent a pleasurable half day roaming around the grounds.

This tree that looks like it is covered in cannonballs is a Brazil nut tree.  The nuts are in the balls.  There were also a lot of jackfruit trees.

We ran into a lot of these cute little guys.

There was an interesting area about the wasp and bee species in a particular area of Brazil.  They have some very interesting hives that they guard by blocking the entrances during the day and sealing it with wax at night.

There was a small lake with these huge lily pads.  Can you see the bird in the center of the lily pads?  There were a lot of large fish as well.

And even though we didn’t see this bird in Rio, I’m going to throw him in here because he was interesting.

On our second day, we visited Christ the Redeemer statue and the Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar).  We got a lot of really nice views of the city and the harbor.  The statue was so, so crowded, but the Sugarloaf was more spacious with lots of shops, attractions and restaurants all over the tops of the mountains (there were two in total that we accessed via cable car).  

 

 

We also got to see these guys at both locations.

Our apartment was on Copacabana beach, so after visiting the attractions, we went for a little beach time and some food at one of the restaurants.  Unlike some beach restaurants, the food at these were pretty good and not overpriced.  And, we enjoyed some really good caipirinhas for the equivalent of just a few dollars each.

On our last day, we visited the aquarium and Lage Park. The park was the site of an old mansion and sugar mill on the edge of the Tijuca National Park (a rainforest), so there were some fun animals (the rodent below is an agouti in English) and pretty landscape.

  

Having traveled to Brazil many times, there aren’t too many foods to still share about, but we did try a couple of things more common to Rio (Bolinhos de bacalhau-fried cod balls, Bobó de camarão-shrimp stew and some Açaí just for fun.  Everything was really good and not very expensive!

 

All in all, while most of our time in Brazil was spent with family, the quick excursion to Rio was definitely a fun new adventure.

It is once again summer and that means it’s time for vacation!  Our recent summer vacation travels took us back to Eastern Europe- this time to Romania.

Day 1

After arriving the night before, we were able to sleep in a bit before heading out into Bucharest to check out the city.  Just a few streets away from our apartment was the Church of Stavropoleos.  It was an interesting looking, albeit small, church that was very dark inside.  There was a little courtyard to the side of the church that was quite pretty.

We made our way around the corner to a small shop where we got a breakfast of Placinta cu urde (cheese pie), Alivenci (butter pie), a very strong-tasting pumpkin pastry and Poale n Brau (sweet pastry).

Then, we wandered inside a souvenir shop next door.  We walked through an interesting passageway called the Macca-Vila Crosse which seemed like a fun area and then through another, Pasajul Victoria, with umbrellas hanging overhead.

After this, we continued on to the Memorial of Rebirth which honors the victims of the 1989 revolution in Bucharest.  Next to this was an interesting looking Orthodox church.

We made a quick stop at the Athenaeum (concert hall).  The doors were locked, but we could see a bit of the interior through the windows.  Outside, there were a lot of people taking wedding photos.

We headed into Cismigiu Park which was a nice city park with a small lake and a circular river for boating.  We stopped to have a local beer and some water while doing some people watching and enjoying the shade.

Our last stop in the city was the Palace of Parliament.  We just wandered around the outside for some views of the large palace before deciding to get some lunch at a nearby restaurant.

The restaurant was a large open courtyard enclosed by hedges.  There was a violinist playing and lots of tables with large family groups.  We started the meal with Salate de vinete (an eggplant spread), Zacusca (eggplant and pepper spread) and a bean spread.  We also tried the fried cheese (Cascaval pane).  Everything was good but we decide our favorite was the Salate de vinete.

The main dishes consisted of Mamaliga (polenta with a fried egg, sour cream and cheese), mitti or mici sausage (skinless sausage), Plescoi (mutton) sausage, Sarmale (cabbage rolls) and Ciulama (mushroom chicken stew with polenta).

We finished the meal with Papanasi, a fried ball of dough covered in sour cream and a berry jam as well as Visinata (a really nice sour cherry liquor) and Tuica (plum brandy).

We played some cards in our apartment in the afternoon, and then in the evening, we walked about 15 minutes or so to get to dinner where we had veggie ciorba (soup), Tochitura (pork, polenta, egg and cheese dish) and a mushroom stew with polenta along with some local white wine.  Strange choices honestly, considering the heat, but you’ve got to try the traditional dishes!  We finished our meal with Clatitie chocolate, a Romanian crepe.

Day 2

We had a very early morning to get on the road to the Danube Delta which is about 4.5 hours east of Bucharest.  Along the way, we drove through a lot of tiny villages where all the homes had a bench outside their front gate, and the residents were just sitting there chatting with friends or watching cars go by.  As we drove along, we snacked on some Cozonac bread that we had bought the day before.  It was okay but not our favorite.  It was unusual though with pieces of Turkish delight in it.

Once we arrived at the Delta, we boarded a boat and began making our way on the Danube and through the canals, lakes and tiny passages of reeds and lily pads to Caraorman.

Once on the island, we took a safari through the ancient oak forest and saw some 600–700-year-old oaks.  As we were driving, we got to see some bee eater birds which are such a pretty blue color.

They made a meal for us on the island of catfish soup with bread and garlic aioli, local wine, fried catfish and carp with polenta and some fried donuts for dessert.  It was good.

Then, it was back to the boat to make our way back to our starting point.  Throughout the day, we saw water snakes, frogs, grey herron, night herron, swans, coots running on lily pads which was funny, comorants, glossy ibis, bittern, great egret, little egret, gulls, terns and tons of pelicans.  We also got to see a white tail eagle which was cool.

Another long drive back, but we got to see so many storks-some on the ground but most in nests on light poles.  And, most of the nests had babies.

Day 3

Back in Bucharest, we started with a breakfast of Alivenci and a cherry bread before loading up the car and making our way to Brasov with a stop in Sinaia for lunch.

The town was very cute.

The lunch was on the mountainside and consisted of Jumari cu ceapa which was fatty bacon pieces that were only very lightly fried and then served cold along with onions (it was gross), Balmos (polenta with sausage, bacon, egg and cheese) and Ciorba Radauteana (chicken soup).

After finishing, we decided to do a hike in the mountain.

We only got about 20 minutes up the mountain before it started pouring and hailing.  We took shelter under a tree which happened to be next to a muddy hole where two frogs were procreating, so we had an interesting science lesson.

Once there was a break in the rain, we started back down the mountain, and it promptly started pouring again.  We got saturated.  We made it back to the car and drove on to Brasov which was a nice area.

After checking into our apartment, we walked through the old town to dinner.  It was a cute area that did seem to cater to tourists.  We made it to the large main square where we found tons of people celebrating Romania’s soccer win with a big dance and music show.

We found a restaurant in the square and sat down to enjoy the festivities.  It was hot, so we got some flavored lemonades-elderflower, blueberry and orange as well as some local beer.

We again tried the bean spread and Salate de vinete dip.

For our main course, we had Iahine (beans with ham hock in a bread bowl), Mici sausage, Bulz (polenta with sour cream and cheese) and mushroom placinte (pie).

We ended the meal with Galuste cu prune which was okay but not spectacular.

We walked down the shopping street after dinner past tons of shops and restaurants.  There were lots of cute buildings.  Our final stop of the evening was walking by Catherine’s Gate on our way back to the apartment.

Day 4

In a rare moment alone, my husband and I walked into the old town in the morning to have some coffee and pastries while the kids got ready.

Then, we picked them up and went to an Orthodox church and the site of the first school in Romania.  It was small but nice.  The interior was very dark.

We made our way onto a pathway running under a couple of old towers.  The path led us out onto Council Square where we went into a church.  The church had a façade on the street, but when you entered the doorway, you were in a courtyard where the church was actually located.  It was a very small church.

The next stop was the Black Church which was pretty simple inside but had a lot of old tapestries on the walls and a large organ.

After site seeing, we went to lunch where we had Bulz, pork Tocana, and placinte but this time stuffed with potato and cheese.  My husband also wanted to have another Visinata.

After eating, we walked further down the street to a bakery to try some Savarina cake which was a cake soaked in a syrup and topped with a very stiff and dense whipped cream.

We went back to our apartment and played cards for a few hours before going to dinner where we had some beer, eggplant salad, Cascaval pane, and Transylvania potato soup.  At the end of the meal, we tried a hot peppered Visinata and Papanasi.

Day 5

After grabbing a pastry breakfast, we made our way to Bran Castle better known as Dracula’s castle.

In actuality, the castle has nothing to do with Dracula other than bearing some resemblance to the castle described in the book and being located near where the real-life inspiration for Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, lived.  There wasn’t much to the castle, but there was some interesting information about how the Dracula legend is linked to Vlad the Impaler and the old legends of the undead (vampires) and werewolves in Romania.

After touring the castle, we went to lunch at a resort type place with tons of activities for kids.  We ordered some local beer that was not great and also some polenta balls stuffed with cheese and seared.  It was okay, but by this point, we were quite sick of polenta.

After lunch, we drove to Rasnov where we did a three-hour hike in the forest to some valley views.  It was a nice, quiet hike but kind of hot.

After our hike, we drove through Rasnov which was pretty, and we saw a citadel on the mountain.

Back in Brasov, we went to dinner and had bean soup, bean spread, pickles, pickled green tomatoes and pickled mushrooms which were really good.  We finished the meal with Papanasi and ice cream.

Day 6

We began the day early with a long drive to Corvin’s Castle which was pretty cool.

We enjoyed a bit of the castle’s history such as the well which some prisoners were forced to dig in exchange for freedom.  Unfortunately, the prisoners were lied to and sealed in the well where they made an inscription in the stones which survives on the side of the castle today.

After the castle, we went to the torture museum which was pretty gross.

We drove a couple of hours to arrive at Sibiu-an old Germanic settlement form the Middle Ages.  Here we saw several points of interest including the Great Square, the Little Square, Huet Square, the student stairs and the Bridge of Lies to the Lower Town as well as some churches.

The coolest thing about this town was the way that the openings in the roof of most houses gave the impression that there were eyes looking at you- kind of weird and creepy looking.

Our drives were once again characterized by many storks in nests and even some haystacks like you would see in a cartoon, even one with a pitchfork in it.  We also saw a cool church on the drive.

Back in Brasov, we had some coltunasi (potato dough dumplings), beet salad and mushroom and potato placinte for dinner.

Day 7

Today, we drove through valleys and some forested mountains to Sighisoara which was the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler (the inspiration for Dracula).

The town looked pretty neat as we drove up, but there wasn’t really much to it.  Our first stop was Holy Trinity Orthodox Church which had some really interesting paintings inside and was really cool.

We walked across the river to see the old clock tower which was a bit dilapidated and creepy looking.

We made our way through Citadel Square where we saw the house that Vlad the Impaler was born in.

We walked up the street with several historic homes to the covered stairs which was cool looking but really long.

Once we made it to the top, we went to the Church on the Hill where we saw some old frescoes that were interesting and the crypt which had a decomposing corpse that was slightly visible.

We came back down the hill to see one of the old towers, Tailors Tower.  Without much else to do, we grabbed a cold snack and headed back to Brasov.

There was a cool old fortress on the drive back.

Dinner was not too special, but we did enjoy walking around a craft market in the main square.

Day 8

On our final day, we had a pastry breakfast in the town square before driving to Peles Castle.  There was a long wait to get into the castle and it was crowded inside, but the interior was really pretty.  There was a lot of heavy wood everywhere.

We had lunch near the castle.  It was hot, so we had some local beer and polenta (again!), but this time it was topped with dry salty cheese and sour cream which I liked better than the other versions.

We also had fried cheese and bean soup.  We finished with Papanasi for dessert.

As we made our way down the hill from where the castle was located, we got an alert on our phone that a bear was spotted a six-minute car drive away.  That was not something that happens every day!

We drove to Bucharest to stay at an apartment close to the airport.  We found a place that served vegan Iahine (beans), vegan Sarmale (cabbage rolls) and some Romanian wine.

We went into a nearby grocery store and wandered around which was kind of fun before closing out the trip.

Overall, we had a good time but didn’t think there was a lot to do.  In addition, we were really surprised at the amount of smoking everywhere.  But if you like old, quaint cities and nature, then Romania is definitely worth checking out.

With our daughter leaving for university next year, we decided to take our most recent trip to a place that she has been interested in traveling to for quite some time- India. 

Day 1

After an overnight flight with an arrival at four in the morning, we napped at our hotel for several hours before heading out.  Our first stop was the restaurant at our hotel where we ordered the vegetarian biryani, Dal Makhani and butter paneer with some garlic naan.  And, of course, we couldn’t pass up the Gulab Jamun for dessert!

Our driver picked us up and took us to Qutub Minar and the remains of Old Delhi City where we saw some interesting structures.  

The strangest moment of the afternoon was when several people asked us if they could take pictures with us and pointed us out to their kids.  Apparently, many Indians take pride in having met Caucasian people.

After Qutub Minar, we went to Chhatarpur Mandir temple.  We had to take our shoes off a distance from the temple and walk around the whole complex, which was large, barefoot.  We also had to walk down a street barefoot to another part of the complex.  Inside the complex, we found many decorated deity statues everywhere, flowers and food, and tons of people.  It was quite busy!  We went into one room with two deity shrines and a man said a prayer and put a bindi, the colored dot, on our foreheads.  

After visiting this temple, we went to the Lotus Temple and walked around the garden area surrounding it.  

Our driver took us to a shopping center where the rugmakers showed us a demonstration of how they make knotted rugs.  They were a bit pushy about wanting us to buy something, but the demonstration was enough for us.  

After returning to our hotel, we wandered around the adjoining mall complex which was huge.  It even had an outdoor market and festival area which was fun.  We went to a restaurant in the mall where we had Chai Masala tea, lassi, Sev Makhana and  Nadru chaat, Aloo tikki chaat, onion and potato stuffed Kulcha, Makki di roti with Sarson ka Saag and vegetarian kofta.  Some more Gulab Jamun and Kulfi for dessert was a good end to the day.

 

 

Day 2

Our day started with an Indian breakfast buffet in the hotel. 

After eating a ton, our first stop of the day was Humayun’s Tomb.  We walked into the tomb building, which was a precursor to the Taj Mahal, and several other buildings in the complex. 

Then we went to the India Gate where more people wanted to take pictures with us.  There was also a guy there selling ear cleanings.  He had Q-Tips and a cloth-so weird!  Along the drive through the city, we also saw men getting shaves and haircuts in barber chairs on the side of the road.

After this stop, we went to Shri Laxmi Narayan Temple where we were barefoot again.  The temple was pretty quiet, and we were able to walk around looking at various deity statues.  The kids pointed out how strange it was to see swastikas on many walls.  They were actually a religious symbol that was taken by Hitler and used in his purposes.  

We had lunch at a really nice restaurant where we had Dahi kebab, Tandoori Aloo and Mushroom Galoueti kebab as well as Shahi paneer and Gulab Jamun.  It was all really good!

After lunch, we went to Gurudwara Sri Bangla Sahib which is a Sikh temple that is the nucleus of Sikhism.  We were barefoot again, but this time we had to walk through a foot bath.  We sat and listened to a sung prayer and some instrumental music in a lavish room with a large chandelier called Darbar Hall where the guru is.  As we left that area, we walked by a booth where they were giving out a mushy, oily food to eat.  They just put it in your hands with theirs.  Then our driver, who went in with us, took us back into the kitchens where the temple serves food to those who need/want it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as part of their religious practices.  While we walked through, they were making naan and curry.  We talked briefly with a representative of the religion.  

For dinner, we had Palak Patta ki chaat (fried spinach leaves), paneer tikka Lababdar and Tiffin paneer with paratha.  It was good.  For dessert we decided to try paan which was a spice mixture stuffed into some leaves.  It was certainly an interesting flavor experience.

Day 3

Our day began with another buffet breakfast before we headed to Old Delhi where we took a bicycle rickshaw around the area.  It was definitely dirtier, messier and more chaotic than what we had seen so far.  Our rickshaw driver pointed out several sites along the way such as a Ghandi monument and a temple before stopping at the spice area.  Before going into the spice building, we saw some monkeys walking along the building facade.  

 

We walked up the stairs of the spice building and immediately began coughing and choking form the chili powder floating in the air.  Upstairs, there were many stalls and people moving around spices.  Interestingly, there was also a bunch of men showering out in the open (with underwear) and men lying on beds in the stalls along the walls.  There were also more monkeys.  As we were walking around, we were thinking about how easily Covid had probably spread in that environment.  We went down to the street and into a spice and tea shop, a jewelry shop and a pashmina shop.

We stopped down a small street to look at some colorful doorways where a noble family had lived.

Next, we went to Jama Masjid, a large mosque.  There were so many people there asking us to take pictures with them.  

After some crazy traffic of cars and rickshaws everywhere, we made our way to the Red Fort where we were asked for more pictures, and when we started taking one, two more families joined the group.  One woman even gave her baby to our daughter to hold in the photo.  

We were driven to Rajghat, a garden where Ghandi was cremated, but it was closed for a VIP so we couldn’t go in.  Then, it was off to lunch where we had pea Palou rice, kofta and Pinda Channa with butter naan and a chicken curry.  We couldn’t resist some more Gulab Jamun and Kulfi for dessert.  They also gave us some paan before leaving.  

 

Our last stop of the day was Akshardham Temple which was huge.  It was a really pretty building that was surrounded by a whole complex.  Inside the temple there were many marble carvings and around the whole perimeter there was an elephant plinth which was really pretty.  Unfortunately, cameras and phones were not allowed in the complex at all.

We decided to have dinner at the hotel buffet.  We had lots of paneer and an interesting sugary dessert called Angoori Petha.

We had a nice day, but a couple of not so nice things did stand out- we saw toddlers being taught how to beg for money by some men at the mosque; we saw a small baby climbing a fence; we saw an eight- to nine-month-old baby sitting on the side of the road without any pants and all muddy.  There are definitely people living in India in very low economic situations.  

Day 4

Today for breakfast we tried Chole Bature, idly, poori, a breakfast sandwich and kulcha.  We sat is a huge traffic jam on our way to Lodhi Garden.  Everyone was knotted up in the jam, and our driver actually hit another car.  

At the garden, we enjoyed walking around and seeing several old tombs, lots of plants and several animals.  We really enjoyed the Indian palm squirrels which we had seen at many places, the kites (birds) which fly around everywhere there, and the Indian small mongoose.

After the garden, we went to Purana Quila which are the remains of a fort type complex with several buildings belonging to Humayun including a mosque where he fell down the stairs and later died.  

We went to lunch at a place that looked a bit questionable, but our driver assured us was fine.  The food was good.  We had mushroom masala, kofta, korma and yellow dal with vegetable Palou rice and butter naan.  

After lunch, our driver dropped us at a very busy street with the words-just watch out and be careful- in order for us to go to the mosque Dargah Nizamuddin Aulia.  The street was small and chaotic, and lots of people were yelling things at us, mostly trying to get us to pay them to watch our shoes (you have to take your shoes off to enter the mosque).  We walked through the maze of entry halls and into the main courtyard of the mosque which was also packed and chaotic.  It was just too much, so we came back out and were promptly accosted by beggars.  Overall, it was not a very pleasant experience.

After this, we decided to just go back to the hotel and walk around the mall a bit.  We went to the happy hour at the hotel where we had a few drinks including a very strange masala lemonade.  After this, it was time for dinner.  We tried several types of chaat and some kulcha along with some Indian drinks- lassi, Ganne ka Ras (sugarcane, ginger, mint and black salt) and Masala Kokum (chaat masala and mint).  They were pretty good.

Day 5

Today we were picked up early to make the three-hour drive to Agra.  There wasn’t a lot to see along the way- mustard green farming, huge (and I mean huge) apartment complexes outside of Delhi, and some monkeys on top of the toll booth.

In Agra, we found tiny, dirty looking streets and the chaos of people and vehicles everywhere.  But we made our way to the main attraction- the Taj Mahal.  It was really beautiful, but not exactly what we had expected.  First, it was inside large gates in the midst of the city.  Second, on one side was a mosque and, on the other side, a fake mosque to maintain symmetry.  Our guide insisted on taking all kinds of crazy photos of us which we refer to as our Indian photo shoot as taking these elaborate, staged photos seems to be a pastime of many Indian people.

Once we went inside, we were able to see the really cool stones inlaid in the marble carving on all the walls.  The building and all angles and placement have perfect symmetry which was pretty impressive for its time.  

After the Taj Mahal, we took a rickshaw to Agra Fort (I swear we almost died with all the other rickshaws and cars speeding around us as well as the kids trying to run alongside the rickshaw to ask us to buy things).  The fort was cool with its red sandstone buildings and white palace inside.  We saw the areas where visitors were received, where visitors were entertained, the queen’s bedroom, the king’s room and the pavilions for the daughters which had great views of the Taj Mahal.  We also saw the area where the king was placed on house arrest by his son.

 

Our final stop of the day was Baby Taj which was built before the Taj Mahal.  It had some cool artwork and ceiling designs.  And the fun part was that there were monkeys everywhere running around, hanging from trees, jumping on bushes and playing.  While we were taking some photos, we could feel them running behind us.   

We had lunch at a hotel buffet.  The food was alright, and they had some decent desserts like Churma and Rasgulla. 

After a three-and-a-half-hour drive back, we got some dinner of chaat, tikka paneer, paneer Makhani, dhal Makhani and Laccha paratha.  For dessert we tried the Rasmali.

Day 6

Our final day in India was a long drive to Jaipur (a little over four hours).  We first stopped at a stepwell and then went to Amer Fort where the Maharaja resided.  We saw the reception and proclamation area where the Maharaja made decisions.  We also saw the inner courtyard and an area with many tiny mirrors that they used as a heating system as well as other areas in the complex including the apartments for the many wives. 

After the fort, we stopped for a photo at the Water Palace, the Maharaja’s summer home. 

We had a lunch which sadly wasn’t very good and then onto the City Palace where we saw Jantar Mantar, the astronomical observatory. 

We walked around the City Palace looking at some of the buildings and a museum with clothing from the Maharaja.  We saw the reception area and the entertainment courtyard which had different doors for each season (for example, the peacock door is for autumn and the lotus is for summer).  

Our final stop was a quick one outside of the Wind Palace which was a pretty cool looking building.

We had a very long drive home with a lot of traffic in Delhi meaning we sat in the city for about two hours.  We grabbed a quick dinner at the hotel buffet and headed to bed as our flight was very early.

Day 7

Today we were heading home, or so we thought.  Due to a very late departure from India, we missed our connecting flight in Istanbul by about 20 minutes.  We spent quite a while in various lines at the airport where no one really seemed to care about the large number of people needing assistance.  When we finally got things sorted, we had a one-hour drive from the airport to our hotel.  There wasn’t much to see for a long time, but as we approached the city, we could see a lot of buildings on water.  

We checked into the hotel and had a snack of a local beer and local cheese before deciding to make the most of our misfortune and heading out with a driver that the hotel had arranged in order to see some of the city.  While the driver spoke basically no English, we were assured that he understood where he was taking us, and it would be no problem.  The drive into the city took another hour, but we enjoyed looking at all the buildings and the parks along the water.  We could also see the old city wall that was built by Constantinople.  

This is where things started to get weird.  The driver took us to a shop where they said that they would send a teenage boy with us to the monuments, and then we would come back and see the rugs that they make.  We told them that we didn’t want to shop, and that we did not request a guide, but they assured us it was just part of the deal with the driver.  The boy did take us to Hagia Sophia which is a mosque built in 500 by Constantinople.  It was really pretty inside with old mosaics and ceiling decorations.  

 

Our next stop was the Blue Mosque which was also very pretty with its pastel-colored inside.  It was built in the 1600s.  The area around it on the outside was nice too with a park type feel.  

We walked back to the store where, true to their word, they wanted to show us rugs.  The carpets were pretty, but we told them we weren’t buying.  They gave us some different flavored teas (mango, apple, pomegranate and berry) as well as some really good Turkish delight.  

 

 

 

Then, the driver took us to see Grana tower and bridge and had us go down to the waterfront area.  There were some really nice views and an amazing moon.  The Blue Mosque all lit up was quite beautiful.  Our driver suggested we eat at a restaurant there, which I believe was just a scam.  The food was ridiculously expensive and not very good.  We basically ate vegetables, hummus and some bulgar and feta salad.  We also had some baklava and a really awful kunefe for dessert.  

We informed our driver that we wanted to go back to the hotel, but he started taking us the wrong direction.  He asked if we wanted to go somewhere else and when we said no, he wouldn’t listen.  We eventually had to contact the hotel and ask them to call him.  At first, they told us it was fine, and we could just go where he was taking us, but we insisted we wanted to come back, and finally it was sorted, and we turned around- a bit unnerving and frustrating.  

Ahead of us was a very short night of sleep before trying again to get home, and our impression of Istanbul was not so great, so we were just ready to get going.  While we decided that we probably wouldn’t come back to Turkey any time soon, we did enjoy the trip and getting to experience something very different.  More parts of the world seen; more memories made – it was a good time!

 

 

 

 

As the weather is starting to turn here in The Netherlands, we decided to take a quick trip to warmer Spain to explore Madrid and Valencia.

Upon arriving in Madrid, we hopped on the metro and made our way to Retiro Park which was a very large and pretty city park where many people were spending the warm afternoon.  There were lots of musicians in the park and renting a boat to row on the lake seemed to be a popular activity.

We decided to sit in a small outdoor restaurant to have some lunch.  We tried a bocadillo (sandwich) del calamari and had Spanish tortilla which is basically potatoes and eggs in a sort of puffed-up omelet.  We had some churros and chocolate for dessert, but no one thought it was very good.

After lunch and the stroll through the park, we walked through some of the different areas in the city such as the Bairro de las Letras.

For dinner, we went to a small place near our apartment where we had some tapas like patatas bravas, cheese and fried artichokes as well as huevos rotos (broken eggs) over fried potatoes.

The next morning, we headed out, grabbed some empanadas and little pastries, and walked toward Plaza de Espana which was a nice little area.  There was a Latin festival set up at one end of the plaza with lots of stalls selling foods and small crafts from various Latin countries.

Then, we moved on to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace).  We did not go in but walked around the area through some of the gardens and the front gate.

We did go into the Almudene Cathredral.  It had some really pretty ceilings.

After lunch, we walked by Mercado San Miguel on our way to Plaza Mayor where they were having a concert.  We made our way down a side street to Chocolateria san Gines which specializes in churros with chocolate.  We stopped for a quick snack.

After that, we went to Puerta del Sol, another large square, which lived up to its name as it was in fact very sunny.  We went to lunch at a restaurant specializing in croquetas.  We had one made of shitakes, one made of boletus and truffles and one of provolone with tomatoes.  We also tried the dessert versions- one with Oreo and one with crema Catalana.  The dessert versions were our favorite!

After lunch, we walked around a bit more, passing through the Gran Via, a large shopping street, before going to a large park in the city with many trails.  We walked to the lake in that park and then went to our apartment to rest for a while before dinner.

We went to a really nice tapas restaurant for dinner.  We had some Spanish red wine along with an assortment of tapas such as Padron de pimento, patatas bravas, mushrooms with pesto, fried eggplant with honey, croquetas and huevos rotos.

The next morning, we set out for the real reason we were in Madrid- to visit a university that our oldest is considering.  We walked to the school from our apartment and had a nice tour of the area.  Then, we walked to the area that the housing is located in.  After exploring the area a bit, we had a tour of the residence building.  After our tour, we got lunch at a nearby restaurant where we had Pisto Manchego (fried eggs over peppers), Spanish tortilla and fried artichokes.

After a rest at our apartment and a quick trip to a bakery to find breakfast for the next day, we went back out to see another potential residence building in a slightly different area.  We walked around the area a bit and made our way south toward dinner.  We came across an amazing city fitness park with walking and running tracks, fitness equipment, sport fields and a huge gym.

We decided to have dinner at a Brazilian restaurant where we found several of our favorite foods-coxinha, pao de queijo, kibe, mandioca, picanha and feijoada along with some Brazilian beer.  It was a fun deviation from the Spanish food.

The next morning, we took the metro to the train station where we boarded a train to Valencia.  In less than 2 hours, we stepped off the train and made our way into the old part of Valencia.  We walked by Estacio del Nord and the Plaza de Toros.

We walked by the Neo-Mudejar building and then through a huge square with the Placa de l’Ajuntament and a large fountain as well as many historic buildings.

We stopped and had some horchata (a drink made from Tiger nuts) and fartons (pastry).

Then, we stopped by the Central Market where we bought some candy called turron and some Valencia oranges.

Next, we made our way to Valencia Cathedral where we saw what is believed to be the Holy Grail.

We sat in the square outside the cathedral for a while before finding a restaurant for lunch.  It was another tapas bar where we had some nice beer along with Valencia mussels, esgarreat (peppers topped with shredded cod), pepito (fish and vegetables inside a bread) and patatas bravas.  For dessert, we tried the flan as well as a pumpkin dessert as pumpkin is apparently quite popular in Valencia.

After our lunch, we went to our apartment for a while before heading back out to a park.  We found a nice square with a church and fountain and many cool architectural features.

Near the park was an old gate to the city.

The park itself was not too exciting, but we enjoyed wandering around and sitting in a square for a while before settling on dinner in an open square in the old town.  The food was not too exciting, but we had a few tapas and tried the Agua de Valencia (drink made from orange juice, vodka, cava and gin) and Sangria.

On our final day in Valencia, we went to the Central Market to find some pastries for breakfast.  They were really good.  One was pumpkin in a pie crust type dough and the other was candied orange in a soft, sugar-coated dough.  We also tried some cream and chocolate filled fartons.

We got a taxi and made our way to the newer part of the city (the City of Arts and Sciences) to go to the aquarium, Oceanographic.  It was a really nice research based aquarium with all kinds of sea life including sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, beluga whales and seals/sea lions.  After spending the morning there, we ate lunch at a place specializing in paella.  We had a vegetable version along with some bread with tomato and aioli.  It was good.

From there, we took a taxi to the beach where we spent a couple of hours lounging and enjoying the view and people watching.

After making our way back to our apartment, we went to dinner where we had another version of the Agua de Valencia and Sangria as well as some croquetas and bread before trying some more paella.  This time we had a vegetable version as well as Paella Valencia which had chicken, rabbit and snails.  They were both really good.

After the meal, we decided to walk around the old town a bit to burn off some of the dinner.  Then, it was time to get to bed for our early train out the next morning.

After our early train, a quick metro ride and many hours in the airport, we made it back home.  All in all, it was a nice little getaway to much better weather than we returned to.  It was nice to take a trip that wasn’t jam packed with activities and to have the opportunity to consider what life might be like in Madrid for our oldest-perhaps we will be back soon!

The past 3 weeks we have been on a 3,100-mile adventure as we made our way from home, through eastern Europe, and back.  It began with a week in Switzerland in the Interlaken area.  While our son experienced the fun of scout camp for a week, the rest of us spent the week in a 400-year-old house in the mountain.  We had some amazing views of the Swiss Alps, and we got to take a few nature hikes to a gorge and to a glacial lake in the mountains.

   

           

     

We also enjoyed some Swiss dining such as fondue, raclette, rosti and an interesting place where we grilled skewers at our place at the table.  And no meal would be complete without some meringue desserts.

Day 1

After our week in the Alps at a slow pace, it was time to pick things up.  We retrieved our son from camp and began our journey to eastern Europe with a long drive through Italy which included 2 rail car transports-an interesting experience sitting in your car being ferried through a dark tunnel in the mountain.

By the late afternoon, we arrived in Slovenia and were treated to scenic, winding roads through densely wooded mountains and small villages alongside rivers and streams.  It was very beautiful although the roads were a bit nerve-racking.

Upon arriving at our rental unit, we were greeted by the host with a glass of her homemade blueberry liquour (a specialty in Slovenia).

We headed off to our first taste of Slovenian food-cottage cheese strukjli (dough filled with cottage cheese), Loska (local beer), ajdovi krapi (buckwheat dumplings stuffed with cottage cheese) and kranjska klobasa (Slovenian sausage).

After a long day of driving, it was time to go to bed.

Day 2

Our second day began with an early morning stop at the local bakery to grab some sweet struklji, apple strudel and a small cake.

With something in our stomachs, we were ready to tackle the Vogar hiking path in Triglav National Park.  The path began in a meadow at the foot of the mountains but quickly became a steep, rocky path up the mountain.

It took us about an hour of straight uphill walking to get to the alpine meadow at the top of the mountain.

After 30 minutes through the meadow, we reached the viewpoint to the lake below.

After enjoying the view, we began to make our way back down the rocky path which was also exhausting.

Once we made it to the bottom, we rewarded our efforts with a lunch stop in a nearby town.  We tried jota (a stew with beans, potatoes and sauerkraut), struklji filled with cottage cheese and breadcrumbs, 2 flavors (plum and herb) of zjange (liquors) and some kremsnita cake for dessert.  Everything was very good.

 

After the enjoyable break from the hiking, we were ready to take on another hike in the afternoon at Vintar Gorge.  The hike was beautiful with really clear water.  Along the way, we saw a lot of fish and barn swallows in the water.  We walked the length of the gorge to the Sum Waterfall at the end.

      

We grabbed a quick snack of potica (poppy seed filled dough).

Then, it was back to hiking to return to the car.  The trail back was through the forested area above the gorge, which was nice, but it was more uphill.  There were some nice views, though.

After completing the hike, we drove around Lake Bled where there are some really lovely spots.

It was time to get some dinner.  We found a cute little place at a gorge area, but they didn’t have many Slovenian dishes.  We were able to try some Slovenian wine and premurska gibanica (layered cake) for dessert.  The layers were poppy seed, apple, dough, etc.  It was pretty nice.

Day 3

On our way out of the area, we stopped at the bakery where we bought a bread that tasted a lot like dirt.  We might have found some pogaca (bread that is cooked in ashes), but we aren’t sure.  But, it was good once you got over the initial surprise of the earthy taste.

While munching our bread, we made our way to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.  On the drive, we discovered that Slovenia does not have a huge population despite being a good-sized country.  Ljubljana only has about 300,000 people, so it really did not feel like a large, bustling capital.  Upon arriving, we made our way to Neboticnik skyscraper to enjoy the views of the city while having a barley coffee and some lemonade which turned out to be straight lemon juice.

   

After gagging down the lemon juice, we walked into the old town and saw several sites such as bridges (Dragon Bridge), old buildings, and the river.

It was all nice, but nothing was overwhelmingly exciting.  We decided to try a dumpling place for our final Slovenian meal.  We had some plum brandy, ajdovi zganci (buckwheat spoonbread with sour milk), and cottage cheese dumplings.  For dessert, we tried an orange and dark chocolate dumpling and a white chocolate coconut dumpling.  It was all very good, but it was so hot outside that we were ready to move on!

We got back in the car and drove for a few hours to get to Croatia.  Our first stop was Rovijn where it was even hotter!!  We walked along the harbor into the old town and were treated to really nice views along the way.

We walked up the cute, winding streets to a church overlooking the sea and through other narrow streets to a tiny art district that had a small gallery with insect paintings (perfect for one member of our group!) on our way to the port.

We saw some jellyfish and fish in the water around the boats, and everything was very cute, but when we could take the heat and blazing sun no longer, we found a spot for dinner on a shady street.  We tried medica (honey liquour) and biska (mistletoe liquour).  Both were good, but the honey was better as my husband liked to point out since he ordered that one!  We also tried Istrian pasta with shrimp, sea bass and truffle pasta with Istrian ham as well as a local wine.

 

Everything was very good, but the heat was unbearable as it felt like 102 degrees with no escape to air conditioning possible.  We left Rovijn and drove to our overnight apartment which was situated on a large farm property.  It was like an oasis in the middle of nowhere because it was impeccable inside and had air conditioning.  It even had a trampoline which was a big hit with our youngest!

Day 4  

Today, we made our way to the Croatian island of Mali Losinj.  We drove to the ferry and took that across to the start of the island chain.

We had nice views throughout the drive, and once we arrived in Mali and got checked in, we were ready to find some lunch.  We found a really nice place on a side street of the port area.

We started with some local cheese and bread along with a local beer and white wine called Malvazija.  Then for our main course, we had buzara mussels (a special broth that the mussels are cooked in), pasticada (marinated beef with gnocchi), and truffle pasta.  We decided to finish with a local dessert which was a sweet ravioli with a berry sauce.  It was really a nice meal.

                   

After lunch, we went to the island’s aromatic garden.  Due to the summer temperatures, most of the plants were not blooming, but you could still get a hint of the smell.  There were some sheep at the garden, and the kids enjoyed petting them.

After the heat of the garden, we were ready to jump into the sea to cool down.  We found a nice, shaded beach, but while it was beautiful, the water was still a bit chilly.  So, since we didn’t want to get all the way in and swim, we spent a lot of time looking at the sea life around the rocks near the shoreline.  The kids had a great time picking up tons of hermit crabs and letting them crawl all over them.  The water was clear enough to see them easily and to see other fish, urchins and flora on the rocks.

 

After cleaning up from the beach, we went to dinner at the port.  We had some pag skir (sheep cheese) and both medica (honey liquour) and loza (grape liquour).  The boys tried some seafood pasta and calamari while the girls went vegetarian.  The food was okay.

After dinner, we walked along the port and found a giant crab in the water near the boats as well as several smaller ones on the dock steps.  We got some ice cream which was pretty good and watched a show in the main area with baton twirlers and a concert band playing lots of recognizable classics.  It was a lot of fun as the weather was perfect and many of people of all ages were out having fun and dancing at the concert.  While no one really wanted to leave, we had an early day planned the next day in order to beat the heat, so we needed to get to sleep.

Day 5

We managed to make it out early to walk the Path of Vitality from Mali Losinj to Veli Losinj, the next island.  The path was a nice, albeit hot, walk along the shoreline and through some forest areas.  Veli was a cute little port area with some historic buildings.

From there, we walked a bit further to an even smaller fishing village called Rovenska.

By this point, it was time to walk back and try to cool off a little before going to lunch at the port.  We found a nice place serving local beer and Teran (local red wine), though it was so hot, I’m not sure how we managed to drink it!  For our meal, we had the sheep cheese followed by mussels buzara, fried calamari and a four-mushroom pasta.  Dessert was a really nice trifle of figs, prosecco, mascarpone cheese and cookies.

     

In the afternoon, we walked to a different beach.  Though we did find some crabs there, it wasn’t quite as fun as the one from the day before.  It was nice to have a chance to cool off though.

After cleaning up, we went to dinner at the port where we had white wine, Hugo Spritz (this is my new summer drink of choice!), medica and sheep cheese.  Our main meal was truffle suplice (pasta), pasta with scampi and caviar and some pizza.  We finished with a cherry brandy called Maraschino (really nice).

        

After dinner, we walked along the port and realized they were having a maritime festival.  So, we grabbed an ice cream and watched a few of the acts including some traditional dancers accompanied by a traditional bagpiper and some accapella singers.  We watched the sun set over the harbor before heading to bed.

Day 6

Today, it was time for us to leave the islands and head back to the mainland.  On our way back to the ferry dock, we saw a ton of Griffon vultures flying in the air.  They are endangered, and this is one of the last places that they can be found in Croatia, so it was really cool to see so many.

After making our way back to the mainland, we began our drive south toward Split.  On the way, we made a stop at Krka National Park.  We enjoyed a nice hike to view the Skradinski waterfall.  The area along the way was pretty with lots of little streams, falls and lakes filled with fish, ducks and dragonflies.  At the waterfall, we even saw a small snake in a little stream.

After the park, we drove the rest of the way into Split.  The city was much bigger and had more of a ritzy, party vibe.  We went to a ridiculously expensive restaurant by mistake, so we just ordered some appetizers and went to walk along the port past all the big yachts.

Day 7

Today began bright and early with an hour-long speed ferry to Bol on Brac Island.  After arriving, we walked along the port and the promenade to the dive shop that we would be using for the day’s activities.  We took a boat across the channel to a bay where our two divers went on a dive and the other two of us went snorkeling.  There were lots of sea cucumbers and small fish as well as some vegetation to be seen from the surface.  The divers saw an octopus.

After an hour or so in the water, we took the boat back to Bol where we enjoyed lunch on the beach.  Our youngest played in the water while we ate a cheese board appetizer.  For the main course, we had some really good scampi gyoza and scallops in cheese as well as some vegetable risotto.  To cap off the meal, we tried Rogac (carob liquour) and Orahovica (walnut liquour).

Then, it was back on the boat to go to a different bay for another snorkeling and dive session.  This time, the divers saw 3 octopi, scorpion fish, nudibranchs and fire worms.  Snorkeling revealed more interesting fish and really huge sea cucumbers as well as a glimpse of two nudibranchs.

After returning to Bol, we made our way back to Split via the ferry and to a late dinner where we had Hugo Spritz and wine, truffle pasta, clams buzara and sea bass.  For dessert, we tried a filled pancake and a Snicker ball.

Day 8

We decided to sleep in this morning and go to the beach for an hour and a half mid-morning.  It was so incredibly hot outside that it was just nice to stand in the water.

In the afternoon, we braved the heat to go to the old town of Split.  It was a bit interesting because from the outside you only see the wall of a city, so we didn’t expect there to be an entire city behind the walls.  It was quite large, and there were a lot of shops and restaurants hidden behind the walls.  We saw an old bell tower, palace, town hall, town squares and winding streets.

        

After wandering around for a while, we got some dinner which was okay.  We had scampi buzara, but we didn’t really enjoy having to shell everything, and there wasn’t actually much food there.  We did try some Dalmatian style Swiss chard and potato dish.

After dinner, we went to the other side of the harbor and walked past all the fancy yachts.  Some of them were unbelievable.

Day 9

We started early this morning in order to enter Plitvice National Park as all of the later time slots were already booked.  We walked Trail C through the upper and lower lakes of the park.  There were tons of waterfalls and clear turquoise water everywhere.  It was very pretty.  We even saw a little nature-lots of fish and a mouse.  We walked for an hour along the lower lakes before taking a boat on the large lake to the upper lakes.  Then, we walked for another hour or so before grabbing a quick lunch and taking the bus back to the entrance.

     

After the park, we drove into our destination for the day-Rastoke.  Rastoke is a city on a river with a bunch of waterfalls.  We decided to walk around Rastoke in the afternoon.  We started by walking along the river to see several of the falls.  The path was so hot, it felt like we were cooking.

         

We decided to go into the middle of the village to visit the museum.  We saw an old mill and an old washing machine.

   

We saw several falls viewpoints and a cotton/textile museum.

We walked through the little fairy garden, and the boys went to explore the cave/canyon, but it was just so miserably hot that we decided to go to dinner early just to get some drinks.

For dinner, we had some Croatian beer (Ozujsko) and wine from Slunj (the city we were staying in).  We tried a local cheese platter.  None of the food was too exciting, but one person did get bear meat goulash, and we tried potatoes from the dome (peka-a dish which is slow cooked under a clay dome).  For the dessert, we tried something called Miller’s cake (a polenta base and a cream top) and a cheese strudel.  We also tried a liqueur made from quince, but really, it was just too hot for anything.

   

Day 10

Today, we said goodbye to Croatia and made our way to Budapest, Hungary.  As we arrived in the city, we had a great view of the Parliament building coming across a bridge and past Margaret’s Island.  We found a spot for lunch-Gundel’s.  Apparently, the founder was quite a revolutionary on the food scene when he started it in the early 1900’s.  We started with a paprika, onion and cottage cheese spread with bread and had a nice, although hot, lunch of chicken paprikash and a paprika sausage dish along with a local IPA.  It was all good, but the dessert was really nice.  We had Gundel pancake (a pancake with ground nuts and orange filling) and Somloi galuska (a trifle cake).  We also tried apricot Palinka, a Hungarian spirit.

       

After lunch, we walked to Hero’s Square where we also saw a really cool castle in the distance.

From there, we drove down Andrassy Avenue to our apartment.  After getting settled and learning we did not have air conditioning (a major disappointment), we went out to see the Opera house, St. Stephen’s Basilica and a nice avenue heading toward the Chain Bridge over the Danube.

 

Along the Danube, we saw the shoes monument to those shot along the banks of the Danube during WWII.

From here, we walked to the Parliament building and the Justice building.  During the walk, my oldest taught me all about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which she had researched for school during the past year.

After our walk around the city admiring the statues and architecture, we went to dinner in what seriously felt like an oven.  The meal was inside a slightly underground restaurant with no windows or anything for ventilation.  I really thought we were going to melt.  The food was good though.  We had some local beer and hortobagyi palascinta (a chicken stuffed pancake) to start.  Then, we tried stuffed cabage rolls, rantott sajt (fried cheese), mushroom paprika and schnitzel.  To finish, we had a sour cherry strudel and chestnut puree which was really nice.  We also tried Unicum which is another local spirit-interesting taste.

            

Day 11

We began the day with an early morning walk to Dohany Street Synagogue.  Along the way, we stopped and got some pogacsa from a bakery.  They were kind of like small biscuits.

After the history lesson the other day, our oldest asked if it would be possible to walk to the Magyar radio station, the site of the student protests and massacre in 1956 during the revolution.  As it’s always great when there is a chance to see something that the kids have learned about for school, we made our way there.  It is really just a marker on a building, but it was good to incorporate it into the itinerary.  Next, we went to the City Market, a large indoor market filled with various stalls.  We spent a little time looking at some souvenir items and then moved on.

We walked across the Danube using a cool looking bridge on our way to Buda Castle.

After taking the funicular up to the castle, we had some nice views of the city.

 

We walked around the area of the castle and went into a gallery.  We learned about the history of Budapest which was interesting.

From there, we walked to Fisherman’s Bastion.  There we saw Matthius Church which was very ornate and had a colorful, mosaic roof.

   

The Bastions were pretty and interesting looking.  It kind of looked like an area of Disneyland.

   

We went back down on the funicular and across the Danube to lunch.  We found a place with tables along the street and sat down to some local beer and cold raspberry soup (which was nice considering how hot it was).  Then, we had turos csusza (noodles with cottage cheese) and kaposztas testza (noodles with cabbage) which was really good.  We also tried mushroom paprikash and beef stew.  For dessert, we had Somloi galuska.

 

After lunch, we went to St. Stephen’s Basilica to see the inside.  It had a nice dome ceiling and lots of heavy marble.  Interestingly, we discovered that it also contains the mummified fist of Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in a glass case.

In the evening, we went to dinner where we had goulash soup and a garlic soup with langos (fried bread).  They were both good.  Then, the main dish came, and I can’t even begin to describe how awful it was-spaetzle with scrambled egg.  I do not recommend.  On the other hand, my husband liked his Hungarian stew and local Chardonnay.

 

Day 12

Today, we headed to Slovakia.  After all the heat in the other countries, we were ready to get to a country where the temperatures promised to not rise much above 80 degrees.  As we made our way out of Hungary, we enjoyed the fields of sunflowers that went on as far as the eye could see (hard to really capture in a picture).

Our initial impressions of Slovakia were a bit mixed.  We drove through a lot of little, shanty looking villages on our way to Brezno, where we were staying.

Our first stop was a restaurant recommended by our apartment host in the city.  The restaurant was up a hill in the mountains and had nice views.  We started the meal with a fruity Radler beer that almost everyone in the place was drinking and a Czech beer along with a cheese platter that was delicious.  It had smoked cheese knots, garlic cheese strips, paprika cheese strips and regular cheese pieces.  For our meal, we had bryndzova halusky (dumplings (almost spaetzle like) in a cheese sauce), nemiakovy placky (potato pancakes), polievka (garlic soup), vyprazany syr (fried cheese), and a porkloin stuffed with potato and wrapped in bacon.  To finish the meal, we tried a Slovakian digestif called Slivovica.

     

We also bought a box of Slovakian cookies at the restaurant shop.

After dropping everything at our apartment, we went to Bystrianska Cave.  It was a smallish cave, but it had a variety of interesting formations.

 

In the evening, we went to dinner at a restaurant with a nice hillside view.  We tried Kofola soda, potato pancake, sztrapacska (dumplings with cabbage) and bryndzove halusky (the cheese dumplings).  We also tried a tatratea digestif.  It is a tea based herbal liqueur.  It had an interesting taste.  For dessert, we had a pancake stuffed with ice cream.

          

Day 13

Today was an exhausting and physically demanding day.  We began at 8:45am on the Chopok trail in the Low Tatras National Park.

For one hour, we walked about 400 meters straight up the side of a mountain.  There were some nice wildflowers along the way, but the path was hard and a bit scary as it felt like you might fall backwards at times.

   

At the top of that mountain, we stopped for a snack and to rest.  We had some apple strudel and a dumpling filled with jam and sprinkled with chocolate.  It was nice, but we had to move on to the next phase.

For the next hour and a half, we gained another 500 meters or so.  It was hard and straight up but through a pretty wooded area.  The last 100 meters was pure rock going straight up which was hard.

 

At the top, we had lunch of cabbage soup and potato pancake, snitzel and fried cheese.  We had some beer and Kofola soda, too.  To reward ourselves (we thought the worst was over-laughing hysterically), we got another dumpling filled with jam, but this one was covered in vanilla sauce.

   

The next stage of the trail was a rocky path on the edge of the mountain.  It took us several hours, and, at times, it was pretty scary (it’s never great when hiking to wonder how many people may have died on the trail).  The views were nice, and there was hardly anyone else on the trail after a certain point.  Toward the end of this section, the path went upward which was exhausting after already hiking for several hours.

 

Finally, we reached the point of descent, but the path was awful.  It was a dried-up water flow bed with tons of rocks. The flowers around the area were nice, but we had to watch where we stepped, and by that point we were so tired, we barely noticed the plants.  It took us about 2 hours to get down the mountain.

          

The end of the hike was nice.  It passed through a forested area with little waterfalls and a stream.  At 7:30pm, we exited the forest, and we were so happy to finish!

 

We made it to a restaurant about an hour before closing, and we were thrilled to sit down and eat.  We had some Slovakian wine, the cheese sauce dumplings and a dumpling (like pierogi) filled with blueberries and topped with tons of poppy seeds and melted butter.  It was really good.

 

Day 14

We woke and weren’t crippled from our hike, so the day was off to a good start!  We got on the road early to visit Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.  We saw several points of interest there such as the old town hall and square, St. Michael’s Gate, the Blue Church and St. Martin’s Cathedral.

          

We had lunch in the city of sheep cheese dumplings, halusky and fried cheese.  We had a Slovakian beer and Borovika, a juniper spirit.

     

We stopped at a bakery in the city and got Bratislavsky Rozok (walnut and poppy seed filled pastries).  We also tried some little pastries filled with jam and cheese.

Then, we hit the road again to get to Dresden, Germany where we planned to spend the night.  Once in Dresden, we went dinner at a restaurant on the main square where we had some Weisen beer, pretzel, cheese spaetzle with fried onions and schnitzel.  The meal was really good, but as a glorious end to the trip, they had our favorite German dessert which we haven’t had in almost 5 years-shredded pancake.  For those that can remember back to our first trip post, we almost lost our minds over shredded pancake at a mountain top restaurant in the south of Germany.  We had hoped to drive through the town where we had eaten it during this trip in order to get some, but before we left home, we found out that the restaurant had closed.  So, you can imagine how excited we were to find it in Dresden.  And, despite the fact that it was raining as we huddled under our umbrellaed table to eat it, it was delicious!

Day 15

Before leaving the city, we took an hour to walk around and see the center of Dresden.  There are some really nice buildings in the city, although they were all apparently destroyed in a bombing toward the end of WWII that also killed 25,000 civilians.  We grabbed some pastry while enjoying the sites before getting back on the road to bring the trip to a close.

     

After 3 weeks away from home, we were kind of ready to get back.  The trip was a lot of fun, and we always love getting to experience new things together as a family but living out of a suitcase for 3 weeks gets tiring.  Nonetheless, we were really glad to get to experience eastern Europe, and we would definitely consider going back to some of the places we visited in the future (just maybe not during a heat wave)!

With a long weekend looming and a guest from out of town visiting, we decided to take advantage of the extra days off and head to Tuscany.  While we had been there before, our guest had not, and so we made plans to fly into Bologna, visit there for a few hours and then spend a couple of days in Florence.  However, life had different plans because our morning flight got canceled which caused us to then only get to Bologna at night.  So, rather than spend any time there, we drove straight on to Florence.

On our first full day, we started off with a pastry and a cappuccino before heading past the Florence Cathedral on the way to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see the one and only David. He was quite large and really impressive in his degree of detail.

In addition to the famous statue, we saw many other statues and artworks, including this really pretty tapestry, before leaving the museum and walking to the Palazzo Vecchio for a cannoli, torta del nonno and another cappuccino.

The torta del nonno was really good!  After the quick break for our feet, we walked across the Ponte Vecchio amid a sea of umbrellas, as it drizzled and was cloudy the entire weekend, before making our way to Pitti Palace.  We walked through the palace exploring the rooms and the artwork and escaping the heaviest of the rain before heading into the Boboli Gardens for a quick walk.

After the palace and gardens, we made our way to a sidewalk restaurant for lunch.  We had some caprese and Tuscan cheeses before the main course of gnocchi with gorgonzola and walnut sauce, tagliatelle tartufo, tagliatelle porcini and ribollita with some Chianti.

After lunch, we stopped for a really nice gelato, and then went to rest for a bit before going out to dinner that evening.  Our dinner meal began with some bruschetta before we enjoyed pici cacio e pepe which was so good.  We finished with some tiramisu and cantuccini with vin santo and a little limoncello.  It was a nice meal.

Our second day, we went to see some more famous artwork at the Uffizi Gallery including Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Caravaggio’s Medusa, and Titian’s Venus of Urbino.

There were also a lot of sculptures.  It was nice, but really quite big.  After the museum, we decided to see a bit more of Tuscany by heading to Lucca.  The city was nice and had some old world charm, though we struggled to find many food choices for the vegetarian members of our party.  In the end, we settled on buffala and quatro formaggio pizzas.  We spent a couple of hours walking around the city seeing the open squares, small winding streets and cathedrals including one with a wedding taking place.

After driving back to Florence, we went to dinner in an outside square where we had a little Aperol Spritz and Chianti along with gnocchi and cacio e pepe.

And being that it was our last night, we also had to have another tiramisu as well as a dessert we had never tried- zuccotto florentine which was really good!

We finished the meal with an amaro del capo and a limoncello.  We walked the meal off a bit, stopped and bought a leather bag, and may or may not have stopped for one final small gelato.

The next day we caught an early flight back home before our waistlines could expand any more.  All in all, while the travel plans and the weather didn’t really cooperate with us, it was a nice, quick trip.  Bellissimo!

Last week being our spring break, we decided to head north where the weather was certainly not better than home, but we got to enjoy Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands.

Day 1

We took a morning flight to Edinburgh and made our way into the heart of the city via the tram.  Once there, we went to lunch at a pub where we jumped right in and tried haggis as an appetizer.  Surprisingly, it was really good-just don’t think too hard about what it is.  Surviving that, we got a pint of Scottish beer and vegetarian haggis, neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) as well as fish and chips for our main meal.  We also decided to try a few whiskies since we were in Scotland after all.  The bartender recommended some that are good for beginners, and also surprisingly, they were good and not too strong for our tastes.  To complete our meal, we had to order sticky toffee pudding as it is a favorite of ours.

Everything was really good, and with our first meal down, we headed into the old town.  Our first stop was the Scott Monument built for Sir Walter Scott.  Interestingly enough, the monument was not intended to be black, but all the coal that was burned in the city over the years turned it black.

Our next point of interest was St. Giles Cathedral.  It was quite nice inside with interesting architecture and stained glass.

From here, we walked to the Writer’s Museum with memorabilia about Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson-all Scottish writers.

Then, we walked up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle and back down.  We stopped in a few shops along the way and took in all the unique people walking the streets.  I truly have never seen so many interesting and unique individuals concentrated in one location before.

After checking into our apartment, we went to get some dinner at a restaurant around the corner.  There, we had vegetarian wellington, vegan shepherd’s pie and vegetarian haggis.  We all liked it.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at some of the buildings of the University of Edinburgh which was directly across from our apartment.  Then, we headed in for the night to try some of the candies we bought during the day-Edinburgh rock, Scottish tablet, Soor Plooms and some shortbread.  Everything was nice but the tablet sure was sugary!

Day 2

Today, we started with a big breakfast- a full Scottish which included haggis, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, bread, hashbrown, beans and tattie (potato) scone.  Most of us got the vegetarian version, but one got the regular and it also included black pudding.  We tried a little strawberries and cream tea with it as well.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the outskirts of the city to visit Craigmillar Castle.  Some areas are not open to the public, but we walked through what is.  There wasn’t a lot to see, but we did see the room that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots when she recovered from an illness there and the area where her second husband, Lord Darnley, was killed.

Near the grounds, there was a small nature area that we walked through before getting back into the heart of the city for lunch in another pub.

We began the lunch with Irn Bru sodas for the kids and beer and a hot toddy for the grownups.  We also tried a cheese platter with relishes and oatcakes.  For the main meal, we got the vegetarian bangers and mash, fish and chips, a pork pie and Cullen skink soup which was really good.  For our dessert, we had to try the famed fried Mars bars-if you enjoy fried things, then it wasn’t too shabby.

After lunch, we walked to Holyrood Palace.

This is where the royal family (as in the British one) stay when they are in Scotland.  We walked through several rooms and saw some “treasures” such as jewelry, swords and mementos.  We also saw the rooms that had belonged to Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley.  We walked out to the abbey ruins on the grounds and the garden.

Next, we made our way to Holyrood Park where we decided to sit around a lake with tons of swans, gulls, pigeons and ducks for a bit.

On our way back to our apartment, we stopped at the Greyfriar Bobby monument-a tribute to the dog who laid at his master’s grave every night for about 14 years before he died.

We also walked through the graveyard there which is where J.K. Rowling found inspiration for some of her characters’ names in the Harry Potter series.

For dinner, we decided to try a Brazilian place by our apartment.  Let’s just say we weren’t impressed.

Day 3

Today, we headed out of the city to the Highlands, so we grabbed a quick breakfast of cheese and onion pasties and a Scottish pie and got on our bus.

After driving for a while, our first stop was the small village of Pitlochry where we grabbed a quick snack of a tattie scone roll and caramel slice.

Back on the road, we drove through the Cairngorms National Park on our way to Inverness and Loch Ness.

We had a lunch on the edge of the loch of stovies (potato and other veggies stewed and mashed together) before boarding the boat to sail down the loch.

No sightings of Nessie but we did have some nice views before getting off at Urquhart Castle.  The castle was mainly just ruins, but we were able to walk around the area for a while enjoying some views before heading in the visitor center to watch a short film about the site.

Once we were back on the bus, we drove toward Ben Nevis-the highest point in Scotland.

We also stopped in Glencoe to see three hills referred to as the sister hills.

The views along the way were very pretty with waterfalls, mountains, hills, lochs, streams, fields and a huge peat bog called Rannoch Moor.

We saw several deer along the way including the Red Deer.  The tour did make a stop to feed some Highland Cows, but as we see them all the time near our home, we decided to watch the lambs in the fields nearby.  They were pretty cute!

On our way back to the city, we drove by Bannock Burn, the battlefield site of Robert the Bruce’s victory against the English, and we could see the site of William Wallace’s victory of Stirling Bridge in the distance.  It was a day of very nice scenery and no less than four rainbows!

Day 4

Breakfast was once again the full Scottish breakfast for most of the family, but I tried the porridge with fruit and honey which was really good along with some blood orange marmalade tea.

Then, we boarded our next tour which was a shorter day to the Borders in the south of the country.  Unlike the day before, the scenery here consisted of very wide, open, sweeping views.  It was still very hilly, though.  Everything was very green and looked pastoral with all the sheep.  We made a brief stop at what is known as Scott’s view (a place that Sir Walter Scott enjoyed visiting) and then headed into the town of Melrose to see Melrose Abbey.

Most of the abbey was closed for safety reasons so there wasn’t too much to see, but we had lunch in the town.

After lunch, we made our way to Rosslyn Chapel.  The chapel is quite small, but it has so many carvings and details.  The carvings are very symbolic and pretty.

We stopped in the museum café to have some scones with jam and cream before driving back to Edinburgh.

We went to dinner which was not that special, but we did have a cider and a whisky flight which was nice, and we tried cranachan (berries and cream) for dessert which was good.

Day 5

Today was our final tour out of the city.  Our first stop was the Kelpies which is a large metal monument to the horses that used to work pulling the boats down the canal in the area as well as the mythical creatures known as kelpies that take the form of a horse.

From there, we made our way to Loch Lomond for a cruise on the loch.  The views were pretty, and there were lots of nice “homes” along the shoreline.  These “homes” were large estates and castles-some privately owned, some hotels and some owned by foundations.  There was also a huge snowy mountain in the distance.

After the loch cruise, we went into a small town where we got some lunch of Scotch Broth and some whisky fudge.

After lunch, we drove through the Trossachs National Park.  The views were really great with hills, mountains, forested roads, lochs, streams and fields with tons of sheep and lambs.  It was very enjoyable to just look out the window!

Our next stop was Stirling Castle which had some interesting bits of history as it was built by Mary Queen of Scots’s father for her mother, and it was where her son was baptized.

I really enjoyed seeing the Stirling Faces which were the old wooden carvings that used to be on the ceiling of one of the rooms as well as the kitchens where they had information on things that they used to serve including recipes.

While we were at the castle, we got caught in a hail/snow storm that was immediately followed by full sun.  Once the sun came back out, we were able to get some good views of the William Wallace monument at Stirling Bridge as well as a statue commemorating Robert the Bruce.

With a few minutes to spare before our tour bus headed out, we ran down into the town of Stirling to see a unicorn (national animal of Scotland) statue which used to signal the site of a royal market and a cool old church with graveyard.

Our final stop of the day was a photo stop at the three bridges in Edinburgh that span the Firth of Forth-the Queens Ferry Crossing, the Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge.  Interestingly, each was built in a different century-the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st.

After returning, we went to dinner where some of us got things we had before while others got sausages and mash (both vegetarian and regular).  We also tried a couple of whiskies, a beer and treacle for dessert.

Day 6

Our final day was a rainy one, but we made it to Deacon’s House Café for a breakfast of scones with cream and jam and an orange cake which was good.

We also learned a little about the café.  It was once the workshop of Deacon Brodie who was a cabinet maker by day and a burglar by night.  He is said to be the inspiration for the story of Jekyll and Hyde.  After breakfast, we went on a tour of the underground vaults of Edinburgh which was both a bit interesting and a bit spooky.  Apparently, many criminals and homeless used to live in the vaults centuries ago.  At one point, the city was on fire for many days and all of the people living underground died because they were trapped, and the stone walls heated up.  Therefore, it is thought to be very haunted but really it was just hard to imagine people living in those conditions.

After the tour, it was still raining, so we rode the hop on and off bus around the city for an hour or so to take in some more views of the city.

We then found a place for lunch where we had vegetarian haggis and cock a leekie terrine.  We also tried two whisky flights-a mild one and a seaweed and smoke flight which was pretty interesting and good.  For dessert, we tried a rhubarb cranachan and toffee pudding.

Finally, the rain stopped so we walked to St. Cuthbert’s cathedral.  We couldn’t go inside, but we walked around the graveyard.

Then, we collected our bags and made our way to the airport.  However, we were in for a surprise when they canceled our flight an hour and a half before departure.  After struggling to get everything sorted, we made our way to an airport hotel feeling a bit frustrated.  Interestingly enough though, once in our room, we saw a huge double rainbow that was so bright and vivid it was unreal!

I wish I could tell you that the rainbow signaled that all would be fine-good luck ahead.  Unfortunately, the next day we got a call that our dog was unwell at the boarders with a herniated disk, our daughter threw up 7 times from the moment we stepped onto the skywalk to board the plane until the car ride home from the airport (that’s only about a 3-hour time span) and the windshield of our month-old car got chipped on the way to pick up our animals.  But we arrived home in one piece, and we all had a nice time on our trip, so we can’t complain too much!  Until next time!

The Netherlands in February is cold and dreary, so when it came time to plan our February break, we wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny.  We couldn’t think of a better place than one that we had all been wanting to visit for many years-Egypt! 

When we arrived at night and walked out of the airport, we knew we had made a good choice because it was warm outside.  We were taken to our hotel, and once we got into our rooms, we found that we had an amazing view of the Nile and the city.

Day 1

The next morning, we woke to find that our alarm did not go off, so we jumped up and quickly got ready and ate something-not the best first meal because of the rush.  But, we met our guide on time and headed to Memphis, a 5,000-year-old city that was an ancient capital of Egypt.  Here, we saw a small sphinx, several different pieces with hieroglyphics and a mumification bed (where they would lay the body and drain bodily fluids). 

And then, we saw the giant statue of Ramses II.  The amount of detail on it was so impressive especially considering it was carved into a massive red granite block and made 3,200 years ago!

Our next stop was Saqqara where we toured the complex of the burial site and learned a lot about the features of such a complex such as the funerary temple, the mummification temple and the causeway.  We saw the first step pyramid (built 4,600) years ago and went into the tomb of King Teti.  The tomb is difficult to enter as you descend downward bent over because the ceiling is low.  Inside the tomb, we saw the first burial texts (hieroglyphics) that were later featured in all tombs. 

In another area of Saqqara, we saw the tomb of a member of nobility built as a mastaba-square tomb.  The ornate and intricate carvings depicted so much, particularly scenes of daily life, and the detail was amazing.  There was actually some color left in the carvings though they are 4,300 years old!

Next, we went to the Great Pyramids which are around 4,500 years old and are the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  We walked around all three pyramids and learned a lot about them.  It was interesting to see the size of the stones used to build them. 

We made our way to a restaurant overlooking the pyramids for our lunch.  We had some aish baladi bread that was being made on site by an older woman.  The bread was very soft and chewy. 

We also had some quinoa salad with hummus.  The meal featured a pyramid shaped mound of rice with veggie tajine and moussaka tajine.  We also tried some karkadeh tea which is made from hibiscus.  We finished with some traditional rice pudding.  Everything was really good and very filling. 

 

After lunch, we went to see the Great Sphinx and went to the only surviving Valley Temple (mummification tomb) of ancient Egypt.  We learned all about mummification and the Sphinx before returning to the hotel. 

We tried a national dish of Egypt for dinner-koshary.  They have restaurants that only serve koshary because the dish consists of many components and the best koshary comes from restaurants that specialize in only that because they can take the time to make all of the components well.  The dish has pasta, lentils, chickpeas, a tomato-based sauce and fried onions.  We had a fun demonstration from one of the workers on how to put the dish together.  It was delicious!  He also gave us some kind of chip to eat with our dinner, and we tried om ali (a very milky bread pudding) for dessert before heading back to the hotel for the night. 

Day 2

This morning, we had a more leisurely breakfast of ta’amiyya (falafel), foul medames (smashed and whole fava beans), an olive pastry and fiteer bread.  Everything was pretty good.  

We met up with our guide to head to the Citadel where we learned a lot about the Mamelukes (former slaves who ended up running the country) and Mohammed Ali (not the boxer, but rather an Egyptian ruler).  

We toured the large mosque and saw the tomb of Mohammed Ali. 

Then, we moved to the Mosque of Sultan Hassan.  It had some really pretty design elements.  We went into the mausoleum and there was a Sheikh inside who sang part of a prayer for us.  It was really cool to hear in the room. 

Next, we visited another mosque across from Sultan Hassan’s that was built by a woman.  There were a lot of royal tombs inside including one for the last king of Egypt and the last Shah of Iran.  Cairo is called the city of a thousand minarets referring to the number of mosques that they have.  Indeed, there were so many more than what we saw, and they all come with their own design elements and style based on when they were constructed.  

 

After the mosques, we went to lunch where we had stuffed vine leaves, bessara (fava bean dip), spicy cheese dip and tahini with bread.  We also tried some lentil soup.  The main dish was molokhiyya which is a soup made from jute leaves, okra tajine and spinach tajine. It was all very tasty.

After lunch, we visited the Egyptian Museum.  Out front, they had a pretty display of papyrus and lotus, the two symbols representing Upper and Lower Egypt. 

Inside, they had an amazing amount of 3,000-4,000-year-old artifacts.  We saw some really amazing statues including a life like wooden one, a huge one and some strangely shaped ones.  We also saw the mummies of some noble people. 

And, the crème de la crème-the treasure of King Tut’s tomb including his death mask.  It was really cool to see!  We even got to see the box housing the vessels that contained his organs. 

After the museum, we went to Ancient Cairo to walk through the Khan El Khalili Bazar where, luckily, the merchants were not too pushy.  The bazar was a neat experience especially on the quiet streets with all the Islamic architecture as a backdrop.  We walked the streets looking at mosques, various dwellings and water dispensaries.  We loved seeing the kids on bikes and mopeds with giant wooden trays on their heads loaded with breads-a real feat in balance!

On the way back to the hotel, we drove by a huge daily market.  The size was incredible considering it happens every day but Friday (weekend there). 

We made our way to dinner where we had falafel, bessara, tahini, grape leaves and rice stuffed pigeon.  Pigeon really has very little meat.  We had another rice pudding and om ali for dessert. 

Day 3

After sleeping in a bit, we went down to breakfast where someone important must have been eating because there were secret service type agents all over the breakfast room.  When we finished and were leaving the hotel, there was also a huge convoy of cars out front with special Egyptian forces escorts. 

We made our way to the Civilizations Museum.  The highlight there was about 21 royal mummies including Nefertari and Hatshepsut.  The preservation after 3,000 years is unbelievable-some even have hair in good condition!  We also saw some amazing artifacts including a 35,000-year-old skeleton.  They had some nice Islamic architecture designs and a tent like case that was placed on camels’ backs and used to carry the curtains for Mecca that were made in Egypt. 

In the afternoon, we flew to Luxor where we had another amazing view of the Nile. 

The hotel had a Lebanese restaurant inside an open courtyard, so we ate there.  While we at some hummus, muhmarra (pepper dip), tahini, samousek and grape vines, we watched some dance performers.  After the main dish of spinach tajine and some fatteh, our son was invited to perform onstage with the dancers.  That was fun! 

After dinner, we walked to some artisan shops in our hotel and while it was a bit uncomfortable with the pressure to buy, the oil guy did give us some testers which smelled nice. 

Day 4

The next day, we woke up to a view of hot air balloons flying over Luxor. 

We had some eggplant, bread and foul (fava beans) for breakfast before boarding a small boat on the Nile to take us to the other bank.

On the other side, we made our way to the Valley of the Kings.  On the way, we drove through the agricultural area and saw these sun-dried tomatoes being dried. 

We drove by the Valley of the Workers (the tombs of those that worked on the Kings’ tombs) before arriving at the Valley of the Kings. 

We got to see three tombs while we were there- Ramses I, Ramses III and Ramses IV.  They were so colorful and elaborate.  It was really hard to remember that they were 3,000 years old.

Next, we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut who was a female pharaoh.  She has a very interesting story, but basically, she ruled after her husband died by sending her stepson (the rightful heir) away to be educated.  When he grew up and returned, he had her temple desecrated (she was already dead) because he realized she had taken the throne from him.  This temple, which was simply used to mummify her body and is not her tomb, is what remains and it’s hard to imagine what it would have been like if it hadn’t been destroyed. 

After leaving the temple, we stopped at an alabaster shop for a demonstration on how they turn the alabaster into various products. 

Then, the Valley of the Queens where we saw the tombs of Queen Titi and her two sons that died at 14 and 16.  There is also the mummified 6-month fetus that she was carrying when her sons died and lost due to the grief.  Again, the colors and details were amazing.

We made a quick stop at the Colossi of Memnon which stand at the entrance to what was once another pharaoh’s mortuary temple.  The temple and much of the other statues were destroyed in an ancient earthquake and the Greeks found these statues and named them this after the noises they make when the wind blows through them.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant that served hummus, muhamarra, lentil soup and vegetable tajine along with some guava juice.

After lunch, we visited the Temple of Karnak which was just so huge and impressive with hieroglyphics everywhere.  Again, we were just amazed at the level of preservation after 3,000 years. 

We stopped at a papyrus shop for a demonstration of how papyrus paper is made which was interesting, and we looked around at the different art they make on papyrus. 

Our final stop was the Temple of Luxor which was also huge.  We saw the Avenue of Sphinxes and many interesting statues and carvings. 

Back at the hotel, we took in the views of the sun setting on the Nile while enjoying some juice drinks like strawberry juice and lemon juice. 

Back in our room, we sat on the balcony and watched a bunch of bats flying around which was fun.

Day 5

Our day was mostly spent flying from Luxor back to Cairo and then from Cairo to Sharm-el-Sheikh.  We then drove for an hour or so through the Sinai Desert on our way to Dahab.  Our day never really ended because at 11:30pm, we were picked up by our guide to head to Mt. Sinai.

Day 6

The day began at 11:30pm the day before as we drove through the desert toward Mt. Sinai.  We reached the mountain (also referred to as Moses Mountain) at about 1am and began hiking at 1:30am.  That’s right-we hiked up the mountain all night with a Bedouin guide.  It took us about three and a half hours with frequent breaks to climb up the rocky sand slopes and the 750 steep rock steps to reach the summit which was about a 6-mile hike. 

Most of the journey we were by ourselves as the majority of people rode camels to the bottom of the steps.  One of the best parts was resting on a rocky wall and looking up to the ridge above us where the camel silhouettes could be made out against the dark, starry sky.  It’s a shame we couldn’t get a picture. 

Once we made it to the steps, everyone was together, and most people had to take frequent breaks to rest.  We made it to the summit about an hour before sunrise, and very few people were there at that point.  It was very cold, but one of the Bedouins was nice enough to let us sit in his tent to stay warm.  We made a little conversation, and it was much appreciated shelter.  Close to sunrise, we left the tent to see the area where Moses’s cave is and where he received the Ten Commandments.  Then, we watched the sun appear on the horizon and make its rapid ascent up to the skyline. 

After the sun was up, it was time to tackle the descent which was a bit of a killer on the knees.  The rocks and sand were actually quite slippery, so you had to be very careful.  I may have ended up on my backside one time, but we saw someone else really wipe out closer to the bottom.  Once we made it to the bottom, we had a quick stop to learn about the monastery that houses the descendent of the burning bush as well as other artifacts.  Unfortunately, the monastery was closed on this day, so we couldn’t go in. 

After this, we made our way back to Dahab where we got on a private boat to go diving and snorkeling.  While my husband and daughter dove twice, my son and I snorkeled the reef.  There were many colorful fish and lots of coral.  We even saw a clam with a blue inside.  They served us lunch on the boat of rice and vegetables.  The ride back to the harbor was very peaceful and the water was pretty.  We really enjoyed soaking up the sun!

Back at the hotel, we cleaned up and went to a buffet dinner where we had various grains and vegetables and a rather large assortment of Egyptian desserts which were very good.

Day 7

After all we had done over the last few days, this day was for pure relaxation.  We had breakfast of foul, cheese spreads, bread and vegetables before heading to the pool where we stayed for the whole day.

There were really nice views of the Red Sea.

We ate lunch by the pool, as well, where we had hummus, tahini and mutable (eggplant dip) with bread.  After finally extracting our son from the pool and getting cleaned up, we went to dinner where we again had rice and an assortment of vegetables.  There were again some Egyptian desserts including some little cookies and phyllo triangles in honey which were nice. 

After a final day of flying, we arrived back home.  Our trip was just what we wanted-amazing history, famous landmarks, some adventure and relaxation under the sun and warmth (writing this as the snow comes down in the Netherlands, I might be crying a little).  We feel really lucky to have been able to make this trip, and I’m sure we will all remember it for the rest of our lives.