This year, our fall break took us to England.  The first three days of our trip were spent sightseeing in London.  We walked all over the city from our apartment south of the Thames. The second half of the trip was spent venturing in a radius of a couple of hours outside of London.

On our first day, we arrived so early that our apartment wasn’t ready for us.  This meant that there was time for an English breakfast from a nearby restaurant.

After getting checked into our apartment we made a 45-minute walk along the Thames to the House of Lords and Big Ben (which we found out is actually the Elizabeth Tower; Big Ben is the bell inside).

Around the area is also Westminster and Scotland Yard as well as the Calvary Museum, all of which we took a brief look at.

We decided to walk farther north into Trafalger Square, the West End theater district and Picadilly Circus as well as some of the shopping streets and past the Ritz Carlton with its smartly dressed doorman before finding lunch at the Albert pub.

Now, at the Albert pub we had three things that we continued to enjoy several times on our trip.  Rather than detail them for you every time we ate them, I’m going to give you a collage of all of them now.  And the most eaten food in England award goes to: Fish and Chips, Sticky Toffee Pudding and beer.

 

After lunch we went to Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey) and were quite impressed with its architecture and the pretty mosaics all over the walls and ceiling.

Then, we had a quick stop outside Buckingham Palace before making our way through Battersea Park to find dinner near our apartment at a nice little tapas restaurant.

As the start of our second day was a bit wet, we took a Hop On and Off bus around the city as we made our way to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

After a quick look inside, we walked over the Thames to Tower Bridge.  We toured the museum inside the bridge including a sky walk over the Thames.  We viewed the engine room to learn how they raise and lower the bridge and then after leaving, we got to see the engines in action as the bridge was raised for two large boats.

After the bridge, we entered the Tower of London, which is one of the castles built by William the Conqueror in the 1000s.

The Tower houses a lot of history including the site of the beheading of Anne Boleyn, the Bloody Tower where Walter Raleigh was held captive and one of the young kings of England vanished and was thought to be murdered by his uncle, and the apartments of the former kings.  We also enjoyed going in to the one remaining original building from the 1000s holding the armory, the torture chamber and the chapel.

But the best part about the Tower of London has to be the Crown Jewels.  They are a symbol of opulence and a complete waste of riches that could be used in so many better ways, but nonetheless, they are beautiful and steeped in lots of history and tradition. You can’t photograph anything inside the Crown Jewel exhibit so the best I could do was a picture of the outside.

After the Tower, we went to the Globe Theater of Shakespeare fame.  It’s not the original theater as that burned down in the fire of London in the 1600s; however, it is very near the original site, and it is a very authentic replication.  We took a guided tour and learned a lot about the theater and the productions that occur there (which are also kept authentic).

After the theater, we were five minutes from getting on the bus when the sky opened, and a torrential downpour drenched us and the dozen other people waiting under an extremely skinny overhang at the bus stop.  Our dripping selves tried not to be too miserable as we rode the bus for a while to a location for dinner and then walked home.

On day three we grabbed some cheddar and chive scones and some pastries on our way to Westminster Abbey.

After waiting in a very long line, we made our way inside where we got to see the resting places of some very notable people such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and authors like C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens and Lewis Caroll among others.

There were also a few monarchs buried there: perhaps you are familiar with Elizabeth I, her sister, Bloody Mary, and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

It was also interesting to see the coronation alter and coronation chair, both of which will be used when Charles is crowned next year.

After the Abbey, we went by Buckingham Palace and caught the tail end of the changing of the guard.

From the palace, we walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to Kensington Palace for a peek from the outside.

We had lunch in a pub in Kensington before going to the National Gallery which houses a lot of works by very famous artists.  My favorite might have been The Water Lily Pond by Monet.

After the gallery, we ventured into Hambly’s Toy Store-more of an emporium really with seven floors all boasting demonstrations of various toys and merchandise by employees. The pandemonium inside was a bit much, so we made our way out and on to dinner.

On the fourth day, we got out of the city on a day tour to Leeds Castle, Dover and Canterbury Cathedral.  Leeds Castle featured a movie about all of the lady owners of the castle which was sort of interesting.  The castle itself was not all that interesting on the inside, but the outside and the grounds were quite pretty.

After the castle, we made our way to the cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle for a quick stop.

Canterbury Cathedral was the final stop.  The Cathedral was nice, and we saw the site of the murder of Thomas Beckett which then inspired pilgrimages to the cathedral and ultimately the story The Canterbury Tales.

After viewing the cathedral, we stopped at a pub in town to have a Kent beer and a cask beer as well as a lentil potato Shepard’s pie and a goat cheese and sweet potato tart.  We also tried a caramel biscuit tart for dessert.

The highlight of the day though (and maybe for me, the whole trip) was after our return to London.  We got some last-minute tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theater, the site of its debut in 1986.  The show was so good!

Day five was another day tour-this time north to Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare’s home.  Here we saw the home he was born in and where he lived before moving to London to work in the theater.

We also saw the building where he attended school as a boy.

We took a walking tour of the city with our guide which ended at the cathedral where Shakespeare is buried.

The next part of the tour was in the Cotswolds-a very picturesque area with rolling green fields and stone homes.  We drove through several small hamlets and stopped in a few for a look around.

We even saw a door to a cathedral that inspired Tolkien’s Gates of Mordor.

Finally, we made our way to Oxford for another walking tour which began after a quick stop at the pub where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien used to meet and where they formed a literary society.

The tour of Oxford included several of the colleges and the library as well as the site of one of Bloody Mary’s executions.

We stopped at a well-known student pub, the Turf Tavern, before heading back into London.

We got a few pictures on our nighttime walk back to our apartment.

We had one final day tour on our sixth day.  The first stop on this tour was Windsor castle.  We made our way through the State Apartments which were very opulent, and then we went to St. George’s Chapel.  This is the burial place of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.  In addition, it is where Queen Elizabeth II was recently laid to rest next to Prince Philip, so we walked by her tomb.

After leaving the chapel, we watched the changing of the guard procession into Windsor.

We grabbed a quick cheese and onion pasty before returning to the bus and heading to Stonehenge.

Here, we walked around the monument and enjoyed it from all angles and observed the burial mounds.

The final stop of the day was Bath.  We opted not to go into the bathhouse but to walk around the city instead.  The city had some lovely spots, and we went into a cathedral which was nice.

With a little time to kill, we ventured into a small pub to have some English beer and some apple cider (the liquor kind!).

Back in London, we went to dinner in an incredibly busy pub, but the food was good.

On our final day, I walked with the kids to get some scones and coffee at a bakery while my husband had a work meeting.  After packing up and heading out of our apartment, we killed some time in a pub called the Victoria before taking the train to the airport.

All in all, we had a good time.  London is a nice city with lots of things to do including a ton of free museums, so it would definitely be a good place to head back again some time.  Until then, Cheerio!

After our Kenyan adventure, we returned home for one day before heading off to our next destination, which may seem like an adventure to many of you, but for us feels pretty normal-Brasil (and yes, this is the correct spelling).  Because of the family we have there, we have made this trek many times, but I have probably never shared too much about what it is like.  Since I detail all our travel these days, it seemed like a good time to share some about Brasil.

Let’s begin with an important note-Brasil is huge.  There are many different cities and many different regional areas which all do have their own typical dishes, traditions, and locations.  Having prefaced with that, we spend our time in the state of Minas Gerais which is in the central to the slightly southeastern part of the country (it is nowhere near the Amazon and 5 hours by car from Rio).  Our family lives in a small city of about 45,000 in Minas state.

Like most cities in Brasil, the city has a praça (square for gathering) in front of a church.

While most of our time is spent at my in-law’s house in the middle of the city, we also do go spend some time at the farm which is on family land.

The hills of coffee surrounding the farmhouse, which is now used for rental and events, once belonged to my husband’s grandfather.   The coffee is still farmed there; though, it has been sold to a distant cousin.  We often stop and see the coffee being processed from washing to drying and shelling.  Many years ago, I also got to see it being picked as well.

In addition to visiting family and friends and going to the farm, no visit would be complete without eating some of our favorite dishes.

Typically, breakfast consists of several types of breads (the most common being small french bread) and/or cake along with cheese, deli meat, and fruit.  We often eat the french bread with requeijão (a spreadable cheese).  The one we eat is made in the city where my in-laws live.

And our favorite thing at breakfast: pão de queijo

Below is a cheese from the region that was often out at breakfast but also goes well with doce de leite (similar to what many of you know as dulce de leche-it’s Spanish name).

Lunch is generally a much bigger meal than dinner and usually features rice and beans in addition to a meat dish and maybe some other vegetable or pasta of some sort (as we were feeding many people at lunch, there are quite a few dishes in this picture).  My husband’s family almost always has freshly made juice (pineapple, passion fruit, orange, etc.) with the meal.

There is always dessert at the end of lunch.  Here is one of them, canudo de doce de leite, which is a crunchy cone kind of like a fried wonton consistency, filled with doce de leite.

Some of the other desserts we had were passion fruit mousse, pudim (flan with a caramel sauce), and pé de moleque (a candy made from peanuts and unrefined cane sugar).

Another important meal in Brasil is lanche or afternoon snack also called cafe da tarde (afternoon coffee) which often occurs fairly late in the afternoon.  The following are some of our favorites (curau which is like a corn pudding and broa which is a bread made from cornmeal, pamonha which is kind of like a corn tamale -we like one with cheese inside, and pastel which is a fried dough with a filling inside-generally cheese or meat but we also like heart of palm which is called palmito).  Often though, lanche often features bread or a cake and coffee.

We also had a few fun snacks while we were there:

cajuzinho-a peanut sweet from the city famous for pé de moleque

and brigadeiro candies (several types at a birthday party):

Another important event for Brasilians is churrasco.  I say event because, while it means grilled meats and side dishes, it is not just a meal as it can be a several hours long affair including drinking, socializing, and often the card game, Truco.  The meat is placed on skewers and cooked on the grill (special type of grill).  The fire is kept going so skewers are placed on and meat is brought out throughout the time of the event.  The sides such as rice, maionese de batata (potato salad),  salpicão (a mayonaise-based dish with chicken, olives, carrots, peppers and apple covered with shoestring potatoes) are left out the whole time.  There is also often garlic bread, vinagrete (tomato, onion, oil, vinegar, and seasonings), and farofa (ground mandioca flour).

On this visit, we also had the opportunity to experience a cultural event referred to as Festa Junina.  While this normally takes place in the month of June, Covid in the area caused the festivities to be delayed until July this year.  Festa Junina is basically a celebration of the harvest that originated in Portugal in the 16^th century.  Children dress up in traditional “farmer” outfits and put on dances that are somewhat akin to square dances.  The parties and dances usually occur at school.  We went to a party at our nephew’s school and our family put a small one on at the house so that we could eat the traditional foods.

The food of Festa Junina features quite a bit of corn, so for our party, we had popcorn, corn cake, and canjiquinha (a corn soup) as well as canjica (a corn dessert). We also had caldo de feijão (a bean soup) and caldo verde (a vegetable soup).

Aside from the parties and family time, we saw a few other fun things during this trip.  We saw several toucans in trees, tons of parrots (several of which were Yellow Headed Amazon parrots), canaries and zebu (a type of cow that can be found often in Brasil).  Sadly, on this trip, we didn’t get to see any capybaras as we have before.

All in all, we had a nice time with our family and while our trip was fairly low key this time around, we have a lot of experience with Brasil so if anyone ever has any questions or would like to know more, you can always let us know.  But for now, tchau!

This year is shaping up to be a year of adventure with our travels.  To kick it off, we just returned from a weeklong safari in Africa; Kenya to be exact.  We spent time in two different camps in the Maasai Mara National Park (for those that are not familiar with this park, it is the same area as the Serengeti but that is the Tanzanian side while the Maasai Mara is the Kenyan side).  Our first camp was located in the government-run area of the Mara while the second camp was in the North Conservancy which is land owned by the Maasai people.  It was an incredible trip in which we saw so many animals and learned a lot about them as well as the Maasai culture.  

After arriving in Nairobi, we stayed in a hotel before leaving the next morning to the Mara via a very small plane.  The plane could seat 12 people plus the pilot and second officer (though our flight only had 11 people) and the size of everyone’s baggage was restricted.  The plane takes off and lands at several stops along its path.  We were the final (and third) stop so we took off and landed three times (by our final takeoff there were only six passengers on board).  After the initial airport in Nairobi, the airstrips consisted of a small building and a dirt runway (one runway was surrounded by wildebeests).  It was a bit nerve-racking at first, but after the first stop, it wasn’t so bad.  The great thing was; because it stopped so many times, it never got very high, and, from the plane, we were able to see a ton of animals like elephant herds with babies, a huge bull elephant, wildebeests, ostriches, gazelles, and lions.  

Once we arrived, we were met at the airstrip by our guide who drove us out into the bush for a drink before taking us to the camp.

At the camp, we were greeted by the staff beating drums and singing a Hakuna Matata song (not the Disney one).  It was a fun welcome. 

The camp was a smallish camp in the bush with 8 luxury tents and a common space for meals/relaxation and a small spa.  It was a self-sustaining camp, so all the energy was generated from solar power, the water was filtered and reused and the vehicles were electric vehicles running on solar power as well. They also recycled and upcycled a bunch of products such as empty wine bottles that were turned into drinking glasses.   

In addition, the meals at the camp were generated from locally grown items with a focus on non-meat dishes.  And they were really delicious.  Every day we had breakfast at 9am, lunch at 1pm, and dinner at 8:30pm (dinner was preceded by drinks around a fire while chatting with staff and other guests). Breakfast and lunch were served outside at tables placed around the trees, overlooking the river.   Dinner was served inside the common space which was lit with candles and always had a bat flying around.  

Lunch on the first day featured Kenyan beer, a Kenyan mango vegetable salad, plantains, Kenyan lentils, and a version of tiramisu for dessert.  It was so good.

Dinner was leek and carrot soup, a Kenyan bread and polenta with vegetable stew and creamed spinach.  Dessert was a banana fritter and a green coconut-type bar dessert.  We also had some Kenyan wine and a Masaai mule.  Another outstanding meal.

On our second day, we had an avocado and pineapple salad and vegetarian lasagna with an ice cream pie for dessert. 

Dinner was butternut squash steaks with a sauce, fried zucchini fritters, and a nut butter and jam ball for dessert.  We also tried some Kenyan gin called Procera.  

Our breakfasts were different breads, pancakes, eggs to order, watermelon juice, fruit, baked beans, and fried potatoes.  Also, one of the days, they brought some zucchini with fried insects in it (maybe cricket)-we didn’t eat it.

At this camp, a free 30-minute massage per room was included, so my husband and I each got one.  The spa was an open room overlooking the river.  The massage table had a mirror underneath angled so that you could look at the river while receiving the massage.  It was fun to have a little pampering!  We also had some time to play some games in the common space with the kids which was fun.  

After two nights at the camp, we moved to the second camp in the conservancy.  When we left, the staff again sang a song and played the drums.  They had all been so nice (one of them even played chess with our children and spent time chatting with them) that it felt like leaving friends.

The second camp was much larger with 22 tents and a larger common space for dinner.  At this camp, breakfast and lunch were also served outside overlooking the river.  The difference was that at this river, there were resident hippos that were always there and giraffes, elephants, monkeys, and impalas that visited often.  There were a couple crocodiles too.

The food at the second camp that we stayed at paled in comparison and was nothing worth writing about.  The dinners and lunches were mainly pasta or Indian food.  The breakfasts were similar to the first camp with made-to-order eggs with beans and potatoes, fruit, and various breads.  The difference was that instead of watermelon juice, they served tree tomato juice.

At both camps, beer, wine, gin, and soft drinks were included as well as coffee, tea and hot chocolate.

But now, to the real purpose of the trip-the safari drives.  Each day we had two drives (with a couple of exceptions).  The morning drive would begin at around 6:30am each day after a quick drink of hot chocolate or coffee (around the campfire at the first camp).  We would be back by around 9am.  The afternoon drive would begin around 4:30pm and we would return by 6:30-7pm.  The afternoon drive always included a brief stop for drinks and a snack in the car.  

To give you an idea of where we were driving and what is common there, here are some signs from the two camps:

They have lists of the top 5 for various animals.  

The big five overall is: lions, leopards, buffalo, rhinoceros and wildebeests.

The ugly five is: hyenas, warthogs, wildebeests, vultures and marabou stork.

We saw all of them!

So, without further ado, here are pictures of the many animals we saw.  It was surreal to see them and really hard at times to remember that they were in their natural environment, roaming free without caretaking from humans, and not in a drive-through safari park.

We’ll start with the mammals:

How about some baby mammals?  We saw so many!  In fact, we saw the baby of a majority of the mammals that we saw (though we couldn’t get good photos of them all), and they were all so cute.  Some of the babies were very young.  According to our guide, the baby gazelle we saw was just hours old and a baby buffalo was born the night before.  We also saw a week-old giraffe and others that were just three weeks and a month-old elephant.  

Now the birds (there were so many- more than we have pictured here- and most were very interesting and beautiful):

Finally, even the reptiles and insects made their appearances:

 

And while the animals were the highlight, the landscape itself was also impressive.

 

We also did a couple of excursions during our visit.  The first was to a Maasai village where we were shown inside one of the typical Maasai homes (a mud-walled home with a roof made from sticks and dung).  The house we were in belonged to the chief. It seemed very small, but it had three bedrooms and the kitchen/common space.  We were also invited to join in a dance and they showed us how they make fire.  In addition to this visit, throughout the week, we learned a lot about the people and how they live from our guides.  We also saw the Maasai shepherds taking care of the cows, which they value greatly, throughout the bush.  

Our second excursion was a night drive.  As it got dark, we saw the huge herds of zebra, gazelle, impala, and topi coming down the mountain in lines to gather together and head closer to the villages for the night.  After dark, our driver took us with a red light to try to find nocturnal animals.  We didn’t see many new animals, but we did see a hare, a kangaroo hare, white-tailed mongoose, and jackals.  We also drove up to a group of 12 lionesses with cubs.  One was chewing on a bone.  It was a bit scary to be so close to them in the dark (we couldn’t have been more than 6-7 feet).  It was especially nerve-racking when they got up and left, and we were driving along, and, when the driver shined his light in that direction, they were walking not too far from the car, and we couldn’t even see them without light!  But, aside from the animals, the night sky was amazing-so many stars!

Our third excursion was a hot air balloon ride over the Mara.  I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, so we were pretty excited.  We had to get up at 4am to drive to the location, be checked in and briefed, and to watch the balloons be inflated.  The basket we were in held 16 people plus the driver.  I’m not going to lie, we got a little nervous when they told us that on landing we might topple over and we had to buckle ourselves in, grab some handles, sit all the way back and keep our “neck strong.”  Luckily, the conditions were favorable, and we stayed upright (they said it was the first upright landing in a month and an hour later, the conditions were back to unfavorable).  The views from the balloon were awesome, and it was fun to see the area from a different vantage point.  We got to see several animals from the balloon including one we had not seen yet-a serval cat.  I think we interrupted it hunting because, as we came over, it looked up and a few feet away a hare ran off.  After the hour-long balloon ride, we were driven to a location for a bush breakfast.  The location was apparently the area where they filmed scenes from the film “Out of Africa”.  They greeted us at the breakfast with champagne and orange juice, and the breakfast itself was huge and very good.

After our breakfast, we spent the day with our guide in the Mara Triangle, another area of the park.  He drove us to the border with Tanzania (we crossed into Tanzania for a while, and thus, we were also in the Serengeti).  In this area, we saw several of the crossing points for the wildebeests during the Great Migration.  We even got lucky and, though it was a week or two before the migrating wildebeests would arrive, some resident wildebeests decided to cross. It was funny watching them head toward the crossing, slow down, head back away and repeat this over and over before deciding to actually go.    

A couple of interesting experiences:

1. On our first night sleeping in the tents, we had all the sides open so that it was just the screen sides.  The boys slept in one tent, the girls in the other.  During the night we could hear so many noises-hyenas repeatedly, a lion growling a few times.  At about 4 in the morning, we were awoken by sounds of the nightwatch guards talking and flashing their flashlights around.  Strange, but we didn’t really know if that was normal or not as it was our first night.  In the morning when we joined the boys, we found out that they had been awoken during the night by loud sounds right outside their tent.  They weren’t sure what to do but were quite afraid of what it was.  They also heard the nightwatch, but didn’t find out until the morning that a hippo had come up from the river into camp, and its path was right next to the tent.  The guards had been using their lights and talking to it to get it to head back to the river.  
2. On one of our drives, as we were going along the path, a large growling noise suddenly occurred right next to my side of the car.  The car was pretty low to the ground, so, for a split second, I was sure we were getting attacked, but when I turned my head I saw three warthogs jumping out of a hole in the ground.  Even our driver said that was scary.
3. We were driving from the Maasai village and got stuck in some mud.  Our driver floored it to get out, and mud sprayed everywhere next to the car and on the inside back flaps of the car.  Then our son turned around from looking at the tires spinning, and his face was covered with splattered mud!
4. We saw lions eating many of their kills-hippo, baby buffalo, warthog, baby zebra.
5. We saw some hyenas go after a baby gazelle.  The mother gazelle tried desperately to stop them; she even chased them for some minutes after they caught the baby, but it was too late.  This was a bit difficult to watch, especially for the kids, but we tried to remind ourselves that this is part of life in the wild.
6. We watched an impala with its baby not notice a cheetah.  The driver kept saying, “that impala needs to get out of here; she’s risking her baby”.  The cheetah noticed and was watching for quite a while.  Suddenly, when the cheetah was not looking, the impala and the baby dashed off.  We were a bit relieved not to have to see another killing.
7. While having dinner one night, there was a sudden screeching in one of the trees.  A bush baby was running through the branches.  We didn’t think we would get to see one, so that was fun!
8. The people were so friendly.  When we would drive by the villages or people walking, they would always wave, especially the children.  Our son loved waving to them.
9. We saw some disgusting stuff like hippos that live in a pool of their own feces.  Hippos also apparently use their tail like a fan while they are defecating which causes it to spray everywhere.  We saw one hippo doing this while another was right behind it with its mouth open.
10. We also got a front-row seat to more hippos being created at the river viewing area at our camp.
11. The only way we were able to see the rhinos was by driving into a “sanctuary” where the only two white rhinos in the Mara live.  In this sanctuary, they are still free to roam and take care of themselves as they would in the wild, but they are followed 24/7 by armed rangers who protect them from poachers.  That is very sad.  The rangers told us that they are now mature, so they hope they will produce offspring soon.  We never saw a black rhino because there are less than 20 of them left in the Mara due to poaching.

Finally, after our six days in the bush, we took our little plane back to Nairobi.  We arrived at the dirt path airstrip where we just waited until some guys sitting around told us that it was our plane.  As the plane came in for landing, one of the guys drove off on his dirtbike to shoo all the animals away from the landing strip.  Once back in Nairobi, we had a driver to take us to dinner and the airport.  He shared information about Nairobi and Kenya which was nice.  

Overall, I think we all had a great time.  It’s not an experience for everyone I’m sure, but we really loved it.  Seeing all of the nature was amazing and learning about life there was enlightening.  The people were seriously some of the friendliest and most welcoming people I have ever seen.  They told us that we need to come back, and, while I don’t know if that will ever happen or when, I would definitely be willing to go.  What an exciting start to our travels in our fifth year abroad!  See you all soon as more adventures await!

 

This past week we took a quick jaunt to Ireland to enjoy a long weekend on the Emerald Isle.

Our journey began with a three-hour vacation in the airport thanks to staff shortages and a busy travel weekend.  After making it through the almost 2-hour line for security (really when you stand in a line that long there needs to be a very fun ride at the other end and the cramped Ryanair flight really didn’t fit the bill!), we were able to board our flight (which was shorter than the line) to arrive in Dublin.  By the time we made it out of the airport and to our apartment, there was only enough time for a quick snack and bed.

Our day in Dublin began the next morning with a trip to the Glasnevin Cemetery.  It was a nice cemetery with a lot of Celtic crosses and a large tower, but the wind was strong and cold so we didn’t stay for more than about 30 minutes before making our way toward the city center.

Our first stop in the center was Trinity College.  We didn’t go into any buildings but took a quick look around the grounds before moving on to the Molly Malone statue.

After snapping an obligatory picture, we walked toward the Stag’s Head where we had our lunch.  It was a cozy pub-style restaurant, so we got comfortable and ordered some Smithwick’s Red Ale while we ate our Seafood Chowder, Irish Stew and Seafood Pie accompanied with truffle fries.

Everything was very good and after eating our fill, we made our way to Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

We decided to only go inside St. Patrick’s.  It wasn’t the most beautiful cathedral we have ever seen, but there were some nice historical ties to the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift.

After the cathedral, we made our way to St. Stephen’s Green, the large park in the city.

The weather was pleasant, so we strolled through the park a bit before heading to look for some souvenirs in a shopping area.  We made our way to a sidewalk cafe for some coffee and tea before entering the Temple Bar area where we looked around at some interesting art installations and some information about the famous writers from Ireland.  Before going to dinner, we took a peek at Ha’ Penny Bridge and O’Connell Bridge.

Then, it was on to a favorite restaurant of ours from past times in Dublin, Gallagher’s Boxty House.  We enjoyed the Traditional Corned Beef, Corned Beef Boxty and Irish Stew along with some Murphy’s Red before trying some Brown Bread Ice Cream for dessert.

The next day, we took a bus tour to Northern Ireland which is actually a part of the UK, not the Republic of Ireland.  After boarding our bus, we drove an hour and a half into Belfast to pick up a few other passengers.  We got a quick look at the city from the bus before moving on to the Dark Hedges (never having watched Game of Thrones, this wasn’t familiar to me, but I’m told that those of you that watched the show will recognize this location).

We had a brief stop to walk around the area before heading further north to Dunluce Castle whose kitchen, along with all the servants working in it, fell into the sea many years ago.  The views of the castle and the sea were very pretty.

Then it was back on to the bus to go to the Giant’s Causeway.  This is an area along the coast that is made up of many hexagonal rocks formed from volcanic activity.  Of course, the Irish have their own legend about a giant using them to cross the sea.  Nonetheless, the area is very interesting, and (as the luck of the Irish was with us) we had very nice weather which allowed us to see Scotland from the shore.  The views were great, and, walking through the rock formations, we were able to see many “tide pool” areas with various forms of life from fish to anemones which we all enjoyed.

We were taken to lunch near the area.  We once again had some Irish Stew and Seafood Chowder, but the real highlight was the bread that came with it- really good.  We also had some Guinness with our lunch.

Then, it was back on the bus to the Carrick a Rede bridge.  Tourist buses are no longer allowed to go to the bridge over the sea, but we could see it along with some really beautiful views before heading back to Belfast.

As we drove through the city, our driver pointed out the shipyard where the Titanic was built, the largest Celtic cross in the world, a leaning clock tower (due to the sand that the city is built on), the most bombed hotel in the world, the Europa, some monuments to Titanic and other ships built in Belfast, a memorial for the Titanic victims and various other buildings.

The buildings in the city were pretty interesting looking, and the City Hall Building was very nice.  There was a street fair going on in front of it, so there was a festive atmosphere.

We walked around for a bit and walked some side streets to Belfast Cathedral (St. Anne’s), but as there was a service for the Queen’s jubilee happening inside, we couldn’t go in.

After an hour in the city, we reboarded the bus and headed back to Dublin.  We stopped for our final Irish dinner where we had fish and chips with Guinness and Smithwick’s before ending with some cheesecake and Bailey’s coffee.

Our final day, we were once again treated to a lengthy airport stay, but we made it home feeling like our weekend was a success thanks to some nice sites, good food and friendly people.

We have recently returned from spending 9 days traveling all over Italy.  This trip, which we lovingly refer to as our Italian Sampler, was both exhausting and really enjoyable and included beautiful sites, delicious food and lots of walking and driving.  This is going to be a long one guys so strap on your helmet, jump on your Vespa and away we go.

Day 1

Our first day was really mostly about driving.  We had to head through Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland before entering Italy.  We had snow in Belgium, France and Switzerland.  Driving through the Alps, the snow was actually coming down and some roads were closed due to the amount of snow.  Not exactly how you want your vacation in mid-April to begin.

Luckily, by the time we entered Italy, while the temperatures were chilly at our destination of Menaggio in the Lake Como region, it was sunny and snow-free.  When we arrived, we took a ferry from Menaggio to Bellagio.  It was really windy and the ferry had some decent waves to traverse, but the ride was quick and the views were quite lovely.

In Bellagio, we walked, or rather climbed, the streets past shops up to a main square with a church.

We continued walking around for a bit before catching the ferry back to Menaggio where we decided to get some dinner.  We began the meal with a local fried cheese with polenta and jam paired with a red house wine.  For the main meal, we had gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese sauce, ravioli with vegetables and a braised beef with polenta.  It was all very good.

Feeling quite tired and cold, we headed to our Air BnB.  We had to drive up a lot of winding roads in the dark and walk with our luggage through very narrow steep streets to get there, but when we arrived it was a very charming place with a rustic kitchen and cozy living room as well as many bedrooms.

Day 2

We woke very early for our drive to the next region and found that where we were staying was actually a very small old village which was very interesting.  And as we walked down to the car, we were treated to some terrific views of the sunrise over Lake Como while the church bells were ringing.

It was time to head on to Cinque Terre, more specifically, Manarola.  Upon arriving, we had to park at a lot and then walk the rest of the way into the town.  We began by walking the narrow streets on the side of the cliff to Billy’s Trattoria for a lunch overlooking the water.  The food was terrific.  We tried a local white wine with Caprese salad.  Then, we moved on to a local pesto dish made with trofie pasta which had potato and green beans in it.  To finish the meal, we had tiramisu along with biscotti which you dipped into Sciacchetra, a local sweet wine.  We also tried two digestifs- limoncello and grappa (the grappa we were not fans of).

After the amazing lunch, we walked down a few of the streets past some amazing views to catch the train to Riomaggiore.

There, we walked some of the streets (and by walked I once again mean climbed) to a church and castle.  The views were terrific, but we did meet a strange old man who ended up calling us ridiculous (always good to have a weird story from your travels)!

We made our way back to Manarola via the train and climbed up through the cliffside vineyard, stopped in a church and climbed back up the 10 minutes to the parking lot to retrieve our bag before heading to dinner.

While dinner was quite cold because it was out on a balcony overlooking the town and a bit of the sea, the atmosphere was nice.  All of the dishes were served on hand-painted plates, and they had some fun music playing including one of our son’s current favorite songs, Mambo Italiano.  We ordered an appetizer of black rice and veggies in a pea sauce-different but good and a gin with local herbs (really nice).  For the main course, we had a pizza with a local-style pesto and cheese, Margherita pizza and a pizza with buffalo mozzarella.  The pizzas were good, but the one pasta dish that was ordered with prawns was not, as the prawns were raw.  We had a local wine with the dinner, and we enjoyed the dessert of lemon cake and tiramisu along with limoncello.  After dinner, it was time to settle in for the night.

Day 3

It was a very early morning climb back up to the parking lot before leaving Cinque Terre behind for what we hoped would be the flatter Tuscany region.  On our way there, we breakfasted on some focaccia that we had purchased at a bakery (plain and with green olives).

Our first stop was in Pisa to see that famous leaning tower.  We only stayed about an hour but it was long enough to see the tower and the Campo dei Miracoli complex, Piazza dei Cavalieri (Knight’s Square) and Santa Maria della Spina along the river.

After our Pisa visit, we moved on to Florence.  Once we found a place to park, we walked into the center of the city to Santa Maria del Fioro (Duomo).  It was completely packed with tourists with a line snaking around the building, so we opted not to go in.

Likewise, the Basilica di San Lorenzo and the Capelle Medicee were also packed, so we just looked from the outside.

From there, we moved on to Palazzo Vecchio where we decided to sit in an outside café and have a cappuccino, hot chocolate and cannolis.   It was a nice moment to just watch the people and horse-drawn carriages around the square (and enjoy the sun).

There was a museum on the square which allowed you to walk into a couple of courtyards for free, so we took a quick look before passing by the Basilica Santa Croce.

We crossed the river and walked along it to Ponte Vecchio which was an interesting bridge with houses built onto it, but the bridge itself was packed with people looking at the many jewelry stores on the bridge.

We decided to go back to Palazzo Vecchio for lunch.  We sat outside across from a replica statue of David where we enjoyed a lunch of Pecorino Tuscano (Tuscan Pecorino cheeses including wine flavored, plain and spicy) with pears and honey, Ribolita (a soup made hearty with the bread mixed into it) and a pasta with pappardelle pasta, mushrooms, truffles and a cheese cream.  All very good.

Having had enough of the tourist-packed city, we left Florence behind and made our way to Siena which was a very cute city.  There was climbing involved, but at the top of the city, we went into a really wonderful cathedral which featured a lot of artwork on the walls and ceiling and a library with books that had been hand-painted by monks in the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

After the cathedral, we made our way to the main square which was very large and tons of people were sitting out on the cement sunning themselves and enjoying the fountain.

Next, we stopped at an Abby for a quick look before making our way back down to the original water supply fountain for the city.

We drove a bit further south to Val d’Orcia.  Along the way, we stopped at some viewpoints of the Tuscan landscape as well as at a small chapel before arriving at our destination of Montichello.

This was another very small village overlooking the Tuscan countryside.  It was really lovely.

We found a small place for dinner that felt like eating inside a cellar but cozier.  Our dinner began with a complimentary tomato, basil and cheese appetizer along with bread and a local olive oil (it must have been like liquid gold because they seriously gave each of us about ¼ teaspoon worth, if that).  Our first course was a mushroom and chestnut soup which we shared before enjoying our pastas of tagliatelle with artichoke and bottarga (fish roe) and pici cacio en pepe (this was a really nice pasta noodle with a pecorino cheese sauce and pepper).  We also had a local red wine and ended the meal with Crème Brulee and limoncello.  This was probably one of our favorite meals.

Day 4

We began our fourth day with a short drive into Montepulciano, a really cool old city.  Because we were there so early, it was very quiet as we hiked up the streets to the piazza and church, and we were treated to some amazing views of the clouds over the Tuscan landscape.

We stopped in a bakery and grabbed some pastries for the car (something like a small pistachio cannoli, a chocolate tart and a cream-filled croissant) before beginning our drive into Rome.

After arriving in Rome and dropping our bags, we walked to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain before finding a streetside restaurant for lunch.

We had some lasagna, carbonara and cacio en pepe along with an Aperol Spritz and Italian beer.  It was not spectacular, but it wasn’t too bad.  We also tried a little pastry for dessert that was a kind of jam tart.

Our next stop was the Colosseum, but we walked by Campidoglio (designed by Michelangelo) and the Foro Romano on the way there.

At the Colosseum, we had tickets to go inside to the arena which provided some nice views but was quite busy.

After leaving the Colosseum, we entered the Foro Romano to have a look at the ancient ruins before stopping in several churches on our way to the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona.

Here, we selected another streetside restaurant to have Caprese, Carciofi alla Giudia (fried artichoke) and Carciofi alla Romana (an artichoke in a lemon sauce).  Our main meal consisted of a nice red wine with carbonara, gnocchi in a four-cheese sauce, mushroom fettucine and an oil with garlic and peppers pasta.  The dinner was fine, but the tiramisu for dessert was delicious as was the torta della Nonna (custard-style dessert) with limoncello.

After dinner, we decided to walk to Castel St. Angelo and back to the Foro Romano and Colosseum.  They were much quieter, and it was nice to see them by night as well.

As an added bonus, we saw a hedgehog walking around on a grassy hill.

Day 5

After some much-needed rest, we got up more slowly and sat at a street café to have some pastries and a latte macchiato and cappuccino.  We had croissants and a cream-filled pastry as well as some special pastries called sfogliatelle (a little shell-shaped pastry with a custard-like cream inside) and Babu con rum (a spongy pastry in a rum sauce).

After breakfast, it was time to head across the street to Bascillica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore.  It didn’t look much like a church from the outside, more like a government building.  Inside, it was full of gold and ornately decorated side rooms-very pretty.

From here, we made our way to the Capuchin Museum and Ossuary.  The first part of the museum was just artifacts and information about the Capuchin monks but the ossuary was really interesting.  We have been to ossuaries before, but this was really different in that the bones had been disassembled and, along with some full skeletons dressed as monks, used to make art communicating various messages.  I really wish I could have taken a picture, but it was not allowed.  I will say that if you have the chance to visit this spot in Rome, I would definitely recommend it as it’s a quick activity, costs little and is really unique.

After the ossuary, we made our way toward the Vatican and had lunch at a street restaurant near there.  We ordered some Italian beer and had the fried artichoke again, and this one was really good.  We also tried fiori di zucca fritti which is fried squash blossoms.  They were so good as they were also stuffed with a little cheese.  Our main plate was cacio en pepe, risotto with burrata cheese, pizza and bucatini (like spaghetti with a hole in the center) with a tomato sauce.  It was all really good, and the beautiful weather outside added to the enjoyment.

After lunch, we stopped for some seasalt caramel gelato on our way to the Vatican.

The Vatican was packed- I think my exact comment was that it was worse than Disneyland.  We made our way through the extensive and elaborate museum rooms filled with paintings and sculptures to the Sistine Chapel (sadly, no pictures allowed of the chapel).

After taking some time to view the chapel, we made our way back out of the complex and to St. Peter’s Basilica.  The line was seriously massive to get inside, so we opted to enjoy the view from the outside only.

Near the basilica, we stopped in a small shop for suppli and arancini (rice ball snack).  They were a bit too oily for us.

Hoping to leave the crowds of the Vatican behind, we walked (past Castel St. Angelo) back toward Trevi Fountain which was equally crowded.

We found a restaurant on a quiet side street and had a beer and some olives and puffed corn snack to kill some time until dinner.  We found a small restaurant that could seat us inside, and it was a good thing we found it when we did because, shortly after we arrived, a line formed outside and the inside was full.  And probably for good reason-the food was really nice.  We decided to start with the fried artichoke and squash blossoms again as well as Caprese salad.  To accompany everything, we had some Chianti.  The main dishes were black truffle pasta, carbonara, tomato gnocchi and a really delicious arancia (orange) ravioli.

After finishing, we walked back to Trevi Fountain to see it illuminated and stopped for gelato (this time I tried tiramisu flavor and arancia (orange) dark chocolate which I highly recommend).

Day 6

On our sixth day, we munched on some black olive and tomato focaccia on our early morning drive to Pompeii.

Pompeii is really cool (I had been before, but this was the first time for my husband and children).  The sheer size is overwhelming, and the level of preservation is amazing when you think about how old it is.

This time, we found our way to the brothel, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the well-preserved naughty pictures illustrating what probably took place there as well as the stone beds.  Let’s just say that some things stand the test of time (both figuratively and literally).

After several hours in Pompeii, we drove up the mountain to the Amalfi Coast area.  We arrived in the area too late for lunch which was a shame since we were all hungry.  We decided to begin the Path of the Gods, but, with nothing in our stomachs, we just couldn’t make it very far.  We decided to stop at a small café built on what must be someone’s house overlooking the sea.  The owner was selling lemon ice from local lemons, and it was really delicious.

After the quick stop, we decided to head back on the path to our car.  The path itself was enjoyable with lots of nice views and tons of lizards and some goats.

At this point, the need for actual food was too great and no dinner restaurants would open for hours, so we drove into a very small town square near the entry point for the path.  One of the restaurants on the square had some bread and pastries, so we grabbed some as well as a beer and an Aperol Spritz and sat for a bit.

Luckily, they also provided some olives and cracker snacks because we devoured them.  We walked around a tiny bit before finding a dinner place overlooking the water.  The dinner began with much promise as we had a local wine, Caprese and an assortment of cheeses which were all good.  Sadly, it went downhill from there as our carbonara, spaghetti with tomato and oil and lemon ravioli were not so great.  The fritto misto di fruit di mare (assortment of fried seafood) was ok as were the fried zucchini flowers.  The views were nice though, and the desserts of tiramisu and a lemon sponge cake were good.  We especially enjoyed the limoncello and the amaro del capo.

Our apartment was overlooking the coast but was very remote, so after dinner, we had to drive some dark winding roads to get there and then climb up some dark stairs to walk through a tiny path with plants growing over it.  Not the best, but the views over the water were really great, and it felt very secluded.

Day 7

We woke up to sit on our balcony overlooking the water and eat some Colomba (a special Italian Easter bread which was kind of orangey in taste and covered in chocolate).

After hiking back through the plant path to our car, we headed off for Arezzo.  Once we arrived, we began the afternoon by looking at the ruins of a Roman theater, walking around the old city and seeing things like churches, shops and the main square.

We decided to grab some gelato (the lemon flavor was quite nice) before heading up to the main cathedral, which was really nice, the palace and through a park to the remains of an old fortress.

After the park, we went to the main square and had a beer and Campari Spritz before heading to our apartment which was outside of the city on a farm.

We found a nearby restaurant for dinner where we had a house wine with some really good mushroom bruschetta and a pecorino bruschetta.  We tried mushroom and asparagus risotto, mushroom ravioli, gnocchi in a cheese sauce and a mixed seafood platter.  It was all pretty good as was the tiramisu, limoncello and amaro del capo.

At this point, exhaustion was really starting to set in, so we made our way back to our apartment and got to bed.

Day 8

Exhaustion being merely a way of existence now, we got up early and drove to Venice.  Upon arriving, things were pretty quiet, and we enjoyed walking through the small streets and canals.

We hired a gondola and spent some time on the small canals and a small piece of the Grand Canal.  We saw the Rialto Bridge as well as many historic homes before embarking on foot to St. Mark’s Square.

Along the way, we stopped in a few different squares with very interesting buildings.

St. Mark’s Square was packed- I thought the Vatican was bad, but this was insane.  We viewed the Basilica from the outside only as we were told the line to get in was an hour at least.

We did go into the Doge’s Palace where we viewed many state and judicial rooms as well as the armory and the prisons.

The rooms were very gaudy with lots of paintings, gold trim and heavy, dark wood.

The prison path took us past the Bridge of Sighs which we also viewed from the outside.

We took a few minutes to view the Grand Canal which was bustling.

We did a quick stop in the Correr Museum which had some nice ancient pieces, particularly sculptures, and some really cool old lampposts.

After leaving the museum, we stopped at a place for lunch where we had chichetti (different fried appetizers/small dishes).  We had the zucchini flowers, artichoke and mozzarella with anchovies on toast.  I also tried a Venetian Spritz which was nice.  Our main meal consisted of a tomato pasta, a seafood pasta, a pasta with artichokes and a local sausage and nero di seppia (cuttlefish ink pasta).

After lunch, we walked back out of the city, and the crowds were ridiculous.  It was a far cry from the quiet of the morning, so we were ready to head to Verona and some quieter areas.  That was a joke- if I thought that the Vatican was bad and St. Mark’s Square was worse, then I have no words for Verona.  It was a madhouse and completely chaotic, which was unfortunate because there were some really neat old buildings and architectural elements- you just couldn’t really see them.

While in Verona, we walked past the old amphitheater to Juliet’s house (being that Juliet was a fictional character, it’s not really her house but rather the house of a family that once did feud with another family in Verona).  Nonetheless, the line to get in was unbelievable and made the street even more packed.

Next, we headed to the main square which had an open-air market, many statues and a fountain and was lined with old buildings.

To escape the hoards, we walked down a side street to a tower and some very interesting raised tombs belonging to an old royal family of the city.

Down another side street was the former home of the other feuding family of the city, dubbed Romeo’s house.

We began walking back to our car at this point and had to walk down a street with wall-to-wall people.  Coming out of Covid era, this felt really weird.  After making it back to our car, we left Verona behind for Bergamo.

Luckily, it was much quieter.  We stopped at a place for dinner and since it was our last meal in Italy we decided to go all out with a local wine, bruschetta and fried polenta sticks.  For the main meal, we had cacio en pepe risotto, homemade pasta with Genoese pesto and a homemade pasta with tomatoes.  It was all very good.  The desserts were a bit of a disappointment, but, nonetheless, we had some tiramisu, tiramisu ice cream and a cannoli with linomcello and amaro del capo.

After dinner, we took the funicular up to the old city where we walked through the little streets to the old square with its tower and cathedral.

We happened upon an Easter service at the cathedral.  The priests were standing outside reciting some things and singing while the people in the church were in complete darkness.  Then the priests lit a huge candle and entered the church where other priests lit the candles of the churchgoers.  At the altar, some other large candles were lit and the whole church was illuminated.

The service continued, but as it was in Italian, we decided to leave and continue exploring the old city.  We saw some really nice artwork and architecture on the baptistery building next to the cathedral.

Then, we walked down to the old city gate where we had some great views of the city below.

The ride down was packed on the funicular- we were standing packed like sardines and at one point our daughter thought she might end up on the lap of the guy sitting next to her.  Definitely a weird and uncomfortable feeling after two years of avoiding being in close contact with others.

Day 9

As it was time to say arrivederci to Italy, this was a day full of driving.  The best part of the day was probably eating the sticky nut pastry and the traditional polenta pastry from Bergamo that we had purchased the night before.  It was a polenta cake outside with chocolate cream inside and an orange layer over the top.

Our drive was long crossing back through the Alps in Switzerland, crisscrossing from Germany to France, back into Luxembourg and Belgium before finally making it back to the Netherlands.  And just like that, the Italian Sampler was over.  While it was a tiring trip, and we covered a lot of ground and saw so many churches that I literally cannot tell them apart, it was really a good trip.  It was great to experience so many things together as a family and to explore many different regions.  I think everyone would be happy to go back to Italy, though, other than a weekend trip to see some museums that we wanted to see in Florence that were closed, I don’t think it will happen in the next few years.  But, for now, everyone is happy to have finally taken this trip that had been planned for two years ago.  And, if you made it this far, I hope that you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of Italy.  Until next time, ciao!

After having to make arrangements for a winter holiday trip to include our dogs because the boarder couldn’t take them and then having to change our plans due to Covid restrictions, we scrambled to find a location we could travel to with the dogs and finally settled on spending five days in Poland.  Then, about a week before the trip, war broke out in neighboring Ukraine (Krakow is about 2 and a half hours from the Ukrainian border).  After closely watching the news and checking with people we know from Poland, we decided it was safe to still go, so we headed off on the twelve hour drive with a car full of people and dogs.

Day 1

We drove through a lot of forested areas and open land to arrive in Krakow.  As we had been driving all day, our first mission was to get some dinner.  We settled on a small restaurant close to our apartment.  It didn’t look like much, but the food was really good.  We kicked the holiday off right with some Polish beer (both wheat and stout), compote which is a fruit punch type drink, mushroom soup (zupa grzybowa), fried Halloumi cheese, sausage and 3 types of  Pierogi (dumplings) which were filled with mushroom and cabbage, spinach, and potato and cheese.

While eating, a demonstration of support for Ukraine marched past the windows of the restaurant.  This seemed like enough excitement since we were tired from driving all day, so we called it a night.

Day 2

After reminding ourselves why we would never want to live on the top floor of an apartment building with dogs, we got them all settled in the apartment and headed out to see Krakow.  We first walked to St. Florian Church passing some old remains of a fort or castle (not sure) and a large monument with many interesting statues.

There was a service going on in the church, so we just took a quick look, but it was very gold inside.

After leaving the church, we walked under St. Florian’s Gate, the old city gate leading to Lost Soul’s Alley or the Royal Way which was the path of coronation of kings in centuries past.  The path led past many shops (and many pretzel stands so we grabbed a few) to the main square (Rynek Glowny) of the Old Town.

In the main square was the Cloth Hall, this building from the 1500s sits on the location of the market since the 1200s, and St. Mary’s Basilica.  This church is home to the largest Gothic Alter in the world.  Unfortunately, no pictures of the inside were allowed, but it was very gaudy and there was a lot of blue and red coloration.  Outside again, the clock struck the hour and played a trumpet call type of song.

Our walk continued past Saints Peter and Paul Church

to Wawel Castle, which was the seat of the throne (Krakow used to be the capital of Poland), and Wawel Cathedral.  We didn’t go inside either, but it was a large complex and quite pretty.

From here, we headed through the old Jewish district, the Kazimierz, where much of Schindler’s list was filmed.  We made our way across the river where we saw this interesting bridge with sculptures hanging in its suspension lines.

As we made our way through the residential streets, we saw a plaque commemorating the location of the former Jewish orphanage which the Nazis invaded, immediately killing the children under 3 and taking the older children and the caregivers who refused to leave them to concentration camps where they were murdered.  We made our way to Schindler’s Factory for a quick look and then headed back through the city to get some lunch at a great restaurant called Starka.

The meal began with “cottage cheese” with chives spread (more like cream cheese) on bread followed by Pierogi of potato and cottage cheese.  The waitress also recommended the apple cinnamon and blueberry vodkas so we gave it a go-apple cinnamon was terrific.  For the main meal, we had Borsch beet soup, sour rye soup and pork loin.  We ended the meal with the traditional cheesecake with a poppy seed cake bottom-so good.  Then they brought us a free dogwood berry flavored vodka.  Also good, but the apple cinnamon was still the best.

As we made our way back up the Royal Road, we ran directly into a large demonstration in support of Ukraine and condemnation of Putin.  It was really surreal to feel like we were in the midst of history happening and not just watching it unfold on TV.

We got past the crowd and grabbed a few filled donuts (black currant, salted caramel and strawberry with cheese) to snack on in the car as we left Krakow and made our way to Warsaw.

While Warsaw was a much bigger city than Krakow, we were staying in an apartment on the edge of the old town so we walked into that area for dinner.  It was another really good meal in a small restaurant with a cool vibe.  This time we had Bigos (hunter’s stew with meat and cabbage), fried Camembert, bread, fried Pierogis, ribs and cabbage rolls.  To finish off the meal, I had an old style Polish coffee and we all shared a traditional apple pie (kind of like an apple crumble cake texture).  They once again gave us a free shot of vodka-this time cranberry.

After finishing, we walked for a bit in the old town area where we found that they still had the Christmas market with ice skating rink set up.  There were actually quite a few lit up Christmas decorations and some Christmas trees still.  It was pretty, but very cold so we headed in for the night.

Day 3

We began our day in Warsaw with a walk through the old town to the old city wall.  The important thing to remember about Warsaw is that it was almost completely destroyed during the war, but the citizens rebuilt it in an exact replica of what it looked like before.

From the city wall, we walked to Market Place and on to a cathedral.

After a quick look inside, we made our way to Castle Square which was very pretty and has been the site of many important events in Warsaw’s history.

From here, we began down the Royal Road (Krakowscie Przdemiescie).  We walked by the Presidential Palace which is where the Warsaw Pact was signed and past Chopin’s former residence.  All along the path, there are benches that play Chopin’s music when you push a button on them.

From here we stopped at Holy Cross Church where Chopin had his heart encased in a pillar after his death.

Just past the church is a statue of Copernicus, who went to college in Krakow, which was taken for melting during the war but was recovered before it was melted.

From here, we left the Royal Road and the Old Town to venture into the city.  From a distance, we could see the Palace of Science and Culture which is a skyscraper that was a gift from the Russians under Stalin.

Then we stopped by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they had just completed the changing of the guard.

From here, we walked all the way through the modern downtown area to the Uprising Museum.  The museum was a bit confusing, but it had a lot of information and items from the uprising which was when the residents of Warsaw attempted to fightback against the German occupation.  While they did not succeed in retaking the city, it was an interesting look into the spirit of the people and their unwillingness to accept their situation.  It was also a bit disturbing to observe some similarities in the situation occurring in our present world when we tend to think of these things as being in the past and are unwilling to believe that they could occur again.

We walked to the Jewish Cemetery of Warsaw where members of the Jewish community have been being buried for hundreds of years.  The oldest tombs we saw were from the early 1800s, but the cemetery was kind of unkempt looking and spooky.

We didn’t stay for long before making our way back to our apartment.  Our path took us through a park with an old palace on its edge.  Across from the palace was the Polish Supreme Court.

At dinnertime, we stopped at St. Anne’s Church.  It was pretty dark inside, but we weren’t sure if that was because the sun was setting, or if it is always like that.

We had dinner in a small restaurant where we tried cheese croquettes with a cranberry sauce along with a flight of vodkas including a regular, a premium brand called Bison Grassfed, a lemon flavored and a Tabasco.  For our meal, we had assorted Pierogis, potato pancake with mushroom sauce, pork knuckle and Kartacze which was kind of like a very large cheese stuffed dumpling with a mushroom sauce.  It was all very good.

Day 4

After an unsuccessful attempt to see Wilanow Palace and Lazienki Palace in the morning, we began our drive to Gdansk.  After arriving and once again getting the dogs situated, we took a walk around the old city to St. Catherine’s Church.

Along the way we saw another cathedral and an old building with an open market in front of it.

After stopping in the cathedral, we saw a lot of cool historic buildings as we made our way to the Golden Gate which was right in front of the old prison tower.

Then, we walked under the Upper Gate onto the Royal Road or Long Street.

There were a lot of old homes and buildings on this street that were very colorful with ornate stonework and artwork.

We stopped in a few bakeries along the way and then took a minute to admire the Town Hall building with its clock tower and Neptune Fountain before heading to dinner at Mandu Periogarnia.

The restaurant is known for its wide variety of Pierogis.  We decided on a potato and cheese version and a vegan version with cabbage and meat substitute.  The food was okay, but we had some truly awful beer.

After that, we were ready to go to the apartment and try some of the pastries we had purchased earlier.  We had a cheesecake type dessert, Kremowka which was a layer of light cream between two thin sheets of pastry, an apple pastry and Makowiec which was a poppy seed cake with fruit and a glaze.  Everything was pretty good though the cheesecake seemed to be everyone’s favorite.

Day 5

On our last full day in Poland, we began with some Polish pastries filled with cream and berries.

We walked to St. Mary’s Cathedral which was quite open and empty seeming when we first walked in, but, on closer inspection, it actually housed a lot of interesting artwork and ornamental sculptures.

From here, we walked to Long Street to look at the Town Hall again as well as Neptune Fountain.

We also saw the Golden House which was a home built for the mayor in the 17^th century and the courthouse referred to as King Arthur’s Court.

From here, we walked the rest of the way down Long Street to the Green Gate.

After passing under the gate, we came out on the river and walked along Dluge Pobrzeze which is the old dock area.  We also saw the Gdansk crane which is the old machinery used for loading goods from boats to the dock.

We went down Ulika Mariace (St. Mary’s Street) off of the dock area.  It was very cute and had a lot of shops selling amber which Poland is well known for.

We walked down some side streets past the armory

on our way to do one of the craziest culinary things we have ever done while traveling- we ate Mexican food in Poland!  It was actually toted as a Tex-Mex place and since we really struggle to find Mexican like that in the Netherlands and we had already had a lot of Polish food, we did it.  It was not really Tex-Mex as we are used to, but it wasn’t terrible.

At dinner, we decided to redeem ourselves a bit by going to a Ukrainian restaurant.   We tried some Ukrainian beer and a liquor with honey and pepper along with a plate of pickled vegetables and a pickled plum-interesting.  We also got a traditional Borsch soup with bread, Ukrainian potato dumplings, potato pancakes with mushroom and sour cream and some ribs.

After dinner, we strolled down the Long Street after dark before making our way to our apartment to eat our final pastry which was a white and dark chocolate Kremowka cake which was pretty good.

The last day of our trip was spent driving the twelve hours back home.  While not an exciting day at all, we did see a convoy of Red Cross vans and cars carrying what appeared to be refugees as they were filled with women and children.  We aren’t sure if they were Ukrainian or Belarusian refugees, but it was a strange feeling to see nonetheless.

And with that, our Polish vacation was over.  We really weren’t sure what to expect with this last minute trip, but we actually really liked Poland.  The food was very good, it was inexpensive, and it was really quite pretty (albeit a bit cold).  We are definitely glad that we made the decision to visit Poland.

This past week we were finally able to complete one of the trips that we had to cancel due to Covid.  After wanting to go for so long, we finally spent a wonderful week in Greece.

Day 1

Our trip began very early in the morning (actually the middle of the night) with a flight to Athens.  After arriving, we headed straight into the city to see the Acropolis.  Upon entering the area, we were first met with the ancient theater-Epidaurus Theater.  We climbed further up through the old gate, Beule Gate, to the Parthenon.  Next to the Parthenon, stood the Athena temple.  After wandering at the top for a while, we ventured down the slopes to the Socrates Prison.  There is no actual proof that Socrates was actually imprisoned there; it is likely legend.

After walking for a bit, we experienced our first real highlight of the trip-lunch!  We had a local beer, Fix, Greek Salad, Saganaki (fried cheese), Feta me Meli (feta in Phyllo with honey), Dolma (stuffed grape leaves), tomato fritters and Souvlaki (chicken skewer).  It was all so good.

After refueling, we walked to Ancient Agora where we saw the Temple of Hephaestus as well as an ancient church and a reconstructed forum filled with statues.

We walked back through the city to the Acropolis Museum.  They had a really nice collection of things that were recovered from the Acropolis slopes such as statues, wall pieces, pottery, coins, etc.  They also had an archeological site that revealed a collection of ancient homes.

We rounded out our day in the city with a stop at Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus.

Then it was off to a bakery and dinner where we tried another local beer, Alpha, a fried cheese from Crete, kolokithokeftedes (zucchini balls), more tomato fritters, fava (smashed split peas), fried cheese cubes and black eyed peas.

Day 2

We explored more ancients today with a drive to Delphi.  Our drive took us through the rocky, hilly landscape past Thebes.  Thebes is the city that the character from Greek mythology, Oedipus, hailed from.  We stopped for an amazing view next to Mt. Parnassus overlooking tons of olive trees before heading on to Delphi where there were also many Cyprus trees.

At Delphi, we saw the Temple of Athena, the location (really just a rock) where the oracle gave prophecies, Apollo’s Temple, many treasury ruins, a theater and a stadium.

We walked through the Delphi Museum which had many interesting pieces-mostly statues and wall pieces but also some tiny carved figures and gold adornments.

Then it was on to lunch in Delphi at a restaurant overlooking the sea where we had fried sheep and goat cheese, leek pie, fennel pie, olives, grass pea balls with onion chutney, moussaka and wine.  It was all so good and then they gave us some baklava style dessert to finish the meal.

After lunch, we went to Arachova where we walked around some small streets, stopped for a Greek coffee, Gelaktomboureko (custard in a puff pastry) and Kataifi (a honey and nut baklava made with “spaghetti”).

To work that off, we walked up a ton of steps to a cathedral which was so ornate on the inside with ceiling and wall paintings, massive chandeliers, mosaics, designed floors, metal sculptures and strange small stained glass.

Back in Athens, we enjoyed a small dinner on a rooftop overlooking the Acropolis. We tried Dakos (a tomato, feta and dried bread salad), Halloumi with grilled vegetables and Spanakopita (spinach and feta in Phyllo).  Once we made it back to our apartment, we had some baklava and a nut cake for dessert.

Day 3

On our final day in Athens, we took a long drive to Ancient Olympia.  Along the way, we stopped at the Corinth Canal to see the man made channel between the seas.

Then we drove through the mountains to Olympia.  Apparently, it was a significant day in Ancient Olympia as the Olympic Torch was being lit and sent on it’s way to 50 cities throughout Greece before heading to the location of the winter Olympics.  As we arrived at the area, the torch was passing by (sadly, it is not carried by a runner but driven in a car) which was pretty neat.  Once inside the “city,” we grabbed a quick lunch of Gyros and walked to the Ancient Olympia Museum.  The museum contained some very old artifacts (700 B.C.)-statues, vases, edifices, sculptures, helmets, etc.

Next, we entered the archeological site where we saw the ruins of many temples, the gymnasium where the athletes trained, monuments, treasuries and where the Olympic torch used to be lit.  We also walked (my youngest ran) the length of the original Olympic stadium-pretty cool!

At the Museum of the Olympic Games, there was some interesting memorabilia and information.  The old discus, descriptions of when various events were included in the games nd information about women in the games were unique.

Our final stop in Olympia was the Archimedes Museum where they had replicas and information about ancient inventions such as the robot server, a water activated alarm clock, an automated theater and automated temple doors (sadly, no pictures allowed).  On the way back to Athens, we stopped at Ancient Corinth where Paul addressed his letters in Corinthians.

Back in the city, we had dinner of fish roe dip, cheese croquettes, cheese pies, grilled Halloumi, spicy baked feta and tomato croquettes along with a flaming cider drink.

Day 4

We flew to Santorini early in the morning and drove to our rented cave house (traditional style home built into the cliffs).

In the afternoon, we walked into Fira (Thera) and strolled along the Caldera (the section of coastline overlooking the volcano in the middle of the sea).  Eventually, we made it to the highest point on the island, observing the water, white buildings and domed churches along the way.

We made our way back down to Firastefani for a lunch overlooking the sea.  We had some amazing fava beans, tomato fritters, cheese pie, mushrooms in lemon butter, Santorini salad, Slouvaki and Dakos. We finished the meal with a dessert of Macedonia nut ice cream and a “bread pudding” consisting of the spaghetti style baklava with a special clotted cream.  The restaurant gave us a free dessert wine as well.

After spending some time back at the cave house where the kids soaked in the pool, we walked up to a view of the Caldera for sunset and a dinner of fava beans, tomato fritters, Saganaski and white aubergine (eggplant) rolls stuffed with vegetables.  At the end of the meal, they gave us Ouzo-an anise flavored liqueur.  On the way to the cave house, we stopped in a bakery and bought some baklava type dessert with chocolate and nuts inside and some small orange, chocolate and coconut cakes. It was all very good.

Day 5

After a breakfast of assorted pastries and Koulouri (sesame seed covered bread ring), my daughter and husband went on three scuba dives, so my son and I made our way to a black sand beach where we saw wind surfers and some interesting formations of sand.  Our divers enjoyed their day and saw many fish and lava rock grottos.

Once we were all back together, we went to dinner where we had Pastitsio (a moussaka with noodles in it), mushroom pies, tomato fritters, fava beans and Halloumi with grilled vegetables.  We also tried the local Yellow Donkey beer.

Day 6

Today, we filled up on vegetable pie and Nutella and cream filled donuts before going to Perissa beach (black sand).  We laid out, the kids got in the water, and we collected pumice rocks-generally we just enjoyed the sun, blue skies and clear water.  Across the street, we enjoyed a lunch of fava balls, cheese balls and cashew garlic dip with pita bread as well as some mushroom gyros and falafel wraps.  All of that went well with some Alpha beer and a mojito After that tasty break, we sat on the beach for a while longer.

In the evening, we drove to Pyrgos where we climbed through the village streets to the top of the city and sat outside a church to watch the sun set while snacking on some cheese, olives, veggies and Tzatziki and eggplant dips.  We sat back, sipped on some Red Donkey beer and watched the sunset.

After dark, we went to Megalachori where we walked the main street which was pretty with the lights.

Day 7

After some cheese, vegetable and chocolate pastries, we drove to Oia.  Though it was incredibly pretty, it was very crowded so we headed to a less busy area to enjoy the views over the water.  We had a lovely lunch overlooking the sea.  We decided on Volkan beer, white eggplant, spinach pies, tomato risotto, baklava and Gelaktomboureko.

In the evening, we walked to a 100 year old restaurant, Aktaion.  We had a really amazing meal consisting of Retsina wine (a wine infused with pine resin), Loukoumades (fried cheese ball donuts), vegetable fritters, Dolma (stuffed grape leaves), fava bean and a traditional tomato pasta and mushroom and truffle oil pasta.  We finished it all off with a Greek yogurt and cream cheese dessert and a small shot of a digestif.

Day 8

On our final full day, we drove to Emporio and walked around a bit.  It was a very interesting little village with many small nooks and passageways and an abundance of cave homes built into the cliffs.

Then we spent some time at another black sand beach where the water was so nice that we all got in it a bit.

We stopped for a lunch at the dock where we had a dip platter (spicy feta, eggplant, fish roe and Tzatziki), Saganaski and tomato fritters.

We walked to the Red Beach and the archeological site at Akoriti.  The site was interesting as it was a preserved city (thanks to lava flow) from 2000 B.C.  Something that old is really hard to process.

We went to one final black beach before making our way to the lighthouse to watch the sunset.

We returned to the restaurant where we had lunch on our first day on the island and had many of the same dishes as well as grilled Halloumi, feta balls and mushroom risotto.  The restaurant gave us a free aperitif called Raki and we finished the day off with a Mythos beer.

And just when we thought our time on the island was done and all that was left was for us to travel home, we saw our first sunrise on the island while waiting on our plane.  It was truly amazing how the sun would appear and disappear at the horizon as if it was really the edge of the world.

We really had an awe inspiring (all the remains of the ancient civilizations) and relaxing (warm weather and nice beaches) week in Greece.  And hopefully all of our walking helped to burn some calories, or we may really be in trouble thanks to all the delicious food.  We are so thankful that we finally got to make this trip, and we will definitely carry the memories of the sun soaked vacation with us as we head into another Dutch winter.

This past weekend we went to visit some family friends in Hannover, Germany. They just returned to Hannover two months ago after a five year hiatus, and they were eager to show us this place that they will now call home again.

We took a tour of the city by bike which began in a huge forest area right near their house.  Before entering the forest though, we rode by their church.

We biked through the forest for a while finally emerging in a field area before entering city streets.  We biked along the street (carefully because there was a triathlon going on) for a bit before biking along the large man-made Maschsee Lake.  Our friends told us that this lake (which I regrettably have no pictures of myself) was dug by hand during the Third Reich to keep people busy and not thinking too much.  It is a really large lake so one can only imagine how intense the construction must have been.  It is a beautiful spot for boats and rowing and there is a swim beach and club to one end.  We stopped at a beer garden along the lake and had a drink which was very nice.

We then biked to the new city hall which is still very old by American standards.

We saw an old gate and wall of the city and then on to the old city hall, a church in the area and a walk around some of the streets in the old part of the city.

We had lunch near the old part of the city.  I didn’t take any pictures (not like me, I know) but it was really good.  One dish was a traditional German style potato pasta with mushrooms and cream and the other was mushrooms on rosti (hashbrown style potato).  Of course, we had a little more German beer as well.

After lunch, we biked through the more alternative or “punk,” as our friends called it, neighborhood which had a more artistic feel.

Then it was on to the formal gardens, Herrenhausen.  The gardens were built in Hannover because the House of Hannover has a tie to the British Monarchy.  The grounds were very large with many different garden alcoves and huge fountains.  There was also a grotto with a modern art interior.  There were so many women at the garden having pictures done in their wedding gowns that I lost track of the number we saw.

After the gardens, we biked through more park space in front of the university and then through the more modern parts of the city on our way back to their section of the city.  Near their home is a pedestrian area where no cars or bikes are allowed.  It is lined with shops and restaurants.  Children can lay out blankets along the path with used items for sale any day of the week all year long as a way to make a little money.  They even had a carousel and we were told that they have a really nice Christmas market there in December (might be worth a return visit!).

On Sunday, they took us to Marienburg Castle which was about 30 minutes drive from their house.  The castle was once a gift to a princess who was not happy with it as it did not have a heating system.  The castle was fairly large and very pretty.  We toured the inside and then walked around some crafter stalls and a children’s area as there was a summer festival going on.

Sadly, that was all we had time for on this weekend visit, but we would definitely consider going back as there seems to be a lot to do and see there (and of course we would love to spend more time with our friends).

This past week, after a year without travel outside the country, we finally drove across the border without restriction.  For this momentous occasion, we decided to head to Waterloo in Belgium, a mere two hours from our house.

Waterloo (and yes we were humming the song the entire time) is the site of the famous battle in which Napoleon attempted to rebuild his empire by reforming his Imperial Garde and taking Belgian and Dutch land, but instead met with a crushing defeat from a combined force of British, Dutch, Belgian and German soldiers led by Duke Wellington.  The battle was a particularly brutal one.  By the end of the day of fighting, 40,000 men and 10,000 horses lay dead or seriously injured on the field.

Using a historical walking route provided by the Boy Scouts of America in this region of Europe, our first stop was to see Le Caillou, the farmhouse that Napoleon used as his headquarters the night before the battle.

 

Next, we stopped at an observation point that Napoleon used when he returned to the battlefield in the late afternoon (apparently he spent the day at an inn further down the road due to an attack of colitis that was incredibly painful).  The Imperial Garde could see the battlefield from this location, but they never had a view of the full field until the battle was almost over, something which proved devastating to their efforts. 

 

Our walk took us past the L’Aigle Blesse statue erected to symbolize the fall of the Imperial Garde.  This particular spot was chosen because it was there that the Garde had their last defenses. 

From there, we began walking through the fields where the battle was fought toward Hougoumont Farm.  Here, the Garde spent many hours attempting to take the farm from the British, but even after heavy casualties and burning the chateau and chapel of the farm down, they were unable to succeed.

Next, we made our way through more of the fields to the path leading to the ridge that proved to be a key to the battle.  This ridge allowed the British forces to remain unseen by the Imperial Garde.  The Garde, believing that the British had been scattered and crippled, charged the area, discovering that the British were merely below the ridge after they were too close to allow for success. 

Today, what remained of the ridge is part of the earth used to build the Butte du Lion (lion monument) which commemorates the battle. 

Finally, we walked past La Haie Sainte, another farmhouse used by Duke Wellington.  This one was so close to the Duke’s battle line that is would have been devastating if the Garde took control, so a group of German soldiers were assigned to protect it.  Again, the Garde spent great effort attempting to take the farmhouse but the Germans, though very few survived, managed to defend it. 

The final point that we saw was La Belle Alliance, which in addition to being the inn where Napoleon spent much of the battle due to his colitis, is also where Duke Wellington and the Prince of Prussia (who provided late aide to the British troops on the battlefield) met to declare their victory after the battle was over. 

All in all, it was a nice day for a long walk and an interesting lesson in history.  And to make the trip really worthwhile, there was also a stop in Brussels for some Belgian waffles!

Hopefully this was the first of travel posts to come in the not too distant future.  Until then!

While our travels in 2020 have not turned out as planned, we decided to go ahead and take a vacation this summer.  While we contemplated several possible scenarios based on the current pandemic situation, we finally settled on a trip that we had planned to take back in June with some modifications.  Thus, we rented an RV and hit the road for two weeks to trek around Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany.

Day 1

Our first day was mainly spent driving through Belgium, Luxembourg and France on our way to Switzerland.  Once in Switzerland, we made our way to Bern.  We saw some nice scenery as we made our way in including some huge and dense fields of sunflowers.  I could not get any decent pictures of those but snapped a few of some less dense fields later.

We had a slight mishap (think small, steep mountain road and an RV with nowhere to turn around and no way to continue up), but some nice folks helped us through it.  However, we got into Bern pretty late due to that, so we only had time to get some dinner.  There was a pizzeria near our campsite so we opted for that but went for a Swiss feel by trying Rivella, a popular soda drink there, and some Swiss beer.

Day 2

Our day began in the capital city of Bern.  We took the morning to walk along the Aare River (it’s a very fast-moving river and people were floating/swimming down it) into the city.

The city was a sort of old-style that was very attractive even among modern amenities.  We saw the parliament building, cathedral and shop-lined streets with fountains running down the center of the street.

One interesting feature in Bern that I have not seen anywhere else was what appeared to be cellar doors lining the street in front of shops.  Most of the doors were closed, but they are actually entrances to shops, restaurants and clubs that are underneath the street-level shops.

After walking around for a bit, we climbed above the city to the Rose Garden.  There were some nice views of the city from there.

We headed back down to watch the clock tower which was supposed to have moving figures on the hour.  It did, though they were not too exciting.  We did enjoy some nice pastries while waiting, though, which helped assuage the disappointment.

After a return walk along the river to our campground, we loaded up and drove on to Montreux which is situated on Lake Geneva.

We drove through the Laveux Vineyard area where we had a lot of great views.

We drove around part of Montreux on our way to Chillon Chateau, a castle situated on the water.

We walked around the outside of the castle and along a lakeside path to a terrace restaurant for a drink (local wine and beer).

Then, we walked back to the castle area where we had a sausage and cheese plate for dinner along with a little Swiss chocolate.  We decided to leave the area and head on toward Zermatt, our next stop.  There were lots of mountain views and step farming style vineyards on the way as well as a castle on a hill.

Day 3

Our day began with a drive into the resort-style village of Zermatt.  The village is comprised of tons of chalet-style homes, hotels, restaurants and shops as well as a church with a cemetery.

It is also home to the famed Matterhorn.

We stopped for a Swiss specialty on the way to a trail leading toward the Matterhorn, zopf-a soft braided bread.

It was very good and gave us a little boost for our climb up the trail.  The views on the trail were very nice with lots of wildflowers and, of course, the mountains.

After walking up for a while, we headed down to Gorner Gorge to get a view of the glacial water flow.

We walked back into Zermatt for lunch.  We tried Rosti for the first, but definitely not last, time (it is on every menu in a multitude of variations).  It is basically a plate of hash browns and this particular version had cheese and tomatoes.  We also had some schnitzel and sausage and Zurcher Geschnetzeltes-veal with a mushroom and cream sauce along with some local beers.

We walked around the village a little and went into the church and cemetery before stopping to buy some nusstorte (nut tort), Zermatt Birnenbrot (basically a pastry stuffed with a dried pear and other fruits spread) and some Swiss chocolate.  The nusstorte was okay, the Birnenbrot was not appreciated at all and the chocolate was delicious!

After leaving Zermatt, we drove through many mountain roads with waterfalls and little villages at the base of the Alps each filled with little chalets and churches.  We also saw deer, mountain goats and sheep along the way.

At the top of a huge mountain climb, we found a glacial lake and stopped for a few pictures before heading down the other side of the mountain to the Interlaken/Jungfrau area and more specifically, Wilderswil.

After settling into a campground there, which would be our home for the next 4 days, we walked to a nearby restaurant for a dinner of (you guessed it) Rosti, this time with a fried egg, Schnitzel, Cordon Bleu made of local veal stuffed with mountain cheese (did you know cordon bleu originated in Switzerland) and lamb Emmenschtel (a sort of lamb stew in a cream curry sauce).  We also added some local beer to the meal for a nice end to the day.

Day 4

Today, we decided to check out the towns around the Interlaken area-specifically Unterseen, Thun, Oberhofen and Wilderswil.

We started in Unterseen.  It was a really cute town with lots of chalets and the river running through the city in two places, but there was nothing too exciting to actually do or see there.  We tried a few pastries and walked around for a bit before heading on to Thun.

We intended to walk around Thun, but, after driving for a bit without being able to find anywhere to park the RV, we gave up, drove around the town, saw a castle and a cute bridge over the river studded with flowers and then headed to Oberhofen.

Oberhofen was not originally on our list to see, but it was actually a nice little stop.  It had a really cool looking castle on the lake and we found a nice place to stop for lunch.

Today we had (I’ll give you one guess) Rosti with bacon and onion, Schnitzel, Cordon Bleu (are you sensing a pattern here?) and two new dishes-a sausage and cheese salad and Alplermagronen-essentially macaroni, cubed potatoes and bacon in a white cream sauce served with a small pot of applesauce for putting over the pasta (don’t worry, you’ll see this one again).  Of course, we also had to try some local beer.

We drove back on some fun roads along the lake, before having a little downtime in the afternoon.

In the evening we walked around Wilderswil, the town where our campsite was located.  There were a lot of chalets and flower gardens on the way to the train station.  Behind the train station, there was an old bridge over the river which led to a church and cemetery.

The cemetery was really nicely maintained so we walked around it for a bit before heading back to our RV to have our dinner which consisted of cheese from the cow belonging to the owner of the campground and some lamb sausage from a farm in the town.  We also got some bread baked by the campground owner.  We ended the meal with a couple of liqueur-filled Swiss chocolates (one filled with a pear liqueur and the other with Kirsch)-pretty good!!

Day 5

Today we went to Beatus Cave.  We had to climb up the mountain to the mouth of the cave.

Once inside, you could hear the rushing water that flows through the cave.

The best thing in the cave was a really cool mirror pool which gave the impression that the ceiling was repeated one level below.  It was slightly disorienting.

After the caves, we ate at a small restaurant near our campground.  We had (say it with me) Rosti and Alplermagronen, some of the best we had, and cheese fondue with forest mushrooms.  The fondue was served with bread, gherkins, pearl onions and little potatoes that came out in a small burlap sack.  We also tried a Riesling from a town 20 minutes away on the lake.  We ended the meal with a meringue dessert.  It was all very good.

After our lunch, we drove to Trummelbach Falls.  It was a really interesting waterfall because it was running in and out of the rocks/cave.  We took an elevator up inside the rock and then walked all through the rock and carved out spaces to view different parts of the falls as it made its way down to the river below.  It was a cool example of erosion.

Day 6

Today, was the day I had been most looking forward to- hiking in the Alps with all of the wildflowers and mountain views.  But instead, it decided to rain.  The flowers and views were not at all what we were hoping for, but we decided to make the best of it and tell ourselves that we were getting to view the trails in a different light with hopes that the day after would be sunny.  So, while we had expected beautiful bright flowers and skies, we got a more eerie, misty looking experience.

We began by walking toward a waterfall on a small trail near the cable car station.

Then we took the cable car up to Mürren.  Even with the cloud cover, we had some nice views going up.

At Mürren, we started the Bluemental trail where we were treated to pretty scenery comprised of wildflowers, waterfalls, streams and cows with melodious bells.

We hiked up to the flower garden where they had information about the flowers of the region and we saw some Edelweiss.

We had lunch at a terrace near the garden.  We had Raclette, a special Swiss cheese that is melted and eaten on top of potatoes, pearl onions and gherkins, as well as some mountain cheese and sausage and regional beers.  We would have never known that there were amazing views of the mountains at this terrace except for a very brief clearing that revealed part of the mountains.

After lunch, we walked the mountain view trail.  We had no mountain views, but we were treated to a lot of wildflowers and cows.  The cows all had different shaped and sized bells which really made the jangling sound very melodic.  As my husband said, “we were treated to an orchestra of cows.”

We came out of the trail through a forest and onto a hill of tons of sleeping cows.  It was a little eerie with the foggy mist and all the cows just laying around staring at us!

Finally, we walked through Mürren past some pretty flower gardens before heading back down the mountain in the cable car.

We went to the same restaurant from a few days before where everyone got the same thing they previously ate (yes-Rosti, Schnitzel and Cordon Bleu) except for me-I tried the vegetable cream soup which was very nice.

Day 7

After 3 days of rain and overcast conditions, today was our last chance to see the scenery of the Alps, so we were hoping for a nice day.  It did not disappoint!  Though it was not completely clear, we had sun and views, so we were very happy.  We took a historic train (it has been running for over 100 years) up the mountain to Schynige Platte.  There, we hiked a trail around the rim of the mountain where we had views of the lake below, snowy peaks and a glacier and lots of wildflowers.  We even saw a badger from a distance!  And, of course, there was the music of cows!

After the trail, we walked around the Alpine Botanical Garden which had a really nice display including more Edelweiss.

We listened to the Alpenhorn players and sat on the terrace to eat Aplermagronen and Shnitzel with regional beer.  It was freezing, so we ate fast and then walked around the botanical garden some more to warm back up.

Before heading back down the mountain, we sat on another terrace and had some apricot kuchen and wildberry cake.  The apricot was only politely received, but the wildberry cake was delicious.

After returning to the valley, we walked to Interlaken for dinner.  We had Rosti (again!) with bacon and egg, Zurcher Geshnetzeltes (the veal in mushroom sauce) and some regional bratwurst with Rosti.  It was not our best meal.

Day 8

Today, we moved on to Lucerne for a few hours before entering Liechtenstein.  Before leaving our campground though, we had a breakfast of bread baked by the campground owner and cheese from her cow as we did every day that we were there.

In Lucerne, we began by walking to the Lion Monument which is situated in a park area.  It commemorates the Swiss guard killed in the French Revolution.

Then we made our way to Hofkirch and the Jesuit Church.  They were fairly plain on the inside but were large.

We walked along Lake Lucerne which was filled with boats and the fast-moving Reuss River and saw a couple of wooden footbridges including Chapel Bridge.  The bridges had triangular paintings running along the rafters.

We wandered around several of the streets and strolled the Weinmarkt area.  The buildings were really neat, and many had elaborate drawings or paintings on them.  There were also a number of fountains throughout the city.

Finally, we walked up to the Musegg Wall, the old fortification wall, for a quick look before heading for lunch.

While we, of course, had Rosti (with tomato, bacon, egg and cheese) and Schnitzel, we also tried a Lucerne specialty, Chogel Lipaschteli, which was a puff pastry stuffed with veal.  We tried a wine from Lucerne as well.

Then, it was on to Liechtenstein where our first stop was Balzers and Burg Gutenburg, an old castle.  We could see the castle on the hill as we drove in.  After parking, we first stopped at a really pretty church with a cemetery.  It was a quaint, stone church and it was probably one of the prettiest small churches we have seen.  To the side of the church, there was a vineyard at the base of the castle that we walked around.

We moved on to the campground where we had dinner of bratwurst with Rosti (nope, food in Liechtenstein is not too different from Swiss food), veal with mushroom sauce and Flammkuchen (the thin-crust pizzas) as well as some local beer and wine.  They also gave us a gazpacho type starter to try.

Day 9

Today, we went to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein.  We first walked to the outskirts of the city where there is a wooden bridge spanning the Rhine River which connects Liechtenstein and Switzerland.  We, of course, walked from one country to the other and back again.

Then, with Vaduz Castle where the royal family lives looming over us on the hill, we walked into the center of Vaduz where we saw St. Florin Cathedral.  It was pretty inside and out but mostly was simple.

We walked through the downtown area past several government buildings before finding a spot for lunch.

We had a starter of Vaduzer soup (a white wine cream soup) and then tried a stroganoff pasta, a beef fillet with Ribel (a sort of polenta) and a vegetable ratatouille with Ribel as well as a local and a Swiss beer and some local red and white wine.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the Red House, a historic landmark, and the vineyards next to it.

We had a light dinner, but as it was our anniversary, we finished the night with a Rosé Spumante from Liechtenstein and some Swiss chocolate that we found in Vaduz.

Day 10

Today, we hiked the Allspitz/Furstensteig trail.  We started early with an ascent over the valley.  It started to rain on us, but as a result, some animals came out of hiding and we saw marmots, a bunny and some chamois (goat antelopes).  We hiked up a huge mountainside to a foresty area where we reached a summit.

After this, we headed through a rocky area to the Furstensteig (Prince’s Way) trailhead.  The trail itself was very narrow and rocky and kind of fun but for those with a fear of heights, it was less enjoyable.  The trail provided some really nice views of the valley and mountains surrounding the area as well as Switzerland.  Then, it was back down through the forest to the car.

After resting a while, we went to get some dinner.  We had a melon and white wine starter and seafood and vegetable risottos as well as pork medallions.  We decided to try a white wine from the Prince’s vineyards in Vaduz.

Day 11

We ended our time in Liechtenstein this morning with a hike on the Eschnerberg Trail in Schellenberg.  The trail was not overly exciting, but we did walk to the ruins of a castle from the 1300s and through forested and meadow areas with some nice views.

After the trail, we walked to the ruins of another castle from the 1300s that was a little more intact than the first.

Then, we drove into Germany to Rothenburg.  It is an adorable walled-in city with numerous clock towers, churches, old-style homes with colorful window boxes and fountains which is said to be Walt Disney’s inspiration for the village in Pinnochio.  It does feel like a fairy tale town.  However, while it is cute, it is quite touristy.  It would be amazing at Christmas, though, my friend that lives in Germany tells me that they may cancel all Christmas markets this year.

We had dinner on a terrace where we tried a local cheese platter, some Weizen beers, 3 local sausages with potatoes and sauerkraut and Schnitzel.  It was a nice meal.

After dinner, we wandered the streets and did some window shopping.

We also stopped in a bakery to get some Scheebollen, kind of like a ball made of fried wontons which is then coated in either sugar or melted chocolate.  It is a Rothenburg specialty.  We tried powdered sugar, chocolate with Nutella filling, vanilla/amaretto with an almond paste filling and a plain chocolate coating.  We didn’t love them, but, spoiler alert, the next day we got a powdered sugar one from a different bakery, and it was very good.

Day 12

We went back into Rothenburg briefly in the early morning.  It was much quieter then.

Then we moved on to Otterberg to visit a friend.  They showed us around the town, and we hiked a ravine which was very pretty with a stream, lots of big rocks and trees (including many fallen ones which were perfect for climbing).

Day 13

On our final day, we went to Cochem in Germany.  There was a lot of nice architecture in the city, but it was much dirtier and dingier looking than Rothenburg, though it was also, obviously, a tourist destination.  There was a cool main square with a fountain and a castle up on the hill that we walked to.  We tried a plum and streusel pastry which was okay, and then we bought some Riesling to take home as Cochem is in wine country.

Finally, we were on the road home.

Now, if you are thinking “this was a long post,” you would be right.  It was a long vacation!  But, I hope reading all of this didn’t wear you out.  Of course, in these uncertain times, this will likely be the last travel post for some time.  So, I hope you enjoyed coming along for the journey, and we’ll see you on the other side when we can explore some more!