I didn’t want to like Lisbon. Not because Lisbon had ever done anything to offend me, or that I had ever been beaten up by a gang of roving Lisbonians (Lisbonans? Lisbans? Lisbonaires?). My issue was that everyone loves Lisbon. Whenever we mentioned that we were going to Lisbon, we heard: “Lisbon? Oh, it’s so… Continue reading A Lovely Layover in Lisbon

France, right? Birthplace of haute cuisine. Michelin star central. The inventors of so many classic cooking techniques and recipes, you could spend months there, just eating. Us? Well, we were not particularly aggressive – in two weeks, we had just one bistro meal. It was good, though. Anyway, here’s what stood out: Croissants and donuts… Continue reading France – The Best Stuff We Ate

We grouped together the Stubai, Kaufbeuren, and Switzerland for this post, because they’re all pretty Alp-y. Spaetzle in general, but the one Julie had at Maria Waldrast monastery was particularly good. Tiroler Grostle at Elferhutte. Grostl is basically fried potatoes with eggs and some bacon, with some other stuff. It’s real good. Dry-aged ribeye cooked… Continue reading Austria to Switzerland – The Best Stuff We Ate

Back in May when we were figuring out the dates and structure of this part of our trip, I bugged my friend Carolyn for a recommendation on where to go between the Austrian Alps and southern France. “Well,” she wrote, “obviously you guys should come visit us in Switzerland.” You may be confused – didn’t… Continue reading Switzerland is a Wonderland

I met my friend Courtney on my very first frisbee team when I moved to San Francisco. It was a fantastic team – we nearly won the league, we *always* won the bar after the game, and I’m still in touch with some of the folks from Layoutnall (team name theme: pharmaceuticals) eighteen years later!… Continue reading Interlude: Small-town Germany

As you know, I love me some mountains, and we’ve certainly seen our fair share as we made our way around the world. We’ve been to Faerie. We’ve hiked in tremendous, previously unknown-to-us jagged peaks. We spied the highest point on a continent. But… man, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen mountains as rugged… Continue reading Stunned by Stubai

I’m rolling up Prague, Croatia, and Berlin into one post and calling it “Central Europe,” because we didn’t spend all that much time in any one place (except for Croatia, where we didn’t go anywhere). Homemade apricot tarts from my friend Carolyn’s neighbor at her house in Prague. It’s hard to describe these, because they’re… Continue reading Central Europe – The Best Stuff We Ate

Berlin is cool. Really cool. Melbourne-class cool. It’s a unique place, where the legacy of the divided city still informs the way things look and feel today. In recent years its coolness-to-price ratio has drawn young people from all over the world, resulting in perhaps the most culturally diverse city we’d been to on this… Continue reading Boppin’ Around Berlin

We were having dinner on our last night in Croatia when I got an email from the serviced apartment we had reserved for the next three days in Berlin – our reservation was cancelled. We were in a whole other country at 7pm with a feverish child, a flight to Germany the next afternoon, and… Continue reading We Had Trouble Getting To Berlin, Germany

Going to Prague made very little sense. We were in London, and had vague plans to get to the Alps at some point in June. The Czech Republic wasn’t really on the way to anywhere. Still, neither of us had ever been. And… we had a friend there. And not just any friend. “Hey, what… Continue reading Popping into Prague