Haggis bonbons and buttermilk fried chicken sandwich at The Smoke Stack in Edinburgh, Scotland. Weirdly, this was our only haggis in Scotland. Fortunately, it was delightful. Lamb chops and bacon from George Cockburn and Sons Butchers in Dingwall, Scotland. These guys know their stuff. Fish and chips at Smoke on the Water in Uig, Scotland.… Continue reading Scotland and England – The Best Stuff We Ate

You heard of the the fairies when you were a kid, right? Not the ones from Disney tales who show up, sing bippety-boppity-boo, and grant wishes to princesses who then live happily ever after. I’m talking about the fairy folk, the dark and dangerous magical inhabitants who live just the other side of the world,… Continue reading Skye is Faerie

Driving a car into a ditch is almost always an apt metaphor for something, right? When I look back on that day (over a month ago as I write this – we’re falling behind), I don’t think of that car in the ditch as the toughest thing we had to pull ourselves out of. Not… Continue reading The World Catches Up To Us

The time I made a whole chicken in a backyard brick oven in Sande. When I say “whole chicken” I’m not kidding. I hacked off the head and the feet, spatchcocked it, and kinda figured out how to make the oven/grill work. Full disclosure – without a meat thermometer, it was underdone, but the done-parts… Continue reading Portugal – The Best Stuff We Ate

I had it in my head that we were staying in a different kind of place. Our accommodation in Guimaraes – a half hour or so outside of Porto – was a farmhouse-turned-vacation-rental with a pool and (I thought) several different apartments. I figured that, given the pool and the advertised farm animals, we had… Continue reading Gambling on Guimaraes

At this point in the trip we have figured out what our basic Place to Stay rhythm looks like: hotels for short stays (mostly in cities), vacation rentals for longer ones (mostly outside of cities) and staying with friends (whenever and wherever we can!). Hotels have less space, but tend to be easier for short-term… Continue reading Porto – A Great Place To Be Aimless

Q: Where is Celtigos? A: Really, really far from pretty much everywhere else. We went to Celtigos mainly because it seemed like our best shot at staying right on a very quiet beach during our time in Spain. About that, we were not wrong. Northern Spain in mid-May isn’t crowded at the best of times.… Continue reading Stupendous Northern Spain Part 4: Celtigos

Chuleton at a basque restaurant in San Sebastian. What an experience. We liked how they bring out a huge raw T-bone steak and leave it at your table for a few minutes, so you can hang out with your beef and really get to know it. Ham. All of the ham. We get iberico ham… Continue reading Spain – The Best Stuff We Ate

When we were doing our incredible hike in the Picos de Europa we ran into a couple from Colorado who were exactly like you’d expect retired Coloradans to be: fit and happy with several twentysomething kids who all did one adventure sport or another. We exchanged “holy crap this is AMAZING” greetings, and we told… Continue reading Stupendous Northern Spain Part 3: Cares Gorge

Until two months ago I didn’t know the Picos de Europa existed. An aside: planning a trip like this becomes a blur, especially while on the road. I’m a big fan of guidebooks as a way to figure out where you want to go – a city, an area, a landmark. E-guidebooks? So much harder… Continue reading Stupendous Northern Spain Part 2: Picos de Europa