Category Archives: Road Trips
Rome is Amazing: Street Life
While Rome definitely does not seem chaotic to anyone who has ever lived in the third world, it does have a completely different feel from very orderly (and slightly stuffy) Vienna. There is just a whole lot more going on outdoors. I liked it. To start with, there are street vendors everywhere. Some run food […]
Rome is Amazing: And There Were Quilts?
As a crafty person, I spent an inordinate amount of time in Rome looking at floors. I had my reasons. Tile mosaic floors have been a thing in Rome for millennia. And they are really, really cool. The Romans began piecing together floors from bits and and pieces of marble from all parts of their […]
Rome is Amazing: Got Churches?
I thought I was over churches. And then I went to Italy. In fact, I am pretty much over Central European Baroque churches. A person can only take so many cherubs in one lifetime. But Italian churches are different. Many of them predate the Baroque era, for a start. Some of them have Gothic, Romanesque, […]
Rome is Amazing: Really Old Stuff Everywhere
We were in Rome on Easter with a new Pope and about a billion Catholics, so we skipped the Vatican altogether. Saving that for another visit that does not coincide with a religious holiday of any kind! Other attractions were also more crowded than usual, but my brilliant husband had booked a tour in advance […]
Rome is Amazing: Food Edition
We just spent a long weekend in Rome, and to tell you the truth, I feel like I am still processing it. Rome has been on my bucket list pretty much forever! It was wonderful. I ended up with well over 200 “keeper” photos. To post them all to this blog would be overwhelming (and […]
Bratislava: Go For the Beer Not the Pad Thai
Yesterday, we took advantage of a rare sunny winter day to check out Bratislava, Slovakia. It’s just an hour away by car–when the car is actually working! Bratislava is a bit dodgy. It’s more than a little shabby, and the hand of the Soviets still lies heavily on the town, much more so than in […]
And, Oh Yeah, We Went to Bavaria
Our Christmas outside the box was more of a family thing than a travel thing. We had, after all, been there several times before! But, I did take quite a few photos. I love Bavaria. It’s like Austria, only cheaper, and with friendlier people. The food is great: lots of game dishes, hearty veggies (we […]
Christmas Outside the Box
Last year, Christmas was frankly kind of a bummer. We had been living in the States for the previous seven years, celebrating big Christmases with extended family. Switching gears to a just-the-four-of-us holiday proved to be harder than we anticipated it would be. So, this year, we thought outside the box, making only minimal Christmas […]
More Slovenian Adventures
The last day that we were in Ljubljana, the weather was especially European. About 50 degrees and raining. Not so great for walking around. So, we decided to break out the car and visit another castle. Bled is a resort town about 45 minutes northwest of Ljubljana, situated on a glacial lake and surrounded by […]
Love Letter to Ljubljana
This week the Teenager was away on a school trip—I love this about international schools!—and so we took advantage of the opportunity for a quick getaway. We didn’t want to spend too much time in the car, so we picked Ljubljana as a destination we could get to in half a day’s drive from Vienna. It […]
Nashville Is So Not Vienna
Just spent a week visiting family in my hometown, Nashville, Tennessee. Then headed back to my adopted hometown, Washington, DC ( NoVA, really). This is an 11-hour drive on I-40 and I-81 through some of the most beautiful countryside on earth. And, by European standards, practically a wilderness! I am still wondering who actually owns […]
The Grass Is Always Greener
Ever wonder what it would be like to settle down and live in the same house for 35 years or so? I get a peek at that life every time I visit my parents’ house in Tennessee. The house was almost a teardown in an iffy neighborhood when we moved into it, back when I […]
Italy Is Still Awesome: Ghettos and Gondolas
On our last day in Venice, we checked out Cannareggio, and the Jewish quarter, which occupies a few square blocks in that district. Venice had always had a comparatively large Jewish population, and in 1516, the Republic felt compelled to move them all into one area so they could keep an eye on them. Gates […]
Italy Is Still Awesome: Random Gorgeousness
After checking out the Basilica and the Duomo, and enjoying a most excellent lunch, we visited the Civic Museum. Which was somewhat air conditioned, had a nice collection of medieval Christian art, and was not at all crowded, despite the sweaty hordes just outside. Whenever we travel, we always try to hit the city museums. […]
Italy is Still Awesome: Into the Venetian Vortex
So, the day after checking out Padua, we found the train station that time forgot near our hotel and hopped a regional line into Venice. My genius daughter had made online reservations for the Basilica San Marco and Doge’s Palace so we were able to skip the looooong hot line and go right in. Both […]
Italy Is Still Awesome: Pretty Padua
So, last weekend we made a little dash down to the Veneto. Because proximity to Italy is the real reason we bid on this post. Shhh, don’t tell! We stayed four nights in Padua, about half an hour from Venice. The main reason we stayed there is that we could easily dump the car at […]
Tuscany Photos: Siena
Siena is a little rough around the edges. ”Pretty” doesn’t describe it accurately. With dozens of dark alleys, and contrade (gang) flags flying everywhere, it’s not hard to imagine a West Side Story scene in progress around any corner at any given time. Then you have the Piazza del Campo, a vast plaza that reminds me of something […]
Tuscany Photos: Florence
So, we spent two of our vacation days in Florence. The compact little city is pretty crowded with tourists even in January. I’m really glad we visited in the off-season, because I can’t imagine what an ordeal it would be on a hot summer day. Both days that we were there, the weather was iffy, […]
Tuscany Photos: Lovely Lucca
The best discovery of this trip, as far as I am concerned, was the town of Lucca. Originally an Etruscan settlement, Lucca maintains its Roman street grid within Renaissance-era walls. It’s big enough to be interesting and small enough to get around easily. I just loved it. If we come back to Tuscany, I’d […]
Tuscany Photos: San Gimignano
After a week in Tuscany, I have over 200 photos on my laptop–and those are just the keepers! It’s practically impossible to take a bad photo here, even with my ordinary little camera. Even in winter. I’ve already shared them with friends and family, but I’ll post a few here, as well, in batches. The first […]
Top Five Reasons I Really Should Be Posted To Italy
So, the day before New Year’s, we took off for a nine-day road trip to Tuscany. Now on Day Six. It has been AWESOME. Of course, it’s very difficult to have a less-than-awesome vacation in Tuscany. However, the signs were not propitious for this one. First the car broke down. We were able to get […]
Epic Fail
Or, How My Husband Spent His Birthday At A Truck Stop. This has not been a great year for us in terms of celebrations. First, we missed our post-packout mountain getaway because a dorm fridge attacked my husband’s ankle. Then he missed my birthday and our anniversary due to complications from said dorm fridge incident. (Although, […]
In Which I Descend Into a Nuclear Bunker And Find A Nightclub
Traveling with teenagers can be kind of cool. One rule we have is: if the Teenager actually shows an interest in something, we do it. He made it clear that he was So Over medieval castles, but lit up like a birthday cake when I showed a him a flyer for a “Communism and Nuclear […]
In Which I Return to Prague With a Better Camera
Last week we made a three-night trip to Prague, where we were posted for four whole years many moons ago. This was a powerful experience for me. Prague was a very difficult post for us for several reasons: personal, medical, school- and job-related. So my memories of the place have always been mixed. I realized […]
