Author: ryanelizabethgoss

France

Day 1 – Luxembourg to Paris – October 17

To break up the drive, we stopped in the city of Reim to find some lunch. After filling the tank, not realizing gas is more expensive in France, we headed towards BN Taco for a quick bite. We knew we’d be eating a lot of French food during the next week so we didn’t want to get sick of it. The ‘tacos’ were like the ones we had in Morocco; like a crunch-less crunch wrap supreme filled with French fries. We ate our lunch and piled back into the car to battle Paris traffic. All the stereotypes about Parisian drivers are true, and Ryan did a great job navigating the confusing roads while avoiding all the vespas and bikers as they weaved in and out of the lanes.

We couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 7 pm (they told us they had to work, guess we’re in a new culture) so we decided to burn some hours at the MurMur climbing gym. They had 6 different rooms with about 12 ropes in each room and about 3 routes on each rope. That’s a lot of routes. The walls weren’t very tall, so the staff said they made them more challenging to compensate. They weren’t kidding, but we worked hard and made it up some tough walls. This was definitely the smelliest gym we’d been to: more accurate stereotypes. We climbed until around 7:30 then made our way to the Airbnb.

It was a little tricky to find the place and the parking lot had the narrowest car spaces we’d ever seen. Ryan had to get out via the trunk. By the time we settled in and showered, it was pretty late. Not wanting to move the car again, we did what any American would do and walked 5 minutes to the Dominos down the street. The pepperoni and onion pizza was the slice of home we’d been craving and it put us right to sleep.

Day 2 – Paris to Bordeaux – October 18

The next morning – after a series of flight delays and changes – the Goss boys were set to arrive. The plan was to meet R.J. and Colin at the train station to catch to 2-hour bullet train to Bordeaux at 10:47 while Randy was flying to meet us there. Ryan and I returned the car, another nightmare, since traffic was so horrible. A surprise train strike started that morning so Colin and R.J. had to get creative with metros and buses to get to the train station, which is about an hour from the airport.  R.J. arrived right at 10:40 and the 3 of us got on the train, convinced Colin wouldn’t make it. We got lucky and the train was delayed. Colin literally sprinted through the station and was the last person they let on the train before we took off. Poor Ryan was stressed for hours.

It was great traveling across the French countryside with them, they were so excited to be in a foreign country it rubbed off on us.  We drank some wine German wine and chatted before arriving at the Gare Saint Jean. The train strike has been a disaster for France and there were tons of people at the station trying to get back to Paris. We arrived at our rental house and were greeted by the owner to show us around and explain how things work. Luckily, he spoke Spanish since none of us speak any French. The house is awesome and with all the modern amenities we could want, it even has a heated salt water pool. Unfortunately, we were running late to our wine tasting appointment, since everything was delayed, so as soon as we could get the all too friendly host to shut up, we were back in an uber heading an hour north to Chateau Pichon Baron.

Randy took an uber straight from the airport and made it in time for the 3:30 tour. We arrived at 4 and only had time for the tasting. We sampled 4 types of wine from the winery, all reds and all delicious. As we were preparing to leave, our fears were confirmed: there were no ubers available in the countryside. The Pichon Baron staff said it would be hard to get a taxi to take us into Paulliac proper, where we would then be able to get transport back to Bordeaux; luckily, she persisted and 20 minutes later we were on the road.

Our driver dropped us off at the station only to find out that the trains here were also cancelled due to the strike, but a helpful employee let us know a bus would be coming in about 2 hours. So, we had some time to kill and, being in France, no restaurants opened until 6.  We walked into town and found a dirty bar to burn 30 minutes until we could get some food. We walked in and immediately got the attention of everyone in the joint. It’s the type of bar that has darts and a big bird cage, but no bird. We drank some French beers and the boys got cigarillos for later.  Next door, a small pizza restaurant opened at 6 and we shared three pies. They weren’t the best, but we were so hungry and they were so friendly, it all tasted amazing. They even gave us a free pizza when Ryan spilled a glass of water all over one. Don’t worry we didn’t let the wet pizza go to waste.

Finally, it was time to get on the bus. A VIP coach bus pulled up, so at least we’d ride home comfortably. The journey took 2 hours because he had to stop at all the train stations to see if there were any stranded passengers. Our driver spoke English, which was a double-edged sword because he didn’t stop talking for 2 hours. We drove through Bordeaux at night and he pointed out all the buildings and bridges, and it was so pretty to see everything all lit up. Finally, after one more uber from the central station, we were back at the house. Elizabeth was exhausted and went to bed, but all the jet lagged boys caught a second wind and were up until midnight eating fried chicken and hanging out.

Day 3 – Bordeaux – October 19

The forecast for the entire week in Bordeaux had not looked good, heavy rainstorms every day. We were relieved to wake up to partly cloudy skies and no rain. We walked down to a pastry shop for breakfast picking up croissants, chocolate au pain, and tarts. After eating, it was time to make our way back into the city, the first stop being Cite du Vin, or the wine museum. The museum is shaped like a giant decanter. You can get different tastings and workshops, but we opted to just do the exhibit.

They provide an audio device then you can roam around watching different movies about wine all over the world. There’s also a really cool interactive area where you smell things and try to guess what it is. After learning too much about wine, we made our way to the top floor for our complimentary glass of wine and great views of the city, entering the neck of the decanter. We each chose a wine and headed out to look over the river and the city in the distance.

We walked across the street to a market called Les Halles de Bacalan.  It’s like a big warehouse with a wide range of butchers, fromageries, bakeries, wine bars, small restaurants. We got a cheese plate with bread, duck, steak, peppers, and potatoes (like the inside of a burrito), and of course a couple bottles of wine. We then stood outside using large wine barrels for tables and enjoyed our spoils. The food was absolutely delicious and there was still so much we didn’t get to try.

After lunch we hopped on the tram to the center of the city and stopped in a wine bar called Max Bordeaux. You prepaid for a card then could sample over 100 different wines. We were all sharing glasses and drinking after each other so hopefully no one is sick. Randy bought a few bottles and we headed off towards another wine bar and shop. Downtown Bordeaux is reminiscent of a lot of European downtowns, with brick and stone streets lined with shops, restaurants and bars. We stopped in a Spanish butcher to get a bocadillo, a sandwich with Iberian ham and cheese, and it was just as good as in Spain.

We separated, Randy and Elizabeth going back to the rental house to rest, and the boys left with the simple task of bringing home meat and cheese. In typical fashion the boys stopped in the first Irish pub they saw.  We drained a pint a piece then headed to a fromagerie to buy some classic French stinky cheese.  One goat, one cow, and one sheep – we needed a good spread.  We then tried to find some fine meats to pair with the cheese, but the first two places we went to were just butchers that didn’t really have any smoked or cured meats.  We ended up stopping by the super market to get what we needed.  That night we drank some of the nice wine Randy had bought and had plate after plate of fine cheese and meat. The night ended at 2 am after introducing Randy to Presidents and Assholes and swimming in the pool.  Ryan and Colin decided to run into the pool, which ended up poorly for Ryan.  Halfway to the pool someone shouted be careful it’s wet and slippery!  Which invariably preceded him slipping and busting his butt on the tile.  He’ll feel that in the morning.

Day 4 – Bordeaux – October 20

We woke up to a rainy morning and all the Goss men were feeling pretty hungover and jetlagged. Elizabeth and Ryan caught an uber to the airport to pick up a rental car. The train strikes were really going to impact our travel for the next couple days. We picked up Colin and went to three different pastry shops trying to find new breads and pastries for breakfast.

Eventually it stopped raining, so we piled into the car and drove 45 minutes to a town called Saint Emilion. The town was medieval and picturesque. The town is basically a series of wine shops with a couple souvenir stores and restaurants mixed in, so we spent a couple hours shopping and wandering through the old wine cellars. Saint Emilion allegedly invented the macaron so we made sure to pick some up. We went to the old church and the boys climbed up the fort to get great views over the city.

French restaurants tend to shut down from about 4-7 pm, right as we were getting hungry. Fortunately, we found an open wine bar on our way out of town. Randy bought a bottle of wine and the “winetenders” put it in an obnoxiously large decanter for us.  We sipped wine and ate more cheese and bread with smoked beef, probably the best cheese we’d ever had.

We drove home to drop the car off before exploring the Bordeaux pub scene. Ryan’s family was hell bent on visiting an Irish bar.  Ryan and R.J. tried to take public transportation, but ended up waiting on the bus for over 20 minutes, then they just called an uber.  Everyone’s food was pretty gross except for the fish and chips, I guess it’s easier to cook a cod and deep fry potatoes than make a proper English breakfast or cottage pie.  Next, we went to a British pub for more beers. They had the Texans game on, not requested by us, so we got to watch American football in an English pub in France.  We headed home to drink some more, lounge, and sleep.  We had our first early wine tasting, a visit to Chateau Haut-Brion, and wanted to be rested for it.

Day 5 – Bordeaux – October 21

We packed into the rental car and left the house at 8:15 to find a pastry shop before going on our first winery visit. It’s crazy how good the pastries are here, one of our favorites is a raisin and custard pinwheel.  As we were making our way to the winery, passing through typical city streets and commercial buildings, the vineyards snuck up on us and suddenly we were surrounded by gentle hills and rows of grapes.  Our tour began at 9 and we watched a video about the winery and its history, then got to see the operation and grounds.  We are visiting Bordeaux at an interesting time of the year, during what is known as ‘crush’.  It’s when the wineries are finishing up harvesting and begin to actually make and bottle the wine.  During the tour we were able to walk through the fermentation room and see the large vats used for the production of wine.  Next, we visited their on-site cooper, or barrel maker, and were able to watch him work on a couple of barrels, all out of French oak.  We were told he makes 5 a day.  Most wineries use the same barrels for 3-5 years and 30% new barrels each year.

We stopped in the cellar room to see all the freshly filled 2019 barrels and the aging 2018 barrels.  The wine-making process is lengthy and involves a number of intricate steps that we could discuss for a few pages.  Luckily for you, we won’t. Finally, we were led into a grand hall to sample one of their wines. The windows all looked out into the court yard and the beautiful Chateau grounds.  This is Randy’s favorite winery and when he retires, he plans to buy a bottle from his birth-year to celebrate.  We’re glad we were able to share this experience with him.  When our tour was over, we piled back into our car and tried to go to a famous outdoor market in the center of Bordeaux. We were led astray by Google again, as it was closed up when we arrived. We instead went to the local grocery store and picked out food to cook for lunch then relaxed at the house for a few hours before going to our next winery.

We left the house heading towards the Sauternes region. We made a pit stop along the way at a beautiful castle. We joined the tour (all in French), but the adorable old lady took too long showing us all along the outside of the castle and the on-site chapel, so we had to leave early to make our next wine appointment. This was hands down one of the best castles we’ve been to yet, we’d like to return to see the inside one day.

Our afternoon wine appointment was at Chateau d’Yquem, the only classified Superior winery in Bordeaux. We’d been learning all week about Bordeaux wine history and the great classification of 1855. In this year, Napoleon III demanded a classification of the Bordeaux wineries for an international exhibition taking place in France. The highest priced red wines, which at the time corresponded to the highest quality, were given the title of Premier Grand Cru (First Growth).  The lesser ones were ranked Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Growth.  White wines were not treated the same as red wines back then, so they were ranked a little differently, with only First and Second growths and only the sweet, dessert wines being considered for classification.  This led to Chateau d’Yquem being put in a class of its own as a Premier Cru Supérieur (Superior First Growth), a step above all other French wines.  We’d already been to two of these First Growths and now at d’Yquem we were experiencing the best of the best. We took a tour around the chateau and through a couple vineyards. This winery produces Sauternes, a sweet dessert wine. They differ from other wineries, in that they harvest late and let the noble rot fungus cover their grapes, which makes them partially raisin on the vine and look disgusting, but taste delicious.

Next, we went through their cellars and winemaking rooms. Louis Vuitton bought this winery in 1996, and you can tell by all the ridiculous decorations.  They detailed the differences in the winegrowing and making process compared to the nearby reds and traditional whites.  Finally, it was time for our tasting and we tried 3 different years the 2006, 2011, and 2016.  

We piled back in the car and drove the hour home. That night, Colin and Ryan roasted a couple of succulently crispy chickens with root vegetables and sautéed mushrooms. We drank a couple bottles of nice wine Randy had picked up along the way including more delicious dessert wine from d’Yquem.

Day 6 – Bordeaux – October 22

The next morning, we found out one of the wineries never got our confirmation email for a blending workshop. We now had to wait until after 4 to go to Chateau Lagrange for our tasting. We spent the morning lounging and eating more pastries from yet another boulangerie. After calling a dozen wineries to see if they could let us visit, Ryan found one with an opening to give us a tour.  Back into the car we went then headed an hour up north to Chateau Malecasse.

This winery is fairly new and didn’t have a lot of old grape vines yet.  They were investing heavily in improving their winery though, including changing the way they plant their vines.  We got another tour, and this time, while touring the vineyard, the guide gave us whole bunches of grapes to try with half from the old field and half from the new field. We again went through the fermentation room, cellars and saw their old dusty bottles of wine. We ended with a tasting, which wasn’t as good as the other older wines, but tasted like it had some potential for the next 10 to 20 years.

Finally, we were able to head to Chateau Lagrange for our final fancy Bordeaux tasting. We pulled up to a huge winery, and saw the beautiful Chateau over the lake. Apparently, this winery was bought by the Japanese Whiskey company Suntory in 1983.

We did another tasting of 3 wines from the years 1996, 2005, and 2011.  We bought a few bottles to drink in our remaining time in France and Randy shipped some home to enjoy in the years to come. This was the wine Ryan got from his birth-year 1989 that we drank on our honeymoon in Bora Bora.

We returned home to change and drop the car off before our dinner reservations at Chai Les Copains. Traffic in Bordeaux is absolutely horrible. We were trapped in bumper to bumper traffic during rush hour back to the house adding 30 minutes to our drive, then our Ubers took forever to get to the restaurant.  The restaurant was very small; between the patio and the interior it looked like couldn’t seat more than 30 people, and owned by the most charismatic Frenchman we’d ever met. We drank good wine and ate an extravagant spread of foie gras, swordfish, shrimp, a burger, to veal. We even managed to find space for some ice cream, French toast, and chocolate mousse.

Day 7 – Bordeaux to Paris – October 23

The next morning Ryan and I returned the rental car and met the rest of the family at the train station to catch the noon bullet train back to Paris. We arrived and found our Airbnb right around the corner from the Louvre. Hungry, we decided to have a quick lunch at an Italian restaurant sharing burrata and pizza. Next, we walked over to the Louvre and through the central park ending in the Luxor Obelisk ‘imported’ from Egypt in 1833.

Next, we lounged outside of a café drinking coffee and beer while people watching.  Randy and RJ went back to the Airbnb to relax the afternoon away before our dinner reservations, while Ryan, Colin, and Elizabeth walked over to Notre Dame to see what was left of the burnt church. Unfortunately, the city doesn’t have any lights shining on the building, so it was hard to see in the dark and they have the construction area blocked off pretty far from the building, so you can’t get very close.  We found another café to have pre-dinner drinks then met Randy and RJ at Robert et Louise.  Dinner was great. We ate escargot and a bunch of steaks. We realized we hadn’t had steak since we left the States 4 months ago, so we were excited.  We wrapped up dinner with a round of crème brûlée.

On our walk home the young’uns stopped in one final bar for a nightcap. While we sat there, we watched the bar start to fill up at 11 pm, presumably as people finished dinner, even though it was a week night. Back at the Airbnb Ryan enjoyed wrestling with his brothers and watching cartoons, I think he’ll miss them after all.

Day 8 – Paris to Normandy – October 24                    

Ryan’s family left around 8:30 am to catch their flights back to America. We woke up and said goodbye then went back to sleep for another hour or so. We were up late drinking each night and our bodies were exhausted. We checked out of the Airbnb at 10:30 and took the metro towards a locker to store our bags until our afternoon train. The train strike seems to be over and the metros were running smoothly. After dropping our bags, we got back on the metro and headed towards the Eiffel Tower.

The area around the Eiffel Tower was packed with tourists and we had to walk along the river for about 15 minutes before we found ourselves at the base. We walked around the gardens, people watching and admiring the tall bronze art work in person. We decided the line and price weren’t worth it to go inside the tower,  but it is still worth a visit from the outside.

We next took another train back to the rock climbing gym we went to a week before, where Ryan had forgotten his TAMU Nalgene bottle. We’ve been really lucky (knock on wood) not losing things and then being able to recover his water bottle. We had a long subway back up to the lockers where we collected our bags and picked up some Asian food for the train. Ryan got basil beef and rice while Elizabeth got chicken Pad Thai. The street with the bag lockers had about 10 Asian restaurants to choose from. Finally, we made it to the station and on the train.

The ride was quick, under two hours, but the train was pretty rocky. We arrived in the city of Caen and walked across the street to pick up our rental car, Ryan found a car for $38 for 3 days – he has become the rental car master. After loading up we had about a 45-minute drive through beautiful French countryside and small towns to our hotel in a town called Asnelles.  We are staying along the coast towards the eastern end of the D-Day landings. Driving around there are as many British and American flags as there are French.

Our hotel isn’t glamorous, but it was nice to have a private bed and bathroom to unwind. We spent the night having a popcorn party in bed watching WW2 in Colour on Netflix to prepare for all our D-Day site visits the next day.

Day 9 – Normandy – October 25

The sun doesn’t rise until around 8:30 in France, thus it’s hard to get an early start in the morning. Our hotel is right around the corner from the beach so we walked down to the shore and see the site where the British landed on D-Day. There are lots of what look like cement houses out in the water, that were put there by the German to deter landing on the beach.  We piled into the car and headed to the town of Bayeux for lunch and to begin our site seeing.

We ate lunch at a hotel restaurant called La Garde Manager which Ryan thought was overrated, but Elizabeth loved. We shared onion soup (funny they don’t call it French onion soup), fries, and fish and mashed potatoes covered in chorizo. The onion soup was the best we’d ever had with French bread and melty Parmesan cheese. We wandered around town checking out the water wheel and the cathedral.

The cathedral was constructed from 1047 to 1077 and was beautiful. It was rare to be able to wander around without guards or staff supervising and being able to go into the crypt for free.  Outside, the town was covered in vines and leaves all in bright fall colors.

Next, we drove to Omaha Beach. We’d had good luck arriving in Bayeux before the crowds, and had a similar experience at the beach. They constructed a large memorial that extends into the sand. Ryan yelled at some people who crossed the barriers of the memorials to pose for pictures; some tourists are the worst. We walked along the beach and looked at the cliffs and tried to imagine the horrors the American soldiers saw that day. We could look to the west and see Utah beach, the other American landing site. As a few tour buses pulled in we headed out towards the Overlord Museum.

The museum was pretty cool, especially if you are interested in old army vehicles. They had a bunch of tanks, motorcycles, cars and planes. Under each plaque they stated where the vehicle was found and a lot were being used by civilians living in Normandy to get around and plow their fields. They had a bunch of old uniforms and plaques in French and English, sometimes German, to go through the history of WW2.

Next, we headed to the American Cemetery. We didn’t know it was free and housed an even better museum complete with two large rooms replete with information on the war and D-Day. There is a room of remembrance where a woman reads off all the names of the deceased on a loudspeaker loop. We read many sad accounts on soldiers watching their friends perish and learned about the whole Overlord operation, getting troops back on the ground in Europe after actual D-Day.

Families of soldiers who died during the operation were given the choice to ship their bodies home or be buried in the cemetery in France.  Of the 9,000 graves, only 1,000 are people who died on D-Day and all the others died in the subsequent months fighting the Germans in the fields, pushing deeper into France. Upon exiting the museum there is an overlook point where you can see the cemetery to your left and Omaha beach to your right. We walked by the rows of tombstones, carved of white marble in shapes of crosses or the star of David perfectly aligned. Each tombstone states the soldiers name, division, hometown, and day of death. Within the cemetery is a chapel and a giant memorial. Behind the memorial are the tablets with the names of lost soldiers. Overall, the cemetery represents 10,600 deceased Americans. Many of the quotes within the museum are about Americans entering WW2 not for conquest, but to persevere freedom and democracy around the world. After the war all we asked for was enough land to bury our dead.

We drove back towards our hotel, picking up snack/dinner food to eat in our hotel room. We drove through more adorable towns, all with beautiful stone churches and farmland. Apparently, they grow a lot of turnips out here and there were huge piles of harvested turnips sitting along the side of the road. It was fitting to get a call from Tommy that night, saying he passed selection to special forces and we spent the rest of the evening lounging and learning more about WW2.

Day 10 – Normandy to Paris to Brussels – October 26

We lazily left our hotel and headed back to Caen to drop off the car. In the rental car parking lot Elizabeth dropped her iPhone on the gravel lot and shattered the screen. Luckily, after doing some test phone calls, we realized just the screen was broken. We made it to the train station and talked with some ticket salesmen to get our ticket from Paris to Brussels after taking the train from Caen to Brussels. The lady told us it was a holiday week, fall break for kids, and no trains were available the whole weekend. Luckily, we were able to get online on Ryan’s phone and found a bunch of tickets. Don’t know why they couldn’t find any for us. 

The ride to Paris was pretty uneventful. We didn’t reserve seats, but luckily only had to move cars once. When we arrived in Paris, we took a metro towards a cell phone repair shop. Luckily fixing the screen only cost 59 euro and took less than an hour. To pass the time we went to an Indian buffet and ate mediocre, but still pretty good, Indian food. After picking up the freshly repaired phone, we drank a couple beers in the Paris-Nord station then hopped on the high speed 1.2-hour train from Paris to Brussels leaving at 19:25.

Things we learned in France:

  1. Discount iPhone screens don’t work quite as well as the originals.
  2. There is no such thing as too much cheese, bread and wine.
  3. A lot of WW2 history we’d forgotten from school.

Switzerland, France, Germany and Luxembourg

Day 1 – Basel, Switzerland – October 8

We arrived at the Basel SBB train terminal and hopped on a bus towards our Airbnb.  Louisa has two kittens and lives on the top floor of an apartment building about half an hour by foot from downtown.  She came by on her lunch break to let us in and give us a rundown of the cats’ routine and her home. The apartment was sleek and modern with all the amenities we had been missing, but the ceilings were heavily slanted since it was the roof apartment; we bumped our heads on several occasions over the next two days.  Ryan maybe a little harder than Elizabeth.  The cats’ names are Oscar and Ron and they greatest cats we’d ever met (second only to Ryan’s childhood cat Marbles, she thought she was a dog). Louisa soon left for work where she would head straight from to the airport and we were alone with the kitties.

Step one was doing laundry, it had been a while and all of our clothes were rather stinky. After a bit of lounging we walked the 15 minutes to the Coop grocery store. On the way we passed several restaurants and could see the menu and price lists outside. We knew Switzerland would be expensive, but $25 for a bowl of ramen or $22 for a hamburger was just too extreme for us – luckily, we have a kitchen.  We spent hours in the grocery store trying to find the cheapest food for chef Ryan to prepare his recipes. That night he made another attempt at bucatini all’amatriciana (we still couldn’t get any guanciale, so we settled for bacon, but unknowingly bought smoked bacon with cartilage in it – took the dish in a weird direction) and we laid on the couch watching Friends until bed. In the middle of the night our new best cat friend Oscar found his way into bed and gently pawed at our faces until we pet him. He was so soft and sweet it was hard to be mad.  

Day 2 – Basel, Switzerland – October 9

We slept in the next day and prepared for a lazy rainy day. The forecast looked good for the rest of the week, so we spent the whole day lounging, trip planning, playing with the laser pointer.  For lunch, Ryan cooked jäger schnitzel again.  It turned out really well and Elizabeth took a photo of it that would fit right in any cookbook.  Progress for the day: we made it through the whole first season of Friends and finished all of our laundry.

Day 3 – Basel, Switzerland – October 10

The bus system in Basel is not as straightforward as we’d encountered in other cities, and with a tight transfer between routes, we missed our train into the alps.  Luckily, we hadn’t bought our rail tickets yet. It ended up being for the best as the weather forecast called for even clearer weather tomorrow and rain continued today. We walked around the downtown through the morning drizzle, stopping outside the big protestant church, walking along the Rhein river, watching the boats navigate under the bridges, and investigated some interesting art by the museums. One thing we noticed, the houses along the riverfront are perfectly picturesque.

We went back home to eat and change to go bouldering, a form of rock climbing with no ropes on walls that are generally 20 feet or less. We found a gym online that allegedly had free admission for first time visitors so we thought it was worth the 40-minute trip outside of the city. We got off the train into suburban Switzerland [upon editing this post we realized that this was actually suburban Germany – we had crossed back over the Rhine and out of Switzerland]. Luckily the weather was finally clear and we walked through trails in fields to get down to the LÖ Block – Die Boulderhalle gym. Gangs of kids with razor scooters we popping tricks outside.  When we got to the gym and registered they let us know that we could climb for free, so we spent the $4 on Elizabeth’s shoes and it was by far our cheapest climbing ever.  The routes here were particularly hard and we only lasted about an hour and a half until our arms and hands were shot. The gym was fairly large with a good variety of problems, but there were way too many unsupervised children running around under us while we climbed, and we were nervous about squishing a child.

We trained back into the city, stopping on our way home to pick up more milk at the grocery store, because Ryan was so happy to be eating milk and cereal again, he finished the other half gallon. While in Liechtenstein we’d heard about their version of what we would compare to macaroni and cheese, which consists of knöpfle (a German noodle like spätzle), fried onions, and three types of stinky cheese. We didn’t get the consistency right, so it came out like a cheese glob packed with noodles, but Elizabeth loved it.  Served with a side of sausage, it could be called a complete meal. 

Day 4 – Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland – October 11

We woke up early the next morning and caught the 7:59 am train towards Interlaken. Luckily, we arrived at the station 10 minutes early and were able to find seats on the 2-hour train. After arriving in Interlaken, we transferred to a smaller regional train and arrived in the small mountain town of Lautrebrunnen around 10:30. The idyllic village is nestled between two sheer cliff faces of the Alps, which seemed to act as a funnel for the chill mountain air, reminding us we had gone up a bit in elevation. We got our map at the information center and set off exploring.

We started with the hour-long “hike” through the valley that took us past quaint farms, high waterfalls, and happy cows. The first waterfall we stopped at was the largest one in the valley, but still didn’t look like much compared to Iceland. Since it had been raining a lot the past few days, we had great views of several waterfalls (there are 72 total) that cascaded off the cliffs surrounding the valley. This one in particular was really cool because you could hike up and walk behind it.  The slick rock going up was a little treacherous, but we made our way to the top and got some fantastic views of the valley behind the waterfall spray. Although these waterfalls don’t hold a candle to Iceland, the surrounding Alps sure were gorgeous.

We continued our walk, passing stereotypical Swiss cattle, complete with bells around their necks, grazing on the lush, verdant grass of little farms with quaint wooden houses and bright flowerboxes in every window. They have honesty shops/stands throughout the valley where people sell jams, cheeses, sausages, and other trinkets with just a bowl for you to deposit your money.

We walked along a beautiful river and touched the ice-cold water. In the distance we could see tons of base jumpers and paragliders sailing in the air. At one point a man landed in the field we were walking past, coming in so quick and close that he scared Elizabeth half to death, Ryan didn’t see the action, he just heard it.  His parachute looked to have collapsed in on itself as he was getting close to the ground, but he somehow landed safely.  Elizabeth made Ryan swear to keep rock climbing as our most extreme sport.  It didn’t take any convincing.

We arrived at the funicular that would take us to the top of the cliffs and into the mountains. We could have hiked, but didn’t have the time or the energy. The ride only took about 5 minutes and we had great views being dropped off in the small town of Gimmelwald. We got off and headed towards Pension Gimmelwald, a small hotel and brewery with great views. We got lucky, a couple sitting right on the balcony edge was leaving as we arrived, so we grabbed great spots. We sat in the sun drinking our beers and looking out over the snow-capped alps. It got so warm in the sun we had to strip down to our T-shirts. Easily one of the best beers of our lives.

Getting hungry we decided to hike up to the next town called Murren. It was straight uphill, but we conquered it, passing more honesty shops, adorable bell collared cattle and picturesque homes with outlandish views.  Being Switzerland, and everything was ridiculously expensive, so we split a beef noodle dish at a small Chinese restaurant. The couple who owns it were watching Chinese soap operas when we walked in and the man jumped up to make us our food fresh and within minutes. It wasn’t bad, but it would never be worth the price.

We needed to begin our long journey home so we could meet the cat owner when she returned from her trip. We walked back down to Gimmelwald and squeezed into the funicular. Once at the bottom, we grabbed the bus back to the train station and began a series of short sprints between tight connections. We managed to make every one of them and got back to the cats around 7 pm. It was a long day, chock full of some of the prettiest scenery we’ve ever seen.  After arriving at the apartment, we ate the rest of the leftovers and hung out with the owner, filling her in on the cats’ mischief.

Day 5 – Black Forest, Germany Schwarzwald – October 12

We got up, packed, ate breakfast, and headed for the Basel airport to pick up our rental car. We were led astray by several public transportation maps, but after a few buses and trams we made it to the airport. The airport is split right down the middle by country and you can exit on either the Swiss side or the French side. After a short struggle to find the right rental desk in the right country, we finally   climbed in our French Renault Kangoo. The car is like a compact minivan but Ryan was up for the challenge.

It never ceases to amaze us how compact Europe is, everything is so close and within in one hour you can be in three different countries. It was a short 1.5-hour drive deep into the southern portion of the Black Forest into a town called Triberg.  We stopped at Café Bergseestüble to grab some lunch. We shared a garden salad and a meat and pasta dish in paprika sauce – not our favorite, but the beers helped wash it down.

After lunch we headed over to the Triberger Waterfall, advertised as the tallest waterfall in Germany, but some of our research claims that isn’t true. We paid our five euro each to the old women at the entrance booths/squirrel feeding stations, then hiked to the waterfall. The waterfall was certainly pretty, but not worth 5 euro. Since we only paid for an hour and a half of parking, we walked around the black forest imagining the inspiration for the Grimm brothers as quickly as we dared. Fall in southern Germany is absolutely stunning with so many gorgeous shades of yellow, orange and red.

We piled back in the car and drove the 1.5 hours northwest to our hotel in France, just outside of the city of Strasbourg. Hotel Argos was a proper hotel!  It was so nice to have a private bathroom and towels! And the front desk clerk helped us make reservations for dinner that night at a restaurant called La Tocante.  Since we arrived around 5 and of course, being in France, they didn’t even open for dinner until 7:30, so we had to wait until 8:00 for our reservations. The TV only had French channels so Elizabeth spent and hour or so watching a show called the Secret of Cats where French people get their cats GPS tracked by a group of cat scientists.

Finally, and reluctantly, we left our mystery cat show and headed to dinner.  We forgot it was a Saturday night and loved seeing all French families and friends out for a weekend meal.  We arrived a little late because the parking lot was totally full and had to circle around a few times to find a spot down the road.  Luckily, we were close to the border of Germany, so Ryan was able to somewhat communicate with the staff who spoke absolutely no English.  We ordered a jug of wine and perused the menu.  For dinner we shared the veal kidneys with spätzle and a pizza-like dish called flammkuchen, which is a thin crust covered with cream, cheese, bacon, and onions. The kidneys were over cooked, and in general kidneys are gross (according to Elizabeth), but the pizza was pretty good. Exhausted, we fell right to sleep.

Day 6 – Black Forest, Germany Schwarzwald – October 13

The next morning, we got up and drove 45 minutes back into Germany into the town called Baden-Baden, a town so nice they named it twice. We went to the 9:30 mass at the local cathedral. Ryan had never been more attentive in a catholic service; who knew he just also needed to be able to practice his German.

After church we ate brunch at a restaurant downtown called Einhorn Café. We shared American pancakes and avocado toast: could we be more American millennials? It was slightly chilly so Elizabeth got a delicious hot chocolate, but the sun came out in full force and we were stripped down to our T-shirts by the end of the meal. A lot of things were closed since it was Sunday, but we had fun walking around the town for a bit enjoying the beautiful architecture and great weather.

Our next stop was an old castle only 15 minutes away called Hohenbaden Castle. We parked along the street, beating the rush, and hiked up to the ruins of this 12th century structure. Best part – it was free to roam around! It was beautiful and sunny and we got to climb all over the castle, which they are in the process of restoring. We climbed to the top to get a bird’s eye view of the surrounding wooded hills, bursting with fall colors. Apparently, Germany is known for its autumn beauty, second only to New England.

We found a big hiking loop in the forest right behind the castle and decided to investigate. We hiked about 3 hours with lots of families enjoying the beautiful Sunday weather. The plaque at the front said there were two trails, an upper and a lower, however in the woods we must have seen at least 5+ trails but we managed to not get lost. Apparently, this is a big rock climbing area and we saw lots of people climbing the steep spires that are surrounded by old ruins. It was awesome to hike through the forest and felt like going back in time.

Hungry and tired, we looked for a biergarten to close out the day. In typical fashion the first two we went to were closed, but we finally had success at Alt Eberstein.  We parked at the bottom of a steep hill and hiked up the road to sit under a canopy in the courtyard of an old castle and relax with a few beers. Eventually we decided we needed to try the food and got Elizabeth her Käsespätzel, a cheesy macaroni with fried onions on top. It was delicious. We rounded it all out with a fantastic piece of traditional apple streusel. We drove the 50 minutes home after Google lied to us and took us down a couple roads closed for construction and spent the rest of the night lounging.

Day 7 – Strasbourg to Wine Country, Germany Weinstraße – October 14

The next morning, we packed up the car and headed into downtown Strasbourg, the French city we’d been staying outside of. Ryan wanted a haircut. The first shop was closed, though the hours on the door said they were open, and the second shop buzzed us up to his apartment where a man had a barber shop. After hearing us speak English he said he was full, but we don’t really believe him. Heading towards the downtown we popped into a pastry shop to split a Nutella croissant. It was heavenly, the French really have mastered the pastry. The old woman behind the counter didn’t speak English and the French don’t seem very willing to work with non-French speakers, but we eventually got what we wanted.

We walked into the downtown area and separated, Ryan to find his much-needed haircut and Elizabeth to explore. Her first stop was the Cathedral called the Notre Dame of Strasbourg. It was absolutely beautiful and looked very similar to the Notre Dame in Paris. There were a ton of tourist and we realized Strasbourg is like a smaller, cheaper Paris. She walked along the river and through the shops until eventually meeting up with a new sexy husband.  Ryan wandered by a couple of coiffeurs until finding one that looked reasonably priced.  Luckily, they had a French-born, Dominican-raised hairdresser that could speak English.  He explained that he practiced his English when his family moved to Thailand during his childhood.  Easily one of the friendliest hairdressers Ryan had ever met.  He gave an excellent haircut, complete with sweeping French style techniques.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t trim Ryan’s beard, not for lack of skill, he was not allowed to; the exact reasoning for that we’ll never quite know.

Together we went back to explore the church, then to find more pastries. The next pastry shop we stopped at, we split a plain croissant, a chocolate Neapolitan, and a cheese and bacon pretzel. This would fuel us up out of France and back into Germany for our next adventure on the Weinstraße. Driving through rural France was beautiful but was exceeded when we entered Germany and passed the long rows of wine vines showing vibrant shades of yellow, red, orange, and green. We found our AirBnB which had an awesome patio where we could look out onto vineyards and a church further up the hill.

We drove about 5 minutes to the next town north to try some wine. The winery was called Kuhn and is located right in the center of town. Google said it was open but all we saw were a couple guys clearly working hard on their fresh harvest. Eventually we found one of them to talk to and they led us to the tasting area. We couldn’t communicate that we wanted a flight of wine to try, so instead he poured us a huge glass, like to the brim, of two white wines then two red wines. We sat outside in an old wooden wine vat turned into a booth and sipped our delicious wine. We kept seeing locals come up with various Tupperware bottle containers and fill up with something called new wine. This wine is still fermenting and sold super cheap. We tried all three types then bought a bottle to take home, everything was 15 euros. What a delight.

Hungry, we wandered down the street to get Döner Kebab and Ryan got a pizza with all the Döner fixings on top. We took everything home and sat out on the patio eating and drinking hot tea as the temperature dropped.

Day 8 – Wine country, Germany Weinstraße – October 15

We woke up to gray skies, but the rain wasn’t due to sweep through until the afternoon. We piled in the car and headed 30 minutes north to the town called Neustadt am Weinstraße. We drove through more beautiful fall colors and around the hills with changing trees and old castles popping out the tops. The restaurant we wanted to eat at didn’t have an opening until 1, so we spent an hour eating street pretzels and shopping for some toiletries. Eventually it was time to eat, and we got a Thai curry pasta and a Bolognese paired with more local wine.  We sat outside on a long picnic table just as we finished eating, a huge wind picked up and the temperature plummeted. Luckily, we finished because Ryan had to help the waitress lower the giant umbrella and chase cushions and napkins around in the wind.

We hustled back to the car and headed down to the town of Saint Martin to pop into some more wineries. The first one we chose was called Weingut Egidiushof. We are so lucky Ryan speaks some German; Elizabeth wouldn’t have made it as smoothly without him. We told them we wanted to try some wine and we were led to a small room with a bunch of older German people. On the table were a ton of bottles of wine where you poured whatever you wanted to try and drank it. They pulled out 5 different wines for us to try and they were all delicious. This region is particularly known for white wines. We went up to pay and they told us that tasting is free but we are welcome to buy a bottle. It was delicious and we felt bad for drinking so much we bought a bottle that only cost us 6 euros. We loved this place.

Our next winery was up the road and we got to walk through the adorable town while it drizzled. The woman led us into a side room and we had a similar experience. They had a couple varieties of wine we’d never had before the best being Scheurebe. It was a white and we are big fans. The sweet ones almost tasted like an ice wine. We bought a bottle of the Scheurebe and were on our way.

Our final winery was set up more like a bar where you stand at the counter and request types to try. They had the worst wine by far, but a huge selection. Ryan spoke for a while with a German woman who was impressed that he took German in high school and spoke so well. There was some sort of gnat or fruit fly infestation in this bar and Elizabeth couldn’t get over it. They got pretty swamped so we decided to get out of their way and didn’t buy any wine. On the walk back to the car we picked up our final German pretzel then went home. It began pouring as soon as we got home so we had no choice but to lounge and drink our bottle of new wine from the day before.

Day 9 – Luxembourg – October 16

The next morning was still overcast but a little nicer weather. We were sadly leaving the wine region to head over to Luxembourg, about a 2.5-hour drive. On our way out of town we stopped to take pictures of the beautiful colors and changing vines. The pictures don’t do it justice.

We made our way northwest through a beautiful forested area towards a town called Kaiserlautern. The town has a university, and it was interesting to see that an international German town could still have that college vibe to it. Ryan spotted a curry house and we couldn’t resist going in for lunch. We ate our vegetarian curries and washed them down with radler beer and chai tea. The food was pretty good, but not great.  That’s the beauty of Indian food though, they have such a high floor for flavor that it’s hard to get a bad curry.  After lunch, we had about another hour and a half drive to Luxembourg and the scenery did not disappoint as we wound our way through more autumn forests.

We arrived in Luxembourg City and checked into our apparently government-subsidized hostel, simply called Youth Hostel, right on the edge of downtown. We are back in a six-bedroom mixed dorm for the night and when we arrived, we didn’t have any roommates – fingers crossed it remains that way. The rain had stopped, so we explored the city. The old city portion of Luxembourg City is split by the Alzette River and surrounded by steep hills. We walked up passed an old fort (the Dent Cruese) that’s we couldn’t find out the age of, which was used as a bomb shelter in WW2. You’re supposed to be able to enter the tunnels below and walk through an archeological crypt museum, but we couldn’t figure out how to get in and didn’t want to pay for it.

From the fort you look down on the Neumünster Abbey an old church converted into a cultural center. There were police everywhere and a few Belgian flags hanging up. As we continued wandering into town more police were in town and certain roads were blocked off.  After watching the evening news at the hostel we found out that the royal couple from Belgium was in town on an official 3-day visit. We never caught a glance.

Wandering through the old town we stopped into Église Saint-Michel church and admired the stained-glass windows and beautiful alter. We walked past the Royal Duke Palace, most of which was closed off for the royal visit. Next, we wandered through the downtown which is full of clothing stores, bars, etc. We also stopped in the Notre Dame of Luxembourg. It was fairly plain on the outside, but the inside was absolutely stunning. The church was huge and had wonderful stained glass and architecture. Luckily, we arrived just 15 minutes before they closed, so we had just enough time to wander in and out.

Starting to feel a little thirsty and peckish, we popped into a bar called Banana’s to try some Luxembourgish beer, including a beer with sprite and grenadine, obviously for Elizabeth. They had some finger foods we considered, but a lot of the restaurants in the tourist area were overpriced and there wasn’t a particular national dish we were dying to try, so we decided to search for a different spot. While Googling, Ryan noticed they had a Five Guys across town. We looked no further and shared a burger, fries and chocolate milkshake. It was a great reminder of home. We laughed because all the decorations and signs in the restaurant are in English an identical to the decorations in the States but none of the workers spoke English.

Day 10 – Luxembourg to France – October 17

We walked home along the river in the dark trying to avoid getting hit by cars on the narrow lanes. We made it back to the hostel and checked out their bar. It looked like a lot of locals came just to eat at the restaurant. We enjoyed a few draft beers before bed.  We found a Portuguese man in our room and he told us he tends to talk/yell in his sleep and we must wake him up if he bothers us.  Should be an interesting night.

Things we learned in Switzerland, Germany, and Luxembourg:

  1. The French word for cats is chats.
  2. Southern Germany in the fall is absolutely gorgeous, and the wine’s pretty good too.
  3. If Switzerland wasn’t so expensive, we never would have left.  
  4. The Swiss Alps might be the most beautiful place on Earth. 

Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein

Day 1 – Berlin – September 28

We arrived on the southside of Berlin at the Südkruez station around 2:45 in the afternoon.  We had been unable to get our tickets from Hamburg to Munich until entering the country, due to our particular rail pass, so we waited in a long line of people only to find out the tickets we wanted were sold out.  Elizabeth accidentally dropped her phone on the clerk’s hand, he was not happy about it.  Maybe that’s why we couldn’t get seats, or maybe everyone wants to go to the last weekend of Oktoberfest, there’s no way to know for sure. After some schedule finagling, we were able to buy a couple of tickets then boarded the train towards the city center.  Our Airbnb host was out of town and we were staying in her room, so she left the house keys in a drop box near the city center.

It was a nightmare getting there. We didn’t realize the Berlin marathon was this weekend so everything was packed. We barely made it onto the subways with our big bags, squished between dozens of other travelers, some with their bicycles. Eventually we got the key and continued north to the Turkish district and our Airbnb. Berlin has the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey and we were excited to eat Döner Kebab. We settled in and checked the weather – looked like it would be a cold rainy weekend in Berlin.

We grabbed a taxi and headed over to our first stop, the Prater Biergarten. This place was a sprawling field of picnic tables and tall trees hidden within a residential area. It had stopped raining at this point, so we wiped off a picnic table and grabbed some beer and food. The pretzel was the most amazing thing Elizabeth had ever tasted, and the bratwurst with potato salad was good too. Again, we were under buckeye trees and startled by the frequent bang of them smashing on the surrounding picnic tables. We finished our beers and decided to check out some other bars.

Our first stop was called NEMO. The bar was really cool, playing American classics from the 90s and Ryan found Wernesgrüner beer on tap, a beer he and his Papa drink in Waco together.  Germany passed a nationwide smoking ban and we’d been told by our German hosts in Vienna that it wouldn’t be an issue.  Well there were ashtrays everywhere and it didn’t take long for the place to fill with smoke. Apparently, there is a loophole that if a bar is below a certain size, and doesn’t sell food, people can smoke indoors. With all the rain and cold no one was smoking outside.

We finished our beers and headed to another bar called Bar Central Berlin. We grabbed some more beers and ran into the same issue, we even tried moving to the other side of the bar, but it didn’t help much. I guess this is just something we’ll have to get used to during our week in Germany; it’s a shame, or as the Germans say: schade. We are both still recovering from our colds, so I guess we look great hacking up a lung from phlegm and smoke. We finished our beers and taxied home through the rain.

Day 2 – Berlin,– September 29

It was cold and overcast again when we woke up the next day. Across the street is a gorgeous red brick catholic church and we wandered over for 10:30 mass. It was a very eclectic mass beginning with traditional organ music, followed by children singing along an acoustic guitar; then during communion traditional African tribal music was sang by women in traditional garb, and at the end we wrapped it up with more solemn organ.  

We were pretty hungry, and after getting on the wrong train, found ourselves back in the city center. Our first stop was a bar/brewery/restaurant called Brauhaus Lemke. We drank beers and hot mulled wine while enjoying more pretzel and sausages. Ryan even got a dished called Lebensmittel, which tasted like spam with an egg on top surrounded by roasted potatoes.  But like the best spam you’ve ever had.  It looked like the marathon finished up around 2 pm as we started seeing people pour in with medals on.

We next wandered to a bakery called Zeit für Brot (time for bread) to get some pastries. The place was packed. We grabbed a cherry cinnamon roll and coffee and headed back out. Luckily it wasn’t raining hard so we walked around the park with views of the big “TV Tower” in the background. The cinnamon roll tasted phenomenal.

After warming our bellies, we went to another bar called BraufactuM Berlin am Alexanderplatz.  We grabbed a couple beers and had to pay for tap water. Ryan did the analysis and 1.5 liters of tap water for 5 euro was better than 0.3 liters for 2 euro, so we had plenty of water to drink. We sat in a booth surrounded by more tourists and marathon runners and planned ahead for future trips.  A group of Indian men sat down behind us and complained to the waitstaff about having to pay for water, they said even in their country water is free. 

We decided to head back towards our Airbnb to find more bars and eventually dinner. Our first stop was to F Bar. This was a real dive. They had just opened when we arrived at 6:15 pm and didn’t have any cash in the register yet.  The bartender sounded Irish and told us just to take a seat, he’ll charge us when we leave. We sat in the back of a very dark room with inappropriate drawings covering the walls, ceilings and lampshades. Two men sitting back there were discussing film, they were filmmakers, in an artsy-make-you-never-wanna-see-a-film-again way. Eventually one of them began smoking and we left after our beers. We luckily had exact change to pay since they only took cash and couldn’t break a 50. Next, we headed to another bar called Offside Pub & Whiskey Bar. There was a soccer match on between Berlin and Cologne so people were chain smoking and cheering at the TV. By the time we left, the whole bar had a thin haze. The bar itself was really cool and there was a model train and replica of the city glued to the ceiling.

Hungry and tired we decided to grab dinner and head home. Since we were in the Turkish district, we need to get doner. We found a little kiosk and got a pita doner and a French fry box. It may have been the best doner of Elizabeth’s entire life. Filled with sauces and vegetables, it was all she could do not eat it on the walk home.

Day 3 – Berlin to Hamburg – September 30

When we woke up the rain was gone but had been replaced by a crazy wind storm. We got dressed in our rock climbing clothes then headed out to a Turkish bakery. The walk felt like we were in a hurricane, being buffeted by gale force winds. We got a few pastries and some cappuccinos and ate them quickly inside the little store; one was a burek, a meat pastry similar to what we ate in Croatia, and the other was a chocolate napolitana. We got to the gym and spent a few hours rock climbing.  They had an outdoor area but we weren’t able to use it due to the weather. The gym had a bunch of routes and some seriously high walls with aggressive overhangs, it was great.  They also required you to have shoes on (socks would not cut it) while you walked around the gym for ‘hygienic’ reasons, which didn’t make much sense to Ryan. 

After getting in a good workout we showered at the Airbnb and headed towards the train station. The Berlin main central station was huge. We quickly wolfed down cheap pizza and cheese pastries at a kiosk only to find out our train was delayed due to the weather. We settled for sharing a beer and some fish and chips at a small greasy restaurant right near our platform. Good thing we did, because they train came earlier than the delay reported and left before it was supposed to. We sat across from each other, window side and watch the storms as we made the 1.5-hour ride to Hamburg.

We arrived in Hamburg to torrential downpours. We tried to walk the 12 minutes to our Airbnb, but were getting too wet for our comfort, so we ducked into a bar called GoldFischGlas to wait it out. We sipped our wine and beer while the work crowd poured in.  About an hour later the rain paused and we made the final dash to our hostel, Backpackers St. Pauli.

This hostel was awesome and the lady running it was the friendliest German woman we’d ever met.  We checked in at the bar then made our way up to our 7-person room. Elizabeth slept on a creaky bottom bunk and Ryan in the twin next to her. Our roommates were quiet and polite, all boys, but someone reeked.  No way to know who for sure, just that it wasn’t us this time. After settling in, we went to find some dinner. We walked about 5 minutes in the rain and found a restaurant called Krug. We didn’t realize we’d accidently stumbled into an elegant romantic restaurant, but hungry for a good German meal, we decided to stretch the budget for an evening. We shared a bottle of red German wine and Ryan ate the veal something while Elizabeth had cheese dumplings in a mushroom sauce. Everything was so fantastic and exactly what Ryan was looking for from a menu: upscale, modern takes on local, traditional flavors.

Day 4 – Hamburg – October 1

It was pouring rain again the next morning, so we packed up a backpack and headed out to find some breakfast. We found a table at a cute café called kraweel. We ordered coffee and tea with a ham and cheese grilled croissant and had a granola yogurt. We sat with the other café loungers for an hour or so hoping the rain would pass for our 20-minute walk north to Braugasthaus Altes Mädchen which opened at noon.

We were in luck and made it to the brewery right before the next big wave of storms began to fall. We walked up when they were opening the doors and nabbed a couple seats by the window. We spent the afternoon sampling their beers and planning some logistics for our upcoming trips to France and Egypt. Around 5 we started to get hungry and decided to try out a different brewery that opened at 6 down by the river.  Leaving ended up being a more difficult endeavor than we arriving, the plaza was bustling now, and we accidentally wandered into a private wine tasting.  We were quickly stopped by a German woman asking if we needed help; Ryan got so flustered he forgot all of his German and simply squawked a ‘Danke!’ and they scampered out. We braved the rain and hurried to the nearby bar Katze, to down another pint and wait for the next brewery to open. When we left, we broke down and paid the 8-euro taxi fee to take us the mile and a half down to the river.

Astra brewery had a cool set up that specialized in pizza and beer. We sat in silence scarfing down our two Neapolitan pizzas and drinking more beer. We hung out for a while then decided to walk along the Reeperbahn, a famous street in Hamburg. We thought it was famous for bars, but really, it’s a street full of shops, fast food, and nudey bars/stores. Apparently, this is where the sailors used to come and why prostitution was and is still so rampant here. We stopped in a few bars, but nothing grabbed us to stay, so we went home and went to bed.

Day 5 – Hamburg – October 2

We decided to go rock climbing at a huge DAV center (climbing gyms that are subsidized by the government).  We packed up our climbing gear and stopped into a restaurant called Pauline’s for breakfast. We shared yogurt with porridge and delicious French toast, carbo loading prior to our workout. Next it was a tram and bus to get to the northern portion of the city.

We spent almost 6 hours climbing at the center, the most continuous climbing we’d ever done. They gym was absolutely stacked with routes of all sorts of difficulties and styles and it wasn’t too crowded – the perfect setting. That being said, Germans don’t seem to have the best climbing etiquette and would often climb beneath/next to us even though the gym had plenty of space. They had an outdoor climbing area but every time we tried to go outside, a huge storm would roll in.

By the time we left, we’d worked up a big appetite and headed back down towards the Reeperbahn to get some Indian food at a restaurant called Maharaja. The food was pretty good and we shared the Himalaya Kofta and Butter chicken. Their rice had pomegranate and a ton of vegetables in it which was surprisingly good. We ended the night in our hostel bar, having a few happy hour beers and listening to the traveling youth attempt to solve the world’s problems.

Day 6 – Hamburg to Munich – October 3

We woke up to a finally clear day and headed out to grab some breakfast at Brot und Stulle. Hamburg is known for a particular pastry called the Franzbrötchen. We got one plain and one with struesel on it. So sweet, rich and flaky – basically a German croissant mixed with a cinnamon roll.

After we walked about an hour, going towards the port and seeing all the big boats and cranes. It’s a shame we weren’t able to do more in both Berlin and Hamburg, but considering in the last 3.5 months we haven’t had a lot of weather issues so we’ll take this bad spell in stride.

We made it to the train station early to buy some snacks for our 6-hour train to Munich. It was delayed, but we got lucky when it arrived as our assigned car pulled up right in front of us on the platform. Today is German Unity Day, and we didn’t realize so many people had the day off. The train was absolutely packed. Luckily, we reserved our seats because people were sitting in all the aisles and in entrance ways. It made walking to the bar car quite the tricky situation.  The train ride was long and riddled with screaming kids and delays. Finally, we made it into Munich around 7 pm.

We walked towards our Airbnb and were surrounded by drunk people from all walks of life. This was Oktoberfest’s final weekend and people who trained in during the morning were stumbling back on their trains home.  Every other man was wearing Lederhosen and every other woman Dirndl. We made it to our overpriced bedroom and dropped our stuff off. We walked down the block to a traditional German restaurant called Lindwurmstüberl. We got half liters of beer and split the Jäger Schnitzel – it was delicious and gave us the fuel needed for our drinking binge the next morning.

Day 7 – Munich – October 4

We got up the next morning around 7 and luckily it wasn’t raining. The fairgrounds open at 9 and the tents open at 10. Since we didn’t have any reservations, we wanted to make it there early to get in line and find a table. We hoped it wouldn’t be too busy as it was a weekday. Dressed in our jeans and normal clothes, we had neither the luggage space nor the funds to purchase traditional clothing, we went to the bakery across the street to grab some breakfast. We ate a cinnamon pinwheel, a sweet cheese croissant, and a cheesy pretzel that tasted like an asiago bagel.

Our Airbnb was only a 5-minute walk to the fairgrounds. We didn’t know what exactly to expect, but walking up reminded us of going to a state fair with all the carnival rides and food. We wandered around the grounds, happy it wasn’t packed, and lined up at 9:45 outside of the Löwenbräu tent that had a giant animatronic lion.

At 10 the doors opened and people rushed in to nab an open picnic table. We were able to find one right near the stage and were drinking our first liter of Oktoberfest beer by 10:10. Our friend, Ryan K, and some of his high school friends were also in town, but struggling from their previous night out. We held the table as the place started to fill in. An Australian couple asked to join us, they normally fit 8-10 per table, and we happily let them in. Bridget and Doug were visiting from Brisbane and it was Doug’s 28th birthday.

We had a great time with them, and not just because we were starved for human interaction; eventually Ryan K. and his friends Brent and Daniel joined us. We drank several large liters of beer, ate a few sausages and pretzels, and listened to the live music. Everyone stood up on the benches when a popular song was played and a lot of John Denver was sang. They also played Sweet Caroline a few times and the Germans knew all the words. Around 4 PM, a very drunk Ryan needed to take a lap, so we made the mistake of exiting the tent, which was now full and couldn’t get back in. We took it as a sign to walk the 10 minutes home and have a beer nap. After a couple of hours, everyone else was drunk and asleep, so we went for some late-night Chinese food.

The restaurant turned out to also be a doner shop. Elizabeth got a doner and Ryan ordered some turkey curry that was microwaved right in front of us. Overall, we’d say it was a pretty successful Oktoberfest. We could have gone back for another day, but it isn’t the cheapest activity, a liter of beer cost 13 euro.

Day 8 – Munich to Füssen – October 5

The next morning, we slowly made our way back to the train station and headed towards Füssen in southern Germany. The ultimate plan is to visit Neuschawnstein Castle and the rail delivered us, of course, into pouring rain. We made the 10-minute walk to our hostel but couldn’t check-in, even though we were there after allotted check-in time.  In fact, the sign said they were giving their hard-working hostel staff their daily break between 12:00 and 4:30 PM.  Seems like there’s a contradiction there.  So, we walked into the unlocked door and left our bags in a corner then returned to the downtown.  The fog was so thick and dense we couldn’t see any of the surrounding mountains and forests.  After wandering around for a bit, dodging the rain showers, we settled for lunch at a gastropub called Gasthof Weizenbraueri, where we split another Jäger Schnitzel.  Are you detecting a pattern in our eating habits?

We tried to walk around a souvenir shop after, but the rain kept us at bay and eventually found a quaint market bar to hide in for a couple hours. They had a wine kiosk and a beer kiosk, so we got one of each. We didn’t realize until we ordered and sat down, but they were actually closed. There were lots of people inside so we figured they were staying open since they had nothing else to do. Finally, we got back to our hostel to check in.

The reception man was kind of a dick, but we found our bunk bed room and got comfortable. We laid in bed watching TV on our tablet for a couple hours until the rain lessened and we could find some dinner. Our plan was to go to a Thai restaurant, but a huge group of Asian tourists walked in right ahead of us. Luckily for us this town has literally 15 Asian restaurants so we didn’t have to wander far to find another option. We split the crispy duck and a couple beers. Photo below is of the town the next day, when it wasn’t raining. Füssen is a cute, sleepy mountain town and it would have been fun to explore.

Day 9 – Füssen to Feldkirch – October 6

The next morning, we got up around 7 and were happy to find all of our bunkmates were also up and moving. It’s nice to not have to worry about waking anyone up. We packed our bags and dropped them in the luggage storage. It was only sprinkling rain so we walked to the bus station to grab a ride to Neuschwanstein Castle, a beautiful castle commissioned by King Ludwig II. The castle doesn’t open until 9 but you can begin buying tickets before. The bus line was packed with tourists, but we managed to make it on the first bus and got to the small town below the castle. Some people started sprinting up the hill to get to the ticket office.

There was a slight line when we got up there, arriving around 8:30 and we were able to get on English tour at 9:55. We wandered around the bottom of the town, there is a lake and views of the other castle Hohenschwangau the castle of Ludwig II’s father King Maximillian II. To get to Neuschwanstein you have to walk about 30 minutes through some gorgeous woods up a steep incline.  Or you can take a horse drawn carriage.  The early morning chill and a deep fog gave the walk an eerie and almost supernatural feel.  It was fantastic. We finally made it to the base of the castle and everything was blanketed in fog. We still had about 45 minutes before our tour, so we walked the castle ground and took photos as the fog rolled through.

Finally, when our time came, we went through the turnstiles and our group of 50 headed into the castle. Our guide was a mousy German man and took us through the completed rooms. Only 1/3 of the interior of the castle was completed before the King died, under mysterious circumstances on a lake near Munich.  Ludwig II was widely considered an eccentric, nicknamed the Fairy Tale King, who dedicated this castle to the works of Richard Wagner, the German composer.  The finished rooms are decorated in various themes, such as Tristan and Isolde etc. Unfortunately, you aren’t allowed to take photographs in the castle, so we don’t have any for the blog. He was also obsessed with swans, so much so that he is sometimes called the Swan King, and is allegedly the inspiration for the ballet Swan Lake.

He had great rooms where he could sit out and feel like he was in the clouds or look out for miles over his surrounding farm land and forest. We were allowed to take pictures out of one terrace and could see the mountains and nearby waterfall.  After exiting the castle, with our toes ripe to fall off from frostbite, we walked back down the hill.  We stopped about halfway to buy warm, overpriced doughnut holes – totally worth it.

Back down at the ticket office was a huge queue waiting to get their entrance to the castle, we were grateful we got out butts out of bed early. We hung out at a small snack bar near the bus stop drinking beer and hot chocolate and splitting a cheese covered pretzel. We bussed back and stopped in a pastry shop looking for Bavarian cream, since we are in Bavaria, but no luck.  We researched the history of Bavarian cream to write this section of the blog and found out that it originated in the U.S.  Who would have guessed it?

We went back to our hostel to collect our bags and headed to the train station. We had 3 short regional trains to navigate today to get us to the Austrian city of Feldkirch. We want to spend a day in Liechtenstein and it’s so much cheaper to stay in Austria and take the bus in. We ended up getting lucky and were able to hop on some earlier trains that our railway app didn’t tell us about, so the whole journey only took us about 4 hours and we had seats on every train. The walk from the station to our hotel was more of a workout than we’d imagined. We booked a room at an old family estate turned hotel with great mountain views; it never occurred to us that you’d have to hike up to get the city views. Upon arrival we were greeted by a live band blasting “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog” and the pungent odor of fresh goulash.  What an entrance. They hadn’t made our beds yet, so they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite with incredible views over the city and surrounding mountains.

There were a lot of older people hanging out in the common room and kitchen but we were too tired to mingle, so we escaped back down the giant hill to an Italian restaurant, Pizzeria Rossano. We ate pizza (DiGiorno would have been better) and a pasta with schnitzel covered in cheese and egg (outstanding). Since we had such an incredible room to return to, we hiked our way back and enjoyed the stunning view, opening our windows and letting the cool night air lull us to sleep.

Day 10 – Feldkirch and Liechtenstein – October 7

We had a beautiful sunrise the next morning and laid in bed watching the commuters pour in from a single-lane mountain road. The sun was finally out! We walked back down the hill, stopping to enjoy the grazing goats then got on a bus towards Liechtenstein. The bus made ~40 stops and took 45 minutes before we reached the capital city of Vaduz; by then we’d driven through over half the country.

The mountains are beautiful, and since it was finally clear, we could see all the snowcapped peaks of the Swiss Alps in the distance. The whole country is 160 km2 and has a population of 37,877.  For a frame of reference for our readers, Council Bluffs, Iowa is 113 km2 with 62,421 people, and Kingwood, Texas is 57 km2 with 81,696 people.  We got off the bus around 10:30 AM in the middle of downtown Vaduz.  It takes roughly 10 minutes to walk the whole downtown area. Our first stop was to visit the St. Florin Cathedral. It’s a gorgeous little church situated right at the base of the mountain.

We walked over to the tourist information center where people were lined up to pay 3 euro to get a passport stamp.  We would have been interested if we weren’t worried about filling up our passport pages.  We then found out that Liechtenstein celebrated it’s 300th year as a sovereign principality in January of 2019.  Good timing for us.  Hungry, we popped into a restaurant called Brasserie Burg (recommended by several travel blogs) to pay for an outrageously overpriced lunch.  For $46 we got two small burgers, one order of French fries, a coffee, and a beer. Hopefully that’ll keep us full.

Next we hiked up to the Vaduz castle where the prince still lives today. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the castle grounds and we got to hike through enjoying the views of the surrounding town and mountains and read the information plaques along the way to teach us about the country.

We made it to the top and walked around the outside. You can’t go inside since the prince still lives there, but once a year he invites the entire country to come have a beer in his garden.

Next, we headed back down the hill to go to the Cellars of the Prince of Liechtenstein vineyards. We were able to do a tasting and tried 4 Liechtenstein wines grown right outside and in Austria, where the royal family is originally from. Ryan thought they were good, but Elizabeth was unimpressed. We tried two whites and two reds.

After the tasting, we walked through the vineyard outside where goats were grazing between the vines. We had a spectacular view of the mountains and the castle.

Next, we went to find some postcards and went to the post office to send some with official Liechtenstein stamps – from what we’ve read it’s a stamp collector’s dream. We’d heard they were famous for a macaroni dish made with three cheeses and onions. The post office lady suggested a restaurant/Inn down the road to try it. Unfortunately, they only serve it for dinner and since it was only 3 in the afternoon, the kitchen was closed.  Ryan vowed to make it for me on our house-sit in Switzerland in a few days. We enjoyed a few beers on the patio and eventually caught the bus back.

We got off the bus in downtown Feldkirch to walk around the city center and find a place to grab an early dinner.  We chose a restaurant called Poncho’s because it was open and we figured we had to try Mexican food in Austria. We started with the chips and cheese (not queso) that tasted like exactly like ballpark nachos; Elizabeth loved them. We also split the chicken fajitas, which were mixed with several strange Indian spices. It was a fusion we weren’t expecting but still pretty good. Our waiter had never been to Mexico, but he had plans to go in 2020 and we shared our beach resort experiences.  He plans on going to Mexico City.

We decided to spend the night lounging on the patio of our room drinking wine and enjoying the warmth of our provided bathrobes. Elizabeth fell in love with this hotel and this view.

Day 11 – Feldkirch to Basel – October 8

We said a hard good-bye to our dream room and lugged our bags down the hill to a coffee shop and bakery. We ate a savory ham and cheese bread roll and some sweet and savory croissants. We walked to the train station and caught our train from Basel to Zurich. The ride was beautiful as we passed back through Liechtenstein and numerous small mountain towns. We changed trains in Zurich and finished our short journey to Basel.

Things we’ve learned in Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein:

  1. There is no such thing as too much pretzel and beer.
  2. Smoking indoors can really ruin a night out.
  3. Liechtenstein is super expensive, but we’d love to live there.
  4. Neuschwanstein Castle should be on everyone’s bucket list.

Poland and the Czech Republic

Day 1 – Krakow, Poland – September 20

It took 11 hours, but we survived the night train and arrived at 6:30 AM.  We even managed exit with all or our belongings in our possession. We didn’t sleep too much, rolling around in our bunks, and poor Ryan was too tall and couldn’t lay flat. We stepped out into the comparatively frigid 45-degree air; looks like we’re going to be cold our last month in Europe, as we really only brought summer clothes. Being so early in the morning, there weren’t any lines to the ticket counter, so we booked our overnight train to Prague a few days from now and paid the extra 20 for a private two-person couch. We couldn’t drop our bags off at the hostel until 8, so we needed to kill some time.

Too tired to sort out the public transportation we walked 15 minutes to what Elizabeth thought was a café. Instead we found a dingy bar filled with smoke and people drinking beer, looking like they’ve been up all night.  There was one guy drinking espresso though, so I guess it can call itself a café. Ryan found us a proper café called Lajkonik, a chain equivalent to a Panera. We drank coffee and ate pastries until we could drop our bags off. Check-in wasn’t officially until 2 PM, but at least we were able to leave our backpacks.

The downside to being flexible and going where the wind takes us, is that we aren’t able to plan in advance for tourist attractions and tickets.  We were worried about being able to visit the Oskar Schindler Factory, now turned into a museum, and Auschwitz.  Ryan suggested we hop on the tram, it was almost 9 AM when the factory museum would open, and see if we could get tickets there. Luckily since we got there right as they opened, we were able to buy tickets and see the museum before it got too crowded.  Prior to walking inside though, we had to help a local woman assist to an elderly American woman who had apparently fainted.  The Polish woman yelled at us from down the street to come help her, then she had us call 112 on Elizabeth’s phone to get an ambulance.  The woman began regaining her wits, she appeared to just be dehydrated, and a man in a van pulled up, ostensibly her tour driver, and began helping as well.  We left her in their capable hands and walked through the museum doors.  

The museum covers the German occupation of Poland and walks you through the years prior to the invasion, during the invasion, life under Nazi occupation, and then touched on Soviet rule.  We walked through three floors of exhibits and learned so much about the timing of WWII and how horrifically Poland was abused for so many years. We talked about how much different the focus of teaching WWII history is in America, and how it didn’t basically didn’t cover any of the details we were learning in this museum. The middle of the museum preserved Oskar Schindler’s office and described how he was able to save so many Jews. We spent probably 2 hours reading about the atrocities Nazis committed, not only to the Jews, but to ordinary Polish civilians.

Next it was time to eat lunch, and Ryan led us to Galicja Po Kolei so we could get traditional polish food. We split a carafe of house red wine, surprisingly good, and ate boiled, mixed pierogis and a pork chop covered in mushroom gravy with potato cakes. We learned that Poland is the leading exporter of mushrooms and were happy to find them in a bunch of dishes. We were unpleasantly surprised to find out that Polish people love dill and they put it in everything. After we finished eating, the waitress brought us a shot on the house of their coffee vodka – which Ryan loved.

After lunch we headed to the Eagle Pharmacy. This pharmacy was the only non-Jewish business allowed to remain in the relocated Jewish ghetto. The pharmacist here would help smuggle messages to the outside world. The pharmacy is now an interactive museum where you open drawers and cabinets to see old pharmacy tools and answer telephones to hear accounts of people living in the ghetto. Both museums were fairly small but very well done and worth the visit.  

Finally, it was time to check in, so we headed back to our hostel and moved our bags into our bunk bed storage. We were still in our train pajamas so decided to shower and put on warmer clothes before setting out to explore the town. We found an open market selling beer, souvenirs, and food. We lamented how these sorts of marketplaces seemed to be nonexistent in the States.  Probably something to do with liquor laws.  We wandered over to the Cloth Hall, an old building that has a lot of shops and the square is surrounded by restaurants. The square is gorgeous and the cathedral, St. Mary’s Basilica, stands out in the middle.

We were feeling thirsty so we headed to a bar to drink with the other locals and stag parties for cheap. Each beer was roughly a dollar for a half liter so we spent a lot of time here! We couldn’t help ourselves and found some Indian food for dinner at India Masala. This restaurant was bang on good curry. Some of the best we’ve ever had!  Or maybe we were just drunk.  There’s no way to know. We may have accidently gorged ourselves on bread, curry, and more beer but it was worth it. We headed back to our hostel a little early from barely sleeping the night before and were reminded how unpleasant it is to sleep with 6 other people.

Day 2 – Krakow, Poland – September 21

We got up the next morning and went for a walk around the green belt that surrounds the old city. It’s approximately 2.5 miles long and is just one giant circle of a park. We next headed to an indoor rock-climbing gym on the far end of town called Avatar. On the way we stopped in a bakery near the tram stop to get fresh doughnuts and coffee.  Perfect climbing fuel.  Ryan got a sprinkle and Elizabeth got a coconut cream filled. We spent at least 2 hours climbing and being annoyed at the number of kid’s birthday parties that were running around.  The gym was actually really neat as it had a regular weight lifting, gymnastic area (including a foam pit to jump into), and a punch of great routes.  After getting a good workout in we headed back towards the city.

For a late lunch we walked down to the Jewish Quarter for an early dinner at a restaurant called Starka. Unfortunately, they are doing major construction on all the roads in this section so it wasn’t very pretty to look at.  We enjoyed an appetizer of more Russian pierogis, this time also getting dates wrapped in bacon. For the entrée we split simmered beef cheeks in a mushroom sauce on vegetables. Ryan enjoyed more Hungarian beer and Elizabeth some local wine. After we walked around the old town with all the other tourists looking for a place to have drinks. We decided to go back to the smoky 24-hour bar we walked into our first day at 6:30 am and were happy to find the doors open and a quiet crowd. We drank a few more beers before heading towards home.  There was a McDonalds right next to our house that had been haunting Ryan for days, so, with our wills weakened by booze, we broke down and headed inside. We got fries and burgers, Elizabeth’s covered in mushrooms, and the worst chocolate shake in our entire lives. We popped into a grocery store to get some snacks for the next morning. They had new Doritos flavors and we got Taco (7/10), Nacho (8/10), and Sweet Corn (8.5/10). We walked the block to our house and went to bed; we had an early morning start to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau the next morning.

Day 3 – Auschwitz-Birkenau – September 22

We had managed to find a last-minute English-speaking tour the day before and a van arrived outside our hostel at 5:50 am to pick us up. We proceeded to pick up 6 other passengers, all older Brits or Australian/New Zealanders, and crammed in for the hour-long drive to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We arrived just after 7 and our tour began at 7:30. It was quite chilly and a heavy fog had settled over the camp and surrounding fields. We spent those 30 minutes reading some of the plaques outside of the concentration camps. They were interviews done primarily in 2017 and 2018 of survivors living in New York, they are now 80-100 years old.

Finally, we were able to go through the metal detectors and get our audio guide headsets for the tour. We were combined with a few other small tours into a big group of about 30 people, led by a blonde Polish woman. We all wore headphones so we could hear her as she spoke into a microphone.  Auschwitz was actually made up of three camps: Auschwitz I (the main camp), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the primary extermination/concentration camp), and Auschwitz III-Monowitz (the nearby rubber plant). The purpose of Auschwitz when first built was only as a detention center, it was not intended to for the mass murder of Jews.  That is not to say that a number of Polish prisoners were not murdered and tortured during this initial period, simply that the numbers of those exterminated paled in comparison to the violence to follow.  The main camp, Auschwitz I, was a repurposed military barracks used as an administration center and housing for the Polish prisoners.  The first gassing took place in 1941.

We walked through many of the old brick-built barracks. Our tour guide was careful to tell us that although the conditions in Auschwitz I were horrible, those in Auschwitz II-Birkenau were even worse because most of the barracks were made out of wood and situated in a swamp.  Going on a cold morning added a layer of realism to the experience.  Still not in the heart of winter while we were there, we got a glimpse of the brutal Polish winters that the prisoners would have to endure with little insulation and less clothing.  There are rows of barracks and several of them have been fully converted into museums displaying the history of all three camps.  The first one we walked through had pictures of life in the camp. The second showed living conditions. At first, they slept on the floor on hay, but that was too unsanitary so the Nazis eventually gave them bunk beds stacked three high. The bunks were smaller than twin beds and three people would share one bed. They had limited bathrooms and toilets. Another barrack showed left belongings. When the prisoners arrived, they were stripped of all of their personal belongings, which were then sorted and the best of them sent back to Germany. To give some idea of the number of prisoners sent to die at the camps, there were huge piles of shoes, hair brushes, pots and pans. It was horrible seeing the piles of children’s shoes.

Another horrific thing we learned was that they could sell women’s hair in Germany to be used in different fabric and weaving. They had a room full of women’s braids and ponytails that they’d removed before sending them to the gas chambers. When the camp was finally liberated, the Allies found large stockpiles of human hair being prepared for shipment, it doesn’t even include the hair they’d already sent away or the hair that was too short.

Next we went into the prison and hospital. This is where the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele did experiments on twins. We also learned about the horrible experiments they did to Jewish women to see how best to sterilize them. Next to the hospital was the prison. We walked in the basement and saw the different torture rooms the Nazi’s used on prisoners. There was a starvation room and a suffocation room where they only had a window the size of a postcard and they would stuff people in there to suffocate. It was in this prison basement that they first tried and succeeded using cyanide to kill a group of prisoners and paved the way for the gas chambers. In the upper floors they had pictures of different prisoners that were brought to Auschwitz. Under their picture you could see their date of birth, the date they arrived and the day they died. It was chilling to see dates that were less than a month.

We then walked over to a replica gas chamber. A week before Auschwitz was liberated, the Nazis blew up the gas chambers and tried to destroy all evidence of the atrocities. We went to the replica to learn about their architecture and function. They were built underground where Jews were ushered into a changing area to undress and were told they were going to shower after the long cattle car train ride to the camp. People were often given bars of soap or towels so they wouldn’t panic. They were crammed into a smaller room that looked like a shower then kicked and pushed in until no one else could fit; usually 700 to 2000 people were forced in at a time. Then they locked the door and dropped in cyanide pellets known as Zyklon-B from holes cut into the roof. In order for the pellets to vaporize they needed to get the ambient temperature above 28 degrees Celsius; this was achieved by using body heat and the natural insulation from being underground. After 20 minutes everyone inside was dead. A side door opened to reveal a crematorium; teams of Jews then had to search the dead bodies for jewelry and burn the bodies in the incinerators. The gas chamber in Auschwitz I was only temporarily used until larger ones were created in Auschwitz II.

The tour was roughly an hour and a half long.  Our description detailed above doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what we learned there. We left Auschwitz I and drove 5 minutes to get to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Auschwitz II is where you see the historic photos of cattle cars arriving and humans being sorted into groups.  They were sorted into male and female groups, then sorted into whether they were fit to work, or simply fit to be sent to the gas chambers.  Those that were deemed fit to work were not being excluded form a death sentence, the Nazis were merely trying to wring the last bit of usefulness they could out of these poor souls.  Those deemed fit to work were intended to be worked to death by malnourishment and forced labor coupled with horrid sleeping conditions and inadequate clothing.  We were able to stand on the train tracks and see one of the cattle cars that was used to bring people in.

We walked to the that was built along the two destroyed gas chambers and in every language of the slaughtered people a plaque read “For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children mainly Jews from various countries in Europe.” We ended by going into some of the wooden barracks and seeing the even colder and worse conditions that people suffered in.

It was an emotionally exhausting morning, trying to grasp how something like this could happen in the world. It was a powerful reminder of the evil men are capable of.  We strongly recommend that everyone pay a visit to the camps.  We were dropped back off at our hostel around 1 pm.

We decided to go to a craft beer bar/restaurant called House of Beer to have a couple pints and eat hot wings and French fries. The wings are not crispy like in the states, we think they boiled the chicken. The sauce was called Louisiana-style but it tasted more like a Cajun had described hot sauce to the chef, but never gave him an actual taste of it.  After some beers we walked over to Wodka, a vodka bar to get a tasting of their different flavors. We ordered a flight of six and tried to get another, so we could sample more flavors, but the bartender recommended against it.  We settled for just two extra.  After taking our first sips, we were so happy we hadn’t ordered 12; they were basically full proof shots.  We tasted raspberry, blackberry, apricot, honey, pear, chocolate, orange, and black currant. We took our time sipping liquor and occasionally chasing with water, but when we left an hour later, we were feeling pretty tipsy.

We wandered over to a 24-hour pierogi shop, needing to sop up some of our vodka and split mixed boiled pierogis and cold mushroom soup.  It was counter service, and as we were looking at the menu several old ladies kept cutting us in line.  We then wandered through the park and shared an apple cinnamon doughnut and phoned home to catch up with some of Ryan’s family members.  We stopped in a bar where a lone British man was watching the Liverpool vs. Chelsea soccer game.  The volume of outrage and excitement this man exhibited was frightening.  A group of older British people wandered in after a few minutes and promptly turned around after hearing his shouting.  One of the older women just said “Nope, nope, nope.  We’re going somewhere else.”  I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about traveling halfway across Europe just to find a hooligan screaming at the TV.  She can get that at home.  Finally, after a long day it was time for bed.

Day 4 – Krakow, Poland – September 23

We packed up our stuff and threw it in the luggage storage before grabbing breakfast at a café called Gossip. We shared fluffy pancakes and each ate a fantastic panini to carb up for our long day of outdoor rock climbing. We met our guide, Damian, at a bus stop outside of the old town and he drove us to the Crags, about 40 minutes away. Damian was very funny and had just returned from vacation, so his English was rusty at the beginning. He is a full-time climbing instructor and Ryan looked envious as he told us about his schedule and job.

We arrived at the park and hiked in about a half mile to get to the exposed limestone cliffs. Damian started us on some easy routes where he made us do a climbing exercise of clipping the back of our shoes together using a quick draw, a small rope with two carabiners on each end, so we’d be forced to take small steps and work on our technical skills. The weather was in the 60s and wonderful while we climbed in the sun.

Next we moved to a tall spire with a chimney climb. You climb up one rock face then enter the “chimney” section, which is like climbing up the inside of a chimney using your back against one wall to push you up. You come out of the chimney on the spire and have to reach across to the next spire over open air to finish the climb. It was a fun climb and Ryan and I had to belay each other so Damian was giving us plenty of belaying tips.

Next it was time to learn to lead climb. All the climbing we’ve done so far has been top rope, where the rope is already at the top and someone holds it at the bottom. Lead climbing is when you put the rope into anchor points along the route. So if you fall, you fall down to your last anchor point. Elizabeth was a little apprehensive. We spent an hour learning how to clip and how to tie off at the top. Once you reach the top you have to attach yourself to the anchor then do a series of steps to untie your harness, feed it through the bolt on the top, and retie it to your harness so your partner can lower you down. Finally, it was time to lead and we did about 3 routes clipping ourselves in and making it to the top.

At this point it was about 4 pm and we’d been climbing for about 5 hours. Tired, we hiked a little further to do one last long climb, using almost all of the rope. The limestone was full of cobwebs but we both made it to the top without getting any bites or scrapes. He drove us back to the train station and said to contact him with any further climbing questions. We’d recommend him to anyone traveling in this area.

We went back to our hostel to shower and collect our belongings. Our night train to Prague didn’t leave until 10:30 pm so we had plenty of time to kill. We ate dinner at a vegan/vegetarian restaurant called Glonojad where we shared malai kofta (of course they put dill in it) and a veggie quesadilla. Everything was surprisingly tasty and we washed it down with a few beers. We had about $30 in Polish money burning a hole in our pocket, so we set off to the mall and grocery store to spend it. Everything is so cheap here it was a real struggle to get rid of it. Finally, at 10:20 our train arrived and we hopped on in the first-class cabins. We didn’t have the most elite cabin, ours didn’t have its own bathroom, but it was nice to have a private bunk bed car that was quiet.  They even gave us free slippers!

Day 5 – Prague, Czech Republic – September 24

We arrived in Prague around 7:30 am after getting a free mini breakfast of tea and bread with jams. We found the metro and headed to our hostel to drop off our bags near the old city. We found a nice café called Cafe Ebel to eat croissants and tea/coffee while we watched the city wake up and the shops open. Ryan woke up with his throat hurting so we went to a pharmacy where a nice lady helped us get some medicine for him.

We wandered around the old town popping in shops, walking along the river and the old town square. Around lunch time we found a restaurant called Kotleta where we got carrot and French onion soups and shared pork cheek with rice. Elizabeth drank her first Czech pilsner while Ryan stayed strong, just sipping tea to heal.  At noon we checked in and spent some time lounging in our beds getting caught up on planning and resting poor Ryan’s throat. We have a lot of alcohol to drink over the next week and we need him in tip top shape.

We wandered out for an early dinner walking across town to a pizzeria called Pizza Nuova. We figured it’d been long enough since leaving Naples, so we should get some Neapolitan pizza again. It wasn’t quite as good as Italy, but it was pretty damn close.  We sat outside in the chilly breeze as dark clouds rolled in. We shared a pizza and pasta (margherita and bucatini all’amatriciana) and drank our herbal teas under the blankets provided by the restaurant.

After eating, we wandered more around the city popping in shops and looking for another chimney cake for Ryan. They are originally from Hungary but popular here too. Prague is a gorgeous city and the world knows it; there are tourists everywhere. Finally, we found a cake, a little disappointing compared to Hungary, but still really good.  Then we headed to bed.

Day 6 – Prague, Czech Republic – September 25

We woke up and Ryan was feeling much better. We wandered around the old town square before going to brunch at a restaurant called Venue.  It had a modern vibe and excellent service.  Elizabeth ate chocolate oatmeal and a fancy coffee with a simple syrup-like sweetener served in these cute little bottles, while Ryan got chicken and waffles. He reports the waffle was dry but the chicken was perfectly cooked.  It came with a spicy chili sauce and side salad; not quite what he expected to be getting.  We went back to the same pharmacy to pick up some decongestion medicine before heading to a bar.

We settled on a brewery called Pivovar Staré Město for our first drink. We were the only ones in there and got a dark and light lager.  The owner/worker was very kind and taught us a few words in Czech. Ryan really liked the feeling of the place with its cozy, brick-lined walls and sleek large brew tanks behind the bar.  Great spot to spend a couple hours. When we needed a snack, we ordered the in-house pickled cheese. It was surprisingly delicious and served with bread.

Next we went to the Prague Beer Museum. They had over 30 beers on tap and a bunch of different flights. Elizabeth got the flight called “flavors” and consisted of ciders, fruit beer, etc. Ryan got the mix number one flight which consisted of several breweries’ trademark brews. We drank our beer and ate stale pretzels with the other tourists enjoying the beer artwork on the walls.

We’d worked up quite an appetite and settled for an early dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant called Krčma. The setting was really great, we walked down a flight of stairs from the sidewalk into an underground, candle-lit space with only a few small windows lining the wall to watch ankles walking by on the street above.  We stayed in the front, but the restaurant appeared to open into a labyrinth of rooms behind the bar.  Ryan got goulash and a hot mead, while Elizabeth had schnitzel and a mixed beer of dark and light lager.  After dinner, we decided to call it an early night; we have a lot of drinking in the days ahead and Ryan wasn’t feeling great.

Day 7 – Prague, Czech Republic – September 26

We woke up and headed across the river at 9 AM to the Prague castle area. After looking for a spot to eat breakfast we found a small café called Café Designum to have a light breakfast. Ryan had a piece of apple strudel and Elizabeth got chai pudding – her favorite from when she visited France.

We spent about an hour there then headed over to the castle. Much to Elizabeth’s dismay, the security lines were already super long so we decided to come back the next day earlier, though we did enjoy some wonderful views of the city.

We headed back down the hill towards the John Lennon wall. During communist times people would spray paint their grievances with the government here. Apparently, it started out with inspiring quotes from Lennon and the Beatles. Today there is new graffiti over the old, with calls to free Hong Kong and not so nice things to about Donald Trump.

We left the wall and walked along the river Vltava towards the Letna Park. Up along the edge of the river, overlooking the city is the Zahradní restaurace Letenský zámeček, a large beer garden and restaurant. We were there right as they opened at 11 am and claimed our picnic table with the best view. We spent a few hours grabbing beers from the kiosk, avoiding the falling buckeyes from the trees above, and enjoying the views. Eventually, getting hungry, we left the garden and popped on the tram to find some lunch in a different part of the city.

We settled on a burger joint called the Street Burger. Elizabeth got a quattro formaggi burger and Ryan the chili burger.  Both were good and cooked a perfect medium-rare.  It seems Ryan had passed his bug along; Elizabeth was starting to feel a tickle in her throat – thanks a lot.  So, we chugged some tea hoping to stop the sickness from spreading.

We wandered around the city for a while longer, window shopping and looking at all the artisan blown glass before taking another afternoon hostel break. Eventually we got hungry again and decided to investigate the Vietnamese scene. Apparently, there is a large Vietnamese population living in Prague and are well known for their Pho dishes. We settled on a place called Bistro Pho Viet Nam, the entrance was through a small convenience store so we’d knew it’d be good. We each got a Pho, hot soup, and some egg rolls. They had delicious mixed berry cider and Ryan got a regular beer. The whole meal cost us less than $15. We went home and fell asleep. We’ve been staying in a 7-person mixed room but the beds are comfortable and all of our “roommates” were great about coming and going quietly.

Day 8 – Prague, Czech Republic – September 27

We got up around 7 to arrive at the Prague Castle early. We were lazy this time and took the tram up the large hill. We arrived around 8:50 and joined the short line for the ticket office that opened at 9. We selected the circuit B ticket which granted us access to the Cathedral, old castle, Basilica, and golden row. We didn’t really know what any of this meant but knew we wanted to see in the gothic cathedral.

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As we got to the ticket counter right as it opened, it wasn’t too crowded when we made our way inside St. Vitus Cathedral. The stained glass here is some of the most beautiful stained glass we’ve ever seen. We were able to wander all through the church, built in 1344, and enjoy the architecture. The downside were the loud and huge tour groups who needed to take a selfie in front of everything and pushed their way around.

Next we went to the old castle. A lot was being renovated but you could see the architecture and the throne room from the 1500’s. Again, we were up against large annoying tours and scurried through the area quickly. Next we went into the Basilica. Parts of this church date back to 900 and served as a cemetery for royalty. The Basilica is pretty small but they have a diagram to show when the mason work was done. It was interesting to think, while they were restoring parts of it, that they’ve been restoring it throughout history and we are restoring a restoration.

Our final stop was called Golden Row. We didn’t know until we arrived that it was just a street of gift shops. We popped around a few stops before leaving the castle and walking back down the road and across the river to find brunch. They say to give the castle at least 3 hours to see everything, we were in and out in an hour. It felt very crowded and this is now low tourist season, I can’t imagine what it would look like in the summer.

We went to brunch at a restaurant called Coffee & Waffles.  We made it just in time grabbing a number and waiting five minutes. We were seated right out front on the sidewalk. The line kept growing and a bunch of hungry and hungover people watched us eat our breakfasts. They had everything you could dream of, both sweet and savory, on waffles. The waffles were well cooked too, crisp on the outside soft on the inside. Ryan got an eggs benedict waffle with avocado and Elizabeth got a waffle with Dijon mustard – so much cheese, brussels sprouts, and bacon. We wandered around Prague enjoying the architecture, even stopping by the oldest astrological clock on our way home, built in 1410.

We headed back to the hostel to change into our climbing clothes and hit the gym. It was a 30-minute subway/bus ride to make it to Climbing Center SmichOff.  It was so cheap. For 3 hours we climbed with rented shoes, harness, rope, and belay device for $13 total. Now that we are able to lead climb, clip in as you go, we rented a rope and had access to a lot more routes. Elizabeth still gets pretty nervous being in charge of Ryan as he climbs, if he falls, he’d pull her off the ground a fair bit. But we managed without any problems. We spent some time in the bouldering room, going before we exhausted ourselves so we could try harder in the lower climbs.

Exhausted we trained back, stopping at the train station to make reservations for our 4-hour train the next day from Prague to Berlin. Thank goodness we did because the train looked full and if you don’t have a reservation you can still ride with your Eurail but you have to stand. On the walk back to our hostel we found a small outdoor beer, food and craft area. We drank beer and wine while snacking on fresh potato chips, like you’d find in a state fair, and a chimney cake with Nutella on the inside. It was so good.

We showered back at the hostel then found a sports store so Ryan could buy some expensive, but he says necessary, climbing equipment.  It’s an assisted belay device, meaning that if the climber falls, it locks up on its own.  Much safer.  We found a bar next door to grab a few beers and snacked on some pretzels that were on the table. We didn’t find out until paying our bill that the pretzels, already on the table, weren’t free. The principal was upsetting, but once we did the conversion and realized it was only going to cost a dollar, we realized we couldn’t really be too upset. But still who puts stuff on the table with no label if it’s not free?!

We forgot it was a Friday night and hadn’t made any dinner reservations. We tried a few Italian places but were turned away. Two doors down from our hostel was a fancy Chinese restaurant, full of Chinese tourists, so we gave it a try. We got beer, kung pao chicken, spicy garlic pork, and rice. The pork was super spicy and the kung pao was made with cucumber not zucchini, an interesting flavor we don’t need to have again. After stuffing ourselves we went back to the hostel and decided to check out the hostel bar. It’s located in the attic space and looked really cool with rope lights all over the low hanging rafters. We grabbed our $2 beers, excited to chill for a while. Unfortunately, the “bartender” and his friends began chain-smoking in the enclosed attic and we couldn’t stay after our beers. I’m excited to return to America just to get away from all the smokers dominating the outside, and apparently inside of places. We packed our bags and went to sleep ready to head to Germany the next day.

Day 9 – Prague, Czech Republic – September 28

We left the hostel at 9:30 to make our 10:30 train to Berlin. We had an over-priced, microwave breakfast at the station before the train arrived. Luckily, we made reservations the day before, because the train was an overfilled disaster. Apparently, they were having technical issues so the electronic numbers on the train cars didn’t match the printed number in the windows. We were lucky and found our car right away and kicked some German teens out of our reserved seats. A small family from Czech joined our car with two small adorable boys and we watched the frustration play out, outside our doors. People were not happy their seats were taken and the hallway was so full people were having trouble moving by. After about 45 minutes everything was sorted out. We were next to the bar car so we spent the 4 hours to Germany drinking beer and wine and relaxing.

Things we’ve learned in Poland and the Czech Republic:

  1. Prague is cool, but not worth fighting the other tourists.
  2. Auschwitz-Birkenau is something everyone should see to honor the memory of those who were lost.

Austria, Slovakia and Hungary

Day 1 – Vienna, Austria – September 3

We arrived at the Vienna bus station around 3:30 in the afternoon. We navigated the subway with all of our bags to the Wien Hüttledorf station where Claudia was waiting to pick us up. We are cat sitting for 5 days in the suburbs of Vienna nestled in the gorgeous foothills. We had skyped with Claudia and Faysal, the homeowners, while we were in Naples and knew they were Germans living in Austria with five cats. Claudia fetched us and the amusement began immediately, as we rode with her in search of her 5th cat that has a GPS collar. All the cats are indoor-outdoor and this one in particular does not think he belongs to them or in a house at all. We drove through the neighborhoods as she held out a GPS tracker getting excited when she heard a beep. The whole thing was too much.

We arrived to their beautiful home and she gave us a tour. The share a multistory duplex but the backyard is all theirs, and it’s spectacular. It has a natural swimming pond with newts, dragon flies and reeds, as well as several flower and vegetable gardens. The interior of the home is modern and has a very nice kitchen; Ryan is ready to get back to cooking. She and her husband and parents are taking a long weekend holiday to Slovenia. Eventually her parents arrived, who don’t speak a lick of English, and her husband Faysal. Faysal drove us to the grocery store so we could get supplies for a week. Ryan was like a kid in a candy store buying more Austrian/German beer and wine than food. He also got the ingredients to make Jägerschnitzel and bucatini all’amatriciana (most of the ingredients, they didn’t have guanciale).

That night they treated us to a home cooked dinner of bratwursts, salad, and a potato/beet casserole thing. Everything was tasty and we spent a few hours chatting with them and her parents, while her and Faysal were on double duty translating. We have the whole second floor to ourselves with a bedroom, bathroom, and living room. The cats were pretty scarce but it’s clear they are very, very loved in this house. The couple lived in Cairo, Egypt prior to moving to Vienna and all the cats are Egyptian strays.

Day 2 – Vienna, Austria – September 4

We joined them for breakfast the next morning, enjoying hot rolls with jam and butter and a meat and cheese plate. After they ate, they were finally off and we were alone to enjoy lounging in the house. We spent most of the morning and late afternoon lounging by the swimming pond enjoying the sun and blissfully cooler temperatures. Ryan took advantage of Faysal’s exercise equipment while Elizabeth went for a long hike in the nearby forest. She hiked around 6 miles through dense forest with other Austrians and their dogs. It was so nice to be back in the shade of trees with a cool breeze.

For dinner that night Ryan made Jägerschnitzel, a traditional German dish. He first made a decadent onion and mushroom cream sauce then shallow-fried two breaded pork cutlets. The whole meal was mouthwateringly delicious and we don’t feel the need to purchase the 15-euro schnitzel in restaurants. Elizabeth think it’s one of the best things Ryan’s ever made, people should request it when we get back. After dinner we cuddled and watched Free Solo in front of the open windows. Very romantic.

Day 3 – Vienna, Austria – September 5

We had an early morning because Ryan had a dermatologist appointment in the city at 9:30. We fed the cats then were on our way to catch a bus and two subways. He has a new growth on his head that has been aggravated since our aggressive Hammam bath experience in Morocco. We decided it’s better to be safe than sorry. We arrived at the doctor’s office and she immediately suggested cutting it off, saying it is a mole that would only stay aggravated by brushing his hair, ect. Although she didn’t think it looked cancerous, she still wanted to it off for testing. Within 5 minutes of being there Ryan was laying on his side while she injected local anesthetic into his head and cut off the mole with a razor blade. The whole thing took less than a minute and the procedure only cost 30 euro.

We went to a nearby pharmacy to get some antibiotic powder then had a few hours to kill in the city. A cleaning lady would be in the house today and we wanted to stay out of her way. We rode the tram to the museum district and decided to go in the Natural History Museum. It was 12 Euro a person, but since we were killing time, we decided we were going to take our time in there and really explore the place. As you’d expect with our luck, half of the geology exhibits were closed for construction. The museum is very well done and consists of two floors. The bottom floor is where we spent most of our time; it deals with global warming, glaciers, evolution, fossils, minerals, meteorites, and ancient artifacts found in Austria. We even got to touch an authentic dinosaur bone! The second floor is taxidermy of all types of animals from mammals to fish. We spent about 2.5 hours in the museum, I think a personal record for us.

By the end we were starving and Elizabeth found a bar with pretzels half a mile away. The city is full of Lime Scooters, the electric scooters you can rent. We found a couple nearby and rode for about 5 minutes until the cobblestones and pedestrians made it unbearable. A bunch of people are scootering and biking all around the city.

We found the restaurant and enjoyed some beer and a few pretzels. The pretzels were underwhelming, but still a pretzel so not a total disappointment.  Maybe pretzels without beer cheese just aren’t worth it. On our way back to the house, we popped into a bakery and got a few strudels, more pretzels, and some bread to take home.

The cats couldn’t care less that we were gone or returned. That night Ryan made bucatini all’Amatriciana, a pasta dish we had in Italy, again really good, but not nearly as good as we had in Italy. Ryan thinks it’s because we didn’t have guanciale, so the richness just wasn’t there.  Next time we make it, it will be with guanciale and onion. We spent the night watching yet another climbing movie and enjoying the cool air.

Day 4 – Vienna, Austria – September 6

We woke up and fed the cats. We noticed one cat hadn’t been around in the last 24 hours and wasn’t sure if this was the norm since they are indoor/outdoor cats. Around 11 am we alerted the owners to ask if they had a particular hiding place and panic set in. They called us worried and so we continued searching. We looked all through the house and walked around the neighborhood. They suggested calling to her outside, I think they forget they don’t own dogs. Since they were so panicked, we remained trapped in the house hoping to be home when it returned. Big rain storms were coming so we’d hoped to hike before they set in. It wasn’t until 3 o’clock this damn black cat came strutting down the stairs. Where she’d been hiding for a day, we’ll never know, but at least everyone was calm now. We were able then to set off on our hike. It was overcast but still hadn’t started raining. We went into the forest and hiked along looking for views of Vienna. We never found stunning views but instead found a beautiful lush valley and a lot of trees.

On our way back down, we ran into three police vans and officers at the edge of the woods. They asked us not to go in the woods at this entrance so we walked down a way. We speculate a body was found or there was an escaped convict. We made it back around 5:30 walking about 7 miles and no one spraining an ankle. We spent the rest of the night watching German television and Ryan grilled pork chops and roasted vegetables.

Day 5 – Vienna, Austria – September 7

This may have been our laziest day on the trip yet. We woke up to pouring rain, so we opened the patio doors and lounged – listening to it splash on the swimming pond. We spent the next several hours powering through our German Netflix show. It wasn’t until around 4 we got very hungry and decided to order delivery Indian food. They have a very easy app here called Lieferservice that connects to a bunch of restaurants and lets you order everything online then delivers it. We ordered a feast and 50 minutes later it was at our door. After devouring dinner, we got back to watching Netflix. Ryan was excited the Aggie football game was on at 9 pm our time, so he was able to stay up late watching it, even though they lost. It was the laziest day, but when it’s pouring rain what else is there to do?

Day 6 – Vienna, Austria – September 8

This is our last day officially cat sitting before the owners and parents return this evening. It was still sprinkling a little when we woke up but the sun was supposed to shine in the afternoon. We headed to a local church down the street for Sunday mass. The priest was an Indian man speaking German so all hope of understanding even a little was lost. We had a lunch feast heating up the leftovers that remained from all our previous meals. That afternoon we went for one last hike in the woods, a little muddy from the rains the day before. The woods were crowded with families going for a Sunday stroll.

The Germans returned around 6 pm that night and it was funny watching them try to coax these cats to come to them like dogs. We ate a last meal with them, frozen pizza and vegetables, and Faysal opened a few bottles of wine for us to share. They told us tales about their first visits to the US in the 1990s and Faysal’s daughter studied abroad in Anadarko, Oklahoma. We discussed politics and the state of the world and eventually went to bed around 10:30. They have been very kind and hospitable hosts; the only downside is their German-ness in that we always feel like we are being lectured and they rarely pick up on our sarcasm or jokes.  Consider it practice for going to Germany in a few weeks.

Day 7 – Vienna, Austria – September 9

The next morning Claudia made us a breakfast of bread and meats and we packed everything up before she dropped us off at the bus station. We then took the metro into downtown in the university area where Ryan got us an AirBnB for the night. We couldn’t meet the host until 12:30 as he is a student in university and was in class, so we found a restaurant called Ulrich around the corner to wait. Ryan got a beer and Elizabeth got an amazing make-it-yourself chai latte. They brought the chai tea, a small jar of frothy milk, and honey to mix together. We also split an order the of pancakes with fruit. The high today is only 65, but we sat outside and enjoyed being cold. The restaurant had blankets and we enjoyed our meal between the freezing Austrians around us.

After this we met our host Tobias, who has an apartment in an old building. Our room is off the kitchen and the bed is on a wooden, homemade loft. Hopefully we don’t roll out and it doesn’t come crashing down. We immediately packed our bag and headed off to Klatterhalle Wien, literally Climbing Hall Vienna, a rock climbing gym outside of the city center. Austria has amazing public transportation and there is a metro, tram or bus for everything. We made it to the center and got our gear. The complex had an outdoor area with a huge climbing wall, bouldering and slacklines as well as an indoor gym with a ton of walls and routes.

It was windy outside and 65 degrees, so Elizabeth was chilly but Ryan was in his element. We started at the outdoor wall. Normally you have to tie your own figure 8 knot to your harness before you can climb but this gym had them all pre-tied and you simply had to use a carabiner to clip in. This filled Ryan with anxiety.  He’s not a fan of trusting his safety to some stranger he hasn’t even met.  We did a couple of routes then it began sprinkling so we moved indoors. The inside climbing area was huge and we spent hours going from wall to wall. This gym had some hard routes with easy ratings, the lady at the front desk said they didn’t inflate their routes to make people feel accomplished like other gyms might. When the weather cleared a little, we went back outside and finished up on the big wall and playing around on the slacklines. We are horrible and couldn’t make it a couple steps on the tight rope.

After getting cleaned up we piled back on the subway and went to a beer garden called Schweizerhaus, the largest in Vienna. It’s located right in the middle of an amusement park and all the outdoor tables had heat lamps. We found a table and got some beers. We made the mistake not ordering Budweiser like everyone else was because we thought it was American Budweiser. After our first beers we realized this was Budweiser Budvar, a beer with the same name but from the Czech Republic. We ordered those for Round 2 and they had a ton of foam but were so much better than their American ‘cousins’. We started with French fries, fried potatoes and sausage, not intending to get two types of potato. After seeing everyone around us eat pork knuckled and fried chicken, we decided to add some fried chicken. It was delicious, Ryan says some of the best he’s ever had and he’s somewhat of a fried chicken expert. Full bellies and an empty budget, we took the subway home – and neither of us tumbled our of the loft!

Day 8 – Bratislava, Slovakia – September 10

Our bus to Bratislava, Slovakia left at 12:40 pm so we were determined to see a little more of Vienna before we left. We jumped on the subway to St. Stephens Cathedral in the center of Vienna. When you come out of the subway tunnel you are right at the church’s doorstep and this building is huge.

This church was built between 1339 and 1365 on the ruins of two earlier churches from 1147. We went inside and walked around the free portion of the nave, admiring the statues and pillars. Next, we paid the 6 euros to go up the northern bell tower.

We unknowingly had very different impressions of the church experience.   Elizabeth is sad to report that the staff at St. Stephens were the rudest church staff she’d ever encountered. Ryan thought their brusque attitude was a refreshing change of pace to the American attitude of “the customer is always right”.  It began at the ticket counter, where a French couple was confused about the amount of change they received, only to get yelled at. They were somehow confused that they had to pay the 6 euros for each person and wondered where the rest of their change was. Then on the elevator, the man didn’t take his backpack off, as the is clearly indicated by two large pictograms prior to entering the ticket booth and in front of the elevator.  Elizabeth thought the elevator operator was demeaning; Ryan thought he was simply fed up with tourists not obeying instructions.  He griped at the Frenchman to take his backpack off in German, English, Italian, and Spanish.  He then got frustrated and proclaimed he couldn’t understand why people refuse to learn English.  Maybe Ryan was just happy to see some French people get yelled at.  Then when we were in the gift shop to buy some postcards, they were rude to people asking about a tour schedule. So that kind of put a damper on the experience for Elizabeth.  Ryan thought the whole encounter was hilarious. After we rode the elevator to the top, we were up close with the multicolored tiled roof and had amazing views of the city.  

Feeling hungry we went to a café called Diglas around the corner. We got coffee, hot chocolate and shared a rich and sugary croissant. The whole thing was overpriced but it’s clearly a local place and lots of old people were hanging out in the large red plush chairs. After eating we grabbed the subway back to our Airbnb to grab our bags and head to the bus station.

We found super cheap bus fare for the 1 hour and 20-minute ride for 5 euro each. The bus was uneventful and riding through the Austria countryside looked like Iowa with all the windmills and cornfields. Riding across the border into Slovakia we didn’t have to stop at passport control, they only seem to care if you’re going from a poor country to a rich country. The architecture changed abruptly into more soviet area block buildings.

Our Airbnb for the next two nights is like a dorm room in a shared suite. We are back to our twin beds and Ryan is excited for the freedom. We arrived around 2:30 and our bus Pringles weren’t enough to fight off the hunger. Our first stop was a brewery called Mestiansky Pivovar. Ryan got a liter and Elizabeth a half liter of their local brew, which was smooth with an excellent flavor. We ate marinated beer cheese with mustard, garlic and butter on fried bread beside sausage on potato cake and onion. Ryan loved it, but Elizabeth couldn’t take all the greasy flavors by the end. We played cards and ordered more beer. Elizabeth switched to the radler which is the smoothest drink ever made, it is made by mixing lemonade and beer and it went down like a beer shake.

Next we went to the KGB Pub. It is a communist inspired bar and all the decorations are Soviet and communist themed. We got a couple cheap beers and tried to name the communist leaders from the many portraits that decorated the walls. Our appetite returned so we moved to our last bar called Slovak Pub.

This bar was really cool and the largest bar in Bratislava. We found a table near the back and ordered their local beer, where Ryan got a liter for 2.5 euro. We shared a garlic soup in a bread bowl, pierogi, and dumplings filled with blueberry and covered in chocolate. Elizabeth enjoyed the food a lot more than Ryan, but either way filled us up to fall right asleep.

Day 9 – Bratislava, Slovakia – September 11

We were lazy risers the next morning and set off for eating and exploring around 10:30. We made a stop at the post office which was very organized with a deli-style take a number system – not what we were used to. We walked through Michael’s Gate and into the old town. Michael’s Gate is the only preserved medieval gate into the city and from around 1300. Once we were in the old town we wandered through the streets. We’d read that Bratislava had a lot of international cuisine and they weren’t kidding. We walked past, in a row: an Italian pizzeria, a Dubliner pub, a Mexican hacienda, a classical French restaurant and a Thai place.

We made it all the way down to the park and the mayors office at Primatial Palace. A bunch of groups were gathered here to kick off their tours and we couldn’t help but notice how many older people were taking tours of the city. We sat on a park bench and decided where to eat lunch enjoying while watching the hustle and bustle. As we began our walk towards the Danube and lunch, three police officers and cars screeched up and the officers ran inside the nearby hotel. We waited around for a minute but never figured out what happened. We arrived for lunch at BeAbout Burger and ate unhealthy American bar food like a cheeseburger and chicken Caesar wrap, but it was nice to indulge in a taste of home.

After lunch we walked halfway across one of the bridges that extends over the Danube. There is a little look out platform in the middle and we could see all of downtown and the castle up on the hill. Along the Danube were a bunch of large river cruise boats and a lot of chairs on the roof for sunbathing.

We next walked over to the Blue Church or St. Elisabeth. The church is as describe completely blue from the mosaics, façade and the roof. It was built in 1913 and the blue extends to the inside decorations. Unfortunately, the inside was closed but we were able to look through the glass doors and see the blue pews and wall decorations.

Slightly peckish, we headed towards an ice cream parlor to share a cone of Nutella and stracciatella ice cream. The summer season is winding down and a lot of the ice cream places we’ve enjoyed will probably start limiting their hours after the summer season. We continued our church exploration and went to the biggest cathedral of Bratislava, St. Martins. The church began construction in 1311 and finished in 1452 on top of the older smaller church and cemetery. Inside the cathedral part of the floor is glass and you can see below into the old cemetery where a few human skulls and skeletons can be seen poking out of the dirt. Bratislava was the head of the Hungarian empire between 1563 and 1830, so it was where they coronated the kings of the time.

We continued walking up hill towards the castle. The history here is very complicated and the current castle was rebuilt in 1956-1964. This area has been inhabited since 3500 BC because it maintains such a strategic position in Europe, nestled between mountain ranges and along the Danube River. This area was periodically ruled by the Romans, Celts, Slavs, Hungarians, et. al. The main gate was closed but we were able to walk up along the outside to make it in. The grounds were very pretty and we had great views of the city.

Thirsty, we headed back down toward the old town to a brewery called Bratislava Mestiansky Pivovar. It was the same brewery as the day before, but in an outdoor garden. We sipped our beers and read our books. When we got peckish we shared homemade garlic and onion bread with a pork crackling spread, heavenly. Next we went to Grand Cru Wine Gallery where the owner talked us through all the Hungarian and Slovakian grapes and gave us his favorite whites, reds, and a dessert wine. Not a bad way to spend a day while staying within budget.

Day 10 – Budapest, Hungary – September 12

We woke up for a morning jog that took us back across the Danube and into a huge park. We jogged around there for a few miles then went back and packed up at our AirBnB. We were able to leave our bags there since our bus wasn’t until 2:30, so we showered and hit the shops. Elizabeth wanted a new sweater, found at H&M and Ryan needed new shoes and a travel backpack. We luckily found everything we wanted, for pretty cheap, so we celebrated with Thai food. We chose a restaurant called Green Buddha and got the Pad Thai and Panang Curry. The curry was so spicy but bursting with flavor. Next, we went to Kláštorný pivovar to grab a last beer at another brewery. It wasn’t as good as the main brewery but it’s hard to beat a 2-euro half liter of beer. We collected our things and headed back to the bus station, time to head to Budapest!

We once again traveled with Flixbus, this time it was a 2.5-hour ride to Budapest. There was no border control between Slovakia and Hungary but we did get slowed down by the horrible Budapest rush hour traffic. Once we made it to the bus stop, we hopped on a tram to take us the 30 minutes north to our housesit. We are to watch a lab mixed name Tiago for the weekend. His owner, Katie, is British and works at the British international school. She’s previously lived in Malawi, where she found the pup, and Thailand. Tiago is a very calm, sweet, lazy dog. They walked us around the neighborhood and he came on the bus to go to Margaret Island, an island in the middle of the Danube. We watched the water fountain light show set to classic American music and chatted. She’s headed to Copenhagen for a long weekend and we are excited that he is such a low maintenance dog.

Day 11 – Budapest, Hungary – September 13

We woke up and headed straight to a bakery we walked by the night before. It smelled delicious, the aromas of baking bread wafting out of the doors. Everything looked amazing and we went a little crazy ordering, but it was so cheap. For 3 dollars we got 4 bite size bread pieces filled with savory ingredients like bell pepper, a large chocolate croissant, a cheery tart, and the most amazing thing Elizabeth has ever eaten: a pinwheel pizza. Picture flaky bread in a spiral filled with tomato sauce and cheese, and it was fresh baked. To die for.  Ryan thought it was amazing as well, though not quite the religious experience Elizabeth had.

Next we headed back to the apartment to attempt to exercise then took the dog to a bar on the Danube. The bar was called Beer Company Soerterasz and we enjoyed drinking beers outside in the 70-degree weather. We hung out there all afternoon until we had to drop the dog off so we could head downtown.

In just 30 minutes and a $1 bus fare, we were across the Danube in the Pest side of Budapest. We both learned that Budapest is made up of what were once three separate cities: Buda, Óbuda – where we are staying, and Pest. We hopped off the bus and walked to a bar called Szimpla Kert. This bar is huge and reminded us of a lot of the cool half indoor/outdoor weirdly decorated bars in Houston. We grabbed a few beers and enjoyed the people watching.

We hadn’t eaten since the bakery so we walked next door to the food truck alley. There were so many choices and it was fun to be in a food truck area, felt like home. After taking a lap and assessing all our options Elizabeth went with the MexKitchen and Ryan the local truck. We ordered two beers and waited for our food. Ryan got langos, a potato and wheat bread that strongly resembles funnel cake, with sour cream and roasted red peppers; it was oddly incredible. Then we also shared chips and queso and a Paquita, like a crunch wrap supreme but full of bacon and jalapenos.

After stuffing our faces, we went back to Szimpla Kert and explored all the weird rooms in the bar and had another round. It was getting late and we needed to return to Tiago our dog so we hopped back on the bus and were back to the apartment in 30 minutes. Ryan took the pup out on a long walk; this dog only likes to poop and pee in the middle of sidewalks and streets.  After that we all settled in for the night.

Day 12 – Budapest, Hungary – September 14

We woke up and took the dog for a quick walk before dropping him back off so we could exercise. Tiago has a thyroid issue, so he gets tired easily and is the world’s laziest dog. It’s not a bad house sit since he’s content to just lay on the carpet and wait for a belly rub. We ran up over the Danube and back onto Margaret Island. This island is full of jogging trails and there were a ton of people out exercising. We ran across the whole island then back across the Danube and home. It was nice to see so many people out jogging. Often times when we go jogging, we don’t see anyone else and get strange looks.

We got cleaned up then took the pup on a walk before going into the city to find lunch. We were pretty hungry so we popped into the bakery to try the chocolate pinwheel, not as good as the pizza. We took the bus back into the city center and found a small local pub on the corner to grab a beer while we googled lunch options. Budapest has so many restaurants and everything looks so good.  It was actually a little daunting. As we drank our beers costing $1.30 each, we found the perfect spot in the Jewish Quarter. Elizabeth got the beef stew with potato dumplings and Ryan got duck with a creamy mushroom sauce. We liked both of our dishes and we washed them down with beer.

Next we popped over to another ruin bar like Szimpla Kert, a bar that is built in the ruins of a building from the war, called Mozal Tov. Elizabeth drank some Hungarian wine and Ryan had a beer. We also shared a nice plate of hummus and pita. The food and atmosphere were cool, unfortunately the service left a lot to be desired. We caught the tram home and popped into the gourmet grocery store for some snacks. We spent the night watching movies and eating popcorn.

Day 13 – Budapest, Hungary – September 15

After a lot of dawdling around, we caught the bus to attend the noon service at St. Stephens Cathedral in downtown. The church is absolutely huge and gorgeous with gold leaf everywhere. The organ was loud and the service had a lot of people. Tourist are still allowed in during mass but they rope off the pews so there are a lot of flashes coming from the back of the church. Ryan likes that after the mass we get a little VIP treatment as we are allowed to wander around the roped off area for a while before they let the tourists in.

There was a cute market set up outside the church selling street food and desserts we wandered through after.  Unfortunately, nothing looked too appetizing, so we didn’t grab any food. They were playing “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train on repeat so we had to get out of there after about 10 minutes. We went to brunch À la Maison Grand and the food was phenomenal. Ryan got a bacon eggs benedict and Elizabeth got Hungarian French toast which was basically a ham and cheese French toast sandwich with French fries.

After lunch we walked along the Danube to a bar called Pontoon where you could sit along the river with your beer and have a front row seat to the boats cruising past and of the chain bridge. We wandered across said bridge and caught the tram back to our neck of the woods.

After an accidental nap we grabbed the pup and headed to an outdoor beer garden called Podium. Tiago was the center of attention and some kids came up to pet him, who then wouldn’t leave for like 15 minutes. Elizabeth enjoyed a cherry wheat beer. After we walked to a Doner Express to get some kebabs. They are so heavenly, like a spicy gyro. We watched a few movies and waited for the owner to return from the airport around 10:00 pm. She said we could sleep in and stay as long as we wanted the next day, which was a relief.

Day 14 – Budapest, Hungary – September 16

After another jog around Margaret Island we popped in for one last pizza pinwheel while we waited in line at the post office. Apparently, Monday morning is the time to send letters and the line was long. After we decided to eat lunch at a local lunch spot. Elizabeth got mushroom pasta and Ryan got a burger with fries. The “ketchup” tasted like pizza sauce.

After lunch Elizabeth had a haircut appointment at one of the 30 neighborhood salons. For $20 she got her hair washed and massaged, cut off at least 6 inches of hair, and got it styled and blow dried. Elizabeth isn’t thrilled with the results, a long bob, but it’ll grow back.  Which is absolutely crazy.  She looks so cute. We packed up our stuff, said adios to the dog and were off to our AirBnB in the center of the city. We didn’t realize until we got off the tram, but our new apartment is directly across the street from the bistro we ate at in the Jewish Quarter. We unloaded and headed off to find a drink. We settled 360 Bar, because it was rooftop and today is supposedly our last warm 80 degree sunny day.

We splurged for cocktails, really well made to boot, while still only $8 each, and sat on the roof in the sun overlooking the city. They were playing very intense gangster rap for it only being 5 pm.  Also, we are in Hungary. And there wasn’t a single non-white person in the whole bar.  We ended with some small beers and feeling hungry settled off to find food.

Our first attempt was an Indian restaurant called Indigo, unfortunately they were full because a party of 48 Indian people were coming in. We tried walking to another Indian restaurant, but that was closed too, so we stumbled into a tantalizing Vietnamese restaurant. We got beer and wine and crunchy duck and pho. It ended it up hitting the spot.  We made reservations for Indian for the next night.

We had a few dollars left in our daily budget so we wandered around looking for a bar with cheap drinks. We found just the place called Jazz Bar, no jazz music to be found unfortunately. We got some beers and played with the bartenders cute French Boston pup. After that it was off to bed.

Day 15 – Budapest, Hungary – September 17

We tried a bakery called Bite for breakfast. Ryan had a wurst in bread kolache and Elizabeth a pretzel with cheese and pepperoni. We then split a cinnamon roll – didn’t realize how much we missed them. Everything was good, but nothing can compare to the great pizza pinwheel (which is actually called a pizza csiga by the way, pizza snail). Next we took the metro north to BigWall rock climbing gym. The front desk worker didn’t speak much English, but eventually we got all of our equipment. We were blown away with how cheap it was. There were a ton of routes and we spent three hours climbing around. They have an old industrial chimney outside that you can climb, but it didn’t have any top ropes so we weren’t able to climb it.

After changing we got back on the metro and headed to a lunch spot close to the biggest medicinal bathhouse in Europe. Its located entirely outside in a park and you order everything from a large kiosk. We each got big, deserved, beers and shared a pulled pork sandwich, Barcelona style. We’ve been seeing pulled pork everywhere around Europe, we didn’t realize it’d gotten so big here. We sat outside and ate in the cool weather.

We walked into the park towards Széchenyi Thermal Bath. Budapest lies on top of a long and complex cave network and these caves were formed by the hot water running through them. They put wells in and have over 120 natural hot spring bath houses in the city. This one is the largest and we were excited to soak our climbing muscles.

We paid and got our wristbands, which acted as keys to doors and a locker. After changing we wandered around the many indoor pool of varying temperatures, but all smelling of sulfur. We knew there was an outside but couldn’t figure out how to get out of the building. Eventually we asked for help and was pointed to a single door outside, this can’t be safe for fire code. Outdoors it was chilly and a ton of people were in the three pools. We started in the warm pool, then there is a lap pool in the middle and a hot pool on the other side.

We paid and got our wristbands, which acted as keys to doors and a locker. After changing we wandered around the many indoor pool of varying temperatures, but all smelling of sulfur. We knew there was an outside but couldn’t figure out how to get out of the building. Eventually we asked for help and was pointed to a single door outside, this can’t be safe for fire code. Outdoors it was chilly and a ton of people were in the three pools. We started in the warm pool, then there is a lap pool in the middle and a hot pool on the other side.

We arrived and sat next to an older couple clearly on a first date. She was German and a hippie and he was a business man from Australia. Eavesdropping kept us entertained all dinner. Having only shared a sandwich at lunch, we ordered 4 beers, 3 vegetarian entrees, rice, and two types of bread. Everything was surprisingly good, better than a lot of what we had in London, except for the yellow daal which kind of sucked, and it only cost us $35. God bless Hungary. We stuffed ourselves to the max and the only thing left to do was go to bed.

Day 16 – Budapest, Hungary – September 18

We tried a new bakery this morning called Kiskovász Kézműves Pékség. We got coffees, a cheese pinwheel, a cheese croissant and a cherry pastry. Everything tasted handmade and fresh and we began to talk about planning our last month in Europe. Finishing breakfast, we went to that small local bar with $1 beers to drink and map out where we wanted to go next. We watched the drunkards from the night before keep drinking and one group rocked out with a harmonica and guitar. The bartender turned up the music when they started playing; clearly she wasn’t entertained. We spent almost 3 hours here planning until it was time for lunch.

We headed towards a restaurant called Kiosk Budapest, recommended by our wine bar owner in Bratislava. Naturally we kept drinking and shared a fantastic club sandwich. They are apparently Michelin starred. We walked around the corner to a famous bakery called Molnár’s kürtőskalács, so we could try one of the city’s famous chimney cakes. The bakery had a window in front so you could watch them roll the dough around a cone and stick it in the oven. Then they take it out and roll it in various toppings, we chose the classic preparation – cinnamon sugar. To eat it you pull it apart and it unwinds, it was amazing.

We need to make our travel arrangements to Poland the next day so we headed to the main train station to activate our Eurorail passes and reserve beds on the overnight train. They were sold out of two person cabins, so we’ll be sharing our small bunk room with two strangers, hopefully they don’t stink and snore. We headed back towards our Airbnb and found a local bar called 57-es számú italbolt.  Whatever the hell that means. The place was pretty empty so we claimed a booth and enjoyed our cheapest beers yet. After an hour or so the place filled up with local youths, clearly enjoying the prices and the dingy atmosphere. It’s also down the street from some clubs, so they were probably pre-gaming. We left for dinner once we couldn’t stand the cigarette smoke creeping in the windows and went to a Japanese restaurant called Komachi Bistro. The menu was awesome because they served everything in full and mini sizes so you could get ramen, donburi, and curry.

We filled our bellies then went to a large ruin bar and nightclub called Instant. It was only 9 pm so the place was pretty scarce with only other tourists wearing backpacks, just like us. We grabbed some cheap beers and enjoyed the music and people watching as the place slowly filled up. They are trying this environmental strategy to reduce single use plastic by charging for thicker plastic cups that you can return after you’re done and get your deposit back. We’ve seen this at multiple bars, but it can be tricky to figure out where to return your cups and they charge like over a dollar a piece! We hung out as long as our old people bodies could last then headed home to bed.

Day 17 – Budapest, Hungary – September 19

We checked out of our AirBnB and found some lockers in the neighborhood. For $5 we were able to lock our things in a big locker and explore the city without our backpacks. Our first stop was another bakery, this one was called Jókenyér Szaküzlet Nagymező utca. We shared a cinnamon sugar pinwheel, a ham and cheese pizza and a sour cherry pastry all to be washed down with cappuccinos. We needed to fuel up since it was our last day and Elizabeth had a lot of sightseeing to drag Ryan to.

We next walked back to St. Stephens Basilica, where we attended mass on Sunday, to go on the roof and look over the city. It was around 350 steps to the top and you passed through the basilica dome to the roof.  This one didn’t have views inside the church like in St. Peters.  Once outside you could walk all around the dome with unobstructed views of the city. It wasn’t too crowded and we could see for miles.

Next we hopped on the bus and crossed the Danube to the western side. We walked up more stairs to the top of the hill to see the Fisherman’s Bastion. This was built in the 19th century and has great panoramic views of the city. It’s apparently an Instagramers paradise and we watched one woman do a 20-minute photo shoot with a Starbucks cup. We wandered around enjoying the breeze then headed back towards the Danube to find lunch.

We ate at a traditional and very local Hungarian restaurant called Ildikó Konyhája. We shared the mushroom stew with potato dumplings and a porkchop stuffed with ham and cheese. Everything was really good and of course accompanied by beer. We sat at a long shared tabled with Hungarian men on their lunch breaks who all ate hamburgers, which we didn’t even see on the menu. We walked along the Danube to digest and took pictures in front of the beautiful Hungarian parliament building.

Next we popped back on the metro, we had tickets to burn, to go to the Central Market Hall. This is a big open building with lots of small kiosks of meat, vegetables, etc. Elizabeth bought a pair of earrings; she didn’t bring any and had been worried her ear holes were going to close in.  We then explored the rest of the market, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for a supposedly fantastic dessert shop, but we never found it.

Feeling thirsty we took the tram to Kadarka Wine Bar. The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable.  Their cellar was quite extensive and they had a ton of Hungarian wines to choose from. They gave us recommendations for a white, red and dessert wine. All the wine was very tasty and did the trick of relaxing us before our long train ride.

We picked up our bags and grabbed the bus to the main central train station in Budapest. We had $3.50 left in Hungarian money and bought 3 slices of pizza and a Pepsi before boarding our train. We are sharing a 4-person, bunk bed, sleeper car with two men from Poland on a business trip. They also have the car next to ours full of their coworkers from Magellan. We didn’t realize this train didn’t have an alcohol car so we hadn’t come prepared, but they did.  They have bags and bags of mixers, wine and liquor. It’s about an 11-hour train to Krakow, Poland. We left at 7:30 pm and arrived at 6:30 a.m. Ryan was about 2 inches too tall for his bunk, so it should be an experience.

Things we learned in Austria, Slovakia and Hungary:

  1. These are perfect places to enjoy fall weather and changing leaves while drinking outside.
  2. Slovakia and Hungary are verrrrry affordable.
  3. Cats are assholes.

Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia

Day 1 – Split, Croatia – August 25

EasyJet delivered us smoothly over the water between Italy and Croatia right into Split. We collected our bags and made it through immigration quickly. We are still in the European Union but in a country not in the free travel group, so we had to get stamped out. After a long wait for our rental car we were rolling and happy to be road tripping again. The roads were easy to manage until we got to the inner city. We drove down the one-way narrow alley with cars parked on either side to get to the office of the tour company we’d be rock climbing with the next day. We prepaid for our tour, then like a professional, Ryan reversed us out of the narrow alley surrounded by cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians to get to the main road.

Our Airbnb was a woman’s, Masha, spare room in her apartment. We met her and got settled in. She had a great balcony off our bedroom with wonderful views of the water and boats. We are having to be better budgeters after the pizza in Italy took all our money so we went to a grocery store down the street to get some wine and granola and yogurt and fruit. It was intended for breakfast but we decided to also eat if for dinner. After relaxing for a bit, we decided to wander around and explore at dusk. We first walked 10 minutes to get to the “beach”, which again, were rocks and steep cliffs. We watched a few kids cliff jump into the sparkling blue water and looked out over a beach club. The beach club had a cement soccer field with six old men taking a game very seriously. We watched for a while laughing that there was a long step in the middle of their field, making one half higher than the other.

Next, we walked along the marina and gawked at the catamarans, deck boats, and fishing vessels. We tried to think up get rich quick schemes (or even a get rich moderately quickly scheme) so we could find ourselves sailing around on anyone of these luxurious yachts. We then reached the old town and wandered through the narrow streets. Apparently, this is where a significant amount of filming for Game of Thrones was done. Eventually we stumbled upon a small bar with $3 pints so we couldn’t resist. We found a table outside in the alley and sipped our beers and people watched until we were tired enough to return home.

Day 2 – Split, Croatia – August 26

Elizabeth got up early and decided to go for a long run along the edge of the peninsula. At the edge there is a big public park called Marjan. She jogged along the road keeping the sea to her left. She came across some gorgeous limestone cliffs, not knowing those would be the cliffs we climb later that evening. Eventually at the tip the road is closed to cars and she jogged along with hikers, bikers, and families headed to the beach enjoying the smells of a pinewood forest. She made it back and ate some more yogurt and granola before heading back into the city.

Split is a very old town and the history of Croatia is very long and complicated, being conquered by several different nations over the last 2000 years. We walked past all the fancy boats again and found our way back into the narrow streets to see the old cathedral. Saint Domnius Cathedral was consecrated in the 7th century and is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that remains in use in its original structure, which was completed in 305 AD. We wandered around the actual church a surprisingly small structure then down to the Crypt (unfortunately there were no bodies, just a strange wishing well in the center filled with coins). We didn’t feel like paying or standing in line for the bell tower.

We also wandered through Diocletian’s Palace right outside of the cathedral which served as a fortress and residence for the emperor Diocletian in the 4th century. We wandered a little further north to the Gregory of Nin statue, an artist whose statue looks like a wizard, then lounged for a spell in Park Josipa Jurja Strossmayera.

We headed back to the apartment to get all of our things for rock climbing and returned to town to grab a bite to eat, then meet our instructor. We decided to try Cevapi, Croatian fast food, which in this case was a sandwich with beef and pork sausage links covered in butter, onions and a red siracha-like sauce called ajvar. It was shockingly delicious. We next waited outside St. Francis church to be collected for our first ever outdoor rock climbing adventure. We didn’t know much, besides bringing comfortable shoes, clothes, and lots of water. A woman pulled up in a beat-up car and signaled for us to hop in.

Gorana is born and raised in Split and loves outdoor climbing. We didn’t realize how great of a spot Split was for Croatia, but she told us about all the limestone outcrops that are within the city and the multitude of climbing options within a quick 2-hour drive. Ryan’s eyes lit up, and Elizabeth thinks we will be returning in the future. We parked along the side of the road and put on our harness, and clipped helmets and shoes to them. Then we had a 15-minute hike up towards the outcrop. There were several bolts already installed into the limestone and she told us that this is a very popular climbing area. We were fortunate to have the whole cliff to ourselves and no one else on the tour. To secure the top rope in place she would lead climb up and Ryan would belay her as she hooked into the anchor points. Once she got to the top, she’d run the rope through, then rappel back down, undoing her anchor points as she lowered. Then we were able to tie into one end of the rope secured at the top and she was able to belay us, or keep us from falling to the ground by holding the other end of the rope.

We have both never climbed outside and were excited. Ryan went first. Our first route was an easy class 5b and he conquered with no problem. The rocks were very sharp since they were limestone and it was challenging not having obvious places to put your hands and feet. Ryan rappelled down and Elizabeth had a go, also making it to the top, but relying more on suggestions from Gorana about where to put her hands and feet. She and Elizabeth were roughly the same height so she was very helpful in teaching Elizabeth how to do extra maneuvers to get to where Ryan could easily reach up and grab.

We next moved to a harder climb (rated 5c) and followed the same procedure to get the rope to the top. Ryan made it all the way up and Elizabeth ¾ of the way. We did 4 climbs in total, Ryan making it to the top of all 4 and Elizabeth making it to the top of 3. The whole experience was incredible. The sun setting behind the cliff, the ocean and beach and passing boats right below us. We worked up quiet the sweat. When it was time to leave, we passed a few other female climbers working on the routes we’d already completed. They were swearing away in Croatian trying to reach the top and we stopped to watch for a while Gorana gave them some helpful suggestions. We made it back to the car and she drove us back towards the city. The whole experience was 3 hours and we’d highly recommend it to everyone, she says she takes beginners up there all the time as well!

Once back in the city we wandered around for far longer than we had intended looking for a cheap beer and maybe a snack. The town was abuzz with people drinking the night away. Eventually we found a bar overlooking the marina and enjoyed two large beers and the omnipresent assault of cigarette smoke. Tired and feet sore we made it back to the Airbnb and promptly fell asleep.

Day 3 – Slano, Croatia – August 27

We hit the road around 10:30 the next morning leaving Split and ultimately heading towards Slano, a small town in a bay just north of Dubrovnik. Our first stop was Vranjaca Cave roughly 45 minutes outside of Split. We followed Google and once we got about 15 minutes away from the cave, it started suggesting only narrow single-lane gravel roads. We are obviously very cautious with our rental cars and didn’t feel like getting stuck or blowing a tire in the middle of nowhere. We’d entered several small mountain ‘villages’ and Google kept rerouting us onto these gravel roads, adjacent to the paved ones. Ryan did some excellent navigation and map reading and got us there on asphalt, though it was a tumultuous path. The caves are a small family-run business and we parked the car and were greeted by one brother at the entrance. He told us to head inside and pay after. We walked down the steep and damp stairs of the first cave and enjoyed the switch to cooler weather. The cave is 15 degrees Celsius year-round, or 59 degrees Fahrenheit. We found the second brother inside waiting to give information about the cave.

Here is what we learned: the outer, larger cave had been known for some time but his grandfather discovered the inner cave by digging in the early 1900’s. Since then his family has spent their time and money adding stairs, railings, and lights so people can visit. He showed us several formations that he named the Buddha, the family, and the monkey, where the stalactites resembled these things. He told us the cave was made of seven minerals and you could see the stripping patterns between the dark and light layers. We wandered through the second cave, it was absolutely beautiful and finally a comfortable temperature. We made our way out and back towards the car.

Our drive to Slano was 2-3 hours depending on the route and tolls. We decided to drive the longer coastal route and avoid the tolls. About an hour into our drive we realized Google had rerouted us and we’d been driving parallel to the coast but along the interior mountain side. Still a beautiful drive. Ryan was upset because he wanted to drive along the coast. Eventually the road came to a close, apparently construction down the way and we were forced to turn around and get onto the toll nonetheless. We came down out of the mountains and onto the coast and were to the Bosnia and Herzegovina border. A small portion of that country juts out onto the coast and divides Croatia. We had our passports ready but the border control didn’t seem to care gesturing us through after seeing the American cover. We drove through Bosnia and Herzegovina for about 20 minutes before crossing back into Croatia. Their border control was a little more intensive, being in the European Union, and we got our passports checked at two stations.

Finally we arrived in the sleepy coastal bay town of Slano. Our AirBnB host was very welcoming and we had a private room and bath within her large apartment style house. This house had been in her family for generations and she showed us the olive and palm trees her grandfather had planted. We were hungry, so we walked for 10 minutes along the bay towards a beach and three restaurants. Again, the beach was rocky and there were a ton of sea urchins along the stony shore; we’d have to be careful later since we didn’t have water shoes. We settled for the restaurant our hostess recommended and got a couple of large beers, a margherita pizza (see: American cheese pizza with a single olive), and cevapi. The pizza was nowhere near as good as Italy but reminded us of a Papa Johns so it felt like home. While we were chatting and enjoying our food, we could hear the couple behind us arguing. They were having the most awkward and inappropriate conversation at times and were not quiet about it.

Eventually they noticed us listening and offered to buy us some drinks. Our new friends were Oliver and Christine; Oliver is from London and Christine was born in Canada, but lived in Arizona most of her life. They now live in Vancouver and are seriously on the verge of very rich. They were not shy to tell us all about the money they’d earned and lost on drugs and partying. Oliver claims to have met Prince Harry, Posh Spice, and became best friends with Colin Ferrell while they were at Betty Ford together. They had been day drinking themselves and insisted on buying us drink after drink. They offered to take us out on his father’s boat the next day, but they seemed pretty hammered we don’t think they remembered much of what was happening. Their home was just a block from our AirBnB, so we walked back to theirs and drank their wine and swam in their pool. Eventually they started arguing again, so we took it as our cue to leave. It was an interesting lesson for us to see firsthand that money can’t buy you happiness or good relationships, even if she did have a 9 karat ring.

Day 4 – Dubrovnik, Croatia – August 28

We woke up late and wandered down the street to a small breakfast café called the Bite Shop. We ordered the French breakfast, chocolate croissants, and cappuccinos. The croissants were all homemade and fresh baked – absolutely delicious.

We spent the late morning and afternoon alternating between lounging under the olive tree and swimming in the bay. The area right outside of our AirBnB was sea urchin free. We could walk until about hip depth then swim over a patch of seaweed to be in the deep sparkling blue water. We never heard again from our drunk friends the night before, hopefully they’re still married. We’d bought a few bottles of wine from the grocery store in Split, but we didn’t have cups, so we were sitting in the shade passing the bottle back and forth enjoying the hot weather.

Around 3 PM we showered and got ready to drive to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is one of the most famous towns in Croatia and located just 45 minutes south of Slano. It’s a lot more expensive to stay near Dubrovnik proper, hence why we were staying in Slano. We’d also heard from many people that the cruise ships dump out each day in Dubrovnik and if you wait until the evening, they all hustle back to their ship for their prepaid dinner and the town is less crowded. Ryan found a place that claimed to have some free street parking and we were off. The drive was pretty, weaving along the coast with the mountains to the other side.

We actually managed to find a spot on the street that was free and walked the 20 minutes to the old town. Old town Dubrovnik is surrounded by walls and was used as King’s Landing in Game of Thrones. We entered the old city and it felt unreal, like if Disney had made a park for Game of Throne. Everything was smooth stone, not a single tree or grass patch to be seen. There are a ton of restaurants and shops inside. They all had at least 40 tables, all empty, we can’t imagine what this place looked like at lunch with all the cruise ship people.

After walking around in circles checking out the menus, we found a restaurant that wasn’t too overpriced and drank beer and shared some French fries and black risotto. The black risotto is a famous regional dish prepared with cuttlefish, they use the very ink from the squid to stain it black during cooking, delicious.

Afterwards we spent about an hour or so wandering around the old town seeing the cathedrals and clocktowers. Elizabeth was brave enough to take the stairs up the hill to get an overlook of the town and all of the orange brick buildings.  Ryan was lazy and waited at the base of the steps as he’d already hit his step goal. 

It was getting late and we were out of money for the day so we wandered back to the car, which luckily hadn’t been towed. We made it back to our AirBnB and sat back under the olive trees under the stars finishing our wine and listening to the Karaoke from either a bar across the bay or one of the ships anchored nearby carry over the water.

Day 5 – Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina – August 29

We rolled out of bed at a reasonable hour and went for a long walk around the bay checking out the marina and the other public beaches. We got breakfast at the same place, sharing regular and chocolate filled croissants. Finally, it was time to hit the road and go back to Bosnia and Herzegovina, this time to spend the night. Ryan drove up a steep, single-lane, winding road over the mountain to the border crossing. They inspected our passport and this time gave us a stamp. From here it was another hour drive to the city of Mostar. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we haven’t learned anything about the complicated history of former Yugoslavia and the relationship between these new countries. The civil war ended in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 and we passed a lot of cemeteries that looked depressingly new and full. Ryan read online that they are still identifying bodies from mass graves.

We arrived in Mostar and began the most stressful driving experience of Elizabeth’s life, and she wasn’t even driving. Mostar has become a pretty popular tourist destination being only a few hours from some of Croatia’s major cities, but does not yet have the road infrastructure to cope. We’ve grown pretty reliant on Google Maps and it was leading us where there weren’t roads and the wrong way down one-way roads. There were several narrow streets with cars coming in every direction, but Ryan took it like a champ. After a few loops around the town and a short drive though the town bazaars, we found our AirBnB.  We are staying in a super nice, modern, two-bedroom apartment in the heart of Mostar for $25 a night. We spent a few hours trying to figure out ways to stay longer in this cheap country, but we’d set some hard deadlines for ourselves with future commitments.

It was time to find some food and we went to a place called Ristorante Mio Pasto, where we sat outside overlooking the vibrant blue river and the newly rebuilt old bridge. Ryan ordered ćevapi and Elizabeth tried a dish we can’t remember the name of, which is ground beef that has been spiced, grilled, and folded over with cheese between. Everything was delicious and we drank beer that had the bridge on the label.

After lunch it was time to explore and we went through the markets and across the bridge. You can take a “class” and dive for yourself off the 24-meter high bridge. There were men there who hung over the rail and asked people for money, then they would jump in.

We wandered through shops and intent on finding the cheapest beer; mind you we were debating struggling between a $2.20 and $2.40 a half-liter pint. Instead we settled on a bar called Black Dog Pub and had some local craft beer. We sat outside along a different portion of the river and enjoyed cooling off in their mist machines.

The bar hopping continued, as you might expect, and we found another spot on the river to drink more beer and eat baklava. As the sun was setting we found a grocery store across the street from our Airbnb and bought 1.5 liters of beer for $1.50 along with snacks so we can lounge around our fancy apartment until bed time.

Day 6 – Kravica Waterfall, Bosnia and Herzegovina – August 30

Leaving Mostar was about as stressful as getting there. Google continued taking us up one-way roads in the wrong direction, but we made it out alive. Our last stop in Bosnia and Herzegovina before going back into Croatia was Kravica Waterfalls. They are located pretty close to the border and the pictures looked amazing. We’d got a decently early start that morning and arrived at the falls just before 10 AM and literally minutes before all the tour buses. We paid our 5-euro entrance fee and walked down the slick limestone to the water.

The falls were absolutely beautiful, consisting of a series of waterfalls cascading over a lush cliff. We hung our belongings on a tree and got in the water. The water was surprisingly cold, compared to the ocean temperatures we’d been swimming in. It didn’t take long to get used to and it was easy to see why this was such a popular attraction on a hot summer day. There were a lot of little fish in the water too that would nibble on our legs, tickling us.

Eventually we got out and wandered around the rest of the river and falls. There were a bunch of little bars with tables all around the waters edge. We still had a long 4-hour drive ahead of us towards Starigrad in Croatia so we couldn’t stick around for too long (or for a beer) but it was definitely worth the stop.

We headed back out to our car, thinking it’d be a quick 30 minutes over the border. How wrong we were. Google first led us to a closed border crossing, then a local EU only, until we finally found a way out. Croatia has to be stricter about border control since they are in the EU, but not in the Schengen Area.  And Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t in either. Once we were across, we had an uneventful drive up north. We say uneventful, but there were plenty of gorgeous mountains and a thunderstorm followed us all the way up north to Starigrad.

We arrived in this small coastal town around 4 pm and were greeted by an old German man. We’re not sure if he spoke and Croatian, but he certainly didn’t speak any English. He gestured for us to sit before he checked us in and gave us each a shot of his homemade liquor, which tasted like Jagermeister along with some sort of fig treat. Ryan loved it and Elizabeth choked it down. We are staying in a small hotel for one night, in what we now know to be a very German town.  Ryan studied German in high school, but you wouldn’t know it with the way he was trying to communicate.  It’s amazing what not practicing a language for 10 years will do to you. After settling in, we were obviously hungry and the storm that was following us was blowing in fast.

We found a bar along the waters’ edge and grabbed the last table under the awning then spent a few hours drinking beer and sharing pizza and a hamburger. The storm brought intense wind and lighting and we were able to see it all out over the water. After a few hours the rain let up and we were able to scamper home. We went out a few hours later to enjoy the town on a Saturday night. The place was alive with German families eating ice cream and some people swimming in the dark, hopefully they didn’t step on any urchins.

Day 7 – Starigrad, Croatia – August 31

This is our last big driving day before returning the car in Ljubljana, Slovenia tomorrow. Right outside of town, literally 6 minutes from where we are staying, is one of Croatia’s best national parks.  We packed up our car and got our hiking clothes on before setting out to Paklenica National Park. We paid our 5 euro each to get in then parked with the other German vacationers. Ryan knew this was a big rock climbing area, but he didn’t realize how big. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a guide here and climb ourselves, and it was like watching a person being tortured as he walked through the different climbing areas.

These walls were high and people were climbing everywhere. We watched for a while before finally beginning our 7-mile hike on a trail called Jurasova Glavica. This loop trailed had us gain 2,300 feet in elevation over just 1.5 miles and we were exhausted after. It isn’t as popular as other trails in the park so we were utterly alone the entire 4 hours. We hiked the loop counterclockwise to get the elevation gain out of the way early but boy were we tired going up switchback, after switchback on loose and slick limestone.

Eventually we made it to the crest and had incredible views of other mountains and the sea. The walk down was a little trickier being all loose gravel and still pretty steep, but we made it out alive. This park has so much more to offer that we could even appreciate in a few hours. We left the park, again walking past the rock climbers and vowing to return one day and climb ourselves.

We piled, stinky and tired, back in the car and found a restaurant on the coast called Pension Tota. We drank well deserved beers and ate shrimp pasta and wiener schnitzel with fries. It was finally time to begin our last big drive and we headed north towards Slovenia.  We had zero issue crossing the border. We arrived at our Airbnb around 7:30 pm, which was described online as an Earth House. We had our own bedroom with a small patio that led to the mosquito infested outside. We didn’t have air conditioning but luckily the temperature is beginning to drop and we slept comfortably as it dropped into the 60s outside.

Day 8 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – September 1

It was time to return the car so we drove to the airport located about 25 minutes outside of the city. Of course, city buses don’t run out this far on Sundays, which we didn’t find out until getting there, so we had to pay for the airport shuttle to take us back into the downtown area. We made it back just in time to attend the 12:30 Sunday mass at the cathedral. At the entrance door we had to convince the man we were going to mass and not just getting in for free to take a picture and leave. We finally made it in and enjoyed a service in Slovenian in very old, and very uncomfortable pews. After we wandered around the inside of the church where they had many bronze statues of Pope Francis.

Hungry and sick of second-rate pasta and pizza we found that Slovenian love hamburgers. We settled for a restaurant called Pop’s Place and split the Mac Burger, which was full of sauce and vegetables.  Obviously, we also needed more beers. We got to sit outside right on the river and enjoyed the shade. Downtown Ljubljana has a river that runs through the center and a several beautiful bridges that cross over it. The downtown is also cut off to cars so only pedestrians and cyclists share the old stone streets.

Next we did a little window-shopping wandering into a few clothing stores but not finding anything reasonably priced. It was enough to get our ice cream appetite invigorated so we stopped by a shop called Cacoa to split a cone of Nutella peanut cream and stracciatella. We took our ice cream and wandered to the lock bridge where people hang padlocks and toss the key in the river. Our next stop was the dragon bridge. As you can imagine it’s decorated with many dragon statues. The town experienced a horrible earthquake in 1895 and Jože Plečnik lead the design in rebuilding the city.

We decided we needed a Sunday funday so we did a little bar hopping. Our first stop was a small pub with 2-euro draft beers. We sat outside as long as we could but the nearby tobacco smoke drove us in to finish our beers. Next we wandered across the river to a wine bar called Šuklje. We each had a flight, Elizabeth getting all Slovenian wine and Ryan a flight comparing Slovenian wine to other wine in the world. Two red and two white each. They brought us olives as a tapas, and Ryan has slowly become a huge olive fan. We had great weather and sat outside along the river listening to two little girls busking on their violins and cellos.

Next door was an Indian restaurant and we weren’t strong enough to resist. We drank more Union beer, Elizabeth getting the Radlar with grapefruit. We shared bread, rice, vegetable korma and matter paneer. After stuffing our faces, we had a 35-minute walk home along a beautiful river and through quaint neighborhoods with children and parents out biking and playing in the streets. So picturesque.

Day 9 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – September 2

Elizabeth woke up to take a jog through Trevi park about a mile from our Airbnb. The morning was foggy and cool in the low 60s but it felt so good to not be sweating. After a shower and getting packed up we made the 30-minute walk back into town. The first thing we noticed was a ton of high school age kids packing the streets, around noon, and a lot of them covered in marker bearing the letter “F.” Our conclusion is that it was the first day of school and freshman were hazed, or marked by their friends. The kids seemed to be enjoying the tradition, snapping pictures, etc.

We headed to a teenage hot spot called Hoodburger to get more delicious greasy food. Elizabeth got the burger and Ryan got a version of a Philly Cheesesteak. Both were super filling. Next it was time to find the rock climbing gym. The forecast called for heavy storms in the middle to late afternoon so we were trying to time wandering around town with hours in the gym. Ljubljana has a fantastic bike system. For 1 euro a week you can rent all the bikes you want from over 32 locations around the city. The bikes aren’t nice though: no gears and the back pedal is a break like when we were 5, but you can’t beat a euro in endless transportation. Ryan led the charge and we rode along the river towards the Plezalni Center arriving after just 15 minutes. We made it in just before it started pouring.

When we first arrived, the gym was pretty empty and we had about 6 different top ropes to choose from. As the hours passed the center filed with more and more hippies and kids and when we were tired, we were able to watch them climb and wait out the rest of the storm. The highest wall in the gym was 56 feet, but we now wish we could skip the indoor gyms and just climb outside.

We biked back towards the city center and enjoyed some beers before eating dinner at a restaurant called Marely and Me. Elizabeth got an asparagus ravioli with mushroom sauce and Ryan got traditional Slovenian dumplings. Their house wine was less than $2 a glass so we downed a couple before ending our meal with a fresh tiramisu. By now the sun had set and we had one last bike ride to get us close to home. Elizabeth’s bike didn’t have working lights so she followed Ryan’s brilliant lead avoiding cars and pedestrians. We are happy to report no one fell off a bike. We made one last pit stop at the bar near our Airbnb before turning in for the night. A lot of calories burned and a lot of calories consumed, what a great day.

Day 10 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – September 3

Our final morning in Slovenia was spent packing and preparing for our transportation to Vienna, Austria. We bought cheap Flixbus tickets, less than $60 total to take us the 5 hours to get to our destination. We took a taxi to the bus station and looked around for a café, but we didn’t really have any options.  So we ate McDonalds, Ryan getting a Big Mac at 9:30 am and Elizabeth trying a “toast” (thin bread with melted ham and cheese between) and French fries covered in fake cheese sauce. The bus arrived just 15 minutes late and we were off towards Vienna. We made two stops along the way for bathrooms and snacks, all in all it was great for the cost and got us there 15 minutes early.

Things we’ve learned road tripping through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia:

  1. Don’t trust Google Maps in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  2. Staying in small towns outside of the big cities in Croatia saves money and feels like a German vacation.
  3. If visiting Dubrovnik, wait until the evening for the cruise ship evacuation.
  4. Just pay for the tolls.

Italy and Vatican City

Day 1 – Rome – August 11

We had a short, hour-long layover in Madrid, long enough to make us remember we love Espana. Our flight from Madrid to Rome (Roma as they call it – apparently it’s nearly impossible to decipher if you don’t add that ‘a’ on the end) was pleasant enough; no one was sitting next to us, but we took off late due to maintenance issues, only for the plane to land on time.  We guess they just flew faster.  Ryan wanted an Italian stamp on his passport, but we didn’t get one as we were already in the Schengen Area.  Our Airbnb host gave us detailed instructions on how to transfer from the airport to the apartment.  We, of course, decided that route was too expensive and took a different train, which ended up taking us not quite where we needed to be.  So we took a taxi the final 20 minutes, instead of spending another hour on a bus ride.  Our taxi driver was quite congenial, telling us where to eat, and what tourist spots to avoid; then he let us know that his pistol was made in Texas (STI brand) and that he only used it for target practice.  What a coincidence.  Our Airbnb host met us in the courtyard of the apartment and explained the building was over 100 years old and very Roman.  He then escorted us to our room and gave a brief introduction to Rome.  We then loaded up the washing machine and went out to find some pizza.  Half an hour later our host messaged us to let us know that we needed to wait until tomorrow to do our laundry, because we had tripped the breaker and killed the power to the apartment – something our flat mates were not happy about.  This didn’t slow us down, as we were enjoying phenomenal pizza and delicious wine at Alma Bunoa.  We returned to the Airbnb, watched an episode of GOT, then Elizabeth promptly fell asleep.

Day 2 -Rome – August 12

Elizabeth woke up early (well early for us – at 7 AM) to go for a jog around the neighborhood.  In typical fashion, she got lost and ended up running six miles, 3 more than she intended, and biffed it on the pavement, scrapping her knee, elbow and hand. She eventually made it to the park where other people were exercising- but no one was exercising on the way there-how did they make it there? Meanwhile Ryan slept in, he couldn’t fall asleep until half past 2 the night before, so he was catching up.  At 1030, we ate a free in-house breakfast of cereal, yogurt and prosciutto, then finished our laundry cycle.  After hanging the clothes to dry, we set out to see the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon; we also needed to check out the shopping district nearby, even though we ended up not buying anything.  

Deciding we had walked enough, we walked towards the nearest bus stop and attempted to buy tickets.  They are traditionally sold at tobacco shops and convenience stores.  We were not able to find either of these on the way, so we concocted a plan to download the app.  That effort led us to missing the first bus.  We eventually figured it out though and hopped on the next one.  Arriving at our stop we realized that walking to all those sights had brewed quite a hunger in us, which we had to sate with pasta and wine.  Stopping in at a quaint looking osteria, where we ate spaghetti carbonara and Norcina alla con tartufo. 

After enjoying this rich meal, Elizabeth decided our only option was to stop by a gelateria.  How could you argue with that?  A few scoops of pistachio, Stracciatella, and Oreo gelato later, we were hankering for a nightcap.  We strolled into the café across from our apartment to order a few beers and a couple glasses of wine.  They were kind enough to serve us some interesting tapas unprompted, which they then charged us for.  They didn’t charge us for all the drinks though, so it looks like they were free after all.  The 2-minute walk to our apartment seemed like an eternity, as we wanted nothing more than to be in our beds, but Elizabeth let us take the elevator to save some time (and effort). 

Day 3 – Rome – August 13

We got up around 8:30 and made our way over to St. Peter’s Basilica to go into Vatican City. The crowds were pretty low and we were able to enjoy the square and look upon the Basilica. Construction of the basilica began in 1506 and finished in 1626, it is estimated to have cost $5.4 billion to build today. It is believed to be resting place of St. Peter, the first pope, under the main altar. We walked along the outside of the entire Holy See, so we could say we’ve walked around an entire country. The line for the Vatican museum was at least three blocks long. We haven’t figured out the prime days/times for visiting the various sites in Rome.

Next we set off for lunch walking about 45 minutes along the Tiber River to the eastern part of Rome. The walk was beautiful and cool as we strolled under the shade of the trees seemingly having the entire city to ourselves. We ate lunch at a pizzeria called Emma and it was delicious. We ate a margarita pizza and a prosciutto pizza and shared a bottle of red wine, also delicious. For dessert, we each got an espresso and shared an order of homemade biscuits.  We were served entirely too many to finish.

We continued wandering east, eventually stumbling upon the Altare della Patria, which translates to Altar of the Fatherland. Much to our delight, it was free! So, we climbed the enormous marble staircases and admired architecture and the statues. This landmark is a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel II the first king of unified Italy and was completed in 1911. We were able to take great panoramic photos of the city from the top and had our first glimpse at the Roman Forum and the Colosseum – our next stops.

We wandered down the street walking next to several large Roman pillars and parts of benches and buildings that had been excavated in the 1800s. The preservation of these artifacts is amazing and you can still see so much carved detail in the stone. We got to the Colosseum pretty late, around 5 pm, hoping to miss the heat and the crowds. It still took 15-20 minutes to make it through all the metal detectors and lines to buy our tickets, but finally we were in.

We wandered through the ground floor, noticing that the stadium floor had been removed. They are renovating all the tunnels and spaces below. On the second floor you have a better view of the whole colosseum and there is a little museum that has models of how it would have looked in its heyday. It was the largest colosseum at the time and could hold up to 80,000 people. You could see in the models how the animals and gladiators would have come up through the floor. It was a good thing we just finished watching Gladiator in Morocco – to see what Russel Crowe has seen.

Exhausted, we began walking back home by wandering around the outside of the Roman Forum – Rome should really work on updating their signs for entrances and thru-streets. We walked a good 20 minutes before realizing we were headed to a dead end and had to turn back. Hungry, we began our quest for food. The area near the colosseum is pretty touristy, as you can imagine, and charge a lot of money for a unappetizing spaghetti and meatball. So, we continued our journey back to our neighborhood of Prati – which happens to be a good local food scene. On our way, we stopped into an Irish Pub called The Surge to get a few beers and cool off. Ryan tried the Guinness; per usual he reports it is still not as good as Ireland.

We then hopped on the bus and headed back towards our AirBnB. The bus system in Rome is a disaster, as described by a local. Google has timetables for arrival and departures, but the buses are always very late, very early, or just never come. We’d hustle to catch a bus, only to have to sit for 30 minutes waiting for one to show up.  Luckily the beer helped us cope.  For dinner we ate at a restaurant down the street from our room called Luma Bistro. Ryan had gnocchi with prawn and Elizabeth got spaghetti Bolognese, and of course we had some more local Lazio wine – delicious. Bellies full, it was a short walk back to our home.

Day 4 – Rome – August 14

We got up earlyish with the intention of going inside St. Peter’s Basilica around 9 am. The line was already wrapping around the entire plaza, so we left for a quick breakfast of pastries and coffee at a small tourist breakfast shop, Café Delle Commari, which was overpriced and about 10 minutes away. We returned an hour later to see if the lines had dropped – they had not. We relaxed in the plaza for an hour or so, lounging in the shade and people watching, all while the line got longer and longer stretching around the back end of the church. Since we have plenty of time in Rome, we decided to come back another less crowded day to see the church.

We hopped on a bus and headed back towards the center of town to visit a hand-picked, heavily researched Italian restaurant. This was the beginning of our Italian restaurant failings. Apparently, the entire country goes on vacation at the end of August and doesn’t update their Google hours or open/closed status. We arrived to gated doors. Starving, we popped in small sandwich shop just a few doors down with Homer Simpson on the sign. We shared a large Peroni, a ham and mozzarella sandwich on facoccia bread, and French fries. Apparently, we started a trend because the small restaurant of four tables was empty when we arrived and we could barely get through the crowd to pay our bill. After a quick detour for the gelato shop for Elizabeth, stracciatella and menta, it was off to the Roman Forum.

Roman Forum had a tricky entrance to locate but the Colosseum tickets we purchased included both and we were determined to get our moneys worth. The forum is well worth the price of admission. You can see everything from the sidewalk above as you walk towards the Colosseum, but it was something else to actually walk through the old archways which are old government buildings and is in the heart of ancient Rome. We continued out of the valley and up the hill to the Palantine. Palantine is where the Augustus imperial palace ruins stand. Its crazy to see things that were built in 60 AD, 60!

Finally, we were headed back home for some afternoon drinking and changing out of our sweaty clothes. We waited and waited and waited for a bus until finally just ordering a taxi. The bus is only 1.5 euro a person, so maybe that’s why it’s never on time.  After having the driver drop us off near our AirBnB we walked over to a bar/café, La Fiorentina and drank a half liter of their house white wine; it was so cool and refreshing.  Ryan had found a number of delicious looking restaurants right in our neighborhood, so afterwards we set off for some pasta and pizza.  Unfortunately, the first three we walked to were all closed for vacation. We ended up going to a restaurant right across the street called Trattoria Micci from our AirBnB at Elizabeth’s suggestion. We sat outside, and only being 7:30 pm, beat the local Italian crowd to dinner. This was one of our favorite meals in Rome. We had a bottle of the house red and split a sausage pizza and pasta all’Amatriciana. For dinner we split a crème brûlée, so heavenly.

Day 5 – Vatican City – August 15

Elizabeth woke up early to jog up Monte Mario a small mountain a mile away from our house with an observatory on top. The jog was challenging going up a short and steep series of switchbacks on uneven cobbles but the views over Rome were worth it. On her way down we stopped by St. Peters Basilica to check out the lines, the pope was giving a blessing at noon and she knew there’d be more security to go through. It seemed like people were already going in, at 8:30, so Elizabeth panicked, made us quick shower and grab cappuccinos and pastries from the shop below our apartment before rushing over.

Obviously, we made it through the metal detectors by 9:30 and the place was practically deserted. Since we had 2.5 hours to kill before the pope, we walked into the basilica.  Again, virtually no wait.  We’re not really sure what was going on the day before.  Our first stop was up the 551 steps to go up inside St. Peters Dome and then to the top of the cupola to walk around on the outside. The first set of steps (320) are long, broad, and slick that take you inside the church. You can walk along half of the dome and have a close view of all the mosaics on the ceiling and walls. The walls and ceilings are not actually painted anywhere within in the church, they’re all mosaics. You can look down right in the middle and see the baldacchino canopy above the altar above St. Peters grave and where the pope says mass. Next we went up the narrow, winding stairs towards the top. The views are gorgeous and you can see all of Piazza San Pietro. It cost 8 euro to take the stairs to the top or 10 euro to elevator half way up but it’s well worth the price.

After winding our way back down, we spent plenty of time up top enjoying the breeze and trying to dry our sweat from climbing all the unairconditioned stairs with 300 other people, we went inside the church. Since it was a Holy Day of Obligation, Ascension Thursday – when Mary goes to heaven, there was mass happening in all of the side chapels every hour on the hour. We wandered around looking at all the art and marveling at how big the church is before going into the basement Grotto. Below holds the tombs of former popes and we weaved between the different tombs and sarcophagi.

Finally, it was around 11:30 and Elizabeth was getting pope excited. We weren’t sure where he was going to be speaking from. Eventually we learned he gives these addresses from his study window, which isn’t in the church, but in one of the buildings to the side looking of St. Peter’s Square. We waited in the shade until 11:45 when they dramatically flung open his study window and laid out his crest and flag. We scampered into the sun and closer to his window to get a better view of the Holy Father. He popped out right as the bells were chiming noon and was just as adorable as his pictures. Speaking in Italian he greeted us and reflected on the Ascension of Mary into heaven. He gave us a blessing, welcomed the different pilgrimage groups by name, then told us to have a good lunch. I was able to find his whole speech (they translate it to English), and you can see us in the crowd a few times, here:  https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/angelus/2019-08/pope-s-angelus-of-15-august-2019.html#play I bought a new rosary prior and the beads look like little globes, and now it has the popes blessing upon it!

Ryan thought we treated the pope like a rock star, applauding and cheering when he came out – and he is. We were famished post-pope and walking through the church, so we decided to find some food. We settled on sharing a doner kebab, one of Elizabeth’s favorites from Spain; it’s like a gyro but extra. Next stop was heading back to the house to wait out the afternoon heat in our A/C.

For dinner that night we took a bus 30 minutes towards the southern end of the city to a pizzeria recommended by our taxi driver the night we arrived in Rome, which apparently had the best Roman pizza. Of course, we arrived to boarded up doors as they were on vacation. Ever the optimists we decided we’d wander around the neighborhood and enjoy one of the other 10 restaurants Google maps recommended – all were closed.  We don’t know how, economically speaking, an entire city can take vacation at the same time, but Rome makes it work. Maybe it’s because we’re not going to the touristy shops. Feeling defeated and hungry it was icing on the cake to watch the bus drive by without stopping at our stop, thank God for taxis and cell phones.  

We tried to recreate the magic of our previous night’s dinner at Trattoria Micci, but arrived at normal eating hours, so didn’t get to sit outside. We tried the cacio e pepe a noodle dish with just butter, cheese, and pepper and a pizza that had egg, meat, artichokes and mushrooms.  Ryan was still famished, so he went ahead and ordered a Margareta pizza and washed it all down with the house white wine.

Day 6 – Rome – August 16

We got up early to head over to the Basilica to attend mass one last time. Arriving around 9 the security lines were short and we found a 9:30 daily mass in Italian. No idea what was said, beside the normal stuff, but it felt so nice and peaceful. By the time we left, around 10, the line was again wrapped all the way around the church. We enjoyed one last free breakfast at our AirBnB, before switching to cheaper accommodations in the northeastern portion of the city. The weather wasn’t supposed to reach into the 90’s anymore so Elizabeth thought we could do without the A/C.  She was so wrong.

The bus ride to our new place was hellish. Not only was the bus late per usual, but it was overly crowded being a Friday.  As it was standing room only, Elizabeth nearly smothered a man with her pack while we rode the long hour down the bumping, winding streets.  We had already purchased event tickets to see the Vatican museum so we weren’t excited to make this trip again in just a few hours’ time.

Finally, we arrived at our new spot and settled in. We ventured out to find food and experience the Rome metro. This was our first trip as the line by our old place had been under maintenance. The metro is very nice and not super expansive, but it doesn’t reach many parts of the city conveniently.  Apparently every time they try to dig a new tunnel to expand the line, they unearth new archaeological discoveries.

We took the metro to the Termni Station; we’d be back here Monday for our train to Naples. As to be expected, most things that looked good were closed, but eventually we found Ristorante Centro and ate more pasta all’amatriciana while Ryan got a white pasta with rabbit meat. Both were delicious and we decided to mixed it up by ordering beer instead of wine.

We were killing time before our Vatican Museum tour and happy hour began at 7 pm, so we found a small outdoor bar to split another bottle of house wine. The bar was located on a steep hill so all the tables and chairs were at strange angles, Ryan angled his so it felt like he was reclining.  On our walk to catch the bus towards the Vatican, Ryan managed slice open the front of his toe on the uneven pavement. Before it could start gushing blood, we grabbed a taxi back to the room so he could clean it, bandage it, and put on tennis shoes. Though we didn’t love having to pay for a taxi, we did love that we then didn’t have time to bus to the Vatican and got to avoid that annoying part of the trip.

We arrived at the museum entrance just on time to go through security and wind up in the courtyard facing St. Peter’s Basilica listening to a jazz band, while eating appetizers and sipping wine. The Vatican, trying to encourage people to revisit the Vatican, runs these Friday night happy hours exclusively in the summer months. Since Elizabeth had experienced the museum and Vatican grounds by day 10 years before, she was excited to see it all in a different, and hopefully cooler, light. We stuffed our faces with all the food and dessert we could, and after they forgot to collect our drink tickets enjoyed two free wines each in the Cortile della Pigna. Around 8:30 we decided it was time to head in and see what this museum had to offer.

The crowd was still pretty large, but we couldn’t imagine being there in peak time. If you hung out in front of an exhibit for about 2-3 minutes, you could manage a clear, uninterrupted shot.  We enjoyed not being wall to wall with people. We self-guided ourselves through various statue rooms, the garden statue area that for whatever reason has a lot of fancy bathtubs, the map room, tapestry room, Raphael rooms, modern art museum, and eventually the Sistine Chapel.  All of the male statues either have broken off dongs or leaves over their privates. Apparently, Pope Paul IV began the trend around 1555 and it continued through a series of popes, ending in 1857 with Pope Pius IX covering any remaining members with fig leaves. They thought them improper and now all the dongs live in boxes in the basement. Hilarious.

The tapestry rooms and map rooms were beautiful and the Raphael rooms held iconic paintings like the three roman philosophers. Finally, we made it into the Sistine Chapel, no photos are allowed so the space is full of the guards yelling at people. The famous God and David touching fingers is the central panel but what most people don’t realize is that it’s only one of a hundred different scenes that were painted there. We left the museum exhausted and without accidently running into the pope – despite our best efforts.  

Day 7 – Rome – August 17

We survived, but barely, our first night in a non-A/C room. We were excited about a corner room, until we realized it was afternoon-sun-facing and had its back to the wind. The room heated up then held it all night with no breeze, but hey, it was more wine or a good night’s sleep. The neighborhood we are staying in was supposed to be great for food, but of course, just about every restaurateur are vacationing. Our third café was opened, called Don Nino. We got cappuccinos, yogurt, a croissant and a sandwich. Next we decided to pick up some essentials and hit a nearby park.

Ryan loves grocery stores in general, so you can imagine how he is in foreign ones with mystery meats and cheese counters. After what felt like an eternity to Elizabeth, we left with a bottle of wine, bread, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and tomatoes. We made it to the park and passed some old wooden exercise equipment that he briefly used until we found a bench by a green lake. We spent the afternoon dreaming about where to go next and lounging.

We took the long walk home walking by many promising, but unfortunately closed pizza joints. We ventured out of our neighborhood to an area called Bologna hoping to find open restaurants. We finally found one in the main plaza called Trattoria da Neno. All the locals must be on vacation too, because the internet said we wouldn’t be able to get a table and the place was pretty empty. We got carbonara and focaccia bread and tried the burger and fries. The burger was actually surprisingly delicious and had three types of sauce. We drank a large bottle of wine and stumbled home to another stuffy night.

Day 8 – Rome – August 18

We woke up early and walked to the Tiber river to enjoy a jog on what Google labeled a regular path. The single width dirt rode wove around the river and through forest right in the middle of Rome. At one point we passed sheep grazing in front of apartment complexes. We went to mass at a church right around the corner from our AirBnB. We wish we spoke Italian because the priest thought he was hilarious and was clearly cracking a lot of jokes.

Hungry we made another attempt at food. We started with gelato since it was open and Elizabeth was getting crabby. We decided to take the metro back over to the Termini station area to see if we could have more success in the tourist areas. We found a restaurant called Fratelli Scarpetta Roma; we got the house red wine, which was sparkling and Ryan loved it. For food we each got a gnocchi, pesto and red sauce, it was the best gnocchi we’d ever had. We split ways, Ryan heading back to the grocery store to get food for dinner at our AirBnB, while Elizabeth was spoiled and got to go straight home. We spent the late afternoon and evening watching movies and eating more popcorn, prosciutto, cheese, and tomatoes – and of drinking course wine.

Day 9 – Naples – August 19

We packed up and walked back to the metro towards Termini Station to catch our train towards Naples. After fighting the crowds and a last-minute platform switch, we found our seats and enjoyed the 1.5-hour trip, rolling along the coast, watching the ocean and vineyards pass in the window. Once we made it to Naples, we walked 20 minutes north, and after being led astray by Google maps, managed to find our apartment rental. We were met by Luigi, who barely spoke English and showed us to our loft room with two double beds. Ryan is excited to be away from me and be cool.

It was passed lunch time so we found a well rated pizzeria just, Pizzeria del Corso, just around the block that was even open! We are huge pizza fans, as you can tell by our belly sizes, and Neapolitan style pizza is our favorite. Ryan has been excited about eating pizza in this place for years. Neapolitan style pizza has very specific rules and is heavily regulated. Everything from the origin of the tomatoes and cheese to the diameter of the pizza to the temperature of the brick oven, are all tightly controlled.  Pizzerias that meet the standards are deemed vera pizza (true pizza) and are given a certification number. We got two pizzas and giant Peroni’s, and it was so cheap! Ryan’s pizza even had a stuffed crust!

After our late lunch we popped over to the grocery store to get wine, beer, milk, and cookies. We didn’t plan on eating that for dinner, but we settled into the air conditioning and couldn’t bring ourselves to make it out later that night – it worked out well for cost savings!

Day 10 – Naples – August 20

We woke up early and walked around the city. Unlike Rome, Naples seems to wake up early and the streets were already crowded by 8 am with people popping into cafes and opening up their shops. We stopped in Caffe Vanvitelli and once we figured out the process, ordered two cappuccinos and fresh homemade croissants (one with Nutella stuffed inside) and stood at the counter pounding our breakfast with the other locals. Next, it was time to navigate the subway. Rome was convenient in that you could buy tickets to all public transportation with a phone app, but sadly Naples is not that advanced. You have to buy tickets at the tobacco shops, half of which are closed due to people on vacation.

We walked down towards the metro line then rode 10 stops to the west part of town. Our first stop was St. Elmos Castle. This castle sits atop a hill overlooking Naples and is made of volcanic tuff. It is half price on Tuesdays so we thoroughly enjoyed walking around and taking in the views of the city, ocean, Vesuvius, and Capri in the distance.

Since we rode the metro, we didn’t realize how high above the city we were. Elizabeth decided our next walk would be through the Spanish Quarter and the route took us down hundreds of steep and slick steps. A lot of the walk was covered in broken glass, there must be a lot of partying going on here at night.

Finally, we made it back down into the city and need to find some place to eat. We settled on Trattoria da Concetta and were able to sit out on the patio between the old buildings. For lunch we shared a bottle of house wine, only 3 euro for a liter, cotoletta alla Milanese and a Caprese salad. The cheese on the salad was the most rich and decadent mozzarella either of us had ever tasted.  This cannot be stressed enough, it was outstanding. We then wandered through the quarter towards the Plazza del Plebiscito. The sun was hot, but we found some shade on the stairs with the other locals eating their lunches and relaxed enjoying the scenery.

We were close to the coast, so we had to follow it along until we found a bar where we had some Peroni’s, which we followed up with shots of Limoncello, all while looking over the ocean at Mount Vesuvius. Once we’d regained our energy, we continued walking along the coast observing the many people swimming off the rocks; there isn’t a lot of proper sandy beach here, so people were floating around on little dinghies.

Next we spent a few hours wandering down the street Toledo. This is one of the main shopping areas and we spent lots of time popping in and out of stores and even bought Ryan a new long sleeve shirt. The pizza place we wanted to go to for dinner didn’t open until 7:30, so we needed to kill sometime at a bar. We found one in the university area and enjoyed more house wine and tapas.

Eventually we wandered over to the pizzeria, which was obviously closed, but we found another one right around the corner. We sat outside in the plaza, it was a very cramped space with tons of tables and chairs. We enjoyed more wine and shared two types of pizza. Feeling full but not ready to go home we stopped at one more local looking spot and shared more house wine and limoncello. We didn’t get the best service, we were the only tourists there, but it was still fun to be amongst the real Italian folks.

Day 11 – Pompeii – August 21

We stopped back Caffe Vanvitelli, our same café from the day before and again ate breakfast and drank coffee with the locals at the counter. Elizabeth was feeling very hungover, as we drank a lot the day before, but a breakfast pizza brought her back to life. It wasn’t a breakfast pizza with eggs etc., just a regular pizza that people apparently eat for breakfast. Unfortunately, the pastries weren’t as good the second day. Next we took the long walk down to the metro to catch the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii. We bought our tickets and stood on the platform with a couple hundred people. When train arrived and a few people were already on it, we realized our mistake in not walking a little further to get on at the first stop. This was the most crowded Elizabeth had ever seen a train and we had to shove our way in and stand next to smelly people for 40 minutes. The crowding slowly got better when a local would get off on a stop prior to Pompeii, but it was for the most part a very long train ride. A family got on and began “performing”; the mom played a recorded, karaoke version of Despacito on a speaker and the son played drums while the dad a beat a tambourine for part of the beat. It was the worst subway performance of all time. The worst part was, the speaker blared the music so loud we couldn’t even hear each other over the racket. Finally, they stopped and moved to the next car. Yikes.

The train traveled around the base of Vesuvius and eventually stopped at Pompeii. The masses detrained and we made our way to the queue to buy tickets. We hadn’t gotten as early of a start as we wanted and it was around noon, so we hoped to make it a quick trip to see the ruins. After finding a map we eventually made our way up the steep slope of the city. There were a ton of people visiting but it’s such a huge area it didn’t feel overwhelming.

We wandered for hours through all the ruins with Vesuvius in the background. The eruption happened in 79 AD and they’ve been excavating this site since the 1700s; there is still a lot of active archaeology going on today. When Elizabeth was here 10 years ago you could see lots of bodies that had been frozen in time by the ash, but we couldn’t find them. We did make it into the brothel to see the 2000-year-old sex art still painted on the walls. It was very hot and there isn’t a lot of shade from the sun. We made it about 3 hours until we needed to find the train back and some food.

The train back wasn’t nearly as crowded, and we were able to actually sit. The Despacito family returned and blared the same music at us for a few minutes before also playing on their phones in the back of the train. We got back to Naples around 3, so it was hard to find an open lunch spot. After much wandering we found a pizzeria called Pizzeria la Ruota and had the place to ourselves. We watched an Italian documentary about Anthony Hopkins and drank Peroni with our pies.

Exhausted from the day, we decided to have a night in, eating our leftover milk and cookies trying to spare our waistlines and wallets.

Day 12 – Capri – August 22

We decided to give our café, Caffe Vanvitelli, one last try and got coffee and pastries. Again, the pastries weren’t great so we vowed to try a new place the next morning. We then began our 45-minute walk down to the port to catch a ferry to Capri. Capri is an Island in the Bay of Naples that can be reached in 50 minutes on a high-speed ferry. We got our tickets – more expensive than we liked – and found seats. Elizabeth is not one for boats and gets seasick easy, but it was a clear day and the sea seemed calm. The ride was uneventful and the ferry was entirely enclosed, so we couldn’t even enjoy the sea breeze. We pulled up to the beautiful island and immediately began shoving our way through tourist crowds.

First on the list was a chairlift ride to the top of the mountain Elizabeth remembered doing when she last visited 10 years ago. Google said it was just a 30-minute walk, so we decided we’d do that then find some lunch. Little did we know we had just begun a hike up, according to Ryan’s Fitbit, of 100 stories. We hiked halfway up the mountain to get to the chairlift, and it was all accomplished while on slick, steep stairs in the sun. Ryan almost divorced her. Finally, we made it to the top and found a nice tourist shopping area and a place where for $2, a bus drops you off from the marina. Lesson for next time.

We found the chair lift and enjoyed the 13-minute ride to the top, taking in the views of the city below and the ocean. The chair lifts were single seaters so you can see both of us taking pictures of the other one over our shoulders on the way up and down.

At the top we enjoyed the views and gawked at the ridiculous prices for water, beer, and the toilet. We snapped a few photos then rode down to find some better looking food at a reasonable price.

We ate a lunch of house wine, a giant plate of French fries, a shrimp-butter pasta dish. We asked the waiter which beach we should go to and he suggested one that was a 45-minute walk across the island. He said it was all down hill and where the locals go, so we decided to give it a try. We stopped by the café across the street for cappuccinos and gelato, then began our journey. We walked along the road for most of it, fortunately hearing the vespas before they whizzed around the corner.  Eventually we found a trail that travels through the woods along the coast. We arrived at a very crowded rocky inlet, not a beach, but it certainly wasn’t slowing anyone else down.

We managed to secure an area between beached row boats to set down our stuff then got into the salty water. It was splendidly refreshing. The rocks are mostly limestone and very sharp. We found a few places where algae coated the rocks and it was more comfortable to stand. Kids were snorkeling and teenagers were climbing up the cliffs and jumping off. We climbed around on a few rocks ourselves and after diving back in, tragedy struck: Ryan lost his sunglasses.

It didn’t take long to tire out treading water in the waves and we rested and dried off near the row boats. Eventually we needed to get back to the marina to catch a ferry back to Naples and luckily there was a bus stop at the beach, we did not want to walk back. We stood in the queue and luckily, we were the last two that got shoved on the bus, Ryan standing in the stairs by the door. We were transferred to the next bus stop and ended up waiting 45 minutes for the next bus to take us to the Marina. In the end we made it and had sometime to kill before our ferry so we purchased overpriced beer and sat along the marina.

The ferry back was wider and shorter and was a smoother ride back. We made it back to Naples just in time for a late dinner. We stopped at a restaurant called Imperatore 1906. The restaurant had a sleek and modern Italian feeling. They were a ton of pizza options and it took us a while to sort through them all and convince ourselves to try new things. We settled on craft beer, a safety pizza (Margherita), and an adventurous pizza. The adventure was a white pizza with yellow tomatoes, tuna and nuts. All was delicious. After dinner we finished the long walk home and fell right to sleep.

Day 13 – Naples – August 23

For breakfast we decided to try a new pastry shop and walked across the street to Bella Vita. We ate an Italian elephant ear, a meat and cheese kolache-esque pastry and drank our coffees like professionals at the bar. Next we wandered over to the botanical gardens. They are free to enter and apparently one of the best gardens in Europe. They had an impressive number of species and an area for both biblical plants and medical plants. We wandered until we started to feel the mosquito bites then ran back to our apartment.

We spent the rest of the afternoon planning for our next stop: Croatia.  We focused on trying to figure out how to rent a car and finding places to stay. We ventured out for dinner that night in the same area of town we ate dinner the night before. We settled on well rated seafood restaurant (we decided to take a break from pizza), but they had a line around the corner – so we decided to go the place across the street.  We drank some red wine, ate Bolognese (almost as good as Ryan’s recipe), seafood pasta, and calamari. Everything was delicious!

Day 14 – Sorrento – August 24

We woke up with a wonderful text from our host: he’d made us homemade pastries. They were absolutely delicious and filled with some cheese or custard concoction. We made our way back down to the train station, being smart and walking a few minutes extra so we could get on the train before everyone else. The ride was long and cramped again, and it took us about an hour and a half to get to Sorrento. The town is right on the cliff edge of the sea so we enjoyed wandering around the city. We found a cathedral with an exhibit of famous photographs of St. Theresa.

We were hungry and headed down to the marina to find some lunch. We had such a nice view sitting outside and enjoying the shade and boats. We drank wine and ate clam pasta, red sauce gnocchi, and fried anchovies. You can apparently eat them whole but there are a lot of bones and spines so we’d split them down the middle and fillet them. Ryan got very good at it.

After lunch we headed back towards the main city and wandered down a switchback along the cliff that led to several businesses with restaurants, lounge chairs, bars etc. We looked at a few different prices and settled on Bagnino to get loungers and swim.

We spent the afternoon climbing around on the rocks and floating in the salt water. Ryan was determined to get an underwater photo with our GoPro, it probably took us 10 attempts. We then would dry off in the sun and read our books, after 30 minutes repeat. We got kicked out around 7 pm and walked back towards the train station. The conductor was driving very quickly and we made it back in 45 minutes.

We walked back to 1906 for our last dinner and shared beer, fried zucchini flowers, mozzarella balls, and a calzone. Delicious per usual we headed home and packed our backs for our flight the next day. Italy has been fun but took a real toll on our budget.

Day 15 – Naples – August 25

We headed to the airport around 8 am. According to Google maps our cab should only cost 10 euro but Naples also charges you one cent every second you are in the cab so it doubled our airport ride cost. We arrived and checked into our flight. Easyjet is a discount airline and you can only bring one bag. It was kind of funny watching people try to squeeze things; read the fine print, people. We were able to spend an hour in the lounge sipping champagne and eating cheese until we boarded our 45-minute flight. Off to Croatia.

Things we’ve learned in Italy:

  1. Do not come in August.

Morocco

Day 1 – Marrakesh – July 29

We touched down in Marrakesh around 1:30 am. While the plane was still taxiing people were already grabbing their bags and queueing in the aisles. Flight staff didn’t seem to care.  We went through customs without a problem. They stamp and write a series of numbers and letters on your passport, which is a police control number – according to the internet. We are going with a tour company from Marrakesh to Fes starting in a few days so that included airport pickup to our lodging. We are so grateful we aren’t fully winging this trip – it would be intimidating. We found a man outside with an Elizabeth Goss sign. He barely spoke English and we piled into his hot van and were off; it was nice to be on the right side of the road again. He drove like a madman through the narrow streets, barely avoiding mopeds and pedestrians. The town was oddly alive for it being 2 am on a Tuesday morning. We pulled up to the side of the road and were ushered out of the car into the care of a different man who also didn’t speak English. The tour company hasn’t been super communicative, but I thought we were staying in a hostel called Mosaic. Our tour guide wound us through the alleyways and delivered us to a Riad or guestroom. When I asked if this is the correct place, he called his boss and handed me the phone. She informed me she’d be there at 9 am to go over everything. We found our bed, in a nice private room with bathroom and A/C and fell right asleep.

Day 2 – Marrakesh – July 30

We got up and headed down to the main common area around 9 am. A cat was snoozing on the chair outside our door. Still unsure what was going on or if we’d be staying in this place for our remaining nights in Marrakesh. A woman found us and ushered us to a small table unveiling honey, jam, butter, and cheese from under a drop cloth in the middle of the table. We believe we are the Riad’s only guests. She brought us tea, coffee, and OJ, then pancakes, French toast, and bread. The water is supposedly unsafe to drink here, and we are slightly hesitant about food poisoning. We ate, and our guide-woman began the process of trying to sell us everything she could.

We decided to have a certified guide take us on a half-day tour of the city and to get a hammam and massage tomorrow morning, supposedly with a discount. We were also talked into having dinner at the hotel that night, and they would teach us how to cook it. At this point it was around 9:30 and our tour guide was scheduled to come at 11 am. We spent the next hour getting cash from the ATM machine down the road, avoiding bicycles, cars, pedestrians, and motorbikes, and lounging on the rooftop terrace as the day began to warm.

Our guide Hammad was a young man, and very friendly. At times, his English was easy to understand and at other times, Ryan had no idea what was going on. Morocco is the first Muslim country either one of us have been to and we are hyper-sensitive to being culturally correct and learning how to fit in. We’ve found women naturally talk to Elizabeth more and Ryan is expected to talk to the men and handle all things money related. Ryan began walking in front with Hammad and Elizabeth’s little legs struggled to keep up in the quickly rising temperatures. Hammad wanted to show us everything we wanted to see about the city, and unfortunately, we weren’t very knowledgeable about what to ask for so we were guided without knowing where we were going.

Marrakech is beautiful in a very exotic way. Walking the small, winding, brick streets of the Medina can be terrifying at times as you move out of the way of motorbikes and the men yelling at you from the booths to buy their products. It was nice to have Hammad lead us so we could figure out how to maneuver here. You will see a man maneuvering his cart pulled by a donkey around pedestrians and scooters while picking up chairs and other things to make more space in the narrow streets. The streets are lined with shop after shop, essentially selling the same things: purses, shoes, clothes, lamps, meat, bread, jewelry, or convenience store items. Moroccans apparently decided to live colorful lives, so the stalls of all the above goods are stacked with dozens of bright colors mixing together. Walking around seeing all this, and the eight million stray cats, in combination with the smell of gasoline in the narrow streets gives you a unique high.

Our first stop was about a 25-minute walk to Koutoubia. This mosque is the largest in Marrakesh and is 77 meters tall – the tallest building in Marrakesh. This mosque has a varied and complicated history consisting of multiple dynasties and caliphs.

We walked around the outside, trying to piece together the history from Hammad’s accent looking at the ruins of the old mosque and the mosque that stands today. He took us around to the park behind, so we could get a nice picture. We pulled out the GoPro and he asked if Elizabeth is a blogger. We headed back through large gates Bab Agnaou to the town center or Medina, and walked past another mosque called Moulay El Yazid.

Elizabeth asked Hammad about other religions in Morocco out of curiosity, and he told us all the churches were located outside of the medina in the new city, but some synagogues exist in both. Next thing we knew, we were paying a 10 dirham each to visit the Slat Al Azama Synagogue. The synagogue was beautiful with friendly Jews, some from Canada, who showed us around and asked if we were Jewish. Ryan said he had some in his blood and they asked if he took an ancestry test – maybe they’ve been getting a lot of Jew-‘ish’ people lately. We ended with a 5-minute documentary video explaining the Jews being driven out of Spain and other portions of Europe and made their home in Morocco. Here they live in peace with the Muslim majority.

After this short respite, we were back on the road, avoiding donkeys and motorbikes.  Hammad bought us some bottled water then brought us to Bahia Pala, which means brilliance.  Having a tour guide finally paid off, Hammad was able to take our money, skip the line, and get us into the palace quickly. We saw signs outside of the palace warning that it is illegal to use unofficial government guides. Hammad told us he studied hard and had to pass many oral and historical tests to be a guide. He wore a badge and didn’t have to pay to enter any site. The palace is a beautiful sprawling manor in an almost plain, but still ornate fashion.  Morocco, as you can tell, is hard to describe. There is no longer any furniture in the palace, as no one lives there, so you are looking at a maze of 160 empty rooms, various courtyards and 2 acres of gardens with decorated windows and ceilings. Hammad took the time to tell us what they were once used for. We’d see online that Morocco is an Instagramer’s paradise. We saw dozens of women and their photographer boyfriends taking photos in doorways and window frames. Brief history is that it was built in the late 19th century to be the greatest palace ever constructed by Si Moussa Ba Ahmed for the Sultans personal use. He had 4 rooms, for his 4 wives, and an area to quarter his 24 concubines. It was worth the $7 per person.

After the palace, we were feeling snacky and Hammad led us to a restaurant called Bakchich Café. Still slightly afraid to get sick we ordered a chicken and cheese panini with no lettuce or tomatoes and French fries with a gigantic water. The restaurant was open to the street, and we watched the doorman try to hustle tourists in by showing them the menu and shooing stray cats away. After our light lunch, we went to Jemaa el-Fna: the large shopping and eating square. Here there were people with monkeys in diapers on leashes next to snake charmers. Hammad had warned us that taking photos would lead to payment harassment, so we observed from a distance as cobras and copperheads sat among men playing whatever the snake charming instrument is called (it’s called a pungi). There are a ton of shops, as previously described, and we wandered through the Souk des teinturiers, a shopping area, wanting to buy everything we saw, but knowing our bags were already stuffed.

We got back to our hotel around 3 and hid in our dark, air-conditioned room, taking naps and reading until 5:30. The we moved into the main common room. We needed to get bus tickets for our future travel in the week following our tour, so our host and Elizabeth spent a lot of time trying sort it out online. They we unsuccessful, so eventually our host took the money, and a 5-dollar tip, and hired a man to go to the bus station to buy our tickets for us. We sent him off with cash and a piece of paper showing the day, time, and cities we’d like to journey between. After a time, our host received a call from our envoy, the prices and times on the website were not what was available at the train station; but alas we now have tickets.

They then brought us hot tea – it was 95 degrees – and cookies, before we began the dinner making class. The Riad is run by a woman, and it’s not clear if she is the owner or just works here. She is at our constant beck and call, and we find her sometimes just lounging in the main area waiting to see if we need anything. She speaks good, but not great, English. There is also a cook/housekeeper, a black woman who doesn’t speak any English. They then called us back into the small kitchen to begin the lesson.

Apparently, they assumed Elizabeth would do the cooking and Ryan would write the recipe. We told them that Ryan was the cook and they didn’t seem to know what to do with a man in the kitchen. It was hilarious for Elizabeth and frustrating for Ryan as they gave him simple tasks like transferring the spoon of spices into a bowl or chopping a vegetable only to finish the job for him because it wasn’t done exactly right. Whenever Ryan had his back turned, they’d make faces to Elizabeth relating things like “ah, he’s doing okay, can’t believe he’s in here” and “I guess that’ll do.” Together Ryan helped them make zucchini with vinegar and spices and cooked carrots with cinnamon. Next he helped prepare the main meal: chicken tajine. They boiled the chicken with lemon and olives and spices then put it in a ceramic tajine to serve.

We went up to the terrace, still the only guests at the hotel, and had a romantic dinner as the sun began to set. After eating, everything being delicious, we went into the kitchen and made dessert. Bananas simmered in orange juice and honey. Stuffed to the rafters, we lounged on the roof, and arranged for our breakfast to be ready at 8 am the next day – all this for $45 a night. We heard the final call to prayer around 9:30 and called it a night. There is a mosque right next door to our Riad, one of 180 in the city, so we can hear all 5 daily calls to prayer, which is a nice reminder of being in a foreign place.

Day 3 – Marrakesh – July 31

We got up around 7:30 the next morning and showered before breakfast. We had our massages and hammam at 11 that day and didn’t want to be stinky. Breakfast was again tea, bread, coffee, and cheese, but today we got a fried egg and Moroccan crepes. We set off for our 20-minute walk to Jardin Majorelle. This garden is located outside of the Medina in the new city. It was a stressful walk. As soon as you get out of the old city walls the roads widen into normal city streets, and the honking and traffic begins. We passed several intersections with cars honking and everyone pulled into the middle, regardless of a green or red light. The larger streets were still shared with donkeys, large cars, and motorbikes. Our street crossing technique involved following elderly locals and using them as shields. Eventually we made it to the gardens around 9:00; our host had warned us to go early to avoid the heat and crowds. We made it just in time. The gardens were designed by a French artist and housed exotic plants from all over the world, we even found a cactus from Texas. We wandered around, watching everyone go for their Instagram shot while enjoying the fat fish and numerous cacti. Around 10, we began our walk back and repeated the same old-person-human-shield technique.

We made it back to the hotel to be guided to our spa day by a strange man our hostess found for us.  We think he might have been the man who bought our train tickets and escorted us into the riad the first night, but we couldn’t be sure. He pushed his motorbike the whole 20-minute walk; assumedly so he could get back quickly. Slightly fearful of being caught guiding Americans without a permit, though we said we could find it on our own, he walked a head of us and glanced back on occasion to make sure we were still following. We arrived at Amouna Spa and began a very unique experience. We knew we’d be getting an exfoliation, hammam, and a massage but we were curious how it’d work in a Muslim country. Could we be naked? Could a woman touch Ryan?

We were given more sugary hot tea upon our arrival and ushered into a small changing room. We were each provided a pair of almost see-through mesh panties (that’s right, no top for Elizabeth) and a thick robe. We were then led into a sauna room to begin the hammam. A woman stripped us down to our mesh panties and instructed us to lay down on stone beds next to each other. At the foot of each bed was a hand held shower head. We had no idea what was going on, and realized we should have looked up what to expect. She turned on the water to a nice temperature, and beginning with Ryan, washed him down and rubbed oil all over his body. Then she did the same to Elizabeth. She left us for about 15 minutes in the hot room laying down and dripping oil and water from our mesh underwear. When she returned, again starting with Ryan, she put on an exfoliating glove (see: sand paper) and rubbed down his whole body, excluding genitals. The whole time Elizabeth got to just lay on the stone bed next to him and watch. Until that is, it was her turn. The lady exfoliated, hard, everything from the soles of the feet to the face – and in that order. Next she hosed us down and we sat watching her decontaminate the beds.

We both thought we were done, but to our surprise, she instructed us to sit on a stool; she then proceeded to wash our hair and bodies again with soap. She poured buckets of warm water on our heads and body and we felt like we were 4-year-olds getting a bath from our mothers. After we were done rinsing, she asked us, in very broken English, if we were married. Finding it silly that they we were just now being asked, we said yes, of course. She then attempted to give us more instructions, Elizabeth had no idea what she was signaling. Eventually she wrapped us into a standing embrace, Elizabeth’s head on Ryan chest, and arms around each other; she then sprayed us down with water again. We still don’t know what that was all about.  

Finally, we were led upstairs in our mesh underwear and dripping wet to the massage beds. They dried us off and began a relaxing 40-minute massage. Ryan even fell asleep.  Elizabeth’s hair was super greasy from whatever shampoo they used and our bodies were covered in oil. If you’re okay with being naked in front of at least 3 different people and being bathed like you’re a child, we’d highly suggest this singular Moroccan experience.

We emerged hungry from the spa hungry and thirsty.  We found a small restaurant right in the main square.  After sitting down, Ryan looked up the place we’d been ushered into and it apparently had some negative hygiene reviews, so we opted to just get bottled water and tea. We sat and watched people parade by with merchandise to sell and it felt a little bit like being in Mexico on the beach. We found another restaurant to get lunch called La Cantine des Gazelles, next door to the restaurant we ate at yesterday. We are getting more risking with food and drank the small fruit smoothie they offered with the meal. We shared fries and a chicken with cream of mushroom dish. It was delicious. The day was getting hot again so we wandered through some shops then returned to the hotel to lounge in the A/C before our dinner.

We took dinner on the roof again and got beef tajine with mashed potatoes followed by caramelized apples and figs for dessert. We laid on the roof until dark, reading and playing on our phones then headed to bed when we heard the final call for prayer.

Day 4 – Atlas Mountains – August 1

According to our scarce itinerary from the tour company we would be picked up from our hotel around 7:30 to be transported to the rest of group and begin our adventure into the Sahara. A man arrived at 7:05 so we scarfed down our bread and crepes and followed him out of the medina. Along the way, we picked up another passenger hailing from Poland and joined two French girls on the bus. Thinking we were only 5 riding in the van we were pretty excited for our space available in the 18-passenger van. But, of course, this van was just taking us to another van, where we were the last people on, and stuck in the back of the bus. We booked a 5-day tour that would take us from Marrakesh over the high Atlas Mountains into Boumaine Dades Gorge, roughly a 5-hour drive. Then we’d travel an additional 5 hours to the Sahara. We’d spend one night in a desert camp after riding camels and one night in a hotel in Mezourga before driving 7 hours to Fes. We knew it’d be a lot of driving but it’s not easy to access the Sahara from Morocco.

We drove around 2 or 3 hours before making our first stop a small café to use the restroom and buy more water. The bus A/C was not working well when the driver permitted it to be turned on so all we had in the back was the air from the driver and passenger windows. Apparently the engine isn’t great and it can’t drive up the steep mountain slopes and run A/C. We drove over the Tizi-N-Tichka mountain pass, one of the highest spots in the range and were able to take some photographs. The Atlas mountains are like the Appalachians and once rivaled the height of the Himalayan Mountains. They are mostly sandstone and red in color.

Next we arrived at Ksar of Ait Ben Haddou. This is a group of dwellings built from mud and straw surrounded by defensive walls. It was a stop along the trade caravan from Marrakech to the Sahara. The river that typically runs along the city is dried up, not enough snowfall the last year so the mud brown village looks like a barren wasteland. Many movies have been filmed there, including Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, and Gladiator. Before entering we first purchased overpriced scarves to be tied on our heads to help in the heat, especially the desert. They wrapped them on our heads like turbans and you can put it across your face to protect from sand. Our guide only spoke French and Arabic so we didn’t really know what we were looking at the entire time inside and Ryan hit his head multiple times on the low ceilings. The group was all European. 2 French women, a Polish man, 4 Spaniards, a couple from Macedonia, 3 Austrian women, and 3 Italian men. Luckily for us, everyone spoke a little English.

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We made it to the top of the city and experienced strong winds in 108 degree weather. We’d never experienced wind this hot it before, it practically burned your face.  We stopped for lunch and shared chicken couscous and a banana juice. We are staying hydrated and burning through $1 1.5-liter bottles like crazy.

We piled back into the bus and drove an additional 3-ish hours, making a few stops along the way towards the gorge. Looking out the window of the car, the landscape reminded Elizabeth of Mars. The soil is so red, and the Berber villages we were passing were made of that very soil so they tended to blend into the surroundings.

The gorge is a bit of an oasis and the valley is full of green trees and farm land. We stopped in the gorge to take photos of the smooth sandstone walls rounded by the wind and finally around 7 pm. We were staying in a large Riad and had our own room but without A/C. We opened the window and Elizabeth prayed a bat didn’t fly in. That night we chatted with our new tour “friends” and shared chicken tajine and salad. The salad consisted of diced up tomatoes, bell peppers and onions in a vinegar sauce that is delicious. We are getting sick of hot food and tea in the heat so the salad is always welcome and we haven’t gotten sick yet. Dessert was watermelon – so not really dessert according to Elizabeth. Sleeping was hot for the first few hours, and loud, as Moroccans never seem to sleep – even though they don’t drink.

Day 5 – Sahara Desert – August 2

We were the first ones down for breakfast the next morning, and had been the first to dinner the night before. The Spaniards began asking us if the Americans were hungry often. We were determined to get better seats on the bus. We finished our tea, OJ, breads, and crepes and were on the bus in the first row 15 mins early. The Austrians were almost last one and slightly upset they weren’t getting their previous spot. We began more driving, a total of 5 hours today then the camels.

We drove a few hours towards Tinghir and Todra Gorge. The bus dropped us off and a tour guide led us into the valley and through the crop fields. He explained here they grow the alfalfa for the animals and feed the entire town. Small children were weaving animal shapes out of leaves and asking for money. We walked into an old Mosque and were able to go inside. The man who lives there now is French and gave us a long French lecture on the history of the area. Ryan found a piece of paper with English in the prayer room.

Next we wandered across the valley into the town of Tinghir. This town was also made of mud and hay and a lot of people here live in poverty. We went through the old Jewish quarter built 400 years ago and children followed the group asking for money. We were invited into a Berber home to see how they lived. Really, we had to go into a rug shop and sat on the hot floor drinking hot tea while a man tried to sell us his rugs – he kept insisting there was no pressure to buy one. Berber rugs are famous and made using the traditional looming tools. He had rugs made from camels, sheep, and cactus fiber all ranging from $100 euro to infinity. We were held hostage for a while and the Austrian ladies made the mistake about asking how much a particular one was. We think she was just curious but he took her into a side room and tried to haggle with her. Eventually we were set free and picked up more water before heading into Todra Gorge.

Todra is absolutely beautiful. A natural spring runs through steep, tall sandstone walls and people bring their herds of sheep there to graze. We spent a bit of time watching the sheep and cooling our feet in the cold water of the spring. Finally, it was lunch time and we went to a tourist trap lunch area where we sat on long sofas outside. Elizabeth ordered Galia which is like a frittata and comes in a tajine and Ryan got the grilled chicken. Then we were back in the car and had 3 hours to drive before reaching the Sahara.

We stopped at a gas station about an hour out to refuel and get some melted and refrozen ice cream novelties. Stepping out of the van we felt scorching wind. Hotter than either of us had ever experienced. It might not be humid like it is in Houston, but the locals wear long pants and shirts! Eventually, we rolled into the desert and found a herd of camels. Apparently, we were on a different tour – we knew something had been off the whole time – so we dropped off our “friends” and headed with the driver another 15 minutes to the town of Mezourga, where we’d sleep in the hotel the following night. We were running late and had about 10 minutes to pack a small bag and leave the rest of our belongings with the hotel to catch up with the group headed towards the camels.

We crossed the road and about 50 camels sat ready to take different passengers. We hopped on and the camel rose by first standing up its back legs so you are leaning over the head trying not to fall off then getting up on its front legs. Camels have crazy joints in their legs; you should Google it. The front ones’ fold like our knees do with our feet kicking behind us but their back legs fold the opposite direction in multiple places. The desert is stunning and we were led in a camel group of four by a young man walking through the desert. At this point it was around 6:45 or 7 and the sun was starting to set behind us.

We only rode for an hour and a half, but it got old quick. Not the scenery or the camels mind you, but the sitting on an uncomfortable hump part. It hurt the butt. It was like riding a horse or going to a spin class for the first time. We stopped about half way and sat on a huge dune to watch the sun set. It was really cloudy so, really, we just rested our butts until we were told to get back on. The camel walkers seemed to like talking to the Americans, and since we were the only ones, kept asking us if we were Obama Tribe or Trump Tribe. Finally, we made it to camp and Ryan’s testicles were thankful.

We were assigned a private tent that had both a double bed and a single bed. The tents were hot without A/C or ventilation, but otherwise pretty comfortable. We had about an hour of free time until dinner, so we wandered the dunes and listened to some Asian guests who thought they were getting a luxury tent with A/C and a private bathroom. We were ushered into a big tent for dinner and had Moroccan salad, Galia with beef, and watermelon. Elizabeth is over the food. We sat across from a couple who are cooks in Amsterdam and told us they’d give us a restaurant tour if we come to visit. It’s called CIRCL.

After dinner we were gathered around a fire pit, thank the Lord they didn’t light it, and they played on their drums and tried to get everyone to dance. At this point it was dark and the stars were coming out. Outside of each tent was a lightbulb so you could see the bats swooping in and out of peoples’ tents, we were smart and closed our door early. After an hour of drums, we wandered over to the dunes and laid on some foam mattresses to watch the stars. Surprisingly, there was still some light pollution from the town about 5 km away, but the sky was clear.  Even though the sun had set hours ago, the sand was still hot. They stopped playing the drums around midnight and we actually managed to get some sleep in our tent listening to the moaning of camels.

Day 6 – Mezourga – August 3

The tour schedule stated that it was recommended to watch the sunrise (6:46 am) then eat breakfast and ride the camels out of the desert. There was a bang on our tent at 5 am, still pitch black out and everyone was led back out onto their camels. It was cool to ride in the dark and luckily not too hot, about 80 degrees. The sun slowly rose behind us lighting the dunes, but it was cloudy so not a beautiful picturesque ride. We made it back to the hotel around 7 and enjoyed more bread and crepes. Since we were spending the night we waiting around for about an hour until our room was ready.

We spent the rest of the day napping, watching movies, and playing in the pool. The temperature reached 109 degrees and luckily the pool was cool. We’d swim around with the Europeans/locals, then lounge reading etc. in the shade until we couldn’t bear it, then swim until we were pruned. The staff doesn’t speak a lot of English so we had some memorable experiences trying to communicate. Halfway through the day our A/C started acting funny (i.e. stopped working). It would shut off after about 30 seconds and wouldn’t always turn back on. We told the staff and eventually got moved to a new room with a brand-new unit. The problem was the new bed felt like it was filled with plywood. We had to make a difficult decision, A/C or plywood bed and the A/C won.

Since the beginning of the tour there has been confusion about where we were supposed to be and who was picking us up. We were set to leave for Fes the next morning, but those were our only instructions. We had dinner that night sitting around the pool area at 9 o’clock. We were served bread, rice and cooked eggplant, and either lamb or goat tajine. Halfway through, the power went out and we ate by cellphone light shone through a water bottle. We prayed it would come back on before we were done eating so our A/C would work that night. Dessert was watermelon, Elizabeth was sick of it, and a fruit called loquat. We’d both never heard of it; it’s a large yellow melon like fruit and absolutely delicious. The power came back on and we slept that night, cool, but on our wood filled mattress.

Day 7 – Fes – August 4

Still unsure when we were leaving, we got up at 7:30 and at breakfast, crepes, breads, and yogurt and waited for our transfer. The front desk made several calls trying to figure out where to put us and eventually told us a taxi would come for us. We sat by the pool as the sun heated the area and ended up waiting 2 hours for our taxi after being told several times only 15 more minutes. Eventually a man arrived and we were loaded into the back seat of a7 person car behind three Chinese tourists. Their luggage was strapped on top and ours barely fit in the backseat. We realized about 30 seconds in the car didn’t have A/C and we’d have to have all the windows down. Not a great way to start a 7-hour drive.

Our taxi driver was a madman. Drivers are pretty aggressive in Morocco but he took it to the next level making other Moroccan drivers honk at him for reckless passing on the interstate. We said we loved each other and hoped we’d arrive in one peace. We made a stop at the base of the Atlas Mountains and took some photos and poked around the shop. It was obviously a tourist trap and were trying to charge 30 Dirham, or 3 dollars, for a small container of Pringles.   

We traveled a few more hours, the scenery was beautiful in a desolate way and we continued to pass Berber villages. People walked from town to town along the highway, women covered from head to toe, I don’t know how they survive the heat. We learned quickly we don’t want to live in a desert. Around 1:30 we stopped for lunch. Sick of eating meat at boiling hot temperatures we split chicken skewers and a crappy pizza. The pizza was covered in olives but a welcome change. Dessert was more loquat and grapes! We piled back into the car and had about a 3-hour drive remaining. Our taxi driver was shaving about 10 minutes off every hour of the Google time estimate. We were torn if we were happy to get there sooner, or upset that we were narrowly avoiding head-on collisions every few minutes. About an hour out, we transitioned from desert into forested mountain area. We pulled over briefly to take pictures with monkeys that lived in the hills before finally descending into Fes.

Our driver was kind of an ass and refused to drop us off near our hotel, only leaving us where the Chinese people wanted to be dropped. We began our 20-minute walk through the Medina hoping Google maps wouldn’t lose a signal. Along the way several skeevy looking young men aggressively offered directions and help. We’d read online that they will get you where you need to go, but then demand payment. We turned them down, which angered them and continued trusting Google. Ryan led us straight there no problem to our hotel Dar Essoaoude. Fatima, the woman running it, was very helpful and gave us cookies, tea and water as she described Fes. She told us it wasn’t a very safe city and to not stay out after dark and avoid everything outside of the historic district. We were led up to our room and were so excited to find we were staying in their nice suite on the top floor. We had working A/C and a huge room and bathroom. On the terrace were beautiful views of the city and a spot for lounging. We were too tired from the journey to venture into the city so we spent the night enjoying the cool A/C; it’s the little things!

Day 8 – Fes – August 5

We accidently slept for 10 hours that night, our bodies probably recovering from the last few days. We at our breakfast on the terrace and enjoyed French bread, 4 types of jam (one being key lime flavored), a pancake-like thing, hot rolls that tasted just like hamburger buns, eggs, and coffee.

The day was heating up and we were determined to get a jump start. We headed out with a water bottle and entered through the Medina gates. Fes is the oldest of Moroccan imperial cities, founded in 789 and has been the capital 3 times. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recognized as one of the best preserved Arab-Muslim towns in North Africa.

Our first stop was Chaouwara Tannery. This is the oldest and largest of the traditional tanneries in the city, dating back to the medieval times. We wandered through the medina maze following other tourist to reach the tannery. At the door men offer you fresh mint so you can lessen the smell from the ammonia, but we turned it down for fear of being hassled for money later. You go up several flights of winding stairs passing a leather purse shop and a leather jacket shop until you reach the roof. Here you overlook he many ponds of different dyes and leather being mixed in them. People stand in the shallow pools mixing the leather with their hands and feet. You wonder what chemicals they are being subjected to.

Next we went to the Medersa Bou Inania built between 1351 and 1357 and originally was an old theological college. We had difficulty finding it, Google weaving us through the narrow Medina streets. Eventually we came the vicinity and the Google dot showed us circling it but we couldn’t find the door. We asked an old shop keep and he showed us the way. We’ve found that when lost, people are willing to help, but it’s safest to ask local shop keepers instead of the teenage sleezebags. Medersa means education building and this is the only religious building in the city that non-muslim people can enter. It cost 20 dirham a person, 2 dollars, and we got to explore the courtyard area and look into the mosque.

After we wandered out of the medina to the famous Blue Gate. We discovered it looked like the other medina gates, only blue. We were feeling particularly hot and very sweaty having hustled through the city and decided to take a break. We headed to Café Clock, and again struggled to find it, but luckily a butcher pointed us in the right direction. The café was aesthetically very pleasing with three floor and a rooftop overlooking the city. We tried to sit up there but were too hot, so we drank our chocolate milkshake and banana lassi inside. The lassi had ice in it but they insisted it was filtered. Here’s to hoping we don’t get food poisoning.

We’d been without alcohol for a week and found a bar, the British Saloon, only five minutes away. We walked through the gate and everything looked closed. A man ushered us through a door and we found ourselves in a hotel pool area with a bar. We each had two Flag Special beers (each only 24 centiliters – 8 oz) and sat by the pool. They weren’t too expensive, 2 for 50 dirhams. Elizabeth began to feel the potential onset of sickness, so we hustled back to the hotel and hid in the A/C.

That night, we ate dinner on the rooftop terrace. We ordered Pastilla, a Moroccan dish that consists of a ground chicken mixture in a pastry and covered in cinnamon sugar. It went together unexpectedly well. We were each served a giant one after getting hot tea, bread, and 6 small appetizer plates. Dessert after was bananas and apples in a bowl of OJ and melon. We met another couple also staying in the hotel. She is Belgium and he is Italian and they both live in northern Italy now. They are beginning their camel tour soon and were anxious to pick our brains for advice.

Day 9 – Fes – August 6

We slept in again taking our terrace breakfast at 9 am. Our room is so nice, spacious and cold, it’s hard to leave. Morocco is starting to get to us. It’s exhausting to constantly be badgered and tricked. We walked 30 minutes to the Jnan Sbil Gardens. The garden was located on the way to the royal palace and outside of the medina. Elizabeth got us lost trying to wind through the tall, narrow streets. Ryan’s GPS skills are really shinning in Morocco. Finally, we made it to the garden. It was beautiful with lots of benches in the shade and paths. There was a lake and an area with a fountain.

We found some shade near the fountain and hunkered down to enjoy the temperature and read. After about 15 minutes our relaxation was broken by a man named Hammad. He loves Americans and has some professional role in the park. He wanted to prove he had an American friend, no that we said anything to contradict him, so he showed us a thread of Whatsapp messages. He began giving us advice on the town, where to not buy things, what other cities to visit, what areas to avoid. He said tour guides take you to expensive places, then get a cut of the commission, which we’d already figured out. He then told us about the association for divorced women and that they sell stuff cheaper and no one gets commission. He told us to get up and let’s go. We told him we were enjoying the park and wanted to keep reading. He left for about 15 more minutes then came to tell us the association was closing soon, so we needed to go and could come back to the park later. Ryan declined him again and he finally got the message. We wonder what commission he was getting.

Soon we left the park – still not feeling 100%, slight upset stomachs and walked to the royal palace. The royal family primarily lives in Rabat, but they have a palace in every city in case they are in town. To get there we had to walk through a lot of markets. These markets were different since they were in the new city in that they were primarily used by Moroccans. Elizabeth wore a T-shirt and shorts, not booty shorts, and still felt like she was getting some looks. We made it to the palace and looked at the large golden doors, unable to go inside. Hot and tired we walked back to the hotel, buying ice cream and Paprika Pringles to enjoy; still no Doritos sightings here.

We swam in the plunge pool and lounged around until dinner, chatting with our tourist neighbors. They gave us more advice for places to visit in Belgium and Italy. Dinner that night was chicken couscous, enough to feed a family for 6. We started with potatoes, zucchini and carrot soup and these delicious fried potato cakes. Dessert was peaches and grapes. We tried to go to bed early knowing we had an early train to catch to make our bus to Chefchaouen the next day, the Blue City.

Day 10 – Chefchaouen – August 7

We got up at 6 and had a breakfast of chocolate croissant, fresh OJ, and crepes. We hopped in a cab and were driven the 15 minutes to the bus stop, if you remember we’d bought tickets back in Marrakesh when we sent our money away with a friend of the hotel owner. The cab drive either said 7 or 70 dirham, we were both so tired we just gave him the 70, it felt wrong to only pay 70 cents for a cab ride. We checked our bags at the but station like you do in an airport, it cost us 50 cents to check both bags. We had about a 3.5-hour drive ahead of us, but luckily this time we were on a large air conditioned coach bus. And we were in the front seats!

Unfortunately, the man next to us had the worst body odor we’ve ever encountered and the bus stopped 3 different times for breaks so the drive took us 4.5 hours. When we weren’t smelling Mr. Neverheardofdeoderant, we watched the countryside pass with olive tree fields into more luscious mountains and ate the rest of our seed-in grapes. We decided to walk to our AirBnB in the old medina (20 minutes) instead of taxi, not realizing the walk would all be uphill, but we needed the exercise. We arrived outside of one the seven gates into the old Medina called Bab EL Ain. A tall man named Ishmael our AirBnB host, guided us on a short walk through the Blue Pearl. Already we are enjoying this city more, it seemed much more laid back and we’ve only been harassed by 2 people. We have a whole apartment to ourselves for the next two nights. The setup of the house is really interesting. It’s narrow with a thin staircase and each floor is a different room. Starting at the bottom you have the front door, then bedroom, then kitchen and bathroom, then living room, and finally terrace. The terrace is the reason we chose the AirBnB. It looks out over the blue city with stunning views.

We were hungry from the journey, but sick of Moroccan food. Ryan found a Chinese restaurant called Mr BIN CHINESE RESTURANT – that’s how the name appears on Google. To get there we got to weave through the blue city. The walls, sidewalks, doors are all painted different shades of blue and white. Per usual there were cats everywhere and Elizabeth saw one that had a huge infectious gash splitting open half its skull – we stayed away. We split Kung Pao Chicken, which tasted unlike any Kung Pao we’d had before, and beef noodles – the noodles were room temperature, a rare treat. We headed back to the AirBnB and sat in the shade of the terrace as long as we could – taking breaks to cool off in front of the freezer.

Around 7 we figured it was safe to go back outside, apparently the entire city had the same thought. The narrow streets were bustling with people. Chefchaouen appears to be a vacation destination for Moroccans as well. We wandered up through the winding streets to towards Ras El Ma. This is where the river water comes into the city and people used to wash clothes here. Washing still takes place, but now there are restaurants with tables and chairs in the water and lots of shops. There was even an ostrich and peacock you could pose with, for a fee.

We continued our way through the city with one mission: ice cream. It was still warm and we hadn’t eaten since our Chinese lunch. We paused a few times to take pictures down blue, colorful alleyways before finally finding our treat in the Kasbah, which is a brown fort building that overlooks the city. Around it the square is packed with restaurants and shops.

We returned to the AirBnB and caught the final call to prayer, around 9:30 from our rooftop terrace watching the sunset. We settled in for sleep and unfortunately found out the street below our bedroom window comes alive with men chatting, children screaming, and dogs barking. Yikes.

Day 11 – Akchour – August 8

We left our room around 9 am and headed to find a shared grand taxi to Akchour. Akchour is about 45 minutes away by car from Chefchaouen and takes you deep into the mountain valley to a small town where you can swim in the river and hike. We’d read online to ask for a shared cab and it’ll only cost 25 dirhams a person, or $2.50. We found the cabs and waited about 15 minutes for more passengers to arrive. We rode with a father and daughter who live in France, the father is originally from Morocco. They have a home in Casablanca and were visiting the blue city and Akchour for the first time. After another frightful cab ride going too fast, this time with no seatbelts, we arrived around 10:30.

Luckily people on the internet gave very detailed instructions for how to find the trails. Moroccans rip down signs to they can be paid to guide tourists. We came to this dam and had two options, the path on the left led to the waterfalls and the path on the left led to swimming areas. We went left and began the steep climb through the mountains. The rocks here are very hard and slick. We hiked for about 45 minutes, 2 miles or so, walking along the river and passing a bunch of restaurants with chairs and tables in the water and people selling fresh squeezed OJ. The trail was very dusty and we were covered with a layer of grime. We crossed the river a few times via rickety bridges and cement blocks acting like stepping stones. When we were close to the lower falls the river dried up. We’d read that late in the summers the waterfalls can disappear if not enough snowfall from the previous year couldn’t sustain the river. We debated about continuing to see if the water picked back up, but were hot and hungry so we headed back.

Next we went to the right of the dam. This is where the locals and all the kids were hanging out. We found a shaded table at the edge of the deepest part of the river and went for a swim. Elizabeth swam in her clothes; other women were swimming and playing in the water in full Hijabs. The water was ice cold and could have been much dirtier. We paddled around and stood on the rough rocks until our body temperatures fell again.

Next we moved back onto the shallow river and found a table and chairs to sit, the water coming halfway up our calves. We ordered fresh squeezed orange juices and watched the families around us splash and play in the water. We also tried our first cactus fruit for 1 diram, or 10 cents, each. A man walks around with two buckets, one filled with unpeeled fruit and the second for the peels, then slices the fruit and hands it to you. The fruit was yellow and had a lot of seeds. Not our favorite even though Ryan liked it.  Another one of those fruits that is a lot more pleasant when you’ve never had the wonders of modern agriculture, e.g. seedless grapes, watermelons, etc.

Around 1:30 the day was getting hot and we were getting hungry. The restaurants seemed to only serve boiling tajine along the river and we couldn’t eat this again. We made our way back through the town and to the taxi station. Wanting a cheaper ride, we had to wait 30 minutes for other passengers returning to Chefchaouen.  We made it back and immediately sought out food. We settled on Moroccan fast food called All Good Azhar, where we ran into the two Macedonians from our camel trek. We ordered the quesadilla and taco, not horrible but not great. We obviously found some ice cream then headed back to our Airbnb around 5. We spent the night lounging, watching the Mummy – obviously, and getting ready for our next travel leg. We leave for Rome in a couple days and needed to find a place to sleep!

Day 12 – Tangier – August 9

We slept much better the second night and got up to eat brunch at Clock Café, the same chain café we went to in Fes. Elizabeth got pancakes covered in fruit and caramel sauce and Ryan got granola, yogurt, and fruit with milk to mix together. Everything was delicious, came with tea, coffee, OJ, and water and cost us $10. We walked through the blue city one last time before grabbing our bags and heading to find a shared taxi to Tangier.

The taxi area, really a small side road, was hilarious chaos. Everyone was shouting in Arabic and French. We told them we wanted to take a group taxi to Tangier and we were told to stand with some other French people on the sidewalk. We stood around for probably 15 minutes watching everyone yell at each other and move cars around on the narrow street. Eventually we all settled into a minivan to begin our 2 hour and fifteen-minute journey. It took longer, our driver had to stop every hour for a smoke break but it wasn’t a horrible drive. We’ve noticed that in Morocco, sheep travel inside of car trunks, strapped to roofs, and in actual car seats, so we kept an eye out for sheep transportation techniques.

We arrived in Tangier around 3 pm and were about 30 minutes from our hotel by walking. The cab drivers wanted $10 to take us to our hotel, more than what we’d just paid for the multiple hour drive to get there, so we walked. Thank God we did for we finally found Doritos! In Morocco Pringles are king and these were the first ones we’d seen. Since it was our 6-month anniversary Ryan sprung for all three flavors: Chili (10/10), Sweet Chili Pepper (8.5/10), and Cheese and Spices (6/10 – Ryan thinks it should be 8/10). We carried them to the hotel like prizes.

We are staying in the Fredj Hotel and Spa. We have a lovely room, with air conditioning and a view of the We are staying in the Fredj Hotel and Spa. We have a lovely room, with air conditioning and a view of the city. We immediately made our way down to the pool and enjoyed cooling our bodies off, and Ryan of course ordered some beers. We drank Flag Speciale and Casablanca. Now it was time to eat. We obviously found the only Indian restaurant in the city and it was only a half mile away. Our hotel was not in the old Medina and we were staying in the new city for the first time. What a difference, we barely got hassled, but we did have to fight the huge crowds of people milling about on a Friday night. Finally, we made it to the restaurant only to find out they were closed. We didn’t realize it was a holiday weekend, Eid al-Adha, one of the major Muslim holidays. Feeling defeated, but determined to not eat Moroccan food, we decided to try the McDonalds. 00 d0cf11e0a1city. We immediately made our way down to the pool and enjoyed cooling our bodies off, and Ryan of course ordered some beers. We drank Flag Speciale and Casablanca. Now it was time to eat. We obviously found the only Indian restaurant in the city and it was only a half mile away. Our hotel was not in the old Medina and we were staying in the new city for the first time. What a difference, we barely got hassled, but we did have to fight the huge crowds of people milling about on a Friday night. Finally, we made it to the restaurant only to find out they were closed. We didn’t realize it was a holiday weekend, Eid al-Adha, one of the major Muslim holidays. Feeling defeated, but determined to not eat Moroccan food, we decided to try the McDonalds

The McDonalds was very fancy with a separate bakery/café and a nice building. We ordered at the French language automated machines and it took us a while to translate all the options. Ryan got the Big Mac and McFlurry, while Elizabeth ordered a regular hamburger, Moroccan steak fries, and a sundae. It was disgusting in that so-bad-it’s-good-and-tastes-like-home kind of way. We went back to the hotel and got a bottle of Moroccan wine to drink by the pool. Their specialty is called gray wine, so you can image our disappointment to find out it’s not actually gray in color.  In fact, the French have their own gray wine, it’s anything with ‘gris’ in the name – that’s just gray in French.  Gray wine production is basically a modified rosé production method, which extracts some juice to make a pale rosé (aka vin gris) then uses the remaining juice and the grape skins to make a concentrated red wine. 

Day 13- Tangier – August 10

First, we enjoyed our breakfast buffet, which had meats, eggs, potatoes and a nice change from just bread and crepes, then we enjoyed the pool. We lounged around all day, bouncing between the pool and the lounge chairs. There were a lot of French families staying, so we listened to children shouting French. Lunch consisted of beers and leftover Doritos, and even though it’s much cooler along the ocean, highs in the 80’s, we still had to seek shelter under an umbrella from the beating sun.

For dinner, Elizabeth wanted to try Moroccan fast food, so we went to a restaurant called Oh!Bun. Elizabeth got a “taco” and Ryan a chicken sandwich. A Moroccan taco is very similar to a TacoBell Crunch Wrap Supreme and is a toasted tortilla, the difference is in Morocco they are stuffed with meat, cheese, sauce, and French fries. All was delicious in again that so-bad-it’s-good-tastes-like-home way. We walked to the beach after dinner and touched the water and looked across to Spain, the Strait of Gibraltar is only 9 miles wide at its narrowest point. We made our way across the sand and there were camels and horses taking tourists on rides. We walked back on the outskirts of the Medina, again in the chaos and hassling of salesmen and homeless people before arriving back to the hotel. We had a nightcap of Flag Especial and prepared for our flight the next day to Rome.

Day 14 – Tangier – August 11

We ate our hotel breakfast then left for a taxi to the Tangier International airport. We took in the last Moroccan sights and smells (both good and bad) and hung out in the alcohol-free lounge until our flight. Morocco has been such an interesting experience for us. I think we went back and forth between loving and hating our time here on an hourly basis. Our advice to people thinking of coming is: Number 1, don’t come in August. A lot of our anguish came from being trapped in the heat with no reprieve including no cold beer. The colors and history are rich but you’ll always feel like people are trying to take advantage of you. Number 2, stay strong, don’t be afraid to leave the taxi station and just walk.

Things we’ve learned in Morocco:

  1. The food and tea are all served boiling hot, a downside in 100-degree weather, but an upside when trying to avoid food poisoning.
  2. The entire country is currently constructing roads for the first time or repairing roads (or so it seems, and we drove a lot!) This makes passing through mountains in large vans and buses very bumpy.
  3. Apparently in 2017 Morocco tried to improve their child labor laws, limiting work as only domestic for kids ages 16-18. Not sure what sort of enforcement they’re doing. Walking through the many Souks we observed several young children sewing shoes and other leather products or tending shop.
  4. The call to prayer is blasted from every mosque rooftop speaker 5 times a day. The speaker systems aren’t great so the cacophony of Arabic prayers sounds like a mix between traffic jams and tornado sirens.

London

Day 1 – London – July 20

Our train from Glasgow, Scotland dropped us off at Euston Station in London at 10:45 pm. After 6 hours of training, and backpacks feeling twice as heavy as when we started, we decided to splurge on an Uber. We got picked up in a luxurious black Mercedes with an interior highlighted by blue LEDs, and began our terrifying experience of weaving through all the drunk people on a Saturday night. We eventually made it to our AirBnB in east London – you could say we are staying in the projects – and were shown our humble room and shared bath with the three other guests. We slept soundly.  The next nights would not be as restful.

Day 2 – London – July 21

We woke up to an overcast, but warm morning. Elizabeth did some laundry, since we were running out of clean underwear. The Europeans, as previously discussed, by and large don’t believe in drying machines, which is super annoying. The washing machine barely drained the water out of the clothes – even after putting it on extra spin and drain cycles, so Elizabeth rang everything out in the sink before hanging them up still dripping wet. It was time to figure out the Tube and go into the city. The closest station is the Shadwell overground station – there is an overground and an underground rail system. Ryan did some research and we are able to just tap our credit cards at the turnstiles instead of buying tickets, and we get charged a discounted rate at the end of the day.  What a convenience! Now we don’t have to stand in the ticket lines.

We took the overground to the underground connection and it was a 30-minute ride to the Westminster area. Unbeknownst to Elizabeth prior to doing research that morning, the Westminster Cathedral is actually Roman Catholic but gets confused as protestant because of the Westminster Abbey. We had time for some tea and pastries prior to the noon service. The cathedral was beautiful, but ominous. The interior walls and ceilings were built from dark gray brick and the dim lighting from the chandeliers, combined with the thick incense in the air, gave the church a very gloomy disposition. Mass was packed – we’d never actually seen a cathedral at max capacity and the organ was beautiful. Most churches Elizabeth had visited in Europe weren’t open to visitors during mass; this one however, had people rolling suitcases and taking pictures up and down the side aisle throughout the service.  It was nice to see the church being inclusive and open at all times.  Even if Ryan thought it detracted from the solemnity of the occasion.

Next, it was time for food, so we headed up to Piccadilly Circus. On the way, we passed by Buckingham Palace to fight our way through the hordes of people then walked through Green Park. The sun was out and the temperature in the 70s. People were enjoying their Sundays laying out on the lawn and playing soccer.

The Piccadilly area is like the times square of New York. A cluster of theaters, shops, bars, pubs, clubs, and restaurants.  Ryan found an Udon Noodle shop called Koya Soho and we sat at the bar, shoulder to shoulder with 30 other people waiting to get our soup and tempura.

After lunch, we walked down Reagent Street, which is home to all the major retail stores.  The road is closed off to automobile traffic every Sunday in July for pedestrians. There were several tents of live music and activities for kids.  Asics even had a couple of Ninja Warrior-style short walls set up for people to try their legs at.  Ryan thought Elizabeth should give it a shot, since she was wearing hers.  She declined.  We strolled a little further and stood listening to two men playing traditional Irish music. Even Ryan had his fill from Dublin though, so we resumed our walk after a short while.  The goal all along was finding dessert. As you can imagine on a hot, sunny day in London, every ice cream and gelato place we found was packed. Eventually we found a Ben and Jerry’s where we got waffle cones. At this point it was 4 pm and we wanted to have dinner in this area, so we resigned ourselves to drinking until we were hungry again.

The first bar we found had a large open storefront, so we had wine and beer, enjoying the weather. We sat by a group of kids and tried to figure out how old they were, drinking age being 18 opens up a lot of age possibilities. Next we wandered through Chinatown ogling all the roasted duck and pork in the windows and variety of bakeries. We found another bar with a happy hour special: 2 Peronis for 5 pounds. We even got lucky enough to secure two chairs out on the street. While enjoying our refreshments, we struck up a conversation with a local Londoner and his friend visiting from New Zealand. Both men were a little drunk and had lots of unsolicited (and dubious) life advice for us.

Ryan made us 7:15 pm dinner reservations at an Indian restaurant called Masala Zone so we said our goodbyes and headed over. Dinner was delicious and we ate chicken korma and another curry we forgot the name of, before ending with dessert and chai tea. We’ve been so excited to eat Indian food in London and finally our dreams were coming true. We had a 30-minute subway ride home then attempted to sleep in an uncomfortable bed, without AC, right next to the train tracks. I don’t know how people live here normally.

Day 3 – London – July 22

The next morning it was time to check out another rock-climbing gym. Ryan settled on one called Mile End Climbing Wall about 1.5 miles from our AirBnB. We’d seen on the Google map options a bike path and found out we could rent bikes through Uber. Ryan found us a pair just five minutes from our hostel and we began what Google claimed to be a 15-minute ride. The bikes are called JUMP and are electric-assisted, which Elizabeth had never ridden before. You simply begin to pedal and the bike helps power you along the way. Thankfully we spent the first 10 minutes following a wide and well-defined bike lane. After a few twists and turns Ryan had us down riding along the river. The river looked disgusting and yet beautiful at the same time covered in a thick green sludge. There is nothing more terrifying than sharing a lane with joggers and other bikers, while having to ride on the river-side where there was no railing. Elizabeth was so scared she was going to careen right into the river.

Eventually we managed to get to the gym and tried to park the bikes. You just reengage the lock, and the bike finishes your ride – or so we thought. Apparently, we’d ridden into the no parking zone and Uber was trying to charge us 10 pounds each to park our bikes there. This whole adventure was supposed to be cost saving so we got back on and biked back towards the city. If riding by a river was scary, riding along ongoing traffic was horrifying – especially the double decker buses! Eventually we made it to a parking zone and had to walk 20 minutes to get back to the gym.

The gym ended up being really cool.  Upon our arrival it looks small and dingy, but like most things in the UK, a small storefront opened up to a surprisingly large interior.  Being a Monday afternoon, it wasn’t too crowded and it was mostly filled with regulars. We basically had the rope room (about 10 different top ropes and 10 lead sections) to ourselves. We climbed for about an hour inside then discovered a path to the “secret garden.” The secret garden was open to the outside and had a lot of cool bouldering options. We climbed for another 45 minutes and watched the young shirtless Brits cling to small holds and cracks in the wall.  Ryan overheard a couple of them chatting and found out they were going to participate in the competition that weekend.  After we finished up, we quickly showered and were back on the streets headed into the subway to venture towards Wimbledon.

Beginning Thursday, we were housesitting for a second time, this one in Wimbledon for a large dog named Randall.  An absolute unit according to his owners.  His owners, Dot and James and their new daughter Ripley, wanted us to come early so they could show us his walking paths, meet us, etc. We hadn’t eaten yet and were starving, but slightly behind schedule, so we popped into a gas station to get some snacks for the Tube. Elizabeth got a cold ham and cheese pocket, Doritos and a Mars bar while Ryan got a cherry croissant and spicy Thai chili crisps. The tube ride took about 45 minutes before spitting us out at Southfields station. From there is was a half mile walk up a large hill to their house. James and Dot are very kind and friendly. Dot is a music lawyer and James a producer and musician, they are very rock-and-roll. James took us to the large park near their house where he walks Randall and we spent a few hours chatting with them and reassuring them we wouldn’t kill their pup – who is a giant, thick, drooly teddy bear.

A heat wave is rolling through the UK at the moment with temperatures in the 90’s. No one has A/C here, so everyone is suffering. It was back down the large hill and another 45-minute Tube ride to Brick Lane, where we’d enjoy our second night of Indian food. Brick Lane is located about a mile north of our AirBnB in what used to be a rough neighborhood in the 90’s and early 2000s. It is now home to a street filled with Indian restaurants. We walked along getting heckled to come in and eat here and there before finally finding our destination Meraz. Meraz is the oldest Indian restaurant on brick lane opening in 1973 and primarily served laborers who were homesick and wanted a comforting meal. Elizabeth again ate korma and Ryan got vegetable biryani. Both were delicious and we enjoyed watching the endless flow of Indian music videos on the screen above us.

Satisfied, but not full, we ventured next door to Dark Sugars Cocoa House. We stayed strong and walked past the gelato, into the shop with chocolate covered nuts and fruits and alcohol. We got a small bag then walked along Brick Lane gazing at all the curries and eating chocolate cherries and apricots. Next, we obviously needed a night cap and we walked halfway back to our Airbnb stopping at a bar called the Dog and Truck. This was definitely a local establishment. We sat outside on the back deck as long as we could, playing cards until the tobacco smoke became too much. Smoking isn’t as outlawed in public areas as much as it is in the States and it feels like everyone smokes.

We ventured inside for a while – though it was very hot, nothing seems well ventilated – and a group of people who had come from a funeral were drinking to their lost friend and one woman sang a few songs on a microphone. We found another patio, less smoky, and spent the rest of our time playing scrabble. It was a close battle, but in the end, Ryan won by three lousy points.

Day 4 – London – July 23

We decided to go for a jog before the weather got too hot and set out to cross Tower Bridge. The bridge was only a mile away so we crossed and continued along the Thames seeing great views of the city.

After showering and cleaning ourselves off, we walked 40 minutes past Tower Bridge to London Bridge. We crossed the Thames and headed to a late breakfast at a place called Breakfast Club. We shared a smoothie and English breakfast. Elizabeth’s favorite thing about Irish/Scottish/English breakfasts is that they come with buttery-garlic mushrooms. The ones at the Breakfast Club came in small bowl of melted butter.

We had a 2 o’clock appointment at the travel clinic around the corner to finish getting our vaccines for Southeast Asia and Africa. The yellow fever vaccine is backordered in the US so we weren’t able to get it before we left. After spending an alarming 30 minutes in the office, as they told us all the horrible diseases we could contract in these areas, it was time for two shots – yellow fever and a combination typhoid and hep A – one in each arm. It even ended up being cheaper to get our shots in the UK, so we left with sore arms.

Ryan, if you hadn’t been able to tell from photographs, had been growing quite hairy and wanted to clean up. We parted ways briefly as he went to get his cut (Alan’s Barber) and Elizabeth checked out Borough Market. This market is outdoor and full of fresh foods, food stands, and bars. After wandering through all the shops and sampling any cheese she could, she found the covered vista of a wine bar overlooking the market. She sipped away and waited for Ryan. He found her, looking very fresh and we enjoyed people watching and chatting about how much he should have tipped his barber.

It was time for Ryan to explore the market and we got a curry powder for our upcoming housesit and guanciale and pecorino so Ryan could make traditional carbonara. Not yet ready for dinner, we found an alley bar called George and shared a picnic table with a man from Belfast and a man from New Zealand. They gave us advice on places to travel in Europe and the Irishman, who was quite flamboyant and wearing a leopard-print shirt, told us all the great places to go to rave (an intense form of clubbing where people generally take ecstasy before dancing). They left and were replaced by two older couples, two of who now live in Australia, who were visiting for the day from central England. Eventually we got hungry and tired of small talk, so we ventured off to dinner.

We ate at a place called Katzenjammers which was located in the basement and is a German restaurant. The wall art was of the building and various stages of doing the dishes. We ordered a cheese covered pretzel, spaetzle, jäger schnitzel, and beer. Everything was delicious and we can’t wait to go to Germany. Land of beer, bread, and meat.

Ryan was in a party mood that night. We had a 40-minute walk back, so we obviously had to bar hop our way home. Our first stop was called Crutched Briars, a fancy looking establishment in the middle of the skyscrapers. We sat out on the patio and again discussed why so many people were smoking. Our second stop was called the Brown Bear. Here we watched some cricket and played lots of darts. Ryan wasn’t on his A-game so Elizabeth almost won, and almost winning at darts is huge. We made it home and tried to sleep despite the racket from the train.  

Day 5 – London – July 24

Wednesday started off entertaining but frustrating. At 4 in the morning a white car pulled up to the curb outside our apartment and began blaring Sam Smith – Dancing with a Stranger. Everyone had their windows open and had to have been woken up. Elizabeth obviously went to the window to investigate. An Indian looking man was sitting in his car screaming the lyrics and gesturing towards the building including flipping the bird. Key words include:

“Look what you made me do, I’m with somebody new. Ooh, baby, baby I’m dancing with a stranger. Look what you made me do I’m with somebody new.”

Hopefully he can get over his heartbreak and leave the neighborhood alone. We fell back to sleep and started the day a few hours later. Awaking hungry, and having not eaten any Indian food the day before, it was time to get Indian for breakfast. We hopped on the overground and went to Dishoom, the place we had eaten in Edinburgh. Breakfast was amazing – the greatest breakfast we’ve ever had. We split a naan breakfast sandwich filled with bacon and fruit and custard pancakes. We topped it off with hot chai lattes and a breakfast cocktail, essentially a fancy screwdriver. We decided to walk home (about 40 minutes) to get our steps in, but underestimated the sun and heat. It was supposed to be in the mid 90’s.

We made it home and showered and dressed for an afternoon and evening on the town. We took the tube back over to Westminster and planned to see Westminster Abby. We first walked around parliament and the many pro/anti-Brexit rallies. Boris Johnson was elected the new Prime Minister just yesterday so there were a lot of news cameras stationed outside the parliament buildings.

After going the wrong way and being quite sternly told so, we finally made it to Westminster Abby. The line was out the door and cost 20 pounds each. The backdoor attendant must have thought we were trying to sneak in.  Ryan has been told he has a dead relative buried inside, a poet, but we paid our respects from outside the fence.

Next we decided to walk back to the banks of the Thames to see Big Ben and the London Eye. We walked right passed Big Ben without realizing it. They are doing “essential” restoration work to the tower and it will be covered like this until 2021. We continued down the river walk – our destination being back to Chinatown and passed the National Museum and Trafalgar Square along the way.

We tried to find a place for high tea, even though it was 98 degrees, but the few shops were sold out. We didn’t think we’d need a reservation in this heat. Next we tried to go to a nice Chinese restaurant called the Duck and Rice for a late lunch but they had just closed and would reopen at 5:30. Scorned twice by food, we went back to the heart of Chinatown to grab a quick bite from the bakery and a bubble tea to hold us over until they reopened. Elizabeth had seen many people walking around with Cuppa Cha brand teas and needed to try it for herself. First stop the bakery we got two bread rolls one stuffed with custard and one with pork. We then stood in line to get the tea and had to wait 20 minutes to receive it after ordering. Everything was so worth the wait. Ryan got Earl Grey tea with milk, ice and tapioca balls and Elizabeth got iced Ooland peach tea with strawberry jellies. The rolls were also amazing.

Needing to kill a little more time before our 5:30 dinner, we found a bar called the Dog and Duck, so many things are called dog or duck here! We grabbed a few beers and sat in the back stuffy corner. Apparently, George Orwell use to frequent this pub.

Finally, it was time for dinner and the Rice and Duck was well worth the wait. We ordered prawn wontons, Kung Po chicken and crispy duck fried rice. The fried rice was out of this world and the chicken had the most delicious sauce. Bellies full we hopped on the train to the Victoria Apollo Theater to catch the evening showing of Wicked.

We arrived 30 minutes before the show and had to wait in an extremely long box office line to pick up our tickets. We made it to our seats about 10 minutes before the show started. Elizabeth has seen Wicked a couple of times in Omaha, but this was Ryan’s first experience. The singing was pretty good but the show was challenging to enjoy because the lack of A/C in the theater and the 2,000 bodies jammed into the room was hard to concentrate. We had good seats though and the audience was so excited and loud after each number, it felt like we were witnessing the greatest show that ever occurred.

After a hot subway home, we were both starting to feel a little sick from the heat. We had been using the convenience store Snackworld as our GPS input to get us home, since they are directly across the street. We felt obligate to patronize their shop at least once, so we popped in to buy a few powerades and headed back for our last night in our oven of a room.

Day 6 – Wimbledon – July 25

The next day we packed and got back on the subway for the hour-ish ride to Wimbledon. We were loaded down with all of our stuff, but had to wait until about halfway through the ride to find seats. Randall was waiting by the door for us and we spent an hour talking with Dot and James before they headed out for a music festival. Today was the hottest day of the week, reaching 101 degrees. We had all the fans running and windows open and spent the afternoon lying in the living room. Ryan made carbonara for lunch, and we were able to take Randall for a walk in the park around 7, when the temperature had cooled to the mid 90’s, though he still struggled. We basically had to drag him the whole time.  We walked back into town near the train station, about a half mile, and grabbed a frozen pizza, chips and beer for dinner. We relaxed the rest of the night, watching television and enjoying the lack of trains.

Day 7 – Wimbledon – July 26

We woke up to thunderstorms, Randall doesn’t like the sound of rain, so he barked until Ryan could calm him down.  He also doesn’t like getting wet, and refused to go onto the back porch to use the restroom.  For a big boy, he’s a bit of a priss. A couple hours later, we were able to take him out for a quick walk between storms and happily the temperature had dropped back into the 70s. We spent the morning finishing our laundry and just enjoying not roasting alive. Around noon, Elizabeth decided to take a 3 or 4-mile jog around the park. Six and a half miles later, due to getting lost and finding herself in the middle of a golf course, she collapsed back home covered in poison ivy. After a shower everything was cleaned off and we took Randall with us back down to the town square to get groceries for dinner and to visit a Gordon Ramsay approved butcher. Ryan made roast chicken and potatoes and we spent the evening burning through season 2 of The Sinner – it was a wild and crazy Friday night.

Day 8 – Wimbledon – July 27

We’ve been eating yogurt and granola every morning for breakfast. We didn’t know we were such hippies. Ryan made us chicken goan curry using the leftover roasted chicken and the spices we got from Borough Market. It was delicious and spicy. We spent the afternoon trying to figure out what path to take through Europe after Morocco and catching up on important Netflix things. Around 8 pm, after walking Randall, we decided to hit up the local watering hole down by the train station called The Old Fields. As we approached, we noticed there was a huge crowd standing outside and we wondered if it’d be too busy for us to get in. As we got closer, we saw the inside was nearly empty and it was just the outside that was packed with what looked like 18 year-old kids and their 17 year-old friends. We found a table and grabbed some beer and split a delicious hamburger.

We sat near the bathrooms and watched a string of drunk and emotional teenagers stumble to the restrooms. After fighting to order at the bar and feeling like we were back in college, we headed home to eat cookies, tea, and more beer and appreciate the sweet sounds of the television.

Day 9 – Wimbledon – July 28

We got up and walked the pup and headed to Our Lady and St. Peter Roman Catholic church about a 10-minute walk up the road. The lectures were very dramatic, with their British accents and long, one might say too long, pauses during the readings. After Ryan made a delicious breakfast including Cumberland sausage he’d gotten from the butcher. We were only a 10-minute walk from Wimbledon, so we wanted to check it out. We were able to wander through parts of the grounds and visit the gift shop, but they wanted 25 pounds per person to visit the museum and fields.  Everything in the gift shop was hilariously overpriced and we decided to jog around park across the street from the grand tennis facility. We didn’t expect it to be so hilly and the 3-mile run home practically killed us.

After showering we Ubered over to the Warren Hotel, very fancy hotel with beautiful grounds, to meet Elizabeth’s coworker Sebastien and his wife Elise. Sebastien has just been transferred to the London office, and they are over for a week looking at houses and schools for their two kids. We had drinks and ate dinner out on the patio, discussing work and things we’d recommend they do when they move to the area.  It was refreshing to actually have a real conversation with someone.   We are hoping to eventually move to the UK ourselves so it was interesting hearing about all the things they had to do. We learned a valuable lesson in checking pictures after they are taken or taking multiple. See below: the only one we have, both boys managed to blink at the same time.

Day 10 – Wimbledon – July 29

The day was spent doing more laundry, planning and packing for our 9:40 pm flight to Morocco. Ryan cooked up the rest of the sausages for lunch, venison and boar, and we shoveled down any remaining leftovers. We took Randall for one final walk into town and shared a chocolate gelato. The journey to Gatwick Airport took around an hour and a half and, luckily, we left at 5 pm – almost 5 hours before departure. We flew AirArabia which had a mix of good and horrid reviews. They don’t allow you to check in online for Gatwick flights (who knows why) so we arrived when the gate agents opened, 3 hours prior to our flight, and the line was already huge! It took about an hour to get Ryan’s bag checked and our boarding passes. Then while going through, security they thought our GoPro selfie stick was a bottle, so we were stuck there for an extra 20 minutes. Our boarding passes said we boarded at 8:40 but the departure signs said gate information would be given at 8:45. We were able to spend 30 minutes in the priority pass lounge Ryan gets with his Amex, and enjoyed a beer and some macaroni and cheese with a few other treats. Finally, we boarded the plane and somehow, on an otherwise completely full flight, were given exit row seats with the third seat in our aisle vacant.  The three-hour flight from London to Marrakech signaled our departure from the comforts of the English language and western civilization.

Things we learned in London:

  1. You can wear whatever you want – no matter what shape you are.
  2. English people are very polite in the subways and very vulgar in the pubs.
  3. Not really a lesson but a reinforcement – Indian food is heaven.
  4. If you ever move to Europe invest in A/C and a clothes dryer.  

Scotland

Day 1 – Glasgow – July 7

We arrived at the Belfast City airport to grab our 9:55 am flight to Glasgow on an airline called Flybe. The tickets were 60 pounds each and the flight took roughly 30 minutes. We boarded the propjet plane and were over the Inner Sea within 10 minutes. Collecting our bags was a breeze as it was a domestic flight and we were already in the UK.  Then we began the great journey that was getting our discount rental car. We waited 45 minutes for the shuttlebus (supposedly set to arrive every 15 minutes) then decided to walk the 15 minutes to the lot; a walk that led us along grass paths mere inches from cars and down dingy alleyways before arriving at the lot. We are cruising in a cute, white, little, manual Hyundai. We were starving and Elizabeth wanted to find a traditional Sunday Roast. We settled on a restaurant called The Grill on the Corner and got the beef and pork. These main courses came with gravy, roasted potatoes, cooked carrot and cabbage, and a Yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding is pretty much bread and I don’t know why they call it pudding. We had a wine and a beer and finished it with an apple and rhubarb pastry.

Next it was time to begin the 3.5-hour journey north to Loch Ness. Although Ryan thought the roads were better than Ireland, certainly wider, but still a stressful drive on winding mountain roads. We were quickly in the Highlands driving through Loch Lomond and the Trossach National Park. Elizabeth proclaimed this was the most beautiful scenery she had ever seen with lush, towering mountains and pristine, blue lakes.

Not too far into the drive, Ryan desperately needed to use the restroom so we pulled over.  This area is full of places to pull over and start hiking, so we decided to do a quick mile walk into the forest. We were seeking a sight called Signal Rock, a place of pagan worship back in the day. Elizabeth was hiking in her flats and a dress and Ryan in his Tommy Bahama T-shirt, but we still managed to pass all the old folk we encountered.

After our brief stop, we wove our way up to Fort William, a town at the edge of the lochs leading to the sea. We needed a quick walk around and wandered through the city center before stopping at an Aldi and a Food Hall to get groceries and snacks. Finally, an hour later we were at our hostel, Lochside Hostel, right on Loch Ness. The main rooms have big windows that look out over the lake and you can walk right down to the water. Our room is a 6-bedroom bunk that looks right out onto the lake and surrounding mountains. That night Chef Ryan made us ham stuffed pasta with packaged Carbonara sauce and French bread. We had a beer and went to bed at a reasonable hour, ecstatic that the beds were comfortable and our bunkmates quiet.

Day 2 – Loch Ness – July 8

We made sausages and ate frosted flakes for breakfast the next morning, merging our taste of home with being spoiled by hot breakfasts from Mary. We took a slow start to the day; Ryan having come down with an attack of allergies leading to a cold. It was sunny and beautiful 65 degrees, so we enjoyed basking in the sun and reading on the shores of Loch Ness – keeping an ever-watchful eye out for Nessie.  Once the early afternoon came rolling around, it was time to get out and enjoy our surroundings.

Our first stop was 5 minutes down the road and were the waterfalls of Invermoriston. The trail was a little unclear from the carpark as the map was very faded from the sun, but luckily a tour group arrived at the same time lead by a Scottish man in a kilt. Naturally we followed them. He had a lot to say about the surrounding area that we couldn’t quite make out, because we were trying to keep a respectful distance.  We ended up crossing the street to find a bridge that was built in the 1800s in an attempt to make the Highlands more accessible over the rivers and lochs. The bridge was a beautiful stone arch which crossed over picturesque rapids of the River Moriston. We then took a quick hike through the woods to catch a view of the waterfall/rapids and enjoy the smell of pine.

Next Elizabeth needed to see all things Loch Ness. She wanted desperately to find a cool shirt with Nessie on it – but it was not to be. We bopped around the gift shop areas in Drumnadrochit and got some hot chocolate and coffee. Ryan has been finding lots of Clan Mackenzie things on postcards and shot glasses – which is part of his paternal ancestry.  After a disappointing hunt and getting hungry, we drove 30 mins along the east side of Loch Ness along the southern shore to a town called Dores. We ate lunch at the Dores Inn, sitting outside overlooking the banks of the lake. We ate fish and chips and drank beer as the sun disappeared behind clouds; sadly the forecast was calling for rain the remainder of the week.

We stopped in a Tesco – grocery store – on our way back to get stuff to make tomato soup and grilled cheese, hostel chef Ryan strikes again. We also got two new Doritos flavors – Doritos Collisions – honey glazed ribs mixed with lemon blast (4/10) then habanero chili and guacamole (5/10). The hostel was packed with more than 20 young people drinking and socializing in the lounge area. We sipped a beer and tried to not get annoyed by young, dumb Americans before calling it a night.

Day 3 – Inverness – July 9

It was time to leave Loch Ness behind and venture to Inverness. When we woke up it was pouring rain and fog was thick over the lake – foiling our last chance to spot Nessie. We took our time making breakfast and getting out the door before making the 45-minute drive east. The rain transitioned to a spit so we were able to wander around town, Ryan still feeling pretty under the weather. The town is quite idyllic with River Ness running through it and plenty of classical looking buildings. We went in several gift shops finding all sorts of Clan Mackenzie things. Ryan’s great-great-great Grandfather’s name was Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie from Scotland and we are finding their crest and tartan colors everywhere.

We walked along the River Ness and popped in the post office to mail a few postcards. We were wasting time until we were able to check into our AirBnB at 3. Our last stop was a café called Blend where we got black tea and a chai tea latte.

Finally, we piled back into the car and drove 15 minutes outside of the city to our AirBnB. We were staying in an above the garage apartment of a kind family from rural Scotland. Our host, Ali, greeted us and we met her 3 cute children. The room was so nice – especially because we didn’t have roommate and our window looked out over a field of wildflowers.  The reviews talked about how nice the showers were, and they weren’t kidding!  It might have been Ryan’s favorite part of the house. 

Ali told us that just a mile up the road we could find some pubs and the Culloden Battlefield. We wandered along the road past several sheep farms and into a slightly forested area that was lush and mossy. This battleground was one of the sites of the Jacobite Rising in 1746 when they tried to overthrow the house of Hanover and restore the house of Stuart to the British throne. Apparently, the battle only lasted an hour and killed 2,000 Jacobite soldiers. We didn’t know much about it but we wandered around the fields that were marked with large flags and stones commemorating the soldiers who died there. It began to rain so we slipped into the nearby pub to dry off. Elizabeth finally got to try the Strongbow Dark Fruit Cider and Ryan had a local Scottish beer. We watched the Wimbledon mixed doubles with a few locals before walking back to our AirBnB. We had to have a quick phone interview for a pet sitting we’d applied for in London so it meant a lot of walking back and forth – as we would return to the area for dinner – but it had finally stopped raining and it was nice to feel the cool air.

The phone interview went well and we were excited for our trip to London. We walked back up and ate dinner at the Culloden Moor Inn. We had a delicious meal. We started with the garlic mushrooms, which were then put on garlic bread and coated in a garlic butter sauce – died and went to heaven – and the fish cakes. Our main course was chicken stuffed with black pudding, bacon wrapped, and covered in a mustard whiskey sauce. Also, so delicious. And it of course came with fires, or chips, as everything here must be accompanied by at least one form of potato. We drank the local lager Tennets and tried to avoid all the horse poop on our walk back.

Day 4 – Ullapool – July 10

We woke up and went for a lovely jog on the muddy forest trails we’d seen the night before. We passed very vocal sheep and a lot of old people walking their dogs. After cleaning up and saying good-bye to our host – who informed us that late last night the other AirBnB guests had a verbal altercation that woke the children – we were off. Our first stop was St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church for a quick daily mass. Elizabeth enjoys going to daily mass from time to time to appreciate the intimacy of the small group of nuns and old people. Hoping for a Scottish priest we made due with the Indian one, and after 30 quick minutes we were done. Ryan wishes all church services could be this succinct.

The main trip of the day was to Ullapool to look for the family gravestone of Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie.  All we knew – or thought we knew – about him was that he died in the early 1900s and had a daughter Ruth who married a man named Charlie Goss in the US. Ullapool was a 1.5-hour drive north through beautiful green mountains and lots and lots of rain. We arrived at this northern coastal town and had hoped to dine at the local seafood shack – called the Seafood Shack – but it was all outdoors and the rain continued to pour. Theme for the day – the rain would pour while we were outdoors and dry up while we were indoors.

We decided to go to a coffee shop to get Scottish breakfast tea and some scones and bread pudding. We are starting to take our tea with milk and occasionally with sugar – like real UK-ers. As previously mentioned, we watched the fog lift and dry out until we exited into the pouring rain. We spent some time reading/writing in the car trying to wait out the storm but eventually decided we need to just tough it out. Another learning of the day – Elizabeth’s rain jacket isn’t a true waterproof rain jacket. We popped into some local gift shops and bought some craft beer for later that week, but it just wouldn’t stop raining.

We drove over to the Mill Street Burial Ground (only avoiding the 8-minute walk due to the rain) and began our search. The cemetery was very small and on an awkward hill so some headstone had to be climbed up to, while others had slid in the mud – I wonder how people actually got buried in there.

We hadn’t been there for more than 2 minutes when Ryan declared – “here it is Kenneth Mackenzie, died 1922.” We were elated, how easy had that been. We continued walking and reading headstone and to our surprise we found another, Kenneth John Mackenzie died 1928. Then another died in 1920, then another died in 1927, and finally Kenneth Mackenzie (The Duke) who died in 1958 who was also a Free Mason. We had no idea that Kenneth Mackenzie was the equivalent of the American John Smith. Regardless, it was a cool endeavor and we captured as much information as we could off the tombstones for future research.

It was time to eat and since it was still raining, we decided to try the Seaforth Bar and Restaurant right on the harbor. We were able to secure seats right by the fireplace to dry off. It was still in the mid-60s, but Elizabeth can never turn down a warm fire. We got some drinks and enjoyed Thai fishcakes, haggis pakora, an Indian fusion dish, and finally a ham and highland cheddar sandwich. We’ve decided that American take-out/fusion Chinese food is like UK take-out Indian food, and as Indian food enthusiasts, we are grateful. After drying out and filing our bellies, we wandered around the small town one last time taking in the fog on the mountains across the open water and the old style fishing boats bobbing in the water. We said good-bye to Ullapool and Ryan’s roots and were back in the car headed for Rosemarkie/Fortrose where our next AirBnB was an old hotel called the Anderson.

After another rainy 1.5-hour drive – Ryan doing excellent on these steep mountain roads on the left-hand side – we pulled up to the Anderson. It’s actually run by an American family from the East Coast who uprooted their young family 20 years ago to open this hotel, restaurant, and bar in a small Scottish town. We met the owner – Mr. Anderson, and our bar tender later that night was 19-year-old junior Anderson who is studying to be a literary critic at the University of Glasgow. Before grabbing dinner, we wandered around the town – particularly to the old cathedral across the street. The gates were locked but a local told us to just go to the far gate and let ourselves in, so we enjoyed the grounds all alone. The oldest parts of the Fortrose Cathedral date back to the 1300s and is made out of red sandstone. This is an episcopal cathedral and was the seat of the medieval Scottish diocese of Ross. It’s always amazing to see something that old and try to envision life back in the time it was constructed. One of the plaques at the church even mentions a Kenneth Mackenzie adding to the mystery of Ryan’s ancestry. Elizabeth is convinced he is secretly the heir to the Scottish throne.

After walking down to the coast and getting poured on yet again, we changed into flipflops and walked downstairs to dinner. The bar had over 250 types of whiskey and was the very picture of a Scottish small tavern. Ryan ate horribly stinky – yet he declared delicious – mussels followed by blueberry pie, while Elizabeth ate a chicken and bacon pie.  We did this while of course drinking beers and ciders. Four retired Scottish gentleman who were also staying at the hotel came down to the bar, and we spent hours chatting with them about all things American and Scottish. They were in town to play golf at a local club and came from diverse professions – jeweler (who said Ryan did a nice job based on photos of my ring), a used car salesman, and an accountant – who convinced us to visit Bermuda.  We never did find out what the last one did.  They introduced us to some classic UK television programs to watch while we are here and some restaurant recommendations for when we return to Glasgow. We finally remembered to start telling people we are on our honeymoon and they bought us a round of drinks wishing us luck on the year ahead. Ryan got a shot of Belvenie (whiskey) at everyone’s suggestion and eventually, drunkenly, we stumbled up the stairs to bed.

Day 5 – Perth and Dundee – July 11

We woke up the next morning and while loading the car, saw all 4 of our friends from the night before enjoying breakfast waiting to get back on the golf course. We wished them luck and hoped the weather would hold.  Then we were off – back in the car – for our last of long drive days. We made a pit stop at Chanonry Point – ironically at the edge of the golf course, to look for dolphins. Apparently, dolphins and seals are easy to spot here in the fast currents but after it starting to rain, and with none surfacing, we abandoned hope and piled back in the car.

Today our ultimate destination was the small town of Finavon located in southern Scotland south of the Highlands. We would be beginning our first dog/housesitting for a lovely woman named Julie and 3 Lhasa Apso pups. But, we had a lot of time to kill before our 7 pm scheduled arrival so we set of south driving through the rain and green mountainside of Cairngorms National Park. Ryan was tired of driving, especially through rainy narrow roads, but was so nice in not making Elizabeth learn to drive stick. He gave a brief lesson in a gravel parking lot at Nessie Land on Loch Ness – where she managed to get up to second gear and only stalled out twice.  He said she would get another lesson on the country roads around out house sit.

About 2 hours in, we needed to take a biobreak. By now we should learn to trust our bladders as they previously led us to gems like Barack Obama Plaza in Ireland and on a beautiful hike to Signal Rock in the Highlands. We pulled into the House of Bruar complex and were not disappointed. Nestled into the national park of Cairngorms and in the middle of nowhere did we find a high-end department store. We spent a while wandering through the fancy wool and leather departments then had to rip Ryan out of the fine foods area. We bought some overpriced but delicious looking cherries before heading out of the department store and onto a hike to the Bruar Falls. About a mile up a muddy trail we passed a few old bridges and beautiful views of the Bruar River and several falls. We did not anticipate this hike and Elizabeth was dressed in her white linen top and skirt, determined to not get muddy. We flirted with death a little as we walked along the railing of a bridge to avoid getting our shoes wet in a giant puddle of dark water.

Back in the car, after a successful bladder adventure, we were on the road to Perth – not Australia. Perth was another cute little Scottish town on the River Tay. We had our sights set on Chinese food – Ryan in particular – but they were only opened from 12-2 and our bathroom break adventure pushed our arrival time to 2:30. We settled on a traditional Scottish restaurant called Bothy Perth. We got more beers and ate delicious bread and butter, crispy polenta cake, and a steak sandwich. We then spent time pursuing the open markets in the city and the mall where Ryan hit up some of his favorite stores from Spain, H&M and Primark, to get a pair of European shorts and a popsicle button-up shirt – super sexy.

We wandered to a quaint park right on the river Rodney Gardens which is a cute little art garden with plenty of benches and flowers. We were able to enjoy it for about 20 minutes before Ryan’s allergies kicked in and we had to evacuate pronto. Next, we drove over to Dundee and accidently stopped at the equivalent of a Scottish Crackerbarrel called Kingsway Farm – Dining and Carvery. We left there heading further into the city to grab a veggie pizza at Luigi’s and drove to the Dundee Law, a lookout point at the top of the city. From here you can see the long bridges and oil rigs that are waiting along the River Tay before it opens up to the Black Sea.

Finally, it was onto the house and the pups we’d be watching for the next 5 days. Julie was very welcoming and lives in a beautiful, small rural community along the River South Esk where you can see the distant foothills of the Highlands. She gave us a tour of the home and introduced us to the three pups Molly, Olly, and Macy, who look a lot like Elizabeth’s parents’ dogs. Julie met her best friend in Cancun who coincidentally lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, so there are a few Cornhusker things around the house. We went to bed early that night, battling with the decision to leave the window and shades open to let in the cool air or close then to keep the sun out, which sets at midnight and rises at 4 AM – it was a nightly struggle.

Day 6 – Forfar – July 12

We woke up to a bright sun and incessant bird chirping, so we closed the window and pulled the blackout curtain.  Then promptly fell back asleep.  When we finally rolled out of bed around 10 or so, we breakfasted on European Frosted Flakes and tea.  After that we spent the early afternoon lounging in the sunroom.  Around 2 pm, Julie’s daughter arrived to take them to the airport for the weekend at a gin and cider festival.  We were left alone with the pups. We decided to check out the private river that ran behind the property, road covered in mud. It was only about a mile walk but Ryan made the mistake of trudging in his flip flops.

Ryan went to the grocery store and Elizabeth stayed home with the pups. He came back with a full menu planned for the days ahead. Night one was homemade mushroom carbonara. We hung out in the kitchen, Elizabeth drinking wine and Ryan cooking just like our Houston days. The food was delicious as always and we ended the night relaxing and trying to go to bed early.

Day 7 – Forfar – July 13

We woke up again disturbed by the birds and spent the morning drinking tea, watching television, reading and writing. It rained on and off all day so we took it as a sign to hunker down with the pups and be lazy. For dinner Ryan made Greek potatoes and a roasted lamb leg. We drank wine and watched Outlander, connecting with our Scottish roots.

Day 8 – Forfar – July 14

We woke up to finally a sunny day! We attempted a walk-jog around the community but Ryan’s allergies are still limiting his outdoor time. Around 10:30 we ventured back to the city of Dundee to go to church. We went to St. Mary Our Lady of Victories Church where we finally found a real Scottish priest. However, with his thick accent and the echo from the church I’m not 100% sure what he was preaching about. The church was fairly full with a very diverse congregation. Elizabeth was the last one up to communion when the priest ran out of Eucharist. In his accent he whispered “Be right back just need to take a wee run to the tabernacle,” so she stood in front of everyone waiting. After mass we headed to another church, this one converted into a rock climbing gym called Avertical World.

We only spent an hour or so climbing, realizing how much strength we’ve lost in the past month. On our way back to the house we stopped by a grocery store to get more essentials: chips, cookies and popcorn. That night we took advantage of the hot tub, ate popcorn for dinner, watched Brave then Spiderman and accidently got drunk on Peroni. 

Day 9 – Forfar – July 15

Our official last day housesitting. The owner would be getting in late tonight so we’d stay one final evening with the puppies. We spent a lot of time preparing for our future weeks in London and Morocco and Ryan made a delicious roast chicken with rice and peas for lunch. Elizabeth felt like a true European doing all our laundry and hanging them out on the line to dry – luckily it was another sunny day. We sat outside on the deck reading and drinking wine in the wonderful 75-degree weather and spent the evening drinking the rest of our beer and eating leftovers. We watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec from the hot tub then turned in for the night.

Day 10 – Cairngorms National Park – July 16

We spent the morning packing up and eating the last of the milk and cereal – Ryan’s favorite. Our host, Julie, had just returned from Bristol and announced she was quitting her job today, so she could move to be closer to the husband. She’s keeping the house of course – otherwise our trip may have stopped as we became Scotland residents 😊. We left around 11 and drove back up into the Highlands to enjoy one last hike. It was about an hour drive north back into the Cairngorms National Park. The drive was absolutely beautiful though still slightly overcast. Our destination was Corrie Fee National Nature Reserve. We lost signal about halfway into the drive, but luckily we already had the GPS running. We found the well-maintained car park and visitors center and could choose between 6 different hiking options. Ryan still was sneezing and had a runny nose; regardless Elizabeth dragged him into the forest. We chose the blue trail and then added on some of the green trail – after lazily dog sitting, we needed some exercise.

The hike leads us through a dense forest with lots of moss that followed along the River South Esk. After about two miles it opened into a gorgeous valley. This area was once highly volcanic and has since been eroded by large glaciers. The result are sheer granite cliffs and lots of broken pieces in the fields.

We hiked a little way up into the valley then sat on rocks and enjoyed one of our Doritos Collisions and granola. The sun broke through the clouds and the hills were filled with the most vibrant shades of green. Continuing on the trail we crossed the river on a wooden bridge and Ryan found whole rigatoni noodles among the rocks.

We decided to tack on some of the green trail that led to a waterfall. Then turned around and headed back to the car. All in all, our hike was 7 miles and done in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad, but our legs were tired.

We began the two-hour journey south to Edinburgh arriving just after 6 pm. The hostel we’d found was called Kick Ass Grassmarket and was located right in the center of the city. Walking just outside our doorstep, you could see the Edinburgh Castle and a ton of pubs and restaurants. We tried a new hostel experience: sleeping in pods. The room had 16 individual pods stacked like bunk beds two high and had a curtain at the feet. Inside you had a nightstand, USB ports and a light. Beneath your bed there was a cabinet with a lock to stow your stuff. We were pretty excited about the potential and our pods were side by side. We wandered across the street to a bar called the Fiddlers Arm to get a few drinks and play some Gin Rummy before dinner.

We decided to get Chinese food – having craved it the week before but unable to find any open establishments. The restaurant was called Rendezvous Chinese Restaurant and had been around since 1956. We drank Tsingtao beers and enjoyed beef chow mein and lamb kung pow. Upon leaving dinner we saw across the street another restaurant/bar called Ryan’s Bar – naturally we had to go in and have a pint. Ryan has been trying to recreate the magic of Ireland ordering Guinness on tap but keeps reporting disappointment.

Finally – a little drunk – we stumbled to the car park to move our car onto the street.  It was free from 630 PM to 830 AM.  They wanted 30 pounds per day, but we are on a budget!  Finally, we got home and into our pods.  Pod life was okay, it would have been great if it wasn’t so hot. Europe isn’t ready for global warming and hasn’t invested in air conditioning. You could either close your foot shade and have privacy but boil or let the flap open and people could watch you sleep. We both got so hot we ripped our shades open.

Day 11 – Edinburgh – July 17

We awoke to another gray day in Scotland. We got up early so we could move our car to an area of free parking located about a mile and a half from our hostel.  After moving the car, we began the 30-minute walk back hoping to find breakfast along the way. We both weren’t feeling on our A-game but hoped a full Scottish breakfast would cure us. We found a place called Troy’s where a Turkish man provided us two full breakfasts and tea. We are becoming super European now, not only adding milk, but also brown sugar to our breakfast tea. The food was delicious, a full breakfast includes haggis, eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, potato cakes, and baked beans. We continued the walk back to our hostel and stopped in a cute café called the Fatty Owl to try to wait out the then rain coming down and enjoy more tea while reading.

Upon reaching the hostel we decided we needed a bit of a cat nap and settled into our pods for an hour. That black out shade came in handy then! Elizabeth eventually got restless and we walked along the Royal Mile or High Street, a street at the base of the castle full of shops and restaurants. The weather being colder than anticipated had led Elizabeth on a search for a long-sleeved shirt, she still hasn’t found one. We found a pub called The Last Drop back across from our hostel. Apparently, this area was once used for executions (it would explain all the ghost tours around) and this pub honored that with information and photos of nooses and execution devices. We got some beers and Elizabeth got a small portion of mac and cheese. We kept seeing mac and cheese on menus not knowing it was a Scottish special and it did not disappoint with its mature cheddar cheese. We ventured in the other direction of the city that afternoon and came across a little patisserie called Valerie, in time for high tea. We enjoyed more tea with milk and sugar and scones with jam and butter and cream. Ryan also enjoyed a pain au chocolate.

Caffeinated up we continued our wandering along the other side of the Castle – I should note the castle is on top of an extinct volcano and is the center of the town – popping in the shops and walking around the park until finally ending up in a small pub called the Blue Blazer.

Ryan ordered two cask beers, obviously which Elizabeth didn’t like, because who likes warm beer, but hers was only 2.5 pounds.  We sat in the back corner listening to the locals and playing card games. The gross beer became the punishment beer and whoever lost had to take a drink or two until it was gone. We walked back across town to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant called Dishoom. A friend recommended the London location so we needed to try it here first.

The wait was about 40 minutes so we sat in the dark basement drinking old fashions and an Indian Colaba Colada. Finally, it was our turn and we may have gone a little overboard ordering two curries, samosas, the special entree, rice and naan – but it was delicious. They were having a drink special too, Kingfisher Beer in the 660 ml large bottle, so Ryan made us each drink one. Stuffed to the rafters, we walked home and collapsed into our pods.

Day 12 – Edinburgh – July 18

After a day of endless eating and drinking (and blowing the budget) it was time to get some exercise in. We made the 30-minute walk to the car, stopping in a shop to get a breakfast smoothie on the way. They put oats in it – it was amazing – everyone: start putting oats in your smoothie. Our destination today was the Edinburgh International Climbing Area Ratho. It was about 30 minutes outside of the city and built in an old quarry. We didn’t know until that day, but it’s the largest climbing facility in Europe and it did not disappoint. We arrived around 11 and got all our gear. They had a ton of routes and about 6 auto belays (where you don’t need a partner and the rope let’s you down slowly on its own.) The walls were so tall and a lot of them were made to look like actual walls with artificial features. The walls ranged from 10-91 feet with different inclines, Ryan was like a kid in the candy shop. We climbed for about two hours taking turns holding each other’s ropes and Ryan made it to the top of the 91-foot wall on two separate routes. This only made Elizabeth’s neck hurt from looking up at him but was also very stressful, as she was in charge of getting him down 91 feet safely after he finished climbing up.  But she did spectacularly!

Hands hurting, Elizabeth decided to take a jog along the canal that ran along the arena, while Ryan did some calisthenics and climbed some more. The weather was beautiful today, sun out and highs in the upper 60s. The jog was lovely and she ran along and saw in places the canal was built to go over roads and other bodies of water. After returning both tired and hungry we showered and headed back into Edinburgh. We ended up eating at a pizza place right across the street from Troy’s called Geek Pizza. They had delicious Neapolitan pizzas and everything was nerd themed. We ordered a couple beers to go with our appetizer of dough balls stuffed with haggis and mozzarella and BBQ to dip them in – delicious. Then we topped it all off with a spicy jalapeno and pepperoni pizza. We returned to the Fiddlers Arm for some afternoon beers and dessert, well Ryan’s idea of dessert – warm cherries with ice cream and shortbread cookies.

James Hutton, the father of modern geology, is buried in Edinburgh in one of it many old cemeteries. Since we both studied him in school, we set off to find his grave. He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard right next to the University of Edinburgh. There are lots of old graves in this cemetery dating back to the 1200s. Some include pirates and of course many members of Ryan’s Mackenzie clan. After wandering on our own for a while, shuffling around more ghost tour groups, we found a map that showed his tomb in the far back corner. Feeling an early sense of accomplishment, you can understand our disappointment to learn that section is closed off to the public. Sorry we couldn’t pay our respect Mr. Hutton but thanks for uniformitarianism.

We decided to wander around the university district. J.K. Rowling moved to Edinburgh with only the first three chapters of Harry Potter written. She wrote the rest of the first book in different cafes around the city. Edinburgh is very proud to be the birth place of Harry Potter and it was cool to see the old buildings and different inspirations for the novel. Eventually we settled on a folk music bar called Captains Bar and sat at the bar listening to the different folk groups play guitar, flute, and other instruments. Eventually Elizabeth got hungry again and we found a restaurant called Ting Thai Caravan where we got beef pad thai and duck confit massaman curry. The food was delicious; however, Ryan puked the next morning and thinks it was from the duck. We headed back to the hostel around 10 pm. The night did not make for good sleeping. Our roommates all seemed to be drunk and went to bed very loudly, one guy falling out of his second story pod.

Day 13 – Glasgow – July 19

We checked out of our hotel and walked over to finally go into the Edinburgh Castle. The cost was 17.5 pounds a person so we’d been debating going the whole week. But we decided we should do something cultural so we arrived right as they opened at 9:30 to avoid the crowd. It was still super crowded so we can’t imagine what the afternoon looks like. Edinburgh Castle was erected on top of an old volcano centuries ago, the exact date is unknown, although the current structure was built in the 12th century. Walking into the sandstone/dolerite ruins you have great views of the city and there are several black cannons that point out so you can imagine how they defended this castle. We went into several museums within the castle including the royal jewels, recreation of POW camps, and a fallen soldier museum. We drank tea and ate a pastry overlooking the city. We checked out of our hotel and walked over to finally go into the Edinburgh Castle. The cost was 17.5 pounds a person so we’d been debating going the whole week. But we decided we should do something cultural so we arrived right as they opened at 9:30 to avoid the crowd. It was still super crowded so we can’t imagine what the afternoon looks like. Edinburgh Castle was erected on top of an old volcano centuries ago, the exact date is unknown, although the current structure was built in the 12th century. Walking into the sandstone/dolerite ruins you have great views of the city and there are several black cannons that point out so you can imagine how they defended this castle. We went into several museums within the castle including the royal jewels, recreation of POW camps, and a fallen soldier museum. We drank tea and ate a pastry overlooking the city.

It was time to leave Edinburgh and make our way back to Glasgow. It feels like we’ve been in Scotland for an eternity, but we’ve enjoyed every minute. We’d highly recommend visiting the Highlands and Edinburgh to anyone who will listen. Glasgow was about an hours’ drive west and we arrived to a bustling downtown. There were so many people walking around on the streets Ryan had to swerve around several pedestrians.

We arrived at our hotel for the night, The Victorian House, a discount hotel. All the walls were covered in wet paint signs that I had read about in a review from a couple months ago. We were on the top floor with two twin beds and a nice breeze. We were so excited to escape the heat and the noise from our pod rooms. We lounged and a rain storm rolled in – apparently Glasgow is known for its rainy-ness. Hunger won out eventually and we set off to find some food and mail some postcards. We passed more Bucket Boy statues – apparently a Scottish childhood book character who has been painted and placed all around Scotland.

We were craving a taste from home and had seen a lot of Five Guys (a burger restaurant in the states) across Ireland and Scotland. Ryan loves Five Guys so we shared a chocolate milkshake and fries and enjoyed juicy hamburgers. It might have even tasted better than the locations in the States. After dinner it was still pouring rain, so we ran a few errands at the pharmacy (Elizabeth had dropped her toothbrush on the dorm bathroom floor) and went to a Tesco to get some dessert. We went to bed early that night watching Game of Thrones and eating our desserts in bed.

Day 14 – Glasgow – July 20

The hotel served a free continental style breakfast from 8-10 am on Saturday mornings. We arrived at 9 not knowing they only made one batch of each item and things were pretty picked over. We put together the workings of a full Scottish breakfast with sausage, beans, eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and haggis trying to eat as much free stuff as we could. We checked out and were allowed to leave our bags in the lobby for the day as we returned the rental car and explored the city before our 4:40 train to London.

Per usual our rental car return didn’t go smoothly, as we’d slightly scratched the rim and they made us pay 100 pounds to fix it – damage that would be covered under normal wear and tear in the States. But we tried to put the bad news behind us and took an Uber back into the city. We found a brewery called Shillings Brewery, Ryan enjoyed a flight of their beers and Elizabeth some sort of beer. We sat along the big windows and got to watch the pride parade roll by that we didn’t know was scheduled for today. We have happened upon a lot of pride events since arriving in Europe.

Hungry, we settled on a place called Doner Haus which served traditional German doners – not as good as Spanish doner. Elizabeth had essentially gyro meet with cheese and cilantro and sauce in a thick pita like bread bun and Ryan got French fries smothered in meat, feta, tomatoes, cucumber and tzatziki. We wandered through a few souvenir shops and through the markets before returning to the hotel to pick up our backpacks and walk to the train station.

The walk was only 15 minutes and we made it to Glasgow Central Station about 40 minutes before our train. Ryan loves beers in any station, so we popped into the bar and enjoyed two pints that had to be chugged in the end to make it to our train. We were in car B sitting at a table across from an older Scottish couple. The train began moving and we realized we weren’t facing the direction of travel. It was very hot in the car, but we kept hoping it’d cool down as we set off. Then the conductor came on and announced the AC was broken in only car B but we could move to car C if we’d like. Ryan sprung into action and was able to find us two seats at a table facing the right direction – what an upgrade.

It was a 6-hour journey total rolling through the English countryside. We sat across from an old man who was visiting his sick mother in Glasgow and told us about how much he didn’t enjoy busy London life – he’s a country lad.  Although initially grateful to be in an AC car, they really exercised the system and we actually spent most of the ride being quite cold. Elizabeth packed PB&Js and other train snacks and we watched movies, researched future trips and read to pass the time.

Things we’ve learned in Scotland:

  1. The Scottish use ‘wee’ as a universal adjective, often when things aren’t really that small or quick
  2. It is the most beautiful place on Earth, at least according to Elizabeth
  3. Put all the oats in smoothies.