Hotel 73 - Taipei, Taiwan After getting turned around coming out of the Dongmen MRT metro (note: Taiwanese maps don't always have north at the top, and maps in different parts of the metro station...
Blog posts from Germany
Summer Euro 2013: Berlin
It felt a bit strange to return to a foreign city just one month later, but also comforting to already know my way around parts of the city. Leandra's primary mission on this trip to Berlin was to...
Summer Euro 2013: Potsdam
Our friend's Stef and Uli were kind enough to pick us up at the airport late on a Saturday night and we spent the night at their house (thanks again!). After our few days in warm Lanzarote, the...
Summer Euro 2013: Köln / Cologne food & drink
Even though I am not traditionally a fan of light beer, when in Köln, you need to try the Kölsch! Both places we visited only had the traditional light beer on draft and it comes as a standard 0.2dl...
Summer Euro 2013: Köln / Cologne pt. II
After a mid-afternoon nap we were off to The Flora und Botanischer Garten Köln, just a few tram stops up to the zoo stop, then a quick walk past the zoo to the free gardens. Usually we see...
Summer Euro 2013: Köln / Cologne pt. I
The massive Kölner Dom fills your view as you leave the Köln central train station. While the exterior could use a vigorous power-wash, it remains absolutely stunning. fancy handle; impressive...
Summer Euro 2013: overview
A little more than a year ago our friends Dave and Jake announced they were hosting a party and invited us to attend. Fellow avid travelers (we originally met in Peru on a train returning from Machu...
Germany & France, July 2013: Berlin street art
My flight from JFK arrived fairly early in the morning, so after checking in I headed out to join the 11a 'Alternative Berlin Tour' since I knew it would highlight some of Berlin's famous street...
Germany & France, July 2013: Berlin sights
Leandra and I visited Berlin over a long weekend here in 2009 so I had seen some of the tourist checklist items, leaving me a bit more freedom to explore a few new places. This time I was in Berlin...
Germany & France, July 2013: overview
I spent the second half of July on a business trip to a conference in Berlin, Germany, and then a lab outside Toulouse, France. Unfortunately for both of us, Leandra couldn't go, so I was solo on...
our evenings out in Munich
It gets dark pretty early in Munich, so we usually stayed out as long as we could stand the cold to take photos of the beautiful markets and holiday lights. retail shops along Kaufingerstrasse Eric...
exploring Munich by day
On our first full day in Munich, we took the U-bahn to Odeonplatz to look for a place to have breakfast and explore on our own before the Sandemans free Munich tour at 1pm. The San Francisco Coffee...
Berlin, the East Side Gallery
Once a meaningful and historic spot, the East Side Gallery murals have become overrun with graffiti in the last few years. It's very difficult in many cases to determine what the original artwork...
Berlin sights: part 2
Once we left the Berliner Dom, the weather got progressively worse until we found ourselves at dinner soaking wet from running through the streets of Berlin in a downpour for 15 minutes to get back...
Berlin sights: part 1
During our 2o hours in Berlin, we managed to pack in quite a lot of sightseeing. It helped that we only spent about 4 hours of that sleeping. :) The Brandenburg Gate is magnificent in person. You...
Germany tidbits
If you have never flown into Berlin, be prepared to go through passport control upon exiting the plane, like, 50 feet after getting off the plane. Interestingly, each gate has it's own baggage claim...
Park Sanssouci
Our first afternoon in Germany was spent in Potsdam walking through Park Sanssouci. The sun came out for a brief few hours, so we'll use this as visual evidence that the sun does shine in Germany in...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Valencia, Spain (Mar)
Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Bari, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)