Glorious Bakery We stopped in for take-away pizza (margarita) on our first day. Better than the Lobster Bay pizza on Praslin and priced fine at 150scr ($10.50). Enough for us to split with two...
Blog posts from International Travel
Seychelles: La Digue sights
Anse Severe This was our 'local' beach, just down the street from our accommodations, and featured multiple beach bars. Eric tried snorkeling on our first day but the combination of shallow water...
Seychelles: Praslin restaurants and takeaway
Lobster Bay Restaurant Our first dinner on Praslin, conveniently located just a 2 minute drive from our hotel with a few parking spots out front. We had stopped in earlier to make a reservation and...
Seychelles: Praslin sights
Fond Ferdinand Park Vallée de Mai is the most popular spot to see the famous coco de mer palm trees, but it is expensive at $30pp. Instead, we opted for the smaller and less expensive Fond...
Seychelles: Mahe restaurants and takeaway
La Perle Noire Restaurant This was our first night on the island, and we arrived right as they were opening at 6pm. Even though the restaurant was fully booked, the owner kindly gave us a table...
Seychelles: Mahe sights
Anse Royale Beach Our flight landed in the morning, and we had several hours to kill before we could check into our self-catering place. Since the weather was nice Eric pointed us to Anse Royal...
Seychelles: transportation (ferry, cars + bikes)
Since we wanted to explore multiple spots and didn't want to rely on a travel provider, we needed to arrange ferries to get between islands, plus either a car or a bike to get around each island....
Seychelles: where we stayed
Villa Bella (Mahe) Our check in was easy - the owner was waiting for us and showed me around while Eric unpacked the car. There was an additional tourism fee that needed to be paid in local currency...
Seychelles: flights & lounges
Altogether, we took a total of 7 flights going and returning from the Seychelles. Three of those flights were standard Southwest Airlines flights to position us to Chicago, or get us from New York...
Seychelles: introduction
Photos of the tropical Seychelle islands have intrigued me for years. Beaches lined with palm trees and massive boulders, plus large tortoises and the world's largest coconut? Yes please. However,...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: evening in Madrid
We dropped off the car at the airport and took an Uber into the city. After relaxing in the room for a bit, I stopped into ALE-HOP to look for comfy socks and found a pair of fluffy rainbow slippers...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: wine tasting in Rueda
Bodegas Muelas Walking the walls of the Cuellar castle put us behind schedule so we had to hustle several blocks from the (free) parking lot in Todesillas to make our reserved tour of the bodega....
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: Castilla y León sights
Cuéllar On the way to our first wine tasting in Todesillas, we stopped in the town of Cuéllar and paid 1,50€ each to walk along the castle walls. The access point was through a turnstile gate near...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: daytrip to Peñafiel
The drive from Valladolid to Peñafiel was fairly easy, with most of the route through rural countryside (and a decent number of trucks). We stopped briefly at the necropolis ruins outside of town,...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: Valladolid food + drink
La Parrilla de San Lorenzo - A traditional Spanish restaurant, this space is massive with large brick arches, knick knacks, and icongraphy. While it wasn't very busy when we arrived, they got...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: Segovia
The 90 minute drive from the Madrid airport to Segovia was very scenic - just thirty minutes from the airport the road became more rural, culminating with a twisty road climb through forest up to...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: Bordeaux food + sights
Food + Drink Aux quatre coins du vin - Hoping for the opportunity to try a few local wines, I booked us at a wine bar on Saturday night where we shared a card that allowed us to get a 3, 6 or 10 cl...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: South Africa v Romania
Each of the host cities for the Rugby World Cup has a fan zone where you can go to buy merchandise, drinks, and watch rugby with a bunch of other fans on a big screen. Bordeaux's version was...
Our Itinerary
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls, Argentina + Brazil (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London + Manchester, UK (Dec)
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)