Our flight back to the US left out of Madrid, so we spent our final night in Spain here again. This time we stayed next to the Puerta de Atocha train station, as we were arriving there, plus it...
Blog posts from Travel
Spain 2022: Cuenca
Cuenca is known for its historic walled city sitting on top of a rocky bluff between two rivers. Located roughly halfway between Valencia and Madrid, with a stop on the high speed train between the...
Spain 2022: Valencia street art
Before we left on this trip, I researched a bunch of street art places and muralists that I wanted to see. As with most street art, a lot were still visible while others had been painted over or...
Spain 2022: Valencia food & drink
Our week in Valencia was filled with food and drink experiences, from quick snacks to full-on meals. Bar Oliví is a lovely little wine place with a bar on the right and some additional stools on the...
Spain 2022: Valencia museums
To be honest, I feel like we struck out a bit with the 'formal' art institutions in Valencia. The street art was a lot more interesting to us than the two museums we tried. That said, both art...
Spain 2022: Our Lady Of The Forsaken Festival
Midnight on Saturday and BOOM! BOOMBOOMBOOM...!!! Leandra got up to see what was going on and is surprised by a large fireworks display taking place a mile away in the Turia Park, but visible from...
Spain 2022: Valencia – El Cabanyal
We centered our Saturday afternoon around reservations for a late lunch at Casa Montaña, and we were very happy with our choice to do so! From the old town we used google maps to help find a bus...
Spain 2022: Valencia gardens
Jardí Botànic - This small university-affiliated garden has a reasonable admission fee of 3€ and surprised us with its number of specimens and blessedly shady interior. Palm trees, massive oaks,...
Spain 2022: Valencia Ciutat Vella
Our apartment was located in the heart of the old town, so over our five days we saw most of the sights multiple times. The Mercat Central / Central Market was a definite highlight - located just 2...
Spain 2022: introduction
Two years. In February 2022 it was two years since we'd left the US, and we were ready to go somewhere for a spring trip. We weren't keen on having to test to get into a country, but as luck would...
Hilton Head Island, May 2022
For my birthday weekend we happily accepted an invitation to stay at our friend's house in Hilton Head Island, SC. Somehow we'd never been here before, and the amount of trees and hidden development...
Quick trip to Washington, D.C.
Nine days before we were set to leave for Spain, Leandra grabbed our passports out of the safe to book our train tickets from Madrid to Valencia, causing her to discover that my passport had expired...
NC mountains, April 2022: stops on the way there and back
On the way to Waynesville we stopped at the Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville. A fairly small garden, it is free to visit and has a nice selection of specimens, especially Japanese maples....
NC mountains, April 2022: food & drink
Over the course of the week we tried a number of breweries and restaurants in the NC mountains. April 10 Oskar Blues, Brevard - we'd been here previously so we knew they had lots of parking and a...
NC mountains, April 2022: Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum
With the weather forecast looking quite damp we decided to stay inside for the afternoon and checked out the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum in Maggie Valley. The museum was great, with an...
NC mountains, April 2022: Smoky Mountains National Park
We went to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park twice on our spring trip, once to the relatively close Cataloochee Valley in the early evening, and then an all day trip to the Tennessee side of...
NC mountains, April 2022: waterfalls
During our week in the mountains we made sure to seek out several waterfalls that we hadn't yet visited. On a beautiful Sunday we focused our effort along Forest Rd 475, hitting the following: Cove...
Week in Florida: Eat + Drink
Other Breweries Good Liquid Brewing - We originally planned to go to the South Manatee location, but at the last minute we noticed their newish location in Sarasota that was a little easier to get...
Our Itinerary
2026 Trips
Parrish, FL (Jan)
Medellin, Colombia (Feb)
Wilmington, NC (Apr)
Madrid, Spain (May)
Asturias, Spain (May)
Galicia, Spain (June)
London/Cotswolds, UK (July)
Long Island, NY (July)
Ireland (Aug)
Vietnam (Nov)
Laos (Nov)
Cambodia (Dec)
Singapore (Dec)
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Doha, Qatar (May)
Bristol + London, UK (Jul)
Long Island, NY (Jul)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
day trips from Bologna (Oct)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
Greensboro, NC (Nov)