Travel

  • What You Choose to Remember

    Traveling 5,000 miles isn’t supposed to be easy. Never has been for anyone. We had long delays in London. Excessive security checks. Multiple cancellations and an overnight stay in Philadelphia. Survival-of-the-Fittest in many ways, trying to fly these days. But…

  • Wild Hamsters Near Beethoven’s Grave

    Walking back through the cemetery to the train after visiting Beethoven’s grave, we came across this little guy. Not a bunny. Not a mouse. Not a gopher. It’s a wild European Hamster. And it’s adorable. Gave us quite an unexpected…

  • But Sometimes, You Just Want to Come Home

    We went high. We went low. St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Towers and Catacombs. Saw Vienna’s Collection of Old Musical Instruments. Wandered a graveyard until our feet hurt. Paused for a little while inside the Library of Austria. But you know that…

  • This Unexpected Assault on Her Hearing

    Some of you know. Others maybe not so much. A little more than three years ago, we booked flights and made plans to visit Switzerland and Austria. In essence, this trip we’ve been on over the past couple of weeks…

  • “You’re In Austria. That is the Situation.”

    This right here is called a Keiserschmarrn. It’s basically a fried pancake with powdered sugar and sweet sauces for dipping. Now. I wouldn’t normally put FOOD at the head of a single day, but this thing topped our morning at…

  • Konzerte im Mozarthaus

    You don’t have to love classical music to appreciate names like Mozart, Bach, Haydn, or Mendelssohn, to appreciate that they were the artists of their day, or to appreciate that this evening, we walked through the early rains of downtown…

  • Welcome to Vienna, Seven Floors Up

    After two weeks of trains, buses, and boats, the last leg of our holiday began with subways and trams. By night, though, we were staying seven floors above the noise and bustle of city life. And as it turned out,…

  • Temporary European Assimilation (TEA)

    We beat the rain again, passing through several of the most beautiful and historic small towns this country has to offer. But, uh, I also bought a particular kind of hat. Let’s just say we’re too far north of Italy…

  • A Lock on the Marko-Feingold-Steg

    In Salzburg, as in several places around the world, people can leave locks on a bridge and drop their keys in the water, symbolizing the hope of an unbreakable, unending love. This being Melissa’s birthday, following twenty years of marriage,…

  • With All My Love

    Today is Melissa’s birthday. And that means a lot of things at this moment. For most of our friends and family in the west, it means June 20 hasn’t actually happened yet, it means we’re six hours ahead of schedule…