Monday My parents wouldn't arrive until the afternoon (or so we thought...) so we decided to do some of the walking-intensive activities they wouldn't care about as much. We started with the...
Blog posts from Spain
Spain 2018: background and where we stayed
My parents have a friend with a home in Southern Spain near Malaga, and they've talked about staying there over the past few years. With their 50th anniversary in Dec 2018, Leandra and I thought...
San Sebastian: food & drink
As with most places in Spain, we found San Sebastian to be absolutely delicious. One thing I had to get used to was that ordering wine at most of the pintxo bars was done at the mercy of the...
San Sebastian: sights and beaches
Our first night in San Sebastian we spent avoiding drunk teenagers in the Old Town by walking across the bridge to the Gros district. Tasty food was found, along with peace and quiet and this view...
San Sebastian: where we stayed
For the San Sebastian part of our trip we wanted to be near the old town (for all the wonderful pintxo bars), but not necessarily in the old town (due to noise). We eventually found El Concha...
Bilbao: sights & museums
We spent a considerable amount of time walking around Bilbao. We only bought one 24-hour metro pass during our three day stay so most of our exploring was done on foot. Our room wasn't ready when we...
Bilbao: food & drink
Pinxos (small plates) are the thing to eat in northern Spain, so that was the plan. We were staying in Old Town, right next to Plaza Nueva, but our favorite pinxto bars turned out to be in the Moyua...
Bilbao: daytrip to Getxo
Bilbao is along a river about 20 minutes upstream from the coastal towns of Portugalete and Getxo. Conveniently for us, the metro runs from downtown Bilbao out to both towns, so on a beautiful...
Bilbao: where we stayed
Eric had reviewed a bunch of hotels and narrowed the list to a handful to choose from, and I decided on the Caravan Cinema due to location in Old Town and the quirky room decor. Checking in was a...
Spain 2014: a day in Madrid
After our full day in Malaga we would have loved to sleep in a bit, but we were up early to catch our flight to Madrid. The taxi ride to airport was uneventful, but "didn't have change for a 10E...
Spain 2014: a day in Malaga
On Saturday we brgan the trip home with a bus back to Malaga at 11am. To get to the intercity bus station we took the local Granada bus, and this is one of those times where a taxi would have been...
Spain 2014: Granada food and drink
Wednesday After a bit of exploring on our first day, we headed to Bodega La Bella y La Bestia as we read they had good, ample tapas. Eric had a white wine, then a Mahou beer while I ordered a rose...
Spain 2014: Alhambra
The Alhambra looms large on the Southern Spain tourist route and our mail goal for Thursday. Knowing that crowds can get large we started early to arrive at the gates a little after they opened. A...
Spain 2014: Granada sights
Wednesday We slept periodically on the various planes and buses so when we arrived into town around 5p we skipped a nap and went out exploring. First we headed to the Alhambra store to print out...
Spain 2014: overview
Our trip to Spain started out rather star-crossed with a series of small but irritating airline issues: We found some well-priced tickets to southern Spain through http://www.cheapoair.com/ and...
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...
where we stayed in Barcelona
Having only two nights in Barcelona, we were torn between staying at a standard Starwood property or (we thought) upgrading to swankier place like the ME Barcelona. In the end, swanky won out but we...
drinks and tapas in Barcelona
La Vinya del Senyor—This little place is right next to the La Seu Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter. On our first visit we were lucky (early) enough to score two stools at the bar and enjoy two...
Our Itinerary
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, UK (Dec)
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)
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)