European travels
A favored continent as a travel destination. Images and titles link to details. Presented in reverse chronological order.
Ireland
June 15 to 23, 2019
After years of friends recommending it to us, we made it to Ireland. With friends! (Although not the ones who recommended it to us.) Narrow streets, Michelin-starred meals, friendly dolphins, and lovely scenery were among the highlights. But yes, we also got to the Guinness Museum.
Hey, ho and away we go! Donkey riding in the Douro
October 2018
This Exodus tour of the Douro region of Portugal was unlike the previous in that it was a “luxury” tour with a hiking difficulty level 1 (easy) and that the group consisted mainly of Canadians. Maybe it was all that wine and port, but this was the liveliest of the groups we’d joined, with lots of laughter and singing. Did some nice walking as well…
Walking the Basque country
October 2017
Another Exodus tour, this one in the Basque area of France and Spain. Amazing weather, beautiful countryside, an unfortunately timed cold, tricky Spanish dining, and (not really mentioned here) a somewhat laissez-faire hiking guide.
Berlin, Mon Amour
April 23–30, 2016
This one week in Berlin inspired a lot of writing on my part! Starting with this summary of the highs and lows of our visit to this historical city.
Tear down the wall: Thoughts on the value of open societies as we toured the historical memorials to a more closed one in the form of Berlin Wall exhibits.
Other Berlin highlights: A day-by-day summary of the non-Wall Berlin sights that we partook of.
Dining in Berlin: Wherein two Canadians eat Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Canadian, Californian, Turkish, and even German food in Berlin, Germany.
Adam Lambert Live in Berlin: Wherein two Canadian travel to German to see an American in concert.
Croatia vacation: Dalmatian Islands cruise
May 2015
Except for the too-close airline transfers on the way back, a quite relaxing vacation mostly spent traveling on a small boat to various Dalmatian Islands in Croatia. All lovely weather and quite beautiful scenery.
French Riviera hiking vacation
April 2014
We travelled to the French Riviera on an Exodus tour in April 2014. This page is gathered from five blog posts, covering everything from fashion to toilets (and fashion in toilets).
A Tale of Two Cities
April 22 to May 4, 2013
The highlights of our two-week trip to Budapest and Prague.
Budapest Trip Diary: More details about Budapest, which we’d caught the bug to visit after the Danube cruise (see below).
Prague Trip Diary: And these are the details about Prague, from narrowly avoiding a gas explosion to complaining about the food at a concentration camp.
Amalfi Coast Walking Tour (and Rome)
April 20 to May 1, 2012
Our first Exodus walking trip, onto which we tacked on another visit to Rome. (Which is much busier in late April than in November.) Sore muscles and an initially rainy start, but turned into a glorious vacation week.
Danube River Cruise
April 10 to 18, 2011
Our first and so far only river cruise, on the Danube, from Budapest to Nurnberg. We travelled with my parents, and we all enjoyed the river cruise experience.
Touring Languedoc by Car
May 15 to 25, 2010
Pictures and stories from our trip to the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France, back in the fun days before Google Maps, when you could still get lost and simply never find the tourist site you intended to visit. And just shrug and say, Oh well…
A week in Provence
February 21 to March 2, 2009
Our first and so far only Pauwell’s tour to the food- and wine-friendly region of France, that also featured far more Roman ruins than we were expecting.
18 random things about our trip to Provence: Provence has more and better Roman artifacts than Rome, “Voulezvousdesp’nuts?” is a punch line, TP is tightly controlled in France, and other learnings.
Planning a trip to Italy in two weeks
November 1 to 14, 2008
We spent two days in Venice, four in Florence with tours into Tuscany, three days in Cinque Terra, and three days in Rome. It was a very active trip. And all booked a mere two weeks before leaving! (Not mentioned here is that we also had to renew our passports in that two weeks, because they were within less than six months of expiring… Stress…)
Two weeks in Spain (while turning 40)
Late February to early March, 2006
One way to distract oneself from a milestone birthday and a terminally ill pet cat. Spain has fantastic weather, beautiful buildings, and great seafood, but (particularly in some parts) love to dine weirdly late. We visited Madrid/Tolédo, Andalusia (Seville/Cordoba), Costa del Sol, and Gibraltar.
Scotland trip diary
June 25 to July 2, 2005
Scotland had surprisingly good food, very friendly people, and an almost ridiculous number of castles. (“It seems all these people did was build castles,” said I.)
Portugal (Algarve) trip diary
2005, but not sure of the exact week…
After not having been to Europe for a while, we went twice in 2005! This was our first time to Portugal, and we booked a package including flight, accommodation, and car rental. You can get pretty good deals in the Algarve…
A week in Paris
February 13–19, 2005
Flash from the past! Back in 2005, we booked the trip online—then new and novel!—but then went to an actual bookstore and bought physical guideboooks! Also then new and interesting: Personal little TVs on airplanes.