The Romantic Road and Bamberg, Germany

/
The Romantic Road and Bamberg, Germany

After Munich, Samantha and I drove "the Romantic Road" north.  It's a tourist initiative to increase the flow of tourists to southern Germany, but it's also an unbelievably beautiful drive.  Due to some unforeseen events, we swapped out our Opel Corsa for a Fiat 500 soft top.  This obviously added to our enjoyment of the drive.  Its mostly through small agrarian villages, which are gorgeous in their own right,  but the real gems are Nordinglen and Rothenburg, two medieval walled cities dating back centuries.

Read More

Neuschwanstein Castle and Munich - Germany

/ Neuschwanstein /
Neuschwanstein Castle and Munich - Germany

We drove north out of Switzerland to Schwangau, Germany and stayed just one night to check out Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. These two incredible castles are at the southern tip of The Romantic Road. More on that in a minute!

If one of these castles looks familiar to you, that's because Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle was designed after this model.

Read More

Lugano, Switzerland

/
Lugano, Switzerland

Following our month long excursion in Italy, Samantha and I headed north to the lakeside town of Lugano in Switzerland.  We stayed with my friend James' parents, who both work at a school there (The American School in Switzerland).  They have a lovely basement apartment and were gracious enough to let us stay for a while.  I love having dinner with Samantha every night but, it was really nice to have a few more English speakers around to dine with! They also were able to suggest some really lovely restaurants and hikes to really soak in the culture.

Read More

The Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Capri, and Sicily

/
The Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Capri, and Sicily

The first day Chuck fired up our crappy rental car to drive up the Amalfi coast. It felt much like the Cinque Terre—steep, rocky cliffsides tumbling down into the crisp, clear sea below. Lemon, olive, and grape crops clung to the walls on terraces and hung over the roads. The houses stack up the sides of the coast in any place that seems even slightly horizontal (and many places that are not) with roads crammed in between them barely big enough for a single car to pass.

Read More

Ortisei, Italy & the Italian Alps

/
Ortisei, Italy & the Italian Alps

In Milan we picked up our gem of a rental car.  Its an a little Opel hatchback that struggles with just about everything.  But for $20 per day it’s tough to complain, and the AC works great!  We left Milan and headed up North to the Dolomites (part of the Italian Alps) on recommendation from Dad and Cindy.  We stayed in the beautiful ski resort town of Ortisei, which while technically in Italy has a very Austrian feel.  This meant real beer (!) and hearty food.  

Read More

Pula & Rovinj, Croatia to Verona, Italy

/
Pula & Rovinj, Croatia to Verona, Italy

One of the first items on our agenda once we got to Rovinj (pronounced "row-VIN") was to relax and have a beach day. We drove down to a national park called Kamenjak, pausing at a supermarket and a roadside fruit stand to buy cherries and sandwich fixings. Instead of butter, we bought a jar of something red with pesto-like consistency, mainly because we couldn't figure out what it was. I'm still not sure, but it was delicious!

The beaches in Croatia are all rocky, so we spread our towels on the hot black rocks between pine trees and the sea.

Read More

Plitvice National Park & Porec, Croatia

/ Plitvice National Park/
Plitvice National Park & Porec, Croatia

We only stopped in Krka National Park in Croatia for a few hours before heading on to our final destination of the day -- Plitvice National Park.

We spent one night in Plitvice, getting up early the next morning for what we thought would be a long, strenuous hike.

Read More

Split, Croatia & Krka National Park

/ Krka National Park/
Split, Croatia & Krka National Park

We left Montenegro to cross the border back into Croatia and make our way up the Dalmatian Coast. Split, Croatia's second-largest city (and largest city in the Dalmatian region) was a great place to stay for a few days. Split is home to Diocletian's Palace, which is a palace built in the fourth century for a Roman emperor of the same name.

This huge, fortress-like structure is enmeshed in the heart of the city.

Read More

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

/
Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

After meeting Reyn and Cindy in Dubrovnik, Charles and I rented a car and drove a few hours across the Croatian border into neighboring Montenegro, where we spent a few nights on the shores of the lovely Bay of Kotor. Kotor is another walled city, though less "prettified" for tourists than Dubrovnik. 

Since we had a car, we stayed along the shores of the bay in neighboring Dobrota, about a 10 minute drive from Kotor. It was nice to have a little peace and quiet, and our AirBnb had a great view of the bay. 

Read More

The Monasteries of Meteora, Greece

/
The Monasteries of Meteora, Greece

Meteora is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life. In my opinion, it's just as cool as the Acropolis, made more amazing by the fact that far, far less tourists visit this destination, since it's a bit out of the way.

Meteora is a formation of massive monolithic columns, topped with monasteries built as early as the 14th century. It made me think of my brother Justin and my sister-in-law Tania constantly, since he's a geologist and she is a structural engineer--the perfect combination.

The pictures below don't do this UNESCO World Heritage site justice. 

Read More