Land of the Midnight Sun

Written by Karen.

Norway. The Land of the Midnight Sun. A place that makes me feel personally grounded and at ease like few others.  Norway is where my grandfather on my dad's side was born, before leaving in the 1920's to find a way to support himself in the United States.  

The Birds and the Trees in Berlin

Written by Adam
Berlin sure is an interesting place to discover.  One of the things that struck me about it was how truly green it was.  There were dense groves of trees and massive bushes everywhere, easily visible from above when you fly into Tegel Airport.  Once safely on the ground, the unrestrained botany does not let up.  Neither did my allergies, but that was on an earlier visit and I’ve forgiven the German landscape for that casually inflicted agony.  

In the Mood for Some German Food

Written by Adam

Okay, let’s just cut to the chase and get the awful and ugly stereotype out of the way right now:  German food is often described as being heavy, porky, laden with fat, salt, and calories, it's gloopy, and thus only suitable for providing the caloric energy to fuel hard-working farmers clearing rocks from a field just in order to plant the potatoes.

Cologne, Germany

Written by Adam

I’ve been to the City of Cologne twice now within the past five years.  Both times I arrived with Karen by taking the high-speed ICE train from Berlin.  After crossing the verdant German countryside for the greater part of a day, suggestions of Cologne suddenly begin to appear upon the landscape.  Close to the edge of town is a huge sports arena. 

Living in a Tiny House on Wheels

Written by Karen.

We have lived in two tiny and mobile houses recently. Our first tiny rolling home was our 1984 VW Vanagon named Chinook, which we drove around the western United States for several months.  Our second mini home on wheels was our rented 1990 VW Vanagon camper van named Otto, which we recently drove around Germany and France for three weeks.  Although there are age, interior style and functionality differences between the two Vanagons, these cousins do share an interior footprint of approximately 115 square feet. 

Musée des 24 Heures du Mans

Written by Adam

We drove into Le Mans, France on a sunny weekend afternoon.  Our first impressions of the town were quite vivid.  On the outskirts of town, Le Mans, France looks to be a prototypical contemporary business park.  The edgy buildings architecturally imply a modern high-tech focus, a sort of playground for French technicians of some sort.  

Bulots Mayonnaise - Bon Appétit!

Written by Karen.
It was late afternoon when we began our walk down the cobblestoned streets of Fécamp, France looking for a light bite of sea food to eat for dinner. Restaurants in France - as a rule - do not serve dinner until at least 7:00 p.m.  But, we somehow found a tiny loophole in this rather universal rule: the aperitif.  We first discovered this excellent idea of offering small snacks and tiny plates of food along with a glass of wine, beer or mixed drink before the later dinner hour in Italy, and thankfully France has also embraced this late afternoon/early evening ritual. We have turned the pre-dinner aperitif into a light dinner and found that this was the perfect amount of food to end our day.

Establissement de la Benedictine de L'Ancienne Abbaye de Fécamp

Written by Adam.

Driving steadily in a northwesterly direction through Belgium in Otto, our rented VW campervan, we eventually crossed the border and made our way into Northern France.  Our intention was to try to stay pretty close to the coast as we drove west towards Brittany.  But, the late afternoon darkness soon arrived, and we started looking for a place to spend the night.  We consulted our simple fold-out maps, which highlighted only cities that were important enough to mention due to their size.

Meet Otto

Written by Karen.

I have always read travel blogs that featured an old VW camper van with the tiniest bit of envy.  I loved the idea of traveling around in a vehicle that also served as a tiny, fully functional house, stopping whenever - or wherever - one wanted. It seemed to be the very definition of total traveling freedom.

4550 Kilometers

Written by Karen.

Our little guy, our little rental car Hyundai i20, sat dripping puddles of water in the self-serve car wash bay in the Tiergarten leafy neighborhood of Berlin.  The i20's gunmetal gray four doors and trunk were wide open as I carefully navigated the round air hose vacuum nozzle around the the inside of the car, picking up the last bits of the lint and detritus that had accumulated over the past three weeks.  

Romans in Arles, France

Written by Karen.

We roll into Arles, France one afternoon after being ricocheted like a pinball throughout Provence for most of the afternoon.  Provence, like other areas in France, has traffic circles installed at every junction to keep the traffic continuously flowing. This can be a good thing if you happen to know exactly where you are going. In these cases, you can arrive at a planned destination in relatively short order.  However, traffic circles can also be an exercise in flexibility and map-reading frustration if you - like us - are not exactly sure of your current location.  

French Fast Food

Written by Karen.

We were greeted warmly as we walked into the small Saint-Remy bakery.  You could not help to deeply breathe in the warm, yeasty air that swirled around us as we walked into the bakery and towards the sandwich making section. Our steps slowed as we realized that our idea of picking up a quick and freshly-made sandwich for a picnic somewhere in the hills of Luberon later this afternoon now seemed utterly insufficient.  Our stomachs were growling and our mouths began watering as our eyes surveyed the multi-levels of freshly-baked breads, pastries, croissants, baguettes and other artistic visions of baking goodness. I calculated that I wanted one of each.

*Provincia Nostra

Written by Karen.

The Provence that I have long visualized in my imagination is full of shadows, intense colors and light.  It is full of long and colorful sight lines that pan slowly over the dancing sunflowers, waving lavender fields and geometrically orderly grape vines. It lingers on the clear warm light that is said to have drawn artists to Provence for years in an attempt to capture the landscapes and colors that emanate from that light. It showcases bountiful ripe fruits and vegetables that are extraordinarily well prepared. It is about hot afternoons languishing in shady gardens slowly eating local cheese, baguettes, charcuterie, olives and drinking Provençal rosé wine. It is slowly exploring the uneven cobble-stoned streets of tiny villages. It is full of scents, tastes, sounds and simple beauty that combine to totally captivate the senses.  In short, in my hopeful imaginative mind, the idea of Provence is a way of life - a celebration of life - sweet, slow, simple and extraordinary. I couldn't wait to experience Provence for myself.  

It’s Better than Nice

Written by Karen.

We have crossed the border from Italy into France as we continue to drive our little guy, i20, along the coastline, turning and twisting inland then turning and twisting back again towards the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly enough, we noticed the border change even before we saw the signs.  France is much more built up along the hills than Italy is.  

Exploring the Nooks and Crannies of Genoa, Italy

Written by Karen.
Genoa is the largest port city in Italy, and is widely thought to have been the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.  But, Genoa is much more than simply being the possible, passive birthplace of a notable sea explorer. It is a massive and personable city in its own right with an impressive and long history all its own. 

Unexpected Sunset

Written by Karen.
It had been steamy, hot and overcast all day.  The heavy, moist and voluptuous overhead gray skies occasionally drizzled down spits of water that briefly cooled the air above our heads and then evaporated quickly back up into the sky to come down again an hour later. We spent the muggy day moving slowly, trying to stay cool and reflecting on and appreciating the passage of time. 

Deciding Where You've Been

Written by Adam

It sure is interesting to discover what comes up in conversation when you are simply chatting with a waiter.  It was just after he brought us the bread and butter while we were dining in Nice, France.   Upon learning that we were visiting from California, the starstruck waiter regaled in telling us about his desire to some day visit Hollywood.  He then proceeded to recount many old movies starring such classic Hollywood starlets as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.  Of course, most might consider these actresses to be photogenic symbols of the Hollywood of imagination, fantasy, and a place that to a European represented much more about America than it probably does today.  We were actually in Hollywood just this year, but I did not have the heart to tell the waiter that the only star we saw there was a guy in a Spiderman suit standing on the corner posing for pictures with the tourists.  

Meet Our Little Guy - Hyundai i20

Written by Karen.
As the days pass, we are really warming up to our little guy, the Hyundai i20.  After a bit of an antagonistic start to our relationship, Adam and I have reached an understanding of sorts with the little guy.  Bottom line?  We've accepted our mechanical limitations and re-adjusted our expectations.  We'll stay off the super fast highways and autobahns as much as possible.  Our little guy just can't hang with those fire-breathing monsters - much to my chagrin - we get blown off the endlessly smooth black asphalt each and every time.

The Italian Art of Parking - Part Three

Written by Karen.

This is the final segment of a three-part story.

We began walking down the street in a dazed jumble of thoughts and reactions. Adam asked rhetorically, "Can you believe it? He just ripped it into pieces!" All I could muster was, "Unbelievable!"  Adam continued unabated, "And then he crumbled everything up and threw it in the gutter!  Who does that?! "Unbelievable," I offered my contribution to the conversation.  "Unbelievable!" I could see our unpaid simple administrative, no-big-deal 28.50 euro parking ticket multiplying over time as quickly as a happy pair of rabbits.

In Case You Missed It....Sunset Over Lake Como