Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Vacation
Melody signed up for a literary translation conference in Tucson, so I tagged along. We went a few days early so she could also play tourist for at least part of the time. Melody hadn't been to Tucson before, while it's been about 40 years since I was last in the city.
Spring is a good time to go looking for wildflowers, so we did that in the Columbia River Gorge. We did a bunch of hiking and a little bit of playing tourist. The weather was mixed, but the worst we had was a little rain, a little hail, and big winds. Yes, we did see lots of wildflowers, as well as a lot of views of the Columbia River.
We were able to fit in one more hike in November 2020, then switched to snowshoeing starting in January. In addition to a couple of outings in the Snoqualmie Pass area, we also spent a couple of nights in the Lake Wenatchee area and got in some great snowshoe hikes there.
We did a lot of hiking in September and October, with all but Snow Lake on a trip we took to the Mt. Baker area and Leavenworth. I only tracked the larger hikes, which is why there isn't distance/gain data or graphs for the short ones.
For our last full day in Berlin, we took it easy with a short walking tour near where we were staying. After spending time in a bookstore, we went to an organ concert in the French Cathedral.
We started the day by diving into the life of the East Germans at the DDR Museum then did a walking tour as we made our way to Alexanderplatz. That was the morning, and we took it easy in the afternoon.
We followed a different section of the Wall, this time starting at Checkpoint Charlie. After that, we wandered through the Gemäldegalerie, known for its European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
For our second full day in Berlin, we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial, then walked through the Old Jewish Quarter.
We went to the German Historical Museum which covers the years 500–1994, the Middle Ages through Unification. We then did a walking tour of Unter den Linden, which started at Pariser Platz to Museum Island, with a few diversions along the way.
Our last inter-city train ride began the last week of our trip. We arrived in Berlin and had some time to walk around the city a bit.
On our last full day in Munich, we went out to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. We then headed out to Werksviertel district to ride a Ferris wheel, hang out in a cafe, and go to a concert.
Melody and I did different things in the morning (Deutsches Museum for me, Alte Pinakothek for Melody). We met up for lunch at the Viktualienmarkt, then picked up some things that we skipped or were closed on our walking tour.
We finished our walking tour of Munich, but first, we went through the Resident Palace. All 100 rooms of it.
It was time to return to leave Austria and Germany. After arriving in Munich, we started a walking tour of the city. The timing worked out that we got to see the Town Hall's glockenspiel play.
For our last full day in Salzburg, we went to Hellbrunn Palace, famous for its trick foundations. For the afternoon, we took it easy and hung out in a café for a while.
On the agenda for this day we’re touring Mozart’s birth home, Hohensalzburg Fortress, and walking along Mönchsberg. Later, wanting to go to a concert in the city of Mozart, we did just that.
Our stay in Füssen was the shortest of the trip, and it was time to head into Austria. After getting settled in our apartment, we went into Salzburg to do a walking tour of Old Town.
While it was nice to walk around Füssen the day before, the reason we stayed there was because it was conveniently located to Schwangau with its two star attractions, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, the Königsschlösser or the King’s castles. We spent most of the day in the area, and also did some hiking and took a ride up Tegelberg for the views.
Time for a travel day to the Bavarian Alps. After the trains, we arrived in Füssen and explored the town a bit.
For our last day in Cologne, we did probably the most popular tourist attractions, the Cologne Cathedral and the Chocolate Museum. While there were quite a few people at each, it’s easy to imagine how they could be so much more crowded.
