Category Archives: European Escapades

The last leg of our European Adventure took us to Stockholm, Sweden to visit our dear friends, the Mossburgs!  Landon and John grew up together and Landon and his wife, Dani, lived in Singapore the same time we did.  We’ve visited each other many times over the years and they have featured on the blog before (Seattle, San Francisco, London, Porto, etc).  Now, we have 3 (almost 4) children between us.  Life has changed, but we all still enjoy being together!

We had a lovely time in Stockholm.  Some sightseeing, but lots of family and friend time–it was perfect! Thank you Landon, Dani, Chase and Charlie for being such wonderful hosts.  Can’t wait to see you all again soon–and meet your baby sister!!!

John had a business trip scheduled to London, so once again, Conrad and I tagged along.  I enjoy it when John has business trips to London :).    We decided to take some short weekend trips to see family and friends on either side of our time in London.  Our first stop:  Stuttgart, Germany to see Aunt Linda, Uncle Russell, and Rachel, who are currently based in Germany with the US Military.

Our first full day in Europe, we took a road trip (thank you for driving, AL!!!) to the beautiful little principality of Liechtenstein, population 37,000.  There we enjoyed a beautiful medieval castle and a vineyard!

The next day, Aunt Linda and Rachel went to a volleyball tournament and dropped us off in Heidelberg, Germany on the way.  We explored the city and sampled the local cuisine as a little family of 3.

Our last morning, we went to church, out of a delicious Greek lunch and then played for a while before we had to catch our flight back to London.  Conrad even enjoyed his first popsicle thanks to some sweet neighbors.

Thank you Aunt Linda, Uncle Russell, and Rachel for hosting us–we had such a lovely time in your beautiful corner of Europe!!!  We love you!

After a lovely few days in London, we took off for Milan and our first holiday as a family of 3.  We’ve traveled before with family and friends, but this was our first solo adventure.  And, we had a marvelous time.  Case in point–this is the longest blog entry I think I’ve ever posted!  So buckle up–here we go!

We arrived in Milan late in the evening.  We had to get creative with bath time for Conrad–had to document it here!

We had one day in Milan before catching an evening train to Florence.  We tried to make the most of it!

Then we climbed to the roof top of the Cathedral.  Gorgeous.

Next, we headed to the world’s oldest shopping mall, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

Next, we caught the late afternoon train to Florence.  Conrad slept almost the whole way (save the last 15 minutes).  At the beginning of the journey, the train attendant passed out snacks and prosecco.  It was my kind of journey!

After checking in to our B&B in Florence, we headed to a local place for dinner.  Although a Roman speciality, John had his favorite, Cacio e Pepe.  It turns out it was the best version of the dish we had on our whole trip!

The next morning, we headed to the Galleria dell’Accademia the home of Michelangelo’s famous David.  The gallery was purpose-built for the display and made the statue even more striking.

Next, we headed to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, home of the beautiful Duomo.

For lunch, we stopped at the San Lorenzo Market.  It’s a gorgeous food market that includes hot ready-to-eat dining options upstairs.  Too bad our little man wasn’t eating solids yet…

Next, we circled back around to the Duomo.  Florence is actually quite a small city, so we were able to walk everywhere quite quickly.

We wanted to get the little guy back for a nap, so we headed back to our B&B, crossing Ponte Vecchio on the way.

That evening, we had reservations to climb to the top of the Duomo.  I’d done TONS of research on doing this with a baby and found many people saying they would NEVER bring a baby on this particular adventure.  Ironically, most of these people admitted they didn’t have a baby or a child at all!  I did find a few brave souls who had done it with little ones and they all had one thing in common:  they were glad they did it!!!  Of course we were going to wear him (hauling a stroller up would have been impossible) and take our time to carefully ascend.  So glad we made this decision:  one of our favorite family pictures from the whole trip was at the top of the Duomo 🙂

Once we made it to the very top, we were met by a few people clapping–haha.  Conrad enjoyed the climb and really enjoyed all of the attention!

The views were worth it!

And now for the descent.

Throw us in with the parents who are glad they made the climb, little one in tow.  It’s definitely not something everyone will want to do with their baby.  We’ve climbed lots of domes and bell towers in our day and Conrad is a pretty easy-going baby so it made sense for us 🙂

The next morning we set out for the Uffizi Gallery, a gorgeous art museum featuring works from the Italian Renaissance.

We grabbed some coffees on the rooftop deck overlooking the Palazzo Vecchio (or rather, the Palazzo overlooking us!)

One of the biggest joys of our trip was watching Conrad discover new things.  His reactions in the museums are something that we will always remember.

Conrad would either become bored with a painting and start looking around or kick excitedly at what he saw.  I wish I knew what was going on in his brain–such a delight to watch!

Next stop, lunch!  We sat down at a pizzeria in the beautiful Piazza della Signoria and enjoyed the beautiful weather, another view of the Palazzo Vecchio (you can see the replica David statue in the bottom of the photo), and a baby nap 🙂

We then circled back around to the Cathedral to visit the Baptistry and the famous doors!

Our day ended with a lovely walk through The Boboli Gardens and some gorgeous Florence views.

The next morning it was time for a ROADTRIP!!!  After a lovely few days in Florence, we drove through the Tuscan Hills to our next destination, just outside of Cortona.  On the way, we stopped in Siena to see the sights and for a quick bite.

After wandering the beautiful medieval streets, we found the Cathedral with unusual striped columns!

After taking in the sights of Siena, we got back in the car and drover farther south in Tuscany to Locanda del Molino, an inn/B&B a few miles from Cortona.

Conrad did so well while touring the cities–we were excited to give him a little countryside break, where he could really slow down, stretch out and enjoy himself.

For dinner that night, we went downstairs to the dining room, where they serve delicious Tuscan food and pizzas straight from the pizza oven.

The staff at Locanda del Molino are INCREDIBLE.  We met the nicest people and they took to Conrad (aka Conrado) immediately!

After an easy morning, we set out to explore Cortona–a cute little Tuscan town on a hilltop.  You may have seen it in Under the Tuscan Sun!

After climbing higher into the town to see a beautiful church, we came back down to the town square for lunch!

That evening, we returned to Locanda del Molino where I did a cooking class and learned to make panzanella, pizza, and a dessert similar to an English trifle!  The class was taught by Chef Silvia Baracchi, whose restaurant Il Falconiere has a Michelin Star.  She was a delight–giving us serious instruction, but also making it fun.  I had never made pizza in a pizza oven before (I didn’t do that at Le Cordon Bleu) and I had a great time learning to use a the peel!

John and I then got to sit down and enjoy the spoils of my labor.  Conrad was entertained by his new friends!  They wanted to give him some prosciutto and were shocked to learn he was only 4 months old!  Only milk for this big boy 😉

The next morning we went to Locanda del Molino’s sister location, Il Falconiere (where Silvia Baracchi’s restaurant and vineyards are located).

After the tour, we had a wine tasting.  Three of the options came with the meal we were going to have at the restaurant, but we first got to sample some sparkling wine.  The sparkling wine had sediment in the bottom, so the only way to open it was via saber.  This pleased John who quickly volunteered to open the bottle.  Our tour guide taught him how to do it and John successfully opened the wine!  Now he wants a wine saber for Christmas!

After some successful sabering, we went into the Il Falconiere restaurant for our lunch and wine tasting.  Needless to say, the meal was stunning.

And now for the food photos.  We enjoyed the meal immensely–so much that we forgot to take a photo of the main course!

After a delightful meal, we headed back to Locanda del Molino for some chill time.

Our last full day in Tuscany, we started with a wine tour at Avignonesi!

Conrad developed an appreciation for wine whilst in Tuscany.  No we didn’t give him any–but he seems to love the color and watching as we drink it!  Not a bad intro to the wine world, little guy!

After a lovely dinner, we went back to Locanda del Molino to say goodbye to all of the sweet new friends we made!  Anna Maria asked if she could hold Conrad, as the kitchen was asking to see him.  A few minutes later, we were invited back and found this:

The next morning, we packed up our car ready to head out on the last leg of our trip–a Roma!

After arriving in Rome, we set off in search of one of our favorite pizzerias from our last visit.  It was located behind the Coliseum.

Sadly, the pizzeria had closed, but it’s sister restaurant down the street was open.  And, they had a pizza oven!  Two marinara pizzas later, we were off to explore!

We hit several of our favorite highlights during our first afternoon.

Then Conrad took a snack break on the Spanish steps.

Then, we gave Conrad his first taste of adult food–lemon GELATO!  We figure, go big or go home.  Needless to say he LOVED it.

We only gave him a couple of tastes, but he gladly would have had more.

After dinner, we went to our favorite coffee joint in Rome, Sant Eustachio Il Cafe.  The double espressos are incredible!

After a packed first day, we took it easy on our second morning, then headed out to the local market at Campo de’ Fiori.

Then we walked over to the Vatican for our third and final country of the trip!

Conrad slept the whole time 🙂

Then we wandered the lovely streets of Rome!

After an amazing vacation, we packed up the next morning to head back to Philly.

We had a wonderful first holiday as a family of 3.  Conrad was a trooper and seemed to really enjoy the family time!  He did great with all of the new experiences (including the long flights) and it was fun to watch him discover new things and delight in being spoken to in Italian.   Of course we had our challenges (think diaper changes on our laps, perfectly timed spit-ups, etc.), but it was so totally worth it.  I know he won’t remember this specific trip, but we are continuing our family travel tradition with him.  Plus, we will show him pictures 😉

Can’t wait for our next adventure with our little man!  Thanks for reading!

One of our favourite European trips has been a weekend we spent in Riga, Latvia.  It struck us as an under appreciated gem in Europe.  We also spent a day in Tallinn, Estonia while on a cruise and loved it.  We needed to round out our tour of the Baltics and what better time to do it than Christmas?  After completing my last exam at Le Cordon Bleu, we boarded a plane and headed to Vilnius.

We stayed at the beautiful Kempinski Hotel in the Cathedral Square.  It was all dressed up for Christmas which made it even more gorgeous!

After a lovely breakfast, we headed out to the square to explore the Cathedral.  The bell tower is not attached and, therefore, provides some lovely views of the cathedral itself and Christmas market below.  Of course, we had to climb to the top!

As we were walking around the top of the bell tower, we were discussing how interesting it was they let tourists up in the tower around midday and therefore they must not ring the bells anymore.  About one minute later, it was noon.  I think I felt my first hard baby kick at this point!

Then we had a wander through the streets.  The sun set quite early, this was still the middle of the afternoon!

After a walk around the city, we stopped in a local restaurant for some traditional Lithuanian cuisine.

We then went back to the Christmas Market across from our hotel and enjoyed the lights!

The next morning we awoke to a Lithuanian Christmas fairy tale–snow on the ground!  It made the Cathedral and Christmas Market even more charming.

Our flight back to London was late in the evening, so we took in a few more Vilnius sights!  First stop:  The Museum of Genocide Victims.  We learned that compared to industrial Latvia which attracted many Russian immigrants, Lithuania was more agrarian and more actively resistant to Soviet rule.  Several freedom movements began in the forests of Lithuania.  Interestingly, even today there a noticeably less Russian influence in Vilnius than in Riga.

Every time we are in a city that has a museum like this, we try to visit and we always learn something.  It serves as a good reminder of a very recent past that none of us want to relive.  Perhaps most haunting room on the entire tour was the execution room.

After our sobering tour of the museum, we headed to Užupis, a neighborhood of Vilnius that declared itself an independent republic in 1997.  It is very popular with artists and has its own constitution.  I found the constitution so interesting I decided post it here (from Wikipedia):

Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, and the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.
Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.
Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.
Everyone has the right to make mistakes.
Everyone has the right to be unique.
Everyone has the right to love.
Everyone has the right not to be loved, but not necessarily.
Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown.
Everyone has the right to idle.
Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat.
Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.
A dog has the right to be a dog.
A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of nee[d].
Sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties.
Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation.
Everyone has the right to be happy.
Everyone has the right to be unhappy.
Everyone has the right to be silent.
Everyone has the right to have faith.
No one has the right to violence.
Everyone has the right to appreciate their unimportance. [In Lithuanian this reads Everyone has the right to realize his negligibility and magnificence.]
No one has the right to have a design on eternity.
Everyone has the right to understand.
Everyone has the right to understand nothing.
Everyone has the right to be of any nationality.
Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday.
Everyone shall remember their name.
Everyone may share what they possess.
No one can share what they do not possess.
Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.
Everyone may be independent.
Everyone is responsible for their freedom.
Everyone has the right to cry.
Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.
No one has the right to make another person guilty.
Everyone has the right to be individual.
Everyone has the right to have no rights.
Everyone has the right to not to be afraid.
Do not defeat.
Do not fight back.
Do not surrender

After returning to Vilnius proper, we walked around a bit more and enjoyed the snow covered city before retreating to our hotel for some afternoon tea before our taxi to the airport.

We enjoyed our whirlwind weekend in Vilnius and found we had plenty of time to see the major sights and relax a bit as well.  It certainly confirmed our love for the Baltics!

Ireland has been on our list for a long time.  You’d think being so close, we would have been there before hitting the five year mark in London.  We did–but just barely 🙂

**Update!!!  We hadn’t told anyone, but at the time of this trip, I was six weeks pregnant and just starting to experience all of the joys that accompany the first trimester.  This included morning sickness and fatigue.  We still had an incredible trip, but my culinary adventures were a bit more tame than usual!  I’ve added a few things to this post to document this special time in our lives***

We aligned our trip with the Georgia Tech vs. Boston College American Football game in Dublin.  John’s cousin, Craig, is a coach at Georgia Tech and he and his wife, Maribeth, were going to be in Dublin for the game.  So, we booked tickets to the Emerald Isle for the game and a pre-game road trip!

We landed in Dublin in the early morning and immediately rented a car and took off across the country, more than 300km to Killarney.

In Killarney, we took a few moments to explore the town and then had dinner.  I had some delicious fresh salmon, caught fresh from the Wild Atlantic Way (and the streams leading from it).

After dinner, we drove a further 70km to Dingle on the west coast of Ireland, where we would stay the night in a pub.  It was a bit noisy, so we didn’t get the best night of rest.

The next morning, we were up super early (left the pub at 6am) to do the Slea Head Drive on the Dingle peninsula.  We wanted to beat the tour bus traffic, because the locals told us it could cause quite a traffic jam on the very narrow and winding road.

The early bird definitely gets the worm.  We were all alone on the beautiful road, save a few sheep.

After completing the Slea Head Loop, we headed north for about 200km to the Cliffs of Moher.  We stopped en route to pick up some groceries for a picnic lunch.  When we arrived at the Cliffs, they were covered in fog.  We decided to enjoy a fog-gazing picnic and were rewarded with some gorgeous views of the cliffs after the fog lifted!

After seeing the Cliffs, we drove to our hotel for the evening:  The Ross Lake Hotel, just outside of Galway.  This was a lovely house hotel where we enjoyed a lovely dinner and sat by a roaring fire.  Our hosts were very gracious and took excellent care of us.

***This was the first day I experienced morning sickness, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the beautiful food.  I wasn’t able to eat salmon again until after Conrad was born…haha***

The following morning, we got into the car and decided to head straight to our next lodging, since it was going to be one of the nicest places we were staying on the trip.  We went another 250km to Donegal where we stayed at the Harvey’s Point Hotel.  We cannot recommend this place enough:  friendly staff, gorgeous rooms, and glorious views.  We will be back!

Upon arriving, I immediately wanted to relax in the massive bathtub.  I was also greeted with a Donegal quirk:  bog/peat water!  The water has a slight whisky color due to the peat.  Apparently, this gives whiskey from the area a unique flavor.  The water has been treated and is safe for human consumption and soaking!

The next morning, we took off for Northern Ireland, where we would spend the next 24 hours.  Our first stop is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for a while:  The Giant’s Causeway!  It is a unique volcanic sight, characterized by 40,000 basalt columns.

After leaving The Giant’s Causeway, we embarked on John’s favorite part of our road trip:  Torr Head Road.  It is his favorite drive to date and considered to be quite a challenging drive.  Aka, very long and winding.  ***With a wife with morning sickness***  I think he’ll want to go back and do the drive again some day!  We have some videos from the awesome drive, that I can’t get to upload here.  They are good, but don’t do the drive justice.

That night, we stayed in Belfast and had dinner at a The Crown Saloon downtown.

The next morning we took a Black Cab Tour of Belfast (we used Paddy Campbell’s–highly recommend).  We saw the Peaceline and learned first hand about “The Troubles.”  John and I were stunned at how little we knew about this, especially since we live so close and it was such a recent conflict.  Our driver told us first hand stories of his experiences, including a time when he was shot.  We learned so much that morning.

After our black cab tour, we spent the rest of the day driving down the east coast of Northern Ireland and Ireland eventually ending up back in Dublin for the night.

After more than 1500km driven, we settled into Dublin for a few days of sightseeing and, of course, the football game!

Our first stop was the obligatory tour of the Guinness Factory.  I’m not a beer drinker, but I have to say the Storehouse is a well curated museum to all things Guinness, including the Guinness Academy where you can learn to pull a pint.  I was very impressed.

That afternoon we met up with Craig and Maribeth for the Georgia Tech Pep Rally at Trinity College!

That night, we were even invited to a local Rugby match.

The next morning, we went to the stadium for the game, where we watched Georgia Tech beat Boston College!!!  It was so nice to go to an American Football game.  It had been a while!

We spent what little time we had left in Dublin doing some exploring.  A highlight was seeing the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  No photos were allowed of the actual book, but I was able to get a few of the library, where it is housed.  It’s like something out of a storybook.

And so ends our adventure in Ireland and Northern Ireland.  We were impressed by the beauty of these places and the warmth of the people.  A hundred thousand thanks to the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland!  We will be back.