Brandon O'Brien

Monday, September 12, 2022 @ 11:00 PM in 2022 Germany and France

We woke up around 5:30am in Nice this morning, got all of our bags packed and ate some yogurt and leftover pizza for dinner. We were aiming to catch the 6:50am tram to the airport so left with time to get down to the station. We got to the Alsace Lorraine station with plenty of time to buy our tram tickets and get to the platform before the tram came.

There were about 12 stops before we got to the airport but it went by pretty quick. When we got to our terminal, around 7:15am, we had to check in with Lufthansa since they were our first leg of the trip from Nice to Munich. There wasn't any line to check in which was great. Our flight was set to board at 8:25 with a departure at 8:55 so we figured we'd have time to grab a coffee before jumping on the flight.

Wrong! When I had originally booked our flights back in February, Dakotah wasn't born yet and we didn't have any clue what his birthday, name or even gender would be. In order to get the ticket, I just put an estimated birth date and the name Baby OBrien. When he was born, I called United and got his information updated but apparently this change didn't propagate down to Lufthansa.

When we tried checking in, they told us they wouldn't be able to since Dakotah's name didn't match what they have on their system. They said since the ticket was booked through United, there wasn't anything they could do and I should call United to try and get this fixed. Damn, now the stress factor had kicked up. We had about 45 minutes to try and rectify this situation before we needed to board.

I made a call to United and after trying to explain the problem, they said it should be fixed. We went back to the counter and they said it still hadn't been updated. Ugh. Another call to United, speaking to a different person, and they did something else and said now it should really be fixed. Ok, back to the counter and they said it still wasn't updated. When I was on the phone with a 3rd United representative, the Lufthansa attendant came over and said we should try going to the actual Lufthansa service desk to see if maybe they could help.

While walking over there, I was trying to explain to the 3rd United rep the situation and to convey the urgency but she told me that since the ticket was partially used (the flight over counts), they were unable to change anything. I'm not sure why it took three people to tell me that. I asked to speak to the supervisor while Sam was talking to the Lufthansa service desk. The Lufthansa people repeated that they weren't able to do anything so I asked what would happen if we booked a new ticket for Dakotah and at least get to Munich. From there, everything should be fine since his name was right in their system.

Sam started that process while I was talking to the United supervisor. She did some more digging and confirmed that it was still showing the wrong information on Lufthansa's side. At this time they had finished buying Dakotah a new ticket so I told the United supervisor we should have everything fixed now. She said they'd refund the ticket if we filled out feedback once we got home.

By now it was around 8:15 and we ran back over to the check in counter. The rep ran into some problem and had to go talk to someone else. Minutes passed, then more minutes passed, and finally she came back and said that since Dakotah was still attached to my ticket, they were running into a problem since they wouldn't be able to check me in without him (and they wouldn't be able to since he was listed as Baby OBrien). She told us to go down to the other rep and that they were working on it.

More waiting and by now it was getting to the point where even if they got us checked in we were afraid we'd miss our flights anyway. The rep did a little more talking on the phone and finally told us she got it figured out. Apparently she was able to get his info updated on our original ticket and they refunded the new ticket Sam just bought. With our tickets in hand we ran over to security which fortunately wasn't too crowded. We were the last ones to our gate, got checked in, then boarded a bus that took us from the gate to the plane.

I was really convinced we'd lose our bags since we checked in so soon to departure but when we got to the plane I saw them re-opening the luggage hatch to put our bags on. Crisis averted!

From here on out the flights were pretty uneventful. Flying from Nice to Munich was beautiful. It started out with nice views of Nice and Monaco then we started heading over the Italian and German Alps before getting to Munich. While flying over Munich, you could see the Oktoberfest grounds and the main city center.

We were able to get a little sleep on the big flight between Munich and Houston. Customs in Houston went pretty fast and we grabbed some Panda Express for a light dinner before getting on the final flight to Albuquerque. We chatted with some people sitting near us, one of which has a three month old and is planning on traveling to Germany with her daughter to visit family in October.

Once in Albuquerque we got our bags and started the drive to Santa Fe. Knowing we weren't going to have anything in the fridge to eat, we grabbed another quick bite at Wendy's. We got home around 10pm, got settled and then got ready for bed. All in all we were up for about 24 hours from the time we woke up in Nice to the time we got home and were ready for bed.

Teaser photos:

Nice from the air

Alps from the air

Munich from the air

Dakotah getting sleepy on the flights

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Tags: nice, france, munich, santa fe, travel

Posted from: United States

Sunday, September 11, 2022 @ 7:20 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 18

Today was our last full day in Europe. We catch our flight at 8:55am tomorrow from Nice to Munich. Then we go from Munich to Houston and finally Houston to Albuquerque. It's going to be a really long day so we wanted today to be pretty chill. We got a little packing done this morning then headed down to the beach around 10:00. Unfortunately there were some jellyfish in the water so we didn't actually get in, but we met up with Kat and hung out there for about an hour and a half.

We just went to the beach that was closest to our Airbnb and really close to Kat's place. It was a smooth rock beach instead of sand which made it a little more uncomfortable to sit on. By noon we were all getting hungry so we dropped all our beach gear off at Kat's house and set off to find lunch. We aimed for a seafood restaurant that had really good reviews but it was closed when we got there, even though it was supposed to be open. A little disappointed, we walked to another place called Waka Bar and sat down there.

I got a beer and a chicken and avocado salad with some couscous which was really good. I also ordered some loaded fries which were delicious. Sam got a burger and a spritzer. After I finished my beer I ordered an Aperol spritz since that's basically the official drink of the area and I hadn't had one yet. It was pretty good and had a lot of orange flavor.

After lunch we walked back to Kat's place to pick up the rest of our stuff then came back to the Airbnb to do some more packing. For dinner I walked down to a pizza place and picked up a couple pizzas as an easy last meal. We hadn't actually looked in the freezer at the Airbnb until today and we discovered someone left some ice cream pops in there. It's too bad we didn't look sooner or we could have had them through the week, lol.

We're going to have the ice cream a little later then give Dakotah a bath before heading to bed early. We probably need to leave the Airbnb around 6:30am to catch the tram and get to the airport in time to check in and get to our flight. The trip has been great and we've done and seen a lot. It's always bittersweet leaving a vacation but we're looking forward to getting home and back into a more normal routine.

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Saturday, September 10, 2022 @ 10:21 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 17

We left the Airbnb around 9 this morning to meet Kat at the train station. We bought our tickets for the trip to Monaco and then got to the gate. There were already a lot of people waiting so it looked like we'd be in for another packed train. When the train did show up, there were already quite a few people on there but we managed to cram in. Unfortunately we were by the door so whenever the train stopped, people would have to flood in and out around us which was hard with a stroller.

Once we got to Monaco, we got off and then had a little trouble finding the actual way out that didn't involve stairs or escalators. Eventually we found an elevator that took us up to the spot we wanted to be. After getting out of the train station we bought a day pass for the bus so we could get around a little easier. The first stop was to a patisserie where we got a pain au chocolat and a cappuccino. From there we walked over to the palace of the prince through some of the gardens along the cliffs. There were some really nice views of the country but it was a little surprising it didn't look "nicer". A lot of the buildings looked pretty generic and nothing special. The harbor had a lot of huge yachts though which was interesting to see.

When we got to the palace, there were a ton of people waiting around and it turns out we got there right before the changing of the guard. We left the changing of the guard a little early to beat some of the crowds and got lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Arrow burger which had pretty good burgers. The buns were shaped like arrowheads which I guess goes with the name.

Once we finished lunch we found another bus stop and went over to the Monte Carlo casino and walked around some of the gardens near there before going back to the train station. Fortunately the train back to Nice wasn't too packed and we didn't have to pack in too bad. The train did stop for about 10 minutes while the police did some kind of search though.

Back in Nice, we stopped at a store specializing in chocolates and bought some treats to take home with us. We came back to the Airbnb for a little while before heading back over to Kat's for dinner. On the way we stopped and got a rotisserie chicken, a new baguette, some wine and a salad mix for dinner. We threw it all together and ate it with some leftover cheese we had. It was nice having some greens for dinner instead of eating out.

We hung out and talked for a while over the bottle of wine but just got back to the Airbnb. The plan for tomorrow is to head to the beach and have lunch out before Sam and I head back to the Airbnb to start getting things packed up and ready for the trip back to the states.

Teaser photos:

Overlooking Monaco

Royal palace

Monte Carlo casino

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Tags: monaco, france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Friday, September 9, 2022 @ 9:25 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 16

Today was our first real beach day of the trip. We packed up a beach umbrella from the Airbnb, a bunch of water, our swimsuits and towels and then walked over to the train station where we met Kat and John. We wanted to go to Villefranche-sur-mer which is just east of Nice and only about a 7 minute train ride. It's a little town situated on the cliffs with a big harbor and a small beach.

The train was pretty crowded with tourists going to the beach and Monaco (a further stop down the line), but fortunately we didn't need to be on there very long. The train station is pretty close to the beach so we just had to help Kat navigate the stroller down some stairs and then we found a spot on the beach. Kat had a little sun shade canopy that Dakotah hung out in while Rowan stayed mostly in his stroller covered with a big umbrella.

The water felt really nice after getting in and definitely helped cool us down on an otherwise pretty hot day. A few random wind gusts kicked up and blew everyone's umbrellas down so I ended up just hanging out on the beach near Dakotah for a while so he wouldn't get covered in sand or get the shade blown off him.

After another dip in the water we all packed up and started walking into town so we could find some food. Along the way Sam realized she couldn't find her phone so she went running back to our spot on the beach but it wasn't there. Turns out it had fallen to the bottom of our bag and we just didn't see it at first glance. While waiting for Sam to get back from her phone quest, John saw a hot floating in the water and thought it might have been his since he couldn't find it. He jumped in to get it and realized it was a similar hat but not actually his. On his way back to shore Kat ended up actually finding his hat in the bottom of their bag. Tip: make sure to fully check your bags before thinking something is lost, lol.

We ate lunch at a restaurant pretty close to the water. John and I both had a beef stew with ravioli which was really good. Sam had a pasta with sausage and Kat had fish and chips. After eating we walked around town a little bit but it was a little hard at first with the town being so steep with a lot of stairs and trying to navigate a stroller through it all. We did get over to the big citadel then walked through town on the way back to the train station.

While at the train station there was a group of about 10 people who couldn't figure out which platform they needed to be on to go back to Nice, even though everyone kept telling them this was the correct one. Finally a British woman spoke up and said she's been living here for 35 years and yes, this is the correct platform. Thankfully that shut everyone up and we didn't have to hear the bickering about the station.

Back in Nice we said our goodbyes for the day to John and Kat and then came back to our Airbnb to shower and cool off after being outside for most of the day. After I showered I ran down to the market to pick up some snacks and cheese, then went over to a boulangerie and got a fresh baguette for us to eat with the cheese.

Sam saw that there was an artists market in Old Nice starting at 6pm and she really wanted to go in hopes of finding some artwork to take home. We walked over there with the plan to find some artwork then have dinner. Unfortunately there wasn't a single artist there, just some people selling jewelry and other random things. Disappointed, we went to a restaurant that looked like it had good reviews and good food. We ordered the moules frites (mussels with french fries) and a big ceasar salad. The portions of both were gigantic and we weren't actually able to finish it all. The food did taste really good though.

We walked back to the Airbnb and have been trying to figure out what we're going to do tomorrow. It sounds like maybe going to Monaco for the day to check that out. It's supposed to be a little cooler the next two days which will feel good compared to the mid-90's we've been experiencing while here in Nice.

Teaser photos:

Beach in Villfranche-sur-mer

View from the citadel

Streets in Villefranche-sur-mer

Moules frites and ceasar salad for dinner

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Tags: france, villfranche-sur-mer, europe, beach

Posted from: France

Thursday, September 8, 2022 @ 10:06 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 15

Today was another good day without having a real rushed schedule. Sam left the Airbnb around 9:30 to meet with Kat and do some yoga. I left not too long after and took Dakotah by the Notre Dame in Nice then over to Old Nice and up to the Panorama sur la Vieille Ville de Nice. Along the way there were tons of soccer fans already drinking in the streets in prep for a big game tonight. They were mostly Germans wearing red soccer jerseys, chanting songs and chugging beers.

The Panorama sur la Vieille Ville de Nice is a big cliff just east of Old Nice where there are a lot of tress, gardens and really nice views of the surrounding area. Fortunately the stairs climbing up to the view points were in the shade since it was already getting hot out.

I took a few photos from the various overlooks and then sat on a bench in the park and fed Dakotah. By now it was almost 11 so I started making my way back down to town. I was thinking about getting a hat from one of the local hat shops but either nothing fit well or it was a lot more expensive than I wanted to pay. Sam said they were done with yoga so I headed back to the Airbnb before going back over to Kat's for lunch.

There's a really good takeaway Indian restaurant below her apartment so she ordered some stuff from there and we ate it at her place. When she had to take her son to daycare we went over to a place called The Center which is a beer bar and barber shop. They have a really nice selection of local-ish beers so we hung out there for about an hour and a half before starting to think about dinner.

We got some chicken and ingredients to make a mustard chicken and then went back to Kat's place to finish the rest of the cheese, wine and bread from the previous night. For the mustard chicken, you essentially coat the chicken with mustard and spices and then cook it in a pan where you already browned some bacon and onions. The dish turned out tasting really good and it's something we'll need to fit into our rotation once we get back home.

Once we finished eating we just hung out for a little while before calling it a night. Tomorrow we're going to head to the beach and get a chance to go swimming. It'll be nice to have another relaxing day!

Teaser photos:

I Love Nice sign

Yachts

View from Panorama sur la Vieille Ville de Nice

Grabbing a drink

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 @ 10:15 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 14

Today was another chill day in Nice. In the morning I ran down to get some fruit and bread, then we hung out in the Airbnb until 11:30 or so. I made some more dipping oil for the baguette and we snacked on that with some grapes as a light lunch.

We met up with Kat and walked down to old town Nice which is a maze of narrow winding streets. All of the shops were fairly touristy but it was still fun to walk around. We stopped at a little restaurant and got a few plates to share (hummus, chicken fingers and fries) since it was about 2:30 and we hadn't really had a real lunch. We originally had ordered some ceviche and a different dish but got the hummus and chicken fingers instead. Oh well, they still tasted fine.

Kat went back to her place to feed Rowan so Sam and I walked around a little more trying to find a souvenir. We ended up in a shop selling nougat and with a language barrier Sam ended up with a giant slice of it. Apparently it lasts for a while and they vacuum sealed it so it should travel just fine, but it was way more nougat than we were expecting.

After that, we walked down to the beach promenade and then made our way back over to Kat's place. The plan for dinner was going to be making a roasted pork dish at Kat's apartment and we still needed to pick up a few ingredients. We met Kat at the grocery and got everything else we needed, including more bread and some cheese to snack on.

Back at Kat's apartment, we let the babies have tummy time together and then hung out while dinner was cooking. Kat's brother, John, is in town visiting as well so he showed up with a big bottle of local white wine. Dinner was really good. The pork was marinaded with a bunch of spices like cocoa powder, red chile powder, cumin, paprika and cinnamon. It then simmered in a sauce for about an hour and a half in the oven before we cut it up into cubes. The bread was great at soaking up the extra sauce from the pork. We also had a cabbage salad with dinner and it complimented it well.

Teaser photos:

Walking toward Old Nice

Narrow streets of Old Nice

Pork with bread and cabbage

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 @ 10:00 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 13

Today was a nice day spent in Nice. For breakfast we met up with our friend Kat who moved out here about a year and a half ago. We had breakfast at a nice cafe where I had another brioche french toast and Sam had some eggs benedict. We hung out and talked in the cafe for a while before grabbing some groceries and walking back to the Airbnb. On the way back, Kat picked up her son Rowan from a nanny and we got to meet him. He's about 6 weeks older than Dakotah but they actually look pretty similar. Sam and I refer to them as "generic white babies". We were hoping to get diapers at the little grocery shop but they only had size 3 packages which would be way too big for Dakotah.

We walked down to the beach so Sam could dip her toes in the Mediterranean then found another supermarket to buy diapers as well as some snacks. Kat signed us up for a wine tasting at 5:30pm and we wanted to make sure we had some food in our stomachs before doing that. Kat said to come by her place any time after 1:30 so we walked to her place (it's only a few blocks from the Airbnb, basically between us and the ocean). We got to see Juniper again for the first time in a year and a half (she's the dog we fostered for a couple months before Kat adopted her). We hung out at Kat's place chatting and snacking until it was time to head to the wine tasting.

We got on an extremely packed tram and took it two stops which popped us out right in front of the wine tasting shop. We were a couple minutes late but no big deal. In total there were eight different wines we sampled with a small group of eight people total. The wines were all really good but my favorite was a Chateau Labadie Medoc from 2012. It was very full bodied and oaky with a lot of caramel, vanilla and cinnamon flavors.

Feeling pretty tipsy and in desperate need of food, we walked around for a little while before finding a restaurant that had some food that looked appetizing. They had a mussles dish for one of their specials which sounded good but unfortunately they were out of it. I ended up getting pasta with meat sauce while Sam got some pizza with meat, mushrooms and olives.

The food definitely helped with the buzz but I could tell I should have eaten a lot more before we had gone to the wine tasting originally. Back at the Airbnb we got Dakotah fed and then got ready for bed ourselves.

Teaser photos:

The beach in Nice

Dakotah at the beach

Dakotah meeting Rowan (and Juniper)

Dinner after wine tasting

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Monday, September 5, 2022 @ 8:43 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 12

Today was a pretty unexciting day spent almost entirely on trains or in train stations. We left our Airbnb in Strasbourg around 8:30 this morning after eating more yogurt, granola, bananas and leftover sausages from last night's dinner. Getting our giant suitcase down the stairs wasn't as big of an ordeal as we had feared and we were quickly on the tram toward the train station. We got there a little early but had plenty of time to get to our gate and find where the train car we had our seats was going to be.

We had three of the four seats at a table, only one of which was already occupied. Even though Dakotah is free and will be in our lap, they still give him a seat which is nice. We weren't quick enough to throw a bag down in the third seat and someone took it which made our area a little cramped. People can buy first class passes and sit in any open seat and that's what this guy was doing. Oh well, lesson learned.

We had some hummus and cut up red peppers as a snack, then had our leftover ham and cheese baguette for lunch. We passed through a lot of neat scenery and kinda skirted the alps on the way south. We made it to Aix-en-Provence where we were going to switch trains. The train station was pretty small but they had a little sandwich shop so we picked up some more sandwiches to eat as an early dinner. We knew we probably wouldn't be checked into our Airbnb in Nice until around 7 and didn't want to have to hunt down more food.

The trip from Aix to Nice was beautiful. It started out going through a lot of wine country and then made its way to the coast where we passed by several towns with really neat seaside cliff hugging homes. We made it to Nice on time and walked the short distance to the Airbnb. The key was in a lockbox around the corner but it was easy enough to find.

We took an extremely small elevator up to the 4th floor (not complaining about it at all... an elevator was very welcome after having to walk 3 flights of stairs with all our luggage in Strasbourg). So far the Airbnb seems really nice. There's a very tiny balcony but it'll be nice to sit out there with a glass of wine later in the week.

Our plan for tomorrow is to meet up with our friend Kat, who moved here earlier in the pandemic, after breakfast and then do a wine tasting with her later in the evening.

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Tags: france, nice, strasbourg, europe, trains

Posted from: France

Sunday, September 4, 2022 @ 7:52 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 11

The only thing on the agenda for today was visiting the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg and then doing a little walk in the woods around there. We left the Airbnb and grabbed some baguette sandwiches for lunch (one with tuna and lettuce and another with ham and cheese). We were cutting it really close timewise to make our 9:51 train and unfortunately didn't make it. With an extra hour to kill, we strolled to the train station and I figured I'd buy our bus ticket to get us from Sélestat to the Chateau. I was a little hesitant to buy the ticket since I couldn't find the exact one I wanted but I went ahead and bought the closest thing I could find.

We got on a busy train that took us the quick 21 minute trip down to Sélestat. We had ten minutes or so to get the bus and fortunately everything was on time and the station was extremely small. The bus was waiting outside the station and when we tried boarding, the guy said what I bought thinking was the bus ticket was actually a train ticket. I ended up having to buy the real tickets on the bus. They were only 10 euros round trip for both of us combined, but it still sucked to spend money when I didn't need to.

If anyone finds this and wants to take the Ligne 500 from Sélestat to the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, just have 5 euros on hand per person round trip and buy your ticket on the bus itself. The Ligne 500 is a tourist bus that hits a Stork amusement park, a monkey sanctuary, an eagle reserve and finally the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg. It only takes about 30 minutes to get to the Chateau and the bus runs every hour, timed to hit the Strasbourg / Colmar train line.

On the ride up, we passed through a little town called Kintzheim (really cool little town by the way) and there were a ton of people there for a bunch of ultra trail races. The race actually went all the way up (at least in part) to the Chateau, ran through it and then back down to town. While on the bus, Dakotah had another big accident so the first thing we did when we got to the Chateau was to find somewhere to change him. It was kinda tough finding somewhere since there were a ton of people everywhere. We finally found a shaded area with a stone wall that we could change him.

With a clean baby, we went up toward the ticket counter and saw that they actually had nice changing rooms in the restrooms. Oh well, you live and learn. We bought our tickets, ate our tuna baguette in a courtyard in the castle and then walked through the Chateau. It was restored to look as close to the original as they could and was really neat to walk through. The original castle was started around the year 1100. We walked through some "obstacle course" style defenses with draw bridges, heavy metal gates, turrets where archers would be and other ways to keep invaders out.

From there we went by the well and through the cellar and kitchens. After that was up to the living quarters of some of the wealthier residents and then around to some more defenses with cannons and other guns. There were some really cool views of the valley below, which makes sense because the Chateau was built to monitor and tax the salt trade.

When we finished the tour, we did a walk on some of the trails around the Chateau (and saw a ton more of the ultra runners). The trail took us by another ruined castle just a little farther west of the main Chateau we toured. It was really lush and green with a lot of moss everywhere but it was fortunately not humid today. The trails around there seemed like a huge network and you could actually cover a lot of ground on them. It would have been a cool place to spend some real time hiking if we had the proper gear and didn't have a baby to carry around.

We caught the bus back to the train station, then took the train back to Strasbourg. Back at the Airbnb we started to organize our stuff to pack for our trip to Nice tomorrow, finished up the local wine, started laundry and ate dinner (more of the couscous mix from the other day plus the rest of our mushrooms and some sausages). Our train to Nice leaves tomorrow around 9am so we'll make sure to leave here with plenty of time to get our giant checked bag down the three flights of stairs and over to the train station. We have about 6 hours on trains tomorrow so we'll eat our second baguette from today for lunch tomorrow.

Teaser photos:

80HL foeder

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Tags: france, chateau, europe

Posted from: France

Saturday, September 3, 2022 @ 7:53 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 10

We didn't have any real kind of plan today since it was set to rain all day. We still ended up waking up some time around 7 and just kinda sipped coffee until around 9pm. For breakfast we went to a restaurant called Comme à la maison. They had a pretty big variety of choices but we settled on some brioche french toast, a croque madame and an order of rotis (round hash browns) along with a cafe au lait and a cappuccino. All of the food was really good and I'd definitely recommend the rotis.

After breakfast we set out to find some local cheese to have with our wine tonight and some artwork to bring home with us. First we went to the Alsace museum thinking they might have some small prints or postcards that we could take home, but nothing really stood out to us. After that we went to the Strasbourg museum and struck out there as well. When we left the Strasbourg museum we saw a cheese and meat shop and popped in. The area is known for their Munster cheese so we picked up a little wheel. It was a lot stinkier than I had expected and it was smelling up our bag as we were walking around, lol.

We figured we'd go to the tourist office and see if they had a recommendation on somewhere to find artwork but along the way we found a big "Strasculture" festival taking place at the Cathedral. We walked around some of the booths and found one that was using several hundred year old printing blocks to make pressed artwork for people. Perfect! Sam picked out one of the blocks and she got to add the ink, roll the press and stamp the print afterwards. We talked to the guy who was the president of the organization and he said they go around to all the various print shops going out of business and buy their old gear. He hopes they can have a storefront some day but for now they just travel around to various festivals. They also had a walking tour of Strasbourg that showed all of the old printing press locations where you could load an app and see what used to be printed there. If we had another free day here it would have been fun to do.

We still went to the tourist office and asked about any hiking in the area we could do tomorrow. They pointed us on a castle southwest of here that could be accessed by train then bus. We looked it up and that's going to be our plan for tomorrow since the weather should be nicer. While we were in the tourist office it had started raining again so we quickly got back to the Airbnb so we wouldn't ruin our print.

We lounged for a little bit while it rained and then headed out for lunch. We knew we wanted to get some crepes so we went by one place that had them on the menu but the restaurant was full. Not wanting to deal with that (and the really high prices), we went around the corner and found a takeaway crepe place and got some to go. I got a ham and cheese crepe and Sam got one with Nutella and bananas. Both were tasty and we ate them in a park near Palais Rohan.

We walked around a little more and ended up ducking into a grocery store to get some more yogurt for breakfast and something to make for dinner tomorrow night. We also picked up some grapes, red currants, hummas and red peppers to snack on. After that we swung by a boulangerie and bought a baguette to have with our stinky cheese and wine later. After all those errands we came back to the Airbnb where Sam took a nap and I got some work done.

Around 4pm we opened the wine and busted out the stinky cheese and baguette. The cheese, while a little smelly, tasted really good and went well with the wine and bread. The wine is a local Riesling but actually tasted a little more like a cider. It wasn't really like any Riesling I remember having in the past.

After our little cheese, bread and wine session we went out to find a light dinner at a local brasserie. We had walked by Le Troquet des Kneckes last night and it looked pretty packed so we figured it would be a good place to go. We stopped in and grabbed a seat inside and ordered a beer and some fish and chips (not really local, but we didn't want more bread and cheese so a lot of the local fare was out of the running). Our waitress was actually from Wisconsin but it sounded like she'd been in France for a long time since she was apologizing for not remembering some English words, haha. Once we finished that up we did some more aimless walking around and got some ice cream before heading back to the Airbnb.

Teaser photos:

Using old printing blocks for some artwork

Crepes for lunch

Some tight alleys

Sam chasing a pigeon

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Tags: france, strasbourg, europe

Posted from: France