Brandon O'Brien

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

Tuesday, September 3, 2013 @ 8:02 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 69

After breakfast this morning I packed a lunch and went out to the beach to read for a while. After lunch I walked down to ASDA and got some more oranges and some pasta sauce for dinner tonight. It was getting pretty hot after the clouds broke so I came back to the hostel and worked on plans for Belgium.

I booked 3 nights in a hostel in Brussels and then 4 nights in a hostel in Bruges. From Bruges I can take day trips to some other cities such as Ghent.

I'm really looking forward to starting the next leg of my journey. Ireland and the UK have been great, but I'm ready to experience more of Europe than the English speaking countries. I'm also looking forward to trying some new beer. I've had some good beers, some average beers and some crappy beers while in the UK but I'm ready to try some Belgian beers. The hostel I'm staying at in Bruges has a bar with 25 different Belgian beers to try.

Tomorrow I'm going to head to the coach station and buy my bus tickets to Brussels. I'll need to get from Brighton to London and then from London to Brussels. I'm planning on taking the overnight bus so I don't waste a full day traveling. We'll see how that goes. I'm not sure what the plan is for when it comes time to cross over into France though. Will I have to get off the bus and onto a boat? Will the bus just drive onto a ferry? Maybe the ticket agent tomorrow will know.

Tags: daily journal, england, brighton

Posted from: England

Saturday, September 3, 2011 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

This ride report covers a 3 day ride through Colorado over Labor Day weekend 2011. Some of the areas we visited were Gunnison, CO, Black Canyon and Colorado National Monument. The riders were Brandon on his 2004 Suzuki SV650 and Ryan on his 2011 KTM Adventure Dakar. Before the trip started, Brandon rode from Albuquerque to Denver on Friday, then after the trip, he rode back to Albuquerque on Tuesday.

Our first day started off great. We left Denver around 8:45am with temperatures in the 70's. We left by taking US 6 to I-70 out of Denver toward Vail where we would catch US 24. The ride down US 24 toward Leadville was nice. The scenery was beautiful and there were some nice curves.

We stopped for lunch in Leadville at the Golden Burro, which started in 1938 and is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Colorado. The portions were a little smaller than we had expected based on the price we paid, but overall the food was good and the servers were attentive.

From Leadville we continued on US 24 as it merged to US 285 just after Buena Vista. We arrived in Poncha Springs to head west on US 50 toward Gunnison. A lot of these roads are one lane, so long lines of cars stuck behind a camper or truck are very common. Just be prepared for that. We got into Gunnison around 3:00pm and stopped at a liquor store to grab some beers and vodka for the next two nights. We then made our way to the Steven's Creek Campground on the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

The camp site was easy to find, as it was just off of US 50 about 11 miles outside of Gunnison. We setup our tents, unpacked some of the stuff off our bikes and started working on cooling down the beers. The high 80's temperatures had already started to warm them up. We built a small cooler by making a small rocked off area in the water to put the beers and help cool them down. The water was probably around 65 degrees, so it did a good job of keeping the booze chilled.

The campsite host came over as we were setting up our tents and started talking to us about what there is to do around the camping area. He asked us what we were doing tomorrow and we had just planned on riding some curvy roads around the area. He told us about Black Canyon and how there are some great cycling roads on the North Rim on US 92. He gave us a map and we made some notes and figured it sounded like a cool route, so we set the map aside for the morning. The host also told us about a restaurant just outside of Gunnison called the Trough, it’s marked by a pink pig statue outside of the restaurant. They have an adult kids meal for $8.95, which comes with a beer, burger, and fries.

One of the camping spots next to us had two or three families that had all set up camp in the same area. They had a bunch of kids and a boat full of water sport equipment. The camp site to the other side of us was still empty when we had arrived. Steven's Creek allows fires and each camp site has a nice pre-built fire pit. You can purchase firewood or go collect the driftwood that was everywhere. The driftwood burns extremely fast, so you might want to collect a lot of it before it gets dark so you don't run out. The campsite host also let us grab a couple handfuls of wood he had collected from when people left and had extra wood they didn't burn.

The first night started off good. Sunset was really nice because there were some clouds that really picked up the red/orange/pink glows as the sun set. We were tired and went to bed around 9:30 or 10. The neighbors next to us with the kids were up about an hour later than us talking and stuff. It made it a little hard to fall asleep, but we eventually did. Then an hour or so later we were awoken by two barking dogs and a screaming kid. We thought someones dog had got loose and attacked a kid, but weren’t sure. The crying and barking went on the rest of the night. It rained some time between midnight and two in the morning, but when we woke up you couldn't even tell. There weren't even any dust spots on the bikes. It must have been enough rain to make noise on the tents but that's about it.

The temperatures at night dropped into the 30's, so if you're camping in Colorado toward the end of the summer, make sure you bring a nice warm sleeping bag. Ryan got so cold he put on several layers of clothes and used his leather riding jacket to cover his face, and he was still freezing cold. Brandon had a low temperature rated sleeping bag and was comfortable through the night.

Teaser photos:

Loaded and ready to roll

Cooling our booze in the reservoir

Campsite at sunset

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2011

Posted from: United States

Friday, September 3, 2010 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

I purchased some Nelson Rigg CL-950 saddlebags from NewEnough and packed them up the night before. In the morning I attached everything to my bike and headed off.

Since we were camping, I had to pack a sleeping bag and my sleeping pad. Amazingly, I was able to fit everything on the bike without any real issues. I also bought a magnetic tank bag that came in handy for gloves, camera and other misc. stuff.

When I left Albuquerque at 7:30am, there were wind gusts hitting about 50mph. Luckily that died down a few miles out of the city. It got colder and colder and I had to stop and put on my heavy gloves.

I stopped for lunch in Trinidad, CO and then started riding again. By now the temps were warming up and I could switch back to my summer riding gloves.

The ride was pretty uneventful, just normal highway riding, and I made it to my buddy's house around 3pm or so.

That night, we went to REI and bought a new camping stove and I bought a little folding chair (which you'll see below). We ate and had some drinks and then went to sleep.

Total distance today: 440 miles

Teaser photos:

Motorcycle packed and ready to go

folding camp chair from REI

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2010

Posted from: United States

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 @ 11:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We left Venice at 6:45am and got into Rome a little after 11am. We checked into our hotel and then set about exploring the city. The first spot we made sure to hit was the Colosseum. We paid for entry so we could walk around inside the Colosseum and took more pics than I'd like to admit. The Colosseum was definitely a highlight for me, not just in Rome but the whole trip.

We walked from the Colosseum to the old Roman Forum which was basically the "downtown" back in roman days. Seeing all of those sights and walking around was enough for one day, so we went and caught a train back to the hotel (we were staying slightly outside of Rome, but not far from a train station).

I don't remember having many feelings one way or another about Rome prior to this trip. I knew it was a city filled with history but I don't recall it being one of the destinations I was really looking forward to. We booked Rome because the flight back to the US was significantly cheaper. I'm extremely glad we made it here though. Some people say Rome is a hot touristy destination, but I really liked the city.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: italy, venice, rome, train

Posted from: Italy