Entries from 'Europe'
Paris, the City of Lights
Leaving Europe and ending this leg of our journey was bittersweet. We had officially eaten ourselves through Europe, with little exercise besides walking from monument to restaurant or bakery, and we were ready to have our healthy lifestyles back. Nonetheless, we embraced the true Parisian experience and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest (no pun intended)….
J’aime la France
If you know me well, you know I love France. This romantic and gorgeous country was the final destination on our European journey. We began this trip by quickly stopping in San Sebastián to pick up half of our luggage load which we’d left a few weeks prior in order to comfortably manage our excursions to…
Returning Home to Madrid
On September 1, 2001, I moved to Madrid to study abroad with other students from my college in California. During four short months, I caught the travel bug and haven’t looked back. Madrid was the city where I “grew up” and started seeing the world differently. During this study abroad program, I lived with a…
Gaudí’s Barcelona
Packing up and leaving our beautiful apartment in San Sebastián was hard, but were looking forward to heading east to Barcelona! The Mediterranean, cool Gaudi architecture and delicious paella were the main things I remember from my trip to Barcelona twelve years ago. We hopped on a train from San Sebastián and upon arrival we…
A Culinary Expedition: Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
San Sebastián is known to be the culinary mecca of Spain, and we enjoyed every moment of our time here. Only 12 miles from the French border, San Sebastián (or Donastia, as it is known in the local Basque dialect) was the perfect place to spend a month surfing and eating. We never had a shortage…
Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage by Car (not by foot)
After a long cruise from England, we arrived in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. We enjoyed a good night’s sleep at a local hotel and then headed out towards Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain. This beautiful coastal drive took us about five hours. We soon realized that we were driving along the…
United Kingdom or: Driving from Ireland to Spain
All aboard – Ireland to Wales Who would have thought that traveling throughout Europe with surfboards would be nearly impossible? When we started on our journey, we assumed that we could be able to bring the boards onto any airplane. We were wrong. Our next destination would be San Sebastian, Spain – with no easy…
Anniversary Trip to Galway
While in Ireland, we celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary and decided to drive south to Galway to explore a different region of the country. Galway is an artsy and bohemian city filled with great food and live music. Galway is home to the Irish Claddagh rings, Aran sweaters and some of Ireland’s oldest “trad session”…
Northern Ireland
As we were staying in County Sligo in the north west of Ireland, we decided to take a day trip to Derry/Londonderry, a city in Northern Ireland with some historical significance in the past several decades through Ireland’s “troubles”. It was fascinating! Londonderry, or Derry, as most people call it, still remains part of Great Britain…
The Irish Countryside
We sought out for big waves in Northwest Ireland, but instead we got nice mild weather and a calm ocean. The Atlantic Ocean’s waves are very unpredictable, so our time in Ireland was spent waiting…and waiting…and waiting for waves. Unfortunately they never came, but we made the best of our three-week trip. County Sligo We…
Delightful Dublin, Ireland
Welcome to Ireland! Our cross-Atlantic flight seemed short this time around and it’s probably because we were flying from New York versus California. Mike’s parents, Eric and Betsy Matz, joined us on this leg of the trip. Upon landing in Dublin, we picked up our rental cars and Mike & Eric had to immediately get used…
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