Photos

Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.

Vacation Log Part 6: Paris

by

Bonjour Paris!

Day 14 (part 2): Brussels to Paris

Well, that was a long travel day. After the four hours sitting in the Brussels Midi station and getting on our train, things looked fine, with the most interesting piece being checking the weather report for Paris and seeing thunderstorm warnings. Well, we’re from Seattle and brought lightweight raincoats, so we didn’t think much of it, and ended up missing all of the rain anyway.

We got to the first train station on the outskirts of Paris, and transferred to one of the local B-line trains to go into the city — almost missed it, but just squeaked in the doors with the help of a man on the train. We chatted with him until he got off, and then we rode a few more stops to where we had to switch to our next in-city C-line train. And waited…

…and waited…

…and eventually figured out (along with everyone around us) that the storm had downed some trees on a track somewhere and the C trains were entirely disrupted. So we decided to go up to street level and see what we could figure out, hoping it wouldn’t have to be on foot, since we were about an hour’s walk away from our hotel. We got up to the street level, and were immediately distracted with a gorgeous view of Notre Dame at dusk. Once we got over that, we walked a little ways up the street until we found a bus stop and taxi stand. At that point, it was after 9 p.m. we were tired, and it was time to admit that sometimes, a taxi is worth it. Fifteen minutes later we were at the hotel.

Shot from inside a cab, brake lights of nearby cars on a busy nighttime road can be seen through a windshield as the cabbie reaches over to scroll through sports scores on the screen of his dash-mounted cell phone.
Yes, that’s our cabbie scrolling through sports scores on his phone with one hand as he drives us through busy Paris traffic to our hotel. Welcome to Paris?

The hotel is very cute, all built around an inner courtyard, with an elevator we had to take one at a time, tiny walkways, and a tiny room, and it’s great. We’re here, the beds are comfy, and that’s it for the day.

GPS track log map of our journey from Brussels to Paris.
Our Interrail journey from Brussels to Paris.
GPS track log map of our local train and cab rides from the outskirts of Paris to our hotel just off the Champ de Mars.
From the southern end up to the left turn just at the ‘a’ in ‘Paris’ was the train, the final leg was by cab.

Day 15: Paris

Big day for exploring Paris and seeing all sorts of pretty things!

We started by getting up nice and early in the morning and walking from our hotel to the Louvre (just over two miles, which is entirely doable after a night’s sleep and when you’re not carrying backpacks). Made it to the Louvre with about half an hour before our 9 a.m. entrance time (when the museum opens), stood in line at the entrance closest to the Mona Lisa…and then right at nine, a museum staff person came up to tell everyone who was lined up there that that entrance wouldn’t actually open until 10, and to follow them. Of course, by this time there was already a huge line at the main entrance, so we were a little concerned that we’d just get dumped into the end of that line, but instead, we all got marched over to the group entrance and let in there. No biggie, as it turned out.

Once in, we beelined for the Mona Lisa…along with nearly everyone else. This really is one of those things you do to be able to say “I’ve seen the Mona Lisa in person”, not to actually, you know, stand there, look at it, and see the painting. The scrum wasn’t as bad as trying to see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, and we were able to get to the front and get our 15 seconds of photo and selfie time in, so we called it a success and went off to investigate these rumors that the Louvre has one or two things worth seeing other than the headliner. We then had a very pleasant few hours wandering the museum and finding all sorts of things to gawk at.

Wide-angle shot of a crowd of people standing behind a barrier, many with phones out to take photos, with the Mona Lisa alone in a dedicated alcove on a black wall.
Yes, it’s a bit crazy, but I can now say that I’ve seen the Mona Lisa in person. Some people will be very impressed, others will understand that it’s about the experience, not the art.

When lunchtime rolled around we grabbed a bite at the Louvre’s cafe (it was close, quick, and convenient), went out and wandered the grounds for a little bit, and then went across the street to the Musée d’Orsay for the afternoon. What they say (whomever “they” are and wherever they say it) is true: you go to the Louvre to say you’ve been to the Louvre, you go to the Orsay to be able to see the art. Another incredible collection, but not (quite) as crowded (save for the Van Gogh rooms on the top floor, but having just been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, we were okay with skimming those rooms), and much easier to be able to find something you like and be able to hang out and really appreciate it.

A large diorama model of the Paris Opera, cut down the middle to show the layout and construction of the building’s sections, including the stage and its above- and below-stage mechanics, the theater with its seats and balconies, and the entrance and lobby with its grand staircase.
The Orsay has this incredible model of the Paris Opera; if we)d had more time, I could have spent a lot of it just staring at this (and hoping to spot the Phantom…).

Once we were all art-ed out for the day, we crossed back over the Seine to the Jardin des Tuileries, and then proceeded to walk the entirety of the Avenue de Champs-Élisée, all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. Once there, my wife found a bench to rest on while I climbed the 280 steps to the terrace at the top for some gorgeous views of Paris. When I made it back down to ground level, we walked from the Arc back to our hotel.

Selfie of me taken atop the Arc de Triomphe, with Paris behind me, the Eiffel Tower very visible towards the right side of the photo.
At the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

The Orsay-to-Arc-to-hotel leg of the day’s walk was about 4.7 miles. All together, my watch tells me today ended up with 23,705 steps and 10.58 miles — a record for this trip so far! (We’re not really trying to set these records, we just want to see All The Things, and then whine when we get back to the hotel about walking too much and swear we’re going to take it easier the next day. Then the next day comes along….)

GPS track log of our walk from our hotel to the Louvre.

GPS track log map of our walk across the Seine from the Louvre to the Orsay.

GPS track log map of our walk down the Avenue de Champs-Élisée to the Arc de Triomphe and then back to our hotel.

That was a lot of walking, but it was well worth every step.

Day 16: Versailles

Today’s adventure was an excursion out to Versailles. We got up really early, had a quick in-room breakfast, and headed out. Hopped on a local train, rode ten stops, and a short walk later were at the gates. We had the earliest entry tickets we could get (9:30 a.m.), and had made sure to get there nice and early, so we had time to start our day with a short walk through the gardens. Being able to do this first thing in the morning was really neat — hardly anyone else was there (a few visitors early for their entrance time like us, and locals out for their morning run…y’know, like you do, when you live close enough), so we had the entire space nearly to ourselves. We did that for about half an hour, then went back up to stand in line for our entrance.

With an ornate fountain in the foreground and the water of the Grand Canal in the distance, the gardens of Versailles are seen early in the morning under a grey sky, with just one lone figure walking towards the fountain.
It bugs me to no end that this fountain is just slightly off center from the rest of the gardens.

Once in, we kind of skimmed through the first half of the palace (lots of pretty paintings, but having just done a number of museums, we were okay with doing a quick breeze through while keeping an eye out for any we really wanted to stop at) so that we could get to the Hall of Mirrors before it got too crowded. While not empty when we got there (there were 9 a.m. entry people before us), it wasn’t super crowded, and so that was where we really slowed down to take things in, and enjoyed moseying our way through the rest of the palace.

Selfie of my wife and I in the Versailles Hall of Mirrors, a long, ornately decorated and gilded room with painted ceilings, large windows on one side, and large mirrors on the other.
What I admire the most about Louis XIV is his understated and subtle design sensibilities.

From there we went back out to the gardens, which while much busier, had the advantages of having the fountains running (which hadn’t been turned on yet earlier) and more dramatic skies (instead of the morning’s flat grey). We went down along the main walk towards the Grand Canal, then headed off toward the Grand Trianon. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to go in or just wander the outside, but it turns out our tickets were good for that too, so we got to wander through the inside of that smaller palace as well.

Panoramic shot of the Grand Trianon, a long, single-story marble building with a columned central walkway connecting two windowed wings, under a sky of dark grey clouds.
Those skies were really staring to look ominous….

After the Grand Trianon we went out and explored the Trianon’s gardens and fountains for a bit. This was a nice treat as well, as fewer people make the trek out to the Trianons, so it was a much quieter stroll than in the main gardens.

Eventually we could see the skies getting even more dramatic, so we decided that it was time to head back (not an easy decision when we realized we’d missed Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, but there’s only so much time…). We got back to the main gardens just in time for a heavy rain storm to start, which lasted our entire walk back up the gardens, out of Versailles, and the few blocks down the street to the Paris Metro station where we got on our train. We were absolutely soaked, but still having a good time. We got back into town and to our hotel, hung our clothes up to dry, and crashed out for an afternoon nap.

After a couple hours to rest, we were hungry and ready for dinner, so we headed out and walked down the block to a really cute little Italian place just at the end of the street from our hotel. Had a good dinner there, then walked two more blocks to the Champ de Mars, and stood and watched the Eiffel Tower slowly light up as the sun set, then as it put on its sparkly light show shortly after sundown. We then walked up through the park to near the base of the tower — and as keeps happening on this trip, knowing about something on a theoretical level doesn’t really prepare you at all for the reality of standing underneath this colossal structure. It’s really an incredible thing.

Wide-angle view of the Eiffel Tower as seen from the ground very close to the base, all lit in gold under a deep blue twilight sky, the lens distortion emphasizing the immensity of the structure overhead.
It’s huge.

After enjoying the view for a while, we decided that it was time to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.

GPS track log map of our train to and from Versailles.

GPS,track log map of our wandering around the grounds at Versailles.

GPS track log map of our walk over to the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower.

After having seen Versailles in films and TV shows for years, actually being there was kind of surreal.

Day 17: Paris

Today we made another attempt at taking things a bit slower, with…mixed results, unsurprisingly. We slept in as late as we could, and had a nice slow morning, with breakfast in the room and no rush to get out and about.

When we did venture out, we started off by getting a bag full of pastries from a local patisserie, and walked up to the Champ de Mars to eat them while sitting in the park in the (figurative, due to the time of day) shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Then we strolled around the park and the base of the tower for a bit before making a brief stop back by the hotel room to make sure we were prepped for our afternoon adventure.

Black and white shot looking up the Eiffel Tower from dead center underneath it, forming a very geometric pattern of lines and angles made by the struts, beams, and girders of the tower’s metalwork.
Enough people want to do this kind of shot that there’s a very convenient plaque on the ground telling you where to stand. Well, I never claim to be original….

Heading out again, we started by crossing over to the other side of the Champ de Mars and finding a cute French restaurant for lunch (we had to get actual French food at least once while we were here, of course). When that was done, it was back to the Eiffel Tower, where up to the top we went! We took the easy way up in the elevators, which is a two-stop process: one elevator up to the second level, and then a second elevator (and then a short flight of stairs) up to the top.

Panoramic view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, looking northwest towards the Place du Trucadero.

Panoramic view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, looking Southeast toward the École Militaire.

And here I thought the view from the Arc de Triomphe was impressive!

As can be guessed, the view was incredible. We went all the way around the top, me taking photos and my wife (who is somewhat afraid of heights, but was determined to do this, and handled herself quite well) stayed nearer to the inner wall. After our circuit, we started heading back down again. We took the elevator down from the top to the second level (the only option), but then, having spent our time in line for the elevator sandwiched between one family who didn’t bother to rein in their rambunctious 7-year old at all and another family who were remarkably pushy and kept trying to go around (or through) us even though there was no space to either get around or to get to, we decided to just skip the next elevator and take the stairs down. All 674 of them!

It’s a lot of stairs, but easier to do going down than up, and though it took longer, it was a much more pleasant experience than being crammed into one of those elevators again. About 15 minutes or so later, we were back on the ground (to my wife’s great relief). We took a little time to recuperate, and then headed back to the hotel to get back into a quiet space and away from people…and once there, though we’d considered some other evening jaunts, we decided we were fine with calling it a day. A short venture out to the local grocery for dinner sandwiches, and then we tucked ourselves away for the evening.

GPS track log map of our wandering around the Champ de Mars and surrounding streets.
Having a hotel two blocks off of the Champ de Mars was incredible.

Day 18 (part 1): Paris to…?

It’s another travel day! So, the usual routine: sleep as late as possible (today that meant we got about 11 hours of sleep…we may be getting a bit tired at this point in the trip), pack everything up, and head out. We walked to the closest metro station, took two metro trains, and made it to the Gare du Nord with several hours to kill before our next train. Camped out on the floor, found some lunch, waited, and eventually made our way to the right platform, boarded our train, and are now watching the French countryside roll by on our way to….

The front of the Gare du Nord train station, a stone and glass edifice with many statue figures between windows and along the roofline.
Saying goodbye to Paris.

Vacation Log Part 5: Brussels

by

And now for Belgium (my apologies for using such rude language)!

Day 12 (part 2): Amsterdam to Brussels

Before we left for this trip, while researching so that we’d be prepared, we’d read that trains in Germany were the most unreliable. We’d also read about some of the most common behaviors to avoid to make sure we didn’t stick out as stereotypical rude Americans: Talking unnecessarily loudly, having loud phone conversations or playing music without headphones, placing our bags on seats so that we took up multiple spots, and so on.

Well, bad behavior is universal. Europeans are just as bad about all of those as we were warned not to be (and we’re not much for that kind of behavior anyway), and so far, the German trains were rarely more than a few minutes late if at all and they regularly apologized when it happened, while every Dutch train on our Amsterdam to Brussels leg has been late by at least 15-20 minutes. One time that just meant we had to change our connecting train, but then later they decided that the train we were on was late enough that it was better to pull it out of the schedule entirely, made the next stop the final stop, kicked us all off, and we had to find another train to get us the rest of the way into Brussels.

It’s nothing we haven’t been able to cope with, and all part of traveling like this, of course, but it has definitely been a bit of a shift from our expectations.

GPS track log of our route from Amsterdam, through Rotterdam, Breda, and Antwerp, and ending in Brussels.
Delays and train swaps and all, it was a really pretty trip.

Minor grumbling aside, we did make it to Brussels without any major complications. The mentioned minor ones, but no major ones, ending up at our hotel just about two hours after we thought we’d be here. That was still early enough (about 5 p.m.) for us to get our room and then head out for a bit of a wander, finding dinner and then getting fancy dessert Belgian waffles and sitting in the gorgeous Grand Place as we ate them. Not a bad evening at all! Then back to the hotel to wind down and get to bed.

Panoramic view of a large cobblestoned square surrounded on all sides by large, ornate gothic and gold-trimmed buildings.
Brussels’ Grand Place, the central square of the city, was just about a ten minute walk from our hotel.
GPS track log of our first evening’s wandering around central Brussels.
For two people tired after a long day of travel, we didn’t do too well at staying put once we arrived.

Day 13: Brussels

Today we had just one thing planned: a morning tour of Choco-Story Brussels, a really cute little museum all about the history of chocolate. It’s a self-guided walkthrough of displays tracing chocolate from its initial cultivation through its being brought to Europe, and ends with a demonstration from a chocolatier making pralines (which you then get to sample). It was fun, and quite tasty!

Just before entering the museum, since we’d shown up a bit early, we were walking up and down the block and peeking at what was on nearby streets, when we realized that we were standing right next to Manneken Pis, a famous fountain of a small boy peeing. One more Brussels landmark seen (in a city full of them; Brussels really is gorgeous).

Selfie of my wife and I in front of a stone alcove with a fountain made of a small bronze sculpture of a small boy peeing.
This funny little fountain is a huge part of the Brussels culture. Images of it are everywhere.

After the museum we took the rest of the day for a slow wander, starting with browsing through a music store we’d spotted just a half-block away from the fountain. The store had a nice mix of vinyl and used CDs, and I had fun browsing through and picking some up as Brussels souvenirs. Then, as we walked on, we found two more vinyl shops in the next two blocks! Considering how just a few days ago I was bemoaning the modern dearth of record stores, this was a fun part of the day; apparently Brussels has a good physical media scene!

Me browsing through CD sleeves in a big bin of used CDs separated into various categories with plastic dividers, in a store with yellow walls covered with shelves of records, box sets, and other music items.
Ended up coming out with a Hooverphonic album from the early 2000s, a techno/industrial sampler from 1993 called Blood and Computers (I have Vol. 2 already, so it was fun to find Vol. 1), an album from a band whose name I don’t remember right now but who was described as New Wave/Buggles/OMD-inspired because I wanted to get at least one thing I was totally clueless about…and the old Songs in the Key of Springfield Simpsons soundtrack album at my wife’s request.

From there it was just a day of poking around the streets of Brussels, peeking into cute shops and fancy cathedrals, and just seeing where we ended up going. We were nice enough to ourselves to take a few hours of mid-afternoon downtime instead of pushing through the full day again, which was a good idea. Then sandwiches for dinner, ice cream while watching people at the Grand Place, and back to the hotel again for the evening.

GPS track log map of our day wandering around central Brussels.
Even with a few hours of midday rest, we definitely still got our steps in.

Day 14 (part 1): Brussels to…?

This is a long travel day. Our train out of Brussels doesn’t leave until 16:52, and checkout time at the hotel was noon. So we checked out just a bit before noon, walked to the local station, hopped a short train to our departure station…and then spent the next four hours camped out in the Brussels Midi station until it was time to board. Not exactly the most exciting hours of the trip, but sometimes that’s how it goes. We’re on our next train now, headed for….

Two shelves of reproductions of the Mannekin Pis peeing boy statue, in various sizes and in gold, silver, or bronze colors, stacked several rows deep.
Just one small section of one tourist shop in the train station. If you’re ever in a sudden need for a small figure of a urinating boy, Brussels is the place to be.

Vacation Log Part 4: Amsterdam

by

…the Netherlands, and Amsterdam!

Day 10 (part 2): Berlin to Amsterdam

No private cabin this time, but that was fine; we still had booked first class seats, so were in the first class car. One of the things I discovered on the Frankfurt to Berlin ride was that no matter how pretty the view is, it’s extremely difficult to take decent pictures while traveling at 150 MPH, so I left the camera packed and just alternated between watching Germany go by out the windows and watching Max Headroom episodes on my iPad.

A train monitor display showing a map of our route from Berlin to Amsterdam and the stops along the way.
Our first in-Europe country hop!

The train to Amsterdam was about six hours, and then we figured out the local tram system to get to our hotel. Turned out to be nice and easy: one tram line for about 30 minutes, then a short walk along a pretty little canal before heading about a block into a residential/commercial neighborhood to get to the hotel.

To the right of the photo, a paved path leads by some small apartment buildings. To the left of the path is a grassy green area with pretty trees, and to the left of that is the blue water of a small canal, with small personal boats tied up along the banks.
If you’re going to have a bit of a walk to get to your hotel, you could do far worse than this.

Got ourselves settled in, walked a couple blocks away for a really good dinner at a neighborhood Middle Eastern place (Turkish pizza, which though called pizza, is closer to a burrito in form, is really good), stopped by a grocery for breakfast supplies, and now are getting ready for bed, as we have an early morning planned for tomorrow.

GPS track log map of us walking from our Berlin hotel to the tram stop, then taking that to the train station.
Walking to the local tram stop, then taking that to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
GOS track log map of our journey from Berlin to Amsterdam.
Berlin to Amsterdam!
GPS track log map of our route from the Amsterdam train station to our hotel.
Tram from the train station, and then a short walk to the hotel.

Day 11: Amsterdam

A day of museums and wandering around the central part of the city.

We started the day with the Rijksmuseum (Dutch masters, Rembrandt, etc.), had a great lunch at a nearby café, and then went to the Van Gogh Museum (all about the VW microbus and where it’s been…wait, no, that’s not right). After that we took a tram a few stops towards the city center until the main canals started, when we got off and walked the rest of the way in so we could walk over each of the canals. Then we spent the next couple of hours just randomly wandering our way through central Amsterdam, seeing what we could find.

Very wide painting of a group of men in fancy 1600’s military dress.
My only iPhone shot of the day from the Rijksmuseum, to take advantage of the wide lens. Militia Company of District VIII in Amsterdam under the Command of Captain Roelof Bicker by Bartholomeus van der Helst, c. 1643.

Amsterdam is a gorgeous city, and for all I’d read and understood on a theoretical level that bikes are a big thing here, I didn’t really get it until today. It’s incredible to walk around a city like this, where bikes, walking, and the transit system (trams and buses) are by far the preferred ways to get around, and cars are drastically deprioritized. You’ll see streets as wide as a three- or four-lane road in the U.S., but there’s just one car lane each direction, and all the rest is pedestrian, bike, or tram lanes. Bikes are everywhere at all times; the morning and afternoon commute look like you’re on the sidelines of the Tour de France, only instead of athletes on speed bikes, it’s everyday folks on regular bikes, from modern e-bikes to old style Schwinns (or the European equivalent) to various forms of cargo bikes. It’s really incredible, and I wish the U.S. would get on board with this kind of thinking and city planning (or re-planning) – this article on how Amsterdam became a bike city is worth a read.

A bicycle with a smaller front wheel and an extended front section covered to form a small enclosure for a child to ride in.
I saw a lot of this style of cargo bike, some kitted out like this as a child carrier, and some with a more utilitarian cargo compartment.

What with not having seen a single SUV or pickup in almost two weeks, convenient and low-stress country hopping on Interrail (formerly Eurail), and experiencing Amsterdam, this summer vacation has been an amusing experience in just how far behind Europe America is when it comes to seriously thinking about transportation as anything other than cars, more cars, bigger cars, and more bigger cars.

Eventually we were running out of steam, so we found a restaurant for dinner and ate while sitting outside and watching people stroll and roll by. Then we hopped on the tram back to the hotel, and called it an end to our day.

GPS track log of our day in Amsterdam, mostly in the city center.
The longer straighter line is the tram from our hotel to the museum plaza, the rest is us wandering wherever our feet took us.

Day 12 (part 1): Amsterdam to…?

And it’s our next travel day!

You know the routine: Get up, have breakfast, pack out, and get to the train station. All of which went as expected, so we’re ion the train, nicely settled in to our first class seats, and off to our next stop!

Panoramic shot of a traditional Dutch windmill rising over trees and green fields.
We did manage to spot a number of traditional Dutch windmills out the window of our train after we got out of Amsterdam and into the countryside. This was the closest we got.

Vacation Log Part 3: Berlin

by

From Frankfurt, we rode the train northwest to Berlin!

Day 8 (part 2): Frankfurt to Berlin

Midway through our ride to Berlin, a couple joined us in our cabin. It turned out they’d originally reserved two of the other seats in the cabin, but at first didn’t want to bother us with their two small terriers and sat in general seating. But then the dogs started getting whiny, so they asked if they could join us so as not to bother other passengers in general seating. We said sure, the dogs settled down, and we had a nice chat with them as we rode the rest of the way into Berlin.

With modern office buildings in the distance, the remnants of a war-damaged large stone cathedral rise behind a sign for the Zoologischer Garten train station and a street performer dressed in a large blue inflatable costume of Disney’s Stitch.
Our first view of Berlin once we left the train station: The beautifully preserved ruins of the original Kaiser Wilhelm church building and a Stitch street performer.

We made it to the Berlin Spandau station, changed trains, got to the Zoologischer Garten station, and then had a walk of just under a mile to our hotel. Got checked in, went out to find dinner, and decided to try a burrito place a short walk away, as we’d been told that Mexican food in Germany is its own thing, almost but not quite like what we’re used to, but not bad. We got there and were amused to realize that the restaurant had a San Francisco Mission district theme, and I was wearing my “I ♥️ SF” shirt that I just got a few days before…obviously this was the right place. (And the burritos weren’t bad, either.)

Me wearing an ‘I (heart) S F’ t-shirt standing in front of a wall decorated with a map of San Francisco centered on the Mission district.
I ♥️ Serendipitous Food (choices)

After that we wandered down the shopping district street we were on, eventually stopping by the Haribo store for gummies, peeked in the Lego store and found an exclusive Germany set, and then stopped to get some gelato…and the place we stopped at had a flavor called SanFransisko (with saffron, honey, and apricot), so obviously that was the flavor to get.

My wife and I on a cobblestone street, each holding small cups of ice cream.
We’re really enjoying how so many eateries have outdoor seating areas.

Back down the street to the hotel, and it’s time for bed!

Day 9: Berlin

We originally had grand plans for the day. We were going to visit the Berlin Wall memorial (or one of the other places where parts of it still stand), see Brandenburger Tor, maybe some of the other big historical things that Berlin has to offer…

…and then decided that, yes, those would be good to see, but we’d just done a few days of history in Frankfurt, and neither of us are huge WWII buffs, and there’s this other big famous thing just a mile away from us that isn’t at all related to war…

…and so we went to Zoo Berlin instead, and spent a very pleasant day slowly strolling the zoo and seeing the animals. We saw nearly everything the zoo had to offer (the aquarium building had a line out the door that didn’t seem to be moving, so we skipped that), and some of them multiple times (as someone in this household really likes hippos, and this zoo has both full-size and pygmy versions, with babies of each size, so they got multiple visits).

Selfie of my wife and I with two large hippos munching on grass cuttings in the background.
Guess what? Hippo butt!

When we finally ran out of zoo, we came back to the hotel, rested for a little bit, changed, and went out again. Yesterday evening as we were passing the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, my wife saw a poster advertising a classical concert for tonight. So tonight we got to see the Berlin Orchestra’s eight-piece Chamber Orchestra with guest performers of a solo violinist, an opera soprano, and and an organist play a selection of pieces, including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on a huge, beautiful pipe organ. (However good of a recording of that piece you’ve heard, it doesn’t compare to hearing it played live on a big pipe organ. It’s incredible.) The musicians were really good, and the whole performance was wonderful.

Panoramic view of tall walls made of grids of blue stained glass squares, and a large pipe organ on a platform with multiple rows of staggered sizes of silver pipes.
The inside of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is gorgeous.

After that, we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.

GPS track log map showing our path to, from, and wandering around the Berlin Zoo.
20,567 steps and 9.37 miles.

Day 10 (part 1): Berlin to…?

Travel day! As such, the morning was all about repacking and making sure we were ready to go. Walked up to the Zoologischer Garten train station (where a cute older lady asked for a photo of me because I was wearing my kilt and she had a friend who is Irish…at least, I’m reasonably sure that’s what she said) and took a local train up to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. We had about an hour there before catching our next train, so I took a few minutes to wander around and look at the place. It’s huge, and basically a big three-level shopping mall sandwiched between the local train tracks on the top level and the long-distance tracks on the lowest level, with much of it open, so you can look down from the top all the way to the train platforms at the bottom.

Vertical panoramic shot of the inside of the Berlin train station, from the metal-girded glass arched ceiling at the top, two levels connected by stairs and escalators, and a lowest level with a train and empty tracks next to platforms, all with crowds of people.
Taken from a middle level, looking all the way from the glass ceiling to the long-distance train platforms at the bottom.

After a few minutes of exploring (and buying a couple pastries), I went back down to the platform, and not long after that, we were on board and settled into our seats, watching Berlin pass by outside our windows on our way to….

Vacation Log Part 2: Frankfurt

by

In Part one, we spent two days exploring San Francisco before jetting off for…somewhere else. That somewhere else was Frankfurt, Germany!

Day 4 (part 2) and 5: San Francisco to Frankfurt

Getting off the ground took a long time, as the San Francisco airport is down to two runways due to construction. We were scheduled to take off at 4:30 p.m., didn’t board until almost 5, and we actually took off at…(it’s 5:52 as I write this, and the pilot just told us we’re 12th in line, so…getting there, but a bit longer yet)…6:30?

Since we knew this was going to be a long flight (about 10 hours), we sprung for Premium Economy class. We’re finding it a nice upgrade – a little more space and legroom and some extra amenities, just enough to make a long flight noticeably more comfortable. Since we brought our own entertainment (iPads loaded with books, movies, and TV shows), I just set the seat back monitor in front of me to track the plane as it flew. Our route was a nonstop straight shot northeast out of San Francisco, continuing on over Canada, Greenland, Iceland, a bit of Scotland, and the Netherlands before descending into Germany.

Airline seat back display showing a globe with our flight path from San Francisco to Frankfurt.
Up and over, nice straight shot.

The flight itself was fine, with nice smooth takeoff, flight, and landing, and friendly staff. Even a fun little set of welcome goodies, including earbuds, toothbrush and toothpaste, sleep mask, socks, and a little case to hold them all. I, unfortunately, do not sleep well (or at all) on airplanes, but I dozed and zoned out as I could and otherwise watched the first Resident Evil movie and a couple Max Headroom episodes and finished one Discworld novel (Reaper Man) and started the next (Witches Abroad).

Panoramic shot of San Francisco as seen from above out the window of our airplane, with a fog bank stretching over the bay but with a bridge and the city visible.
Saying goodbye to San Francisco (and Karl the Fog).

We landed in Frankfurt, taxied forever, and then, accompanied by pained groans from many of the passengers (including us), pulled up next to a couple sets of stairs and a few buses. Everyone got packed onto the buses like proverbial sardines, and they drove us to a gate (and while it felt like they drove the long way around, I expect that’s probably not actually the case). But once we got to the airport, the rest — including customs and the new biometric scanning system — went nice and smooth. They even stamped our passports; we weren’t sure if that was still a thing that happened or not, so we were excited to hear the ker-CHUNK of the stamp.

From there, it was a quick swing through baggage to get our backpacks, around the corner to the train station, four stops to the Frankfurt Main Hauptbahnhof, and two and a half blocks to our hotel.

Selfie of my wife and I standing in the Frankfurt train station, with a sign visible behind us that says, “Herzlich willkommen in Frankfurt am Main Hbf”.
Gotta get that “welcome to Frankfurt” sign in there or y’all wouln’t beleive us. ;)

We were pretty well exhausted after going for over 24 hours, but with the time change, it was just four in the afternoon. We got settled into the hotel, and then wandered out to find food and a grocery for some simple hotel breakfast supplies. Food ended up being (very good) cheese fries from a little place that only does fries, as it was simple and we were too tired decide on anything else. We found a supermarket, but only after missing a turn and discovering that our nice quiet hotel is about two blocks off of a red light district…that was an amusing realization.

Back to the hotel, a small load of sink laundry, and then pushed ourselves to stay awake until 8 p.m. to (hopefully) knock our jet lag around and onto local time.

Day 6: Frankfurt

The battle with jet lag isn’t over yet, but we’re making good progress. While neither of us had our best night’s sleep, we stubbornly refused to completely awaken when we started to, and took the morning nice and slow, not leaving the hotel until around 10 a.m.

Once we did get going, we had our first full day exploring Frankfurt. We had only a rough plan, so started off on a more or less random direction and ended up next to the Städel museum, at which point going in seemed like the only choice that made sense. Right off the bat, they had a really neat exhibition of prints by (and related to) Pieter Bruegel the Elder; most of the rest of the museum was its own (very impressive) collection. Another current exhibition by Elmgreen & Dragset, in addition to its own installations, includes lifelike sculptures placed throughout the museum, often in humorous juxtaposition with the museum’s regular collection. We had a lot of fun stumbling across these additions.

Me, in my T-shirt, black kilt, and Converse shoes, taking a photo of an unpainted white sculpture of a male figure in sweater, jeans, and sneakers, looking pensively at art hung on the wall of the museum.
What’s he looking at, anyway? Photo by my wife.

From there we wandered over into the Altstadt (old city), had our first sausage meal, and then visited the Frankfurt Cathedral (Frankfurt Dom/Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus), including climbing all 328 steps up (and then down again) to the top of the tower to see the views of the city. Once done with that, we wandered the Altstadt some more and picked a couple more museums that might be on the list for tomorrow, ventured a bit into one of the main shopping areas nearby, and poked our heads into a couple more churches.

The tower of Frankfurt’s old cathedral as seen from the ground, looking up at where we climbed.
We climbed that! Sure felt that in our legs later on, too….

By this point we were starting to fizzle, so we went by a place we’d spotted earlier to get currywurst (my first time in 35 years, and just as good as I remember), stopped by a grocery for drinks to hydrate with, and came back to the hotel. As we were getting ready for bed a thunderstorm rolled over the city, and we got to watch the rain and see the clouds light up with lightening for a little bit.

GPS track log map showing this day’s wandering around Frankfurt.
Our day’s wanderings.

Day 7: Frankfurt

Our plan for the day was to get an earlier start and hit two museums. Then a jet lag induced lack of good sleep took effect, and we got neither.

We did get out and about, but not quite so early as planned, and then headed for our first planned stop, the Historiches Museum Frankfurt (history museum). This was neat, and in a gorgeous building that had been recently remodeled, but had lots of info about and peeks at the old building incorporated into it. However, it quickly became apparent that we did not have the stamina to make it through the full museum, so we went off to lunch.

A little later, happily stuffed with schnitzel, we peeked at the Museum of Modern Electronic Music (MOMEM), but didn’t quite feel drawn in. Instead, we decided to walk back to the river and stroll along in the shade of a tree-lined cobblestone path, enjoying the views of the city and looking at some of the other museums we could have gone to if we were here longer or had more energy.

Panoramic view of Frankfurt’s Altstadt as seen from the opposite bank of the Main, from the historical museum to the cathedral.
The historical museum is the building to the left with the four-story tower capped by black turrets; we climbed to the top of that tower as part of our museum tour. The cathedral tower we climbed yesterday is to the right.

After that, it was back to our hotel, figuring that we were better off declaring ourselves done for the day. A couple hours’ rest gave us enough energy to grab dinner from the corner pizzeria…and that perked us up enough that we decided to walk down to the train station (just a couple blocks further down the street) to scope it out and make sure we knew where to go for the next part of our trip.

We grabbed gelato on the way back, sitting at one of the many outdoor seating areas, people watching as we ate, and then came back to the hotel. And that wrapped up another day in Frankfurt.

Another GPS map track log showing our route around Frankfurt.
Our second day of wandering around Frankfurt’s Altstadt.

Day 8 (part 1): Frankfurt to…?

It’s a travel day!

Slept as late and as well as we could (still not adjusted, but getting there), packed ourselves up and out, and walked down to the Frankfurt train station (Hauptbahnhof). Since we’d scouted that out yesterday, we were able to get some food and go directly to our platform. A while later, our train showed up, and we found our seats. We’d reserved first class seats, and it seems we got lucky, as the other four seats in this cabin are unoccupied, so we have a cabin to ourselves for this part of the trip.

My wife and I sitting on either side of a narrow table in a train cabin, with a train platform visible through the window behind us.
About to leave Frankfurt.

And with that, we say goodbye to Frankfurt and hello to…?

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

by

Book 37 of 2026: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

⭐️: Actively disliked this one; a rare instance where I came very close to bailing out and DNF’ing, and only stuck it out because it’s part of my Hugo Best Novel reading project.

A dystopic future where fossil fuels have run out (and, apparently, renewable options like wind (except for sailing ships), solar, hydro, etc. just…aren’t a thing? anywhere? for no discernible reason?) and power comes through kinetic energy stored in ‘kink springs’, and the resulting societal collapse combined with ecological change has devastated food supplies worldwide. The overall background is basically colonialism; substitute genetic engineering agriculture companies for the East India Tea Company and Thailand for India, and you’ve got the gist. Genetic engineering has progressed enough that there are now “New People”; genetically created intelligent artificial life that is genetically encoded to be servile.

One of these New People is the titular “windup girl” (who isn’t actually windup, but New People are intentionally given a way of moving that mimics stop motion/clockwork creations), a sex slave who is repeatedly abused over the course of the story, with some of these instances being explicitly detailed across multiple pages of the story. The first instance within the first few chapters was more than enough for me, having it happen again and in greater detail and length later on was when I almost bailed out of the book entirely. Instead, I just skimmed past and kept skimming through the rest of the book just to get it done with.

Obviously enough people liked it and found it worthwhile for it to win a Best Novel Hugo award, but I can’t recommend it.

Me holding The Windup Girl.

Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

by

Book 36 of 2026: Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall.

⭐️⭐️⭐️: An entertaining adventure as a Star Trek convention becomes ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. A few things here and there that bothered me a bit, but mostly nothing really major. The biggest thing for me was that the authors couldn’t resist giving nearly every person and place very obvious Trek nods for names (the hero is Jim Pike, the hotel is the Botany Bay, and many, many others), and yet, somehow, it seems that none of the die-hard Trek fans at the convention ever notice this or think it’s at all noteworthy. While identifying the names was a fun mini-game as I read, within the context of the story, it broke my suspension of disbelief (apparently, zombies are fine, but insufficiently observant and pedantic Trekkies is over the line).

Me holding Night of the Living Trekkies.

Eric by Terry Pratchett

by

Book 33 of 2026: Eric by Terry Pratchett

⭐️⭐️⭐️: A shorter book, this is a relatively quick romp through a mashup of three wishes, Discworld’s version of The Odyssey (rather amusing, as I read this just as Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey film was in the theaters), and the joys of mid-level bureaucracy. Not bad, but not a standout.

Me holding Eric