You should visit Rwanda because it’ll totally scramble your biases about East Africa. It’s gorgeous, friendly, and easy to navigate. It’s small enough to wrap your head around, but diverse enough to keep you busy. It’s got a tragic, complicated history which echoes throughout the region today. Oh, and it’s got gorillas, if that’s your…
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This post is part of a series called Italy 2025 Catching up on a few days in Italy – Wednesday was mostly wedding stuff, and yesterday evening I got stuck dealing with a work issue and didn’t have a chance to blog. Wednesday was mostly wedding stuff, but we got a had a few hours…
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This post is part of a series called Italy 2025 In the past few days I’ve had a lot of biking experiences – mountain biking in Rwanda, e-biking in Kigali, gravel riding in Kenya, and today, e-mountain-biking in Tuscany. We had an absolutely lovely day out. We rented bikes from Noleggio Chianti 500, a shop…
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This post is part of a series called Italy 2025 Our day go off to a rough start – I woke up feeling like trash, with headache, nausea, the works. I’m not sure if it was dehydration from our long travel day, or my body reacting to an overload of carbs or what. I tried…
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This post is part of a series called Italy 2025 What a travel day! After a lovely final day in Nairobi, puttering around museums and cafes, we boarded our flight to Paris. We landed just a little late, around 6:30am. Our departing flight for Florence was set to take off at 7:15am. Anyone who knows…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 Everything went smooth with my return from Rwanda to Nairobi yesterday, and that meant Kat and I could have our adventure day today. We booked a trip to Hell’s Gate National Park – I wanted to find somewhere that let us see the rift valley…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 (thanks Jim) Last real day in Rwanda – I’m going to bed sad to be leaving, but happy to be reuniting with Kat. It’s an amazing country and one I’d like to come back to. I was up early to join the Belgians for breakfast,…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 After yesterday’s ordeal on the roads getting to the lodge, I was feeling a little nervous about getting on a bike. I’m not a mountain biker – I ride a used Schwinn around very flat Minnesota. And I’m not an adrenaline junky. And I have…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 Today was just a travel day, from Kigali to Lake Kivu. I’m now settled into the amazing Umutuzo Lodge, and I’m looking forward to a couple days of exploring. This morning, I decided to try Move, which is a ride hailing service by Volkswagen which…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 Today was my last day in Kigali – tomorrow I’ll head out west. I started the day with a tour hosted by the Nyamirambo Women’s Center. The NMC is just over 15 years old, and was created to provide women in the Nyamirambo neighborhood with…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 Today was a fantastic day, though it did involve a fair amount of genocide. After grabbing a coffee at my hotel, I walked about an hour to meet up with my bike tour, hosted by Nuttin Todo. I met up with the guide, John and…
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This post is part of a series called Rwanda 2025 Every trip report starts with a chaotically jet lagged post, as I do my best to collect some thoughts before passing out. So, enjoy as this post continues that tradition. I’m currently in Kigali, at a lovely hilltop hotel called 5 Swiss. I got here…
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This post is part of a series called UK 2025 Warning: F1 pedantry ahead! Catching up on the last few days of Formula 1 as I make my way back to Minnesota. It was an absolutely lovely weekend attending the race at Silverstone. Saturday morning, we got up and found some delicious baked goods near…
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This post is part of a series called UK 2025 This morning, I was up early and took the tube out to pick up my rental car. This was my first time renting through Turo (“Airbnb for cars”) because I thought it’d be fun to have something a little unique to attend the F1 race….
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This post is part of a series called UK 2025 I’ve had a lovely couple days in London – turns out, this city has a lot to offer. Who knew? Yesterday’s big activity was a food tour of African and Caribbean food in Brixton with Obi. I found him through Airbnb Experiences, but his website…
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This post is part of a series called UK 2025 ‘Ello ‘ello, how we doing mate? I’m on a quick trip to the UK, crashing Kat’s “gardening ladies” tour of fancy flower shows and fancy yarn stores. The main motivation for my trip is to attend the Silverstone F1 race this coming weekend, but I’m…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2025 Well, it had to end eventually. I’m currently sitting in the Seoul airport, making my way back to Minnesota. The last week has been more of the same, by design. After our Laos side trip, I wanted a few more days of my Hanoi routine…
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