This post is part of a series called Portugal 2015 Pork pork, pork pork pork. Pork. Oh right. Well, we’ll get there. This morning, we caught an Uber out to the airport to pick up our rental car. As an aside, how cool is the future? You tap a button on an iPhone app and…
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This post is part of a series called Portugal 2015 Today dawned with a simple mission in mind: pastries. Err, pastries and history. I mean, mostly history. Barely any pastries at all. We caught the tram to Belem, a historic suburb of Lisbon that wasn’t destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. Belem is home to the…
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This post is part of a series called Portugal 2015 Yeah, that’s right, I put Roger Moore below Connery and Craig. But we’ll get there. First, travel! This is a two-for-one post, because yesterday we were too sleepy for blogging. We had an easy travel day, leaving Minneapolis in the evening and arriving in Amsterdam…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Portugal 2015 We’d like to get off. After a genuinely bad run of weeks, we’ve made it to March 7th and our long awaited trip to Portugal. In fact, I write this while flying somewhere over the Atlantic, on a plane equipped with heretofore unheard of international…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 Saturday morning, we woke up to the possibility of birding, but the wind was very strong. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Casa Batsu and laid in the hammocks for a few hours. Eventually it was time to check out. Janelle and Natalia…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We got up extra early this morning to enjoy the blue sky (and wind) for a bit. Carlos came through with another amazing breakfast. After our delicious omelettes, we thought we were done, so we got up to go swing in the hammocks. Carlos…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 Today, we awoke well rested, and had a lazy morning. We had another delicious breakfast – fruit with a breakfast burrito. Today was gloriously sunny, with an amazing sky. We lingered on the patio and did some work, before heading out for a hike….
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We awoke in San Gerardo to a beautiful sky, with the volcano lit up in gorgeous colors. Our guide was already birding around the lodge. We met up with him for a short bird walk down towards the stream crossing. On our walk, we saw…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We awoke to a delightful morning and sat on the deck, drinking coffee and watching cows. Our breakfast was amazing – a giant fruit plate, blackberry watermelon juice, strawberry yogurt drink, huevos rancheros, and an amazing pineapple coconut pancake drizzled in passion fruit sauce….
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We woke up this morning fully intending to go birding bright and early.. Torrential downpours meant we instead slept. We got up, had breakfast and said goodbye to Dev and Harriet. After checking out, we took the car to Rio Celeste. Rio Celeste is…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We woke up at 5:30am for our day of birding, as apparently one does. We had a quick cup of coffee and met up with Jorge, our guide for the day. The first outing today was on the same hanging bridge trail we took…
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This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 Kat and I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica. Due to limited bandwidth and an overabundance of hammocks, we didn’t blog while we were there, but we did keep track of what we were doing. Because of its dramatic historical importance, I’m…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Sunday – our last full day in Italy. We got up early and (after a couple espressos and a pastry of course) caught the bus up to Settignano. Well, that’s what we intended at least. Turns out the number 10 bus to Settignano doesn’t run…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 After the Fiat 500 tour, we hopped a train to Lucca for a quick overnight. We stayed at Guest Apartment Margherita and can’t say enough things about how wonderful our hosts were. Because it’d been raining, Roberto met us at the train to drive us…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Friday was Fiat 500 day. After a quick run to Sant’Ambrogio market, we caught a taxi to Galluzzo for our Fiat 500 Tour. After a quick lesson in double clutching (no syncros – like my Alfa, except my Alfa had them originally and they’d just…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 First thing Thursday, we met up with friends at the Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato. Think massive art fair – 10 buildings, hundreds of vendors. Everything from flower pots made out of recycled soda bottles to fine jewelry and clothing. Plus food! And dogs! We were on…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 You know, the Renaissance. Wednesday night was White Night (Notte Bianca), a city-wide, all night party (conveniently taking place the night before Labor Day, so there’s no need to worry about getting up the next morning). White night ostensibly gets started around 7:30, but aside…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 The European Union has, at least from the perspective of this American tourist, been a rather beneficial development. When you ask an Italian craftsman though, you get a very different perspective. Wednesday was our jewelry tour. This was my birthday present to Kat, and I…
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