Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound were the highlight sight of my two weeks in New Zealand. There is only one road to Milford Sound and it goes through the Fiordland National Park. The drive through the three valleys and all the stops we did was my favorite part of the trip. Come take a look at this drive.
As I mentioned in the post about some of the oddities of Seattle, Ali and I stopped in to the city on the way to TBEX. One of my must-see’s in Seattle was Pike’s Market. I didn’t know much about it, but I wanted to see it. I had first seen it on the intro to a Real World season on MTV years ago. Yes, folks this is often how I pick what I want to see, a random snippet of TV.
I am not sure if this is a coined phrase yet or not, if not then I claim it. “The best gifts are memories.” This is true of the physical stuff as well as the experiential stuff. A cold gift has no memories attached. A meaningful gift is one where someone knows you well enough to give something that taps into your happy memories, often together. Travel is often about shared memories and any trinkets I bring home remind me of that trip and the cool things I did and saw. Even a physical gift when endowed with memories is a great gift.
When Ali started planning the group trip to Tomatina near Valencia she booked an apartment. With four of us there, a full apartment was far cheaper than a hotel and nicer than hostel rooms. The apartment was in a great residential area and the block seemed to be named for Honduras. Not the country (we asked), but a cross street. Living in residential areas is fast becoming my preference when traveling.
The weekend after Ali and I got married, we went to Seattle. We were headed to TBEX, but spent a few days in Seattle before and after the conference. Ali has a friend that lives there and it was tons cheaper than flying direct to Vancouver. I really liked Seattle. I think if we ever headed back to the US, we would look there first. I love finding little odd things in cities while I travel. This city definitely didn’t let me down. Here is a selection.
Feldkirch is at the very western tip of Austria. It is a small town around the corner from Liechtenstein and our initial destination when going to visit the small mountain principality. It has a castle on the hill and a fast running mountain river. The medieval feel is still there in places as well. The town is really worth visiting especially if you are in the area for Liechtenstein.
A few weeks ago Ali and I went to Paris for the weekend. It was the last weekend before she went on her round-the-world trip and we wanted to enjoy some time together not dealing with apartment renovations. We had both been to Paris before so there was not so much pressure to see everything. We of course did the big sites. I had not been to Montmarte, so this was the one thing on my list to see. Here is a bit of the ups and downs in Montmarte.
One of the most popular series on this blog has been my “near but not in Cinque Terre” series. I highlighted several towns and areas around the most famous Cinque Terre. Although I like the 5 towns, there are a lot of great places nearby that get overlooked. So here are 5 places nearby that are near Cinque Terre but not a part of the famous 5. Each post has far more detail, but this will serve to link them together.