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After four glorious, restful, magical, quiet weeks in rural France, how on earth could we go back to our busy, crowded, city life?  We tried to plan our last days in France so that our departure was smooth and relaxed and in line with the rest of our vacation. First, we did NOT have a… Continue reading Our European Adventure: Summer 2016 Edition! Part 5: The Return

We’re now back from France.  Chris has been doing a great job of keeping notes and blogging about our daily adventures there.  This post is more about the day-to-day life there… First, it must be noted that we were very fortunate with the timing of this trip with respect to our careers.  Neither of us had to… Continue reading Our European Adventure: Summer 2016 Edition! Part 4: Figuring Out Day-to-Day Life

Chris is giving a lovely day-by-day account of this vacation, so I think I’m going to focus on the nuts-and-bolts of how we’ve pulled together this trip. Saturday, July 2nd We landed in Paris on July 2nd around 8am.  In France, I booked a 4-week stay in an honest-to-goodness chateau in Chris’ favorite wine village, Puligny-Montrachet.… Continue reading Our European Adventure: Summer 2016 Edition! Part 3: France, finally

Berlin is a great European capital I had never visited.  We have friends in Berlin, so in thinking about how to get to Europe this summer, Chris expressed a desire to stopover in Berlin.  Fortunately, the one airline that flies directly between Chicago and Berlin is a OneWorld alliance member (Air Berlin) and economy award… Continue reading Our European Adventure: Summer 2016 Edition! Part 2: Berlin

[Note: I was going to title this “Our European Adventure: 2016 Edition,” but I realized that we were in Europe earlier this year…] After months — nay, YEARS — of planning, we left Chicago on June 30, 2016.  We were laden down with the following: 1 Wine Check, packed with another Wine Check and a litter… Continue reading Our European Adventure: Summer 2016 Edition! Part 1: Getting to Europe

I’m the first to admit, we travel quite a bit.  So we’re practiced at preparing for trips: we can usually pack efficiently the night before departure.  We’re very good at packing light enough to just use carry-on luggage, so we waltz through security and customs at airports.  “Baggage claim” are bad words in my world!… Continue reading Packing “light”

I’ve been helping friends plan their honeymoon and it’s been interesting to get their different perspectives on travel.  One of these friend’s perspective aligns nicely with mine: comfortable, but with room for experimentation, the unexpected, adventure.  The other friend leans more heavily towards the experience, with less concern about comfort. That’s not to say that… Continue reading Travel: the ideal comfort/experience ratio