I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Browsing Tag
A Wee Walking Update: 2022 has already been an amazing year of walking! In addition to the gorgeous walks we do around here on the weekends, I have walked The Cotswold Way in England and The Portuguese Camino in Portugal and Spain! And the year of walking is not over yet. Next week we are …
Walking the Jurassic Coast from Lyme Regis to Exmouth on the South West Coastal Path in England Recently we had the happy occurrence of my brother and nephew coming to visit while Taido and Simon were off for Easter Holidays. Visitors don’t always coincide with time off from school for the rest of us, so …
Snapshots of Rainy Siena, Italy: A Few Days in the Heart of Tuscany It’s been three years since I wandered a hilltown in Italy by myself. My trip to Orvieto and Assisi was well before I watched with the rest of the world as Italy was ravaged by a pandemic, a memory that is clearly …
One Month in Bristol, England We moved to Bristol on December 31st, our 27th wedding anniversary. So we have been here for about a month now, which is not really that long, but we have unpacked our stuff and we’ve purchased some second hand furniture. Our house feels less like a sparsely furnished airbnb and …
Camping Trip to Porcupine Mountain State Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula So for our family vacation this summer, in addition to spending some time in the Shenandoah, we went camping for a long weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Porcupine Mountain State Park. Our connection to Porcupine Mountain began the summer Simon was …
Snapshots of Burgos, Spain. or The End of the Journey. This post is from the end of our walk from Logrono to Burgos, Spain. You can read more posts from this walk, or from other Camino trips. In my longtime obsession with the Camino, I have read quite a bit about the different cities that you …
Camping at Starved Rock State Park We went camping at Starved Rock State Park a couple weeks ago for Simon’s fall break and I remembered that one of my favorite rooms with a view is this tent. It’s true. Seeing the trees RIGHT THERE when my eyes open is one of the surest ways I …
A Visit to The Home of The Beloved Saint Francis of Assisi What can I say about Assisi? I hardly know where to begin. Maybe it’s best to start with the ending. As I left the convent in Assisi, the same nun who welcomed me in, took hold of my face and kissed me twice, …
Snapshots of Orvieto, Italy I WISH you could have heard me in the car when I got my first glimpses of Orvieto coming into view! “OH MY LORD, you have got to be kidding me!” I actually pulled the car over. (Because it’s just me and I can do that if I want.) The whole …
Snapshots of a A Walk to Civita di Bagnoregio, an ancient hilltown in Italy reachable only by a pedestrian bridge. So 2500 years ago, some very ingenious folks (Etruscans) built this city on top of a hill. Hill towns are a common theme in my travels around Italy, but Civita is special because you can …
Lake Bolsena: Driving tour around the lake from Montefiascone After enjoying the view of Lago di Bolsena (Lake Bolsena) from our hilltop town of Montefiascone, we decided to take a day to get closer to the water. We could not have had a more gorgeous day, so we took our time driving all the way …
Snapshots of Montefiascone a hilltop town in Italy overlooking Lago de Bolsena (Lake Bolsena). Here are a few highlights from my first days in Italy: Squeals of delight upon seeing dear friends. A room in a hilltop monastery with a view of the valley below. Wisteria-lined roads. The ancient town fortress of Montefiascone. Following cobblestone …
Hiking in Switzerland: Before we moved back to the US, we spent two weeks hiking in Switzerland together as a way to wrap up our four years in Europe.
The overnight bus left Berlin at around 9pm and arrived in Gdańsk, Poland at 4:45am. It was one of those nights you think will never end. Ben and I pushed against one another on the sticky hot bus, trying to get some sleep. I spent way too much time lamenting my unwillingness to pay for …
Potsdam, Germany is a fun and easy day trip from Berlin. Potsdam is a thirty minute drive from where we were staying in Berlin and boasts a garden that seems like a smaller and much less crowded version of Versailles. (Also it is free to visit!) So we decided to spend a day there. We …
Last spring we went camping for a weekend in Bavaria, Germany. From the moment we told folks we were moving to Germany, people told us we had to go and visit Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein). It was raining when we stopped there on our way to our camping spot, but that was ok, because …
Walking through Autumn in Southern Germany (Baden-Württemberg) Y’all, the autumn was so beautiful in the little town we lived in last year. In the morning, you would walk to town and the hills would have a Scotland-like mist over them, but the afternoons were usually gorgeous blue skies and incredible color. I walked in the …
ROME ITALY The face I’m making in this picture could be summed up like this: OH MY GOSH I’M IN ROME AND THERE ARE A MILLION PEOPLE EVERYWHERE AND I WANT TO GO BACK TO TUSCANY BUT ACTUALLY IT’S REALLY BEAUTIFUL HERE BUT I’M EXPERIENCING SENSORY OVERLOAD SO…GELATO IS THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING! I am …
On our first day in Tuscany, my sister drove and I navigated. Between giving her the next directions (3 more kilometers on this road and then turn left) and catching up on stories about our kids, we were gasping at the scenery. Anna, look! Vineyards and towers on hills and cypress trees and red poppies …
The scent of ylang ylang filled the air, knocking me over with its sweetness. I looked up from the map I was following to stop and smell the flowers, then to see the columns, and to smile at the bright blue sky. A few blocks later, I found my hotel, dropped my backpack and crossed …