I am about five weeks behind on blogging, but I’m choosing to view this as a good thing. It means I’ve been really, really busy with both work and travel. Travel is the goal and work makes it possible, so those are the best priorities. Still, our two nights in Nagano feel like a very…
Tokyo Twice
We were more than halfway through an immensely hard 2024 before we even started planning this leg of our travels. In light of how challenging the year was, we decided a more dramatic trip was in order and so we decided to return to Asia for the first time since 2019. Our one and only…
FAQ – What Did We Learn on Leg 15?
Leg 15 was another short one (similar to Leg 13 in 2023), but we still managed to learn a few things during our eight weeks in Europe. Here are my top three lessons to share: It can pay off to fight the power The EU has relatively strict airline rules for delayed and cancelled flights…
FAQ – How Did Our Abbreviated Leg 15 Add Up?
Like Leg 13, we ended up having to adjust this leg to accommodate family health issues. With the added time in America (where we have free accommodation in a family home), I was able to give us a very generous budget for our eight weeks on the road for Leg 15. Here’s how the numbers…
Oui, Paris!
Chad and I ended Leg 15 with four nights in Paris, which were really a perfect cap to the trip. We fell in love with Paris all over again. Our prior Paris trips have all occurred in August when it is very hot but also quite magical. In mid-November, Paris was cold and rainy, but…
Marvelous Marseille
We’ve been home about six weeks now and I keep telling people that Marseille is a completely underrated city. The city is full of beauty, from its architecture to its charming street to its sweet parks (which it could use a few more of) to its many views of the Mediterranean Sea. We truly enjoyed…
Day Trip to Avignon
Our day trip to Avignon was even better than our trip to Aix and we really fell a little bit in love with Avignon. In fact, we plan to go back for an overnight or few day stay sometime in the future. The train ride to Avignon is about twice as long as Aix at…
Day Trip to Aix-en-Provence
A third of the way through our month in Marseille, we took our first day trip. We chose Aix-en-Provence because it shows up on most south-of-France day trip lists and because we had chosen a Thursday, which coincided with one of their market days (which are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday according to what I read). …
Life in Lyon
We started our abbreviated Leg 15 with six nights in Lyon. Our flights went according to schedule and after a layover in Frankfurt, we arrived in Lyon mid-afternoon. We took the Rhonexpress train from the airport to the train station and then an Uber to our Airbnb because it was raining and we didn’t want…
FAQ – What Did We Learn on Leg 14?
Our first big lesson from Leg 14 is to write down a few lessons as soon as we get home from each leg in case months pass before I make this post! But after brainstorming and reminiscing with Chad, we managed to come up with a few relevant lessons specific to Leg 14. Weather Really…