Travel Galleries

Hintermoos, Austria Ski Trip Feb 2009 : Hintermoos is a ski resort in the middle of the Austrian alps, somewhere between Salzburg and Innsbruck. We were part of a group of ten that shared at duplex right on the mountain. We combined the ski trip with a short visit to Innsbruck to watch our Austrian friend, Astrid, get her doctorate in psychology. I was looking forward to the graduation ceremony, not only in support of our friend, but naturally as a cultural experience. To be sure we got to the 11am ceremony, we hit the road at 5am. Snow was expected, and this plan allowed for 90 minutes of delays. Ninety minutes of cushion wasn’t enough. Just outside of Vienna, as we got on the Autobahn, we found the roads were covered with three inches of snow. Turns out the Autobahn is not plowed during the night. I don’t think you heard me. THE AUSTRIAN AUTOBAHN IS NOT PLOWED AT NIGHT! WTF is that all about? Three inches of snow on the primary east/west highway in Austria! I’d expect such a thing in France, because it makes no sense and the French make no sense to me, but Austria is a country of meticulous road care and order. To make matters worse, there are no streetlights on the Autobahn and it was still dark. Big, pancake-sized snow flakes were actually jarring the windshield on contact. The driving was stressful. After thirty minutes with my hands gripping the wheel until my fingers turned purple, I turned to the Attaché to tell her I couldn’t go for five hours like this. She slept peacefully in her seat. I looked back at the road as I fishtailed across three lanes. I was about to pull off the road and give up until the sun came up, when I spotted the first snow plow. I looked at the clock: 6am. The plows start at 6. Good to know. But by 6:30 they were gone again, presumably their first coffee break. Our 4.5 hour drive took more than 7 hours and we never saw the graduation. We did go to the the post-graduation lunch. We begged for forgiveness from our friends, then ate a wonderful meal on their dime with minimal guilt. Then, it was off to Hintermoos…

Hintermoos, Austria Ski Trip Feb 2009

Hintermoos is a ski resort in the middle of the Austrian alps, somewhe ...

Updated: Jul 23, 2009 4:34am PST

Prague Half-Marathon Mar 2009 : Here are pictures from the Prague Half-Marathon in April 2009. I was injured and served as the Attaché’s number one fan. She proved she doesn’t run because of me. With me hurt she had an easy out this trip yet insisted that we go anyway. I was impressed. I think I know her true motive. She has spent each day of the four day trip bragging how she’s done half-marathons in six different countries now. She always follows her rant with, “How many countries has hotshot MHF run half marathons in?” About the moment I’m going to tell her she shouldn’t end a sentence in a preposition, she answers for me. “Just four!” she shouts. “You suck, I rule,” she adds. I’m used to it now.

Prague Half-Marathon Mar 2009

Here are pictures from the Prague Half-Marathon in April 2009. I was i ...

Updated: Jul 23, 2009 1:42am PST

Seoul, Korea Apr 2009 : What’s been going on lately? Spring has arrived in Vienna. I’ve recovered from a broken ankle. And a previously unrealized perk of being a stay-at-home loser was just discovered. That is, I was able to tag along with the Attaché on a work-trip. The Attaché was a late fill-in for a one day meeting in Seoul, some brainy nuclear thing going on, and I followed. I’ve never got to tag along on a work trip, unless you count the trip here to Austria, of course. That would have been pretty bad if I didn’t come with her to Austria. But truthfully, the Attaché just doesn’t get work-related travel, so I never get the opportunity to go. You might think it sounds like a drag, flying 12 hours for three days in Seoul, but I’ve never been to Korea, and that’s motivation enough. Remember, my measure of success in life is how many countries you can brag about visiting. After checking my to-do list and seeing blank pages until the end of May, I thought I could manage the time off from the house work. Spring cleaning can wait until summer, I say! My impression of Seoul: A very good Asian experience. Like Tokyo (which I saw during my Navy diving days), Seoul makes you think you’re in some exotic land, but it’s about as western friendly as a place can get. Food is safe. Streets are clean. There is no visible poverty. Transportation services are on time. They don’t have street peddling or that crazy price bartering thing that so many countries have. The only hardship in Seoul is that the signs are hard to read and they often serve smelly fish as a side dish. But that’s magic of the quasi-exotic destination, it looks just different enough to make you think you’re a daring traveler, but it’s not daring at all. Throw in a few palaces with some funny roofs and put Jackie Chan on every street corner, and you’ve done it, you’ve fooled yourself into thinking you’re in another world. I really like Seoul for this exact reason. I don’t like traveling to places where poverty is everywhere. I don’t like to spend half my vacation sitting on the toilet. But I do like to see different things. I like to try foods that are different, but not so different that I don’t immediately recognize it as food. Koreans eat rice that looks like rice, meat that looks like meat. They eat vegetables also. Steamed veggies. Sautéed veggies. Excluding that stinky fish stuff they put to the side (anchovies maybe), the most exotic thing we found was kimchi, a dish that might not suit every westerner. It’s pickled vegetables (usually cabbage) with spices, served cold. Doesn’t sound delightful, but at least it’s stuff I’ve heard of. It’s not bat testicles or worm dung like they eat in some countries. In additional to seeing Seoul, we took a tour of the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, the border between North and South Korea.

Seoul, Korea Apr 2009

What’s been going on lately? Spring has arrived in Vienna. I’ve re ...

Updated: Jul 23, 2009 12:50am PST

Paris May 2009 : (I recommend reading this entry in a French accent, except in cases where there are genuine French words, then read those in your best American accent. You’ll find it’s a lot of fun.) Paris! Yes, after more than forty countries, and six continents, we finally went to Paris in May 2009. My expectations were quite low since I know there are a lot of French people there, but it turns out Paris is a nice place. We saw just about all the important sites, missing only Versailles because we chose instead to drive 4 hours to Luxembourg in order to cross another country off the list. (In case you’ve forgotten, my measure of success in life is the number of countries you visit.) Highlights of the trip were Parisian classics: climbing the Eiffel Tower, eating cheese, watching a poodle crap on the sidewalk. I hope you enjoy the photo summary of our trip.

Paris May 2009

(I recommend reading this entry in a French accent, except in cases wh ...

Updated: Jul 22, 2009 11:31pm PST

Apeldoorn, Holland Half-Marathon Jan 2009 : If you don’t live in box, or in a closet, or in a box that’s in a closet, then you know that round trip airfares generally cost the same as one-way. If anyone knows why this so, tell me. I don’t even have a smart-ass theory about it. My story goes like this: last summer, we only needed a one-way ticket to Amsterdam. I won’t tell you why we needed one-way, it will bore you to death. Just accept that we needed one-way, but I bought a round-trip, because that’s just what you do. I was tempted to actually buy the one-way just to see if the airline would call me and say, “What, are you stupid? The return costs nothing. It’s like a free ticket.” I couldn’t bring myself to do it, no matter how off-the-chart daring it would have been. Instead, like the million travelers before me, I bought the round-trip. And like those millions, it bothered me to no-end that I was buying a return ticket that I would not use. Why do airlines torture us with a free ticket that we don’t want? It’s like selling a Braille book to the blind, and throwing in the print-copy for nothing. Actually, it’s not even that good, because one can at least sell the print-copy, I can’t do anything with the return ticket. Well, I couldn’t let a free ticket pass me by, so I came up with an elaborate scheme to use my free return. The answer: Take a $500 train ride to Holland, then fly back for free. Genius, huh? It wasn’t hard to convince the Attaché to spend this exorbitant amount of money to use our “free” airline tickets–she finds money spent on travel as necessary as buying food, paying bills, purchasing antique parrot brooches on ebay or replacing brand new ipod headphones when she’s merely misplaced them. So the real challenge for me was not convincing her to spend the cash, she would readily to it, but to convince her to go on the trip for the reason I wanted to go. (Easy, I’m not talking about Amsterdam brothels or pot here.) You see, her travel goals revolve around punching a new hole on the countries-I’ve-been-to list or sleeping in Bavarian castles. We’ve been to Holland already and Bavaria is not in Holland. But I got to thinking…. We go to Apeldoorn, I told her. It’s east of Amsterdam. Supposed to be a gorgeous little town. Yes, I know we’ve been to Holland, but you’ve never been to Apeldoorn. She looked suspicious. She knew there was moreI had to spill the beans. Half-marathon, I admitted. But it’ll be flat, I explained. It’s got to be flat. Holland is flat like that shirt I just ironed for you. “Or flat like the growth rate on that mutual fund you just bought,” she replied. I didn’t tell her I wished the growth rate was flat on that mutual fund. So Apeldoorn, Holland it was. Our first European train adventure. A half-marathon in a new city. It was to be a flat run in land of wooden shoes. In the middle of winter. Oh, I left that part out….

Apeldoorn, Holland Half-Marathon Jan 2009

If you don’t live in box, or in a closet, or in a box that’s in a ...

Updated: Aug 03, 2009 1:33am PST

Munich, Germany Aug 2008 : We went to Munich in August 2008 with two friends, Pete and Astrid.

Munich, Germany Aug 2008

We went to Munich in August 2008 with two friends, Pete and Astrid.

Updated: Jul 30, 2009 2:06am PST

North Sea Cruise Aug 2008 : This photo series is a combination of my original 7-post blog story on our North Sea Cruise. Why seven parts? you ask. One for each member of our party? No, there were only five of us, unless you counted me three times, but that doesn’t make sense at all. You might think seven posts, one for each of the seven seas. I say no way, Bubba. We only visited the North Sea. So now you’re thinking seven posts for the seven wonders of the world then. Wrong again, you. I just said we went to the North Sea, and there ain’t none of the seven wonders up there. I’ll tell you why there were seven posts. Seven posts for seven ports: Amsterdam, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Alesund, Flam, and Bergen. What an itinerary! We encircled the island of Great Britain on our way through the harrowed waters of the North Sea. Twenty foots swells, horizontal rain, limitless booze. Text book cruising. Along the way we kissed the Blarney Stone, sampled international wines, explored the Norwegian Fjords and realized that if rains a lot in this part of the world. I also learned my novel, The Legend of Vinny Whiskers was getting published.

North Sea Cruise Aug 2008

This photo series is a combination of my original 7-post blog story on ...

Updated: Jul 30, 2009 8:04am PST

Croatia and Montenegro Oct 2008 (aka Montenegro Don't Go) : The time has come for details of the worst trip of our lives: our October trip to Montenegro. As always, MHF is mindful that most readers here went to a US public school, so we start off with a geography lesson. Picture in your mind, a line drawn from Estonia to Chad. Montenegro is half-way between. Put another way, if you’re in Varna eating tarator soup and a someone asks which way to Montenegro, just point away from the Black Sea. It’s hard to believe that I’m saying our trip to Montenegro was the worst trip of our lives, because we did see Dubrovnik, Croatia on the way, the best city in all of Europe. So what went wrong? How can we discover our favorite European city during the worst trip of our lives? You’ll have to hold on because I’m starting this trip report off like the trip started out - as if it would be the best trip of our lives. So, Dubrovnik…it’s a coastal town on the Adriatic Sea about 11 hours drive due south of Vienna. Yes, I drove it. The Attaché flew, but I drove: Austria–Slovenia–Croatia–Bosnia–Croatia. You can’t get there without going through Bosnia, so I did it in style, windows rolled down screaming, “Milosevic was a wanker!” the full ten kilometers through Bosnia. Croatia is a fun driving experience. You drive on empty Autobahn for 80 percent of the way, then you switch to winding coastal roads, both offer something fun in my little 118d. I picked up the Attache at the airport in Dubrovnik and we spent 2 great days in Dubrovnik. I think the pics speak for themselves. Then we loaded the car and began the short 10 mile drive to the Croatia/Montengro border. Our plan was to mix a few days of camping in Montenegro with some hotel time. The weather was clear as we crossed border, and the temperature just right, hovering around 70. In Europe, there are basically three tiers of infrastructure standards: top tier countries are such places as Germany, France and Austria - just like the US. Second tier countries are places like Poland, Hungary and Croatia - good primary roads but questionable secondary roads, safe drinking water. Third tier countries are places like Romania, Bosnia and Montenegro. In these countries you might find horse carts on the road. Tap water is risky. There is unreliable power. Generally, we stay away from third tier countries. Sure, there is adventure in this lot of countries but nothing ruins a vacation like liquid bowel movements. As a practice, we don’t take chances in these places - we only eat cooked food and drink bottled water. In Montenegro, no matter how safe you try to be, you are still doomed. I’ll get to that in a minute. Okay, quick history of Montenegro, MHF style: part of Yugoslavia from 1918 until 1991, part of war-torn Yugoslavia from 1991 until 2003, then in 2003 part of “Serbia and Montenegro” and then in 2006 an independent country. Whew. Because Montenegro is so young, there are no English language tourist guides. That wasn’t going to stop us. I printed up every page from Montenegro’s official national website, amounting to about 20 pages of maps and info, and off we headed. We drove through a few nice coastal towns before turning inland to a National Park called Lovcen which promised to have good camping. We spent the day winding our way from the coast to higher elevations with expansive views of rugged mountain acres intermixed with roadside garbage and trash burning. Hey, I actually enjoyed the contrast. All the stink and smoke from the trash burning gave a real sense that this country had not fully escaped that “conflict in the Balkans” from the 90s. We stopped at a rather ritzy hotel for a meal - I had a pasta dish, the Attaché had scampi. I clearly made the right decision. Again, I’ll get to that more. Camping, we learned, is not an organized affair at the National Park Lovcen. Camping was “on your own where you want to” with no facilities whatsoever. Fortunately, we had all the essential gear for this type of camping. We did not, however, have any luxury gear. Temperatures dropped crazy-fast that night. The wind blew hard. We put on every bit of clothes we had, buried ourselves beneath a few thick blankets, and froze our asses off all night. Actually, ass-freezing is not really correct. Had our asses really froze, it would have been much nicer but since they did not, the Attaché spent the night running to and from the tent with a wicked bout of Milosevic’s revenge. Really, can you imagine anything worse that such an illness, while camping in freezing temperatures? Although Lovcen was scenic, the Attaché’s digestive issues sent our opinion of Montenegro spiraling downward. The Attaché was seriously out of commission after that night of camping so we rushed out of the National Park Lovcen early the next morning, and spent the better part of three days at deserted hotel. The holiday season had ended, and we found hotels on the beach for next to nothing. The upside was the price and the stunning Med view. The downside was unreliable power, questionable plumbing, and the fact we were terrified to eat anything and there were no grocery stores where we could buy canned food. Really, we never saw a grocery store in Montenegro, only road-side markets with at best, dusty jars of olives. I survived on wine and olives, the Attaché, well, she hardly survived.

Croatia and Montenegro Oct 2008 (aka Montenegro Don't Go)

The time has come for details of the worst trip of our lives: our Octo ...

Updated: Jul 30, 2009 1:31pm PST

Switzerland and Lichtenstein July 2008 : At the end of July we made our first trip to Switzerland. I made the 8 hour drive with Noodle, and the Attaché met us at the Zurich airport. Switzerland, famous for banks, mountains, cheese, chocolate, and watches, is also known to have strict rules, high taxes, one of the best armed militaries in all of Europe (there are firearms in the household of every able-bodied male.) Switzerland is a culture of assimilation. I’ve heard that everyone must have a Swiss flag in their home, it is mandatory that everyone wash their houses once per year–the outside–and your trash gets inspected periodically to ensure you are recycling properly. Fines are stiff for bad trash sorting, and even if you sort it right you pay by the pound to get rid of your trash. It took only 30 minutes for me to get a sense of the rigid culture. To drive on the highways, one must have a toll permit, available at most gas stations. Most countries offer 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 year toll permits. Switzerland does not. Whether you drive one minute, or the entire year, the permit costs about $50. That’s not a bad deal if you’re Swiss and drive the roads all year long, but for a foreigner on a 3 day vacation, $50 is a steep toll. I chose to respect the laws of the land and buy the permit (it’s a sort of honor system). For my good Swiss behavior, I was quickly rewarded by a visit from the police. I didn’t get stopped on the highway mind you, but upon arriving at the airport I pulled into a parking spot in front of the arrival terminal to wait for the Attaché. It was a metered parking spot, but I didn’t have any Swiss Francs yet to pay the meter. Since I was in the car (in the driver seat)–”standing” not “parking”–I thought I could get away without paying to park. No way. Less than 1 minute after stopping, I had a visit from the ever diligent Swiss police who informed me that I had committed a parking violation. I told the officer I had only just arrived in Switzerland, that I didn’t have any Swiss Francs to pay the meter, it had only been 1 minute, and I had technically not parked, since I was still in the car. The officer didn’t agree with my interpretation of parking. It was his interpretation that the moment your car stops in the spot, the meter must be fed. Ridiculous, I told him. Not possible, I exclaimed. The officer was not amused. Yet he did not write me a ticket, or tell me to be on my way, instead he advised me that I was in Switzerland now, and I must follow Swiss rules. I had parked. I had not paid. I was in violation. “Got it,” I told him. “How much is the ticket?” He wasn’t interested in ticketing me. He wanted to further lecture me on the merits of Swiss laws and rules, that it’s his decision whether I get a ticket or not, and that I was in Switzerland now. “Oh, I’m in Switzerland, you say?” He didn’t think that was funny. At this point, I was begging for him to give me a ticket, so I wouldn’t have to deal with him any more. But he wouldn’t give me one. He wouldn’t let me leave. “What do you want from me?” I asked. He got nice. He explained how I should park. He suggested I go to the short term parking zone, where I can find an ATM machine, or I can pay with a credit card. He wished me well and on my way. I did not park, of course. I drove the all-too-familiar airport-loop. Each time I passed him by, harassing some poor bastard for improperly parking, I waved at him. For me it got funnier and funnier every time I drove by. He just scowled. On the first day of the trip, I thought it would be nice if we all wore team hats so I grabbed three hats at the Appenzell Cheese Museum and dropped them in the Attaché’s shopping bag when she wasn’t looking. I was excited, I had never seen hats like these, it was like a baseball cap with no bill. The Swiss are so innovative! Let’s be Swiss! Weeee! When we got outside and I looked in the shopping bag, there was only one hat. I put my hat on and said, “Where’s yours?” The Attaché was laughing at me. “You look ridiculous.” “I’m Swiss,” I told her. “It’s a baseball cap with no bill.” “It’s innovative,” I said. “And it’s not a baseball cap.” She plucked it off my head and studied it, sort of like she does with rocks, except I rarely carry rocks on top of my head. “It’s no baseball cap,” she agreed. “Baseball caps keep the sun out of your eyes, and this won’t. This is more like a ski hat. But this won’t keep your head warm. You got the worst of both hats.” I took it back. “Quit touching it.” She shook her head and stuck a piece of cheese in her mouth. “Why did think I would wear that? Why did you think I would let you put it on my dog?” I made her sorry. If she wasn’t going to wear a hat, I was going to wear mine with the zeal of three! I kept that thing glued to my head for the rest of the trip, the only time I didn’t wear it was when she hid it from me one day. I found it hidden under our tent. She regretted that move: I never took it off again. I even slept in it. We squeezed a lot into a short trip. We camped in northeast Switzerland in a beautiful village called Bad Ragaz. We drove the countryside making a short excursion to Lichtenstein. Outside of a 20 dollar per pound chicken breast prices in the grocery stores, and paying to throw your trash away, I found nothing else to complain about in Switzerland. Considered less dramatic than other parts of Switzerland, the landscape of the northeast was by no means an eyesore. Green hills, distant snow-capped mountains, the swift Rhine River, Lake Constance and quaint villages–these are the things that give Switzerland its great reputation. Much about the place is spectacular. The rules and the prices–they were tough to overlook, however. I’m giving this trip a rating of 4 schnitzels out of 5. Noodle doesn’t travel with us very often, but on this trip her passport got stamped for her 6th, 7th and 8th countries: Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Germany.

Switzerland and Lichtenstein July 2008

At the end of July we made our first trip to Switzerland. I made the 8 ...

Updated: Jul 30, 2009 10:10pm PST

Hike in Alps, Dachstein Glacier, July 2009 : At the end of July we did a 2-day hike in the middle of Austrian Alps near the Dachstein Glacier. We went from Gosausee to Hofpuerglhuette and back.

Hike in Alps, Dachstein Glacier, July 2009

At the end of July we did a 2-day hike in the middle of Austrian Alps ...

Updated: Aug 18, 2009 12:13am PST

Slovenia May 2008 : Here is a photo gallery from a 3 day trip to Slovenia during my parents' visit in May 2008. Mom, Dad and I drove down to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, then we picked up the Attache at the train station in Villach, Austria. We spent a few days enjoying the spectacular natural scenery of the Slovenian Alps.

Slovenia May 2008

Here is a photo gallery from a 3 day trip to Slovenia during my parent ...

Updated: Jul 31, 2009 2:21am PST

Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia May 2008 : In the past I’ve spoken of my triumphs in the game of "Searching for Cheap Flights". I spoke with fondness about Skyeurope Airlines, a low-fare European airline that delivered quality flights for lowlow prices. Well, the mountain came crashing down. My parents were coming to visit (April 2008) and I was planning a huge driving trip through the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. It was planned as a ten-day trip, and the Attaché would fly to Prague for the first weekend and meet us, and then return to work, then fly to Krakow the following weekend. Shortly after my rant about a 45-bucks-to-Milan-fare, I booked a ticket for the Attaché from Vienna to Prague for $30 round trip and Vienna to Krakow for $80. Until I got my confirmation email, I really thought the deal would fall apart because such a low fare seemed impossible. For two weeks I bragged about my triumph. I even carried a copy of the ticket in my pocket to show as proof. Then shortly before the flight I got an email from Skyeurope that stated the dream-fare flight had been cancelled "...as part of the adaptation and harmonization of our route network and time table for the summer season." Skyeurope decided to fly somewhere else! I was shocked. Can they do this? Surely it's illegal to just decide to fly somewhere else after a ticket is sold, after a passenger has spent weeks querying flights, booking hotels, etc. Surely when you're standing on top of the mountain--the King of the World--they cannot take the mountain from beneath you. Well they did. They canceled her flight to Prague, and then a few days later they cancelled her flight to Krakow. I didn't believe this was possible. All the planning...all the time...all wasted. Angry, I called Skyeurope. They offered me a refund in the amount of $30 for Prague and $80 for Krakow. If I took their offer, then rebooked the Attaché on different airline, the tickets would be nearly $300 dollars each (I was much closer to the departure date and you know how airfares go up exponentially as the departure nears). So I refused to accept their refund, dug through my handy copy of EU Airline Passenger Rights, and began to wage a war. What I was seeking is what the EU Airline Passenger Rights Regulation guarantees in the event of a cancelled flight: alternate transportation. I wanted Skyeurope to fly the Attaché to Prague, and Krakow even if they flew her on Austrian, Czech, or Poland Airlines. Well, to make a long story short, Skyeurope did not fly the Attaché to Prague or Krakow. Our trip was severely impacted (she rode in the car some, and took the train). But for me, the matter was not over. Skyeurope had screwed us big time, and I wasn't going to leave it alone. I took the matter up with the European Commission of Passenger Rights in Brussels, the Slovak Trade Inspectorate, and the Enforcement Division of the Austrian Transportation Authority. I'll spare you the whole story, but it got ugly, and it took the kind of time that only a guy without a job can afford. The only way for me to convey the magnitude of my effort to get some kind of reasonable compensation for these cancelled flights is to put it like this: imagine your worst customer service nightmare and multiply it by twelve billion. A few highlights from my journey through EU bureaucratic red tape include an Austrian official who told me: "Well what do you expect for using Skyeurope?" and then offered a solution, "Next time use a real airline like Austrian Airlines." Ultimately, using the Austrian Enforcement Division as a mediator, I did get a pretty fair deal. I settled on a refund for the price of the tickets plus 4 roundtrip tickets on the Skyeurope network. It was a lot of work to get this, but ultimately I felt compensated. Well, it was worth it until a few weeks ago when I tried to use the Skyeurope vouchers. These free vouchers were not free at all! Skyeurope wanted to charge my 20 Euros ($30) per trip to use my "free" vouchers. Needless to say, I'm going back through the EU red tape again. I'll let you know how it turns out. We did go on our trip. It was fantastic trip. So here begins a photo journal of a ten-day trip from Vienna to Prague to Krakow and back to Vienna. But before I get started, you must be wondering why the picture of Noodle up top? That's her waiting at the airport for the arrival of my parents...

Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia May 2008

In the past I’ve spoken of my triumphs in the game of "Searching for ...

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 1:03am PST

Iceland 2009 : In August 2009, we met up with our friend Jenni in Reykjavik, Iceland and spent four days touring the country. We did the famous Golden Circle tour which hits a few of Iceland's best attractions, Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss. We also visited a lava tube, a crater, we saw a seal colony on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We also fit in the Reykjavik half-marathon and a whale watching tour.

Iceland 2009

In August 2009, we met up with our friend Jenni in Reykjavik, Iceland ...

Updated: Aug 26, 2009 7:34am PST

Budapest Half Marathon : A few photos from our Sept overnight trip to Budapest, Hungary for the Budapest Half-Marathon. It was the Attache's 8th half-marathon in a foreign country! Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Holland, Iceland, US, Malta and now Hungary! I got my personal best time of 1h29m in the race (13.1 miles). The Attache missed her personal best of 2:14 by just one minute. :-(

Budapest Half Marathon

A few photos from our Sept overnight trip to Budapest, Hungary for the ...

Updated: Sep 08, 2009 3:39am PST

Cruise Western Med - Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Gibraltar : Photos of 10 day Costa Cruise on the Costa Magica - Oct 2009.

Cruise Western Med - Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Gibraltar

Photos of 10 day Costa Cruise on the Costa Magica - Oct 2009.

Updated: Nov 06, 2009 1:13am PST

Bosendorfer Piano Factory, Austria :

Bosendorfer Piano Factory, Austria

Updated: Nov 15, 2009 1:25am PST

South Africa - Cape Town and Cape Peninsula :

South Africa - Cape Town and Cape Peninsula

Updated: Jan 07, 2010 8:34am PST

South Africa - Shark Cage Diving :

South Africa - Shark Cage Diving

Updated: Jan 14, 2010 3:12am PST

South Africa - Safari and Garden Route :

South Africa - Safari and Garden Route

Updated: Jan 14, 2010 7:47am PST