After visiting the champagne cellars at Mumm, I was blown away at how different the champagne process is from the normal wine fermentation process. The grapes are picked and squeezed and initially fermented (and all that jazz), but then the juice goes through two more fermentations. After the second fermentation (yes, most wine goes through […]

Read More Champagne vs. Sparkling Wine

Took the speedy train to Reims today.Very high tech, there’s wifi and you can see the progress of the train from your phone. Fancy. Reims is home to a lovely cathedral (Notre Dame) that was used for generations of Frank kings for their coronation, including Charles VII (if I remember correctly) who was escorted here […]

Read More Paris to Reims at 310kph

-Heels are a must (on bike, pushing stroller, whatever)!-M.C. Hammer pants never went away here – it’s awesome.-Never pass up a free bathroom.-The metro is scary and wonderful.-Eiffel Tower keychains are 4/one euro.-Beer is expensive and wine is cheap.-The Montmartre neighborhood has great pizza.-Crepes rock…

Read More Liz’s Deep Thoughts on Paris.

We in the states have been slowly lulled into a cash-free society. Now, like a frog in a kettle, the credit card companies are starting to jack up the fees on everyone, including those with perfect credit and no balances. Europe doesn’t seem to have gone all in on credit cards, and it really shows. […]

Read More Voulez-vous accepte mon carte de Piggly Wiggly?

We’ve only scratched the surface of Europe (three countries) but already we’re amazed at how distinct each country still is today. When you think about the pressures that are on countries to assimilate just by nature of proximity, and the sheer amount of time… I mean we’re talking thousands of years. I can see the […]

Read More What holds it together?

Yep, we’ll climb anything. Hell, we’ll pay good money (well euro-money) just for privilege of climbing something. Towers, hills, streets, stairs, you name it we do it. Is this a viable long term income source though? At this point we are both climbing and paying… ideally we would get paid to climb.  We’ll work on […]

Read More Need something climbed? We’re your peeps.

Put simply, Rick Steves was right about Bruges. We borrowed his guidebook from our Amsterdam hotel one morning, and he said it was a tourist hotspot.  However, once the daytrippers leave after the early-bird special dinner, the town’s character changes. If you’ve ever been in a port town when a Carnival Cruise docks for the […]

Read More Ruminations on Bruges

Officially in France, using WiFi from McDonald’s at the Lille train station. TGV for Paris leaves in 20 minutes, but we had enough time to walk around the city to realize nothing is open on Sundays. The unholy marriage of the church and unions. I like the fact that I can understand a small percentage […]

Read More Ah ah ah, en francais!

I’ll be very concise. Liz and I were in no shape to drive…. In Bruges. Needless to say, we didn’t. It’s a pretty tiny town with the perfect Brasserie to cathedral ratio of 80:1. Picture:  On the near left, a local favorite of Stella + Grenadine (4%), on the right a local Bruges Trippel (8.8%), […]

Read More Not driving

(note: this is a recount of events on July 1, before we headed for Bruges, despite the specified date) (disclaimer: all of these blog entries are being written on my phone, so please bear with any grammatical mistakes) Took out our rented bikes for a little longer ride to countryside north of Amsterdam.  That meant […]

Read More Cycling on the dike