Category: Year
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Day 1: Bergamo to Milan — Italy Begins 🇮🇹
At the Città Alta, cobblestone lanes wound through cafés, markets, and medieval towers. We stored our luggage near the station and spent the morning wandering narrow streets lined with artisan shops before grabbing our first Italian espresso (and the kids’ first gelato, of course). From its ancient Venetian walls to its panoramic views of the…
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A Family’s First Adventure in Italy 🇮🇹
In November 2021, our family of four set out on our very first trip to Italy — a journey that would take us from the foothills of the Alps to the ruins of Rome. With ten days, rail passes, and a shared sense of curiosity, we experienced the country’s incredible range: the quiet elegance of…
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Columbus, Halloween, and Home 🇪🇸
Our last morning began fittingly at the Columbus Monument—on Columbus Day. The 60-meter column, built in 1888, honors Christopher Columbus’s return from the New World, which he reported to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in Barcelona. The monument points toward the sea, symbolizing Spain’s historic spirit of exploration and connection across the Atlantic—an interesting link…
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Beaches and Barça 🇪🇸
Sunday was for slowing down. We spent the morning at Platja del Llevant, one of Barcelona’s newer beaches, where families gathered to swim and play in the soft autumn sun. Even in October, the Mediterranean was inviting, and the city’s skyline gleamed beyond the waves. That night, we joined nearly 80,000 fans at Camp Nou…
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Art in the Park and Faith in Stone 🇪🇸
We started our morning at Park Güell, another of Gaudí’s masterpieces. Originally planned as a private garden city, it became a whimsical public park filled with colorful mosaics, curving benches, and sweeping views of Barcelona. The kids loved the lizard fountain at the entrance—El Drac, one of the most photographed symbols of the city. In…
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Music, Magic, and Modernisme 🇪🇸
Barcelona welcomed us with sun, song, and the sparkle of Catalan creativity. Our first stop was Casa Batlló, one of Antoni Gaudí’s most imaginative works. Its rippling façade of glass and tile looks like a dragon’s scales shimmering in the Mediterranean light. Inside, the curves and colors seem to flow like water—Gaudí famously said there…
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Cannstatter Volksfest: Stuttgart’s Spirited Celebration 🇩🇪
Every autumn, Stuttgart transforms into a whirlwind of color, sound, and celebration for the Cannstatter Volksfest — Germany’s second-largest beer festival and one of its most cherished traditions. What began in 1818 as a harvest festival celebrating the end of famine has grown into a joyful blend of Bavarian-style festivity and Swabian pride. Held at…
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The Oppenheim Keller Tour: Life Beneath the Front Lines 🇩🇪
In September 2022, we visited Oppenheim for one of the most fascinating and unexpected history lessons we’ve experienced in Germany — the Keller tour, a walk through the vast underground cellar system hidden beneath the old town. At first glance, Oppenheim looks like a quiet Rhine-side town surrounded by vineyards. But beneath its streets lies…
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Icons of Innovation and Chocolate Creation 🇧🇪
Our final full day in Brussels began with a picnic breakfast and an early visit to the Atomium. Built for the 1958 World’s Fair (Expo 58), the Atomium symbolizes scientific optimism and progress. Its nine connected spheres form a magnified model of an iron crystal—165 billion times larger than the real structure. From the top…
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Antwerp Adventures and a Sea of Flowers 🇧🇪
We caught the IC train north to Antwerp, just under an hour away. The city’s Central Station is often called the most beautiful train station in Europe—and for good reason. Built between 1895 and 1905, it combines iron, marble, and glass in spectacular harmony, earning the nickname “the railway cathedral.” Our morning began with an…