We are spending this week lounging on the beaches in the South of France. It is a fantastic change of pace. I love hiking, but reading on the beach and floating weightlessly in the water is great recovery. I lived on the Pacific coast for eleven years, and while I loved seeing the ocean regularly, …
Sometimes you go hiking on an obscure trail in the French Alps and you run into friends from home! We came across a Hoka photoshoot, and the photographer was my friend from Deckers. We had sat next to each other for a year during BT. We hiked the Swiss Alps so we thought to give …
We have been on our journey for a full month now. Five countries, 625,000 steps and three airplanes. At the two-week point we started to get a bit tired as that is usually the point we go home, but when you leave your job and everything behind, you had better be gone for more than …
This country is BEAUTIFUL! Lucerne looks like the illustrations from a children's fairytale book and the mountains surrounding Grindelwald are breathtaking in both a figurative and literal sort of way. We spent an evening in Lucerne before continuing on into the Alps. The lake is ringed by restaurants, shops and hotels with plenty of public …
Lake Como has been the vacation spot for bishops and princes since Roman times, and of late it is loved by movie stars and the rest of us aspiring tourists. The turquoise lake has steep shores and tiny hillside towns dotting the eastern and western shores. A ferry connects Como to the towns and we …
Fashion capital and August ghost town. At first I thought I booked a quiet neighborhood, but after traipsing across the whole city this weekend and hardly seeing a soul, I learned that Italy really does take a vacation for the month of August. Aside from the Duomo, the sights were tourist free and the streets …
The five tiny villages on the Mediterranean coast of Italy are connected by a ten minute train ride or ten hours of hiking. We hike one way and take the train back to our middle city of Corniglia.Day one we hiked to Manarola in 90 degree heat up a very steep path into the mountains …
We took two buses and three trains from Florence to Cinque Terre today with a transfer required in Pisa. The Leaning Tower of Pisa wasn't high on my list of sights, but if my train literally makes me get out at Pisa, I won't miss it. It was fun to see it in person and …
First return to a previous city. We were last here in 2012. This time we stayed near the city center, so we had plenty of energy to venture out. Today was 96 degrees Fahrenheit. That is tolerable when working all day in an office with A/C but quite warm for city trekking. The ancient streets …
The plan was to spend another week in the UK and then fly down to Switzerland. However, we are ready for a change and excited to take advantage of spontaneity so we flew straight to Italy. It was cheaper to fly to Bologna than to take a train to York. Last time I was in …
We Won't Melt 