Newsletter Archive

Our “Two Years of Travel” has finally begun! I (Dave) have been looking forward to this for at least ten years. It’s taken Jeff a little longer to warm up to the idea, but now he’s on board. Still, in the days leading up to our trip, we both couldn’t believe it was finally about to happen!

We arrived in Cascais, Portugal yesterday (Thursday) in the late afternoon, after leaving Phoenix at 3:00 Wednesday. The travel went smoothly, but it was still a long trip. The trips seem to get longer the older we get.

Cascais (pronounced “kesh-kysh” because in many cases the Portuguese pronounce “s” like “sh”) is a popular seaside vacation destination about 30 km west of Lisbon. It’s the westernmost point in continental Europe. What we’ve seen so far is very nice. We’re staying in a nice little one-bedroom vacation rental apartment that’s a 15-minute walk (uphill) from downtown.

When we finally made it to our rental apartment, it was about 6:00 on Thursday evening. We were exhausted after almost 20 hours of travel across eight time zones, but we needed to eat and we wanted to visit a grocery store to pick up some food and drink items for our stay. Fortunately, there is a small cluster of businesses a couple of blocks away.

European travel guru Rick Steves (whom Dave has become quite a fan of) claims that you’ll find the best meals at small local restaurants where the menu is written on a chalkboard, based on what foods are in season, fresh, and available. He suggests avoiding the restaurants in the tourist zones, where menus are presented in several languages. Not that they’re bad, but they may be less authentic and certainly higher priced.

We stumbled upon a small place called Café Perola. It had four tables inside and three outside. The waitress spoke almost no English, but thanks to our extremely limited Portuguese and Google Translate, we made it work. We both ordered Bobo de Camarao, which was a generous helping of shrimp cooked in a yellow coconut-curry sauce, served with rice and farofa (a Brazilian staple of finely ground yucca root). It was sooo delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, and at €13.90 each, it was very reasonably priced.

We’ll write more about the city and post some pictures at the end of our stay here, but for now, here’s a quick video Jeff took in the center of Cascais, right across from the beach.

The information we post publicly won’t have specific information about where we are or when, but since you’re a friend, here’s what the rest of the trip looks like:

May 22-26: Cascais

May 26-29: Tavira, a small town at the eastern end of the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal

May 29-June 3: Carvoeira, farther west in the Algarve, near the famous Benagil Caves

June 3-8: Sao Miguel, the largest island in the Azores

June 8-13: Madeira

June 13-17: Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands (Spain)

Thanks for your interest in our travels. Feel free to reply with comments or questions if you wish.

Our latest post, with photos and stories from our time in Cascais, is here.

On Monday, we left Cascais and traveled by bus to Tavira, in the southeast corner of Portugal. Oddly, traveling by bus was quicker than traveling by train. It was cheaper, as well. It afforded us the opportunity to see rural Portugal which, in this part of the country, was gentle rolling hills. Some of the land was farmed and some was undeveloped. The bus traveled directly from Lisbon to Faro on a high-speed limited-access highway. It stopped in Faro and Olhão before arriving in Tavira.

Tavira is charming. It's a small town. Everything we want to see is only a few minutes away from the B&B where we're staying. There are certainly tourists here, but it has a less touristy vibe.

On this trip, we're staying in rental apartments booked on Booking.com or Airbnb.com. This is a new experience for us. Many of the vacations we've taken have been cruises or all-inclusive resorts. For the rest, we've stayed in hotels. While we miss the continental breakfast buffets served at the hotels we stayed at last time we visited Portugal, we appreciate having a kitchen with a refrigerator/freezer, a washer, and a little more space. For a 4-week trip, a washer is a definite plus.

The two places we've stayed so far have had their quirks, but overall they've been nice. So far, our biggest challenge has been regulating the cooling at night so we can get a good night's sleep. This is our rental in Tavira.

Thanks for your interest in our travels. Feel free to reply with comments or questions if you wish.

Our latest post, with photos and stories from our time in Tavira, is here.

On Thursday, we left Tavira and traveled to Carvoeiro, farther west on the Algarve coast of Portugal. It was a multi-faceted trip. We took a bus from Tavira to the airport at Faro, the capital of the Algarve region. There we rented a car.

That was an adventure. Dave somehow noted the wrong car rental company on our itinerary, so we went to the Europcar rental counter and they had no reservation for us. We got that straightened out, then stumbled around the airport to find where to meet the shuttle for the correct company, Drive on Holidays. Once there, the counter agent tried (hard) to sell us their insurance, at a cost that was 20% higher than the cost of the rental itself. We had purchased insurance through Orbitz when we rented the car, so we declined it. We sure hope nothing happens and we don't have to file a claim.

Driving in the Algarve is also an adventure! There are a few limited access highways (2 lanes each direction), but most roads are narrow, curvy, and hilly with limited visibility. Dave is not used to driving this slow!

Also, we have already been through more roundabouts than either of us have experienced in our lives up to this point. They're everywhere! And we're so thankful for Apple Maps and the voice that tells us where to turn next. We couldn't imagine trying to navigate this place before this technology existed.

We'll be renting a car at each remaining destination on our trip.

In addition to the photos in our Tavira post, here are a couple of oddities we encountered along the way.

Thanks for your interest in our travels. Feel free to reply with comments or questions if you wish.

We hope you're doing well! We have just passed the halfway point on our trip. After spending five days in Carvoeiro, we flew to São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores, on Tuesday.

When we began planning this adventure, we decided to stay four or five days in each place (except Tavira, where we spent two). Our rationale was that spending a couple of extra days would allow us to get to know a place better and have more time to explore things off the beaten path.

We now agree that we could have spent one or two fewer days in each place. Some days are a bit too empty, and we're not much for just sitting around "chillaxing." We'll keep that in mind for future trips.

That said, we saw quite a few interesting things in and near Carvoeiro - enough to break the photos up into several posts. First and foremost, we took a 90-minute boat tour to see the caves along the coast between Carvoeiro and Marinha Beach. The best known and most photographed of these is the Benagil Cave, but there are many others that are also spectacular and awe-inspiring. We saw and often entered 15-20 caves, as well as spectacular craggy cliffs.

A professional photo of Benagil cave. We weren't able to stand on the beach, so our photos weren't as perfectly framed.

Two days later, we hiked the Algar Seco boardwalk, which runs along the top of the cliffs closest to Carvoeiro. The views from the top are stunning as well. There were several paths that led down into the rock formations.

Here are some photos and videos of the boat tour and the boardwalk. Although we promised that these posts wouldn't be massive photo dumps, it was hard to resist posting a lot of photos and videos of these caves and cliffs. This was truly one of the most spectacular, amazing, and memorable sights we've ever seen.

We'll have more photos from the rest of our time in Carvoeiro soon. We hope you enjoy the caves and cliffs of the Algarve coast.

We spent five days in Carvoeiro, from May 29 to June 5. It's farther west on the Algarve coast of Portugal. We posted about our boat tour of the caves along the coast and our hike on the edge of the cliffs in our last newsletter. Our photos from the rest of our stay in Carvoeiro, including visits to nearby Portimão and Lagoa, are here.

We visited the 3D Fun Art Museum in Portimão and Sand City near Lagoa. Those photos are in separate posts, which are linked here and in the Carvoeiro post.

Now we are concluding our visit to São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores. On Sunday, we head to Madeira.

After Carvoeiro, we boarded an Azores Airlines plane for São Miguel, the largest of the nine islands comprising the Azores. We stayed in the largest city, Ponta Delgada, but we drove all over the mountainous island, which was often a thrilling and/or hair-raising experience. The scenery was beautiful and, at times, spectacular. And we ate some delicious local food!

Check out the photos and stories from our stay in São Miguel in our latest post.

Today (Friday the 13th), we flew from Madeira to Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands in Spain.

Thank you for your interest in our travels!

We arrived home late on Tuesday evening, exhausted but thankful for the opportunity to visit some interesting and scenic places that many people don't think to add to their vacation bucket list.

The Portuguese island of Madeira is one such place. Aside from the roads, which were almost as harrowing as those on São Miguel, it was a nice place with quite an interesting history. During the 15th and 16th centuries, it was a stopping-off point for Columbus and other explorers as they sailed toward the new world. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a fashionable vacation destination for royalty and wealthy people from elsewhere in Europe. Today, it's a modern, vibrant place with nice hotels and restaurants and plenty of things to see and do, both in Funchal and around the island.

Our rental apartment was the nicest place we stayed on the trip. It was conveniently located and in a nice neighborhood.

Check out the photos and stories from our stay in Madeira in our latest post.

One of the most memorable and certainly photogenic experiences of our stay was our visit to the Monte Palace Tropical Garden.

The Monte Palace was, at one time, a hotel for the wealthy vacationers mentioned above. In 1987, José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo, a dedicated art collector and philanthropist, transformed Monte Palace into a beautiful Tropical Garden, where nature and art merge. See our photos from the garden, and the cable car ride to reach it, here.

Thank you for your interest in our travels!

We've been home for a week now, and we've finally caught up with selecting and posting the last of the pictures from our trip.

For our last leg of the trip, we visited Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands. We stayed in downtown Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital.

We've learned quite a few things from our month-long travel adventure. While our initial plan was to spend several days in each place, we found that in most places, we could have spent one less day. We enjoyed every place we visited, but we usually ran out of things to see and do. And we've discovered that we don't enjoy "downtime" days where we just relax. There's enough downtime during the evenings on the days when we get out and go places.

Tenerife was the exception. We only spent three days there, but we could easily have spent a couple more. While the boat tour of the caves on the coast of Portugal near Carvoeiro was easily the most memorable thing we did, Tenerife was our favorite destination. There was a lot to see and do, and we loved the vibe.

We've split our pictures from Tenerife into two posts.

In the first post, we share some photos from Santa Cruz, the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts), Museo de las Ilusiones (Museum of illusions), and Parque Garcia Sanabria, a beautiful city park with sculptures and colorful plants. We also share a few photos from Piramides de Güímar, a short drive south of Santa Cruz.

On our second day on Tenerife, we drove to Puerto de la Cruz, on the north side of the island. The main points of interest there are the Jardin de Aclimatacion de la Orotava (botanical garden) and the Agatha Christie painted stairs. After that, we drove up… up… up… and further up through winding mountain roads to the Mount Teide observatory in the center of the island.

In upcoming newsletters, we'll write more about our experience with longer, slower travel and what we've learned. We'll write about our experiences with rental apartments and rental cars.

Do you have any questions for us? Are there any topics you'd like us to write about? Please reply and let us know.

Our recent trip to Portugal and Spain lasted four weeks, which was longer than any trip we’ve taken previously. This time, we stayed in rental apartments rather than hotels.

Dave stayed in a couple of bed and breakfasts in the 90s (back when they actually served breakfast as part of the deal), but neither of us had previously stayed in modern-day Airbnb/VRBO-style vacation rentals. We've learned what to expect from friends and online forums, and it's not rocket science. Still, it was something new for us.

Our experiences with the places we stayed were decidedly mixed. On the plus side, they were clean, in safe neighborhoods, and the photos and descriptions in the listings were accurate. Our biggest complaint with most places was the uncomfortable beds.

In our latest post, we share our experiences with the rental apartments at each destination, including a few pictures of each place. Read the new post here.

We've recently updated our plans for our next couple of trips. Originally, we planned to take a two-month road trip to Vancouver, BC, driving up the coast on our way there and through the Rocky Mountains, visiting several national parks, on our way back.

After some reprioritizing, we have decided to shorten this to a one-week trip. We'll fly to Portland, Oregon in mid-August to visit a couple of dear friends and see a couple of sights, then fly up to Vancouver for four days. The 20th anniversary of our Canadian wedding is August 18, so we wanted to return to the scene of the crime to celebrate that. (We traveled to Vancouver for our 10th anniversary, too.)

Soon after we return from that, we'll fly to Europe for another four-week trip. We'll begin in the Netherlands and Belgium. We're still deciding on the rest of the itinerary, but we'll probably head east into Luxembourg, Germany, northern France, and maybe Switzerland and/or Austria.

Do you have any recommendations for places to visit and things to see in this part of Europe? Our focus is less on seeing well-known (and crowded) tourist sights and more on experiencing the local vibe of a place and discovering lesser-known gems. We're not really into cathedrals and ancient fortresses, and more into art and culture, beautiful outdoor spaces, and local cuisine.

Do you have any questions for us? Are there any topics you'd like us to write about? Please reply and let us know.

After enjoying two months at home (during the hottest time of the year, of course!), we're traveling again!

We originally planned to take a two-month road trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia; driving up the coast on the way there and through the mountains on the way back. Ultimately, we decided to postpone that for a later time. Instead, we opted for a quick trip to Portland, Oregon, to visit friends and Vancouver to celebrate our 20th Canadian wedding anniversary. We'll share photos and stories from Vancouver in our next post.

In Portland, we were hosted by our friends Sam and Brian, who used to live in Chandler and work at Intel with Dave. We visited the famous Portland Rose Test Garden, enjoyed a deliciously decadent seafood dinner (we were so busy enjoying it we forgot to take pictures), and visited the Grotto, “a place of peace, prayer, and natural beauty.”

Visit our latest post to see lots of pictures of beautiful roses and several pictures from the Grotto.

Tomorrow, we're taking off for a month in Europe. This time, we'll visit:

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Arnhem, Netherlands
• Giethoorn, Netherlands
• Kassel, Germany
• Freiburg, Germany (Black Forest)
• Strasbourg, France
• Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• Brussels, Belgium
• Bruges, Belgium (also Antwerp)
• The Hague, Netherlands (also Rotterdam, Delft, and Leiden)

... and then back to Amsterdam to fly home. Admittedly, this is an ambitious itinerary. We'll only stay 2-3 days in most places. By the time we're done, we'll be seasoned European train travelers.

On our last trip to Portugal and Spain, we decided that we stayed a day longer than necessary at most destinations. This time, we may conclude that we didn't stay long enough at some. I guess we'll find out!

Don't forget to stop and admire the roses!

Thank you for your interest in our travels!

We arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon after a tiring but uneventful flight. We were annoyed that Delta forced us to check our carry-on luggage at the gate, only to find that there was still available space in the overhead bins. We limit ourselves to only carry-on luggage for a reason - so we don't have our vacations compromised by lost luggage! (Also so we have less to haul while walking or on public transportation.) But thankfully the luggage arrived. Thanks to Amsterdam's wonderful, efficient public transportation, we arrived at our apartment after an easy 25-minute bus ride with no transfers.

Our apartment is nice. The best thing about it is the location; it's a short walk to the Museumplein, where the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, and Concertgebouw are located. It's served by several tram lines that make it easy to travel anywhere else in Amsterdam. It's in an old building in an old neighborhood with lots of character, but it's modern on the inside.

The only weird thing is that the bedroom is separated from the living room by a wall that's only as wide as the bed, with open passages on either side. We were concerned that light from the living area might make it difficult for one of us (Jeff) to sleep if the other stays up longer, but it has worked out okay.

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam, and Marken, small towns located a short distance north of Amsterdam. While they were touristy to be sure, we enjoyed seeing a slice of the Netherlands outside of Amsterdam. Here are some photos from those places.

We'll cover everything we saw and did in Amsterdam in our next post. That's still a work in progress!

We've now been in the Netherlands for eight days. As I (Dave) type this, we're on a train heading into Germany. Neither of us have been in Germany before, so we get to add a new country to our list. We're heading to Kassel, where Jeff's paternal grandmother is from. Kassel was also the home of the Brothers Grimm.

In our latest post, we share some photos from our days in Amsterdam. We visited the Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Eye Filmmuseum, the A'DAM lookout tower, and a flyover ride called "This is Holland." And of course, we ate.  

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam, and Marken, small towns located a short distance north of Amsterdam. In case you missed our last post, here are some photos from those places.

After five days in Amsterdam, we set out to discover more of the Netherlands. We traveled east by train 100 km to Arnhem, a city of approximately 160,000 people near the German border.

We chose to visit Arnhem to see the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum (Open Air Museum) and the Kröller-Müller Museum, located within the massive De Hoge Veluwe National Park.

While Arnhem itself wasn't particularly remarkable, both of these destinations were definitely worthwhile. See our latest post for some photos from the Open Air Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum.

We're now halfway through our month-long northwestern European adventure. So yeah, we're about a week behind with our posts. We'll try to keep up!

At this moment, we're on a train from Strasbourg, France to Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Strasbourg was our sixth destination out of ten. We're definitely feeling like "whirled travelers." We'll spend two nights in Luxembourg, then after that, we'll be spending a bit more time in the remaining places.

We've had good luck with our accommodations. They've all been nice, but our stays in Kassel, Germany and Strasbourg have been outstanding! While we're happy with how much time we've spend in each place considering the things to see and do there, we wish we could have enjoyed many of these apartments for a couple more nights.

After Arnhem, we traveled north by a combination of train and bus to the town of Giethoorn. It's been nicknamed "The Venice of the Netherlands," but Dave has been to Venice and thinks there are way more canals in Giethoorn. We spent one night there before moving on to Kassel.

It's an adorable town that's worth visiting if you find yourself in the northern part of the Netherlands. We share pictures of what we saw, what we ate, and where we stayed in our latest post.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

Three of the five countries on this adventure are countries we’ll visit for the first time: Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Our first stop in Germany was Kassel. We loved it! We could have stayed longer, and we might return someday - especially if we can stay in the same apartment again!

Photos and commentary from our stay in Kassel are in this post. Enjoy!

During the first eight days of our trip in the Netherlands, we became accustomed to the mass transit operating like clockwork - always right on time, whether it was buses and trams within the city or the trains between cities.

We assumed it would be the same in Germany, but we learned that's not the case. Rather, it's more reasonable to expect that there will be delays. Our train from Amersfoort, Netherlands to Hanover, Germany (transfer point for our train to Kassel) was a half-hour late, which meant we would miss our connection. On that trip, we happened to be sharing our first class cabin with another gay couple from the US. They said, "Oh, yeah... trains in Germany are always behind schedule." 

They had only ridden trains in Germany once before. We were worried about what we would do about our missed connection, so one of them asked if we had bought insurance. We hadn't. He claimed that we would have to buy another ticket from Hanover to Kassel. That seemed odd since we didn't think we should have to pay to be rebooked when the delay was the train company's fault, but what did we know? 

When we arrived in Hanover, we went to the ticket booth at the station. We explained that we had missed our connection, and the young lady at the window typed a few things into her computer, printed a piece of paper with a QR code, and handed it to us. No problem. We simply got on the next train to Kassel. That brought to mind the expression, "To a third grader, a fifth grader is an expert." 

On our train from Luxembourg to Brussels a few days ago, we arrived at the station an hour early. An earlier train to Brussels was about to depart and it had plenty of empty seats, so we got on it. We figured the worst they could do would be to kick us off at the next station and make us wait for the train we booked. But when the conductor came to check our tickets he said, "A ticket from Luxembourg to Brussels on this date is good on any train that runs the route on that day." Seeing the surprised look on our faces and realizing we were probably from the US, he said, "This is Europe."

Our second European adventure is quickly coming to an end. We're staying in The Hague (Den Haag), taking a day trip to Rotterdam today (Saturday) and returning home tomorrow on a 33-hour-long Sunday.

And we've fallen further behind on our posts. We've been exploring! (And moving around a lot.) Once we get home, our lives will seem slow-paced and we'll get caught up.

We spent a couple of days in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany’s southernmost and warmest city. It’s located on the southwestern edge of the Black Forest, which is the main reason we decided to visit. We discovered that the Black Forest actually looks pretty green - and beautiful!

Photos and commentary from our stay in Freiburg, along with a horrific train story, are in this post. Enjoy!

We're now home and finally getting caught up on our sleep and our household affairs.

One big difference between this trip and our last trip to Portugal (five places) and Spain (Tenerife) was the amount of time we spent in each place. On the Portugal trip, we spent 4-5 nights in most places and usually felt that we could have spent one less day there, with Tenerife being the exception. On this trip, we stayed in ten different cities over the course of 28 days. We spent only two nights in Kassel and Freiburg, and in hindsight, it would have been nice to spend at least one more day in each place - both to see more things, but also to have fewer travel days.

We spent three nights in Strasbourg, which meant two days of sightseeing. We enjoyed it! Strasbourg is beautiful. We liked the vibe. We stayed in yet another nice apartment. Most of our time was spent exploring La Petite France (Little France), pictured below, and several museums. We could have easily stayed longer and seen more, especially since Strasbourg is home to the European Parliament and several other European institutions. Two friends recommended places to see near Strasbourg, but on this trip we didn't have enough time to get out of the city. This is one place where we could definitely return to see more.

Photos and commentary from our stay in Strasbourg are in this post. Enjoy!

After Strasbourg, we spent two nights in Luxembourg. Overall, it was nice, but our visit didn't get off to a good start when we arrived at our apartment. After our good luck with staying in places that were at least very good and often outstanding in every city we've visited so far, our luck ran out in Luxembourg.

It wasn't terrible, but it didn't live up to the expectations set by the photos in the listing on Booking.com. 

We had two issues with this apartment: (1) There was black mold on the ceiling in the shower and on the shower curtain. Since we have respiratory issues that can be exacerbated by mold, we bought some disinfectant and Jeff cleaned the mold himself. 

(2) There were some notable discrepancies between the photos in the listing and the actual apartment. It had been "staged" with nicer things for the photos. Here are two examples.

They promoted this apartment as "luxury living," and while "luxury" is a subjective term, this place was NOT luxury by any means. It had more of an off-campus college apartment vibe. It was decent enough and an okay place to stay (aside from the mold), but nothing special. The fact that they used deceptive photos to make this apartment appear nicer than it actually is left a bad impression.

The apartment was also in a sketchy neighborhood. We didn't feel unsafe, but it didn't make a good first impression of Luxembourg.

The next day, we got out and saw more of Luxembourg. It's actually a modern and beautiful city, with plenty of reminders of its past. It has some nice parks and scenic viewpoints.

Photos and commentary from our stay in Luxembourg are in this post. Enjoy!

After Luxembourg, we headed into Belgium, another country we were visiting for the first time. We stayed three nights in Brussels, and despite the rainy and overcast weather at times, we enjoyed exploring the city. And although we didn't see any of its namesake sprouts, we found plenty of beer and chocolate! Also, plenty of art, comic book art, and old musical instruments.

A bumper crop of photos are stories are in our latest post. Enjoy!

Our visit didn't get off to a promising start. You may remember from our Luxembourg post that we were less than thrilled with our apartment due to mold in the shower (which Jeff cleaned) and the fact that there were some discrepancies between the photos in the listing and the apartment in its current state.

To be clear, it wasn't a bad place (once the mold was cleaned). It was okay. It just didn't live up to its billing.

Sadly, our apartment in Brussels was much worse. Its curb appeal left much to be desired, but we've learned from our apartments in Kassel and Strasbourg that the exterior of city apartments can look modest while the apartment interiors are fantastic. 

But our hopes dimmed as we walked down the narrow, dark, foreboding hallway on the first floor toward the lift.

The ancient, creaky lift was the smallest we'd ever seen. It barely held the two of us and our carry-on luggage. And it had no front door! There was only a door on a hinge on each floor. Watch your toes!

These photos tell the story of what we found once we set foot in the apartment.

The bedroom wasn't shown from this angle. The lower left corner of the bed was too close to the door to pass; someone would need to climb over the bed to reach the left side. Once there, this ugly clothes rack was in the way. One would have to climb over the bed to reach the clothes rack, too. There were no nightstands, which we should have noticed in the listing photos. Also note the thin, cheap towels.

It seemed clear that someone lived in this apartment and stayed someplace else whenever they had a renter. Note that some of the food was opened and partially consumed.

The scaffolding outside meant that there could easily be workers who could see in the windows and make noise if we were still trying to sleep. The biggest issues were the blinds in the bedroom that wouldn't keep out light and the broken toilet seat. As you've probably concluded from all these photos, this place was a dump. It was rundown, cheap, and depressing. Not to mention the ethical issue of the deceptive photos.

We quickly decided that staying there would be unacceptable. Fortunately, we were able to locate a Hilton Garden Inn a couple of blocks away that had a room with a kitchenette and a washer and dryer for customers to use in the basement. We booked it and left.

We informed the owner that we wouldn't be staying there, listed the reasons, and asked for a refund. Not surprisingly, he did not respond.

Once we got home, I (Dave) wrote a scathing review on Booking.com and contacted Booking to file a complaint. I shared most of the photos above. They offered their sincere apologies and, to their credit, gave me a 67€ credit for future travel. But they refused to issue a full refund, saying I had to negotiate that with the owner. Being the less-than-honest character he apparently is, that won't be forthcoming.

Despite this experience, we have been pleased with most of the apartments we've stayed in during this vacation. Eight out of ten have ranged from very good to awesome (nine of eleven, counting the Hilton Garden Inn). Live and learn. 

While we were planning this trip, we considered which of the four most-visited cities in Belgium we would visit: Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, and/or Ghent. We decided to visit Brussels and Bruges and spend three nights/two days in each.

Although we arrived in Bruges in the rain, the rest of the time we spent there was lovely! It was charming and picturesque, with plenty to see and do (and eat and drink!). The downtown was predictably touristy, with its breweries, chocolatiers, restaurants, regal town square, and canals. But the residential neighborhood where we stayed and the ones we passed through were appealing and livable. And our apartment was wonderful!

We took a beautiful canal boat tour (as one does in a place like Bruges) and toured two breweries. Dave doesn't generally like beer, but even he enjoyed the varieties we tasted here. 

Photos and stories from Bruges are now posted here. Enjoy!

The trip from Bruges to our next destination, The Hague, was only three hours, and Antwerp was on the way, so we decided to split the train ride into two 90-minute segments and spend about five hours in Antwerp.

We had several options for places to visit, but most were similar to places we had already visited in other cities. So we decided to visit the Museum aan de Stroom, a history and culture museum located on the waterfront. It was definitely worth the stop. Here's a short post with a few pictures from our brief but enjoyable visit to Antwerp.

After our visits to Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp, we headed to The Hague (Den Haag) for our final leg of this trip. We chose The Hague both because we wanted to see it and because it was a short train ride to Leiden and Rotterdam, two other Dutch cities we wanted to visit.

We'll cover our day trips to Leiden and Rotterdam in this newsletter. In a few days, we'll be back with our photos from The Hague.

Leiden is an adorable and very walkable city not too far north of The Hague. It took less than half an hour to get there by train. Since it is yet another city with lots of canals, we took a canal boat tour - our third of the trip.

Photos and stories from our day in Leiden are now posted here. Enjoy!

We were impressed with Rotterdam! It’s a modern, beautiful city with lots of unique, eye-catching architecture. One of the items on our list of sights to see was the iconic Cube Houses. One Cube House is a model home/museum, allowing people to see what it’s like inside. See photos here.

Rotterdam impressed us as one of the most visually LGBTQ-welcoming cities we’ve ever seen. Here's just one example. 

In addition to enjoying the cool architecture, we experienced a multi-media immersive AI-generated modern art show and visited a couple of museums. The photos and stories from our day in Rotterdam are in this new post. Enjoy!

We wrapped up our month-long Northwest Europe adventure by spending four days and five nights in Den Haag, a.k.a. The Hague. We took day trips to Leiden and Rotterdam (covered in our last newsletter), leaving us two days to explore The Hague.

For our accommodations, we chose 348 Suites, apartments geared toward long-term business stays. Our apartment was very nice and conveniently located. The picture above was taken just across the street. All the sights we wished to see were within easy walking distance, and there was a tram station nearby. There were at least six restaurants on the square where our apartment was located. We ate in four of them.

Photos and stories from our visit to The Hague are now posted here. But wait... there's more!

Dave has been a fan of the works of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher since college. Therefore, we were delighted to discover that there was a museum devoted entirely to M.C. Escher’s life and work a few blocks from our apartment. The museum lived up to its potential and was well worth our visit.

Photos from the M.C. Escher museum are posted here. Enjoy!

One chilly, rainy evening, we chose to eat at Umami, an Asian Fusion restaurant on the ground floor of our apartment building. It was absolutely the most exquisite, memorable dinner of our trip. We've created a separate post to share all the food pics we took. If you enjoy food porn, check it out!

Now, we're home for a while, catching up and planning our upcoming journeys.

From mid-November to mid-December, we're heading to Southeast Asia and Australia. We're taking a 12-day cruise that starts in Hong Kong, visits several ports in Vietnam and Thailand, and ends in Singapore. We'll stay a few extra days in Singapore, then fly to Australia to visit Perth and Adelaide. We'll return home on December 14 for the holidays.

In February and March, we're returning to the land down under. We'll spend about a month traveling throughout New Zealand, then fly over to Australia to cover the rest of the major cities - Hobart (Tasmania), Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney - in about three weeks. At seven weeks, it will be our longest trip by far. But we figured that if we're going to travel that distance, we might as well do everything we want to do and get the most value from it.

By the way, if you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just send an email to info@daveandjeff.com. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

Back in August, we took a one-week trip to visit our dear friends Sam and Brian in Portland, Oregon and celebrate our 20th legal anniversary in Vancouver, British Columbia. It seems so long ago now!

Shortly after we returned home, we posted pictures of the Portland visit here. We intended to follow that with the post about Vancouver, which we planned to write soon after we arrived in Europe. But Dave had stored the photos on our shared drive at home and they were no longer on his laptop. So those photos have had to wait - until now.

Finally, photos from our visit to Vancouver on August 16 to 20, 2025, are available in our latest post. Enjoy!

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

We hope you're doing well and enjoying the cooler weather!

In less than a week, we'll be taking off on our next adventure. We'll fly to Hong Kong and board the Celebrity Solstice for a 12-night Atlantis all-gay cruise to Singapore, with three stops in Vietnam and two in Thailand. We've never been to any of these places except Hong Kong before, so we're looking forward to discovering a new part of the world.

After the cruise, we'll stay a few days in Singapore. Then we'll fly to Australia and spend several days in Perth and Adelaide. We've been looking forward to visiting more of Australia for years!

Of course, the government shutdown and resulting 10% reduction in flights may complicate matters. Two of our best friends, who are leaving on Tuesday to spend a few days in Hong Kong before the cruise, already received notice that the first leg of their flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles has been cancelled. Fortunately, they were able to rebook on comparable flights the same day. If our flight from Phoenix to San Francisco gets cancelled, we should receive advance notice, and we have several options. So we're trying not to worry about that.

In the meantime, we just returned from a week-long trip to an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta. Atlantis used to book this resort every year, and we always went. After 2018, they stopped, and we haven't been back since - until now. Another LGBTQ+ vacation company, Vacaya, booked the same resort. We couldn't wait to go back!

Photos and commentary from our wonderful week at the Hard Rock Vallarta are in our latest post. Enjoy!

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

When we began our two years of travel in May 2025, Dave thought it might be nice to wait for our flights in an airport lounge, rather than in the always-crowded passenger boarding area.

One way travelers can gain access to airport lounges is by owning a premium credit card that charges an annual fee but includes lounge access among its benefits. So, we applied for one.

Has it been worth it? Are airport lounges the luxurious, relaxing respite from hectic airports they purport to be? Dave covers our experiences to date in our latest post. Enjoy!

We've begun our next adventure. On November 14, we flew to Hong Kong to board Atlantis Events' Southeast Asia cruise.

We've been to Hong Kong before. At the time we booked the trip, we were concerned about the potentially volatile political situation in Hong Kong. So we decided to arrive the day before the cruise and stay at the airport hotel.

The hotel's lobby was beautifully decorated for Christmas, as was the dining room where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast buffet.

The Hong Kong cruise terminal has a park on the roof!

Our first stop was Halong Bay, the port closest to Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. Hanoi is 160 km inland from Halong. Our bus tour lasted over 12 hours, including a two-hour drive each way. The weather was gray and overcast all day, and it rained in the afternoon. Still, Hanoi was a beautiful, interesting city. Photos and stories are in this new post.

On our second day in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, we boarded a 40-person boat for a tour of the bay. The jagged rock islands rising from the sea have been photographed many times, but there’s nothing like seeing them in person. Photos from Ha Long Bay and the spectacular Thien Cung Cave are in this new post.

After Ha Long Bay and Hanoi, the next port was Chan May in central Vietnam, gateway to Da Nang. But the weather forecast called for a high probability of rain throughout the day with very limited visibility. We decided to cancel our shore excursion to the Golden Bridge and Ba Na Hills.

Photo credit: Simon Van Rompaey

While we were disappointed to miss these sights, we were satisfied with our decision. Those who went reported that it did, in fact, rain all day and the clouds/fog up in the mountains made it impossible to see the entire bridge.

Our next stop was Ho Chi Minh City – formerly known as Saigon, the capital of the former South Vietnam. Photos and stories from our excursion are in our latest post.

We hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you have survived Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday - to be inevitably followed by Bankruptcy Wednesday. Since we were on our Southeast Asia cruise, we didn't experience any of that.

We spent our Thanksgiving onboard the Celebrity Solstice, on our last sea day before the end of the cruise. It was the first time we celebrated Thanksgiving while traveling. The ship elevated its lunchtime buffet offerings with a feast of international dishes and plentiful desserts, and the dinner menu included some Thanksgiving-themed options.

After leaving Vietnam, our ship docked at the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand, for two days. Laem Chabang is a two-hour drive from Bangkok. This made for a long day. Thankfully, we had a wonderful tour guide named Opal who kept us entertained and informed. Photos and stories from our excursion to Bangkok are in this new post.

On our second day, we visited Pattaya, a beach resort city a mere 45 minutes from the port. After enduring two-hour drives to Bangkok and all the cities we visited in Vietnam, this seemed like a hop, skip, and a jump.

The most remarkable stop in Pattaya was the Sanctuary of Truth. Neither of us had ever heard of it, and when we saw it we were blown away! We were amazed and inspired by the beautiful building and the thousands of wood-carved figures. It was a truly jaw-dropping, magnificent display of artistry and craftsmanship. Check out our latest post for a description of the Sanctuary of Truth and some amazing pictures.

After leaving Laem Chabang, Thailand, where we visited Bangkok and Pattaya, our cruise stopped at Koh Samui, an island just off the coast of peninsular Thailand.

Although Koh Samui was the least-known of all our stops on this cruise, we enjoyed it. While tourism is one of the main drivers of the island’s economy, the island wasn’t overdeveloped. The vibe seemed more relaxed. It was a nice glimpse of life in Thailand outside of the big city.

We stopped at a beach, ate lunch at a nice resort, learned how coconuts are harvested, and saw several Buddhas. Check out our latest post for pictures from Koh Samui.

We hope you're doing well and enjoying the holiday season! We've been in Australia for the past ten days (first Perth, now Adelaide). It's early summer here, so it's warm and sunny. Still, there are Christmas decorations in many businesses and public spaces. Of course, we're accustomed to non-white Christmases in Arizona too, but our December is hardly what we'd call summer. Summer Christmases are the norm here, which probably makes many of our carols nonsensical to Aussies.

Prior to Australia, at the conclusion of our Southeast Asia cruise in November 2025, we stayed four extra days in Singapore to discover what that city had to offer. We did a lot; enough that we've split our Singapore experience into three posts.

The first post covers most of our experiences around town - the museums we visited, where we stayed, our dining adventures, and our visit to the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel (as interlopers, not guests).

The second post covers our visits to the Gardens by the Bay, near the Marina Bay Sands. It's an entertainment complex featuring (among other things) 18 man-made "Supertrees," the Flower Dome, and the Cloud Forest.

The third post covers our visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which is most notable for its beautiful, awe-inspiring orchid garden. If you're into beautiful flowers, you'll love this.

Yes, both of these pictures were taken on the same day and yes, we do wash our clothes. Our apartment had a washer/dryer.

We returned home last Sunday, December 14. The return trip, from Adelaide to Melbourne to Los Angeles to Phoenix, took about 24 hours. The MEL-LAX leg took 13 1/2 hours. It was exhausting! We're not getting any younger! And we swear they are moving the continents farther apart.

That aside, we're still reveling in the glow from our time in Australia, especially Perth. We LOVED Perth. It was beautiful, the people were friendly, and it had a relaxed, welcoming vibe that made us instantly like the place. We could easily live there if only Australia offered a residency visa that retirees could qualify for.

Here is the first of three posts about Perth. It covers most of our visit. We'll have photos from a couple of day trips we took posted soon; we'll let you know.

As promised in our last newsletter, here are two more posts about Perth. We enjoyed every day in Perth, but these two days were particularly special.

We took a day trip to Rottnest Island, 18 km west of Perth (or more specifically, the port of Fremantle). Rottnest Island is a largely unspoiled island of pristine beaches, aquamarine bays, bike tracks, and walking trails. There are no cars, only a few tour buses and hundreds of bikes and e-bikes.

It’s also home to the quokka, a small, adorable marsupial that’s indigenous to Rottnest Island and a remote area of Western Australia. Photos and stories from our day on this remarkable island are in this new post.

Then we took a wine tasting tour in the scenic Swan River Valley, northeast of Perth. It was the best wine tour we've ever taken. We cruised up the river for two hours, sipping delicious wine, eating gourmet food, and taking in the lovely scenery. After lunch, we boarded a coach which took us to two wineries, a gigantic chocolate store, and a brewery. Photos and stories from this indulgent and memorable day are in this new post.

If you haven't had time to check it out yet, here is the first of three posts about Perth. It covers the rest of our visit.

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

We wrapped up our Fall 2025 SE Asia/Australia trip with five nights and four days in Adelaide. 

Downtown Adelaide is surrounded by 19,000 acres of parkland. Among the 29 named parks, several museums, and a sports arena (The Adelaide Oval) are the Adelaide Zoo and Adelaide Botanic Garden. We visited both during our stay.

Check out pictures of exotic animals and beautiful plants in our latest post. Warning: contains extreme cuteness!

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

Happy New Year! We hope your 2026 will be a year of happiness, health, fulfillment, and prosperity. 

We are filled with gratitude for the opportunity to visit some of the places we have dreamed of seeing for many years. More to come in 2026!

Dave put together this short (2:34) video which highlights the places we visited in 2025. We hope you enjoy it.

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

Happy New Year! We hope 2026 is off to a good start for you. 

All of our logistical arrangements are in place for our trip to New Zealand and eastern Australia, starting on February 8. Now we are starting to look ahead to May, when we're planning to return to Europe to visit Spain and southern France. 

The highlight of our visit to Adelaide was the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). What made AGSA so appealing was the wide range of art on display. Paintings, sculptures, furniture, glass creations, fashion, suspended materials, and more were often placed together to create multi-faceted rooms. Old and new works were displayed side by side. We appreciated this boundary-free approach to experiencing art. The variety kept our interest and allowed us to notice each piece on an individual basis rather than being, for example, one painting in a room of fifty.

We don't usually take many pictures inside museums, but we took a lot here. We share some of the most remarkable ones in our latest post.

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

The last destination on our Fall 2025 SE Asia-Australia trip was Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Adelaide was a nice city with some interesting things to see and do. We stayed five nights and four days – about the right length of time.

We enjoyed the Adelaide Zoo and the Adelaide Botanic Garden, which we covered in this post. The highlight of the city, for us, was the Art Gallery of South Australia, which we covered in this post.

In our latest post, we share a little bit of the story of Adelaide’s founding and some pictures of the downtown area where we stayed and the surrounding countryside, which we visited on a wine tour. You'll see a birds-eye view of the Adelaide metro area from Mt. Lofty, a charming German village called Hahndorf, the enigmatic d'Arenberg Cube, wineries (of course!), the beautiful beach at Glenelg, some food porn, and a cute animal!

If you have any questions about any of the places we've visited or about extended travel in general, please feel welcome to ask. Just reply to this email. We enjoy receiving email and sharing what we've learned and experienced.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!

As you’ve probably noticed, we enjoy taking pictures when we travel.

(Right now, you're probably thinking, “Nooo…!!!”) Haha…

Sometimes we want to take a picture with both of us in it, but there's nobody around to take one for us. Sometimes when we look at our pictures later, one we really like that was taken through a bus window or a display case is compromised because it shows a very noticeable reflection. Sometimes we want to combine the best elements of two different pictures, adjust colors, or make other improvements.

In our latest post, we share a few tips and tricks we use to repair or improve our photos after the fact. We hope you find some of them useful for your picture-taking.

We're putting the final touches on our next trip to New Zealand and Australia. We booked our flights and accommodations in late October and early November, and now we're booking a few tours and making reservations for things that need to be reserved in advance.

At seven weeks, this will be our longest trip, and probably the longest one we'll ever take. Since the flights are so long, we decided we'd rather take one trip and stay a long time rather than take two shorter trips. Our layovers are in Honolulu in both directions, and we're going to stay for three nights on the way there and one night on the way back, so that will break up the trip a bit.

Here's where we're going, with the number of nights in parentheses:

New Zealand: Auckland (4), Queenstown (4), Dunedin (2), Oamaru (2), Christchurch (2), Wellington (3), Napier (2), Rotorua (3), Hamilton (3). We'll travel between most cities by bus.

Australia: Hobart (4), Melbourne (4), Brisbane (5), Sydney (5). We'll travel between these cities by plane.

If you have any suggestions for things to do (or not do) in these destinations, please reply to this email and let us know. We have a pretty good list already, but recommendations from people who have been there are always appreciated.

Thanks for your interest in our travels!