10 Years of Wedded Bliss

Neither of us can believe that we've been married for ten years. Okay, maybe not every moment has been blissful, but overall, we've had a great time in these ten years. Looking back at it, it feels like we got married very young, especially given that most of our friends have gotten married in the last 3 years or so, but after dating for 6 years it felt like the time was right. Nonetheless, we are both really thankful that we've grown together over the years instead of apart!

So as this big milestone approached and having all of Europe in our backyard, there was a lot of pressure to put together a momentous trip to mark the occasion. We discussed it and researched and researched, consulted with others, went to the book store, spent countless hours on Fodors and Tripadvisor and in the end Greg recommended we head to Puglia, Italy. This was on our list for some time, but we weren't sure if it could beat our Tuscany trips. Also, we felt that we might get bored being in one place for ten days, so we decided to start the trip in the Champagne region of France. It was a place I've been wanting to see for a while and seemed a great place to kick off a celebratory trip.

We flew from London to Paris (cheaper than a one way ticket on the Eurostar), picked up a car and were in Epernay in time for lunch. Epernay was larger than we imagined and was surprisingly empty of tourists...we actually found this to be the case most of the trip. I am not sure if this due to the weak dollar, the global recession or both, but it was a bit odd to have it so quiet.

In the afternoon, we toured the Moet Chandon house and caves, which was fascinating and highly recommended. Napoleon was a close friend of the family and would always make a run though Epernay on his way to major battles to stock up on champagne so he could celebrate with champers when he was victorious. The caves are dug out of the chalk ground that naturally occurs in the area and maintains a constant temperature and humidity making it a perfect spot to age bubbly. Their oldest bottle was from the late 1800s and they have more than 10 million bottles in stock. These caves (nearly twenty miles of them belong to Moet Chandon and several hundred all together if you include the other champagne houses of Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot, Piper, etc.) were instrumental during WWI, as entire cities moved underground to avoid the bombing. Reims (the largest city in the region and on the front throughout the war) was bombed for more than 1000 days straight and nearly every building was destroyed including most of the Cathedral of Reims - the place where kings of France were crowned.

Okay, enough of the history lesson. The area is beautiful, full of vineyards, old French chateaus, castles, and forests. We stayed at Chateau d'Etoges which was built in the 17th century and we loved its moat, swans, ducks, chickens and garden. The staff were very friendly and had a great restaurant, delicious breakfast, but they need to update their rooms to match the rest of the inn. Overall, it was a great start to the trip, but would probably recommend spending only one full day and night there (or even a day trip from Paris is pretty easy to manage) since there is only so much champagne one can taste in a day - even for me!

We didn't really have much of a plan for day three. All we knew is we needed to be at the Holiday Inn at Orly (posh, I know, but there weren't really any great options near the airport...actually, it was surprisingly new and clean) at the end of the day for our flight the next day to Napoli. Greg had never been to the beaches at Normandy and I remember going when I was a kid and thinking it was pretty cool, so we headed west. We were just outside of Paris at around lunch time and decided lunch at our favorite Bistrot Vivienne was in order. Driving in Paris was challenging, but parking in Paris was impossible! We made it, but it took much longer than we imagined. After a satisfying lunch, we hit the road and got to the beaches at around 6pm....when everything closed. We'll just have to go back one day, but we saw Omaha Beach and the drive was lovely. After dinner in Caen, we hit the road back to Paris. Despite not looking that far in the map, it was a long day in the car.

An uneventful flight got us to Napoli where we picked up the car and drove to what I like to call the stiletto heel of the boot, Puglia. Unfortunately, this meant another three hour drive (there weren't any great flights to Bari, a much closer airport) but it was more than worth it in the end. The landscape was full of farmland and olive groves. It was extremely windy and there were a few field fires - one that caused a very serious accident only a few cars in front of us and was a good reminder to both of us that life can change in an instant.

We arrived in the coastal town of Fasano and at the spectacular Massaria Torre Maizza at last. We were not disappointed, which was such a relief after all that planning. Greg is a fantastic job of finding a perfect spot to spend the rest of our trip. I can't say enough great things about this hotel. The service was impeccable, the food was amazing, the pool and bar were both relaxing and hip, and the rooms were luxurious and had a unique, un-hotel like athstetic. We were in heaven.

Our days were filled will spectacular breakfasts with nearly 40 plus options of gorgeous fruit, cheese, meat, pasties, etc and lots of much needed pool time. At night we headed into neighboring towns for dinner and would recommend Osteria La Madonnia in Ostuni for a great meal and celebrated the official day with dinner at Osteria Sotto L'Arco in Brindisi (be sure to ask for their one outside table looking over the plaza).

Puglia is actually responsible for something like 80% of Italy's pasta, olive oil and much of its produce, so you can imagine the food here is amazing. While not yet famous for their wines, the are gaining popularity. We tried a few of the Primitivos (similar to Zinfandels) and a Negroamaro which is much subtler and delicious. I also tried a delicious after dinner drink made of almonds (think a jordan almond in a glass) called latte della mandorla that I must fine a recipe for as it was amazing.

We could really only tear ourselves away from the pool for one day (the sun wasn't out in the morning) and headed into Alberobello which is famous for it's trullo style of house. It turns out that these clever Apulians knew the only home owners had to pay taxes, so they built a type of house that could be easily dismantled when the tax man came - they look like they would be pretty hard to take apart to me, but what do I know? Should you find yourself in this town, you must lunch at La Cantina towards the church off the main plaza. Here you will feel like you are at the owners home and enjoy a delicious meal.

It was an outstanding trip - our best yet!

Tottens in Tuscany

Dear friends David (aka DWT) and Treva Totten decided that buying a shower-less house on Queen Anne hill wasn’t going to use up all of Dave’s MSFT bonus so they booked a 2 week vacation to Europe while the Euro climbed to 1.6:1 versus the dollar. Well done. Dave also timed the start of a new job and their move to be the week before they left for Paris (via an 8 hour layover in Phoenix in July). As a reminder, Dave has never been known for his good judgement.

Anyway, we decided to meet up with the Tottens in Tuscany to show them around Radda and Chianti. We arrived early at the Relais Vignale and the Tottens met us there in time for dinner the first night. I must have been more excited to see them than I realized because I first ordered a bottle of prosecco followed and a magnum of Chianti. I will confess that I didn’t know a magnum was 2 full bottles – I thought it was more like 1 ½ . Oh well. I think I would have been fine but then we decided to retire to the bar for limoncello. Dave and I decided to get up somewhat early and go for a little jog to start off the day and then it was the usual breakfast-pool-lunch routine. We went to lunch at a new place on the way to gelato in Castellina and then some wine-tasting in Greve. I wasn’t having anything to do with wine on this day. I tried beer and Gatorade but needed a nap more than anything. After a quick nap under a shady tree we headed to the famed Da Michele for pizza and pasta. It was unusually quiet (no long queue with people leaving disappointed or any drama involving prolonged waits for orders to arrive) and Michele seemed out of sorts. Anyway, I stuck with beer and Dave ordered the “grande”.

The Magnum is bigger than Treva

Chillin at the pool

Tiff and Treva at the Vignale

Feeling much better the next morning so Dave and I repeated our little jog followed by breakfast-pool-lunch. The Tottens decided to tag along for some shopping so we looked for a place to lunch near Montevarchi. Found a place up in some tiny little village that sounded great, but they were closed for lunch. Minor panic ensued because we didn’t have a backup plan, lunch time was coming to an end and we didn’t want to waste a lunch in Italy at Autogrill or something. We basically found a major road, followed the signs to an Osteria and decided to give it a go. Turned out to be another great meal in Tuscany. Hit the D&G and Prada stores where Treva came close to buying some shoes while Dave wondered if there was an extra digit on each price tag. Wrapped up the evening at our favorite little restaurant in Radda – Al Chiasso dei Portici – where Dave and I finished off the steak for two.

The tastiest sandwich I've ever eaten

The random restaurant




Dave hadn’t run in months so he managed to hurt his back after back-to-back runs so no running on Sunday. The weather was actually rainy too so it was a good day to be travelling to the Cinque Terre. Dave needed to drop off his rental car on our way, and Tiff and I hadn’t been to Florence in 13 years so I suggested we hit Florence on the way. I must say that I was pretty disappointed. I’m sure the art museum is great, but other than that…I must be missing something. Plus, the AGIP gas station there owes us €9 of diesel so I’m boycotting AGIP and Florence from here on out.

We made it to our hotel in Santa Margherita relatively unscathed (one mirror rubbing incident aside). We stayed at the Hotel Tigullio et de Milan which was totally fine in my opinion. We ventured out to the harbour-like area for some dinner. The restaurants aren’t like those you’ll find in Tuscany, but they were fine. We came back to the hotel, grabbed some drinks from the bar and headed to the roof deck to wind down the evening where we were surprisingly treated to a fireworks show.


The hike


The hike between the five hill towns was the main activity of the next two days. We took a train to Riomaggioire and did the first 3 legs to Vernazza. I was in favour of knocking out the last leg on the first day, but was overruled as it was starting to rain and the thought of sitting down for a drink was too good to pass up. In spite of DWT’s last second loss of courage, we snuck on to the fast train back to Santa Margherita and headed to a pizza/pasta restaurant that was just off the main square of the town. As we were deciding on the place, a guy was warming up for a music act so we were treated to good people watching as most of the town converged on the square for the show as well as a pretty good one man show. Turns out he was doing some sort of recent history program so we wandered over after dinner and listened to Ants Marching with Italian subtitles. The last day we finished the last leg of the hike. The lady over-charged me for the train tickets, but I challenge anyone who doesn’t speak Italian to go back and get a refund. After training it back, we said a sad goodbye to the Tottens and headed down to Pisa to fly back to London. The trip home was not as blessed as the rest of the trip – I messed up the time zone difference and our flight was delayed so we left about two hours before we needed, I was about €9 short (damn AGIP) on filling up the car with gas and the machines wouldn’t take my card and the car ride home from Gatwick was painful but all that couldn’t damper our spirits from the trip.


Dave and Treva after the 'concert'

Brighton Beach Memoirs

We’ve wanted to get to Brighton for some time now. Last summer it was so rainy we never made it, but one sunny afternoon we packed up the Doodle and headed for the beach. Slightly more than an hour later, we were navigating our way through the rocks (not sure what the allure of rock beaches are) towards the water.

Brighton was a popular health resort town in the 18th century, but today it is sort of like what I imagine Coney Island to be like, but having never been, I can’t say for sure. It’s famous for its fish and chips, amusement rides out on an old wooden pier and is considered the “gay capitol of Briton”. There are quite a few shops and restaurants, we had lunch at The Eagle which I would recommend.

A must see should you find yourself there, is the Royal Pavilion. This spectacular structure was the weekend home of George IV and is full of amazing chinoiserie including lots of chandeliers featuring dragons and snakes. They wouldn’t let me take any photos inside, but you can look at the their web site – doesn’t really do it justice. While my favorite castle exterior is in Sintra, Portugal, this is my favorite castle/palace interior.

The highlight of the day was definitely watching the joy on Morgan’s face as she bounded through the water to catch various sticks. I think it brought her back to her puppyhood memories at Seaside. I am pretty sure she would chased that oar until she drown from exhaustion.

Morgan sunbathing

Wimbledon

A friend of mine from business school just started a job with the USTA and he was able to get some Centre Court tickets for the Gentleman's Quarterfinals. Saw Nadal play a Brit (Andy Murray) and Federer with only one rain delay. Overall it's a great event. Very English. A lot more people are wandering the grounds than I would have thought so it was actually quite crowded trying to walk around during the rain delay. The Centre Court crowd was kinda annoying - over eager to laugh at anything that gets yelled out from the crowd. The squirrel-like movements of the ball boys and girls was quite humorous - it's hard to see on TV, but watch them next time. Anyway, some photos.

Got my strawberries and cream.

Champ-to-be Venus looking bored during the rain delay.

Next year the retractable roof...

Roger dominating.

Big week for Spain.

The non-grandstand courts are pretty sweet - could step over a 3 foot wall and onto the court.

Another Celeb Sighting

Yes, this one is decidedly B list and maybe even further down the alphabet in the US - I am not sure how big she is there these days (I think she and her hubby had a show on MTV at one point).

Anyway, we saw Jordan (aka Katie Price) on her way back from a photo shoot on the beach in Brighton. She is basically the English equivalent of Pam Anderson. I must say, she looked great - jet black hair and crazy neon green and orange knee high stockings. She had a robe on (much to Greg's disappointment), but if I see any photos form the shoot, I will post them.

For anyone who doesn't know her, her is a shot of her with her husband Peter Andre

Istanbul, Turkey (What came first bird or country?)

Turkey (turns out some English bloke misnamed the bird - google it for more details) was on our list of places to see, but pretty far down the list and we were unlikely to make it there if we knocked down our places in order. However, Tiff got rave reviews from a co-worker that had just returned from Istanbul, and she also saw an episode of the Today show featuring Where in the World is Matt Lauer and he happened to be in Istanbul. Next thing you know we’re buying tickets. I must admit, I was reluctant to venture back to Eastern Europe after our Croatia experience, but I figured if that doofus Lauer can do it, then so can I.

Tiff had a business meeting in Switzerland so we met up at the Istanbul airport late on Friday night. The hotel we booked actually sent a guy to pick us up – eventhough it was after midnight which was pretty impressive. The late night desk staff was almost too friendly/helpful. It was 1am and while we did appreciate the sparkling water, we really just wanted to unpack and go to sleep but the guy went through some tour brochures and highlighted the sights on a map. Like I said, I’m sure we would have been more appreciative if it was 1pm vs 1am. Anyway, we stayed at the Sirkeci Konak hotel which is number one on Tripadvisor, and despite the prolonged check in process, I would highly recommend it for the friendly staff, moderate pricing, good restaurant, solid rooms and surprisingly nice fitness and spa facilities. However, if we had to do it over again, I might choose a different place purely due to location. The hotel is located in the “old” (old meaning 500 A.D) part of the city where most of the tourist attractions are located such as the Topkapi Palace, mosques, the Old Bazaar and the Yerebataban Cistern. We did spend one day powering through the touristy things, but we spent more time in the “new” (new meaning 1000 A.D.+) part of the city where the non (or at least less) touristy restaurants are located. We did make very good use of the lightrail system they had to take us across the river and between the two parts of the city. It was great, except that it stopped at the base of the hill on the “new” part of the city – called Beyoglu, so we had to hoof it up and down for every meal. Probably a good thing for the BMI but when it’s 80 and sunny and you’re used to London/Seattle weather it could be a bit much.

Tiff in front of the Blue Mosque (the Matt Lauer shot)



Tiff inside the Yerebataban Cistern




The Grand Bazaar


The Sultan's greeting room at the Harem of the Topkapi Palace



Me in the Harem


Eating a Turkish bagel. Tasty.


The first day we spent really just walking around getting our bearings. Hit a Starbucks (there were probably a half dozen we saw) for breakfast. Met an overly friendly (sensing a theme here?) Turkish guy who walked a few blocks with us and then pointed out the souvenir shop where he works. We quickly kept moving past the shop and kept walking across the river to Beyoglu. We stopped off at the Galata House restaurant for lunch. The food (Russian inspired) was OK, but it was a great setting because at first it was just us and the chef (who spoke very little English). After we ordered we were joined by a pretty annoying Englishman and his Russian girlfriend, but they provided some entertainment. After walking around Beyoglu we stopped into the House Café (really cool ambiance) for some cool/fruity drinks and then walked back to the hotel to get cleaned up. After being on our feet all day we decided to take advantage of our complimentary dinner at the hotel – it was actually really good. I must say that after the first day, I wasn’t loving Istanbul. It was hard to tell if the people were really friendly or if they were trying to lure you in and rob you, the men were pretty ripe and would just stare at women, the city is pretty dirty, and many of the restaurants had guys outside aggressively trying to get you in which can be pretty annoying.

Drinks at the House Cafe




Dinner at the hotel. They made me a delicious bass.


The plan the next day was to hit a couple of sights in the morning and then find a pool in the afternoon because Tiff was jonesing for some pool time. I guess that Muslims believe that standing water is dirty (they’re probably right) so there aren’t a lot of outdoor pools in Istanbul and the ones that are available are at very high end hotels that charged non-guests ~$100 / day to hang out. We hit Tokyo for lunch (Tiff was also jonesing for yakisoba after having some in Lisbon a couple weeks ago) but it clouded over in the afternoon so we powered through the rest of the sights we wanted to see, hit the hotel pool, sauna and hamam and then returned to Beyoglu for dinner at one of Istanbul’s many rooftop restaurants – 360. We wrapped up the day by sitting outside in a little alley where one of the local bars had set up a big screen for the Turkey v. Czech Republic football game. I had a couple of Efes Pilsens and Tiff tried some raki – which tasted to me like ouzo. We only stayed for the first half because Tiff had some work to do and the riot police were out so I thought it might be better if we were closer to the hotel. I was surprised at how subdued the crowd was during the first half. Some emotion when Turkey missed a good chance and also when Czech scored, but it was pretty limited. Of course Turkey came back from 0-2 by scoring the levelling and go-ahead goals in the span of 3 minutes. Update: Turkey repeated their miracle comeback by tying Croatia in the 31st minute of extra time. Actually, there was only supposed to be 1 minute of injury time and the clock read 31:04 when the ball was in the back of the net, so if anyone is reading this that really understands soccer please explain this to me in a comment. Anyway, Turkey is now in the semis of the Euro Cup and it was very cool to be there and see the energy of the city after Turkey’s victory.


Rooftop dinner at 360.


We spent the last day just soaking in the city. The sun came and went behind clouds so we never made it to the pool, but we stopped by Cremeria Milano for some of the best gelato I’ve had outside of Italy and we ventured out to the Bosphorus Villages for drinks at House Cafe and dinner at Banyan along the river. To me, this is when I really came to appreciate Istanbul and overcame my negative/culture shock initial impressions. It was really a stunning setting to be right on the Bosphorus at a well designed restaurant (the Turks must have inherited their design eye from the Italians) with the Asian continent on the other side of the bridge, the mosques dotting the skyline and the prayer chants filling the background. Not sure if we’ll have time, but we’d love to make it back Istanbul.


Typical bar snacks



Tiff at Banyan


Tiff calls this the "money shot"

Just Saying No in Lisbon

Portugal has been near the top of our list to visit for some time and it didn't disappoint. While we only made it to Lisbon and Sintra, we will definitely be back at some point to visit some smaller towns and beaches.

While yes, there are many San Francisco like elements, it reminded me more of a cross between Miami and New Orleans from an architecture perspective. While many of the buildings are abandoned they still have a ton of charm and the tiles and iron work was really beautiful. I also loved these Jacaranda trees all over the city with their beautiful purple flowers. The food was delicious and there was just enough to do to fill three days with a day trip to Sintra (could have done a day trip to the beaches but the weather was pretty so so) without exhausting ourselves.


We stayed at the Sofitel Lisbon. I am not generally a huge fan of the chain hotels, the HP employee discount was good and it ended up being a nice hotel in a great location - I would recommend it. Other highlights should you find yourself in Lisbon include a visit to the Confeitaria de Belem in Belem for 'pasteis da nata' which are little custard tarts. They sell them all over, but this place is suppose to have the best - supposedly they are cranking out up to 20K a day of these on a weekend day. We decided earn our treat buy running the 4ish miles to their location west of down town, but took the lightrail back which was easy enough.

Another must try is the gambas a bras which is a paella-like dish but rather than rice, it's made with julienned crispy potatoes with onion, egg and shrimp. We had this twice a restaurant called Ribadouro (just up the hill one block from the hotel) which was delicious. Other restaurants we tried included Luca which had a good atmosphere, but the food was so so - probably better for a drink instead of dinner. We also ate at the Royale Cafe (perfect for breakfast or a quick lunch in a cool atmosphere. We also had our first Brazilian food in Lisbon at a cute spot called Comida de Santo with great food and service.

Our day trip to Sintra was also fun. We took a train to out to this UNESCO world heritage site and a bus to two different palaces - Palacio National and probably my favorite castle in Europe thus far, Palacio de Pena. de Palacio Pena has really different architecture then most castles with gargoyles and this very cool Triton.


The only sort of creepy part of Lisbon is the drug scene. The first night we were there Greg was propositioned quite openly nearly ten times. First they would try to interest them with hash and when he declined that they would offer up cocaine. We wondered if he is just so skinny they figured he was an addict or what as we didn't really see anyone else getting quite the same level of attention. Once he said no to both offers, they left us alone so we never really felt scared, just thought it was odd.

It was another great trip and we will be back sometime in the future.