Category Travel
Marrakesh, Day 1: Riad Eden
As we emerged from passport control and baggage claim at the Marrakesh airport, we were happy to see a skinny young man holding a sign for Riad Eden. The new chez nous for the next three days. Bashir (that was his name) was friendly and assumed I was Spanish (because no one ever thinks I’m American) until I […]
Flight to Morocco
What do you do when you have a flight to catch at 12:40pm and you don’t know whether the airport in question is going to be more like Reagan National (pretty smooth and easy) or Charles de Gaulle (worst ever; think ninth ring of hell)? You hedge your bets and get your CDG game on. That way whatever […]
Madrid, Day 2: Viva la Revolucion
As anyone who’s been watching the economic woes of Europe knows, things have been rough for Spain lately. They’re on the brink of defaulting and causing (along with Greece and others) the downfall of the Euro. So in the past few weeks people have been asking me whether I felt any trepidation about going to […]
Madrid, Day 2: Hat!
I bought a hat today. It’s blue and trendy and completely unpackable — but I need something to keep the sun off my head in Morocco, and I think I’ll be able to pull this one off. We found the hat shop yesterday on our way from the Plaza Mayor to the chocolateria. The hats caught my […]
Madrid, Day 2: Two museums and a park
Madrid is home to three world-class museums: the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Reina Sofia is primarily modern art and located only about a block from our hotel. We went last night after our walking tour — didn’t have time to see the whole collection (we had that Michelin reservation, after all) […]
Packed
Just look at those lovelies, sitting there all ready to go. More than enough clothes to last me for two weeks, plus room to spare for market finds in Morocco. I can hardly wait — by this time time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane over the Atlantic en route to Madrid (then Morocco, then back to Spain […]
Memorial Day Weekend – Annapolis
By the time we were finished jetskiing, Tim and I were STARVING — jetskiing on rough waters is surprisingly physically demanding (and of course I was still recovering from my 50-miler earlier in the morning). Rather than drive all the way back to DC, we went up the road to nearby Annapolis. The first order of business […]
Baltimore: Kinetic Sculpture Race
Baltimore is an odd city with a lovely inner harbor. Nautical tranquility is nice, but that’s not why I went to Baltimore on Saturday. The goal of the visit was to see the craziness that is the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race. Think of this race as what you might get if the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had a […]
Booked!
And the destination for this year’s grand adventure will be . . . [drumroll] . . . Spain and Morocco! It’s quite a shift from the original plan of doing Russia (the goal had been to start in Berlin and end up in St. Petersburg), but since Amanda is going to be in Spain anyway this summer, this switch […]
New York – Sightseeing
Lest someone accuse us of not being well-rounded in our dining/theater spree, Amanda and I managed to work some sight-seeing into our itinerary. Our first interest was to see the recently finished renovations/remodeling of Lincoln Center. Over the last four years the arts complex had tried to undo some of the unfortunate architectural blunders of the original layout, […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 