The place hasn’t changed that much, but László had a lot of fun showing us around. He was really into the idea that something really important to his parents happened there, even if he didn’t totally understand what was so important about it. We had a delicious Great Lakes Crunch Pie from Betty’s which has changed pretty significantly in the last 10 years. They majorly expanded their parking lot behind the building and now have a special (at least partly permanent) tent for to go orders. Word has gotten out, apparently.

It was honestly a bit of a relief to see the north shore thriving in the post-covid era, especially with the warm winter just past us, northern climate tourism has had a tough few years.

Anyway, you didn’t come here for blathering on and waxing about the state of the north woods economy. You came here for Camping Content and I shall deliver.

Da Yoop

We first encountered the strangely named Little Girl’s Point County Park this past winter when we took a day trip up to Lake Superior sometime after Christmas. The campsites here are right on the cliff overlooking the lake, and we decided to come back and give them a shot.

It was hard to figure out how the campground intended us to pull into these sites. Pulled in next to the power pole, the camper barely fit but the entrance faced a different site. Pulled in parallel to the shore, the power cord becomes a trip hazard and barely reaches.

Campsites here also don’t have any water and there is no fill or dump station here. If you’re coming by travel trailer, fill stations were hard to come by because Curry Park Campground in Ironwood was not open yet. Fortunately, we filled before we left and were good on water. There are more options for dumping, including at Saxon Harbor, WI. You’ll probably have better luck later in the season. If you’re tent camping, you have a little more flexibility because you can fill all your bottles at a Kwik Trip or bubblers at the marinas. Still, make a plan because there is very little potable water on site.

Minor gripes aside, it’s hard to argue with a view like this.

The campsite is perched right on top of a cliff eroded by thousands of years of lake activity battering the shoreline. We got to witness a small amount of this powerful activity as heavy winds from Canada blew across the lake and kicked up waves that were 8 – 10 feet at the highest.

Someone from Ashland told us the beach used to be entirely rock, but a storm a few years ago collapsed some of the cliff and dredged up a bunch of sand from the lake. This is still a fantastic beach for picking agates, driftwood, and other lake artifacts, but I found myself wondering what it was and marveling at the power of wind and water amplified over time.

OK, let’s be honest, I do that a lot.

North Shore, MN

We stayed in the UP until my birthday and then drove across the lake’s Wisconsin portion and into one of my favorite cities of all time: Duluth, MN. The drive into this city couldn’t be more incredible. After passing through the Ashland area, the highway winds inland for a while, giving glimpses of a horizon you’re not sure if is water or sky. Then, you’re suddenly in Superior, WI and crossing a giant bridge spanning the twin ports (busier than the Port of Milwaukee, FWIW) with a massive panoramic view of large ships on the inner harbor, the hills and towers that make up Duluth’s skyline, and all of Lake Superior stretching northward.

We spent the afternoon in Duluth where László discovered his “new hobby” of climbing on breakwater walls.

We also timed our visit just right to see the annual Smelt Parade. It was exactly as amazingly strange as I expected it to be, with a good dose of environmentalist anti-capitalism tossed in for good measure. At least, I think that’s what was going on; we had to leave early because we couldn’t hear very well and László was scared of the greedy baron.

No idea who the dude in the white hat was but thanks for photo bombing, bro!

After a brief hang and a requisite stop at Duluth Pack, we made for Castle Danger for the night. At Grand Superior, László was pretty endearingly enamored with the whole scene and imagining whatever happened at this thing called a wedding. He also got to practice his new hobby. I have to say, he refined his craft quickly. We made it all the way across the shoreline to the other end of Grand Superior’s property without falling in the water. He even enrolled Zoli in the fun.

The next morning we went up the coast further to Split Rock Lighthouse and Black Beach. The latter is a newish beach created from decades of taconite mine tailings that had been dumped into the lake, then washed ashore by nature. This means the entire beach is a by product of pollution and it is highly magnetic. When I set my phone down in the sand, the taconite stuck to the MagSafe attachments on the back. It’d be cool to see someone make some taconite sand castles held together by a magnetic base. This beach has existed for quite a while, but it was only in 2015 that it opened to the public. The park around it is very much still being built, but there’s a campground on site that would be fun to stay at someday.

Jay Cooke State Park

Our final stop on the trip was a camping adventure at Minnesota’s Jay Cooke State Park, about 15 minutes south of Duluth. What a fantastic park and campground. There were modern bathrooms and showers with private doors. An outdoor dishwashing station was much easier to use than either washing them in the camper sink, not to mention a bin at a campsite.

The swing bridge was a short walk from the camper and László and I had a blast walking back and forth across it and the climbing on the big rocks on the other side. It was a struggle to get him to turn around and go back for dinner. I wish I’d been able to stay a little longer and explore this park more, but I had to fly out to a conference the next morning.

All in all, it was a fun trip and we’re already looking forward to next year’s Memorial Day camp out!

(Something something … rail connections between different parts of the state would really help take the driving burden off even if we have to rent a car on the other side…. This isn’t a transit blog post; stay focused, Boone!)

The point is we had a great time, our friends, the Franciscos, came out from MN and we spent a few full days with them. Our kids got to play, and we got to see a different part of the Ice Age Trail than what we normally get to see.

Lake Wissota State Park

Our first night in we camped at Lake Wissota, a state park just outside Chippewa Falls, WI. We slept three in our family tent and, wouldn’t ya know it, László doesn’t fit on the same camp air mattress as us anymore. Note to future us: We need to pack a separate mat for him.

Wissota’s is a lovely campground, with a ton of sites for all kinds of camping equipment. It was nice to get everything set up and slept in because this may end up being the only camp trip we take this year. Might as well make it a good one! I’d love to come back and spend a full day exploring the campground, especially one where there’s not air quality advisories lingering around us the whole time.

Eau Claire Children’s Museum

One of the best Children’s Museums I’ve ever been to? Maybe? I was certainly not expecting it to be this good based on Eau Claire’s size alone. In fact, just about everything about Eau Claire was pleasantly surprising. It’s a lovely city on the confluence of two rivers, one I’ve driven past many times but never made it very far off the I-94 exit ramp. The Children’s Museum was all we did here but it was worth the stop. Also, if you’re a member of any other children’s museum in the region, check to see if your membership has any benefits for visiting others. We got free admission here through our Discovery World membership.

Ice Age Trail Visitor Center

If you aren’t from Wisconsin, you probably aren’t familiar with the Ice Age Trail, a long through trail that crosses the entire state over more than 1200 miles. It roughly traces the maximum extent of the glaciers that once covered and carved the modern landscape of the Great Lakes region. That glacier system only covered so much of the state, and the so-called “Driftless Area” is marked more by rolling hills, prairies, and dramatic riverfronts. Sites like this visitor center rest right on the edge of the Driftless area and serve a useful exposition of how these two landscapes and their symbiotic relationship.

This Ice Age Trail visitors center is also the headquarters for the Chippewa Moreaine State Recreation Area. The rangers here had a scavenger hunt for the two four year olds in our group who found animals like forest raccoons, turtles, snakes, and bears. László even got to touch a real snake.

From there we took the 0.7 mile Mammoth Nature Trail through the woods to see some real examples of the glacier-driven landscaping that happened thousands of years ago. The trail passes by three lakes, one of which was a “perched” lake, a new term to me. This is a lake that has its entire lakebed above the water table, with a clay bottom compressed and cemented together with other elements to become impervious. They usually hang between two “hummocks” and other features carved by the glaciers.

We’re a little low on pictures for this adventure, but it was a ton of fun and gorgeous.

To see the city from the lake was a real treat, and a vantage we don’t often see except in photos. The Calatrava designed art museum’s wings were out, the skies were clear, and the lake was buzzing with birds, sailors, and occasional larger tour vessels. Here are some photos. Welcome back to the Giovannetti’s!

Why these archipelagos? Well, we had this wacky idea to go big on this trip and take advantage of the relative time and freedom to visit places that would otherwise be intractable or require a lot of time to explore. It’s why we initially considered places in South America (until we decided we didn’t want to trade summer for more winter). Once we decided on Europe, we sought out unusual or hard to reach destinations. Eventually, we discovered the direct flights between the Azores and Boston and worked backward from there.

There are absolutely more efficient ways to get here for when we come back next time and presumably don’t have as much luxury with our time. If you live in Boston, though, why aren’t you taking more trips to the Azores?

Pineapples.

Among the only things I knew about the Azores before we got there was that they grew a unique kind of pineapple. It’s not a climate where pineapples grow wild or naturally, but the volcanic soil, like many other pineapple growing places in the world, gives pineapples the nutrition they need. The result are greenhouse grown fruit that come out in a slightly more petite form with bolder, sweeter flavor.

Azorean pineapple growers start with a rhizome, divide the young pants, then use a method called fumes (fumigation with smoke) to provoke them to set fruit. Each pineapple takes about two years from planting to harvest. It’s the primary method, used since the 1850s, for ensuring a consistent crop.

The plantation we visited, Boa Fruita’s Ananás dos Açores, grows the São Miguel Smooth Cayenne pineapple. I assume there are other plantations that grow different varieties, because we did see the larger, more familiar fruit, but these little fellers were all over the island with their distinctive look and aroma. You can learn more about their methods from their website.

Lakes

For how small São Miguel island is (about the size of Hawaii’s Molokai island), there’s sure a lot to do and see. We were a bit exhausted by car rentals, so we decided to get where we could by bus, taxi, and any tours we planned.

We ended up on an early morning bus to a place called Sete Cidades (meaning 7 cities) where some of the island’s earliest volcanic activity occurred. After several rounds of eruption and collapse, four of the craters left behind in the calderas filled with water to form inland lakes. The most famous of them is the Lagoa das Sete Cidades, a large lake near the village split into two the Blue and Green lakes.

Like Michigan and Huron, these are technically one big lake, but they’re distinctive enough that people think of them as two (and I assume choose favorites). There are some great looking hikes around the caldera rim and around each lake, but we decided to take a canoe out on the water and give our legs a rest for the day.

Even though we almost ran out of energy this day, I’m really glad we came here. For all the time we spent swimming in water, or attempting to seek it for cooling off, it was a nice change of pace to be surrounded by it, paddling across the surface while surrounded by the caldera walls.

It’s a well known fact that we love lakes, so it’s a good thing we saved some for a return visit: Lagoa do Fogo and Lagoa das Furnas are both on the east side of the island, a side we just scratched the surface of this time around. At the very least, we need to try the Cozido das Furnas next time.

Cheese

You can take us out of Wisconsin, but you can’t take Wisconsin out of us. One thing I hadn’t expected to encounter on the islands was local cheese. It turns out, several of these islands make their own cheese and it’s really freakin good! São Jorge cheese seems to be the most popular, but we found cheese from São Miguel, Terceira, Pico, and Faial at the grocery store as well.

In Ponta Delgada, we stumbled on a cheese shop that sold only locally sourced products and I have to say Wisconsin cheese makers need more stores like this. Inside, large shelves lined the walls with wheel after wheel of cheese. At the counter, three employees (cheese tenders?) rotated out the stock of cheese, cut wedges fresh off the wheel to order, and offered samples to customers who were looking for a certain flavor or style. They probably had five or six wheels on offer at a time, though the São Jorge went fast.

The next day, we stumbled on another one a few blocks away. As the smell of cheese literally carried down the block, I still couldn’t help from wonder why we don’t have cheese shops like this in Madison or Milwaukee. For all the award winning cheese we make here, it’s hard to find this kind of immersive tasting and buying experience. If someone knows where to buy cheese right off the wheel in Wisconsin, let us know in the comments.

Sea

As much as I wanted to SCUBA, a refresh course plus the costs of equipment and transportation to the dive site felt like more than I was up for. Fortunately, there’s always snorkeling, which has a lot of the perks of SCUBA with a lot less of the hassle.

We went with a company called Sea Colors, a research-driven shop on the Ponta Delgada marina. Though we didn’t look very hard, they were the only snorkeling outfit we knew about, and they didn’t over-sell us on their offering. For the price they charged, we got a hell of a deal. Our guides took us out to a beach off the beaten path. We had to hike down a bit, but once we were suited up and in the water, the whole world of the ocean opened up.

Among the aquatic life we saw were: scorpion fish, damsel fish, common and white seabreams, a moray eel, and a couple types of wrasse. Thankfully, we did not encounter any Portuguese Man-o-war but we did spot five octopuses, and even saw a couple of them scoot around on the bottom.

We highly recommend these folks if you’re on the island. It was a highlight of the trip for sure. They also have a whale and dolphin observation excursion that we heard is great, if you’re not interested in small critters. Next time, we’ll bring Go Pros so we can maybe take some photos of the fish.

It’s hard for my continent brain to imagine life here not feeling isolating, just as, I’m sure, it’s hard for some who live here to imagine being trapped by the land, or a landscape frozen five months of the year.

A tiny car; wild roads

We were on the main island of Madeira for about a week, just Danielle and I. We stayed in a parish community of about 3,000 outside Funchal called Porto da Cruz. We visited Funchal for a day trip, and I think we both agreed we were glad to not have stayed in another city, even if it made our trip a little more complicated (and stressful). If you read about Porto da Cruz, you’ll probably see mention of rugged terrain and by the end of our drive from the airport to our hotel, I really felt like that was an undersell.

There are a few principal highways that tunnel through Madeira’s mountains, some of them are quite long. These drive like any mountain interstate in the US or Europe (though with fewer and narrower lanes than the US). Once off these main highways, though, the terrain becomes less forgiving. I’m estimating the grade between the highway and our hotel was 20% in some spots, and the road was barely wide enough for two cars. It’s steep and windy. There were times we thought we were simply driving into the ocean. We’d turn a sharp corner, drop further and more road appeared. You have to be an attentive and defensive driver, willing to assume a little stress for the sake of your experience.

It was worth it.

Levada walks

An interesting feature of Madeira’s complicated history of land use involves sugar cane, rum, and levadas. There are several major rivers on the island and a network 3,000 km (1800 mi) of irrigation canals that bring water from the source of rivers down the mountains to various destinations and distribute water across the island. Some were built in the 16th century while others were cut in the 1950s and 60s. All of them were dug by rocheiros, who worked from wicker baskets suspended from the cliff. All of them provide drinking water and irrigate the land in the southern part of the island to this day. They’re also part of a hydroelectric power system that will help Madeira achieve 50% renewable energy by 2026.

The footpaths along the canals have a functional purpose: to control the flow of water to different destinations on the island, which means there are relatively well groomed trails alongside all of them. More than two thirds of the island is land protected nature, and the levadas are a great means to access this wilderness and get away from the revving engines of the cities.

The drive from Porto da Cruz to the Levada do Castelejo is steep (At or above 10% for about 2 miles) if not especially harrowing. The hike was about 3.5 miles gently ascending alongside a flowing stream, then back as we came. We were seemingly the only ones on this route, perhaps because it’s easier (some of them can be quite challenging) and it was a nice change of pace from being constantly surrounded by other tourists and traffic.

It’s hard to capture in photos how sheer the other side of these levadas were. The one we hiked wound its way along the cliff side toward Ribeiro Frio, a major river and source of water for several levadas, including this one. If you went off trail toward the cliff, sometimes you’d have a gentle landing a few meters below you, other times you’d be at the bottom of the canyon, a difficult-to-survive fall. Both Danielle and I had to keep our eyes on the trail and canal in front of us, because looking toward the rock below was vertigo-inducing.

Definitely find a lesser traversed levada hike. AllTrails is a good resource, and you can probably find a blog like this one to help your research whether it’s a good fit for you. Wear durable shoes. Maybe bring a headlamp just in case your hike goes through a long tunnel. And really pay attention to your body. Trail descriptions outside the major ones are mixed and rely on what This was a satisfyingly safe and mildly strenuous hike for us, and we only had to be stressed out by the driving for like 10 minutes. Just what we needed after the last few weeks of hot, sweaty, urban hiking

We did a bunch of other stuff around the island as well. On Sunday, there was a trail run that started in our town (with a 50k, 31 mi, length) we observed the starting line. We also went into Funchal to take in the Monte Botanical Gardens, and the roughly 600m ascent by teleférico that took there. Finally, we just relaxed a little: Swam in the sea-water pool, visited the rum factory, and ate some of the best food we’ve had this entire trip.

Speaking of food, I think Wisconsinites could take some lessons on fish fry from the Madeiran cuisine. I had black scabbard with grilled banana three times, and wish I’d had it a fourth. Fresh, well-seasoned fish (feels like the missing piece tbh), lightly battered, and the banana grilled whole (another missing piece) is a perfect combination of flavor, texture, and appearance. Find a place in Milwaukee that fries fish like this and I’m there every week.

Anyway, I do recommend Madeira, especially if have an opportunity to go, you should. While you’re there, ponder the improbability of this island’s existence and human settlements, and mostly: Drive safely and know your limitations. There’s plenty to do, back up plans are easy to make, and it’s not worth getting over your head on a steep-grade road just to see a view of the ocean or a mountain.

A PS on driving:

The rental cars are expensive here and the agencies will likely try to upsell you to a more powerful vehicle. Most of them offer a manual transmission ultra-compact with a 1L engine as a low-cost entry level vehicle. It was plenty powerful for us. But we were just two people with some light bags. My confidence on the road might have limited our experience a tad, but only because I found the narrow roads and steep grades equal parts intimidating and exhilarating. It would have been nice to share the driving with Danielle, but having control over gearing was really helpful going downhill. I’m also not sure what we’d have done with more than the two of us. An EV option would be great for this landscape and chargers are abundant, but don’t splurge on the BMW unless you want to.

Danielle and I first visited Slovenia in November, 2010, when we had a four day weekend from our jobs teaching in Hungary. After a night in Zagreb on Halloween, we took the train to Ljubljana, then a bus up to Bled. It charmed our socks off thirteen years ago and we tried to find our way back ever since. Our objective this time around was oriented around staying cool, but it was still a major success.

The way in

It’s a bit of a long train journey from Munich, but it’s super rewarding to watch the Alps suddenly rise in front of you then disappear into tunnels only to emerge high in a valley, with some of the Austria’s tallest peaks surrounding you.

From there, the train exits Villach into the Julian Alps, the peaks start to blend with the Dolomites to the west. With steep, jagged, karst mountains, the Julians form a cozy basin in which most of our adventures took place.

We spent one full day in Ljubljana to recover from the journey and see the city before we headed to Piran on the coast and Bled in the mountains.

Piran

It was nice to have time to spend in Piran this go around. Our 2010 trip revealed how much more there was for us to explore around here but we only spent one night in this former Venetian town on Slovenia’s shores.

Our primary objective was to swim. This was because it’s something we all love, but especially László, to do, but also because it was among a vanishing number of ways to escape the heat.

There’s something really joyful about watching a 4 year old jump into deep water beside much larger kids. We brought a PFD and goggles for him to wear, which helped him feel more comfortable, and swim in water well over his head (and mine). I don’t really know how to describe the mix of determination and pure glee in his face as he jumps in, swims around to the ladder, climbs, and repeats. Neither is there a word for the mix of pride and astonishment I felt observing his bravery as he jumped from heights greater than any I’m comfortable with, even as an adult, into the sea. Watching László interact with water was a highlight of the trip for sure.

From the beach we walked along the trail that follows the old city walls into the town center for dinner. It was mostly as Danielle and I remembered, but again, it was nice to be able to actually set, observe, and enjoy the place a bit this time around.

All László wanted to do was play in the plaza. There are few to no cars allowed in the old town of Piran, so we didn’t really have to worry about him running into traffic. He mostly ran in circles trying to play with other kids who didn’t necessarily know that’s what he as trying to do while we sipped drinks and ate dinner. (Nancy was the winner on that meal with a delicious tuna steak.)

Bled

Our second day of heat escape found us swimming in Lake Bled. A glacier-fed natural lake tucked into the Julian Alps famous for the church built improbably on an island in the middle. Here again, László seemed like such a natural in the water. He jumped straight in, unbothered by the temperature differential between the air, body, and water. He went down the water slide probably a dozen times, swam out to a swimming platform with Danielle and Nancy and jumped off that, he even went off a 3m diving board. By himself. Twice. I swear this kid is part fish.

We didn’t do a lot of the other things you’re “supposed to do” in Bled: take a Pletna boat out to the church. Visit the castle. Climb Triglav mountain. Golf. (I mean, who cares about golf, it’s literally everywhere.) But we did have a ton of fun in the water, stayed cool, avoided major sunburn, and took great pictures in the process. Need we do more than that?

Ljubljana’s own weather

The climate in the city was hostile to our desire to enjoy the place, but we did still manage some delightful moments in the Slovenian capital. A few things that are neat about Ljubljana include: Vending machines for fresh eggs, raw milk, and basic OTC necessities from the pharmacy. A gorgeous riverwalk with many pedestrian-only bridges. Water fountains everywhere. A castle that is used primarily as a museum and cultural center (and has a funicular train to the top). And, finally, Ljubljana’s own weather, an art installation in Prešeren Trg that sprinkled water overhead, high enough up that it felt, and looked, like an extremely isolated weather event. Much like a refreshing rain shower on a hot day, this was a nice touch to help us cool down and have some fun after roasting all day.

I still have a lot of fondness for Ljubljana. It’s a funky place with an easygoing vibe, arts, and unmatched scenery. I think we’ll try to go back in the fall or spring next time, or at least ensure we book a place that for sure has air conditioning for night time.

End of a trip

This concludes the whole-family portion of the Great Sabbatical Euro Trip. We all departed from Jože Plečnik International Airport last week, but to different destinations. Gog took László home with her via Amsterdam and Chicago while Danielle and I carried on to Madeira via London.

It was an absolutely amazing adventure, and a tremendous privilege to have this experience wandering through foreign countries with László and Danielle, and, for the last few days, Gog.

When we started planning this trip back in late 2022, we had all kinds of grand ideas. I think we hit the right mix of familiar and novel, even if we ultimately weren’t quite as ambitious as we started. We’re still learning how to travel with our kid and our limitations both individually and collectively. I’m glad we prioritized what we did rather than trying to do too much that was wholly new or more complex because it made learning how to travel with a child a bit easier.

I hope this is the start of a lifelong obsession with travel for László, and that it is not the end of our international gallivanting together.

We had one full day in Munich before we split for our Camping Bannwaldsee adventure and we really maximized our time. We saw the canal surfers, dined under the Chinesischer Turm, and played on a playground in the English Garden. Well, László did, anyway. We even managed to squeeze in a visit to the Deutsches Museum. The swimming was the highlight of the trip, for me anyway.

This was my fourth trip to Munich and the first I’ve been aware of these pools, or even considered swimming.

Swimming is kind of a perfect activity to do with László. He loves it. He’s comfortable doing it, even when he can’t touch the ground, and we all have fun together. Seriously, this kid is a fish. So when we were trying to find something to do, swimming was a sure bet.

This pool is gorgeous and the water was impressively clear and swimmable. There are two pools, a large pool, pictured above, the catered to athletes and casual swimmers. The smaller, warmer pool, was also shallower and allowed the more relaxing play-swim that toddlers love. That’s not to say other people weren’t trying to work out, but that you didn’t have the brave the colder waters or strive for athletics to enjoy the place.

I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed in my former self for not knowing about these pools. Then again, I wasn’t much of a swimmer in 2003, -5, or -8 when I was in Munich. Or a biker. Or really any kind of athletic behavior….

These are the kinds of activities you can’t really engage in when you’re on a guided tour. I get it, letting a group of 15-17 year olds loose in Munich would probably not result in all of us hanging out in a swimming pool. It might have, but given the size of Burnsville Sr. High’s swim program in 2003, I really doubt it.

Still, when your encounters with Germany involve getting on and off of tour busses and being directed from one spot to another, you’re going to see a lot of impressive things, but you may miss smaller, less notable, attractions like the public swimming pools. And you might continue to miss those things when you return two, three, and eight years later because you stick to what you know.

I’m glad I’m not a person who only goes back to stuff they’ve already seen. It’s cool to see how places like the Deutsches Museum and Englishergarten change over time, and it was fun to see them through the lens of parenting, so I’m glad I got back to some things. But only doing stuff you already know is boring and new stuff is fun.

Finding a barrel

We stayed at Camping Bannwaldsee, a moderately sized campground near Schwangau, Germany, and the King’s Castles in southern Bavaria (Neuschwanstein, Hohen Schwangau, and Hohes Schloß).

The trick for most tourists will probably be finding your way to the campsite. If you pack light, you could access the campgrounds by train or bus. Our campground had a bus stop right at its entrance that could take tourists to nearby Schwangau, Füssen, and other cities and attractions. Across three adults and a child, we had quite a bit to wrangle across multiple modes of transit, so we opted to rent a car from Munich.

Driving gives you the freedom to choose your route and schedule, but it’s a luxury you pay for. Gas is expensive in Europe: roughly $7.45 per gallon. Rental cars in Europe are not immune from hidden fees either.

One thing we didn’t know when we booked this campground was how good the food would be. They had fresh baked bread and pastries in the cafe every morning, along with locally made sausage and cheeses. The biergarten also had well-made regional food and pizza.

How to sleep in a barrel

These barrels were cozy, and surprisingly comfortable. With the sun beating down on them all day, they got a bit warm by the evening. With the windows and doors open, they cooled down quickly once the sun set.

There was a large bed on a platform to the rear, two benches that converted to smaller beds, and a table that pulled out from the wall between them; fully electrified. They could sleep three adults or a cozy four. The table would be more than enough to spend time indoors on a rainy day, but if it’s nice out, the barrel will get way too hot.

A little Deutsch’ll do ya

My German skills, rusty as they were, came in pretty handy. Our neighbor Marie (7) and László were keen to play despite the lack of a common language. I translated (an little) and taught László how to say a few things. I’ve been impressed, though, by how swiftly children work something out, even if it’s not a perfect playing situation. Grownups could take some lessons.

The adults also spoke little or no English and I was able to help our neighbors understand something about us and vice versa. They were glad to know that Milwaukee has biergartens but Bavarian ones remain superior. (Note to Milwaukee County: Consider a return refund on the glasses! More food variety! Please never close them!)

Danielle and her mom got on just fine but it was fun to play translator for a little while, even if the adults in the room thought I sounded like a man-child. “Aber dein Deutsch ist genug,” as our Swiss neighbor put it: Enough to get by.

Campground recreation

Our campground was on the eponymous Bannwaldsee, and swim we did. I’m starting to think László is part fish. The kid jumped off a dock into water well over his head (wearing an PFD) then climbed the ladder for more. We practically had to bribe him to get him out of the water. He’s certainly more comfortable than I was at his age.

Nancy was kind enough to let Danielle and I venture solo for a short hike around the summit area of Tegelberg. From the Bergbahn on the way up, we got a clear glimpse of all three castles, most prominently, Neuschwanstein. Once we were up on the mountain, though, we could see mountains sprawling across the German and Austrian countryside, including a distant view of the ever-impressive Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak.

There are tons of hikes up there, and it was possible to summit without the bergbahn (cable car). We considered it, but they are hours-long hikes and we wanted to be back on the ground in time to go swimming with László and didn’t want to exploit Nancy’s kindness. We would have had to start much earlier in the day to avoid heat, too. Cable cars are nice because that allow both: Hike around the summit and not devote your entire day to it.

There is a massive network of bike trails around here too. We didn’t have bikes or a way to ride with László but it’d be great to do this again after he learns to ride a pedal bike.

This is not a backpacker hostel

The last time I was in Germany, my brother and I were in hostel mode, meeting acquaintances from around the world in noisy, smoke-filled bars, and late night Döner stands. Camping is a much more family- and recreation-centric way to travel. That kind of behavior would probably piss off a lot of people here.

Camping is an affordable way to stay near King Ludwig castles. As an American traveling alone or with a group of other youths, you’ll stick out. People will need to accommodate you more than everybody else at the campground, especially if you don’t speak much German. Be considerate of that and have appropriate expectations if this post somehow helps you book a campground.

This was an interesting week to be in France because of some news that swept the world the days before we arrived. In case you missed it: A French police officer killed Nahel, a 17 year old of Algerian-Moroccan descent, in Nanterre last Tuesday. Nanterre could be considered a second tier suburb in American parlance, though it’s not exactly apples-to-apples. While there have been some notable events outside of the suburbs (Marseille and Lille, for example), we saw almost no protesting in the city of Paris itself. The New York Times managed to snap a photo of a shattered window at a Nike Outlet and some apparent protesters being chased down the Champs-Elysees by police, but we didn’t experience anything close to that during the day and evening.

I was a bit surprised by the lack of protesting in Paris proper and that’s whole other post. I wasn’t surprised by the poor coverage of it by the American press. There’s an impulse for American press to attach events to known landmarks by how far it is from there. For example, if there’s a Twitter account called @blocksfromthewh that picks up news articles about events “frighteningly close to the White House.” (It’s possible Elon destroyed this fun thing that happened on Twitter, I’m not sure.) Here’s an example of a community that was a victim of gang violence “seven miles from the White House.” It may be close to DC, but it’s a different state. Nothing happened at the White House. Yet for some reason the Washington Post seemed to think that proximity was relevant to the story.

The consequence of this constant relative-distancing was people outside France getting the impression that Paris was in peril. These protests were big, people were injured, fires started, and President Macron wouldn’t have canceled his state visit to Germany (the first in 23 years) if it wasn’t a big deal. The community is grieving and deserves justice, but Nanterre and Paris are different places with different histories of violence with police, even if they’re “only” 15 minutes away by train.

Anyway, the feel good hit of the week was none other than the American classic: KFC.

László and our host’s daughter Lucy got to play together which was great because we could tell László was craving some English-speaking companions after about two weeks abroad with lots of potential friends, if only they had a common language. French KFC serves basically the same things American KFC does except for the addition of fried cheese and corn on the cob to the menu of sides.

The second highlight, and László’s main priority for the visit was the Eiffel Tower. This is one of those places, like the Washington Monument, the Capitol, or, I imagine, the Acropolis or Pyramids, that you’ve seen millions of pictures of your whole life and is somehow still impressive to behold in person.

The tower staff were on strike the day we visited. A scheduled strike, we were told. Fortunately for us, the grounds below the tower were still open, and a boat tour we did later in the week got us a vantage from the water so we could take it in from all angles.

The whole of Paris is preparing for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games which will be held in and around Paris. Rather than displacing people to build giant, mostly single use sports infrastructure, Paris is scattering the festivities around the city, suburbs, and even some places further afield. Apparently the plan is to have certain open water swimming events in the Seine which seems … deadly … but I am absolutely rooting for their success.

The Seine is certainly among the more polluted urban rivers in the world, and we got to tour one part of the infrastructure that is part of the solution: The sewer museum (Musée des Egouts). Paris’s sewers are old. Napoleon-era old. Some of it is still in service, which much of it was added since. Getting the sewers to clean more water and clean it better is a big part of the plan. But, similar to how when it rains in Milwaukee there are sometimes sewer overflows, Paris has a combined sewer system and rain has a major impact on sewers in Paris and some untreated water still ends up in the Seine.

Another part of the plan, then, is building a giant underground tank to store the city’s rainwater when it does rain hard. Like Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel, it will fill with water that would otherwise overflow the system, then slowly release the water back into the system, get cleaned, and return to the river. It’s worked pretty well for us, reducing the number of sewer overflows to about 2 per year from more than 50, and the number of gallons from more than 9 billion to as low as 1500 some years. Hopefully it goes as well for Paris.

It’s kind of incredible how much stuff can be put underground without hitting a water table or undermining the bedrock upon which the city is built. The entire system of tunnels behind Paris’s transit and highway system is built beneath the sewer which is itself quite deep. This rain water tank will need to sit somewhere in there too. It’s an impressive feat that engineers are able to figure these things out.

And then of course there were the playgrounds and other kid-friendly recreation opportunities. A place we visited called 104 Paris (Le Centquarte) had a Petit Maison, a child-centered play and educational space alongside its dance classes, food vendors, and a ticketed Disney exhibition. Like Madrid, we visited many playgrounds, including one with misters that would turn on in one-minute or so intervals. These were of great relief to László who was getting a bit sick of us wheeling him around and just wanted to play with kids.

Paris was truly a great time. By staying with friends, we got a pretty decent sense of what it might be like to live there, and not only the dreamy imagination of tourism. (We certainly got that, too.) I’ll probably have another post, maybe on my own blog about the bikes and built environment of Paris, which I also found really fascinating. I recommend it; it’s Paris, who wouldn’t?

Flysch is the name for a specific geologic formation I still don’t totally grok. From what I understand, it is the result of a phenomenon of plate tectonics and sea water interacting with natural sedimentation. This one occurred when the Istrian and European land masses collided 50 – 10 million years ago (mya) and a keen enough eye can even detect evidence of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs.

We obviously don’t have a keen enough eye for that. This specific Flysch also stands at the point on Earth where the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees mountains were created. At the beach in Zumaia you can observe the Flysch first hand, and the peculiar vertical rock stratification caused by the collision of the two landmasses. As I understand it, that collision created flysch by thrusting upward the layers of limestone, marl, and sandstone that had settled to the bottom of the ocean 100 – 50 mya.

The result at Zumaia was the creation of a kind of geologic calendar where we can now observe the world’s history and read it left to right instead of bottom to top and much of it without doing big archaeological digs. There are a lot of places like this around the globe: Canyons, cliffs, dried up lakes and rivers, anywhere you can observe stratification in rock. Sometimes you can find a golden spike inserted into the rock where two stratotypes separate, and Zumaia is the only place in the world where you can find two of these marking two different stages.

Anyway, enough of the geology lesson. This place is incredible and was about a 15 minute drive from our campground. At high tide the ocean comes right up to these cliffs, isolates one part of the beach from the other, and closes off some caves along the cliffs. When the tide goes out, the flysch along the beach exposes in the form of long, jagged sheets of rock protruding from the sand. As waves roll in they form channels that drive water further inland than the rest of the beach. It’s worth your time to get here even if it’s cloudy and a little chilly.

We spent our final day in Spain hanging out in Donostia-San Sebastian before we caught a bus into the French Basque Country town of Saint-Jean-De-Luz. Tomorrow, the Tour de France begins in Bilbao and is meant to pass right through these places in the first three stages. It’s kind of a bummer we will miss the cyclists but also, I’m not sure how much patience László would have for standing around for a long time to watch maybe five minutes of cyclists. Kinda the hard thing about touring race events.

More on France in a few days!