mourningdove

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau

I did one of my long errand-running bike rides this week, and though I didn’t find most of what I was looking for, as usual I gained some serendipities I wasn’t expecting–mostly, a tour of the lovely 19th-century West Berlin neighborhood of Schöneberg (and a bit of Friedenau). Schöneberg immediately struck me as quite differentContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit D: The Berlin Wall Memorial Museum

Germany as a nation has gone through traumatic and horrible times, and the people in charge have at times done traumatic and horrible things to their own citizens and others’. In this way Germany is exactly like every other nation state I know of. But as I’ve mentioned before, what sets it apart from manyContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit D: The Berlin Wall Memorial Museum”

Freiburg

Pictured here: the Ludwig XV breakfast on the lovely terrace at Schlosscafe Lorettoberg (everything big in Germany is named after a prince or an emperor). Not pictured: pistachio ice cream, long walks on the Dreisam, beers at Forest Restaurant St Ottilien, and a generally awesome couple of days hanging out with my friends Jennifer &Continue reading “Freiburg”

Normandy Bike Tour: Fin

On our last day of riding we covered nearly as many miles as the previous one (about 40), but the riding was much easier due to the mostly flat coastal profile and the blessed lack of headwind. Mont Saint-Michel accompanied us for much of the day, growing more distant until we finally lost him aroundContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Fin”

Normandy Bike Tour: Part 6

This was the longest and hardest day of the tour but also in many ways the best, riding-wise. As usual on our way out of Granville, we were on a bit busier roads for a while (though I must say the vast majority of drivers we encountered on this tour were very respectful, and IContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Part 6”

Normandy Bike Tour: Part 5

We ended up with a beautiful room at Hôtel du Manoir Cunningham, a cross-timbered 17th-century mansion converted into an inn, so we were determined to make the most of our morning there. We biked into Saint Servann (originally another town, now glommed onto Saint-Malo) for croissants and coffee and brought them back to eat onContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Part 5”

Amicae Usque ad Aras: Fin

Dionysia It didn’t take us long to find the Christians in Thessalonika: everyone was talking about them, how they’d been meeting in the agora for days, how every day people with lame limbs got up and danced, lepers stretched out smooth, brown fingers, blind children smiled up into their fathers’ eyes for the first time.Continue reading “Amicae Usque ad Aras: Fin”

Normandy Bike Tour, Part 4

This was our final day on Guernsey, transitioning back to (where else?) Saint-Malo. Although clouds threatened in the morning, the weather continued to hold for us. We started the day out a bit cheekily with tea and Hob Nobs on a little rock point on the north shore of the island you can’t reach atContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour, Part 4”

Normandy Bike Tour, Part 3

I guess I’m doing this day-by-day: that wasn’t really my plan…but once I got into writing these posts, I realized we did more than I thought, and I don’t like writing realllllllly long travel posts. So, day 3, ahem…. We started with a nice Full English breakfast at Longfrie and then embarked on our planContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour, Part 3”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit C: Björk at Waldbühne

Sadly, I don’t have any pics of Björk performing because (a) she forbids it, and (b) I was so far away the pics wouldn’t have looked like much anyway. She promised that photos would soon be up on her website, so you can check there in a day or two (they’re not there now). ButContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit C: Björk at Waldbühne”