Vacation pictures redux

[Exterous]

I was missing travel a bit so I was going through old vacation photos and decided to share (or re-share) some of my favorites. They aren't necessarily the best or most dramatic but usually come with some sort of story or trigger a fond memory

Venice Opera House. Only available tours were in German (I know a little German but not enough to understand a tour) but totally worth it:

Insane day trip tourist crowds during the day. Torrential downpours the night before but eventual view from our hotel room in Hallstatt:

On our spring (April) trip we encountered quite the blizzard.

Germany in April:

On the positive side it kept most tourists away so we got a private tour of Herrenchiemsee (Which doesn't allow pictures unfortunately) and also lead to the most uncomfortable 2 hours of driving in my life as a a new round of snow hit us while on a mountain road with no buildings, no traffic, no cell signal and no where to turn around.

In stark contrast we had perfect weather for our trip to Russia and Scandanavia later in the year

I am a huge fish and chips fan and back in 2015 I made my first stop at a little place in Brussels. It instantly became my favorite fish and chips place. I've returned there several times and it retains that status despite competitors from several different continents and countries. Always had great interactions with the staff there too
Bia Mara 2017:

Bia Mara 2018:

 

[KMFJD]

I'm surprised at the type of fries in that fish&chips , great pictures as always , thanks!

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah I have been looking at SCUBA forums again and looking at some pics of recent trips and getting sad that we can't go anywhere. We were in St. Thomas from March 9th to March 16th when stuff got real bad in the states. We had a trip planned to Aruba in May but thankfully we didn't book anything at the time so we didn't lose money or anything.

We booked a place in the Keys in November but doubt it will happen. We can can cel up until 7 days before our arrival date so we won't lose anything if not.

And we had been planning a trip to St. Thomas again with friends over New Years but even that is completely up in the air at this point. We did drive down to a low key beach in North Carolina a few weeks ago so that was a nice getaway. Our second son is due August 9th but it's going to happen any day now I think.

Here is a small video I put together of snorkeling/diving while in Turks and Caicos last November. The diving was better there than St. Thomas but while we were in St. Thomas they did have more wind than normal which made visibility not as good.

 

[Exterous]

I'm surprised at the type of fries in that fish&chips , great pictures as always , thanks!

Still double fried in the proper Belgium manner

 

[Exterous]

We landed on Christmas day for our NZ trip. Christmas Dinner feast in our room in Auckland courtesy of the Langham and America Express:

Lake Pukaki NZ - one of the most beautiful and pristine lakes I've seen. Most other places this would be ringed with expensive houses and filled with people. Just peaceful and quiet in NZ

New Years Eve in Queenstown - not the biggest display ever but NZ is one of the first places in the world to celebrate the New Year:

And apparently Mordor is in NZ

Master glass sculptor in Venice:

The speed and ability was insane:

Milan:

 

[Ajay]

Wow, thanks @Exterous !

 

[zinfamous]

Still double fried in the proper Belgium manner

Belgium is one of the best food places.

 

[KMFJD]

When you where in Queenstown did you try Fergburger?

 

[ponyo]

You got to take a trip even if it's local when you get the itch. I was going crazy last month but trip to Florida beach couple weeks ago saved me. I'm going to go next week to dig for some clams and catch blue crabs. And I got another trip planned in September to catch scallops in the bay. I'm super excited for that since that will be my first time going for a week during the scallop season.

 

[purbeast0]

You got to take a trip even if it's local when you get the itch. I was going crazy last month but trip to Florida beach couple weeks ago saved me. I'm going to go next week to dig for some clams and catch blue crabs. And I got another trip planned in September to catch scallops in the bay. I'm super excited for that since that will be my first time going for a week during the scallop season.

We opted not to head to the keys cause of the spike in cases down there. In the end it was a great choice because where we went in NC was super quiet and we had no one within 20 feet of us on each side on the beach.

I went on a charter trip last weekend with some buddies out in the Chesapeake and it was a lot of fun.

 

[zinfamous]

You got to take a trip even if it's local when you get the itch. I was going crazy last month but trip to Florida beach couple weeks ago saved me. I'm going to go next week to dig for some clams and catch blue crabs. And I got another trip planned in September to catch scallops in the bay. I'm super excited for that since that will be my first time going for a week during the scallop season.

FL: Doubt that's all you'll catch!

Hi-yo!

 

[Exterous]

When you where in Queenstown did you try Fergburger?

We tried but they were closed for the holiday (A fair number of restaurants were)

You got to take a trip even if it's local when you get the itch. I was going crazy last month but trip to Florida beach couple weeks ago saved me. I'm going to go next week to dig for some clams and catch blue crabs. And I got another trip planned in September to catch scallops in the bay. I'm super excited for that since that will be my first time going for a week during the scallop season.

Yeah we've got a local one coming up soon so hopefully that will help

 

[Exterous]

Belgium is one of the best food places.

Very true. I've long said that I'd love to live in Belgium except that I would die at 50 from overeating and liver failure. Also their intra-Belgium mass transit is very flexible. You just buy a ticket to a destination and it's valid for the entire day and for any stop along the way. So if a place is much more interesting than you thought (or, hypothetically, has a great bar) you can easily hang out as long as you want (assuming you catch the last train of the day)

In honor of Belgium food and drink:

Fritland Brussels - also convienently located next to a Carrefour with an excellent beer selection

Row 1 of 3 of their beer selection:

(If you look closely that is 2 euro and change for one of those big Belgium Tripple or Blonde beer bottles)

Maison Leffe Brewery tour. 6 euro for a tour and a decent amount of beer

Lounging near the river Meuse in Dinant (Across the river from the Maison Leffe Brewery

For any Belgium beer lovers: Westvelteren 12 and 8. The 12 is widely regarded as one of if not the best Belgium beer. I thoroughly enjoyed it but the 8 paled in comparison. It you want to get the 8 to try it great but otherwise I would not bother compared to the many other great Belgium beer options

If given the option I'll choose a Liege waffle over a Belgium waffle. And no need to pile on the toppings - I'm perfectly content to enjoy the waffle and local chocolate combination

 

[brianmanahan]

If given the option I'll choose a Liege waffle over a Belgium waffle. And no need to pile on the toppings - I'm perfectly content to enjoy the waffle and local chocolate combination

closest i ever got to that was "wafels and dinges" in NYC

man i loved that place

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ohhhhh Exterous ... Westvelteren !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Exterous]

I loved the Seychelles. The un-groomed beaches were the softest, cleanest sand I've ever seen. And the ratio of people to beaches is crazy. We took a kayak from beach to beach for a couple of days and I'd get annoyed if we had to share a beach with 2 other people. But if that happened we'd just hop back in to the kayak and paddle to another deserted beach

Long island\beach:

Police Bay:

Ile au Cerf:

From there we headed to Kenya. If I had the choice I'd do safari and then relaxing beach vacation but flight availability didn't work out that way. The safari was so amazing I usually forget I ended up with pink-eye in both eyes and food poisoning on our last day in Nairobi

 

[Scarpozzi]

I took these pictures back in March when it was ACTUALLY SAFE to travel. (unlike now)

 

[brianmanahan]

 

[Exterous]

I took these pictures back in March when it was ACTUALLY SAFE to travel. (unlike now)

Nice - Hope you had a good time! Those reminded me of one of our worst and best experiences. We were flying to Hawaii and suffered through a series of weather related effects that just kept shitting on all our flight plans. We ended up flying DTW -> BNA -> LAX -> SJC -> HNL -> OGG. We ran through airports, were reseated on other flights when ours were canceled, had to do an overnight in San Jose, sat on the ground for an hour in SJC meaning we had only a few min to run and catch our flight from Honolulu to Maui. We made it, hot and sweaty but our checked bag didn't.

So we were stressed, tired and sweaty when we arrived at our hotel where we had used some free night certificates to book a standard (garden view, generally low floor) room. As we were approaching our room I started picking up on the orientation and location. Sure enough we opened the door and ALL that stress and negativity immediately vanished as we walked into our just below top floor, wrap around balcony ~900 sq ft suite. And I mean vanished immediately. I just stopped in the doorway as that view and room instantly made everything we had just been through worthwhile. This was back in the day when you had to call the Fairmont award reservations line to use certs so I don't know if the nice woman on the other end of the phone did this for us or the Front Desk picked up on our general state of mind but I am still grateful for whoever made that happen

 

[Scarpozzi]

Nice - Hope you had a good time! Those reminded me of one of our worst and best experiences. We were flying to Hawaii and suffered through a series of weather related effects that just kept shitting on all our flight plans. We ended up flying DTW -> BNA -> LAX -> SJC -> HNL -> OGG. We ran through airports, were reseated on other flights when ours were canceled, had to do an overnight in San Jose, sat on the ground for an hour in SJC meaning we had only a few min to run and catch our flight from Honolulu to Maui. We made it, hot and sweaty but our checked bag didn't.

So we were stressed, tired and sweaty when we arrived at our hotel where we had used some free night certificates to book a standard (garden view, generally low floor) room. As we were approaching our room I started picking up on the orientation and location. Sure enough we opened the door and ALL that stress and negativity immediately vanished as we walked into our just below top floor, wrap around balcony ~900 sq ft suite. And I mean vanished immediately. I just stopped in the doorway as that view and room instantly made everything we had just been through worthwhile. This was back in the day when you had to call the Fairmont award reservations line to use certs so I don't know if the nice woman on the other end of the phone did this for us or the Front Desk picked up on our general state of mind but I am still grateful for whoever made that happen

Awesome. Sometimes, when the hotel has availability and they know it's a reward, they'll upgrade you. I have diamond status at Hilton thanks to my Hilton Amex Aspire card... We booked that trip because airfare was $450/ticket and I got our rooms totally comped with free breakfast. We didn't have those kinds of accommodations, but March led to a bunch of cancellations. We stayed a night in Honolulu and the Hilton at Waikiki was 30% capacity in the middle of Spring Break.


Here's the pool at said hotel:


View from our free room (of what would typically be a packed beach)