Travel Tip: Packing the Perfect T

T-shirts are an essential for any travel - London, Paris, Denver, Hawaii, Staycation... A good t-shirt fits well, and is comfy, but can be easily dressed up with a sweater or necklace. Oh yeah, and it doesn't cost a small fortune. It is a t-shirt.

I searched high and low before our Europe 2013 and I found it!! The $15 Everlane beauties. Even better? They make great men's and women's t-shirts, so you can stop feeling guilty that you only bought yourself new clothes for your trip! :)

Pictures Courtesy of Everlane

Paul and I are wearing Everlane T's in these pictures from our trip to Europe.

Paul in Vienna, Austria, wearing slate color crew neck. Looking classy.

Me, in first class, on the way to Geneva, Switzerland, wearing Navy v-neck. (PS. A future post will feature how we flew first class to Geneva on points and the cost of taxes - because you can never avoid taxes). 

A few thoughts on why these are perfect:

• They are light weight but not see through, extremely function and necessary when packing
• They come in a variety of styles, I was looking for a great v-neck, but they've got it all: crew neck, box cut, "u-shaped"
• Excellent personal service. I had some issues when I ordered my shirts for my husband (mainly with the wait list, which I will admit is the one downside - their shirts often go on to a wait list), and they resolved everything very quickly and it was a pleasant experience!

The website does request that you create a membership, which really is just your email and a password, no biggie - don't worry! Of course, they email you when they have new products, but all the products look amazing so I don't mind. If you would like to be referred by me let me know! I hope you like the shirts as much as I do, and that they take that little extra bit of stress off the packing list! (This post is not sponsored by Everlane. I just think their product is great and their openness in terms of sharing their factory information is commendable.)

Let's Travel to Fussen, Germany

Home to Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II's castle perhaps best known as the inspiration for the Disney Castle. While I admit that it is my love of classic Disney movies (with the castle at the beginning of each movie) that initially drew me to this small Bavarian town, the peaceful mountains and lakes surrounding it will keep me coming back.

We drove to Fussen from Munich. You could take a bus or local train, but I would highly recommending a car. Not only is it a fun experience to drive on the Autobahn, and on the winding roads in the mountains, but it was helpful in allowing us to drive near by Lake Hopfensee and dine at Restaurant Fischerhutte on the lake. After a few days in hopping Munich, this was a peacefully romantic dinner scene. 

But back to the Castles. Ok. Prior to embarking on our Switzerland, Germany, Austria trip in August 2013 I would tell people our itinerary and I got a lot of "oh, Fussen, it's touristy". And I will admit that around 12:30pm when we were done touring the castles and made our way back down the hill, the amount of people in line for tickets was shocking. Lesson learned? Reserve tickets for the first scheduled tour at 9am. 

If you booked both castles, the tour starts at Hohenschwangau, the childhood home of King von Ludwig.

The Bavarian decor is fun and lively.

Hohenschwangau is neat for a number of reasons. Including the fun exterior with lots of fountains with a great view.

There is a telescope in King von Ludwigs bedroom that he used to monitor the construction of Neuschwanstein - see it in the background?

Hohenschwangau, is actually the namesake of the very small town where the castles are located just a couple of miles away from Fussen.

There are multiple methods of transportation to get from the Hohenschwangau side of the mountain to the Neuschwanstein side. If you are tired of walking, there are buses and horse drawn carriages, we decided to walk and enjoyed the view Alpsee Lake along the way.

This picture is from basically the same spot, but you can see the restaurant that we had lunch at on the left. I can't remember the name, but its the last place to eat before the lake. 

Before we ate lunch though we headed up to Neuschwanstein. The way that they give you the tickets there is plenty of time between the two tours to walk around and take pictures. This one is looking back towards the town we had dinner in the night before. 

The entrance of Neuschwanstein. How pretty is the white and red?

Once you get up close and through the main entrance you are in the courtyard. 

The detail shot. 

You cannot take pictures inside the castles, but the inside was just as cool as the outside. I had read/heard that the inside of Neuschwanstein wasn't as interesting because it isn't finished. If it had been finished it would have been over 200 rooms, but only about 15 were completed when Ludwig was arrested from his bedroom in the castle (he mysteriously drowned soon after being arrested). The Ludwig bedroom and throne room are spectacular and are totally worth it. The tour isn't long, but it's still impressive.

Back outside.

You can apparently get some good pictures of the castle from this bridge.

But my husband does not like heights so we were not going to stand on that bridge just for another nice shot of the castle.

Even sharing Fussen with a lot of people this was my favorite stop on our Europe 2013 trip. Can you blame me? (Hohenschwangau is on the right).

Cities to Avoid on Road Trips

Erie Insurance has a great graphic on what cities to avoid on your next road trip. There a some that are a no brainer - NYC, Chicago, Washington DC (living in the DC metro region I can attest that there are a lot of awesome things about this city, and none of them include time spent in our bad traffic) - but there are a few unexpected ones including Virginia Beach, San Antonio, and Nashville.

Something to consider when planning a road trip. Have you taken an awesome road trip? What were your "definitely worth a stop" cities and towns?

Let's Travel to Columbus Ohio...for Jeni's Ice Cream

Have you heard of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream? Last summer my cousin-in-law Brianna, a Columbus resident told me about it's amazingness. This summer I was properly introduced at Whole Foods to the Jeni's Signature flavors: Dark Chocolate, the Milkiest Chocolate in the World, and the Buck Eye State.  Last weekend I traveled to the Columbus home of Jeni's and partook in all of it's Splendor.

The board might be a little hard to read, but clearly there are a lot of choices.

One of the best things about Jeni's is that they encourage you to try as many as you want. I tried a few...Queen City Cayenne (the extremely nice guy fetching all of these samples told me that this was the ice cream that convinced Jeni to drop out of Ohio State and make ice cream - clearly it's that good - but warning it does finish with a real kick), Salty Caramel, Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet, Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate, Black Coffee (local coffee cold brewed with the cream used to make the ice cream, zero bitterness, amazing) Loveless Biscuits and Peach Jam (based on the biscuits and jam from the famous Loveless Cafe in Nashville - the most intriguing flavor I had), Lemon and Blueberry frozen yogurt (super refreshing)... Yes, I tried a few. 

I finally chose the double toasted coconut paired with the Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate.

Such a fun vibe.

Of course I couldn't stop at one visit to Jeni's. This time I went with the Lemon and Blueberry Frozen Yogurt.

Not only is the ice cream amazing, but they even make fresh waffle cones!

Just when I thought my Jeni's experiences were over I found this Machine of Goodness at the Columbus airport on my way home. 

And this came out...

And it was delicious. Thank you Columbus and Jeni's for amazing ice cream.

In-Flight Entertainment

In-flight entertainment has come along way. My first international flight included two movies, two TV shows, zero choices, each just played in order. Now, your individual touch screen contains all kinds of movies, shows, games and even this little gem from Austrian Air...

"Fitness on Board"

(I followed along, twice, on the way home from Vienna in August)

Let's Travel to Bern!

Europe's most underrated capital? What do you think?

Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and after spending a couple of days there I must say it is pretty sweet. I think it definitely gets a nod for being underrated, because it was not on my radar when I first started to plan our trip to Europe. But when I needed a base in Central Switzerland where we could easily get to Munich, from Geneva, and day trip to the Swiss Alps, it came out as one of the options. It was awesome!

The city center of Bern retains medieval character with cobbled streets and fountains.

However, while keeping the very cool medieval aspects you can see the lines for the trams and buses that have been well incorporated into the old town. You might be thinking, wouldn't it be better if it was pedestrian only? You can kind of tell in the picture above that at this point you are on a hill and after walking up and down this hill once, Paul and I gladly took the bus. 

If you wander down this street and across the bridge you meet some of Bern's namesake...Bears!! Legend has it that Bern's founding Duke vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on the a hunt. Bears are still kept in a bear park (Barenpark).

The bear park is located along the banks of the River Aare that surrounds three sides of the city.

Is that the bluest river water you've ever seen? The water was shockingly clean and clear. Actually this was definitely a theme of Switzerland. Everything was very clean. Pristine.

The bear agrees. Time to head back up the hill.

***bus back up the hill***

Worth a visit is Berner Munster or Cathedral of Bern. The bell tower, under construction while we were there, is the tallest in Switzerland. 

Audio guides often vary in term of interest and usefulness. I really enjoyed the audio guide here (although it was a little pricey at $5 a piece I would gladly pay that again). The tour walks you around the entire inside and outside of the church providing interesting information without going overboard on hard to follow details. One of the stops was at the entrance to learn about the gothic Last Judgement sculpture. The right side represents the fallen, with the red flames, and the left side in blue and gold salvation.

After a full historical church tour we were in need of a recharge and made our way to the Einstein Kaffee und Rauchsalon or Einstein Cafe. The place had a cool vibe with "relatively the best" food and coffee. Perfect lunch.

While in the area we noticed someone's outrageous garden. How beautiful is this? I love the multi-tiered organization. Basically, a dream city backyard.

One great thing about Bern is that your bus pass (while expensive at a little over $11 a day **travel tip: unless you have the EURail pass, which we did because we were traveling primarily by train and we paid $7) is that you can take any form of public transportation / tram / random hill car...

We took this little beauty up and down a particularly steep hill in an effort to get to the local public pool (the blue patch in the middle of the picture below). I say in an effort, because it actually started raining on the day that we did this and it was closed when we got there. However, it looked awesome on this day.

To be honest the food in Bern was hit and miss and all pretty expensive. Actually, Paul at one point had to talk me off the ledge of putting off eating until we were in Germany...yes, it was that expensive. To be fair to Bern, Switzerland was just expensive in general, it wasn't Bern's fault! That being said we still had a couple of fantastic meals, the following at Froh Sinn in city center was my favorite. 

1) They served my tasty local beer from a chalice with the Bern Bear on it.

2) This "Bauernbratwurst Herkunft" aka Sausage with Potato Cheese Pancake was fantastic.

All in all, I would go back to Bern again. It was lovely and we missed a few things like actually getting to swim in the park and a tour of the Parliament Building (FYI, they don't have tours in English as often as you might think!). However, a close second to Bern for a city in central Switzerland was the city of Lucerne, which also looks beautiful and picturesque so perhaps Lucerne will be our next stop in Switzerland...when I save up enough money :) Have you been to either or both Bern and Lucerne, what do you think?

My Travel Philosophy

In travel and life I aim for -- new experiences, a lot good food, some movement, and time to unwind and relax (travel is great because this happens without worrying about bills, the future, and everyday responsibilities).


Whether heading out on an annual beach vacation,

touring European cities, 

or safari-ing in Africa, 

there are new experiences to be had, local food to be eaten, opportunities to swim, hike, walk, bike, and time for relaxing and taking it easy. The type of travel influences whether there is more of some activities than others, but I always include them all.

New Experiences...
It might be difficult to imagine how to experience something new on the annual beach trip, but maybe you try out a new recipe, or explore a "new to me" part of the town. It's a bit easier to imagine a new experience ordering Pain au chocolat in a Parisian bakery. The point is to push bounds, learn, and experience something new. Travel is healthy not just because it allows us to take a mental break from the day to day, but it also promotes internal growth and learning.

A Lot of Good Food...

Good food is essential to any travel experience (see Pain au chocolat and cooking above). Local food should be tested at least once, even if you are picky, because its probably amazing or now you really know you don't like it. I have a soft spot for dessert and indulge while traveling in the local dessert offerings. Of course, it's also important to be well-balanced and try to eat on a relatively normal schedule and include some fruits and veggies every day - your digestive system will thank you. 

Some Movement...

Movement actually comes easier on travel than it does at home (especially if you work a desk job). What I try to keep in mind while traveling is variety. Walking is super healthy and low impact, but if you are carrying a heavier bag (even just a bag weighted down with water, a guidebook, and a camera), its important to stretch and unwind those muscles after a full day. Also helpful is changing up movement by including a bike tour, swimming or even a bus tour to work different muscles or give them a break.

Relaxation...
It's easy to imagine relaxing for hours on the beach, reading a book, watching the water, and just being. It's also easy to get caught up and overbook in places that you've wanted to go forever, like Paris. While traveling I try to set aside unplanned time to relax. This can mean spending a couple hours over a coffee and dessert, or going to the local swimming hole and people watching. For those of us with limited travel time it's important to not overbook your travel time, even though its tempting!