Awesome TR. Appreciate the effort.
People talk about Vietnam as crazy driving but I would much rather wander across the road in rush hour traffic 10 times in Vietnam than try it once in China.
Haha. Understandable. Iāve done this multiple times though. Itās mostly best time ever and some parts wanting to walk into the ocean and never come back. Last time I went, we rented this obscene 10+ BR house in Virginia Beach right on the beach. Indoor/outdoor pool. Movie room that we watched NFL Sunday football on. Pool table in the library room.
Ages ranged from like 22 to 80 yrs old. Thereās always obviously some drama, but I do my best to steer clear of that nonsense and just chill with the fam thatās on the same page as me.
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Have any of you travelers to Europe encountered something like this?
https://twitter.com/Amelia_Lindsey/status/1552043153783504896?s=20&t=l_dAgSjQLYNrKk25QHXjYQ
Way ahead of you. And apparently wrong too, as they did not become a trend last year.
So much this. Driving in Asia is for suicidal people.
Istanbul was pretty crazy too. Supposedly, Africa is even more insane when it comes to driving.
Yup. French tacos. Pretty good. Half burrito, half panini.
To be fair, Iāve only had them at takeout places in Prague. So, I havenāt had the āreal thingā.
I am in Jackson, WY and am being served by a bartender whose name is also Jackson
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Never had an Adelaide in Adelaide, I take it? Sydney in Sydney?
I think this name-city match is a first for me. I donāt think Iāve ever met anyone named Adelaide.
I have met two Adelaides, that I can recall (neither Australian).
Iāve got a Houston in Houston on my list. That my only one.
I at least hope the (admittedly fairly long running) trend of using surnames as first names dies a timely death some time soon, but I am not terribly optimistic.
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I once had this idea for a childrenās book mocking the use of surnames as first names. Yet another book I never wrote.
Day 10. Itās me and my 32 year old BIL driving south on the A1 into Naples with Vesuvius looming. Our destination is some spot on a flat map in the middle of the peninsula south of sorrento. But it makes no sense as we wind up the switch backs and through miles long tunnels overlooking the bays on either side. Weāre blasting GirlTalk All Day with the windows down in the a6, at every new bend in the road a new amazing view of the coastline appears. Weāre giddy. Screaming our heads off like lunatics. Weāre climbing so quickly itās hard to imagine thereās more hill available, thereās seemingly water in every direction. And yet thereās another turn and another climb.
Finally Weāre close to our destination. Google wants to take us the wrong way down a one way and the internet is out and it wonāt reroute. Weāre lost. One simply does not take wrong turns in this area. We spend about 40 minutes learning that lesson. Side roads get skinny, then turn to scooter paths at weird angles then end bordered on three sides by stone walls 6 ft high. We back out of a couple of these gingerly with our hands manually folding side mirrors as needed. We get gas and regroup. We think we know which turn we have to make next, itās a donkey path leading under an arch that appears to be a one way. The wrong way. The idea seems to be, you double park on a blind corner and when an inch opens up you just go for it. Once you get to the archway, itās too late to go back, so if anyone else is there, bigger car wins.
It works. I toss the keys in the dish. Iām out. The other crew picked up 2 vans in naples and scratched up the mirrors already. This is Vespa territory. But tourists here in anything bigger than a fiat panda is insane.
This villa is interesting. Itās not as stately as the mini castle in tuscany but itās almost as big and has 2 acres of yard with terraces of olive, apple, lemon, Pear, mulberry and fig. Our room on the second floor had a ceiling of 74 inches. The door jambs were all head hazards. The kitchen is on the 3rd floor with outdoor seating and views from Capri to Naples. Itās a little funky. The location is good in theory. 25 minutes to sorrento or positano or a number of little beaches.
We ate more great pasta and some pretty good pizza. Francos in sorrento was pretty good but our neighbor Vito came over and made a bunch at our house for us and had a really good crust that he topped with a cold caprese salad, just perfect tomatoes and this thick and squeaky but tender mozzarella. Excellent. Also his specialty, a red sauce with mortadella and aged provolone, great combo.
I make a lot of pizzas at home. I was hoping to visit mecca and learn some new tricks. But most of the pies we had were pretty uninspiring. And that was a disappointment especially since amazing tomatoes are pretty ubiquitous and thatās half the game.
We ended up doing day trips to Positano and Capri. And a chartered boat down the amalfi coast. Boats here make sense where cars donāt. Really all these places are just malls where women buy clothes that are meant to be worn in places like this so they can go to other places like this and buy more.
But it is stunningly beautiful. And by boat you can swim under cathedrals of ancient stone and history and you can eat in seaside restaurants without Disneyland crowds piled into a single 8ft wide mall way that extends for miles down to a beach 20 rows deep with full beach chairs in perfect formation. Positano is my personal hell.
Itās also where I think I got covid.
So I isolated from everyone and slept 2 of the last 3 days there. And then had to scramble to figure out what the rest of this trip was going to be.
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I actually think that more than half of the time it works pretty well. Is Jackson really that bad a first name?
Train from Lake Constance to Lucerne and back was probably my favorite thing I did in Europe
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Made a quick trip into Tokyo to meet up with an old friend visiting from the U.S.
While there had a frightening first-ever experience in Japan.
Japanese train travelers are famously docile and quiet. You can practically hear a pin drop during rush hour.
So it was to my great surprise upon boarding the Yamanote Line that circles central Tokyo that we were greeted by angry shouting. Looking over in the direction of the shouting voice, a yakuza figure, right out of Tokyo Vice, dressed in a loud silk shirt, gold chains and rings, dark sunglasses, buzz cut, and visibly drunk, apparently wasnāt a fan of foreigners.
Guttural yakuza Japanese is hard to grasp even for my well-trained ears, but I got the gist of it. āFk you gaijin. Shut the Fk up and go back to where you came fromā¦,ā he snarled.
Turns out he was messing with the wrong two gaijin, well at least one of us, as my friend is a former MMA champion who, though quite placid outside the ring, with each passing second appeared to be spoiling for a fight.
Me, I was scared shitless.
The stare-down between my friend and the yakuza continued until my cooler head prevailed and I got us the hell off the train at the next stop before tensions escalated any further.
Iāve encountered my share of yakuzaāidentifiable as such from their missing pinky fingersābefore, but never one who was aggressively hostile as this one.
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Ok Iāll askā¦
Whatās with the missing pinky fingers?
Just got back, and thatās what my wife and I kept saying. It looks fake. Fake hiking, fake swimming, fake views from the trains. Itās incredible.
We did three hikes - my wife likes to keep them under 5 miles so they were all relatively touristy but still a blast. Cloud cover ruined one.
We did the Stoos ridge hike which has just ridiculous views of the mountains and Lake Lucerne, alpine flowers and cows all over the place. My phone camera doesnāt do it justice.
Next hike wasnāt as successful - I wanted to go to Bachalpsee which is this beautiful mountain lake 7k feet up, but it was too cloudy that day. Still a fun hike but we got this
instead of this:
Oh well, it was the only bad weather we got.
Then we did the panorama trail hike at Oeschinensee which was outstanding, we had great weather. Cold glass of alpine milk at the top. Swimming at the bottom.
The swimming was great. I knew most of the cities you can just jump in and swim wherever - and the first day we were walking in Zurich, saw a bunch of locals swimming so I hopped in, too. They have these great badis which are often paid entry (but relatively cheap, like 5 franks), and have bathrooms, changing areas, showers, slides, docks, diving boards, etc. I love to swim so I spent a lot of time in the water at almost everywhere we went.
We stayed in Zurich 4 nights, spent about a day in the city but every other day we went elsewhere - Stoos, Basel (my wife loved the art museum), Zug, Rappenswil, Schwyz. The rest of the time we slept in Interlaken, and went out for trips from there - the hikes, Bern, Lucerne. I took a day and went canyoning outside of Interlaken - paid trip, got to rappel some and then jump off waterfalls as we climbed down a river, which was a blast. No photos, couldnāt bring my phone.
We decided not to rent a car - the train system was super easy to manage. They have a bunch of different deals, but I think the best value for a < 10 day trip is to get the Swiss Half Fare card which gives half off pretty much all travel (short bus trips or local trams arenāt quite half off). Thereās a great SBB phone app thatās super easy to work with - covers pretty much all travel in the country.
Food was just fine, Iām sure we could have hunted finer restaurants. I loved the place, Iāll definitely go back some day. Good half+ of the country I didnāt get to see.
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We did the Golden Pass, but just from Lucerne to Interlaken, Iād love to keep going to Montreaux - did you think it got better the further you went? Bunch of train rides Iād like to go back for.