The day is finally almost here; my sister’s wedding! We are off bright and early tomorrow. I’ll bring back beautiful pictures of Sonoma, wine and the cake! This is what my packing looked like tonight…
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Category Archives: Travel
Viva Rafa!
What a perfect cup to drink coffee from while watching the French Open!
(Yes I know the French Quarter isn’t actually in France)
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Milan 24 Hours Go!
While looking through old pictures this week I came across a few from a trip to Milan. I realized I never shared this story and it’s a real “pilot’s daughter” story because it is a trip I went on with my dad while he was working. While he was flying the plane my sister and I were enjoying the joys of Business Elite.
It was during Thanksgiving so I was a little bummed to miss the big day of cooking but I decided Milan was worth it—and it was. We started with a day in New York City where we walked around eating and shopping. I of course had a list of a few restaurants I had heard about and wanted to try. Though there was a list I only dragged them across the city to one spot, and it was definitely worth it. We had our afternoon snack of a lobster roll at Luke’s Lobster in the East Village. It was amazing to say the least. Perfect roll that let the lobster shine and not be drenched in mayo.
We then headed back towards our hotel, stopped to eat again at a Mexican restaurant, then made it finally back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the airport. Luckily Kylie and I both got on and in first! We wined and dined while dad worked away and then he safely landed us in Milan.
We had 24 hours total so we had to get straight to business. We rented a car and head to Lake Como. We spent the morning walking around the beautiful area and of course, ate and drank. What else are you supposed to do in Italy?!
Squid Ink Pasta!
We came back to the city and got settled into our hotel and got ready for dinner. We found a cute restaurant near the Duomo and once again enjoyed a fabulous Italian meal filled with pasta and pizza. After dinner we walked over to La Scala and enjoyed the beautiful cities nightlights.
The next day at the airport there was only on seat left for one of us to get first so I let Kylie take it. What can I say I’m a good sister. My dad was nice enough though to send some of the ice cream back to me.
That was a pretty typical experience and time frame when I go on a work trip with my dad. Though it’s quick and to the point it’s pretty fabulous. I will have to look at my dads schedule for next month…
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Driving is the New Flying
I was thinking about travel a lot this weekend, which is not unusual at all. I’m always thinking about traveling especially since my job deals with traveling. I thought about where I had traveled to since I moved to Denver in September and there wasn’t many trips I had been on. One to New Hampshire for my cousins wedding and a visit back to Charleston, South Carolina. I felt a little disappointed, as if that wasn’t enough. I’ve realized since I entered the nine to five work world that not traveling live I used to is part of the package but it still didn’t make me feel very good. Then it hit me. I have been traveling. Quite a bit lately. I’ve been going to the mountains. I may not have to take a plane to get there but the car ride can be an adventure in itself, as you can see from the picture above. It may not be traveling in the same way I am used to but I have the Colorado mountains in my backyard and that is pretty darn amazing!
Picture from Keystone Moutain
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daugther
Checks and Balance
As I sat at my nine to five desk today, I felt a twinge of pain when I looked at my phone at 4:23 pm and read a text. At 4:22 pm I received a text from my friend Becky that said, “330 to tel aviv.” Becky and three of my other friends were on their way on a A330 aircraft, to decipher for you, to Tel Aviv Israel. I responded with I wish I could go and knew that I had to work instead.
After I read that I sat there continuing to work and it sunk in, this is real life. I’ve bounced around a lot in the past year and have been fortunate enough to be unemployed in between and been able to travel and basically have whatever schedule I want. And of course the flight benefits were the best. As I thought about this I felt a moment of, I wish I was unemployed. How wrong is that? I wished for the time again when I could just jump on a plane with my friend Becky, or visit people, whenever I wanted. Once again I was hit with the reality of life. I started to weigh the pros and cons. Thinking about this I realized life really is about balance. I’ve lived the past year in this la la land where I was extremely fortunate to be able to accept internships where I worked for free, find jobs that work with my unpaid jobs and the best part, have about a month off in between. So as I sat there at my nine to five job I was able to think for a second that it was ok. I am so fortunate to have lived the easy life and be able to find a job. I sat there and thought about my year of fun and all my past college years of living on a spontaneous life plan. I thought back to all the moments I had experienced and tried to think of moments I had missed. None stood out and I realized that was all that mattered. I took those moments when I could and now I’m going to work hard to play hard again to. It’s all about the checks and balance.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
And We’re Back
This was my first trip in, I don’t-know-how-long, that I didn’t bring my computer. For almost a solid four days I was computer free. I must say it was pretty amazing. I also bought a ticket, so no standby traveling for me this time, which was also pretty amazing.
This Thanksgiving we went to New Hampshire for my cousin’s wedding at the Omni Resort in Mount Washington. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt’s in Exeter, New Hampshire. I of course brought the cake, which means I brought it on the plane. If anyone wants to make friends on a plane or in the airport carry a container with cakes in them, people will comment.
Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and are ready for the transition from pumpkin everything to gingerbread.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Falling for Fall
Colorado has been great for many reasons, but one of my favorites has been hiking. A couple of weekends ago my roommate and a couple of friends and I went to Aspen for the weekend. We were staying with my friends Aunt and Uncle who wanted to wine and dine us all weekend—I won’t argue with that. It was amazing. Relaxing, wine drinking and cheese eating weekend. It was also the perfect time of year because the aspen trees were changing colors so it made for an icredible hike in the little town of Redfern. It was so picturesque the whole time that it was almost impossible to put the camera down. We hiked and then enjoyed a lovely cheese, sausage and pear picnic. I think that was the exact moment that I fell in love with Colorado.
We also got to enjoy the Aspen Farmer’s Market as well. Rows of beautiful booths filled with produce, pastries and more. They have peppers in a hatch rotary roasting contraption that was interesting. With the mountains in the background its hard to imagine a better farmers market.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Munich- Best Pretzels and Beer
Our trip came to end in Munich. Even though it meant the trip was over, we were so excited to get there because everyone we had to talked to about Munich said it was one of their favorite places. We of course took a train because in Europe that is an easy and cheap way to get from country to country.
We had an interesting adventure with the trains this time around. We were sleeping on the train because that was our designated sleeping time, or so it seemed it was the only time we were able to get some shut eye. The train came to a stop and we didn’t move because we knew we had about another hour before we were supposed to arrive. Then some older couples started pounding on our windows and screaming something in German at us. In a panic we grabbed our things and got off the train. We then realized where we were, which was the middle of no-where-farm-town Germany, and that the train would not go any further. There was an accident on the track and they were sending buses to take us to Munich. We let the first bus go without pushing and shoving to get on, but quickly realized that there was probably only one more bus coming and way more people than space on the bus so we pushed and shoved and I had the door close on me. I screamed and frantically made my way on. No way was I going to be left behind. This was a public transportation bus so we had to stand/sit on the steps the rest of the way. But it made for a good story and in the end we got to Munich only and hour late.
After settling into our hotels we immediately went out and headed toward the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Marienplatz and then stopped in for a beer at the famous Hofbräuhaus house. We walked around a bit more and then went to the absolute best thing we did in Munich, Mike’s Bike Tour. It was beyond fun. The guide was hilarious, personable, and we learned a lot of history and saw some amazing sites. My favorite building was the Bayerische Staatskanzlei which is the state agency of the German Free State of Bavaria, and the appendant builidng, aka where Merkel gets stuff done. The center part of the building is the former Bavarian Army Museum, and was demolished in WW II. There are bullet holes in the pillars of the part of the building that was able to be salvaged. The building was rebuilt with glass to represent transparency.
We stopped for a snack aka amazing pretzel and beers. In the beer garden in Englischer Garten, which is bigger than Central Park. They served a cheese dip with the pretzel’s that our guide could only describe as an “angel taking a dump in your mouth, that’s how good it is.” Sorry if that was too graphic. We went home and changed to go out for the evening. We went to the hostel across from us to have some drinks then went to another hostel called Euro Hostel just because it was next door and to our surprise it was amazing. The décor first off was awesome and sophisticated and a ton of people from all over. Then we hit the town and went to a few clubs.
The next morning we woke and headed to the first concentration camp, Dachau, in Germany. It was a very intense experience. To lighten the mode we headed back to Englischer Garten and went in the man made river, Eisbach. They even created a wave, so you can see the surfers of Munich. It is flowing and about five feet deep and so cold, but so fun! We thought, key word thought this was our last night, so we went to another famous beer house Augustiner Keller for dinner. We did a little beer pub hopping and ended the night back at Euro Hostel.
We got up the next morning with the idea that we were getting home. To our surprise, my friend Caitlin and I were shocked when I only got a seat. We panicked and gave up my seat since we didn’t want to split up. Really smart, not. Since we are flying standby you should always split up because tomorrow there could also only be one seat, so take a seat when you get it is the moral of the story. We went back in to Munich and went to Olympic park. A few of our friends were still there for one more night so luckily we got to stay on their floor for the night. We got out the next day thank god, but it was pretty stressful, lots of running thorugh the airport and holding up the planes.
We made it to Charleston 24 hours later, tired, ready for bed, but once again planning our next trip…flying standby.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Salzburg: Best Music
The hills are alive with the sound of music in Salzburg. Sorry I couldn’t help myself from having that as the lead in this post. But for real they are—if you go on the Sound of Music tour while you are there that is. We arrived into Salzburg to a cloudy rainy day, but it was the only day we had any issues with weather and it cleared up by mid-afternoon. We checked in to our hostel and waited to be picked up for the tour. We found a food truck next to our hostel and decided that would be lunch. I had the curry sausage and it was probably the best sausage I had the whole trip. It was covered in a ketchupy-curry sauce that was incredible. If you are going to Salzburg let me know and I’ll tell you where this truck was.
The tour started and we went around the city and saw places like the back of the house from the movie. Which due to complications with laws and so on, they only used the patio and lake to film and the house itself was never shown. We saw the pavilion that “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” was sang in; and another little interesting fact was that it was only built for the film. We saw the path that Marie sang down on her way to the house and the trees the kids played in after singing “Do-Re-Mi.” We then left the heart of Salzburg and headed for the hills. In case you were wondering, they did play the Sound of Music soundtrack during parts of the tour.
The real abbey where Maria von Trapp studied to be a nun.
Some of us didn’t enjoy the tour as much as others.
We stopped in Mondsee, which was an adorable tiny town that housed the Mondsee Cathedral that was used to film the wedding scene from the movie. Another great thing about this stop were the strudels. Known for strudels, the oldest strudel recipe in Austria dates back to 1696. We had apple and cheese strudels, some with a cream sauce and some with ice cream. Obviously the cheese strudel was my favorite with the cream sauce. Nice doughy crust on the outside with a warm filming soaked with sauce.
After the tour we explored the Mirabell Gardens, that has the Pegasus fountain, the “Do-Re-Mi” steps and other locations for that song. The weather was finally clearing up and it was absolutely breath taking views of the garden with the Fortress Hohensalzburg in the background. We explored the old town, saw Mozart’s statue and his birth home.
We had without a doubt the weirdest dinner experience that almost had us eating at Japanese/pizza serving restaurant. We got lured in by the all-you-can-eat sign—we’re so American. Don’t worry we ended eating a delicious Italian meal from a restaurant across the street.
The most hilarious fact we learned on the Sound of Music tour was about the end of the movie. When the family is climbing over the mountains in the last scene to flee Austria and the German Nazi’s, they are marching over Untersberg which borders Austria and Germany, so if you haven’t figured it out yet, they would’ve have been hiking directly into Germany. A little Hollywood trick. The real story is that they hopped on a Train down to Italy, no hiking involved.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
Vienna- Best Architecture on Every Corner
Vienna is the capital of Austria and the “city of music” which is the city where the waltz originated. We waltzed our way into that city without a real plan, which was sort of a trend with us on this trip. We first headed over to see a building made by my friends Phil and Claire’s Great-great-grandfather (they think) which was a building that had an amazing gold leaf dome.
We then realized we had checked off the only thing on our list and didn’t know what else to see, so we did what I love to do—hopped on a hour long bus tour. It took us all around the city and we got to hear a lot of great history. We also learned on this tour about Viennese’s coffee shops and how important coffee shops are to their culture. Rumor has it that the Polish army brought some “strange bags of beans” over with them after they invaded Turkey and one of the officers was given the beans and started the first coffee shop and the rest is history.
After our tour we enjoyed delicious street hotdogs and pretzels—so good.
We then toured some on foot and of course ate gelato. I had been to Vienna before when I was in 7th grade so it was fun remembering things or finding familiar buildings and statues. This is also the city where the famous Lipizzaner Stallions are from. When I was here before I watched them perform in the palace. These horses basically do horse ballet; it is incredible. The horses stable is in the Schönbrunn Palace. The thing that the group decided on that was the most amazing part about Vienna was that on every corner the architecture is beautiful. The buildings are just spectacular and similar looking wherever you end up.
We stayed in a hotel in Vienna, thanks to Phil’s Marriot points. We went back to the hotel took naps and got ready and went to an amazing dinner at Zwolf Apostelkeller. The dining room was a basement brick dining room and went pretty deep under ground. We shared a meat platter, cheese platter, schznitzel platter and sides of potatoes, saurkrawt and dumplings. I got to try a first here too. On the meat platter they had blood sausage. Blood sausage is basically what is sounds like and I’m not going to go into detail about it because it may gross some people out. If you want to know in depth about it, just google it. It had a very weird spread like consistancy and the taste was very similar to liver. Not bad though.
We walked the streets and ended up getting beer at a bubble tea stand; odd but fun. We also found another Pub like the one in Prague with the beer taps at the tables. We hit the hay a little bit earlier than usual and got up early to take the train to Salzburg.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter
