Asheville, North Carolina

This weekend we took a trip to historic Asheville with my parents who were visiting! It is a lovely town that reminded us of our missed Seattle! We drove about 3.5 hrs from Raleigh to Asheville and had lunch at the Laughing Seed Café. We ordered a few items to try family style and enjoyed the omega hempnut burger and quesadilla the most. We arrived and there was a long line but got a table immediately, they do not take reservations. This restaurant is completely vegetarian and I believe the same owner as Chai Pani in Asheville. This restaurant is located in downtown Asheville, street parking is free after 6 pm and on Sundays, but otherwise they have parking garages and metered spots. After lunch we made our way to the beautiful Biltmore Estate, home to the Vanderbilt’s! Its situated on a huge area of land and one could spend almost all day there. We bought tickets 7+ days prior to the day we visited as you get the cheapest rate of $44. We toured the home, where you cannot take photos, and if you are a fan of Downton Abbey, it totally reminded me of that show and how those characters lived! We did not purchase the audio tour, but just followed the rest of the other tourists with our free pamphlet as a reference. After the home, we toured the souvenir shop as my father is a junkie for those things! There are souvenir shops at the Biltmore and in Antler Village, but you get more variety at the Biltmore Shops.

 

The gardens are huge, but we did manage a hike down to bass pond, even though my mother towards the end was giving up! Lastly we got into the car and drove down to Antler Village for some ice cream at the parlor! This is also where the free wine tasting and a few restaurants are located. Friends have been in the past and did the clay shooting and land rover tour which they enjoyed.

For dinner that night we ate at Nine Mile, which is a delicious Caribbean inspired restaurant situated away from the crowds! So much food for so little cost and the flavors were amazing! They also do not take reservations, but again we got lucky and got a table rather quickly.

 

 

We spent the night at the Sleep Inn on Haywood Rd, which a dear friend owns! It’s a lovely hotel, with free breakfast and great location right off 40. The next morning we made our way to Chimney Rock State Park, and just as a tip, go early because when we left there was a huge line at the entrance! One of the trails were closed so the entrance fee was $12/person instead of $15. We ended up hiking up ~500+ steps to the first viewing platform, my mother took the elevator up, which is a great option so everyone can get to the top. My dad was being quite adventurous that day so we hiked even further up, all paths have stairs, so relatively easy compared to gravel. This was a lovely stop over before we headed back home to Raleigh. On our way out we had a picnic lunch in the next town over from chimney rock heading east. Just an FYI, we have sprint as a cell phone carrier and did not get much service in the mountain areas, so our car GPS saved us in order to find our way back to I-40.

 

Update: We just went back this weekend and also went to Tulepo Honey Café, Curete, and the Asheville Brewing Company. All of them were good places to check out.

Bora Bora

Our amazing trip to Bora Bora has ended, so the post needs to go up! We haven’t traveled the world, but from the places we have been, this has been the most beautiful! We had an amazing time with 9 of our other friends, two of which got engaged on the trip! Congrats B and S!!

We booked our trip through Costco.com. They have the best customer service and no waits when trying to speak with a representative. The cheapest time to go to Bora Bora was from October-March, we ended up going March 14^th 2013 for 5 nights and 6 days. We booked quite early in October and included travel insurance, which was and extra $89/person. Our cost for the trip via Costco did not include our flight from home to LAX. We ended up booking tickets to LAX which caused us to get there early as the flight to PPT does not leave until 11:55 PM. We were planning on hanging out at the Delta Lounge but that did not work since we had our luggage bags. We ended up getting 1 room to hang out in at the Renaissance Marriot for the day. We walked to our favorite LA hot spot, In N Out from the hotel. There is also a free airport shuttle, which runs every 15-20 minutes. Definitely get to the airport early enough as it is quite busy. The international terminal is terrible, and I advise eating dinner before getting to the airport by 8pm, when Air Tahiti counter opens up.

We had absolutely no hiccups with travel and arrival to Papeete (PPT) and before we took off for the island of Bora Bora. At PPT a wonderful travel agent from Marama Travels who was affiliated with Costco met us. She met us when we arrived into PPT and also when left. There is luggage storage for a minimal fee at the PPT airport for your information. On our return trip, we store our luggage and went to the Ocean Restaurant, walking distance from the terminal, to eat fair Chinese food. There were no other real options in close proximity to the airport, your other option is to take a taxi to downtown Papeete.

We finally arrived into Bora Bora on Friday morning. You go straight to the counter sign that lists your hotel and they arranged our baggage according to rooms. Luckily my brother in law called ahead of time and got all 5 rooms next to each in the 300’s. These rooms had an amazing view of the ocean and our own lagoon to swim in. Service was impeccable, from check in, check out, during meals, at the spa and just while hanging poolside. There are even porters that took us to and from our rooms to anywhere else on the resort, we just had to call ahead. Especially during check out, our boat left at 4 pm and we should have called to porter our baggage earlier due to the size of our party. We were able to keep one of the rooms until 3 pm the day of departure, usually it is an 8000 XFP, but the resort kindly comped the room for free!

Our Costco booking ensured us breakfast and dinner for the 5 nights. One caveat which we only knew about because of reviews was the night of the Polynesian show, which is always Tuesday, you get charged ~5900 XFP/couple for dinner. You really have no other option to eat as the other restaurants are closed that night. You could potentially go on the mainland to eat. We ended up staying for the show and were not disappointed; plenty of veggie options in the buffet and the kind chef even made our table a special vegetarian dish. Our first meal was at the Iriatai Restaurant, which we had to make a reservation for. The options were fairly limited and it took forever, most of our party fell asleep at the table from the jet lag. I advise if you go here, go another day and go early, keep an eye out on the menu as some items are an extra charge. All other nights we ate dinner at the Tamure Grill and had great service and plenty of options to chose from their menus. Breakfast was served buffet style at the location of the Tamure Grill with plenty of fresh made options. Hot drinks were included in our stay. Breakfast was served from 6:30-10:00, we did not get breakfast the day of arrival, but were greeted with a cool Polynesian drink and sweet smelling wet cloth to wipe down from the heat. Go to http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/french-polynesia/hilton-bora-bora-nui-resort-and-spa-PPTBNHI/dining/index.html to see the menu options for the restaurants at the Hilton. We were kindly greeted by Valentin, manager of food and beverage services, who asked us to please let him know of any dietary concerns and or restrictions and they would be quite accommodating given time. Alcohol was not included in the hotel stay; we bought booze via duty free at LAX which saved us tons. We did have plenty of the local Tahitian beer, which was yummy.

We also ended up bringing food for lunchtime, each person was designated an item. Once we arrived to Bora Bora, two of the boys went into the mainland to Chin Lees Grocery store to get water, soda and some other snacks. The taxi from the Hilton to and from the mainland is 700 XFP round-trip. You get your ticket from the receptionist and they depart fairly often, just ask for a time schedule. One of the days the rest of the gang went souvenir shopping on the mainland. Basically you get off the boat, go down the dock and once through the expensive Robert Wang Pearl shop hang a left (we did not go to the right at all). The shops in the beginning are mucho dinero. We ended up buying all our souvenirs from Boutique Bora Bora which is located on the right hand side before Chin Lees. It was both reasonable and had the most options and they took credit card. We bought woodcarvings, magnets and sarongs but ended up buying Vanilla from duty free at PPT. Us girls purchased pearls from a local street vendor named Bessy Pierre, his girlfriend Diana worked at the Hilton and was our server the night before. They gave us a fairly decent discount as we all purchased quite a bit from him, he only takes cash both American and French Polynesian. His stall was called La Perle de Maimiti and his email address is: bessypierre@gmail.com. You head left after you get off the dock and pass one church, he is located on the left side of the main road across from the episcopal church.

The resort itself was immaculate and gorgeous, my brother in law “Bruce” took a great video to get a glimpse of our beautiful over water bungalows. I am hoping to upload some videos soon. If you are going to go to Bora Bora, you have to stay in one of these. They had a fish feeding end table in the room and a viewing panel on the dock. You can swim from hut to hut from your very own back porch. Definitely take swimming shoes or coral will cut you up. We saw the most amazing wildlife as well right near our rooms. There are safes in the rooms along with your normal amenities. We kindly informed the reception we were using the fridge but not the items in the mini bar and they were totally okay with that. One thing lacking was a microwave and one of the fridges stopped working one day.

For the most part we bummed around and swam in the swimming pool and lagoon, we even brought our own floaties! Other activities included the spa, which I totally recommend getting the body scrub on the last day you are there to get rid of the grime! You must book in advance and they charge your room, if you plan to cancel the treatment, cancel within 24 hours. The entire group did a guided Jet Ski tour through Moana Boat Tours, which my sister in law set up via email and we paid $105/person once we were picked up. In the French Polynesian islands you must have a guide as they have had snorkeling accidents. We stopped half way to swim and saw a Monterrey! The rest of the group did the shark feeding./snorkeling tour which they bought via viator.com and they had an amazing time. You get picked up for the excursions at the main lobby area and for the most part they were prompt and reliable. Below are a few videos of those adventures. FYI, my brother in law use the Go Pro mini waterproof camera that had amazing quality!

All in all we had an amazing time at the Hilton Nui Bora Bora and I would recommend this resort in particular to others thinking of traveling to the French Polynesian islands. It had the ocean view with the mountain in the background plus service was top rated!

Before we all headed home we spent two nights in LA. We stayed at the Renaissance Marriot again and rented cars to explore the area. A few good eats I would recommend in the Venice Beach area were Akbar Indian Restaurant and Mendocino Farms for lunch!

Few Recommendations:

• Bring sunscreen and aloe, you will get burned!!
  
• Bring a hat with drawstring to wear!
  
• Bring water shoes
  
• Snacks and Alcohol if want to save some money
  
• Floaties if you have kids, or just are big kids yourself! (We got one of the porters to blow them up for us)
  
• Bug spray
  
• Book excursions before getting to the island
  
• They have free wireless in the main lobby, poolside bar and the business center has one free computer
  
• Baggage limit for internal flight from PPT to Bora Bora (they will charge you if you exceed the limit but the fee will count roundtrip):
  
  • Check in is 44#
    
  • Carry on is 6#
    

Maruru & Yarana!!

European Adventure: Prost!

Munich

Our journey started as we arrived into Munich and took the S8 train into the city center. We stayed in a German couples’ home, which we booked on http://www.airbnb.com. A great site that allows you to find affordable housing, “bed and breakfast” style. If this is ever an option while in Munich I totally recommend staying with Tim and Miriam, there home is situated ~6 stops from the city center via the S7 train, and it was close to the train stop. For dinner that night, Tim and Miriam recommended a local joint called Pizzeria Europa, within walking distance of their home with both good food and service.

The first day, Keyur, Sapna and myself walked from their Hilton Hotel at Rosenheimer train stop to Marienplatz city center. If you plan to stay in the city, the Hilton City Munich hotel was a great choice with both location and service. The Rosenheimer stop was on the main line and the hotel was situated literally above it. There are ticket booths throughout all the train stations in Munich and an ATM at the Rosenheimer stop for sure. We arrived to Marienplatz looking for the city bike tour, however we noticed a big crowd of folks going on the FREE Sandeman walking tour of Munich which began at 10:45 am. That would have been a fantastic tour, but if you decide to go on this, make sure to go with Sonya. We wanted her but got branched off onto another tour guide who shall remain nameless. He was informative but boring, which he blamed on a night of drinking at Oktoberfest, but really do your job! We did a 3 hour tour and saw all the main sites which included Residenz Home, Opera House, Maximillen Strauss shopping district, Hofbrahaus and the Glockenspeil cuckoo clock tower in action. Later we wandered through the V market and then to Englischter Garden.

After our tour we went to eat lunch at Schnider Weisse Beer hall, 2 blocks east of Marienplatz, which was a less touristy location. Needless to say if you plan to eat dinner in the main city center or at any of the beer halls during Oktoberfest, don’t count on it unless you have made reservations prior to. Our question was how the heck do you do that? That evening we met up with Anuj and had dinner at Ganga Indian restaurant near Isator station, which we highly recommend.

Friday was what we had been waiting for, Oktoberfest! In order to get to the festival, take the train to Theisenweisse station and follow the crowds into the fairgrounds, you cannot miss it. There are ~13 tents and parts of the tents are reserved and other seats are first come first serve basis. We luckily were able to sit in the reserved section with Anuj’s school but even arriving by 10:45 the non-reserved seats were fairly full. You want to definitely sit indoors to enjoy the music and craziness that happens once the beer starts pouring! Our reservation was from 12-5, and liters of beer later we stumbled our way back to the hotel. There are plenty of souvenir shops at Oktoberfest and things to do besides drink beer, but let’s be honest, that is the best part! Needless to say, that day ended fairly early for some more than others, the rest of us went to La Hacienda Mexican restaurant near the Hilton for dinner, food and service was alright.

Saturday afternoon, we took the S2 to Dachau Concentration Camp. Keyur and I unfortunately did not make it to the BMW museum as planned. Once we got off at the stop labeled “Dachau” you follow the crowds to the bus stop and take bus 726 to the campsite. It is free to enter and you can opt to do the 3.50 euro audio tour which we suggest. We spent about 2 hours at the site, it is open from 9-5 daily except major holidays. I think we would have spent even more time there except it was pouring and cold. Once back into the city we were hoping to get into Hofbrahsaus, which was a total fail due to the crowds, so we made our way back towards the hotel and miraculously got into Palaner Imtal restaurant and beer hall.

Our souvenirs of choice from this part of our trip was one of the ornate beer mugs with metal cap, my husband broke one so now we only have one left, which you know will be mine!

Sunday morning we went to Neuschwanstein Castle via train to Fussen. We bought the Bavarian ticket for 34 euros which we used all day long. It’s a 22 euro ticket + 4 euros for extra persons. We unfortunately picked the wrong day to go, it was very foggy and we did not get the postcard picturesque view of the castle we came for. To get to the castle, you take the Fussen train from Hauptbonhauf main station which took 2 hours. Once you get off the train you catch a bus (again follow crowds) # 73 or 78 to the bottom of the castle hill. Here is where you can buy tickets to enter the actual castle, we choose not to do that. We hiked up 40 minutes to the castle grounds, walked around and made our way to Marienbecke Bridge which from the castle is 15 minutes further. If you opted to buy tickets to enter the castle they call your number which can take 1-2 hrs from time of purchase. There are a few finished rooms inside the castle, as King Ludwig II died before the castle even finished.

We arrived back into main station that afternoon and got our bags and took the train to Salzburg with the same Bavarian ticket which was another 2 hours from Munich.

Marienplatz, Glockenspiel

Keyur, Sapna and myself at the Hofbrahaus Munchen

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

Neuschwanstein Castle

 

Salzburg

We arrived into the main terminal and began walking towards our hotel, we realized quickly a cab was a better option which was about 10 euros. We stayed at the Goldenes Theater hotel located in new town. We stayed in a nice and clean 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen (no fridge) and a normal American bathroom. A mediocre breakfast was included in the cost of the stay. Concierge/reception were not as kind as they were in Munich, but they were able to provide the information. We ended up not doing any tours because of the weather and we really were only in the city one full day. But if one decides to do a tour, the hotel had options and the tour company would pick you up from there which is convenient. Options included going to the ice caves, salt mines, bikes tours or doing the sound of music tour, which was filmed in Austria. We ended up having dinner down the street at the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant which was not as good as our first Indian meal in Munich, more geared towards non-Indians. The next morning we woke up and spent the day exploring the Old Town. It was another cloudy day, but thank god no rain! Salzburg is a beautiful historic town with most of its original architecture. We made our way through the town with a map, provided by our hotel, checking out the main sites before heading into the Augustiner Brew House. Note to self, the brew house does not open till 2:30 on weekends and 3:00 on weekdays, since we arrived a tad early we found a great lunch spot called Bio Berger right nearby. After Augustiner, we made our way back into the Old Town to Steigl keller Brew house which is tucked away behind the Dom Platz, a fairly large building that had great outdoor seating which had views of the city. We opted to sit outside, and note you have to self-serve if you chose to do so. Our last meal in Salzburg was again right near our hotel, across the street from the Indian joint called Restorante Pizzeria Bicoffino. We were really craving Greek food but that was a bit of trek. The pizza place had good enough food, but service was terrible. Our souvenirs of choice from Salzburg included the chocolate Mozart Balls, which are found everywhere and mini metal beer bottle covers which we got at Augustiners. I preferred the Mozart Nougot chocolates to the balls but found them later at the train station.

The morning of our departure, we were able to have reception get us a cab and headed to the train station to catch the 10 am train to Prague. The can ride was approximately 8 euros from out hotel. There is a ticket counter at the Salzburg main terminal which was easy to get tickets from the day of, we did look ahead of time for timings to have an idea what time we wanted to leave. I recommend at least an 1 hour for newbees, this gave us time to explore the grocery store at the station to get a lunch for the train ride.

So we thought we purchased the ticket that went directly to Prague with only one stop, WRONG! During the ride, the conductor informed us we had to get off at C. Budejovic stop (all in his native tongue) and then take an autobus (which temporarily broke down) to the train station in Veseli. From Veseli we finally headed to Prague (we hoped). It is unclear if there is any other straight forward option from Salzburg to Prague, we were thinking there should be a direct train from these two major cities. We did get to go on the Railjet train for 1 hour which was very nice and had free wifi.

Mozarts Birthplace

ANuj & Sapna at Dom Platz

Doorbells

Keyur and I with a view of the city

Augstiner Hofbrahaus

 

 

 

Prague

We finally got into Prague and got off at the wrong station which was called Vysherad. We needed to get off at Hiavni Nadrazi which is the main station, we ended up taking the next train and got off at some terminal which ended up being the main station but no one would really tell us. We couldn’t figure out the tram system so we took a 500 kz cab ride to the Blue and Red Design Hotel to pick up keys. From there we walked from lesser town to our Prague central apartment located between old and new town which was across the river and a 20 minute walk, there was a tram but that seemed quite overwhelming. So Prague is set up in a few sections divided by the Vltava river. Old Town, New Town and Lesser Town are the main ones for major sites. The next day we ended up doing the Prague Bike Tour for 490 kronors/person which is located on the corner of Dlouha and Rybna, very close to the Malastrana Square. The tour began at 2:30 and they do not take credit card, so make sure you get cash or they did take euros. We did not preregister for this, just showed up. I recommend the bike tour if you want to get a good sum of the cities main points. Before the tour we had a variety of beers at the Prague Beer Museum (actually a bar) and then had lunch at a pizza place around the corner, which was not so mentionable.

We had an adventurous 2 hour trek through the city, I thought my husband was going to get run over as he had not ridden a bike in ages but he made it and was a trooper. Afterwards we had a beer at Hastal bar, which our tour guide had recommended for a local brew. For dinner we went to an Italian place called Restaurant Carmalita off of Ujzed Road, which our good friend Azim recommended. Both service and food were great and they had fresh CRP which almost blinded me! Pooped from our days adventures, we walked back to our apartment. The neighborhood where our hotel was located was busy, and at night a bit sketchy. It was a great for the size of our large 2 bedroom apartment with fully functioning kitchen, only thing it lacked was a washing machine which would have been nice. The shower is not standing but does have a hand held shower and they didn’t provide extra towels unless you go to the main office. Prague Central Apartments are located throughout the city, I would recommend them again, and maybe closer to the squares.

The second day we got up at leisure and made our way to Wenceslas Square that had an outdoor market. We had fresh sweet bread and later a beer sample and fresh potato chips. We then headed towards lesser town through the Vitezna bridge where we followed the path of our bike tour. We had lunch at the Restaurant at the Charles Bridge, which was very overpriced with a simple not so extravagant Czech meal. After lunch we made our way through Lesser Town towards the Palace grounds, which was free of charge, and walked up the old castle stairs to see amazing views of the city. We then made our way towards Old Town for a beer, which if you are on a budget, 30-50 kroners is reasonable but in the Jewish quarters and squares they increase beer prices to 80-90 kroners. For dinner that evening we had Mexican food at Las Adelitas. Service was good and so was the food for meat eaters, there beans had chorizo in it and only thing for veggies were the nachos and special requested enchiladas. It was a nice change and located close to Malastrana Square.

The next morning we took a cab from our hotel for 220 kroners to the train station from Spalena, they did not take credit card FYI. The train station seemed less intimidating then when we arrived, it seems we had arrived eventually at the correct station and just needed to explore for the trains. That’s one thing that seemed difficult in Prague compared to most western European cities, there train station was a bit complex but again we did not venture into them. We walked the entire city. Monitors at the station make finding the platform very straight forward and they also had ticket counters like Salzburg did.

We didn’t have our own map, but got one from the Blue/Red Design hotel which we used for the days in Prague. I would recommend getting a decent map of Prague and Berlin from the states as they are bigger cities and more complex to navigate, prior to arrival.

Astronomical Clock @ Malastrana Square

View from Prague Castle

Charles Bridge

 

Jewish Cemetery: Recommend!

 

 

Berlin

We arrived into the Berlin Hauptbonhauf (main station) and we got to platform 15 to take the S bahn to Friedrichstrausee, we should have from there taken the U6 to Stadtmitte stop but due to construction it wouldn’t have mattered anyways. We ended up walking about 15 minutes from Friedrichstrausee to the Winters Hotel Gandermarket on the corner of Charlotten and Leipzinger St. It was a modern clean hotel, with a good location near trains and some of the main sites; the four of us shared one room which was a decent size and good deal for a city hotel. Overall clean hotel with fair service from staff members (Nils was an exception) but our AC did not work, and the last day our internet went out for a while. They also have a cap on the amount of bandwidth you use at a time, which for being such a new modern place it’s somewhat unnecessary.

Berlin is broken up train wise with S and U bahn which is a bit confusing. Its best to get day pass for 15 euros, which would have worked for the 4 of us. Our train ride took off from Prague at 8:30 am and arrived into Berlin at 13:30, these train tickets were pre bought, first class was not all that, so save a few euros and stick with the 2^nd class compartments. After checking into the hotel we took the U6 from Stadtmitte to Oranienburger Tor to eat at Dadas Falafal which I totally recommend. The food hit the spot and they had this amazing spicy sauce, that neighborhood in general had a lot of delicious international and eclectic menus. After lunch we made our way to Hofbrauhaus of Berlin. Instead of our intended plan to stay for 1-2 hrs, we stayed for 6 and had a mini Oktoberfest replay! Here we bought a few souvenirs for a few of our loved ones, a 0.5 L mug with the HB symbol on it. The next day we headed to the Starbucks at Brandenburg tor for our free Sandeman walking tour of the cities sites, we chose the 1 pm start time, but there are a total of 4 tours you could choose from. We had Rob, a British chap, who was absolutely wonderful, entertaining and informative. We encountered a rain storm halfway through but were still able to finish the tour. The tour ended on Museum Island and was about 3.5 hrs long. I really recommend this company again, you give them tips accordingly, but if the weather is bad I recommend one of those bus tours. On our walk back to the hotel, we made a pit stop at Ritter Sport chocolate shop to by some yummy treats. For dinner that evening we had a lovely meal at a well themed Indian restaurant called Amrit, food and service overall were great, but would recommend telling them to add spice according to your preference. Prior to our arrival into Berlin, I made a free reservation at the Reichstag Parliament building for the 15 minute dome tour. The evening turned out to be clear and we to see the city night lights of Berlin from the dome. There was even a free informative audio guide we got and the dome is open most days of the year until late into the evening. Just make sure you reserve a spot and you will get a confirmation email which I printed out, they also need your passport for ID purposes.

Sunday was a more chill day, we visited the free Jewish holocaust museum which is situated underneath the memorial. It is open all day through the year except Christmas time and if you would like to do the audio tour it was a few euros, we chose not to and were able to read most of the inscriptions and be done in less than 2 hours. I absolutely recommend this museum. After lunch at some random restaurant, the ban mi sandwich place we wanted to go to was closed, we headed to the Pergamon Museum located on the Museum Island. This was a 10 euro charge unless you have your student ID, then it was 5, this price did include an audio tour. This museum was ok, not really worth the time if you aren’t in berlin for long as a lot of the artifacts are replicas. For dinner we went to Zumi Sushi, right near our hotel, we were very limited in choices as the first 3 places we visited were closed or didn’t take credit card. It was a run of the mill sushi joint, I am sure there are better places in the city. One of the highlights of our last day in Berlin was we got to see the Dallas Mavericks leaving the Hotel Adlon at Brandenburg Tor, we saw German celebrity Dirk Nowizki! On the morning of departure we took a taxi cab from our hotel to Tegal Airport which was a 20 euro cab ride. We would normally take the train as the U6 station was 1 block from our hotel however there was construction going on in the station, making you have to get back off and walk to the next main station which would be ~10 minutes + take a bus once you get close to Tegal. Tegal airpot was small, check in was fast and security was nothing, so even for “international” flights you don’t need to be there super early.

Hofbrahaus

Jewish Holocaust Memorial: A must see!

Berlin Wall

Nazi Book Burning Memorial

 

Brandenbeg Tor

Mother with Fallen Soilder Son

View from Reichstag Parliament Dome

 

Dirk N!

My husband so interested in the Gates of Babylon at the Paragom

 

A few tips when traveling in Eastern Europe:

A lot of places do not take credit card    

Water in restaurants is not free and one must differentiate if you want sparkling or regular water, apparently Eastern European love “gas” water. If you want non bottled water, ask for tap, overall the tap water in all the cities was fine to drink and none of us got sick. Some restaurants only give your bottled water which you must pay for.

They really don’t bother you while you eat dinner, but sometimes when you need something or are done it takes the servers a bit to get to you

A lot of restaurants and 99% of shopping is closed on Sundays in Germany so be prepared.

On the S Bahn in Germany, there are employees who will come and check your ticket so be prepared to pay a hefty fine if you decided to skip buying one. We did notice on the U Bahn in Berlin it was less enforced.

 

We had a fantastic vacation with Anuj and Sapna and I totally recommend it, I would just go mid-September and make Munich your last stop to party at Oktoberfest in order to ensure decent weather!

Alaska

We recently went on the Princess Cruise line (PCL) to Alaska with the fam bam. My parents, sister, aunt, uncle and 3 cousins accompanied us on our Alaskan adventure. I booked the cruise for the gang through Costco.com which was a great and convenient way to do it. We ended up getting a Costco cash card for each booking we did and the princess phone line was impossible to get through on. Our boat left on Saturday August 18^th from Seattle and returned 7 days later. We were on board by 2 pm just in case of any mishaps, but all was easy and went well, make sure you have ID and visas as needed. The ship itself had plenty of activities, lots of food (we even had the head waiter make our family the needed Indian food each night). Booze is definitely the most expensive item on all cruise lines, but conveniently PCL allowed 1 bottle of wine or champagne per passenger, and you can restock at all ports! The pools were heated, plenty of hot tubs on deck and a huge movie screen to pass time, my dad took advantage of it all. There were 2 restaurants on the ship, Sabitinis and Crown Grill, which were an extra fee to go to, but apparently Crown Grill was free on the last day, we did not eat at either so do not have any recommendations. The other restaurants and grills were included in the ship cost, they had burgers, pizza and buffets open most hours of the day. Each evening the ship would drop off the “princess patter” which included the activities for the next day, which I definitely recommend reading as it had good tips.

All the port stops were right near the dock, except in Victoria, BC we had too either take a taxi cab or walk 40 minutes into downtown which was a beautiful path into the city. Also, excursions were very straight forward, you get off the ship and look for the correct sign listed on your shore excursion tickets. The tickets were in our room the day we arrived, and if there are any issues there are help desks and phone numbers you can call to answer any questions. One thing to remember is an $11 gratuity tip/day/person is added onto your tab so tip extra accordingly. We had an amazing waiting staff for dinner, Rodel, Ronald and his beautiful wife Theresa. Our stateroom steward Jimmie was always on top of things! Each room was fairly a decent size, we had an inside cabin (cheapest), with a fully functioning bathroom, safe and tv. Bring a clock or watch, but there was a clock on one of the tv channels.

Saturday and Sunday were days of getting a feel for the ship and relaxing on deck, hitting up the gym and enjoying a zumba class. Our first stop was Monday in Juneau. Right off the boat, there are people holding signs up for your excursions of choice. Half our party did the zip lining/Mendenhall Glacier Tour. We first headed to the zip lining Adventures site, and zipped ~6 courses. We had very competent and helpful guides, drank blueberry tea at the 5^th course platform and got to throw axes after zip lining was over. The site also gave us a free aluminum water bottle and snack while we got to enjoy the zip lining photo slideshow the guides do while we are going through the courses. We then headed to the Mendelhall glacier visitor center. We unfortunately had very limited time at this spot, so decided to skip out on the visitor center but instead due the 1 mile signed path to get closer to the glacier and right near Nugget Falls. The glacier was about a 20 minute ride from the port, and on our way back to the ship we asked to be dropped off in the town of Jueanu to do some souvenir shopping. This is the largest shopping area compared to all the other stops and some popular Alaskan souvenirs include fudge, American Indian artwork and simple things like magnets and totem poles. We were able to walk to the ship from town in a mere 15 minutes and our boat took off by 9 pm that evening.

Tuesday, we arrived into Skagway fairly early in the morning. We did the Yukon White Pass train ride, also another excursion through Princess cruises. The Train “station” is literally outside the port and it was a beautiful 4 hour train ride which went even briefly into Canada. After the train ride we meandered into the town of Skagway and enjoyed a nice local beer sample at the Skagway Brewing Company. Again the town was a 15 minute walk to and from the ship, and if one cannot walk they have a bus you can take for a small few. Below are a few photographs from Skagway!

We spent the entire day on ship on Wednesday and sailed through Glacier Bay. We all bundled up, ate breakfast and made our way to a spot on deck by 9 am to enjoy glaciers, humpback whales and sea otters. We even saw a few glacial avalanches into the freezing waters! This was the only day that we had rain and temperatures were pretty cold. I would recommend warm water proof shoes and jackets!

 

Our last two stops were Ketchikan, Alaska and Victoria, BC, we did not do any excursions in these locations and spent ~5 hours at each port. Ketchikan is apparently Alaskas first city and we just walked around town, visiting shops and the Salmon Ladder. Once there we did see folks offering tours which maybe cheaper than excursions offered by cruise lines. We arrived in Victoria Friday evening, this is the furthest port from downtown. Victoria overall is fairly large area and hard to just walk around, but the main sites beside Butchart Gardens is in the same vicinity. We ate dinner before getting off ship that evening and had a snack when we got back, you do have the option of eating in Victoria as well, we did not have a formal dining night Friday. Keyur and I have been to Victoria in the past where we stayed in a B & B, went to the gardens which are a 20 minute car ride from the city center and took a free tour of the beautiful capitol building which you can just show up for.

 

Below are a few pictures from the two formal evenings on the cruise ship along with a few from the day we got to bask in the sun on deck.

 

We had a great vacation with our family and recommend an Alaskan cruise for especially big groups. I know we did not even see half of the Alaskan wilderness or the wildlife present but I am glad we got to see a bit of the beauty.

Yakima

We made an overnight trip to Yakima this weekend with some local Seattle friends! In retrospect, Yakima was about 2 hour drive from Seattle, a day trip is doable if you have designated drivers. It was also the Spring Barrel Festival, but honestly we did not notice an overwhelming amount of travelers. The day turned out to be gorgeous and we were able to make it to 4 different wineries. We began at Wilridge Winery, where we did a 5 wine tasting for $5 and then had a great picnic lunch on the winery grounds.

 

After Wilridge, we went to the opening of Naches Heights Winery down the road. I personally liked this winery the best. They have a great outdoor area and the wines were quite tasteful, again 5 for $5.

 

Our last two winery stops were within downtown Yakima, they both did not have any outdoor seating so I recommend going there later in the day. Maximize time at the first two wineries when its warm and sunny. If you enjoy sparkling wines, Treveri is a must stop. If you bring your own glass, the wine tasting was only $5, but I am not sure if it was only for this particular weekend. Our last stop was Kana Winery, this place was okay, the only tasteful wine was the dark star, and they gave very small samples of wine. The website we ended up using to plan out our tour was: http://wineyakimavalley.org/. Very user friendly and provided a great layout of locations and different wineries in the valley region.

Our accommodations for the evening were at the Ledgestone Hotel, a great hotel for a real bargain, I would recommend it to all. Each unit had a kitchen with microwave/stove, fridge and sink. We ended up sharing 1 double bed room with a pullout couch. Saturday evening dinner was at Russillo’s Pizzeria, a place that isn’t to die for, but hits the spot after a day of drinking, we shared a 24″ pizza amongst the 6 of us! Make a reservation ahead of time, good thing we did as it was Prom night in Yakima. There were not a whole lot of restaurant choices, especially vegetarian friendly, but if all else fails, there was an Olive Garden. We had Sunday brunch at Backwoods Cafe, now this place was somewhere we would not likely go back but the service was impeccable.

Seattle

My husband Keyur and I currently reside in the city of Seattle. We are both from the sunny state of Florida.

Washington is a state of natural beauty, yummy restaurants, tasty brews and wineries. If you plan to visit, here are a few tips to make your stay pleasant and successful!

Depending on how adventurous you plan to be you can spend a few days to weeks here. Some of our favorite things to do include taking hikes in the Cascades. These hikes can be anywhere from 2-8 miles round trip for stellar views. Some of the ones we have done include: rattlesnake ledge, little Si and Mt. Si, Otter Falls, Chirico Trail, they tend to be medium intensity hikes. A few that we hope to hit up soon are Snow Lake, Lake 22, and Granite Falls. All sorts of folks are out on the trails, so don’t be intimidated, give it shot! A good website to get more info on trails is: http://www.wta.org/. If you just want a nice view, minus the hike, Snoqualmie Falls is located in this area and well worth the stop over.

If you are willing to drive a ways, you can always go to Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens National Parks for some breathtaking views. If you don’t want to necessarily hike these you can hit up the visitor centers. It is difficult to visit both centers in one day. You can take a local ferry, either one from Anacortes or the Victoria Clipper from downtown, to go to Orcas Island for some whale watching or spend a day in the capitol city of Victora. The Victoria Clipper is convenient as it picks you up and drops you off at Pier 69 and takes a whole day to do. If you visit Seattle in April, you could travel north to Mt Vernon to check out the Tulip Festival. Leavenworth, a small German town 2 hours west of Seattle, is a great stop over if you plan to go white water rafting in the summer months or on your way to Lake Chelan to have some fun in the sun. Eastern Washington is completely different than western, it is almost dry/dessert like and this is where a lot of the grapes come for Washington wines. Eastern Washington tends to be warmer in the summer and gets more snow in the winter than we see on our side.

Some local sites that are a must include: a view of the city and sound from Kerry Park, and a visit to Pikes Place Market. You have to make a trip around the shopping district downtown which extends from 1^st ave to 7^th ave between Pike and Pine to include Nordstroms Flagship store, a huge Macys, a great Banana Republic located in an old theater and Pacific Place. If you plan to stay in the downtown area, renting a car is not necessary. In fact, from the airport you can catch the Light Rail which will drop you down town in ~40 minutes. There are the usual options such as the super shuttles and or cabs which run about $40 from the airport to downtown Seattle. You can than take the local buses to get around or even walk to get to the main sites once you are settled. The buses that run in the main downtown core from Battery St. to S. Jackson St. on the south, and east at 6th Avenue to the waterfront on the west from 6 am – 7 pm daily are FREE! You can get more info on the King County Metro site. If you later decide you want to rent a car, you have the option of renting a Zip Car for the day to venture outside of the city limits.

Seattle is full of history, you can take the underground tour: http://www.undergroundtour.com/ or Ride the Ducks for a quick look at what Seattle has to offer. There is always the iconic Space Needle and the SAM (Seattle art museum) located downtown. If you are interested in planes, Boeing offers a great 1 hour tour at their Everett Campus and has a newly renovated visitor center, I recommend reserving this in advance. Microsoft has a visitor center but you must go with an employee. We recently rented a boat with friends through Joyful Adventures. Joy is a local entrepreneur who has a “boat and breakfast” business on this fabulous boat which not only has a BBQ, a hot tub, but a fun slide from the top to through you into the cool Lake Washington waters. We had a great time doing this and hope to do it again in the future.

Seattle is broken up into neighborhoods which all have a unique sense of style and culture. We live in the Ballard neighborhood, an old Scandinavian Fishing town with great pubs, restaurants, the fishing locks and if you’re lucky catch a view of some of the boats from Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch.” A few of our favorite restaurants and bars in Ballard include Matador and Senior Moose Café, both Mexican hot spots along with Volterra, a pricey but featured food network Italian restaurant. Kings Hardware has a great hazelnut beer and bloody mary and if you need, you can get a haircut next door before happy hour. Moshi Moshi Sushi, Sam’s Sushi, Monkey Bridge and Root Table all have Asian flare to them and have not only great menus but affordable happy hours. Great brunch spot include Portage Bay and the Hi Life, which is an old firehouse converted into a restaurant. The list is endless in Ballard.

A few of the other neighborhoods to check out include West Seattle, where our beautiful Alki Beach is located. Wallingford, Fremont, and Pioneer Square all have a flare and style of their own. A few great eats scattered throughout the area include: Café Bizzaro, Cactus, Tamarind Tree, Delancys and the Walrus and the Carpenter.

Around the city, some great restaurants include Matts in the Market, Beechers for their famous Mac and Cheese and Piroshky Piroshky all located in the market along with the first Starbucks. Purple and Sip wine bars are popular joints along with Petra Mediterranean restaurant. In the neighborhood of Queen Anne you have Toulis Petit, a fantastic brunch spot, and Racha Thai Food. Up on Capitol Hill you can have some drinks at the Saint, or eat at La Bete and a few tasty Italian restaurants on the hill include Via Tribunalli and Ristorante Machiavll. You cannot go wrong by going to any of the Tom Douglas restaurants or for that matter any restaurant in the South Lake Union Area of downtown Seattle.

Seattle is an amazing city, the list of things, places to visit or eat at are endless, if you have specific questions, please leave comments and I will try to answer ASAP. I will be adding to this post as time goes on and we get more adventurous!

 

Houston

We finally made it down to Houston, TX to visit A & S. We got into IAH on Friday afternoon after Turkey Day and our wonderful hosts picked us up and took us to their beautiful town home located in the Montrose area. We had a weekend full of leisure, food and spending time with great friends. Later that evening we went to dinner at El Tiempo, a favorite local Mexican Restaurant. We had margaritas, enchiladas and their famous Avocado Cannonball, service being both quick and great. Later that night we headed to Benjy’s for drinks but the party ended by 11:00 due to zoning regulations (weird). The food apparently is pretty good but we did not get a chance to eat because we were stuffed. We than should have ended our party. Alas we didn’t and took our entourage to Taps, a fun bar with tons of beer options and a game of both corn hole and life size connect four going on outdoors for the more adventurous types!

The next morning after some recovery time we headed to St. Arnolds, and I have to say this is the most unique brewery I have been to. You basically pay $7 for 4 fairly large samples of beer and a cute souvenir glass. The best part is this place is a huge mess hall where you can bring your own food, drinks, games, lawn chairs and just hang out for as long as you want. They do tours here as well but the environment is entertainment enough!

That evening we had dinner at Queen Vics, now I have to say this is probably one of my top restaurant choices in the country. It was a traditional British pub with delicious Indian and British meals you would find in the UK. Great service, except the hostess, great food and the boys enjoyed their drinks! We ordered the Sag Pizza, Yuca Fries, Chicken Tikka, Mushroom/Paneer Kofta balls and a lamb burger, and everything was amazing.

 

Alas, our trip ended Sunday, my hubs headed home and I headed to Sugarland, TX with my BF to spend time with her and her family. Got to say Sugarland is quite a drive from downtown Houston, so fly into the right airport according to where you plan on being. Kaju’s brother in law was kind enough to drop me off on Monday and we picked up Tortas (Mexican sandwiches) from Gordita’s Aguascalientes for my inflight meal. This restaurant was known to their family for years, and again great food and service. I wish we could have tried more dishes! Well that was another one of our quick weekend getaways and well worth it!

(all pictures were taken via my phone, so sorry for clarity and quality)

Puerto Rico

So the hubs went to Puerto Rico for yet another bachelor party. Needless to say this post will not have any photographs but just a few recommendations while visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Tijuanas, a Mexican restaurant they had for lunch Friday was “okay” according to KP. They did however prefer the following two places: Mona’s, a Mexican restaurant (no website), and Tantra, an Indian restaurant they had for dinner one night.

The boys went out to Brava, a club, which they recommended, and I am pretty sure they rest of the trip is not PG!

Accommodations were at the Marriot, which was a ~$20 cab ride from the airport. It had beach access and a casino on site!

I later came to find out about an activity a lot of folks do when going to down San Juan, which my husband did not do. So if you get a chance check out kayaking through Fajardo Bio Bay.

 

Bahamas

Groupon sometimes has some killer deals and one we bought earlier this year was a cruise on Celebration Bahamas Cruise Line. It was $300 for 2 people on a 2 night cruise which took off from West Palm Beach and stopped in Freeport Bahamas. All in all it was a fantastic trip because 17 of our closest friends were on the adventure with us. This ship was probably half the size of normal cruise ships but overall it wasn’t too bad. It had a small adult pool and a kiddy area with slides, night club, shows and karaoke. The food was fair for 2 nights, our favorite food place being the Trattoria Di Gerry, an Italian eatery, which you could eat at anytime. It had soup, salad, pizza, espresso and delicious desserts. We were required to eat at a different restaurant each night, once at the Rio, a semi buffet and once at the Crystal Dining Room, a sit down served meal. You can make reservations before you enter the ship the first day. The bad thing about cruises in general are that soda and alcohol are typically not included in your purchase price and can be pricey on the boat. Depending on the port of entry they sometimes search your bags so buying off shore and bringing it back on the boat is risky.

The boat docked at around 7 am Sunday into Freeport, we got off after breakfast and took a cab to Lucaya Beach. It was $4.50 per person and 20 minute car ride to the beach, Lucaya was the closest beach to the port. I have been to Nassau in the past and believe there is more to do and see on that island compared to Freeport. In Lucaya we ate at Zorba’s Greek Cuisine in the marketplace which had decent priced and good food. My hubs and our friend RJP did a dolphin excursion arranged by Celebration for $200. They purchased this before when boarding the boat on Saturday and it apparently is a popular attraction which allows 8 people on the tour. This has been KP’s dream to be able to swim with the dolphins. It was about a 5 hour excursion but they thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of us hung out on the Lucaya Beach for a few hours before the rains started and we headed back onto the boat. Some of the group rode the “banana boat” seen below for $20/person.

The pictures are just of friends, family, the cruise boat and the activities we participated in. All in all, not a bad deal, great for those cruising out of Florida since you avoid flying anywhere. We had a wonderful time with everyone!

Washington DC

I decided to take a last minute trip to our nation’s capital for a fun filled weekend with friends. I absolutely love this city! Not only is it full of history and amazing architecture, the restaurants are delicious too. I arrived Friday morning and took the yellow line train from DCA to RJP’s baller apartment in the heart of it all. The ticket agent was helpful and directed me to the correct platform. Unfortunately I did not get any photographs of the monuments as we did not really get around to walking the national mall because of the rain and cold weather. I have been there in the past and have seen most of the sites, but hopefully next time I can be a full tourist! We did get to eat lots of yummy foods which I enjoy just as much when visiting new cities. So this recent post is mostly about what to eat in DC.

 

 

For lunch Friday, we went to Nando’s Peri Peri restaurant, which originated in London. I have been dieing to go here for a long time and it was worth it. It is a world wide chain restaurant and I enjoyed a chicken breast wrap with yogurt and a jelly sauce. RJP had a vegetarian burger and sides of french fries, garlic mashed potatoes and garlic bread. With our meals we had a dabble of all the sauces below, my favorite being the Garlic Peri-Peri sauce.

 

After lunch, we went ~2-3 blocks from RJPs place to the national mall area and hit up the National Archives Museum. Here we saw the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta and the Bills of Rights. All the museums are free in DC, which is great and open 364 days a year from 10 am- 5:30 pm. We were not allowed to take photographs inside due to the preservation of all historical documents. If you are taking the metro in the Archives-Navy stop on the yellow line is a good place to get off.

 

Our next stop was the National Museum of Natural History. My favorite exhibits here were of the hope diamond from India, which apparently is cursed. We enjoyed the dinosaur and animal exhibits but were thoroughly disappointed by the mummys.

On our way home we walked through the national scuplture park, the photography below is of a metal tree in the park. We had ourselves some gelato and sherbert at Pitango and for dinner that night we ordered in Thai Chili. It was decent enough but I would probably not go there again. Later that night we headed to the Georgetown Waterfront, but the party had pretty much died down and it was too cold to be by the water.

 

Saturday, we had lunch at Vapianos. I thoroughly enjoyed this London based restaurant. The chefs use fresh ingredients to make pizza, pastas or salads in front of you in just a few minutes. You get a “credit card” when you enter and purchase all your meals on that and pay at the end. I had the ravioli, but the others had an array of foods and all were tasty! We spent the day walking around the Penn Quarter neighborhood but didn’t get too far due to the weather.

For dinner we ordered in from Rasika, an upscale Indian restaurant. If you plan to eat there reserve a table well in advance, we tried reserving two weeks prior and they were full. We were really hoping to make it to Georgetown Cupcakes but didn’t get a chance, I did see a Crumbs Bakery which has also gotten fairly good reviews. Later that evening we went to Public Bar in the Dupont neighborhood to watch the Florida Gator game, let’s not get into that disappointing loss. The best part was the “pitcher” we drank beer out of, which you can see below. The sports bar turned into a night club which we spent the evening at.

Rasika

(Picture above courtesy of RJP, sorry Sohoni, but loved this one of you!)

 

On our departure day we had lunch at Zaytinya, a Mediterranean restaurant that is definitely worth a visit. We ended up doing a pre ordered lunch menu (normally done on weekdays only, but available upon request on weekends) where we each chose a dish from a 4 course menu for $22. Well worth it with a group of 5 and we were able to try a variety of dishes. Some of the dishes we had were a butternut squash soup, chicken shish touk and fresh unlimited pitas, all featured below.

 

All in all I had a great weekend with friends, food and a bit of sightseeing. During our next visit to DC I would love to go to more museums and might even try the Segway tour to see more of the historical aspects of this beautiful and immaculate city. A few restaurants I heard good things about but was not able to get to were: America Eats Tavern, Guapos and Pret A Manger.