Greetings from… where do you think I am?

Anyone know where I found these adorable cross walk signs? I mean, they’re not quite as awesome as the East German Ampelmänner, but they’re still pretty cute.

Put your guess in the comments. Maybe there will be a prize for those who get it right, or for those with the best answers.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Eva guessed correctly; these little guys are found in Andorra. More about our trip there soon.

Tags: travel

Greetings from southern France

Have I mentioned recently how much I love living in the center of Europe?

Tags: France, travel, wine

Italy: you say Bozen, I say Bolzano

I was happy to finally get back to Bolzano (Bozen in German), a city where we spent some time many years ago and completely loved it. At the time we were living in Italy and found Bolzano’s German-ness to be novel and charming; this time around it was the Italian side we were more interested in. Although the locals supposedly prefer German, the city feels almost perfectly bilingual, and almost every conversation I had involved exchanges in both Italian and German.

Luckily it wasn’t too hard to find enough Italian details in Bolzano to completely delight me. Bolzano’s cafes serve real espresso and delicious aperitivi. The city’s center contains many winding, cobblestoned pedestrian streets teaming with life. The cuisine in most restaurants is heavily Austrian-leaning, but we had an amazing Italian dinner at Hostaria Argentieri. We took it as a good sign that the only menu available was in handwritten Italian, and our instincts were dead on.

This time we stayed at the Parkhotel Laurin, a grand old-timey hotel with a gorgeous private park and an elevator that contains a sofa. The location was great for exploring Bolzano on foot, and the rooms were clean and modern. Previously we’ve stayed at Hotel Figl, which I can also highly recommend: central, good value, clean, good.

The views of the vineyards and Dolomites surrounding Bolzano are gorgeous, and there are many nice hikes that you can start right from the city. We skipped him this time, but I also recommend a visit to Ötzi. That is, if you can tear yourself away from people-watching as you sip your prosecco at an outdoor cafe.

Tags: Bolzano, Bozen, Italy, South Tyrol, Südtirol, travel

France: Charming Toulouse

Lufthansa was having a sale on direct flights to Toulouse, so how could we resist going to meet up with our friends who have a house just outside the city? I only wish we had gone sooner, because as a vacation destination it was fabulous.

Toulouse itself is a wonderful city for wandering. One day we roughly followed a walking tour laid out in a guidebook, which took us from big market squares, past monuments and public art, to small, winding, gallery-filled streets.

For lunch we stopped at vegetarian cafe La Faim des Haricots. There you can choose a combination of salad bar, savory tarts, dish of the day, and/or dessert bar, and eat as much as you like. It was filling and yummy.

An item on my must-eat-whenever-in-France list is macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, those coconut cookies). These little mouthfuls of joy consist of two light, flavored cookies smooshed together around a flavored cream. We picked up some at Poussin Bleu (45 rue du Languedoc), and amazingly they survived the trip all the way home (but not much longer after that). The caramel and pistachio flavors were my favorite.

Toulouse was one of those cities where I found myself contemplating whether I’d want to live there. It had a good vibe. I’d at least like to go back for more wandering.

Tags: Europe, France, travel

Italy: Val Gardena

The Dolomites were the perfect place to unwind after two weeks of Oktoberfest. A friend recommended Val Gardena, Italy – about a 3-hour drive from Munich. It’s a ski resort area in the winter, and popular with hikers in the summer. Since we are now the shoulder season, we were able to get a great deal on a room with half board at Hotel Grones in the little mountain town of Ortisei (St. Ulrich in German).

Signs in the area were often posted in three languages: Italian, German, and another one which contained wacky things like ë. This turned out to be Ladin, a local language similar to Romansh (one of Switzerland’s four official languages) and about equally decipherable. At the hotel and around town we heard all three languages being spoken around us, and it made my head swim a little. Our waitress clearly preferred speaking Italian with us, while the hotel owners were happier chatting in German.

The roads were small and windy, which made for some heart-thumping every time a tourist bus came flying towards us. There were a lot of tour buses. I don’t want to imagine what it must be like in the high season.

We visited various little towns in Val Gardena (each with a cute little church and graveyard, some hotels, and at least one collapsed wooden barn). There was a little Sound-of-Music-style spinning involved. And a waist-tall squash. I’ll let the photos say the rest.

Tags: Alps, Italy, South Tyrol, Südtirol, travel, Val Gardena

In Munich tomorrow? Join the Carrotmob

Tomorrow (Saturday, October 17th, 2009) afternoon Munich will experience its first Carrotmob. If you understand German, watch the video below (if you don’t, check out Carrotmob’s English-language website):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6rRnkr9Akw]

The idea behind Carrotmob is to reward businesses which pledge to become more environmentally-friendly by delivering a bunch of consumers to their door. In this case, a small Munich grocer has signed up to spend 30% of their sales from the Carrotmob to make environmentally-friendly improvements to their refrigeration system.

Tomorrow’s Munich Carrotmob will take place from 12 to 3 PM at Löwenzahn, Lindwurmstraße 135. There are Carrotmobs in many other cities (especially around the US), so if you can’t make it to Munich tomorrow, try looking for one in your area.

UPDATE: The Carrotmob was a success! Despite crappy weather, their money-raising goals were reached. When we went there seemed to be the perfect number of people milling around and buying things – no long line, but it was definitely the busiest shop on the block by far. Unfortunately the rain made us not so eager to stick around and listen to the band play, but it was still a fun time.

Tags: Germany, Munich, news

Italy: Bolzano’s colorful market

I could have wandered up and down this street all day.

Not that Munich doesn’t have a nice market; it does. But for some reason everything looks more delicious when it’s in Italy.

Luckily we didn’t have to just look.

We came home with many delicious Italian treats from this market.

My husband gets credit for most of the photos. He was shooting away while I was buying as much as I could carry.

Tags: Bolzano, Bozen, food, Italy, markets, shopping, South Tyrol, Südtirol, travel

Cheesy and adorable Carcassonne

Carcassonne is France’s Rothenburg ob der Tauber*. The walled medieval city on a hill has been beautifully restored into the kind of picturesque cuteness that tourists can’t resist. » Read the full post

Tags: Europe, France, travel

Hiding out in the Dolomites

Greetings from Italy. We’re recovering from Oktoberfest in a cute mountain resort town, because the best way to get over too much German beer, pretzels and kaesespaetzle is to wash it down with Italian wine, pasta, and cheese.

I’ll be back to finish off my Oktoberfest posting in a few days. But for now, the sauna is calling me.

Tags: Alps, Dolomites, Italy, South Tyrol, Südtirol, travel, Val Gardena

Oktoberfest 2009 day 12: tent hopping

A new set of visitors, a new introductory tour of the Wiesn. We went around noon on Wednesday and poked our heads into several of the tents. Most of them were pretty quiet, and all of them had free tables. Only the Hofbräu tent was full of rowdy drunks at this hour.

We decided to lunch at the Augustiner tent. The service was pretty bad but the food was decent (including my veggie ravioli). The tent’s most striking feature was its forest green canvas roof.

Fake lederhosen at the beery-go-round. You can’t buy Oktoberfest beer unless you’re in a tent or on its patio, but there are a few places around the wiesn where you can get wießbier. One of those places is this slowly rotating platform (actually there are a couple of these).

I get the feeling that this ride would not meet US safety standards.

This sign struck me as an interesting example of Denglish, advertising a little temporary cafe outside of the Oktoberfest grounds. Wiesn is the place where Oktoberfest is held; Treff is a German word meaning ‘get-together’. Obviously the After part is supposed to be understood as the English meaning of the word, and the sign is trying to say ‘hey, here’s a place where you can hang out with your friends after Oktoberfest’. At least I hope that’s what they’re going for, since the alternative would mean using the German meaning of After, which is, ehem, anus.

And on that note, we’re off to the last day of Oktoberfest. Ein Prosit!

Tags: Bavaria, Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest