#i was excited about being semi spontaneous but with a hotel and food that’s like $1k

[wickedhawtwexler]

when did train travel get so expensive holy shit

[ash-etherwood]

Top 5: writing memories, songs, characters that are not blank rune, runes, food

♡

Linda I love you but are you trying to kill me … that’s so many Top 5’s! But alright, I’ll do my best! (Answers will probably switch between German and English RIP to every non-German-speaker who follows me and wants to read this for some reason I swear I’m normal)

WRITING MEMORIES

5.) The entire time I spent finishing my first (second?) longer writing project It was the year 2012 and it was a cyberpunk story about my friends’ and my edgy self inserts riding dinosaurs, fighting aliens and being badass. The plot twist in the end was that my character was secretly evil and wanted to kill everyone. (Things to show your therapist) The final boss fight made zero sense and also everything was incredibly weird and stupid. But sometimes I still think about those times when I sat in my grandma’s living room at night, eating chips and listening to Vocaloid covers while thinking this story was the coolest shit ever. Truly simpler times.

4.) Researching something about universities in Texas for OvF on a rainy Saturday afternoon I have no idea why this memory is still sticking with me to this day (I think it was around 2016 or something?), but I remember that it was just a really nice day and I felt really at peace at that moment?

3.) The entire writing process of Bathroom Blues It was such a spontaneous project and I still have no idea how I managed to power though it in just a little under two months! Also it was just incredibly fun seeing you getting excited over new drafts and I loved coming up with new plot points and Halloween costumes for everyone with you. :-D Truly a summer worth remembering.

2.) FINALLY uploading the prologue and intro chapter of WWBL Not really a writing memory, but that moment was … so sexy and magical. Seriously, you have no idea how long I had been waiting to finally start that story, waiting for the Steckbriefe to roll in and see people react to the prologue and generally the idea … I even made one of those countdown graphic thingies for the designated upload date! 8D At that point I had planned that story for about six months and just … yeah, that felt powerful to me.

1.) Writing the prologue for WWBL When I first started the draft for that prologue I was sitting at the window in my favourite hotel in Winterberg, Sauerland, wore my dark green flannel, had the window wide open breathing in the cool mountain air and allowed myself to listen to my WWBL playlist for the very first time. God, that felt so amazing. I even have a photo of it (which somehow makes it look like I have the biggest football shoulders in the universe) my sister took that night. God I miss Sauerland. )’:

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SONGS

My apologies to every favourite song of mine that I forgot about, I have a whole playlist of them, but I think these are some of my oldest faves … (Honorable mentions for Don’t Mess With Me and Not That Big by Temposhark, Goodbye by Apparat, Me And The Devil by Soap&Skin, Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers, Pain and Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace, Beautiful Crime by Tamer, Gravity Of Love by Enigma, In Flames by Digital Daggers [thanks Phi u_u] and Murder Cries by Snow Ghosts AHHH FUCK IT I could’ve just made a playlist,,,)

5.) Vater Unser by E Nomine Starting off with some weird shit, won’t we? I’ve been in love with this song since fifth or sixth grade, when I was just starting to develop an actual music taste and although I have many favourite songs by E Nomine, this one has to be my absolute fave. Every time I can relate it to a character it makes me love said character even more. (Also I think about it every time my mom forces me to go to church for Christmas so … yay? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even be able to remember the Vater Unser if it wasn’t for this song. 8D)

4.) Wires by The Neighbourhood I think this is the newest all-time fave on this list, I found it in … 2015? Thank you, Youtube AMVs. Yeah man, this one is just … on so many playlists it’s not even funny anymore.

3.) Heathens by Twenty One Pilots An edgelord classic but like … it’s on EVERY playlist of mine. Every single one. It’s just so good. The first time I heard it was on the radio tho, when I was having breakfast with Jessie and I forced her to shazam it because it immediately stuck with me,,,

2.) Imaginary by Evanescence My first Evanescence song ever and the first step towards becoming who I am today I think. This song has like … such a big history for me, man. It single-handedly turned me goth in 2008 and I have never really thanked it for that.

1.) Eternal by Evanescence Might be my favourite song of all time. The number of dramatic RP scenes I have written with this in the background … man. Oh, also this song is the reason for one of my oldest internet nicknames, ‘eternala’, which subsequently shortened into Etschuh and then Tschuh, my main nickname until 2017, when I came out as trans and finally found an actual name for myself I was comfortable with!

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NON BLANK RUNE CHARACTERS

I know this was probably supposed to be about fandom characters but I can literally not come up with a single character right now that I love with a special burning passion and that is not my or one of my friends’ OCs so you’re getting OCs now. u_u And boy do I have a lot of those.

5.) Jackson Tracey from atroCITY (mine) This little piece of shit kept me company for a pretty long time and is still very close to my heart for some reason, although I haven’t drawn him or really thought about him in detail for a while now. My favourite thing is how I only realized what a horrible person he was after I stopped regularly working with him but honestly good for me. 8D His storyline and personality is kinda convoluted and tbh I’m not really sure how much of it is canon anyway (atrc was always a little weird about canon rip) but yeah. He’s an obsessive stalker piece of shit who pities himself way too much and he is also a semi-immortal demigod who likes knives. I hate him but he also helped me a lot with some gender and sexuality stuff so thanks I guess.

4.) Mayoko Imai from Century Riders DXPrototype (Maus’ and mine) Mayoko is a magical girl protagonist with a cool cyborg arm prosthetic and her main character trait was that she was basically a reverse weeaboo, a Japanese girl who was obsessed with American media, culture and comic book heroes! I actually love her concept a lot and she also had a pretty cool character arc in her story (which Maus and I wrote together and actually finished btw!), although it could use a lot more … polishing from today’s point of view. But I love her anyway. She always wanted to do the right thing and be a hero and got broken pretty cruelly and her ending is kinda bittersweet I guess? Ahh there’s just so much nuance to it … anyways, CR3 also stuck with me for a very long time and I enjoyed the time with her a lot. :3 (Her name had a cameo in Another Incident btw heehee)

3.) Tessa *insert extremely long chain of unnecessary first names here* von Lean from Nobody Is Perfect and Infernal Temptation (belongs to one of my old school friends) Tessa is just … a hand full. I love to hate her. She is badly written and developed and just OOZES mentally ill teenage girl’s idealized self-insert power fantasy, but she just … man, she was a big part of one of my most drama-filled high school friendships which I love looking back at so much. Tessa has fucked so many of my characters … good for her tbh! There are actually two versions of her, one is just a ‘normal’ teenage girl and one can shapeshift into a cheetah, but both of them are very close to my heart. I should really adopt and redesign her some day.

2.) Judy Khayat from Original vs. Final (mine) Look, I love all my OvF-characters and every single one of them is special to me in their own way, but Judy is just … the most complex of them all I think? Man, she went through so much … she is actually one of my oldest (semi)-active characters (I created her in 2009) and her latest version is from 2016 but I should really, REALLY revise her again tbh. She has a very complicated backstory that I didn’t handle as carefully as I should have, and anger issues and religious conflict and depression and PTSD and then Vance of all people becomes obsessed with her for no reason and decides to traumatize her even more … yeah. God I really love her but I seriously need to work on her. A LOT. I should also finally rename her tbh … let’s just see where she takes me next.

1.) Okami (I don’t even remember if she has a proper last name rn lol) from Split Realm (mine) Yeah, that bitch is just my favourite OC. She’s also very old, probably from around 2009, and initially was a magical girl with fire powers who I played in an RP with my friend Flauch but boy did she grow up! Holy fuck. Okami is a horrible person but I love her so much. She is so violent and full of anger and pain and sadness and treats everyone around her like shit and she is in love and she is a demon but also apparently the personification of the concept of Chaos but she just wants to be a teenager again and run away with the love of her life and ahhh it’s all so hopeless for her … also she turned out gnc af with time passing and pretty much went through a gender/sexuality crisis in real time with me, her creator, which is always fun. :^D I haven’t drawn her in a while tbh. Should really do that.

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RUNES IN BLANK RUNE

I’m just gonna go with the arcs here, okay? Also this entire answer might look completely different if you asked me again tomorrow, you know how indecisive I am with Blank Rune shit ahha,,,

5.) Jera Look. I know I’m boring and stupid. But I just love Tave and Liam having their disgusting little foreshadowing talk, okay? I can read it over and over. I just love my horrible little shit crime boys. Also Rhy and Phillip are there. (’:

4.) Isa This one is here because it was the first arc I witnessed in real time which gives it a very special place in my heart and it also … hit pretty hard at the time. But having read Fehu it’s become even better now! It’s just such a wonderful, tragic romance between two horrible, ruthless boys and I … I’m not immune to Rhy, sadly. :-/ Just like Phillip.

3.) Wunjo We still haven’t seen everything that leads up to Wunjo yet, but we DO know more than we did initially (wow shocker) and it’s just always a fucking blast. Also, it has the first mention of Ash’s real name … the first Rhy POV (which what the fuck!! I always feel like we had one before but we didn’t!! Wild) and it has crazy blood-soaked murder Tave, my beloved. :///3

2.) Eiwaz You guys have heard me fanboy about Eiwaz so many times already. Eiwaz-OT3 (and Kain) my beloved!!! It’s just SUCH an amazing starting point and there are so, so many things that tie back to it and every time we find out about a new one my heart makes a little jump … und es beginnt von Neuem indeed.

1.) Gebo One of the most painful but also the most beautiful arcs yet in my opinion. It’s been hyped up for so long and boy did it deliver. God, my heart still hurts when I think about that last scene. Also all the dialogue … the golden lines we got … and it’s an arc without Rhy! Crazy!! :-D I just love the relationship between Ash, Astrid and Jakob so much. God fuck I want what they have. Just maybe without the murder suicide,,,

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FOOD

5.) Diese Sonntagsbrötchen wo die Verpackung so plopp macht, wenn man die Folie abzieht Better than normale Brötchen for some reason. Most of the time. See 2.) Look man, I just really love a good breakfast …

4.) Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese topping One of the first things from a certain baking book I tried when I was getting into baking back in 2019. God they are so tasty. I don’t make them often so I don’t get used to them too much and eating them still feels special but ahhhh I love them so much!

3.) Grünkohl mit Kartoffelbrei und Mettendchen One of my favourite things about autumn/winter and one of my biggest comfort foods. God I love this shit so much. I just put … mountains of Grünkohl and Kartoffelbrei on my plate every time and I will just warm it up for four days straight until there’s no more left. It turns me into a fucking caveman. I’m not even big on eating meat but … yeah. Everything is different when there’s Grünkohl.

2.) Normales Brötchen mit Butter und Scheibenkäse aber ich bin beim Frühstücksbuffet im Hotel Oddly specific but that’s just how it is. Sorry. Nichts geht über Brötchen mit Käse.

1.) Chilli-Knoblauch-Nudelauflauf My beloved. My comfort food. I eat it literally every second day. At least one hour in the kitchen every time. Fresh ingredients. My only vegetable intake. And I’ve been doing that for three years. I just love it so much, man. I cook it for everyone who visits me. Chilli-Knoblauch-Auflauf cured my depression.

[dshamiljasophia-blog]

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

To me, travel is freedom. Freedom to explore the world, freedom to experience all kinds of adventures, freedom to grow spiritually. But unfortunately travel isn’t free. So in order to reach the freedom of travel we need to be able to financially support our dream. And this is where many people set their dream aside and wait for a time when their financial situation allows them to travel more. What they don’t realise is that in order to achieve the financial freedom to travel – we need to set travel as a priority , and from there we can start working towards our dream!

And now you’re probably thinking , who is she to judge what I can and can’t afford? Well, I haven’t had a full-time job since I was 18, and even then I was paid minimum wage. I understand what it’s like living off a student loan, trying to get through exams whilst working 30 hours a week – I’ve been there. I haven’t been financially ‘comfortable’ for as long as I can remember, but I’ve been ticking off my travel bucket-list regardless – and so I haven’t felt like I’m missing out on much!

So for you lot out there with big travel dreams and small incomes, here’s a few ways that you too can travel to all the places you’ve dreamed of travelling to. But before we get to the simple bit, it all starts with your mind set!

Change your mindset

Your biggest setback – Limiting Beliefs

Lets keep this simple – if you don’t believe you can achieve your travel goals, then you won’t. And although that may sound harsh, it’s true. But the good news is, you can change your beliefs. The moment you tell yourself you don’t have time, you could never save up the money, you are too afraid to get on a plane and fly half way across the world to a country you’ve never experienced, is the moment that you’re shutting down the opportunity to overcome these obstacles.

So how about, you start out by writing out a list of all the reasons why you think you can’t go to the places you’d like to. Write it all out, this is important!

Changing your Limiting Beliefs to Enabling Beliefs

Now what you need to do – is beside every limiting belief you just wrote down, write out at least three possible ways that you could overcome this limit!

Here’s an example:

Limiting belief

I could never save up the amount of money I need to travel around Asia for 6 weeks

Enabling belief

If I took on a part-time job alongside studying I could start saving up

If I eat out once a week instead of three times a week I could save X amount of money every week

Maybe it won’t be as expensive as I think it is – if I’m willing to travel on a budget

So go ahead and write out your list, once you’ve put aside all your limiting beliefs you can begin actually working towards your goal!

Travel on a budget

Volunteer

Oh wow, when I think about how many opportunities there are out there to explore the world through volunteering programmes, I literally just wanna pack up my bags and get travelling! There are sooo many different programmes and organizations that you can do this through – just do your research! If you really want to visit a country, don’t mind spending a longer period of time there and are willing to work.. You can do so through volunteering, and this can even involve a small sum of pocket money to spend every month – if you are on a very low budget and willing to work!

  I have volunteered in Italy & Bavaria through Workaway , where I had to work up to 5 hours a day, in exchange for boarding and food etc…I sooo recommend doing this, it’s not just a time of real growth and learning, but you get to experience a whole other culture and explore another part of the world this way!

Couch surfing

If you really aren’t willing to splurge out the cash on accommodation, or should I say any cash, and you don’t mind meeting people and being semi-sociable, then couch surfing could save you tons of money! I’ve only been couch surfing once, but it is something I’d do again! It’s a great way to get some insight from a local whilst travelling, and a lot of hosts are happy to show you around the area and keep you company during your stay. And the best part – it’s totally free – like seriously!

Airbnb

So, with this one I do recommend it as an option for slightly cheaper accommodation if you are travelling alone or with another person. One of the perks is that you can find real cool and quirky places to stay that you wouldn’t be able to find on an average accommodation site. BUT, when it really pays off is when you’re travelling with a larger group of people – and split the costs – you can live like a queen for way less than a hotel room would cost you!

Blabla car

Blabla car basically connects people travelling with empty seats to people travelling the same way. It’s free, and an awesome way to meet new people whilst getting to where it is you’re trying to go. You do need to be willing to socialise with a total stranger obviously for the length of your journey – but you just never know who you might meet!

Night transport

If you are big into efficiency and want to make the absolute most of a short time period that you have to travel – I totally recommend using as much night transport as you can! it basically kills two birds with one stone – you have a place to sleep, and you’re on your way to the next location on your itinerary – what more do you want as a traveller?! Rather than paying for accommodation on top of a day trip on say a bus or train, you just pay the price for transport and when you wake up you’ll be at your destination and won’t have wasted any of your day stuck on transportation. Pretty ideal isn’t it?

Study abroad

If you’re really wanting to immerse yourself in a new experience and actually live in another part of the world, and you’re already a student, maybe you should consider studying abroad! Most colleges offer some sort of study abroad programme – some of which may require you to actually take a year out from your course to study abroad – and I guess it’s up to you if it would be beneficial enough to do so! These programmes tend to also reimburse most of the costs of going to where it is you want to go – including health insurance costs, flights, and transportation! I mean , this is kind of a once in a lifetime chance that you absolutely wouldn’t be able to get any other way. If travelling is something you are totally passionate about – grab the opportunity with both hands!?

Working holidays

Maybe you’re budget isn’t leaning towards a full on, laying-on-the-beach-all-day kinda trip, but, have you considered a working holiday? There are so many summer job opportunities all over the world, especially in places with lots tourists. This can include anything from working as a scuba-diver instructor, a bar tender, a hostel worker, a party rep, a ski instructor and the list is pretty much endless! You just need to be willing to look for something and also put the work in. Accommodation is often provided, although it most likely won’t be 5 star, this is also a way you’ll make friends and meet loads of people, and maybe even learn a few new skills!

Hostels

This is something I’d almost always pick over other types of accommodation, regardless of my budget, just because of the hostel vibe and social aspect! Hostels are super fun if you are looking to meet other travellers and love socialising..In most parts of the world they also tend to be super cheap, if you don’t mind sharing a dorm with other people.

Camping

How spontaneous are you? Camping definitely won’t be an option for everybody, but it sure is a cheap way to spend the night. It really depends what type of trip you’re on and your travel location, but if it’s suited to your trip, you should consider camping as an option to cut down on accommodation and food costs big time!

Online Side-hustle

If you’re wanting more freedom to actually travel around more and stretch out your money – perhaps you should start looking at a side-hustle you can do on the go! There are so many different things out there, and in this day and age it’s pretty simple to make money online – if you really want to! Lets say you’re a personal trainer, why not start an online coaching business where you can help people achieve their fitness goals through online contact? Or if you love writing or you’re really passionate about a particular topic, why not start a blog? If you’re artistic, why not try sell some of your art online? (etsy is a great one for this). You may have to put on your thinking cap to come up with an idea that works for you – but don’t limit yourself by thinking it’s not possible!

Visit friends

If you have friends or family in different countries, have you ever thought about visiting them? If you are wanting to travel on your own and go somewhere completely random, then this might not be an option. But if you just want a break and to maybe explore a city you’ve never been to, start thinking about which friends you have that live abroad – and get in touch with them! They’ll most likely be able to provide you with free accommodation for the whole of your stay, and you’ll also have someone to show you all the cool places to see. And of course you get to spend quality time catching up with someone you probably don’t get to see too often!

Once you’ve decided  on your travel plan

So once you’ve actually decided where you want to go, how long for and what methods of travel and accommodation you want to use – you gotta make it realistic by planning out a detailed budget!

By doing this – you’re not only making sure your goals are realistic – but you’re actually writing your goal down , in detail – which makes you wayyy more likely to actually achieve it!

Writing out a detailed budget

This involves a lot, a lot of research – and this is the part I get really excited about when planning out a trip! You should start this before you have even decided for definite if this trip is within your budget – cause you might be pleasantly surprised!

To determine your basic budget, I would begin by researching average costs for : Accommodation, eating out, public transport & a return flight for where it is you’d like to go. So if I was planning a trip to Italy, it would look something like this:

Return flight to Rome – $40

Average cost of eating out for breakfast, lunch & dinner in Italy

Breakfast – $4 x 6 = $24

Lunch – $15 x 6 = $90

Dinner – $20 x 6 = $120

Total = $234

Transport in Italy

Train from Rome – Naples = $40

Train from Naples – Sorrento $20

7 hr Amalfi coast bus tour from Sorrento – $35

Bus from Sorrento – Rome – $30

Transport total cost = $125

Average cost of hostels in Italy

$20 per night x 6 = $120

Total necessary expenses of 1 week trip = $519

+ $80 for sightseeing + souvenirs

= $600

At this point I know the average expense I would have if I went to Italy for a week, and from here I can decide whether I’d like to cut down costs (I could decide on couch surfing 1 or 2 nights, or having free breakfast in the hostel 3 of the days, for example) and then recalculate my costs. If I have a little extra cash to play with, I could include spending on souvenirs and sightseeing etc. It’s really up to you how you want to prioritise your budget!

And at this point I would calculate how many weeks I have until my trip, and from there calculate how much money I would need to save per week to reach my goal of (in this case) $600.

For example, if I have 12 weeks to save up for my trip, I would need to save $50 a week!

Now, by meeting your goal of saving $50 a week, you know that you are guaranteed to reach your goal of travelling to Italy in 6 weeks. You just need to consciously work towards it every single week, and be conscious of what you’re spending your money on. I promise, once you realise your goal is achievable, saving the money will become so much easier!

    How to Travel on a Low Income To me, travel is freedom. Freedom to explore the world, freedom to experience all kinds of adventures, freedom to…

[lynda-in-muenchen]

Hallo zusammen!

I’m getting settled after Patrick’s and my bike tour (from Münich to Venice), so I thought I’d post a few photos from our trip.

Here we are getting started on our journey with an airy bridge over the Isar River in Münich. There was a heat wave when we started, and EVERYONE in the city was down at the river trying to stay cool, some by (ahem) eschewing any sort of bathing costume.... Those little blobs on the gridwire are locks; the Pont Neuf tradition seems to have spread from Paris.

The Münich-to-Venice bike route is mostly reclaimed train railbeds, and so you spend a lot of time riding either gently uphill or downhill through forests. 

That forest picture is a bit misleading, though; it was NOT cool. It was probably 88F with about 75% humidity as all of Europe was in a heat wave. We stopped as often as we could for shade, cold radlers (beer/lemonade mixes) and eisschokolade, pictured here with its very happy consumer.

So, you can imagine how happy we were to arrive at our first night’s destination: Tegernsee, a beautiful town and lake about 40 miles south of Münich. We jumped in the lake about 5 minutes after pulling up on our bike. This was the view from our room at the Seehotel Luitpold, a nice lakeside establishment with good food (especially the in-season pfefferlingen mushrooms and saibling [lake trout]) and friendly staff. No air conditioning--very few hotels in the mountains have it--but we were up on the top floor and caught a nice breeze off the lake. Also highly recommended: the Tegernseer Bräustüberl, which had the best pretzels we’ve had and good Augustiner beer.

I don’t pretend to have a deep understanding of Bayerischer culture, but it’s clear they’re extraordinarily proud of their heritage, as evidenced by this guy, who is rocking lederhosen on an average Thursday, keeps his centuries-old landhaus immaculate down to its overflowing windowboxes, and maintains not only a giant Bayerischer maypole out front, but also this antique wayfarer’s drinking fountain with St. Christopher on top (patron saint of travelers). Everyone we met in Bayern was really friendly.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the Bayerischer in his full beard and feathered cap who was diligently emptying into his little cart the trash in the bins along the trail along the Weißach river. The trail is lovingly maintained by locals and features frequent benches and picnic tables like these, which are designed (we think) to be usable in the winter by Nordic skiiers as well as by bikers and hikers in the summers.

Border control between Germany and Austria on the bike route.... I can attest it’s a lot more intense on the train coming back through. Even though they’re very polite, Austrian police are still intimidating with their dour expressions and dark uniforms with the double-headed Austrian eagle screaming from the shoulder.

I spent a lot of time in hedges on the trailside trying to find ripe raspberries and blackberries. These were some of the better ones, just outside Achenkirch.

Tirol (the Alps between Germany and Italy, roughly) comes across to the outsider as devoutly Catholic. Everywhere along our route--which followed train routes, which in turn followed ancient trading routes for salt and other commodities--there were beautifully maintained shrines to saints, apostles, and the Holy Family. A few were as large as this one at Achenkirch, but most were much smaller, some the size of mailboxes, and no two were exactly alike.

Achensee is a stunning lake. We took advantage of a nice tailwind here and watched kitesurfers plying their craft out on the water.

Our second night was in Stans in Austria, at the foot of the famous Wolfsklamm (Wolf’s gorge). Catwalks thread past a series of waterfalls, pale and milky with glacial runoff, to the ethereal Georgenberg monastery high on a cliff above the gorge.

It was still REALLY hot. So, after a ridiculously steep climb out of Innsbruck to the town of Vills, I was pretty excited to see another Tirolean water fountain.

Though I initially questioned our sanity in riding Brenner Pass from Innsbruck instead of taking the train for that leg, it ended up being one of my favorite days of the tour because as we contoured (ever upward) along the Alpine foothills of the Ellbögen, we got to see a real slice of Tirolean life--shops with goatskins and horns spilling out the front door, farmhouses perched on impossible slopes, young people bolting out of cars reverberating with techno to buy cigarettes at corner stores, silver-haired ladies in crown braids hanging laundry, and farmers raking grass for bailing. You would not believe how steep this slope was that this farmer drove his bailer down (that’s his wife in the background raking the grass into neat rows for the bailer). We wondered why they were working so frantically to get the hay baled...and hey, wasn’t it getting a bit darker overhead?....

This photo is from a day later, basically the next time we could get the camera out again as a series of epic thunderstorms washed away the heatwave across the Alps. We weren’t ever in danger, but boy were we wet.... We wouldn’t appreciate the full impact of the storms until a few days later. In the meantime, we crossed from Austria into Italy, whizzed by a goatherd sheltering from the rain in an old train platform with his goats, warmed up very gratefully in the sauna at the fabulous Steindl Boutique Hotel in Sterzing/Vipiteno, had a great dinner at Vincenz, saw folks dressed in traditional trachten for the Firefighter festivals in several villages, ate our first pizza of the trip (but by no means our last) in Franzensfeste/Fortezza, and caught this picture of Ehrenburg Castle coming out of the stormclouds.

We spent two nights in Bruneck/Brunico, a Southern Tyrolean town that is the jumping-off point for a lot of adventure sports. It’s also the location of two sites of the Messner Mountain Museum, Ripa in Castle Bruneck, which has the theme of People, and Corones (above), which has the theme of Walls. We rode the tram to the top of the Cronplatz to visit Corones and were blown away by our first views of the Dolomites. We loved Bruneck and would definitely come back for mountain biking, climbing, and eating/drinking at Rienzbräu and Gänseliesl. Südtirol is in Italy but is nearly 70% German-speaking; that gives you a hint that things have been...tense in times past. From what I could pick up, the Italians think the Tiroleans are get more resources than they deserve to help preserve their culture, and the Tiroleans are resentful of Italian incursion into their ancestral “heimat.” But both groups seem to agree that pizza is awesome.

It was a bit of a detour from our route to Cortina d’Ampezzo, but I had to see this Venetian Sawmill in Oberolang designed by Leonardo da Vinci. There were once 60 of these water-powered sawmills in the Olang valley, and this one was still running in the 1950s. It’s recently been restored using the original joinery and techniques.

Wow, fabulous, right? We were getting ready to head down that valley from Toblach, conquer our last pass and coast down to Cortina, when....

Washout! Several, actually, the result of landslides from the torrential rains a few days before. A chic engineer in yellow chiffon and pearls shouted over the bullodozers pushing cow-sized rocks off the road behind her to suggest we try the “little path” on the other side of Toblach lake. And so Patrick was able to realize his dream of mountain-biking on a tandem. Fortunately, it only lasted for a few miles before we were able to rejoin our regularly scheduled path and reward ourselves with blueberries and cream at the top of the pass at Cimabanche. I should mention here that a tandem bicycle is a great personality test. We ran into (not literally) many people who had never seen one before. First, their jaws would hang open, and then one of two things would happen: (a) their whole face would light up like a kid’s, or (b) they would look apprehensive, as if they weren’t entirely sure a tandem bicycle didn’t pose some kind of existential threat. You can tell a lot about how people see the world from a spontaneous response like that.

This is Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Aspen (or Vail, if you prefer) of the Italian Alps. It’s something else. I did not know, for instance, that they made lederhosen in Daisy-Duke-length, nor that sleek young mothers would sport them without a whiff of irony while pushing strollers past the windows of Céline and Louis Vuitton boutique. But I learn something new every day. It was impossible to be grouchy about any of it; everyone was so beautiful and so happy. I would dare you not to smile at the children that ran in semi-feral packs around the piazza every evening while their parents sipped aperol spritzes. Next time, though, we’d skip the circus for some smaller villages down the path like San Vito or Valles di Cadore.

I want to live in this house. Can you see the dog begging for breakfast on the front stoop? I mean, come on, now.

I would also live here, in Asolo. Backing up a bit: We coasted down from Cortina to Conegliano and had an unforgettable dinner at A Casa de Giorgio, thanks to a recommendation from our concierge at the outstanding (I’m not kidding) Best Western Canon d’Oro. Conegliano is the epicenter of the prosecco-making region, and they’re dedicated: you know that when a bottle of prosecco shows up next to the coffee and juice in your breakfast buffet. This is where we learned about our favorite Bike Touring Energy Supplement (aside from a pretzel and a radler): prosecco and potato chips. They just bring the chips to you if you order a prosecco. Best thing ever. At Osteria Ultima Spiaggia in Nervesa della Battaglia, we got two glasses of great prosecco, a bowl of potato chips, and four little bruschette for 5€; the cheapest heaven imaginable on a muggy morning. But on to Asolo: It sits on the last of a little sawtoothed series of hills called the Colli Asolani. It has not one but two castles, one of them belonging to the Cyprian queen Caterina Cornaro, (who is giving a LOT of side-eye in her portrait by Titian on this Wikipedia page, but you’ll see when you read the page that she had ample reasons). Robert Browning bought a villa in Asolo on the Via Canova the year Elizabeth Barrett Browning died. It’s been turned into a hotel, so you, too, can console yourself gazing out from the garden at the Villa degli Armeni with its neoclassical frame of Italian cypress and its undulating foothills dotted with grazing sheep.

I fell in love with the work of the modernist architect Carlo Scarpa on this trip. Patrick discovered that we were going to be close to his most famous work, the Tomba Brion, and so that’s why we detoured from the Münich-to-Venice path to visit Asolo and the tomb (where these pics were taken). We also bumped into several of his works in Venice, where he grew up. I highly recommend checking out this NYTimes piece on him.

We made it! After 10 days (8 riding days) we rolled into Venice on a sticky Saturday afternoon. We’d been amply warned to stay away from the city in August--that’s when it’s both hottest and most crowded with tourists. But we managed to have a great time, thanks mostly to staying out of the way in an Airbnb in Santa Croce (with air conditioning!) and avoiding the most touristy stuff. A highlight was a baccaro (stand-up appetizer-and-drinks bar) crawl in Castello including cichetti at Baccarando della Calle d’Ourso and gelato at Uso; another was amazing seafood and gypsy jazz at Il Paradiso Perduto in Cannaregio. I love Venice. It stubbornly frustrates any attempt to understand it as a whole, and since that’s exactly the problem I’m working on with climate-change images right now (which picture climate as a whole but disable local people and governments from taking effective action), I found this visit very intellectually stimulating--particularly just having seen Scarpa’s work, which similarly resists comprehension and encourages dwelling. It’s no accident he grew up in Venice.

The Biennale was in town, and we saw some amazing exhibitions by Tehching Hsieh and Stephen Chambers. We also saw the one above, The Wreck of the Unbelievable by Damien Hirst, and it was a split decision. It’s monumental, spanning two of François Pinault’s villas, and it took 10 years to make, so that’s a lot of hype right there. Patrick hated it, finding it pretentious and derivative. Since it’s satirical, I gave it a little more credit for launching a critique of class and consumerism in the art-collection world. But we both felt like this lady in the picture, who’s thinking, “How did they get a three-storey headless faux-bronze demon in here, and what am I supposed to get out of it?”

OK, last one. We finished our trip in Verona because of complicated train shenanigans. This is the Giardino Giusti, which was on every Grand Tour checklist from the 17th to the 19th centuries: English diarist John Evelyn loved the parterres, and Goethe had a favorite cypress. The monstrous face in the belvedere, on which we’re standing, used to belch fire and smoke “to the amazement and dismay of visitors.” It was scorching in Verona, so we didn’t spend too much time exploring, and we skipped all the Romeo & Juliet stuff, but we did picnic by the Roman arena, which was built in AD 30 and could seat all 40,000 citizens.

I promise I’ll post some actual pictures of Münich next time :)