Julie

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

Oktoberfest 2009 day 6: Bavarian Heaven

Thanks to its charming decorations and lively atmosphere, the Hacker tent (Himmel der Bayern) makes it onto lots of people’s list of favorite Oktoberfest tents. The walls are painted up into a fairytale-like Bavarian town, and the ceiling is a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Today (a Thursday) we decided to go for lunch, … Read more