sardinia III: road goats

On the way out of Cala Gonone, Stephen and I had to make way for goats. I nearly died of the amazingness.

sardinia II: the blue crescent

Did you know places that look like this existed in Europe? I sure didn't. The Cala Gonone area is stunning. We barely made it onto a day-long boat tour (just five minutes before the scheduled take-off! though, being in sunny laid-back Cala Gonone, no one actually took off right at eleven a.m.) and were so glad we did -- it was the best weather and most perfect day of the trip. Since we didn't bring food along, we were forced to eat Italian chipwiches off a snack-bar boat, in between snorkeling and swimming in grottos and sunning ourselves on fabulous beaches. Oh, the hardship.

sardinia I: chia

Stephen and I spent five days in Sardinia recently, and can we talk for a minute about how excellent that place is? Of course we can. We hopped off the plane and immediately booked it down the coast to Chia (pronounced Kia), where we hit up our first two beaches: unnamed Chia-area beach down a road marked "Al Mare" (yes please) and Su Porto. We had to drive halfway across the island in the evening but I'm all for going back -- the area is so excellent and you can dive amongst Roman ruins nearby. So cool.

gmunden am traunsee

I first saw the Traunsee through the windows of a train when I went to visit Suz in Bad Ischl in May 2009, but I didn't know the name of the lake at the time. Dang, is it ever pretty. We were there for parts of four days, and two of them were sunny and hot -- we went for a walk around the lake the first day and I went swimming (just a little chilly), and on the second day we rented kayaks and paddled down to Hois'n Wirt for lunch, with a short dip at a deserted strip of pebbley beach in between. The weather wasn't in our favor the entire time (we spent our last day in Austria over in Bad Ischl at a thermal bath to beat the rain) but we did pretty all right for ourselves in general.

kehlsteinhaus

I visited the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) two years ago, with Ann (with whom I am traveling to Italy in just over two months!), and at the time I wrote I was almost certain to return to the area. And I did! My dad has wanted to see the Eagle's Nest for ages, and I was glad we could make that happen for him. Those views remain spectacular.

Pro tip: If you go to the Eagle's Nest, do your darnedest to be on one of the first buses of the morning (they start at 8:30 and run every 25 minutes thereafter). We were on the second bus of the day, and even by the time we were heading down the mountain at 10:35 the place was starting to get jammed.

königssee

  
The Königssee and its nearby lake friend the Obersee were pretty darned spectacular.

berchtesgaden

  
My parents came to Europe a few weeks ago to visit me and my youngest brother, Conor (our other brother, Ryan, had to work!) and we spent a week hanging out in the German and Austrian Alps. First up: Berchtesgaden. We stayed at the Alpenhof, which, in Schönau, is a tiny bit outside of Berchtesgaden proper, but I didn't find that to be a downside. The hotel is charming and has all kinds of stuff to do (including but not limited to indoor and outdoor pools, a tennis court, and daily Kaffee & Kuchen [naturally]) and the food was very good (we got the Halbpension, which meant breakfast and dinner were included -- a relatively common thing in Germany, I've found). Highly recommended!