We know how to see cities in just a few days. We have been doing in most of our lives, because we had jobs that only allowed us to travel 2 or 3 weeks a year. We learned to see as much as possible while stopping in to a city in 2 or 3 days….
Author: Beacon Bill
Semi-Nomadic Travelers
Madrid, Spain
We were in Madrid just 5 years ago and enjoyed it a lot and we really wanted to come back. It has 3 fantastic art museums, excellent tapas scene and lots of squares to sit and drink while watching the hordes of people. This trip there were hordes and hordes of people. I can’t remember…
Travel Lists
The world is huge and even though we are traveling most of the time, we still have a lot to see. We often get asked about how many countries we have been to and I don’t know the answer off the top of my head. It is not something I think about much. But to…
San Sebastian, Spain
The Spanish Basque country has always been near the top of our destination list but we never got there on our previous trips to Spain. We never had enough time to get make it work because it is far from the other Spain “go to” cities. But we have enough time now :>) and Spanish…
French Basque Country
Sometimes you just need some beach time. We had been in France for 3 weeks but we didn’t have a good chance to swim in the Med. We were busy seeing the sites and beaches weren’t the priority in Arles, Montpellier and Bordeaux. We did a lot of museums and cultural stuff which is the…
Bordeaux, France
We are huge wine lovers and just had to visit of the best wine regions in the world if we are in France. That got us here but there was a ton of other things to do and Bordeaux is a beautiful city. Fantastic architecture, long pedestrian streets, and some interesting museums to see. The…
Montpellier, France
During my last few years of working when I was dreaming of retirement, I was picturing a nomadic life, staying for 2-3 months in European towns that weren’t too touristy. I wanted to live in Europe, not be a tourist. Montpellier is the type of town that I had pictured. It has 300k people but…
Day Trips from Arles
The first week in Europe we try to take it a bit slow because we are almost always suffering from a bit of jetlag. A small town like Arles is a great first stop, because there isn’t that many must see destinations. We thought if we were able to conquer jetlag that we would be…
Arles, France – WTF?!?!?!
We are off on another adventure! First stop- Arles in Provence. It took us a bit to get here. British Airways overbooked us on our flight from Seattle and didn’t tell us until we just about to board. We ended up spending another night in Seattle and then accepting a 12 hour layover in London…
Our Least Favorite Question
We get this question a lot! Our friends and family ask us…. as well as strangers we meet while traveling… and we still don’t know how to answer it…. What is your favorite travel destination? I can’t tell you my favorite child or favorite nephew. I don’t know my favorite band or even my favorite…
People and/or Places
We are just completing our Seattle summer back at home. We have spent 3 months seeing a lot of friends and family and getting reconnected after spending most of the year in other countries. The summer flew by but we did have many opportunities to spend some time with people that we really missed. We…
Backpacking at Baker
I just had a great weekend camping between Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker and had to make a post to show off all the great pics we took. My boys and I started early on Friday and hiked from Artist Point around Table Mountain and found one of the last campsites at Mazama Lake. It…
Visit Seattle
Booking travel is a lot of work and doing it right takes a lot of research in a town you’ve never visited. I work hard at understanding transit and finding the best neighborhoods, activities, restaurants and museums. I know Seattle really well, so this is going to be the post that I would be exited…
Traveling Lighter
For the past 20 years or so, I have been losing 5 pounds every summer while bike commuting to work. Then I gain 10 pounds every winter when it starts to rain and I end up driving everywhere again. Of course that is not sustainable, and every few years I ended up having to go…
Old School Road Trip
We have always have had the urge to travel, but the early years of our relationship, we didn’t have the means to do the type of airplane travel that we do now. We still had curiosity about nature, people, and the world so we just pursued it a different way. So, we did a lot…