Travel Thread

[LiveCoug]

We're here now. Did I see you this afternoon at the Alamo cafe?

Oh, no. I would never do such a thing on the sabbath! You came on a good weekend. Great weather.

When you headed to Austin? Totally different vibe than SA. So close, yet different worlds.

All the good wait-for-hours BBQ is in Austin area. Small town of Lockhart has some good BBQ as well.

[cowboy]

Nice! When are you here? The Alamo is actually kind of boring, but you still gotta do it, along with the riverwalk of course. I would suggest hitting some of the other San Antonio missions (mission San Jose is the best). There is always Sea World, but hey, it's just a Sea World.

We're here now. Did I see you this afternoon at the Alamo cafe?

[LiveCoug]

Decided to spend a couple of days and take a brief vacation to San Antonio with my wife. Suggestions for food and historical attractions? We're taking one night and going to Austin so live music location recommendations would also be welcomed.

Nice! When are you here? The Alamo is actually kind of boring, but you still gotta do it, along with the riverwalk of course. I would suggest hitting some of the other San Antonio missions (mission San Jose is the best). There is always Sea World, but hey, it's just a Sea World.

[cowboy]

Decided to spend a couple of days and take a brief vacation to San Antonio with my wife. Suggestions for food and historical attractions? We're taking one night and going to Austin so live music location recommendations would also be welcomed.

[Donuthole]

I called my dad this weekend to scope out the lay of the land when I come to visit him. His house has a managerie of tropical fruit. His papayas have stopped producing unfortunately, but BYU-HI has nursery where we can buy some cheap. Dad's glorious hayden mangos will not ripen until after our trip.


But hallelujah, it will be prime season for breadfruit, and it is looking to be a bumper crop this year, judging by the number of starts dad has seen around the community. I'm swooning already, because you just cannot buy breadfruit in the store, and nothing tastes quite like it for that warm, buttery bread taste. Except well, warm buttery bread. But breadfruit is awesome. I dont know what these palagis are talking about when they complain that breadfruit is tasteless.

Papaya is awful, so I'm not inclined to take your word for it on the deliciousness of breadfruit.

[Katy Lied]

I called my dad this weekend to scope out the lay of the land when I come to visit him. His house has a managerie of tropical fruit. His papayas have stopped producing unfortunately, but BYU-HI has nursery where we can buy some cheap. Dad's glorious hayden mangos will not ripen until after our trip.


But hallelujah, it will be prime season for breadfruit, and it is looking to be a bumper crop this year, judging by the number of starts dad has seen around the community. I'm swooning already, because you just cannot buy breadfruit in the store, and nothing tastes quite like it for that warm, buttery bread taste. Except well, warm buttery bread. But breadfruit is awesome. I dont know what these palagis are talking about when they complain that breadfruit is tasteless.

[Indy Coug]

Possibly. Our hotel is built back into a mountain and some of the rooms are essentially caves. I'll be content with a good bed and a view.

This is one of those moments where an iPhone panorama picture would be cool.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Are you going to spend the night inside one of those Cappodocian rock dwellings?

Possibly. Our hotel is built back into a mountain and some of the rooms are essentially caves. I'll be content with a good bed and a view.

[Pelado]

I wish that I had some input on things to do and see in the area. The region looks stunning. Its a common phallacy that you may have a really hard time finding some good sites to see. But if you keep your head on straight, and stop often for derections, I'm sure something will come up.

Yes, they really should visit these formations:

cappadocia-columns.jpg

[Indy Coug]

I spent the weekend making arrangements for a bucket list trip in October, consisting mainly of a cruise in the Black and Aegean Seas (Istanbul, Crimea/Odessa, Athens/Corinth/Mycenae, Mykonos and Ephesus). We've never visited any of those places so we're excited. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the trip will be at the end when we make a two-day visit to Cappadocia, an area of which I was completely ignorant until very recently. Check out this collection of Google images of the area. Note that the area with the unique rock towers with mushroom-like caps is referred to as Love Valley, for reasons that escape me.

We'll visit Derinkuyu, an underground city (apropos to today's hollow earth discussion) that, along with other underground cities in the area, was home to tens of thousand of people many centuries ago, and archaeologists are still discovering more. Add in one of the most geologically interesting landscapes on the planet, dozens of churches and other buildings carved into mountainsides with frescoes and other medieval art, and top it off with an early morning hot air balloon ride and you have a couple of potentially wondrous days. Even the normally timid Mrs. PAC is looking forward to the rather frightening balloon ride, observing that if it's our time, there may be no cooler way to go out...

Suggestions for things to see in our port cities (esp. Sevastapol, Yalta, Odessa and Burgas--I'm sure many here have vacationed in Bulgaria) will be appreciated.

And I realize talking about great trips is boastful and offputting, but I'll note that until we got well into our 40s, we never traveled at all, and now as my career winds down we're making up for lost time. So, apologies but most here will be doing this sort of thing down the road, and certainly many already have.

Are you going to spend the night inside one of those Cappodocian rock dwellings?

[snowcat]

Here's the proximate cause of my suggestion: I'm going to be in Switzerland for a bit in late May/early June (humblebrag? Obviously!). Mostly Geneva and Lausanne along with a little village up in the Alps, Saas-Fee. I'd especially welcome any tips or suggestions about either of the larger cities. Very limited expense account but I'd welcome any recommendations about things to see and reasonably priced () places to eat (I was there last year and, good grief, it's expensive. I mostly ate bread and cheese from supermarkets. Stunningly beautiful country, though).

I spend a week in Geneva every year (I leave next week). Geneva is pricey. I like to just enjoy the fine bread and cheese for most meals. There are some good places to get fondue if you are so inclined. This place is also famous for its Entrecote.

http://www.chezboubier.com/en/

Be forewarned, there is one item on the menu and it is 41.50 Swiss francs.

entrecote0227_2_innerbig.jpg

[bluegoose]

I spent the weekend making arrangements for a bucket list trip in October, consisting mainly of a cruise in the Black and Aegean Seas (Istanbul, Crimea/Odessa, Athens/Corinth/Mycenae, Mykonos and Ephesus). We've never visited any of those places so we're excited. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the trip will be at the end when we make a two-day visit to Cappadocia, an area of which I was completely ignorant until very recently. Check out this collection of Google images of the area. Note that the area with the unique rock towers with mushroom-like caps is referred to as Love Valley, for reasons that escape me.

We'll visit Derinkuyu, an underground city (apropos to today's hollow earth discussion) that, along with other underground cities in the area, was home to tens of thousand of people many centuries ago, and archaeologists are still discovering more. Add in one of the most geologically interesting landscapes on the planet, dozens of churches and other buildings carved into mountainsides with frescoes and other medieval art, and top it off with an early morning hot air balloon ride and you have a couple of potentially wondrous days. Even the normally timid Mrs. PAC is looking forward to the rather frightening balloon ride, observing that if it's our time, there may be no cooler way to go out...

Suggestions for things to see in our port cities (esp. Sevastapol, Yalta, Odessa and Burgas--I'm sure many here have vacationed in Bulgaria) will be appreciated.

And I realize talking about great trips is boastful and offputting, but I'll note that until we got well into our 40s, we never traveled at all, and now as my career winds down we're making up for lost time. So, apologies but most here will be doing this sort of thing down the road, and certainly many already have.

I wish that I had some input on things to do and see in the area. The region looks stunning. Its a common phallacy that you may have a really hard time finding some good sites to see. But if you keep your head on straight, and stop often for derections, I'm sure something will come up.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I spent the weekend making arrangements for a bucket list trip in October, consisting mainly of a cruise in the Black and Aegean Seas (Istanbul, Crimea/Odessa, Athens/Corinth/Mycenae, Mykonos and Ephesus). We've never visited any of those places so we're excited. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the trip will be at the end when we make a two-day visit to Cappadocia, an area of which I was completely ignorant until very recently. Check out this collection of Google images of the area. Note that the area with the unique rock towers with mushroom-like caps is referred to as Love Valley, for reasons that escape me.

We'll visit Derinkuyu, an underground city (apropos to today's hollow earth discussion) that, along with other underground cities in the area, was home to tens of thousand of people many centuries ago, and archaeologists are still discovering more. Add in one of the most geologically interesting landscapes on the planet, dozens of churches and other buildings carved into mountainsides with frescoes and other medieval art, and top it off with an early morning hot air balloon ride and you have a couple of potentially wondrous days. Even the normally timid Mrs. PAC is looking forward to the rather frightening balloon ride, observing that if it's our time, there may be no cooler way to go out...

Suggestions for things to see in our port cities (esp. Sevastapol, Yalta, Odessa and Burgas--I'm sure many here have vacationed in Bulgaria) will be appreciated.

And I realize talking about great trips is boastful and offputting, but I'll note that until we got well into our 40s, we never traveled at all, and now as my career winds down we're making up for lost time. So, apologies but most here will be doing this sort of thing down the road, and certainly many already have.

[Harry Tic]

Go tour the Maison Callier (Chocolate Factory Tour) - Map in Broc. Not too far from where you are and the end of the tour is a sampling room, where you can eat all the chocolate your heart desires. Only restriction is that you can't leave the room. It was awesome. One of the highlights of my chocolate career. THe chocolate is sublime. You are also only 3 miles away from the Gruyere factory. And there is a great little hike that I did with the wife that was very enjoyable. Even doing the first mile or so would be well worth your time: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=423326

Great tip, BP. I'm frantically scribbling all this stuff down (well, cutting and pasting anyway).

[Tim]

Yeah. It's super-convenient for us. Newark is about as close as JFK. My favorite is LGA, of course, but these tickets were for EWR, so we went with them.