Hello, Friends! I’m back from Berlin and thinking about travel. The crowd at The Hive was such an international mix, and everyone came from such interesting places, it made me want to keep my bags permanently packed and visit every last corner of the globe. Possibly it’s the season — am I the only one that gets a major case of wanderlust as the weather warms?
In case you’ve caught the bug too, here are two online travel magazines that recently caught my eye:
First up, Travel Jam. It’s described as somewhere between a magazine of childish fashion, a journey diary and a women’s luxury mag. Mostly, I noticed it because the photography is so good!
I also love Wayfare Magazine. It’s full of great tips, smart reviews, and inspiring images. Fun fact: I got to hang out with Anne, one of the Wayfare founders, while I was in Berlin.
P.S. — A couple of weekends ago, when I got off the plane from Miami to Paris, my feet were swollen to about twice the normal size. Yikes! Has that ever happened to you? Luckily, the flight from Berlin to Paris is very short, so no swollen feet today. : )
On the flight home from Rome, I read about Inshriach House in the inflight magazine. A mother and son restored an old estate in northern Scotland. It has enough space to sleep 17 people and you can rent the whole place out for weddings and events. But what really caught my eye was this truck that lives on the property.
It’s a firetruck from 1956 that they’ve restored and turned into a guest space — with a tiny kitchen and a wood-burning stove! You can rent it out instead of a hotel room.
Doesn’t it look cozy? I think it would be fun to stay there, but even better, it would be a total dream to create something like this for guests at my own house.
I swear, I can’t get enough of little spaces like this! You too? Here’s a tiny victorian cottage, candy-colored beach huts and mini houses from Texas.
P.S. — I love when airlines produce a great magazine. It feels like such a perk! I always enjoy United’s Hemispheres. And I was impressed with EasyJet’s Traveller, too. Do you have a favorite?
Here’s a little update from our trip. On Tuesday we visited the Vatican Museum. I didn’t really understand what it was. I thought we were just getting to see the Sistine Chapel, but instead, it’s a huge art museum with the Sistine Chapel as the finale.
I had such an emotional reaction to the collection and it caught me off guard. Near the end of the tour, you come upon this huge (huge like 15 or 20 feet high) sketch of Mary, offering her baby to the World. I started crying as I approached it. It was so beautiful! And then I realized it was by Matisse and I started crying even harder. (Oh dear!)
I love lots of Matisse’s work, but am especially drawn to his oversize pieces that look super simple and child like — created from line drawings and cut paper. I wasn’t expecting to see works by Matisse. It was such a happy surprise! Here’s a little video I found about the Matisse gallery, in case you’re curious.
Then, 10 minutes later, we walked into the Sistene Chapel and I teared up all over again! It really is jaw-dropping. It made my heart beat faster.
I don’t consider myself very sentimental, so it always surprises me when I cry at unexpected times. Has art ever brought you to tears? Have you ever visited the Vatican Museum?
P.S. — The museum also houses the School of Athens by Raphael. It felt like an honor to see it! If you’d like, you can follow along on our adventure here and here.
Rome is treating us well. We are eating lots of gelato. LOTS.
kisses,
Gabrielle
P.S. — Find a house tour and another fun post below.
Hello, Friends. We’re in Rome! I’m snapping pictures like crazy and can’t wait to share. If you’d like to follow along, Ben Blair and I are both updating frequently on Instagram (he’s blairben and I’m gabrielle_designmom).
For now, I thought you’d like to see an image from our Easter Egg Hunt at the Eiffel Tower. Isn’t it a great shot? I was so pleased with it.
How about you? Did the Easter Bunny make it to your house? Or are you celebrating other spring holidays? How was your weekend?
I’m nuts over these teeny tiny clay houses! They’re made by an American artist named Laurie, who’s currently living in Holland — just a few steps down a cobblestone road from Rembrandt’s birthplace.
For the colored houses, Laurie uses real pigments from the Old World, ground by a windmill in Holland. She offers architecture examples from Amsterdam, Italy, Paris — even the French countryside. I think they make the most charming collection. I want one of each!
Wouldn’t they make the cutest (tiny!) souvenir from a trip to Europe?
Here are a few images from our quick trip to Stonehenge and a little report.
I love seeing prehistoric sites! It’s really fascinating to me to imagine a society with the skills and wherewithal to build something grand and lasting — and yet we know almost nothing about them. I always wonder if their lives were very, very different from mine — or essentially the same. Did they get grumpy when they were hungry? Did they have leisure time? What was their concept of love and happiness?
Stonehenge didn’t disappoint. It’s old and big and mysterious. We learned that the current circle of stones is the third one that was built on that site — and that the site is older than the pyramids!
You can’t get really close and touch the stones, but you can get close enough for decent pictures. There is roped off path that takes you around the whole site and it provides some pretty spectacular views. If you’re dying to get up close and personal with the stones, Avebury is not too far. It’s another ancient stone circle that’s much bigger than Stonehenge, but far less touristy.
The tickets include a little handset-on-a-cord you can wear around your neck and hold up to your ear, which was great. But it was cold and windy! We wished we were wearing mittens and hats. Stonehenge is kind of in the middle of nowhere — just off the road and surrounded by fields of grazing sheep. The countryside couldn’t have been more charming.
Our trip was short. We played with the idea of visiting Stonehenge plus some other area sites, but really, it was more of an experiment to see if we really could take a decent trip to England on a Saturday+Sunday without missing work or school. Instead of doing more site-seeing we went straight from Stonehenge to the hotel so the kids could swim and go to a movie — in English! — which felt like a treat. We thought our little trip was a success! Next time, we’d really like to visit Bath, and see more of the English countryside.
How about you? Have you ever been to Stonehenge or another prehistoric site? Are you fascinated by them like me? Do you think weekend trips are worth the effort?
P.S. — Our visit to prehistoric caves.
It must be moving season! Lately, I’ve had lots of emails from families moving abroad, wondering what we did for a car when we arrived. I mentioned in an early post about our move, that we intended to arrange a short-term car lease while we were here. But that didn’t happen. Here’s what did happen:
Turns out, we couldn’t lease a car, or get any sort of auto financing, because we needed to have an active French bank account for at least a year before we could apply. So. We had to purchase a car instead. Ben Blair found a used VW Transporter without too many miles — and it had seats for 9 people! Perfect for a big family like ours.
The VW wasn’t cheap, and we didn’t have enough cash to pay for the whole thing up front. So we asked a favor of the seller and payed for the car over 3 months. That just about wiped us out! We assumed we would be making small monthly payments and hadn’t budgeted for a big purchase like that. But then it was paid off and ours, and we felt great about the decision.
Ultimately, we’ve been delighted with the car. And man oh man have we put some miles on it! It’s taken us to The Netherlands, England, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and all over France. It’s designed for 9 adults, so it feels extra roomy to our family of little kids, and it’s been the perfect car for road-tripping. We love it! We wish VW sold this in the U.S. because we would buy one in a snap!
P.S. — Did you know almost all cars in France (and maybe Europe?) are stick shift? Even rentals! Our VW is too. Luckily, my first car was a stick shift, and a few cars I’ve owned since then as well, so it’s easy for me. Do you know how to drive stick?
I read about Berlin’s Hotel Huettenpalast over at Anthology. It sounds super funky! You can stay in their hotel rooms, or try one of their indoor caravans/huts if you want to try something a little different. And the caravans are a bargain — only about $85 a night!
Have you ever been to Berlin? I haven’t. But. I’m speaking there in May at The Hive blogging conference. I’m crazy excited!! Both to see the super cool city of Berlin, and to meet fellow European bloggers. My current community is so rural that I haven’t been to a blogger meetup since we moved here. I’m really looking forward to this!
Just curious, do you ever meet up with your online friends in real life? (It’s one of my very favorite things!) And hey, will you be at The Hive? I’d love to meet you! One last question — I’ll be speaking for about an hour on “The Business of Blogging”. If you were in the audience, what would you want me to cover?
I took these bike photos when Ben Blair and I were in Florence and Pisa. What is it with Italy and charming bikes? : ) I’m hoping to add to my bike photo collection in Rome. Rome! We just bought tickets to Rome for the Easter Break!! In fact, we fly in on Easter Sunday. I wonder if the city will be absolutely nuts…
I’ve never been to Rome and can’t wait to make plans and packing lists. Have you been? Tell me everything! Where should we stay? eat? explore? We’ll have about 5 days. So excited!
P.S. — Have you heard of airlines like EasyJet and RyanAir? They just fly to and from European destinations and sometimes you can score crazy cheap tickets! Flying our whole family from Paris to Rome costs about as much as one ticket from the U.S. to Rome. Crazy!
