July Travel Update: From German Forests to the Spanish Seaside

After taking a bit of a hiatus in the travel department last year, July marked my first full month back on the road. Woot woot! Sam and I kicked things off right where we had left off last spring, in Europe. This is what the past month looked like.

July Travel Update: From German Forests to the Spanish Seaside

Where I travelled

GermanySpreewald, Ruegen Island, Stralsund, Fischland-Darß-Zingst.

Luxembourg – Luxembourg City

France – Paris, Versailles

Spain – Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona

Highlights of the month

German road trip lined with trees on a scenic road

Road tripping around Germany. This was my first time driving in Europe, and what a better place to start than on Germany’s Autobahn, right? I have to admit, it was kind of nerve-wracking pulling out of the airport with my own car, but it proved to be such an amazing way to explore Germany. The only soundtrack Sam heard for a full week was, “Look, a castle!”, “Look, windmills!”, and “Can you believe we’re driving through a tree tunnel?” I’m so ready for another road trip, and thankfully there’s one of those coming up in Ireland with my sisters this autumn.

Unexpected meet-ups in Paris. My friend Jackie just so happened to be in town while I was there, so we met up for food. So much food! I had read really good reviews of La Maison du Dim Sum, so we went there for their dinner buffet. The food kept coming, and coming, and coming, and we were starting to get the my-body-can’t-process-so-much-food-this-fast sweats, but we kept going because it was delicious. Also, the only way to combat these sweats is with something cold, so after eating dessert at the restaurant, we went out for second dessert in the form of gelato.

Paris art instillations that I noticed walking around the city while in France

Celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary. Yup, this past month Sam and I celebrated 1 year as Mr. & Mrs. (It still sounds weird calling myself a Mrs. and sometimes I slip and refer to Sam as my boyfriend. I’m sure I’ll catch on by year 2!) In true Sam and Audrey fashion, the day was all about food, starting with Korean bibimbap for lunch, sushi for dinner, and French pastries for dessert.

Getting recognized by one of our YouTube viewers. Sam and I were walking down the streets around the Latin Quarter in Paris when all of a sudden a guy stops us with, “Hey, I know you! I watch your videos.” It turns out he had watched our Laos vlogs while researching his trip earlier on in the year. I’m always blown away when this happens, not just because it makes me feel like a minor celebrity for a moment, but because it serves as a reminder that our ‘subscribers’ aren’t just a random number – they’re real people who also love food and travel – and sometimes that can be easy to forget.

Blogger Breakfast in Madrid, Spain

Discovering blogger central in Madrid. One of the things I miss most about travel is having a regular group of friends to meet up with and chat face to face. Well, Madrid certainly delivered in that department. I’m going to go ahead and dub it the next Chiang Mai because there are so many travel bloggers living the expat life and passing through town at the moment. This meant late nights fuelled by gin and tonics and sangria, meeting up for Spanish breakfasts, and tapas, tapas, tapas!

View of Toledo, Spain from above at a high vantage point looking down over the city

Celebrating my birthday in Toledo. I turned 28! I decided I wanted to celebrate with a day trip to Toledo…on one of the hottest days of the year. Oh boy. The day’s mission soon became to avoid overheating, which meant I spent the day cooling down with gazpacho for lunch, cooling down popsicles while I walked around town, cooling down in a military museum (because it was one of the few places with AC!), cooling down with gelato on the way back to the train station, and passing out on the train with cold air blasting on my sweaty body. I know it sounds a bit like torture, but I have to list this under highlights because it was my birthday and those only come around every 365 days.

Street art in Paris while roaming the city on foot

Lowlights of the month

That hot, hot, heat. When the temperatures start to hover around 40 Celsius, my brain starts to cook and I start to melt. I’m pretty sure I was a whiney wife this month, but Sam dealt with it well (read: by buying me popsicles).

The never-ending lines in Paris. We gave up on the idea of setting foot inside the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, and just about every other major attraction in the city. Audrey Hepburn may have said, “Paris is always a good idea”, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t July and the streets didn’t smell of urine.

No trains to Luxembourg. So we decided to skip our scheduled train to Luxembourg because it was a tight connection and we wanted to grab some food. The next one was supposed to depart in one hour, but little did we know the rains were wreaking havoc and we would end up stuck at the station for half a day. The train station was a mess, everyone was trying to get rebooked, and the ‘replacement’ buses were packed because it was the day after a festival. By the time we reached Luxembourg it was almost 2 a.m. and we had been scheduled to arrive at 7 p.m.

Getting kicked out of a hotel. I was going to say this has never happened to me before, but then I remembered it did once in Malaysia when the hotel owner decided to give my room away to a higher bidding guest on a holiday weekend. So this was my second time getting kicked out of a hotel. What happened this time is that there was a big mix up when our booking was made and they thought the date of our last night there was our check-out date – and no, I didn’t tick the boxes wrong. Every single room at this property was booked so there was no way to shuffle us around. At first the receptionist was quite harsh about it and basically told me it wasn’t their problem and that I’d just have to find another hotel in town, but then the manager came out and took charge of the situation in a more graceful manner. He was truly sorry about the incident, found us another place to stay, and even drove us there so we wouldn’t get lost.

An apartment without an elevator. So Barcelona has a really weird way of numbering their apartments… I thought we were staying on the 4th floor, and then when we got there and started climbing the stairs with our luggage it felt like we weren’t getting to the 4th floor soon enough. It turns out apartment buildings have 2 floors (entresuelo and principal) before they start counting the ‘real’ floors on top of these (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). Basically I was duped into staying on the 6th floor, which proved to be quite the workout.

We’re not sorry we’re closed. Getting used to the local schedule in Spain was a little frustrating. There was one day we showed up at a restaurant we were really excited about. It was 12 noon, which in my books is lunch time, so we walk in, sit down and try to order, and the guy tells us the kitchen doesn’t open till 2 p.m. Lunch at 2?! We then walk over to a different restaurant and place our order and we hear the waiter go to the kitchen to tell the chef what he should cook up. The chef responds, “but it’s not 1:30 p.m. I’m not supposed to cook yet!” Don’t even get me started on the joys of trying to buy a train ticket on a Sunday…

Cool travel articles to check out

Why Google Flights is The Best Thing To Hit The Web Since Google, Goats on the Road – A look at why this is such a great tool, especially if you want to travel for cheap but you aren’t set on a particular destination.
Castaway Island: The party island from hell, News.com.au – When a trip is so bad that you can’t help laughing at another traveller’s misfortunes. I skipped Castaway Island and went with a much more subdued tour when I was in Halong Bay, but now I’m curious, have any of you done the Castaway tour?

On my Kindle at the moment

Bossypants by Tina Fey – Yeah, I know, I’m about 4 years late, but better late than never. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything written by an actress/comedian/celebrity, but this book changed my mind. It was laugh out loud funny to the point where Sam kept asking me why I was snorting every 5 minutes.

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan – It wasn’t the easiest book to get into, but it’s a fascinating story so I didn’t want to give up on it. I found the writer was too brief, as in sometimes his sentences were only 5 words long, or even 1 word long. I prefer wordy and descriptive any day. I also struggled through all the technical jargon seeing as I know next to nothing about sailing, but that being said, I was gripped in the last few days leading up to his rescue, because like the title suggests, he is found on day 76.

What’s coming up next?

Train travel in Europe looking out the window at fields and farmland

In August Sam and I will spend 2 weeks travelling with Busabout, which is a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus system with several loops that allow you to travel across Europe. We’re going to be hitting up Paris (again!), Bruges, Amsterdam, and Berlin with them, and making vlogs to document the experience, so keep an eye out for those on our channel.

From there we’re heading over to Warsaw, for a taste of the Polish capital, and then onwards to Romania for a bit of an outdoorsy trip that’s going to involve lots of hiking!

Join the Conversation

21 Comments

  1. says: Heather

    “it was kind of nerve-wracking pulling out of the airport with my own car”

    I so know this feeling! I’ve rented a car in Europe twice now and those first few minutes are truly terrifying. Especially this most recent time in Latvia when I got a free upgrade to a SUV. I tried to convince them that I didn’t need a nicer car and would be happy with a small little economy number, but that’s all they had. Fortunately my mom was with me for the trip and could get out to help me park. πŸ™‚

    Sounds like it was a (mostly) awesome month! Still hoping our paths will cross somewhere in Europe this year…

    1. says: Audrey

      It’s always a little strange driving a car that’s not your own. I even feel that way when renting cars back in Canada! I hope you and your mom had a nice trip around Latvia. πŸ™‚

  2. says: Jackie D

    Aw the photo! It was so great to see you both in Paris. I think I am still recovering from that meal, somehow — that probably means I need more gelato to keep cleansing my palate, right?

  3. says: Yara Miora

    Goodness it sounds like an amazing month! Its got me all ready to pack my backpack again as well! Thanks for sharing πŸ™‚ <3

    X Yara

  4. says: Dom

    What a great month it seems you had- I still need to visit Germany- that is a place I must go to! Thanks for this lovely post πŸ™‚

  5. Congratulations on your 28th birthday and your one year wedding anniversary. It’s lovely to see you both together. Apart from the really weird lows, July must have been marvellous especially meeting other bloggers in Madrid. Aha. Spain. Yeah!
    The train situation in Luxembourg sounds pretty appalling. Hmm! What went wrong on their network system? I’m thinking of going there soon…!

  6. says: Arianwen

    When I was in Madrid I’d just started my blog and had no idea there were a lot of travel bloggers based there. I’m headed to Chiang Mai in a couple of weeks though, so perhaps I can track a few down there instead!

    1. says: Audrey

      That’s so cool! Enjoy your time in Chiang Mai. There are lots of long term expats and bloggers who keep passing through, so you’ll have a nice network to connect with. πŸ™‚

  7. says: veena

    Bossypants is one of my favourites! I read it 3 years ago and then listened to the audiobook version – narrated by Tina! – during a road trip last summer, and I’m thinking it’s about time to revisit it once again. Once you finish, you should check out Amy Poehler’s Yes Please. I went the audio route with this one and it is spectacular, as she has guest narrators like Seth Meyers, her parents, and even Patrick Stewart at one point — absolutely marvelous.
    xx

    1. says: Audrey

      I’ve never tried audio books, but it sounds like it would be fun having the author recount the stories for themselves. I’ll have to keep that in mind next time I have a road trip coming up. πŸ˜‰

  8. says: Fiona

    Oh you guys are coming to Ireland! Would love to show you around Dublin.

    On the book, Tina Fey’s had me snorting out loud but have you read Caitlin Moran’s ‘How to be a Woman’- hilarious

    1. says: Audrey

      Thanks for the invite! I still don’t know how long I’ll be in Dublin for since I’m planning to do a road trip around the country with my sisters and friends, but I’ll keep that in mind. πŸ™‚

  9. says: Linn

    Great tip: Go up Arc de Triomphe instead of the Eiffel Tower. Significantly shorter queues (read: 10 m long rather than 100 m), and you get an amazing view of Paris WITH the Eiffel Tower. Hard to do if you’re standing in the Eiffel Tower πŸ˜‰

    A bonus is that it’s free for Europeans with a student ID.

  10. says: Marilyn

    I am waiting for your book to be written Audrey

    As usual your stories about travel keep us interested

    Anxious to learn more about Ireland…thanks for your posts

    1. says: Audrey

      Thanks for the encouragement Marilyn! No plans for a book yet, haha, but we’ll see what happens in the future. πŸ™‚

    1. says: Audrey

      Hi Anna, thanks for the invite! We’re swinging through town this week! Let us know if you’re around and if not we’ll definitely catch you in Romania – that’s going to be a fun trip. πŸ™‚

  11. What a packed month full of both fun and frustrating moments. Isn’t that always the case?! πŸ˜‰ I’m looking forward to hearing more about your experience with Busabout. I hadn’t heard of that before!

  12. Ah, Paris in summer! I think Paris was meant to be experienced in any season BUT summer. I had the joy of staying with a senior French couple for two weeks. She used to work for Jean Paul Gaultier and he worked for Concorde as an engineer back in the day. They were super glamorous and I just remember her fur coat (I don’t support fur, but you get the picture) on the chilly February days as she popped out for fresh baguette.

    Paris in December with all the Christmas Markets has to be my favourite.

    Glad that you enjoyed it despite the heat!

  13. says: Vietnam Backpacker Hostel

    Thanks for your blog. Regarding your question about what really happened at The Castaways Island: Vietnam Backpackers Hostels has operated the original Castaways Island Tour since 2007. As you can imagine, it is neither easy nor cheap to set up a private island where backpackers can enjoy one of the world’s greatest attractions, Halong Bay, by day and celebrate life with uninhibited abandon by night. We now have many imitators, some of very questionable quality. However, we have always maintained extremely high standards for our guests health, safety and enjoyment of our Castaways Island tour. You can read about them here: http://www.vietnambackpackerhostels.com/7-things-you-should-know-about-the-original-castaways-island-tour/

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