You all know I love me a little bit of justified tourist town action. But we also got to wander a little off the beaten track a few times in Europe…
Lazio region, Italy
We worked on a farm north of Rome for a month, and during that time took a couple of short trips over to nearby town Bracciano, to the lake, and a day trip to Viterbo. It really was a chance to live like a local (and oh, the food. Stuff of dreams. Cheese straight from the local shop. Tomatoes off the vine. Gelato too, of course). Did I mention the castles?!
On my first trip to the beach with our host (just the two of us) I didn’t bother to bring a bikini top, since she said it was a topless beach. Awkward as I felt about it, when in Rome… but that was nothing compared to the awkwardness when we actually got there and almost everyone else was in normal swimwear, tops included.
Kranzberg, Bavaria region
We had an invitation to come stay from a host who lived in a village north of Munich (which is teeth-grittingly expensive). There, we gulped down litres of homemade apple juice, swam in waterholes, stumbled across our first nudists, and cycled about 20km to another nearby village. I hadn’t been on a bike in over 10 years; biking through the forest, flying over bumps and potholes in the trail, was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying (I can’t believe I’m doing this!!! / I’m going to fall off and die!!!).
Grindelwald, Switzerland
High up in the mountains above Interlaken, Grindelwald came recommended by a friend. We arrived when a massive mountain race was on, and wound up in a dorm with a dude who organises marathons and ultras for a living. That dorm was particularly weird; there were double bunk beds, meaning you could wind up sleeping next to a stranger if you were a solo traveler. We chilled out (literally, it was a big change from the heat of Germany), stared at the mountains and the skydivers, bought beer and fired up the communal barbecue. I
Maastricht, Netherlands
Maastrict was a charming little town that we stopped into briefly on the way to Amsterdam. There was so much good looking food here! It’d be a great place to spend a half-day or a day, just wandering around. Unfortunately since we were lugging around our packs the whole time, I didn’t much feel like taking photos. (I think we may have snapped a couple iPhone pics of a particularly weird bus we spotted there, but can’t find them now.) And our first mishap with getting on the wrong train occurred straight after this. Good times.
