Montréal, October 22 - 26, 2014

Laurie and I had been looking at trips to Montreal for a long time.  But it is expensive to fly there, so we never made it.  This spring I was checking flights and saw they were at around $400/ea. That was as low as I had ever seen them, so we decided to go.  It was a good decision.

Two things struck us about Montreal: the food and the people.

The food was outstanding.  We had four evening meals at four excellent restaurant.  Two were Quebecois fare, one was Portuguese, one was Catalan, and all were pretty close to our hotel in Old Montreal.  Joe Beef was the only one that was more than a few blocks away and it was only about a mile and a half.

The people in Montreal also fed perfectly into the Canadian stereotype:  friendly, polite, helpful, and a good sense of humor.  Ever drivers were very polite.  We never saw anyone go through a yellow light.

Our hotel manager, Paul (photo below), at the Hotel Epik, was great.  He had excellent recommendations for us & made us reservations at a couple restaurants, had a great tip on Mont Royal (approach from Rue Mont Royal, not Rue Peel!) and directed us to a cool little Chinese dumpling place.  We had a lot of fun chatting with him over a bottle of wine (we had the wine, he was working).

It was fascinating to hear people seamlessly transition between English and French, even within the same conversation.  Wish I could do that.

Below are the details of our trip.  You can see all of our photos here.

Laurie, Paul, & Matthew

Wednesday 10/22/14

• 7:20AM      departure from MKE
• 10:37 departure from ORD
• 1:42PM      arrival in Montréal
• Hotel Epik Montréal, 171 St Paul Ouest, Old Montréal
• Walk along the La Chine canal to Little Burgundy
• Dinner at Joe Beef 6:30PM
• Paté with cherry sauce & tripe with chorizo in tomato sauce as appetizers
• Horse fillet wrapped in bacon w/ fried egg and sausage & roast Guinea fowl as mains

Joe Beef in Little Burgundy.  Make your reservation well in advance!

Thursday 10/23/14

• Redpath Natural History museum at McGill University
• Cemetery Notre Dame des Neiges

Entrance to the Cemetery

• Beer at a brew pub on St. Denis L’amere a Boire
• Wine and cheese pizza at Resto Apropos
• Dinner at Porto Mar
• Moulles a la Portugal & grilled squid appetizers
• Clams and pork & grilled sardines and mains

Grilled sardines at Porto Mar

Friday 10/24/14

• Walk up Mont Royal – good advice!  Approach from Rue Mont Royal, not Rue Peel

Stairs on the way up to Mont Royal

• Marche Jean-Tallon & Little Italy
• Wine at Bily Kun bar – about 20 stuffed ostrich heads on the wall
• La Banquise for a small poutine with hotdogs.  Small diner, very busy.  Poutinbe is ok, tasted a lot like what we get at the Red Dot
• Dinner at L’Original in Old Montréal
• ½ dozen oysters
• Brussels sprouts with pasta, bacon, and fried egg & Minestrone soup with oysters
• Crusted cod with Puy lentils, kale, clams, and bacon & Mustard glazed rabbit, polenta, and cabbage

Brussels sprouts, bacon, pasta, and a fried egg at L'Original

Saturday 10/25/14

• Notre Dame basillica
• Museum of Fine Arts

Napoleon's hat at the Museum of Fine Arts

• Beer at Le 3 Brasseurs
• Dumplings in Chinatown at Ming Xiang Hua

Dumplings

• Archeology museum with multi-media show
• Beer at a different 3 Brasseurs
• Dinner at Les Pyrenees Catalan restaurant
• Chorizo & anchovy salad
• Chorizo with potatoes & beef cheeks with potatoes

Beef cheeks and mashed potatoes at Les Pyrenees

Sunday 10/26/14

• Leave Montréal 2:05PM
• Arrive ORD 3:39
• 5:20 flight to Milwaukee
• Arrive Milwaukee 6:08PM

The Baltics: Riga & Vilnius, May 9-17, 2014

     

You can see all of our Baltic Adventure photos here

NB:  This is about right - we used it as our guide, but it didn't work out exactly like this, but it's close.

Friday 5/9/2014

• Leave Milwaukee 11:40AM bus to Chicago
• 
  

Saturday 5/10/2014

• Arrive RIX 12:20

Sunday 5/11/2014

• House of the Blackheads - 185
• Metzendorf’s House – 188
• Museum of the Occupation - 188
• Museum of the History of Riga & Navigation - 193
• Museum of the Barricades
• Three Brothers
• Riga castle - 193

Monday 5/12

• Motor Museum - 200
• Art Nouveau walk – 202
• Art Nouveau Museum

Tuesday 5/13

• Morning bus to Vilnius

Wednesday 5/14

• Cathedral square - 281
• Gediminas Hill – 280
• National Museum of Lithuania – 282
• Museum of Genocide victims - 293

Thursday 5/15

• Afternoon bus to Riga

Friday 5/16

• The Castle of Light
• Central Market – 194
• Holocaust Memorial - 195

Saturday 5/17

• Leave RIX 9:15
• Arrive Milwaukee 3:40

Miscellaneous things to see in Riga

• Central market – 195
• Dome Cathedral – 191
• Cat House – 190
• Swedish gate – 190
• Freedom Monument – 194
• Holocaust Memorial – 195

Miscellaneous things to see in Vilnius

• Cemeteries
• University courtyards

Chicago - April 2014

We had a short weekend in Chicago and we were absolutely on fire the whole time.  Every connection worked perfectly - trains, buses, subways, cabs, elevators, you name it.  People let us in free to things, we were not scolded at the very fussy Rosehill Cemetery, weather was perfect.

I'm not sure when we will be back, but probably this fall.

A map with a 1:1 scale defeats its own purpose...

On Exactitude inScience
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, translated byAndrewHurley.


…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a
single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety
of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the
Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and
which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so
fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map
was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the
Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are
Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is
no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

—Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658

Latvian Connection

How did I not remember this?

Yesterday we went to our favorite French restaurant in Milwaukee, Chez Jacques, to meet our friend Pat W for moulles, frites, charcuterie, and wine  as we occasionally do.
(Here is me with Xavier, Jacque's friend at his restaurant in Paris)

From Paris - 2009

We mentioned to Pat that we are going to Latvia this year.  He reminded us that Ingrid, Muskie Mike's wife (Muskie is Pat's brother and the only person in the world who looks more Irish than Pat) is from Latvia!  I knew that!

We will have them over in a few weeks to discuss all things Latvian.

From Harley-Davidson's 105th Anniversary Party

(Pat, Shirley, and Laurie)

I like to think that we picked the Hanseatic Cities because of all this subliminal information.

Yeah for us!

NYT Travel Section

Despite my last post, I am almost always disappointed in the New York Times Sunday Travel section.  They assume that everyone reading both has unlimited funds and wants to spend a lot of money on their vacations.

Our internet friends, Lou & Joan Rose (The Ramblin' Roses) always say that the less you spend, the closer you get to the reason you went.  Alain De Boton makes a similar point in his very round about way in his 2004 book, The Art Of Travel.

Look at today's "36 Hours In" article on Chicago.  We go to Chicago at least twice a year for long weekends, and this is not what we'd recommend for people who want to visit (ok, we always hit the Signature Room for martinis and I'm told the view from the women's room is the best).

But, I'll keep reading.  What can you do!

Guidebooks or the Web?

Here is a good article from the Sunday, 12/29/13, NYT Travel section on using guidebooks or the Web for travel planning.  It really is a false choice:  we always use both.

But, we wouldn't even think of going on a trip without our guidebooks.  Our two favorites are the Lonely Planet and Rick Steves.  Whenever possible we bring a Streetwise map as well.

For our upcoming trip to Riga and Vilnius we picked up the Lonely Planet Baltics and I got Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise ports from the library for his section on Riga ("undiscovered gem!") since he doesn't have a separate Baltic book.

There is a Latvian Lutheran church and school in Wauwatosa, about 12 blocks from our house that has services in Latvian three weekends a month.  We'll get in touch with them for some advice on Riga and a crash course in Latvian.

Their church was on the Windows Into Wauwatosa tour last year and we stopped in.  They were understandably quite proud that they had a thriving congregation and about 20 students in their school.

Who'd have thought there would be a Latvian community in Wauwatosa?

Vacation 2014

We finally decided on our 2014 vacation destination for 2014:  Riga, Latvia.  We'll spend 2 -3 days in either Tallinn, Estonia or Vilnius, Lithuania: we haven't decided which.  We already bought tickets.

Our flights are excellent:  Chicago to Stockholm to Riga and the layover in Stockholm is just over a two hours.  We're flying SAS.  (It would have been cool to fly Lufthansa, the airline of the Hanseatic League)

Now it's time for research.

The vacation begins once you decide where to go!

New York, October 24 - 27, 2013

This was our fourth trip to New York since we first went there in 2005.  You can see all of our pictures here.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

• Checked in to the Marcel Hotel on 24th & 3rd.  Fantastic location!  We had a great view of the Empire State Building from our room.  They had a happy hour in their 10th floor lounge with free wine on weeknights.
  
• The Frick. They had just opened an exhibit of the Dutch Masters, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals, including Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring."  We have reciprocity with the Frick through the Milwaukee Art Museum so we always go there.
• We stopped for a drink at the Banc Cafe on Third St (lots of fun stuff on Third!).  Turns out Stella Artois was having a promotion of their "cidre."  I'm not a big fan of hard cider, but I had one anyway (it was free).  It was pretty good, sort of wine like.
  
  
  The Stella promoter came over and chatted with us for a while.  He had been at the annual Kohler food & wine event in Kohler, WI.  He bought us another cidre and a couple of fantastic hors d'oeuvres: tuna tartar with avocado and pork belly with greens.  A serendipitous stop!
• We wanted Indian food for dinner that night, so we walked around in Murray Hill looking at different menus.  On our second time around, we chose Bhatti, which turned out to be an excellent choice.  They didn't serve wine there, so Laurie ran across the street to pick up a bottle of a crisp Reisling.  We asked our waiter for recommendations and he suggested the lamb chops, chicken marsala, and a shrimp curry with naan.  We went with that and were delighted.  It was probably the best Indian meal we've ever had.
  

Friday, October 25th

• The big event of Friday was The Cloisters.  The Cloisters is a museum of medieval art donated to New York by John Rockefeller and is part of the Met.  A lot of the stuff is parts of buildings taken from Europe in the last 200 years.  I felt a little uncomfortable with that.
  The park leading to the museum, overlooking the Hudson River was beautiful.
  
• Grant's Tomb is run by the National Parks Service.  We do National Parks well, and this monument is no exception.  We had a nice chat with the guard, who was a big fan of U.S. Grant and the Grand Army of the Republic.  "We won, because Grant was better than Lee!"
  
• We stopped in at the beautiful Riverside church across from Grant's and heard a concert, then on to St. John the Devine Episcopal church, the largest church with the largest stained glass window in the United States.
  
• Dinner was at Goat Town, located on 5th Street and Avenue A.  It was a great little place we discovered on line.  Appetizers were grilled octopus and crostinnis, entrees were moulles and frites (Laurie) and pork sirloin (Matthew).  It was a great day.
  
  
  
  

Saturday, October 26th

• Green-Wood cemetery is a 550 acre wooded cemetery in Brooklyn, founded in 1838.  In 1980 a crate full of parakeets broke open near here and they all escaped.  they have been living at the entrance ever since.
  
  
  The cemetery has a Revolutionary War monument to the Battle of Long Island.
  Samuel Mores's grave was my favorite, Laurie liked seeing Basquiat.  It was cool to see Boss Tweed's, too.
  
• Saturday night we saw the play, 'Mildred Fierce," a parody of the Joan Crawford movie "Mildred Pierce" (1945), with most of the actors in drag.  Hilarious!  It helped a lot to have seen the move before.

Copenhagen, May 4 - 11, 2013

See all of our photos here.

Day 1 Friday 5/3/2013

• Leave O’Hare 10:00PM

Day 2, Saturday 5/4

• Stroll down Stroet
  
• Copenhagen University
• Our first Smorbrod for dinner
  

Day 3, Sunday 5/5

• KastlessKirflen Park
• Danish Resistance Museum (burnt down!)
• Little mermaid
  
• National Museum of Early Danish History
• Street Fair behind train station
  
• Christianshavn & Christiania
  

Day 4, Monday 5/6

• Rosenborg castle & gardens
  
• Assistens Kirkegard (cemetery)
• Kierkegaard
• Niels Bohr
  
• HC Andersen
• Tycho Brahe Planetarium
• Met with Madeline’s friend Astrid
  

Day 5, Tuesday 5/7

• Train to Fredriksborg Castle
  
1. Church with Coats of Arms
2. Bayoux Tapestry
   
• Train to Kronborg Castle in Hellsingor
1. Little girl on train getting her ticket alone sans issues
2. Walked the grounds
3. Views of Sweden
4. Smorrbrod for lunch
• Train to Louisiana modern art museum
• Pronounced like my grandmother would “Loo zee ana”
• Train back to Copenhagen
1. Music at trinity Church on our way home – no idea what it was about

Day 6, Wednesday 5/8

• Train to Rosskilde
  
  
  
  
1. Cathedral

·         Prayer service with Danish Lutherans

2. Street market
3. Viking Museum
• Train back to Copenhagen
1. Thorvvaldsen Museum – 19^th c. Sculpture
2. Copenhagen Library – The Black Diamond
3. Fabulous dinner at Geist

Day 7, Thursday 5/9

• Fredricksburg castle
• City Hall- closed!
• Church of Our Lady w/ Thorvaldsen sculpture
• Indian food for lunch
• Botanical gardens w/ Natural History Museum
• Rosenberg castle park
• Tivoli amusement park

Day 8, Friday 5/10

• I don’t remember what we did on our last full day

Day 9, Saturday 5/11

• Flew home

New York Wedding - July 2012

I had the honor to officiate  Amy Wazny & Sara Nolan's wedding last year.  They had it in Central Park in New York City.  The setting was awesome, the brides were beautiful, and everyone had a great time.


In addition to the wedding, we also went to the New York Botanical Gardens and saw the play "Potted Potter."  Of course, we also went to the Frick, which we do every time we're in NY.

The bartender at the Russian Tea Room told Laurie that the best vodka was Russian Standard, and that has been her vodka of choice ever since.

Italy 2012

Ok, I'm a year late, but I do want to get this posted for my records.  We flew out of Chicago to Milan on April 21, 2012.


Day 1 Milan

• Milan Cathedral
• Sforza Palace

Day 2 Train to Florence

• Basilica of Santa Croce
• Galileo museum
• Rose garden

Day 3 Florence

• Central market
• Palazzo Medici - Ricardo
• Medici Chapel
• Duomo Museum
• Bardini Museum

Day 4 Florence

• Ufitzi
• Bargello
• Orsanmidel
• Santa Maria Novella
• Santo Spirito
• Duomo

Day 5

• Accademia
• San Marco
• Brancacci Chapel
• Pitti Palace
• Botanical garden

Day 6 Train to Venice

• St Mark's square
• St Mark's Basilica
• Francis Bacon art (a different FB!)

Day 7 Venice

• Doge's Palace
• Correr Museum
• Frari Church
• Grand Canal cruise
• St Mark's Square at night

Day 8 Milan

Day 9 Home again

Trips in 2012

We have a couple of trips planned for 2012.

This spring we're going back to Italy.  I know, I know...we were just there last year.  This time we're flying into Milan for a night, then Florence for 4 nights, Venice for 2, then back to Milan for our last nigh before e fly back to Chicago.

The connections that we got are very good, although it took me a long time to get something decent.

In the summer we're going back to New York.  I am honored to be officiating Amy & Sara's wedding in Central Park.  It will be a long weekend only, a Thursday to Sunday thing.

That's a little more planned than what we usually do, but events have a way of happening.

We're very much looking forward to both trips!

New York, October 2011

Thursday, October 6th

• Whitney Museum of American Art
• The Frick Collection
• Dinner at Aflama

Friday, October 7th

• Pierpont Morgan Library w/ a special exhibit on Charles Dickens
• Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island
• Dinner at Mint for Indian food

Saturday, October 8th

• Brooklyn Museum
• "Ear" bar
• High Line park
• Dinner at San Martin for Italian food

Green Bay, June 2011.

Chicago, Memorial Day 2011

Over Memorial Day this year we stayed at the Hotel Indigo in Chicago's Gold Coast. That's a little north of where we usually end up with Priceline, but it was fun to explore that neighborhood more.

We were pretty close to the Chicago History Museum. That was well worth the trip. We also went back to the Chicago Contemporary Art Museum since it has reciprocity with the Milwaukee Art Museum. It wasn't nearly as depressing as the first time we went (Thanks, Ab!).

We had dinner one night at the very excellent French restaurant, Bistrot Margot. Laurie had veal, I had duck.

Sunday night we ate at the Cafe Iberico, a great tapas place that Julie & Brian D turned us on to.

We'll be back in Chicago no later then November.

Rome: Feb 19 - 27, 2011

This was our first time in Italy. We spent the entire time in Rome.

Day 1 - Sunday, 20 February 2011

• Arrived on time and got to the Hotel Smeraldo around 10:00AM local time.
• Unpacked, walked though our neighborhood for about an hour, had a couple bbers, then napped for about three hours
  
• Walked from our hotel through Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, to the Pantheon,

  From Rome 2011

  the Trevi Fountain, to the Spanish Steps then ate in Campo de Fiori

Day 2 - Monday, 21 February 2011

• Went to the Roman Forum, Palatine hill, & Coliseum
• St Peter in Chains to see Michelangelo's Moses

  From Rome 2011

• Lunch at Carbonara in Monti
• Pilgrim's tour of churches: San Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni in Laterno, San Clement
• Dinner near Piazza Navona
  

Day 3 - Tuesday 22 February 2011

• Santa Maria degli Angli
• Baths of Diocletian
• National Museum of Rome

  From Rome 2011

• Walked back to the Trevi fountain
• Santa Maria sopra Minerva with the Bernini's elephant and Michelangelo's "Jesus and the Cross"
• Lunch at Cul du sac
• San Luigi dei Francis w/ Carrivagio's St Matthew
• Gesu, head church of the Jesuits
• Wine bar
• Sergio's for dinner

Day 4 - Wednesday, 23 February 2011

• Borghese Gallery
• Walked back to the Spanish Steps

  From Rome 2011

• Lunch at Lilli
• Trastevere walk
• Dinner at La Pollarola

Day 5 - Thurday, 24 February 2011

• Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica

  From Rome 2011

  
  
• Dinner at Sergio's - Thursday is gnocchi night in Rome!

Day 6 - Friday, 25 February 2011

• Ostia Antica day trip

  From Rome 2011

• Bocca de veritas
  
• Dinner at Buffeto 2 near Campo de Fiori

Day 7 - Saturday, 26 February 2011

• Michelangelo's steps to Piazza de Campidoglio
• Statue of Marcus Aurelius

  From Rome 2011

  
  
• Victor Emmanuel monument
  
• Trajan's column
• Piazza Victor Emmanuel
• Lunch at Franco's in San Lorenzo
• Dinner at La Pollarola

Day 8 - Sunday, 27 February 2011

• Uneventful trip back home in Wauwatosa by 6:00PM local time.
  

Chicago, November 5-7, 2010

We hadn't been to Chicago yet this year and almost did not make it this time because of work. Fortuantely we were able to catch the 5:45PM train and were at our hotel before 8:00.

We Pricelined the Doubletree off of Michigan avenue and got it for $65/night. That's our favorite place to stay because of its location and the rooms are pretty nice.

Because we got in late we just went bar hopping for a while then ended up at our favorite piano bar on Oregon St. As usual the credit card machine wasn't working ("it was working last week!") nd we knew to stick with beer since the drinks are so watered down.

The usual pianist retired and the got a new guy who was excellent. We requested "All The Young Dudes" by Mott the Hoople as we always do and did an excellent version.

Saturday we sneaked into the Surgery Museum. It was closed because they were installing a new exhibit, but the door was open and we got to spend about twenty minutes there before getting kicked out.

We stumbled upon a Badger bar and watched the Badger game over lunch (some guy wanted to fight me because I insulted horse racing) and we mostly just walked around and enjoyed that great city.

We tried to go to The Dirty Martini on Hubbard later that night, but the are closed. Too bad.

We caught the 10:20AM train home on Sunday and were at our house shortly after noon.

Great city, almost too easy of a vacation.

San Francisco, September 2-6, 2010

This was our first trip to San Francisco, but probably won't be our last. We were there for three and a half days.

Here are some highlights:

Thursday, 9/2:

• SF Public Library and Dashiell Hammet's type writer
• City Hall
• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
• Nightcap at the Redwood Room in the Clift Hotel on Geary

Friday, 9/3

• Fisherman's Wharf
• Coit Tower
• Lunch at Tony's in North Beach
• The Castro
• Dinner at The Great Eastern on Jackson in Chinatown

Saturday, 9/4

• CityGuides walking tour of Chinatown
• Dim sum for lunch
• The Ferry Building
• Murals in the Rincon building
• Yerba Buena Gardens

Sunday, 9/5

• Alcatraz
• Oysters in Pacific Heights
• Sushi in Japantown
• Dinner at John's Grill on Ellis
  

Nashville April 8-11, 2010

I've been in Nashville a number of times for work and always enjoyed that city. We decided to got there with our friends Amy & Sara.

Thursday, 8 April
• Visited the Parthenon at Centennial Park
• Lunch at Jack’s Barbeque
• The Frist Museum of Visual Arts
• Martinis at the Union Station Hotel bar
• Music at Legend’s Corner

Friday
• Vanderbilt University campus stroll
• Loveless Café for brunch
• Hermitage Hotel bar for a beer
• Tour of the Tennessee State Capital
• The Civil Rights exhibit at the Nashville Public Library
• Farmers’ market and Bicentennial Park
• World War II Memorial
• Tootsie’s and Wildhorse Saloon for music
• Kareoke at Lonnie’s!!!

Saturday
• Breakfast at Rotier’s
• The Hermitage
• BB King’s for lunch
• More music at Legend’s
• Dinner at the Mad Platter