Brandon O'Brien

Monday, September 5, 2022 @ 8:43 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 12

Today was a pretty unexciting day spent almost entirely on trains or in train stations. We left our Airbnb in Strasbourg around 8:30 this morning after eating more yogurt, granola, bananas and leftover sausages from last night's dinner. Getting our giant suitcase down the stairs wasn't as big of an ordeal as we had feared and we were quickly on the tram toward the train station. We got there a little early but had plenty of time to get to our gate and find where the train car we had our seats was going to be.

We had three of the four seats at a table, only one of which was already occupied. Even though Dakotah is free and will be in our lap, they still give him a seat which is nice. We weren't quick enough to throw a bag down in the third seat and someone took it which made our area a little cramped. People can buy first class passes and sit in any open seat and that's what this guy was doing. Oh well, lesson learned.

We had some hummus and cut up red peppers as a snack, then had our leftover ham and cheese baguette for lunch. We passed through a lot of neat scenery and kinda skirted the alps on the way south. We made it to Aix-en-Provence where we were going to switch trains. The train station was pretty small but they had a little sandwich shop so we picked up some more sandwiches to eat as an early dinner. We knew we probably wouldn't be checked into our Airbnb in Nice until around 7 and didn't want to have to hunt down more food.

The trip from Aix to Nice was beautiful. It started out going through a lot of wine country and then made its way to the coast where we passed by several towns with really neat seaside cliff hugging homes. We made it to Nice on time and walked the short distance to the Airbnb. The key was in a lockbox around the corner but it was easy enough to find.

We took an extremely small elevator up to the 4th floor (not complaining about it at all... an elevator was very welcome after having to walk 3 flights of stairs with all our luggage in Strasbourg). So far the Airbnb seems really nice. There's a very tiny balcony but it'll be nice to sit out there with a glass of wine later in the week.

Our plan for tomorrow is to meet up with our friend Kat, who moved here earlier in the pandemic, after breakfast and then do a wine tasting with her later in the evening.

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Tags: france, nice, strasbourg, europe, trains

Posted from: France

Thursday, September 5, 2013 @ 6:57 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 71

Today is going to be the last warm day I have for quite a while. The high today was 84 degrees and there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. Tonight rain comes in and the next couple of days are going to be at least 10 degrees cooler. Once I get into Belgium the weather looks like it's going to be in the 60's.

I started off this morning by getting up early and going for an hour long run. I came back completely drenched in sweat since it was already blazing hot, sunny and humid by the time I started. After showering I ate lunch then went out to the beach to read (under the cover of shade) for a while.

On the way back to the hostel I picked up a beard comb and scissors so I can keep some of the raggedness down as it grows longer. I also got some more soup, bread and apples from Tesco.

For dinner I had some soup and then spent a little while researching Firefox OS. Since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow I think I'm going to work the ClearCheckbook mobile site and make it compatible for Firefox OS.

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Tags: daily journal, england, brighton

Posted from: England

Monday, September 5, 2011 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

We woke up before sunrise on Monday to pack up our camp site, eat and get under way. It was in the low 40's when we left around 6:50 in the morning. Today's ride called for heading to Grand Junction to see the Colorado National Monument, then we'd head back to Denver. We stayed on US 50 from our campsite all the way to Grand Junction. We saw a huge herd of bighorned sheep just a few miles away from our camp site on our way west. It's a good idea to have some gas in your tank before taking this part of the journey because there weren't very many gas stations until you get to Montrose. We fueled up there and then made our way through Delta and finally to Grand Junction. In Grand Junction we fueled up again, grabbed a snack and then took US 340 into the Colorado National Monument. Depending on when you get there, it's probably wise to fuel up before entering the park.

If you're afraid of heights, then you might want to pass this ride. It's 26 miles with a lot of spots that have no guard-rail and sheer drops of a couple hundred feet. The road itself is in good condition and has some great curves and twists through some amazing red rock canyons. There are scenic overlooks about every mile or so where you can stop and take photos of the views. We also had to be careful because there were a lot of bicyclists and slow moving traffic to watch out for. The five dollar entrance fee is worth the hour and a half to two hours it takes to get through the Colorado National Monument.

After we got out of the Colorado National Monument we found ourselves in Fruita, Colorado two miles from I-70. We ate lunch at McDonalds and fueled up once again before getting on I-70. We rode in 90 degree heat for the rest of the day. We soon found out you need sun block on the face and hands even when you are wearing a helmet and gloves. The drive from Fruita to Denver is nothing exciting because it's a single straight road and in 90 degree heat you get tired easily. We found our selves stopping every 80 - 100 miles for gas, snacks, and soda. One cool thing about doing I-70 from Grand Junction to Denver is the wide change in scenery. It starts off very sandy looking in Grand Junction, then slowly turns into the ski areas with lots of pine trees. We made our last stop in Frisco, Colorado at a gas station that had two pumps and lots of traffic. Once we got about 5 miles outside of Georgetown we found out everyone was heading back at the same time, so for 25 miles we did anywhere from 3 - 50 mph. This took us about an hour and half to get past Idaho Springs. From there, it was a smooth ride back to Ryan's place.

Some things we learned throughout the trip:

1. Having cigarette adapter plugs for our phones and headsets came in extremely handy. The campsite didn't have any power outlets to charge things, so we wouldn't have had any other way to keep things charged.

2. Put some sunscreen on your wrists, hands and face when you're riding all day. The sun finds strange ways to work into cracks and you end up with sunburns when you thought you'd be fine.

3. Bring a sponge to help clean your cooking gear.

4. When you stop for food, grab some extra napkins and keep them with you. You always seem to find a need for napkins when you're camping.

5. If you’re going to be foraging for wood, bring some tweezers because you’ll probably end up with a splinter at some point.

6. If you don't have anything to start a fire with use antibacterial gel.

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2011

Posted from: United States

Sunday, September 5, 2010 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

Today we got up early and had breakfast (more freeze-dried backpacking meals). We then hit the road and headed out to Mesa Verde. It was about 100 miles to get to the National Park, and then we had to ride through it.

On the way there, it started to get overcast and we thought it might rain, which i wasn't too excited about since I had left my saddlebags and rain gear at the campsite. Fortunately the clouds broke and the day turned beautiful.

We got to Mesa Verde and rode through the park looking at all the sites. The way the park's set up is pretty much everything is within a 1/2 mile walk from the road, so you just drive/ride around and pull over at designated areas and walk to see things.

We started by going to the visitor center and learning we got there too late to go on the guided tour through the biggest cliff dwelling there (Long house). They had some later tour spots open but we didn't want to wait around there all day or else we'd be riding back to the campsite at night.

We ended up doing the driving tour and got to see Long House from across a valley and got to see some other dwellings up close.

I'd highly recommend this as a place to go see. Just make sure you fuel up first because there's about 50-60 miles of road back through here to drive around.

We stopped for a late lunch in the park then headed back to the campsite.

When we got back to our campsite, we realized the beer we had leftover from the night before was rather warm. Since our campsite was against a river, we decided to ghetto-cool them and just put them in the river for a half hour and then sat there and drank them as they got colder.

We still had one bundle of firewood left but decided we wanted to get more, so before it got too dark we found a huge log we could burn and proceeded to burn it down the middle so we could have free firewood for several hours (vs. paying $5 per bundle). It worked well then we got tired and went to bed.

Total distance today: 240 miles

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2010

Posted from: United States

Friday, September 5, 2008 @ 11:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today is our last full day in Europe before we catch our flights back to the states tomorrow. There was just one last major spot we needed to see while in Rome and that was Vatican City.

We toured the museums and the Sistine Chapel on the Vatican grounds. The main chapel at the Vatican was gigantic. It's incredible how much work was put into all the paintings, woodwork, architecture and sculptures. I felt like an idiot but when we walked through the Sistine Chapel I wasn't looking up and missed the Creation of Adam painting (to my credit, we were being cattle herded through the whole thing so I got confused which part of the tour we were actually on). After realizing it, we did a quick backtrack so I could grab a quick look. They were being super strict about photography so I didn't get any pics of it.

We had a nice dinner with some pasta and wine before doing one last evening stroll and photo session. Rome is beautiful at night and the pics we took only kinda capture it.

This was a whirlwind trip where we covered so much ground in a little less than two weeks. This was the typical "American" approach to travel where you need to see as many sights as you can. While I loved the trip, I made sure that subsequent travel to Europe and elsewhere had me spending a lot more time in each location I visited. Feeling like you have time to actually learn the area and pick up on more of the culture is such a cool feeling.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

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Tags: italy, rome, vatican

Posted from: Italy