Brandon O'Brien

Monday, September 12, 2022 @ 11:00 PM in 2022 Germany and France

We woke up around 5:30am in Nice this morning, got all of our bags packed and ate some yogurt and leftover pizza for dinner. We were aiming to catch the 6:50am tram to the airport so left with time to get down to the station. We got to the Alsace Lorraine station with plenty of time to buy our tram tickets and get to the platform before the tram came.

There were about 12 stops before we got to the airport but it went by pretty quick. When we got to our terminal, around 7:15am, we had to check in with Lufthansa since they were our first leg of the trip from Nice to Munich. There wasn't any line to check in which was great. Our flight was set to board at 8:25 with a departure at 8:55 so we figured we'd have time to grab a coffee before jumping on the flight.

Wrong! When I had originally booked our flights back in February, Dakotah wasn't born yet and we didn't have any clue what his birthday, name or even gender would be. In order to get the ticket, I just put an estimated birth date and the name Baby OBrien. When he was born, I called United and got his information updated but apparently this change didn't propagate down to Lufthansa.

When we tried checking in, they told us they wouldn't be able to since Dakotah's name didn't match what they have on their system. They said since the ticket was booked through United, there wasn't anything they could do and I should call United to try and get this fixed. Damn, now the stress factor had kicked up. We had about 45 minutes to try and rectify this situation before we needed to board.

I made a call to United and after trying to explain the problem, they said it should be fixed. We went back to the counter and they said it still hadn't been updated. Ugh. Another call to United, speaking to a different person, and they did something else and said now it should really be fixed. Ok, back to the counter and they said it still wasn't updated. When I was on the phone with a 3rd United representative, the Lufthansa attendant came over and said we should try going to the actual Lufthansa service desk to see if maybe they could help.

While walking over there, I was trying to explain to the 3rd United rep the situation and to convey the urgency but she told me that since the ticket was partially used (the flight over counts), they were unable to change anything. I'm not sure why it took three people to tell me that. I asked to speak to the supervisor while Sam was talking to the Lufthansa service desk. The Lufthansa people repeated that they weren't able to do anything so I asked what would happen if we booked a new ticket for Dakotah and at least get to Munich. From there, everything should be fine since his name was right in their system.

Sam started that process while I was talking to the United supervisor. She did some more digging and confirmed that it was still showing the wrong information on Lufthansa's side. At this time they had finished buying Dakotah a new ticket so I told the United supervisor we should have everything fixed now. She said they'd refund the ticket if we filled out feedback once we got home.

By now it was around 8:15 and we ran back over to the check in counter. The rep ran into some problem and had to go talk to someone else. Minutes passed, then more minutes passed, and finally she came back and said that since Dakotah was still attached to my ticket, they were running into a problem since they wouldn't be able to check me in without him (and they wouldn't be able to since he was listed as Baby OBrien). She told us to go down to the other rep and that they were working on it.

More waiting and by now it was getting to the point where even if they got us checked in we were afraid we'd miss our flights anyway. The rep did a little more talking on the phone and finally told us she got it figured out. Apparently she was able to get his info updated on our original ticket and they refunded the new ticket Sam just bought. With our tickets in hand we ran over to security which fortunately wasn't too crowded. We were the last ones to our gate, got checked in, then boarded a bus that took us from the gate to the plane.

I was really convinced we'd lose our bags since we checked in so soon to departure but when we got to the plane I saw them re-opening the luggage hatch to put our bags on. Crisis averted!

From here on out the flights were pretty uneventful. Flying from Nice to Munich was beautiful. It started out with nice views of Nice and Monaco then we started heading over the Italian and German Alps before getting to Munich. While flying over Munich, you could see the Oktoberfest grounds and the main city center.

We were able to get a little sleep on the big flight between Munich and Houston. Customs in Houston went pretty fast and we grabbed some Panda Express for a light dinner before getting on the final flight to Albuquerque. We chatted with some people sitting near us, one of which has a three month old and is planning on traveling to Germany with her daughter to visit family in October.

Once in Albuquerque we got our bags and started the drive to Santa Fe. Knowing we weren't going to have anything in the fridge to eat, we grabbed another quick bite at Wendy's. We got home around 10pm, got settled and then got ready for bed. All in all we were up for about 24 hours from the time we woke up in Nice to the time we got home and were ready for bed.

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Tags: nice, france, munich, santa fe, travel

Posted from: United States

Sunday, September 11, 2022 @ 7:20 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 18

Today was our last full day in Europe. We catch our flight at 8:55am tomorrow from Nice to Munich. Then we go from Munich to Houston and finally Houston to Albuquerque. It's going to be a really long day so we wanted today to be pretty chill. We got a little packing done this morning then headed down to the beach around 10:00. Unfortunately there were some jellyfish in the water so we didn't actually get in, but we met up with Kat and hung out there for about an hour and a half.

We just went to the beach that was closest to our Airbnb and really close to Kat's place. It was a smooth rock beach instead of sand which made it a little more uncomfortable to sit on. By noon we were all getting hungry so we dropped all our beach gear off at Kat's house and set off to find lunch. We aimed for a seafood restaurant that had really good reviews but it was closed when we got there, even though it was supposed to be open. A little disappointed, we walked to another place called Waka Bar and sat down there.

I got a beer and a chicken and avocado salad with some couscous which was really good. I also ordered some loaded fries which were delicious. Sam got a burger and a spritzer. After I finished my beer I ordered an Aperol spritz since that's basically the official drink of the area and I hadn't had one yet. It was pretty good and had a lot of orange flavor.

After lunch we walked back to Kat's place to pick up the rest of our stuff then came back to the Airbnb to do some more packing. For dinner I walked down to a pizza place and picked up a couple pizzas as an easy last meal. We hadn't actually looked in the freezer at the Airbnb until today and we discovered someone left some ice cream pops in there. It's too bad we didn't look sooner or we could have had them through the week, lol.

We're going to have the ice cream a little later then give Dakotah a bath before heading to bed early. We probably need to leave the Airbnb around 6:30am to catch the tram and get to the airport in time to check in and get to our flight. The trip has been great and we've done and seen a lot. It's always bittersweet leaving a vacation but we're looking forward to getting home and back into a more normal routine.

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Saturday, September 10, 2022 @ 10:21 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 17

We left the Airbnb around 9 this morning to meet Kat at the train station. We bought our tickets for the trip to Monaco and then got to the gate. There were already a lot of people waiting so it looked like we'd be in for another packed train. When the train did show up, there were already quite a few people on there but we managed to cram in. Unfortunately we were by the door so whenever the train stopped, people would have to flood in and out around us which was hard with a stroller.

Once we got to Monaco, we got off and then had a little trouble finding the actual way out that didn't involve stairs or escalators. Eventually we found an elevator that took us up to the spot we wanted to be. After getting out of the train station we bought a day pass for the bus so we could get around a little easier. The first stop was to a patisserie where we got a pain au chocolat and a cappuccino. From there we walked over to the palace of the prince through some of the gardens along the cliffs. There were some really nice views of the country but it was a little surprising it didn't look "nicer". A lot of the buildings looked pretty generic and nothing special. The harbor had a lot of huge yachts though which was interesting to see.

When we got to the palace, there were a ton of people waiting around and it turns out we got there right before the changing of the guard. We left the changing of the guard a little early to beat some of the crowds and got lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Arrow burger which had pretty good burgers. The buns were shaped like arrowheads which I guess goes with the name.

Once we finished lunch we found another bus stop and went over to the Monte Carlo casino and walked around some of the gardens near there before going back to the train station. Fortunately the train back to Nice wasn't too packed and we didn't have to pack in too bad. The train did stop for about 10 minutes while the police did some kind of search though.

Back in Nice, we stopped at a store specializing in chocolates and bought some treats to take home with us. We came back to the Airbnb for a little while before heading back over to Kat's for dinner. On the way we stopped and got a rotisserie chicken, a new baguette, some wine and a salad mix for dinner. We threw it all together and ate it with some leftover cheese we had. It was nice having some greens for dinner instead of eating out.

We hung out and talked for a while over the bottle of wine but just got back to the Airbnb. The plan for tomorrow is to head to the beach and have lunch out before Sam and I head back to the Airbnb to start getting things packed up and ready for the trip back to the states.

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Tags: monaco, france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Thursday, September 8, 2022 @ 10:06 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 15

Today was another good day without having a real rushed schedule. Sam left the Airbnb around 9:30 to meet with Kat and do some yoga. I left not too long after and took Dakotah by the Notre Dame in Nice then over to Old Nice and up to the Panorama sur la Vieille Ville de Nice. Along the way there were tons of soccer fans already drinking in the streets in prep for a big game tonight. They were mostly Germans wearing red soccer jerseys, chanting songs and chugging beers.

The Panorama sur la Vieille Ville de Nice is a big cliff just east of Old Nice where there are a lot of tress, gardens and really nice views of the surrounding area. Fortunately the stairs climbing up to the view points were in the shade since it was already getting hot out.

I took a few photos from the various overlooks and then sat on a bench in the park and fed Dakotah. By now it was almost 11 so I started making my way back down to town. I was thinking about getting a hat from one of the local hat shops but either nothing fit well or it was a lot more expensive than I wanted to pay. Sam said they were done with yoga so I headed back to the Airbnb before going back over to Kat's for lunch.

There's a really good takeaway Indian restaurant below her apartment so she ordered some stuff from there and we ate it at her place. When she had to take her son to daycare we went over to a place called The Center which is a beer bar and barber shop. They have a really nice selection of local-ish beers so we hung out there for about an hour and a half before starting to think about dinner.

We got some chicken and ingredients to make a mustard chicken and then went back to Kat's place to finish the rest of the cheese, wine and bread from the previous night. For the mustard chicken, you essentially coat the chicken with mustard and spices and then cook it in a pan where you already browned some bacon and onions. The dish turned out tasting really good and it's something we'll need to fit into our rotation once we get back home.

Once we finished eating we just hung out for a little while before calling it a night. Tomorrow we're going to head to the beach and get a chance to go swimming. It'll be nice to have another relaxing day!

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 @ 10:15 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 14

Today was another chill day in Nice. In the morning I ran down to get some fruit and bread, then we hung out in the Airbnb until 11:30 or so. I made some more dipping oil for the baguette and we snacked on that with some grapes as a light lunch.

We met up with Kat and walked down to old town Nice which is a maze of narrow winding streets. All of the shops were fairly touristy but it was still fun to walk around. We stopped at a little restaurant and got a few plates to share (hummus, chicken fingers and fries) since it was about 2:30 and we hadn't really had a real lunch. We originally had ordered some ceviche and a different dish but got the hummus and chicken fingers instead. Oh well, they still tasted fine.

Kat went back to her place to feed Rowan so Sam and I walked around a little more trying to find a souvenir. We ended up in a shop selling nougat and with a language barrier Sam ended up with a giant slice of it. Apparently it lasts for a while and they vacuum sealed it so it should travel just fine, but it was way more nougat than we were expecting.

After that, we walked down to the beach promenade and then made our way back over to Kat's place. The plan for dinner was going to be making a roasted pork dish at Kat's apartment and we still needed to pick up a few ingredients. We met Kat at the grocery and got everything else we needed, including more bread and some cheese to snack on.

Back at Kat's apartment, we let the babies have tummy time together and then hung out while dinner was cooking. Kat's brother, John, is in town visiting as well so he showed up with a big bottle of local white wine. Dinner was really good. The pork was marinaded with a bunch of spices like cocoa powder, red chile powder, cumin, paprika and cinnamon. It then simmered in a sauce for about an hour and a half in the oven before we cut it up into cubes. The bread was great at soaking up the extra sauce from the pork. We also had a cabbage salad with dinner and it complimented it well.

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 @ 10:00 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 13

Today was a nice day spent in Nice. For breakfast we met up with our friend Kat who moved out here about a year and a half ago. We had breakfast at a nice cafe where I had another brioche french toast and Sam had some eggs benedict. We hung out and talked in the cafe for a while before grabbing some groceries and walking back to the Airbnb. On the way back, Kat picked up her son Rowan from a nanny and we got to meet him. He's about 6 weeks older than Dakotah but they actually look pretty similar. Sam and I refer to them as "generic white babies". We were hoping to get diapers at the little grocery shop but they only had size 3 packages which would be way too big for Dakotah.

We walked down to the beach so Sam could dip her toes in the Mediterranean then found another supermarket to buy diapers as well as some snacks. Kat signed us up for a wine tasting at 5:30pm and we wanted to make sure we had some food in our stomachs before doing that. Kat said to come by her place any time after 1:30 so we walked to her place (it's only a few blocks from the Airbnb, basically between us and the ocean). We got to see Juniper again for the first time in a year and a half (she's the dog we fostered for a couple months before Kat adopted her). We hung out at Kat's place chatting and snacking until it was time to head to the wine tasting.

We got on an extremely packed tram and took it two stops which popped us out right in front of the wine tasting shop. We were a couple minutes late but no big deal. In total there were eight different wines we sampled with a small group of eight people total. The wines were all really good but my favorite was a Chateau Labadie Medoc from 2012. It was very full bodied and oaky with a lot of caramel, vanilla and cinnamon flavors.

Feeling pretty tipsy and in desperate need of food, we walked around for a little while before finding a restaurant that had some food that looked appetizing. They had a mussles dish for one of their specials which sounded good but unfortunately they were out of it. I ended up getting pasta with meat sauce while Sam got some pizza with meat, mushrooms and olives.

The food definitely helped with the buzz but I could tell I should have eaten a lot more before we had gone to the wine tasting originally. Back at the Airbnb we got Dakotah fed and then got ready for bed ourselves.

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

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

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 @ 11:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We left Venice at 6:45am and got into Rome a little after 11am. We checked into our hotel and then set about exploring the city. The first spot we made sure to hit was the Colosseum. We paid for entry so we could walk around inside the Colosseum and took more pics than I'd like to admit. The Colosseum was definitely a highlight for me, not just in Rome but the whole trip.

We walked from the Colosseum to the old Roman Forum which was basically the "downtown" back in roman days. Seeing all of those sights and walking around was enough for one day, so we went and caught a train back to the hotel (we were staying slightly outside of Rome, but not far from a train station).

I don't remember having many feelings one way or another about Rome prior to this trip. I knew it was a city filled with history but I don't recall it being one of the destinations I was really looking forward to. We booked Rome because the flight back to the US was significantly cheaper. I'm extremely glad we made it here though. Some people say Rome is a hot touristy destination, but I really liked the city.

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, venice, rome, train

Posted from: Italy

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 @ 10:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We started the day wandering through some of the fish and fruit markets. If we actually had a kitchen or a way to prepare the food, it would have been awesome to get some of the fresh seafood and prepare it for dinner.

After the markets we went to St. Mark's square and took a tour of the St. Mark's Campanile (the big bell tower). There were some amazing views of the entire city of Venice and surrounding islands. Pretty much all you see are the orange roofs of the buildings and the winding alleyways going between them.

Once we finished up at St. Mark's, we did some more aimless wandering and eventually came across a waterfront where there were some huge yachts parked. We took some photos and explored some more before getting some dinner and heading to bed. Tomorrow is another big travel day taking us from Venice to our final stop of the trip, Rome.

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, venice

Posted from: Italy

Monday, September 1, 2008 @ 10:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We got into Venice bright and early (around 7:30am). One thing I still remember is pulling into a station just prior to the crossing into Venice. It was neat waking up in an entirely different climate, region, city and country. We left a small farming village in central Germany the previous day and were waking up in Venice Italy this morning.

We spent most of the day today doing some walking and sightseeing. We made sure to hit the Rialto bridge where we spent quite a while taking photos. We spent some time walking through all the various narrow alleyways and basically getting ourselves lost in the maze of the city. We did end up at St. Marks square

It's too bad I didn't write down what we did each day. It's really hard to recall all the stuff from this trip after such a long time.

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, venice

Posted from: Italy