Madrid Visits: Chapter One

Dreamer’s brother and his lovely wife (plus our nephew, in utero) were our first visitors in Madrid last October. We hit up a lot of the usual sites, like the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. Our visitors wanted to see something related to Spain’s bullfighting culture, but since the season had ended, they had to make do with watching a bull run in the small town of Horche, not too far from Madrid in Castilla-La Mancha. As this was bulls in the street, we weren’t quite sure of the trajectory, or if we were inside the area or not.

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Dachau: A somber day trip

Travel, for us, is almost always a joyous occasion. New cultures, new flavors – a window into the beauty of our world. However, not everything in the world is beautiful, and we feel it would be irresponsible and even dangerous to pretend otherwise. This is why, in the middle of our exuberant visit to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest, we found ourselves making a short journey that somehow felt interminably long. It is difficult to live and travel in Europe without some sense of a dark cloud hanging over all this at times. World War II was not that many years

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Beer for Breakfast: Oktoberfest!

We went to Munich in mid-September to eat, drink, and be merry during the famed Oktoberfest, or The Wiesn as locals refer to it. Held in Munich every year since 1810, it is as Bavarian as beer and pretzels. And yes, we said September: if you’re looking to celebrate in October, you’re too late. The original event celebrated Princess Theresa’s wedding to King Ludwig I, and today’s celebration is still held on the festival grounds bearing the princess’s name (Theresenweise, also giving rise to “The Wiesn“). It was on this trip that Dreamer discovered her all-time favorite breakfast. But we’re

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