
Babe & Dan’s Adventures
EVERY DAY HOLDS NEW MAGIC
*** Last Updated March 23, 2025 ***
Japan Part III: The Final Chapter
February 10 – March 18, 2025
We extended our stay in Japan through February and part of March, as we continued to find new things to explore and enjoy. It was a life-changing adventure, and we’re so grateful we got to spend so much time in Japan!
Below is a selection of our escapades from these last few weeks, which we mostly spent in Tokyo (a city which we’ve most definitely fallen in love with):

We attended an experimental music concert at the cozy Polaris music venue, featuring Ko Ji Nakamura (guitar, electronics) and Momose Yasunaga (modular synthesizer, spoken word poetry). They conjured up a great atmosphere of ambient music for us and about a dozen other attendees. It was very special to see a Japanese experimental music concert in such an intimate setting.

We visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. We viewed the special exhibition “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time”, an immersive multisensory exhibition honoring the life and work of Japanese musician and artist, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto passed away in 2023. He was a composer, keyboardist, producer, and actor, and has had a huge influence on the art and music world for decades. The exhibit had many powerful, large scale, meditative audio visual installations. Many of them moved us and our fellow attendees to tears. It was a treat experiencing this massively important exhibition honoring the late Sakamoto’s life work!

From “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

From “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

We visited the WHAT Museum, a modern art museum in Tokyo. We saw a great collection of modern art and enjoyed crawling through an interactive, iridescent, amoeba-like installation by artist Akihito Okunaka.

We visited the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo. This museum offered a beautiful view of the Imperial Palace Gardens, and had a huge collection of modern Japanese artwork. Another excellent museum visit.

We love our meditative art museum visits, and Japan had so many fantastic options for us to dive into!

A Babe With Neon Stripes Moment.

We visited Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, which had a nice selection of sculptures and paintings by Japanese artists (photos weren’t allowed inside).

There are so many great coffee shops across Japan. We found some that we really enjoyed for their relaxing atmospheres and tasteful music selections. We’d get cozy with a cup of tea or coffee, then we’d crack open a book, our journals, or we’d just sit back, people-watch, and enjoy the ambience.


Our favorite coffee shop was Meikyoku Kissa Lion. This café was tucked away down a side alley, only a few minutes’ walk from the incredibly busy Shibuya Crossing area, and is a bit of an open secret amongst audiophiles. No photos are allowed inside, and no talking is allowed inside the café (except for whispered orders with the waitstaff) and the seats face a massive wall of speakers that play strictly classical music selections from the café’s large collection of vinyl LPs and CDs. We went here several times and really enjoyed sipping coffee while lounging in the immaculate soundsystem’s audio bath. (The interior photo above was found online – we obeyed the café’s “no photos inside” rule!)

Here’s a candid photograph of Babe’s World Famous Gluten Free Kitchen, open for business even in Japan, believe it or not!

We visited the Gluten Free Bon Bon Bake Shop and enjoyed a few sweet treats in a nearby park.

Here we are again in Shinjuku, with Godzilla hovering over us in the background. We loved our evening walks through the controlled-chaos world of neon humanity that Tokyo exhibited each day.

We visited the Yumenoshima Tropical Greenhouse Dome, a lovely indoor botanical garden consisting of 3 domes housing about 1,000 species of tropical, sub-tropical, and carnivorous plants.

Babe practicing her photosynthesis chops!

It’s a great day when you get to meet a family of Venus flytraps!

We made another fun connection with a Japanese local! Dan tracked down a really cool DVD, VHS, and Blu-ray store named “Video Market” near Shinjuku Station. This shop is famous amongst Sci-Fi / American Western / Horror movie lovers for its great selection of Japanese and international movies, and the modest 4th floor shop has been there for decades. We got to meet the current owner, Jiro, and Dan gave him a copy of his and Ryan’s Weird Visions Society movie. Jiro was very excited and had Dan autograph the copy, and then he purchased a few more copies from Dan to resell in his shop. It’s exciting to have a few copies of Dan’s movie floating around Japan now! Dan also made a few movie purchases to support Jiro’s shop. It’s so cool to connect with someone over a shared love of movies and physical media, especially when you’re traveling!

Here’s Dan posing with (yet another!) xenomorph alien. And there he is autographing the cover of a Blu-ray copy of his Weird Visions Society movie for an excited Jiro.

Jiro posted about our visit to his shop on Twitter. Here is the post in its original Japanese format, and then translated via Google Translate. Another great connection!

We found a few really cool bars in Tokyo specializing in vinyl records that accepted song requests. “Musium” [sic] Record Bar was one of our favorites, with lots of classic rock and jazz selections.

Even after hearing it countless times before, there was still something very special about hearing “Stairway To Heaven” blasting out of yet another incredible Japanese audiophile’s soundsystem. The classics never go out of style!

We visited the Mori Art Museum, a contemporary art museum in Roppongi, Tokyo. Dan posed in front of one of French-American artist Louise Bourgeois’ iconic giant spider sculptures in front of the museum.

We really enjoyed the Mori Art Museum’s newly opened special exhibition “Machine Love: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art”. It was a fantastic, thought-provoking collection of modern, digital art.

Images from Mori Art Museum’s “Machine Love: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art” exhibit.

Images from Mori Art Museum’s “Machine Love: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art” exhibit. Babe was dishing out digital hugs!

Posing for some night photography outside of Mori Art Museum.

We continued to enjoy the 100% gluten free restaurants that Tokyo had to offer. Here’s Babe enjoying some more treats at Gluten Free T’s Kitchen … chicken and pancakes!

We spent plenty of time walking through parks and enjoying the comfortable temperatures as cherry blossoms started to appear! We didn’t stay for peak cherry blossom season, but we still caught some early looks!

We spent another evening at the intimate concert venue Polaris Tokyo. We enjoyed a legendary concert by Merzbow, a world famous Japanese electronic / experimental musician. Merzbow has released over 400 albums, has toured worldwide, and has collaborated with many musicians in Japan and internationally, so it was incredible getting to see an intimate performance by him in his native country along with only a few dozen other attendees. Another evening in Japan that we felt so grateful to experience! Music nerds: check out Merzbow’s magical table of sonic hardware!

We had a great day at Tokyo Disneyland! We got there at dawn and spent a fun day exploring the park, went on some rides, and enjoyed the people-watching. It was cold and raining steadily the entire day, but we had a blast!

We procured some matching space alien headgear at Tokyo Disneyland! Dan’s always on the lookout for a good donut, he enjoyed the Minnie Mouse mint chocolate variety.


Babe refueling at her favorite station, Goofy’s Gas!

No one rains on our parade!

We enjoyed the 100% gluten free Café Komaya in Tokyo! Great curry, salads, fresh breads, and dessert treats!

We headed back to the city of Osaka for a few days via the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo. We enjoyed a great lunch of salads and sandwiches at Comeconoco Gluten-free Laboratory & Café upon arriving back in Osaka.

We enjoyed a day viewing two special exhibitions at the National Museum of Art Osaka. Here’s Dan posing outside the museum.

Babe posing next to her Japanese sidecar portrait at the National Museum of Art Osaka.

Inside the National Museum of Art Osaka.


We loved our visit to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. When it was built in 1990, it was the largest public aquarium in the world. The aquarium’s most impressive exhibit was a massive Pacific Ocean tank which held a few gigantic whale sharks, an ocean sunfish, manta rays, hammerhead sharks, and more. The aquarium had peaceful piano music playing throughout, creating a wonderful atmosphere to relax and explore the many floors of ocean life.

A glimpse of the magnificent Pacific Ocean tank at Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

We loved visiting with the penguins, too!

We were gifted clear blue skies and golden sunshine for our day at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka! We rode some wild roller coasters and checked out Jurassic Park, Jaws, Harry Potter, and other areas of the park. Super Nintendo World was especially fantastic, it was like walking into a Super Mario Bros. game! For the two of us that grew up playing Nintendo, it felt like we were kids again. The park had just opened a new Donkey Kong section in Super Nintendo World, so that was also fun to see. Universal Studios was a fantastic day and evening of nostalgia and adventure!

Jurassic Park dreams coming true!

Babe The Lake Como Bass Fishing Queen isn’t scared of a little shark!

Checking out Harry Potter world … Dan’s thinking he might have to finally read those books now …

Dan made a friend!

Super Nintendo World was soooo radical!

We felt like we were inside the Super Mario Bros. games of our youth!


We met Toad and we had a treat in his restaurant. What a great day at Universal!

Back in Tokyo, we did plenty of window-shopping. The various Louis Vuitton locations in Tokyo have some pretty spectacular window displays, courtesy of the brand’s current collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

We went to the Art Aquarium Museum in Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood. They had lots of colorful goldfish installations throughout the space. It was a relaxing afternoon wandering through this museum of twinkling lights, flickering tail fins, and peaceful ambient music.

Some fancy, fancy goldfish tanks.

We visited one of the many animal cafés you can find walking around Tokyo. Animal cafés offer you the chance to have a beverage and spend some time with the café’s resident animals. Some animal cafés have dogs, cats, otters, birds, etc. This one had a family of super cuddly pigs.

We discovered that Babe is definitely a “pig whisperer” … the pigs could not get enough of Babe’s hugs!

We took a really nice day trip to Hakone, a mountainous town known for its views of Mt. Fuji. We enjoyed the Hakone Open Air Museum, spending the morning wandering through the sculpture gardens and a building full of Picasso’s sculptural artworks.

Exploring the grounds of the Hakone Open Air Museum.



One of the Hakone Open Air Museum’s exhibits included the option to soak our feet in hot springs water with a nice mountain view. Very refreshing!


This exhibit featured a spiral staircase surrounded by stained glass, leading to a lookout area with another spectacular view.

Next in Hakone, we took a cable car up scenic switchback mountain railways. We then took a ropeway gondola over Owakudani, a volcanic valley with active steaming sulphur vents.

A gondola ride over volcanic steam vents … incredible!


After the cable car and gondola ropeway, we took a “pirate ship” boat ride across Lake Ashi, which offered more scenic mountain views.

We packed lots of art and nature into our day in Hakone. We caught some more cherry blossoms from the windows of our train heading back to Tokyo!

Even rainy days in Tokyo are magical.

Winding things down, we had a brief stop at “Godz Metal Bar” in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We had a drink, basked in some heavy metal music, and talked about all the things we experienced over the past few months in Japan. It went by in a flash!


We had to fight back tears at our last meal at our favorite 100% gluten free restaurant in Tokyo, Esoragoto Udon. It’s a very small restaurant with standing room only, often with a line of people waiting to get in. It was always worth the wait. We had so many wonderful meals there, after which we’d usually enjoy some relaxing window-shopping and people-watching in the surrounding Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. We will never forget their noodles and tempura, washed down with some cold brown rice tea!

Japan’s gluten free restaurants treated us so well over these past few months. We are forever grateful for all the delicious options! Arigato, Japan!

Another whacky talking robot sighting, another comedic photo shoot with Babe, and then it was, unbelievably, time to go …

The last Japanese hotel check out ritual! The last swipe of our mobile phone Suica cards to exit a Japanese subway station!

All aboard the Flying Pikachu Express!

A few tears, a few gluten free meals (thanks, American Airlines!), a 10-hour flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, a 5-hour flight from Los Angeles to Philly, and we were home. It felt surreal to leave Tokyo at 1pm Tokyo time and to arrive back in Philly at 5pm Philly time on the same calendar day, after the amount of time we spent in the air.

Back home in South Philly! Japan was such an inspiring and welcoming country. The cleanliness, the organization, the attention to detail, the arts and culture, the people, the food, the sights and sounds, the neon, the gardens … we’re looking forward to this experience really sinking into our hearts and coloring the rest of our lives in the days to come. We’re so grateful we had this opportunity. Japan exceeded our wildest expectations and we hope we make it back someday!
We’ve got a few other travel ideas in the hopper, but we’ll be cooling our heels in South Philly for a bit.
We’ll conclude today’s update with a last handful of slapdash Japanese elevator selfies.


Arigato, Japan! We love you so much!

It’s “The Internet’s Favorite Traveling Space Alien Duo”, Babe and Dan, signing off (for now)! Sayonara!
More Japan … Tokyo and Beyond!
January 13 – February 9, 2025

(We’ve been everywhere above circled in Purple!) It’s been an incredible few weeks in Japan, and a whirlwind of exciting traveling. Thanks to a JR Rail Train Pass, we’ve been able to cover a lot of ground and see a lot of different places, mostly using high-speed Japanese Shinkansen (bullet trains). We purchased the JR Pass before leaving for Japan and activated it after our first few weeks spent in Tokyo. We’ve now been to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Nagoya, Matsumoto, and Nagano City! It’s hard to believe how many things we’ve seen and done during our short time in Japan.
Here are some more things we did in Tokyo before we hopped on our Shinkansen bullet trains adventure …

Genmai Udon has been a favorite 100% gluten free restaurant we’ve found in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood, they have delicious udon noodle bowls and other treats!

Tower Records in Shibuya has 9 floors of CDs, records, and music-related items. Dan had to restrain himself from buying a million things, but it was fun to browse!

The National Art Center Museum in Tokyo had a special exhibition “The Beauty of Japanese-style Calligraphy”, displaying many rooms of kanji calligraphy masterpieces.

Gluten Free T’s Kitchen has two restaurant locations in Tokyo, and of course we’ve been to both! Here’s Babe sampling some of their exceptional fried chicken.

Abbey Road Tokyo is a club (live house) in Tokyo’s Roppongi neighborhood that features a rotating cast of Beatles cover bands. The Parrots are the most famous of these cover bands, regularly performing here, and it was truly uncanny to see this group of Japanese men talking with the crowd, speaking in Japanese, and then launching into perfect renditions of “All My Loving”, “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”, “Drive My Car”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, and many more Beatles tunes. Such a fun evening. They do four sets of Beatles covers during the course of the evening, and we stayed for all four sets. No song repeats! The friendly host kept moving us closer and closer to the stage after each set as seats opened up. This was a favorite Tokyo evening for us. The positive energy of Japanese businessmen, Japanese women in fancy evening wear, backpackers and other travelers, hosts and hostesses, people celebrating birthdays, everyone laughing and singing along to hit after hit with this Japanese Fab Four (Five with the extra keyboardist) … it was truly special!

Thank you, Abbey Road Tokyo and The Parrots!

It was sad for us to wake up one Tokyo morning and learn that filmmaker and artist David Lynch had passed away. David Lynch has been a huge influence on Dan’s life and his work as an artist. But we honored his legacy as best we could, with some pie and coffee! We visited Café Monochrome, a perfect, quiet little café where the owner honors his favorite directors with a rotating menu, David Lynch being one of his favorites. So we had a nice morning with some pie and coffee and browsed the café’s interesting avant-garde art and film books.
“Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole” – R.I.P. to the master, David Lynch.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building has an observation deck ~200 meters high on their 45th floor. It features a stunning panoramic view of downtown Tokyo. Not only that, we found that if you go at sunset, particularly in the winter months, you can catch a view of Mt. Fuji, and we were lucky enough to catch it! We were told you can only see Mt. Fuji from this vantage point at sunrise and sunset, in winter, and only if the weather conditions are good. It was a treat getting another sunset view of this majestic sight (the first one was on the plane arriving in Japan)! Our pictures don’t do this moment justice. There was no sign of Mt. Fuji, and then suddenly it appeared like a lightning bolt out of nowhere as the sunset started to blaze with bright colors. It was a beautiful and emotional sunset for the whole observation deck, lots of Oooh’s and Aaah’s and prayers and tears from both native Japanese visitors and travelers alike.


The fun didn’t stop at the top of The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. A current special exhibition “Tokyo Night & Light” features video projection mapping across the front of the massive building. We congregated with the people below to watch the light show magically illuminate the Tokyo streets.

We had a peaceful day wandering through Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine area and Yoyogi Park. It’s surreal wandering away from Harajuku Station, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo, and quickly finding yourself on tranquil paths of towering trees, chirping birds, and a collection of sake (rice wine) barrels displayed as offerings to the shrine.

That’s a lot of sake!

Speaking of sake, we enjoyed an afternoon at the “Oden & Local Sake Festival 2025” at Ueno Onshi Park in Tokyo. We sampled some delicious sake and enjoyed traditional Japanese music, dancing, and people-watching.


We enjoyed our visit to Tokyo National Museum, which had a 50th-year anniversary special exhibition of Hello Kitty, along with traditional Japanese and Asian art selections.


Wandering the grounds behind the Tokyo National Museum, we found Okyokan, a traditional Japanese tea ceremony house from the 1700s that had been moved to this location and opened recently for business. We enjoyed a peaceful afternoon in the tea house, sampling some matcha green tea. Dan sampled a tasty Japanese wagashi bean paste dessert. We also both sampled amazake, a gluten-free non-alcoholic drink made from fermented rice, which has a porridge-like consistency and supposedly has many health benefits. There’s nothing like a peaceful afternoon spent on warm tatami floor mats and sipping matcha green tea in Japan while the rain drizzles outside the open sliding doors in front of you, watching the world sparkle.

Here’s Babe enjoying dumplings, pork buns, and fried chicken at the second Gluten Free T’s Kitchen Tokyo restaurant location. It’s fun getting to eat at restaurants in Japan! We’re also eating lots of meals from Japan’s excellent convenience stores and grocery stores, with cabbage, salads, rice balls, sashimi (fresh raw fish or meat), fruits, vegetables, and plenty of other goodies. We appreciate the many delicious options Japan has to offer us.

Here we are about to dig into a gluten free pesto and anchovies pizza, courtesy of Rice Hack Gluten-free Bakery in Shibuya. This is as good as pizza gets!

We celebrated Dan’s birthday on a day trip to the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park in Nagano! We were treated to a snowy walk through a long, winding forest trail, eventually arriving at a pool fed by hot spring waters. This park features wild Japanese Macaques, also known as Snow Monkeys, and they love bathing here particularly during the cold winter months. We saw so many monkeys running to and from the hot springs, running in between peoples’ feet, hopping over fences and rocks, taking turns soaking in the water, playing and pushing each other out of the way. The crisp, winter air, the hike through the snow-covered forest, and the monkeys’ antics made this an unforgettable adventure!



Winter wonderland.


Kabuki-za in the Ginza neighborhood is the main theater in Tokyo to see kabuki theater. Kabuki combines music, dance, mime, and fantastic costumes, and has been a major theatrical form in Japan for centuries. Like many other museums and events in Japan, photography during the event was prohibited, but we loved the performance we saw, a dance depicting a lovers’ tryst in a dream, with beautiful costumes and a wonderfully hypnotizing live choir and orchestra of traditional Japanese instruments. We hope to make it to another kabuki performance before leaving Japan!

Kabuki-za Theater before the start of the show.
We are big fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films. We enjoyed a great all-day bus tour through a few places that inspired his movies, and then we got to visit his Studio Ghibli Museum, which you must usually book tickets for a month or so in advance due to the its popularity. The bus tour first stopped at the luxurious Hotel Gajoen in Tokyo, said to have inspired Miyazaki’s famous “Spirited Away” movie, and Dan got to enjoy the incredible buffet lunch provided at the hotel. The hotel had an indoor courtyard with a pond, a waterfall, and the fanciest hotel bathrooms we’ve ever seen, complete with a river and a bridge running through each bathroom!

Talk about relieving yourself in style!

Our own hotel inner courtyards haven’t been QUITE this extravagant.

The bus tour then went to Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, an outdoor museum featuring preserved historical structures that also inspired Miyazaki while working on the “Spirited Away” movie. We visited traditional Japanese street cars, bath houses, shops, and residential architectural examples, and our guide provided lots of helpful explanations.


Finally, our bus tour took us to the Studio Ghibli Museum, where we got to spend a few hours exploring. No photography is allowed inside, but it was a truly magical collection of paintings, drawings, displays, hidden drawers and doors and cabinets full of secrets, and memorabilia from the world of Studio Ghibli.

Although you can’t take pictures inside the Studio Ghibli Museum, you can climb up an ivy-covered spiral staircase to the roof, where a giant robot from Miyazaki’s movie “Laputa: Castle In The Sky” watches benevolently over the compound. So we enjoyed another Japanese sunset with our new robot friend.


Babe at the top of the spiral ivy staircase at sunset, and a gazebo at Studio Ghibli Museum clearly infused with magical Japanese spirits. Studio Ghibli Forever! Hayao Miyazaki Forever!
Taking a break from Tokyo and hitting the railway for some quick stops around Japan …

We loved the city of Kyoto’s iconic streets, kimono-clad pedestrians, temples, shrines, and their great food! We had a fantastic meal at a 100% gluten free restaurant in Kyoto, Gion Soy Milk Ramen Uno Yokiko restaurant. They had lovely bowls of ramen and dumplings. They also had a vending machine outside with some takeaway gluten free desserts, so of course we indulged in a tasty matcha ice cream cookie cup. Nothing gets Babe more excited than a gluten free treats vending machine!

Pure happiness in a bowl.

We visited Kyoto’s Yasaka Pagoda, a 5-story structure with beautiful sloping roofs on each tier. This is the last remaining piece of a 6th-century temple complex known as Hokan-ji. We wandered through the crowds and enjoyed the traditional wooden storefronts and winding alleyways of Kyoto.

Where’s Waldo: Babe Edition.

Where’s Waldo: Dan Edition.

We visited Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist Temple, 1250 years old and part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is halfway up Mt. Otowa, one of the peaks in Kyoto’s Higashiyama mountain range, and offers stunning views of Kyoto.



Awesome views, awesome dragons.

Fushimi Inari Shrine is a mountainside Kyoto Shinto shrine dating back to 711 A.D. featuring an iconic path with hundreds of red traditional gates as you wind your way up the side of the mountain. We arrived at dawn to beat the crowds and enjoyed an incredible day walking up and down forest mountain paths under the iconic red Japanese canopy.


Kyoto is down there somewhere …

Some of the Fushimi Inari Shrine gates featured words in English. Babe posed (sassily) next to “sass” and Dan posed (unprofessionally) next to “professional”.

We had a memorable experience at a 100% gluten free restaurant in Kyoto, Koma Gallery Café, which was a block away from the crowded Hokan-ji Temple area. When you walk through the sliding door of this café, you leave the hustle and bustle and are transported into a meditative, peaceful space, with beautiful ambient piano music washing over a room-length, lacquered wooden table. We were the only guests in the café. A lovely hostess brought us excellent matcha lattes, sandwiches, noodles, and buns. We lingered over this meal, enjoying the flavors and the exceptional piano music. The hostess’s English was not great, but Dan eventually explained that he really loved the music playing. She was suddenly ecstatic at this, and showed us some of the musician, Idaki Shin (Tadamisu Saito)’s piano albums on CD for sale to the side of the room. Dan promptly bought a CD of his music to remember this day by. The hostess shared a booklet of the musician’s accomplishments with us, and there were pictures of her inside the booklet, as well. Again, there was a language barrier, but we believe he is a significant person in her life. She then had us follow her and she opened up another sliding screen door we hadn’t noticed before, and she revealed a private courtyard with a stunning view of the Hokan-Ji Temple’s Yasaka Pagoda from another angle – it made us gasp. It felt like we were seeing something special and private, and she explained that the owner’s studio and living space were back here. She also took us upstairs and showed us some of the owner’s tie-dyed kimono pieces. We did our best to share gratitude and thank you’s back and forth with her. She seemed so visibly touched that we purchased a CD of the music playing in the café. This was a beautiful feeling for us, it felt like we connected just a bit with a Japanese local in the town of Kyoto.

Babe in front of Kyoto’s Koma Gallery Café, with Hokan-Ji Temple’s Yasaka Pagoda in the background.
We visited Seiraiin, a sub-temple of Kenninji Temple in Kyoto, after seeing a notice that three new gardens and new dragon ceiling paintings had been added to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the Chinese monk Rankei Doryu. “New dragon ceiling paintings” was all Dan needed to hear to check this out!

Bliss.

More Bliss.

And epic ceiling dragons.

We made it to the city of Nara for a quick day trip!

We started our day in Nara with an incredible meal at a 100% gluten free restaurant, Naramachi Vegan Nabi. We were the only two people in the restaurant, and we took our time enjoying an exceptional multi-course lunch and some delicious sake locally made in the region. We learned that Nara is believed to be the birthplace of Japanese sake. We had a lovely exchange with the two women working there, and they had Babe put a sticker on their world map showing where we were visiting from.


We enjoyed the day walking through Nara Park. We quickly learned that these deer have evolved to bow their heads at you if you bow at them! We met lots of friendly deer. The park is famous for throngs of deer walking freely everywhere, hoping to be fed crackers sold to tourists for this purpose. This little guy wanted to be Babe’s new friend.

Nara Park’s gigantic bronze Nio guardian statues at the Nandaimon Gate were quite the sight to behold.

Nara’s Todaiji Temple was also an impressive visit. Until recently, its main hall, the Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall), held the record as the world’s largest wooden building. The hall holds one of Japan’s largest Buddha statues.

Lots of good energy radiating from Todaiji Temple.
Onto the city of Osaka for a quick stop!

We visited Osaka Castle and Osaka Castle Park, enjoying the views and architecture of this iconic castle.



Also in Osaka Castle Park, we visited the Kaiyodo Figure Museum, which collects over 3,000 Kaiyodo-produced models, action figures, and toy dioramas. Dan has a collection of old action figures, used to work at the toy company Kidrobot, and Babe loves miniatures and diorama displays, so this was right up our alley! We loved seeing models and figures of Godzilla, Ultraman, a toy capsule mini museum, and many more treats inside!

If there are xenomorph aliens, if there are gremlins, if there are toy capsule museums … Dan will find them.

We loved this museum. This display of toy animals relieving themselves was one of many favorites!

We had another great meal at the 100% gluten free Osaka restaurant Tsukineko The Moon Cat Vegan Café.

There’s nothing like a fresh Coca Cola with hot dumplings and curry on a chilly afternoon in Osaka!

We wandered Osaka’s famous neon Dotonbori canalside entertainment district. The narrow walkways were filled with interesting people, giant crabs and dragons, moving billboards, and vendors serving all types of treats. Dan tried the famous grilled takoyaki octopus balls, and they were delicious!

Another day, another dragon.


Neon Osaka.

We’ll miss Osaka … and this guy.

We made it to the city of Hiroshima and we visited the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. The Flame of Peace has been burning in the park since August 1, 1964, in protest of nuclear weapons, and will continue to burn until there are no nuclear weapons left on earth. We felt this was an important historical stop for us to make. It was a very difficult day, but it was also inspiring to visit a city that is now dedicated to world peace.



We also met some beautiful people in Hiroshima. Following some positive online reviews, we visited the unassuming MAC Bar. We found the MAC neon sign, ventured up 3 flights of stairs, and found the incredibly friendly co-owner Boku-san tending bar. MAC Bar has a beautiful collection of 7,000+ CDs to choose from, housed in custom-made folding CD cabinets behind the bar, displaying the music collection in all its glory. We met another great couple traveling from England with similar tastes in music. Rosie is an artist and Dave rollerblades, just like Dan, so there was plenty to talk about! The bar closed at midnight, but after Rosie and Dave left, we ended up staying well into the morning, just us and Boku-san, while he and Dan switched back and forth picking out CDs to play on the bar’s exceptional sound system. Creedence, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Japanese classics that were new to us … it went wonderfully on and on and on. It was such a fantastic evening connecting with a great shop owner in Hiroshima over love of music and art and positivity. This experience was yet more living proof that you can find some of the finest magic in the universe behind the humblest doors in Japan.

Hiroshima MAC Bar’s Boku-san selecting music to play.

Dan and Boku-san laughing and discussing which Steely Dan track to play next … heaven.

We made a brief sojourn to the city of Fukuoka, on the northern shore of Japan’s Kyushu Island. The weather was not cooperating, but we nevertheless enjoyed a lovely rainy walk through the city. We loved these Hello Kitty road blocks.

We visited the Fukuoka Art Museum. The museum featured a great collection of modern and traditional Asian art. Here’s Babe trying out a replica of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony bowl, and a particularly elegant kimono example.

The Fukuoka Art Museum also had a special exhibition commemorating the 85th anniversary of Tom and Jerry, which was a lot of fun to explore.



We made a stop in the city of Nagasaki, visiting the Atomic Bomb Park, Peace Statue, and Fountain of Peace. Another difficult day of history, like Hiroshima, but an important day of reflection, and we were glad we visited. Like Hiroshima, Nagasaki has a tragic past, but today the city is full of positive, friendly people, and we enjoyed our stay.

Nagasaki’s Peace Statue and Fountain of Peace. The fountain commemorates those who died in the wake of the atomic bomb in search of water, and it is a dedication to world peace.

We strolled down to Nagasaki Harbor. We enjoyed a drink and some fresh seafood on Nagasaki Dejima Wharf, watching the sunset and the lights twinkle as evening fell. It was a fine day in Nagasaki.


Heading back towards Tokyo with a few days left on our JR Rail Train Pass, we had a great, quick stop in the city of Nagoya. We had not one, but two fantastic meals at the 100% gluten free restaurant Michinori-tei in Nagoya, and we had a great conversation with the owner, thanks to Google Translate. We used Google Translate to communicate back and forth with the owner about her own gluten issues, and Babe shared some of her personal stories. The owner appreciated how much we loved her food, and she gifted Babe some gluten free soup and bread products to take with us, since she knows it can be hard to sometimes find tasty gluten free options on the go in Japan. We had a wonderful connection with the restaurant owner and another delightful gluten free experience in Japan!

Here is Babe and the Michinori-tei Nagoya restaurant owner laughing and communicating with the help of the Google Translate phone app. This connection wouldn’t have been possible without it!

It’s not every day Babe gets to have crème brûlée with walnuts for dessert at a restaurant! Here we are with the Michinori-tei Nagoya restaurant owner. What a great visit, and the food was exceptional!

We headed north to Matsumoto, a beautiful city in the Japanese Alps in Nagano Prefecture. The train ride took us through some lovely winter snow fall, blanketing the evergreens outside our train windows. It was a very special ride back north, one of our loveliest train rides so far.

Snow flurries changing to a blinding white snowfall and back again … curtains of frosted evergreen trees … snow-capped mountain peaks … Japanese towns flashing by … Chopin’s Nocturnes softly playing through headphones … the perfect train ride for daydreams.

We arrived in the city of Matsumoto and visited Matsumoto Castle in the evening and during the daytime. It is a strikingly beautiful castle, known as “Crow Castle” due to its black color. The castle is lit up at night for a limited time during the winter season with a really cool video projection light show, made even more spectacular due to the reflection in the surrounding castle moat. We toured the grounds and went to the top of the castle for a great view of the surrounding Japanese Alps.

View of the Japanese Alps from the top of Matsumoto Castle.


Matsumoto Castle during the day, and Dan with some traditional samurai armor. It has been said that a similar Japanese outfit inspired the look of Star Wars’ Darth Vader.

We visited Matsumoto’s Nawate Street, or “Frog Street”, a charming promenade along the river of shops that’s been around since the 1500s. We found plenty of frog statues, a frog shrine, and some friendly pigeons.


Clowning around with the pigeons on Frog Street.

We had a great trip to the Matsumoto City Museum of Art. Matsumoto was the birthplace of Yayoi Kusama, an internationally acclaimed contemporary Japanese artist. She has a fantastic special exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and installations at the museum. We are big fans of her artwork, and we saw one of her special exhibitions in New York City during a trip a few years ago, so this was a big treat for us.

Yayoi Kusama loves her polka dots, and so do we.



A few more majestic walks, views, shrines, and cups of green tea amongst the mountains of Matsumoto, and then we caught the train back to Tokyo.

Thanks for the inspiration, Matsumoto.

We’re back in Tokyo! The neighborhood of Shibuya is currently experiencing a few days of DIG Shibuya, held over four days across key Shibuya venues and public spaces. The event aims to be a unique cultural experience fusing art and hi-tech creative energy. From 12am-1am on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning), the large video screens in the iconic Shibuya Scramble Crossing, the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing, were transformed into giant canvases for a selection of video artists around the world. These photos don’t do the scale of the event justice, but it was really cool seeing these huge, iconic video screens showcasing artwork instead of the usual advertisements.

We’ll be staying in Tokyo for a few more weeks, as there are still so many things we want to see and do in this exciting city. We’ll be moving on eventually, so stay tuned to see where we end up next!
Philly > Las Vegas > Japan … Tokyo!
January 7 – January 13, 2025
We’ve started off 2025 with another adventure of a lifetime. We are in Japan!
We flew from Philly to Las Vegas, where we spent an evening wandering the Las Vegas Strip, its spectacle of colorful marquees and lights a fitting precursor to the psychedelic audio/visual collage Tokyo had in store for us. The next morning, we boarded a flight from Vegas to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. This was a 12-hour flight. We left Vegas at 11:30am on January 8 and arrived in Japan at 4:30pm on January 9, since Japan is 14 hours ahead of us back in Philly. That jet lag is a crazy experience! (But a long flight is also a great way to squeeze in some research! Dan particularly enjoyed making it partially through two great books, “A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen” by Jonathan Clements and “Lost Japan: Last Glimpse of Beautiful Japan” by Alex Kerr. Dan recommends these books for anyone interested in learning a bit about the unique historical, cultural, and modern details of Japan).
From Narita International Airport, we made our way to Shimokitazawa for 6 nights at a cozy hotel. Shimokitazawa is a laid back, bohemian neighborhood of Tokyo, full of artists, musicians, second-hand shops, great food, murals, and bits and pieces of an older-Tokyo neighborhood vibe. We’ve loved the variety of people-watching and shopping and clusters of narrow streets. It’s been the perfect place to get our feet wet in Tokyo. The Shimokitazawa Station subway also connects us easily to other popular Tokyo neighborhoods.
Tokyo is full of convenience stores and grocery stores well-stocked with fresh foods and fresh daily-prepared foods like sushi, bento boxes, pork and bean buns, and many other treats. The Google Translate phone app has been incredible, because we can easily translate food packaging ingredients, and we’ve found plenty of delicious gluten free treats that Babe can safely enjoy!
Elsewhere in Tokyo:
We’ve explored Akihabara, famous for being a major shopping hub for new, used, and rare electronics, manga, anime, toys, and other pop culture wonders that have been part of our lives since childhood (Nintendo, Transformers, Pokémon, Casio, Sony, Hayao Miyazaki movies … the list goes on and on!) In the Akihabara area, we also visited the Kanda Myojin Shrine (originally built in 730 AD, moved/rebuilt several times) and the Yushima Seido Temple (built in 1690), showcasing a fascinating feature of Tokyo where you’ll see a mass of tangled neon and cartoons on one block, and then suddenly be immersed in a peaceful grove of trees and omikuji (“paper fortunes”) and glowing lanterns and meditative temple shrines on the next block. The juxtaposition is beautiful, magical, and inspiring.
We’ve visited the Ginza, Tokyo’s famous district of upscale shopping and restaurants. On Sunday afternoons, Japan closes the main Chuo-dori street through the Ginza, and it becomes an ultra-hip pedestrian promenade closed to automobile traffic. We melted into the crowds and enjoyed our people-watching and window-shopping through the Ginza. We visited the 9th floor Ginza Mitsukoshi terrace while wandering and enjoyed a nice view of the 120-year old Seiko clock that watches over Ginza’s most famous crossroads.
We’ve seen some of Shibuya, a major commercial area that features two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station and Shinjuku Station. We’ll be seeing more of Shibuya, but so far we’ve enjoyed walking through Harajuku, a famous area of side streets stuffed with boutiques, shops, restaurants, art, and modern pop culture. We found an excellent 100% dedicated gluten free restaurant in Shibuya where we enjoyed some delicious pizzas and bacon bread and cheese bread!
We’ve also been to Shinjuku, another vibrant area of neon, skyscrapers, shopping, and countless things to see and do. We went to the Samurai Restaurant Time’s Samurai Show, a colorful, maximalist, neo-Japanese cabaret performance full of dancing samurai and geisha and live music and singing. It was truly an incredible spectacle! The show took quick intro videos of some of the guests and featured the videos on one of the elements of the stage show, so it was fun seeing our faces dancing around on stage with the performers a few times! We also explored Shinjuku Golden Gai, a network of narrow alleyways barely wide enough for a single person to pass through, which contain over 200 tiny bars and restaurants, most of which can only fit a handful of patrons. Such a unique collection of locations crammed into a tiny 6-street space, it was truly like nothing else we’ve encountered before!
We’ve already seen so much of Tokyo in the few days we’ve been here. And through it all, the Japanese people we’ve interacted with have been so kind, accommodating, and polite, always willing to help us navigate their systems and processes with a friendly smile and bow. And they seem to appreciate our habit of constantly repeating the word “SUMIMASEN” over and over! (すみません) (A Japanese word that can be translated to “Excuse me” or “I’m sorry” in English. It can also be used to express appreciation or to get someone’s attention).
The subway system has been very easy for us to navigate, thanks mostly to Google Maps and friendly Japanese travelers and subway personnel, but it’s a very clean and admirably-organized system. We’ve also appreciated Japan’s cultural tendency towards silence on the trains, as the ride becomes a fine moment to relax and reflect as you’re smoothly shuttled from one destination to the next.
Thankfully, we have more time to experience both Tokyo and other Japanese cities in the days to come! Time for more treats, more exploring, and more magic!

South Philly to Japan, let’s go!

Las Vegas was a sweet stopover on the way to Tokyo. We did not win big … but we did not lose big, either!

Next stop, Tokyo!

Coming in for a landing in Japan, we were treated to a spectacular sunset over Mt. Fuji! The photos do not do it justice. What an entrance! We booked this flight time and booked seats on the left side of the plane hoping for this view, but you never know how your planning’s going to go. This time, we hit a home run!

After a few days of travel and a combined ~17 hours in the air, we made it to Japan!

Babe quickly became a pro navigating the convenience stores, grocery stores, vending machines, and narrow streets of the charming Shimokitazawa neighborhood.

Japan is full of interesting juxtapositions, angles, colors, and layers, an invigorating artist’s landscape of refinement and imagination. The smells emanating from the various restaurants is irresistible. Dan’s favorite meal so far has been a Hokkaido – style deep fried chicken soup curry washed down with a homemade ginger soda from Ponipirica in Shimokitazawa … perfection!

We navigated the impressive Tokyo subway system and ventured out of Shimokitazawa, enjoying some meditative moments at the Kanda Myojin Shrine and the Yushima Seido Temple.

Babe’s always making new friends!

This Japanese kanji plaque reads “Great Old Man – Beech Family”. We paid our respects to this peaceful giant watching over the Yushima Seido temple.

Akihabara, a land of endless toys and games and childhood joy!

Dan almost bought an unopened Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classic Technodrome Playset in Akihabara, but he reeled himself in (for now).

Winter cherry blossoms sighting on the walk from Akihabara to Ginza!


Magic pouring from every corner.

Strolling through the Ginza shopping district and making friends with the locals!


Checking out the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami collaboration, where a handbag costs more than this trip.

Enjoying the view from the Ginza Mitsukoshi terrace, where the 120-year old Seiko clock keeps watch over Tokyo.

Even Tokyo’s construction zone warnings are cute.

You can’t help but laughing and smiling at the colorful wildness of Harajuku!

Happy Winter from Harajuku!



More Harajuku … we didn’t have time this day, but we may have to circle back for a visit to the Mini Pig Cafe / Micro Pig House at some point!

Business as usual.

Babe enjoying some delicious gluten free treats!


One more happy customer!

Godzilla in Shinjuku City eyeing up Babe’s pizza leftovers!

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for … here comes The Shinjuku City Samurai Restaurant Time Samurai Show!!!


For Dan, a lifetime of drawing, painting, melting crayons, watching cartoons, daydreaming, and spelunking through the color-drenched crystal caverns of his imagination was leading to this moment, walking down a set of stairs that looked like this!





Look closely and you’ll see us on the video screen in the above photo!






The Greatest Show On Earth!

One last stop for the evening, the Shinjuku Golden Gai, a network of 6 narrow alleyways containing over 200 tiny bars and restaurants!

The Golden Gai, featuring such watering hole classics as … “Troll II”!

Also featuring “Death Match In Hell”!

And Babe’s personal favorite, the establishment named “Snack”!

It’s been a mind-blowing few days and nights in Japan. We can’t wait to see what’s coming around the corner!
(More) Switzerland!
September 3, 2024 – September 30, 2024
We had a fantastic month of September in Switzerland, staying in the small town of Felsberg. It was exactly what we were looking for. It was a peaceful and cozy place to settle down for a few weeks. We enjoyed walking through Felsberg, hiking local trails in the area, enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains out our front windows and roof deck patio, and spending many days walking into nearby Chur for museum visits and people-watching over cups of tea at the local cafes. Our Felsberg rental hosts were a very friendly and accommodating Swiss couple. They supplied us with plenty of local Swiss treats during our stay, including regular gifts of fresh figs and grapes from their garden. We did a lot of cooking in Felsberg, and we enjoyed many cozy dinners around the fireplace as the mountains changed colors before our eyes from dusk to darkness.
Chur was the birthplace of H.R. Giger, a Swiss artist best known in America for being part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror film “Alien”, and Giger was responsible for creating the titular Alien itself. Dan has always been a huge fan of the Alien movies and Giger’s artwork, so it was exciting to walk by Giger’s childhood home in Chur and to see sculptures of his around town. We enjoyed special exhibitions of Giger’s work in two museums in Chur, commemorating Giger’s passing 10 years ago.
The Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur not only had a Giger exhibition, it also showcased a range of other Swiss artists. One of our favorite artists was Lise Gujer and her large, colorful tapestries.
Something on Dan’s bucket list has always been to see the two H.R. Giger bars in Switzerland that Giger designed. One of these bars is in Chur. The second one is in the town of Gruyères, and next to the Gruyères bar is the H.R. Giger Museum, where a huge collection of his work is on permanent display. We got to visit these locations in Chur and Gruyères.
We planned another bus-and-train excursion and traveled from Felsberg to Gruyères. We loved our multi-day visit in Gruyères, and not only enjoyed the Giger Bar and Museum, we also took a tour of Gruyères Castle, visited the Tibet Museum, and enjoyed the food and ambience of the magical town of Gruyères. This medieval town has preserved much of its charm and it’s like walking into another dimension. And, of course, the cheese was delicious!
We loved our month of September in Switzerland. We fondly refer to this month as a “meditative and spiritual couple’s retreat abroad”, as we took a lot of time for exercise, yoga, good food, and peaceful moments amongst the spectacular scenery of Switzerland. It was hard to say goodbye to our rental hosts and begin our last set of breathtaking train rides from Felsberg to Zurich. We flew from Zurich to Madrid to New York City and made our way back home to South Philadelphia.
We’ll be home for a bit visiting family and friends, but we’ll be back on the road again very soon! Stay tuned for more of Babe and Dan’s Adventures!

A morning walk through the outskirts of Felsberg.

A view of the Rhine River out our front door in Felsberg. Look closely and you’ll see a hot air balloon in the distance!

Lots of lizards came to visit us in Felsberg! They took particular pleasure in feasting on the wasps that hovered around the grapevines and fig trees outside our windows.




We enjoyed lots of wonderful treats out of Babe’s Famous Kitchen!

Dan preparing the fireplace for another cozy evening of watching our Swiss mountains disappear into the night sky.

A lovely hilltop cemetery in Felsberg.

A photo from one of our Felsberg walks around town.

The outskirts of Felsberg as dusk fell.

Walking along the Rhine River from Felsberg towards Chur.

A view from one of our hikes in the surrounding countryside. This was near Lake Crestasee in Trin, a short bus ride from Felsberg.

The H.R. Giger Bar in Chur. The floors and ceilings are decorated with Giger’s work, and he designed the chairs and other furnishings.

Enjoying one of the Giger gallery exhibitions in Chur.

Babe striking a gallery pose next to this fine Otto Dix winter rainbow painting.

Dan striking a gallery pose next to “Apocalypso”, a remarkable large-scale piece by Jean-Frédéric Schnyder.

We loved the collection of colorful tapestries by Lise Gujer.

Lise Gujer’s artwork brought out Babe’s inner dancer!


Outside the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur.

If you ever find yourself hungry and wandering the streets of Chur, just know they’ve got you covered with vending machines full of sausages and sauces for a delicious dinner!

Enjoying a pot of tea, journaling, and people-watching in Chur.

Something out of a dream … the town of Gruyères!

Our hotel in Gruyères … each building there was more charming than the last!

Enjoying our morning tea in Gruyères.


The view from our hotel window in Gruyères. We sipped tea, watching and listening to the rain pattering down. The soft, twinkling sounds of dozens of sheep bells rang in the distance. Gruyères is love.

We found the sheep!

A view inside the Tibet Museum. We really enjoyed this museum, which showcased a collection of Himalayan Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects within the framework of the renovated Gruyères chapel of St. Joseph. There were spaces to sit and listen to traditional Tibetan music playing over the speakers in the beautiful, dimly lit chapel. It was a very peaceful and rejuvenating experience!

Babe channeling some positive vibrations before striking a gong at the Tibet Museum.

We loved the atmosphere and aesthetic of this print by French graphic artist Cosey, displayed at the Tibet Museum.

We loved touring the grounds of Castle Gruyères!

Epic artwork on the Castle Gruyères wall.

Babe cheesin’ with her snail friend.

Babe cheesin’ with another incredible view of Switzerland.

Dan at the H.R. Giger Bar in Gruyères, enjoying a limited edition SLIME GREEN beer commemorating the H.R. Giger Museum’s 25th anniversary.

Babe enjoying a local white wine and gracing the H.R. Giger Bar’s patrons with her model face.

Dan at the H.R. Giger Museum posing next to THE ORIGINAL XENOMORPH COSTUME from Ridley Scott’s 1979 film “Alien”!!! As a massive monster movie enthusiast, this guy is pretty much Dan’s Monster Movie Holy Grail. The museum had many other sketches, models, paintings, and drawings by Giger related to his work with the Alien film franchise, and many other creative projects by the Swiss master of biomechanical surrealism art. We went to the museum two days in a row so Dan could get his fill. Swoon!

Babe made a friend, too!

Just a bit more Gruyères magic.

Hope we see you again, Gruyères.

And, of course …

… The cheese was to die for!

Waiting for our bus to pick us up from our home in Felsberg for the month of September. That’s our house behind us, with the fig trees and grape vines in the windows, and a roof deck patio above it. Mountains surrounded us from both sides. We were right under the church and the clocktower, which rang out bright and true, day and night – as we mentioned before, the Swiss really love their bells!

Here’s Babe on our last set of train rides through Switzerland. To anyone reading this, do yourself a favor and gift yourself a Switzerland adventure someday. The fairy tale landscapes, the emerald lakes, the sweeping mountains, the air you’ll breathe, the trains you’ll daydream on … Switzerland will change you.
We hope we find our way back someday.
Switzerland!
August 27 – September 3, 2024
Onto our next adventure – Switzerland! We took a daytime flight from Stockholm to Geneva, Switzerland. This gave us a spectacular view as we flew south from country to country, particularly as we got closer to our destination and saw a panorama of lakes and mountains like we’d never seen in person before.
We spent an evening in Geneva, enjoying the warm summer weather, walking around the southern area of Lake Geneva, its outdoor vendors and restaurants, the iconic Jet d’Eau de Genève (The Geneva Water Fountain), ferries and sailboats, eclectic people-watching, a fine sunset, and an evening transformation as the evening lights twinkled on and the fountain lit up. The next morning, we looked across the water towards the location of Villa Diodati. This mansion is famous for being rented by Lord Byron. During this time, Lord Byron hosted a group of visitors that included Mary Shelley and Dr. John Polidori. There was a period of bad weather, and the group told stories to entertain each other, and two of the stories were developed into classics of the horror genre: “Frankenstein” by Shelley and “The Vampyre”, the first modern vampire story, by Polidori! While the villa is privately owned and not open for tours, it was fun being so close to a famous location in monster story-telling history – we could feel the energy!
After a night in Geneva, we began our multi-day train tour through Switzerland! We decided Switzerland would be a great place for our train ride adventure due to the country’s scenery and its extensive 5,200 mile network of well-organized, comfortable railway options. Worldwide, only the Japanese travel more by train!
Beginning in the city of Geneva, our first stop was Montreux, a town also on Lake Geneva. Montreux hosts the Montreux Jazz Festival (which unfortunately is in July – maybe we’ll catch this festival next time!), and has a great walking promenade along the lake, which is lined with flowers, sculptures, Mediterranean trees, and lovely hotels and architecture. We took a few swims in Lake Geneva at Montreux. The water was a bit chilly, but very invigorating, and the views of the lake, shoreline, and mountains while swimming was an epic experience.
We then boarded the GoldenPass Express and traveled from Montreux to Interlaken Ost. Interlaken is a town in the mountainous Bernese Oberland region of central Switzerland. Interlaken had lovely streets and buildings to enjoy along the Aare River. We loved the river’s turquoise color, which is a result of the river being fed by melt water from glaciers. The Aare River’s water felt considerably colder than Lake Geneva, but Dan still took a few rejuvenating swims along with some other locals and tourists, and Babe put her feet in! We loved spending time in Interlaken along the river and enjoying both daytime and evening hours there, watching ducks and swans lazily float along during the day, watching bats dart and dip close to the water as evening fell.
While in Interlaken, we took an unbelievable day trip of train rides from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch, The Top Of Europe, 3,454 meters (11,332 feet) above sea level! We went from warm summer weather to ice and snow, and back down to warm weather on the Eiger Express gondola cableway later that day. We spent a few hours at Jungfraujoch, enjoying the unique views from the Sphinx terrace and the outdoor snow plateau viewing area. From Jungfraujoch, you can see as far as the Black Forest of Germany, the Vosges Mountains of France, and the mammoth ice flow of the Aletsch glacier and its 4,000 meter peaks. The views on this day trip were like nothing we’d seen before!
Next, we took a few connecting trains and boarded the Glacier Express for another day of fantastic train views from Interlaken to Chur. Chur is the oldest town in Switzerland with a settlement history of over 13,000 years!
We got into Chur late, and early the next morning, we had another full day of lovely train adventures as we traveled on the Bernini Express from Chur, crossed over the Alps into Italy, spent a few hours in the lovely town of Tirano, Italy, and then crossed back over to Chur for the evening. One of many scenic highlights on this day was a view of the beautiful Cavaglia Glacier Garden.
These days in Switzerland have been characterized by truly life-changing scenery, fresh air, hikes, swims, and gracious, accommodating Swiss hosts. Our train itinerary allowed us to comfortably view a large section of Switzerland’s legendary landscapes, and the long-distance train ride experiences were so much fun! We’ve always wanted to take a few days of scenic train rides together, and Switzerland delivered and exceeded our wildest dreams!
Some animal sightings in Switzerland that we’ve enjoyed have included: many birds, including alpine choughs (a bird in the crow family), falcons, hawks, buzzards, and golden eagles. We’ve also seen many small brown lizards (common lizard, Zootoca vivipara), swans, ducks, horses, cows, and goats.
We’ve truly fallen in love with Switzerland in late summer. We’ve discovered a country that is insisting we stay a bit longer for more relaxation and exploration! We will be staying in Switzerland for the month of September. We’ve booked a perfect rental in Felsberg, a quiet, peaceful municipality in the Imboden Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Felsberg is snugly tucked between the Rhine River and Calanda Mountain, and was settled as far back as 2000 BC. It is a few minutes by bus from Chur, and the bus stop is across the street from our home for the month. Our rental is removed from the ground level, featuring a main floor with a modern kitchen and three huge windows with an incredible view of the mountains – it’s like looking through three portals of evergreen trees and mountain slopes from the kitchen table, and since it’s off the street level, it’s a very quiet, private space. The second floor of our rental is a loft area with a bed and skylight, a sitting area, and a roof deck which features the same spectacular mountain views. There is a well-stocked supermarket grocery store a few minutes’ walk from our door, as well as a farm selling fresh meat and produce. There is also a great walking trail along the Rhine River a few minutes’ walk from our door, plenty of additional hiking options close by, and lakes for swimming in the area. Our Airbnb host is very friendly, and she is allowing us to pick fresh figs and grapes from her garden below our rental. Felsberg is a perfect spot for rest and relaxation, and offers us the opportunity to take day trips across Switzerland, as we can easily take the bus from our doorstep, or we can take the bus back to Chur and enjoy Switzerland’s peerless train system for longer-distance traveling. We have more plans for Switzerland in the days to come. We are so excited to continue enjoying Switzerland for the month of September!

Flying Swiss International Air Lines from Sweden, enjoying our view above Switzerland!

Enjoying an evening stroll around Lake Geneva.


Babe almost crying with happiness because we’ve already found her next red vehicle – this cute little red train that was giving short tours around Lake Geneva!

Dan doing his best Polish Vampire impression with Villa Diodati looming (approximately) in the background in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva. “Frankenstein” and “The Vampyre” were conceived at Villa Diodati! Eek! So cool!

Babe enjoying the promenade along Lake Geneva in Montreux.

Dan enjoying a rejuvenating soak in Lake Geneva.

Laughing it up in Montreux!

Brown lizard spotting, one of many, in Montreux.

Miles Davis statue along the Montreux promenade. Miles Davis played eleven sets over his nine appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1973 and 1991.

Montreux sunset view.

Babe marveling at the GoldenPass Express views from Montreux to Interlaken. We could have taken photos and videos during the entirety of all these train rides, they were all simply stunning.

So many great buildings, homes, cottages, and sights to see along the way while traveling via train in Switzerland!


Dan leaning in for a closer look at all this magic.

This house had white reindeer statues in their yard, so we had to capture that!

Next up, heading to Interlaken!

If you look closely in the sky above Babe, you’ll see people parasailing in the sky. We didn’t take part in that activity while in Interlaken, but we’ll still be in Switzerland for a few more weeks … we’ll see!

Dan enjoying some treats from Babe’s Traveling Snack Bar while lounging along the Aare River in Interlaken, daydreaming about how good it’s going to feel getting in that cold water!

Dan post-swim, enjoying an engaging conversation with his new swan companion.

Summer sunset clouds above Interlaken.

Evening magic in Interlaken, filled with warm summer air, streetlights flickering on, and bats skating and swooping along the surface of the river. We overheard a woman telling her visiting friends as they walked the promenade, “This is the perfect time of year to be visiting Interlaken”, and we could not agree more!

Another red vehicle for Babe, a Funky Chocolate Bicycle!

More epic train rides! Going up up up towards Jungfraujoch!

Some cows don’t know how good they have it … what a view!

Getting closer to the top.

The Top Of Europe! Wowee Zowee!

Started from the bottom, now we’re here! Pinch us!

We can see your house from here!

Epic, cold, and bright. Sunglasses were a must.

Babe and her puffin sweater at The Top Of Europe, playing it cool.

Dan at The Top Of Europe in his limited edition Weird Visions Society t-shirt (featuring his illustration work, printed by Awesome Dudes Printing in South Philly, a coming-soon merchandise item in support of his and Ryan Petrillo’s 3+ years in the making, micro-budget, labor of love, ambient sci-fi horror anthology film of the same name, coming this October!), also playing it cool.

Babe enjoying the penguin ice sculptures in the Ice Palace at Jungfraujoch.

The reflection is making this tough to see, but Babe was getting more fashion ideas from this Jungfraujoch mannequin display!

Eiger Express gondola time … going down!

Gondola views with your hosts, Babe and Dan.

We would not mind another trip on this gondola cableway!

Babe posing with Nutella, peanuts, jam, and more on the Glacier Express!

Dan posing with white wine and a daydreaming mind on the Glacier Express!

Can it be? ANOTHER red vehicle sighting in Switzerland for Babe? They’re everywhere!

E V E R Y W H E R E !

The Swiss really, really love their bell towers. This one had some cool gargoyles near the top. It was also right next to our bedroom window in Chur. Not sure how folks deal with all the bells when it’s bedtime for little ones … this one blasted off at 7:45 PM for almost 15 minutes!

The Bernini Express. Somehow there were still more wonderful train rides in our future. From Switzerland to Italy and back again!

Some gentle horses enjoying the landscape.

The Cavaglia Glacier Garden, a stop along The Bernini Express, bound for Tirano, Italy.



Spectacular.

A cozy little cabin view as we approached Tirano, Italy.

Quick visit to the Santuario della Beata Vergine di Tirano in Italy.

The Bernina Express train connects Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy by crossing the Swiss Engadin Alps. For most of its journey, the train also runs along the World Heritage Site known as the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes.

Arrivederci (for now), Italy!

What a beautiful, beautiful rush! The yellow highlighted line shows our train journeying through Switzerland from Geneva to Chur, with a brief trip over to Tirano, Italy.

But don’t put those alpenhorns away just yet, Switzerland! Babe and Dan aren’t going anywhere!

We’ve got a lovely rental for the month of September in Felsberg, roughly where the arrow is pointing! Felsberg is snugly tucked between the Rhine River and Calanda Mountain. We’ll be relaxing and exploring more of this wonderful country for a little while longer. That’s all (for now!) from the desk of Babe and Dan. Verabschiedung! Au revoir! Arrivederci! A revair! (The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh.)
Sweden!
August 19 – August 27, 2024
We enjoyed jazz music drifting from The Cinderella, our ferry from Finland, with our morning coffee and tea as our boat navigated through the Stockholm Archipelago and slowly docked on a beautiful summer morning in Sweden.
We booked a nice hotel a bit removed from Stockholm’s city center, easily accessible by a commuter train and a transfer to a local bus that stopped right next to the hotel. Our hotel room was a cozy studio with a modern kitchen, full-sized fridge and freezer, sliding door onto a deck, and a living and bedroom space. It was a perfect size for us, and we got to do plenty of cooking in a comfortable space. We also fully enjoyed the hotel’s sauna as a way to rest and relax and refresh our muscles after so much walking. We are getting more and more used to Europe’s sauna culture the longer we’re here!
We absolutely loved Sweden. Everyone was very friendly and willing to help with directions and recommendations. We found lots of things we knew we were going to love, and we stumbled into many unexpected happy surprises. Here are some of the things we did:
We found a fantastic 100% gluten free restaurant in Stockholm, Happy Atelier. We stopped in a few times for pizza, sandwiches, and lemon raspberry pastries. We mostly did our own cooking, but it was nice to have a few treats at Happy Atelier together!
We enjoyed looking at all the art on the streets and in the subway stations of Stockholm. Each subway station features different art and/or sculptures. There’s a lot of great architecture around the city, and some of the building interiors are spectacular. We stopped by the Nobis Hotel to check out their interior space, which was wonderful (thanks for the recommendation, Christy!).
We enjoyed wonderful weather in Sweden. We spent a lot of time in the Kungsträdgården, an outdoor park filled with trees, flowers, statues, fountains, and cafés positioned along the walking avenues for prime people-watching. We used Sweden’s fantastic network of trams, subways, trains, and buses every day, but it was also fun walking as much as we could, traversing Stockholm’s bridges on foot, enjoying the views of the boats, the surrounding coastlines, the city of Stockholm bustling during the day, lights reflecting in the water and twinkling with magic in the evening summer light.
We have to note that, one night while walking from the bus stop to the hotel, we were shocked to see a large creature bounding silently across the sidewalk a few paces in front of us. From the glance we caught, it was the size of a dog, but seemed more like a rabbit, with a floating, loping gait, and long legs and ears. We weren’t sure what we were looking at, because it’s not every day you see a European Brown Hare back home in South Philly! We saw a second one a moment or two later that, after a quick Google search, confirmed what we were seeing. It was impossible to catch a photo of one, unfortunately, but it was so cool seeing these guys running around in the streets of Sweden at night, it was a surreal experience!
We visited the Moderna Museet, the modern and contemporary art museum in Stockholm. We saw some inspiring exhibits and we especially loved the Seven Rooms and a Garden exhibition by American artist Rashid Johnson. There were lots of great selections exhibited from the museum’s extensive collection of modern art.
We visited the Stockholm Toy Museum, which exceeded our expectations. This museum was in an underground network of cave tunnels, and featured incredible displays of toy trains, cars, spaceships, action figures, dollhouses, miniatures, comic books, souvenirs and memorabilia – it was so much fun, we felt like kids again crawling through some of the exhibits!
We spent a lot of time in Gamla Stan (Old Town), Stockholm’s original city center. Gamla Stan dates from the 13th Century, and many of the buildings are from the 1600s and 1700s. It’s an enchanting maze of cobblestones, alleyways, shops, restaurants, meeting squares, historic attractions, and colorful characters. It was so much fun to get lost in Old Town while exploring together, we spent several days doing so! We saw the Royal Palace, the Stockholm Cathedral, the Nobel Prize Museum, the site of the Stockholm Bloodpath, Mårten Trotzigs gränd (Alley of Mårten Trotzig) the narrowest street in Stockholm, the infamous “Hell Street” where the Gamla Stan executioner resided, and so much more! We took a very educational walking tour one of our days in Gamla Stan and learned lots of fascinating historical tidbits. We found many other cool spots, including a 17th century cellar – turned – heavy metal bar, Mammut Bar, filled with glimmering candles and haunted memorabilia and a fantastic heavy metal soundtrack.
Of course, we found time to visit ABBA The Museum, a fitting tribute to Sweden’s second royal family! The museum had a comprehensive and interactive collection of ABBA trivia, memorabilia, and exhibits re-creating various studio spaces and living spaces from the band’s colorful history. We walked in, but we are dancing out of Sweden!
This country was fantastic, such exemplary hosts, and it’s again hard to say goodbye to a country that provided us with so many life-enhancing experiences. But we’re very excited for the next chapter of our adventure. We will be traveling to Geneva, where we’ll be embarking on a multi-day train ride through the country of Switzerland! All aboard for the next part of Babe And Dan’s Fantastic Voyage!

“Still Life With Orange Juice, Banana, and Epic Morning Views” – drifting through the Stockholm Archipelago on our ferry from Finland to Sweden, The Cinderella.

Swedish escalators are no joke!

Babe cooking up a storm in our hotel room kitchen!

Some of the delectable delights coming out of Babe’s Snack Bar! (Clockwise from top left): Mediterranean Salad, Hardboiled Eggs With Chili Mayo & Pickle Slices, Baked Rosemary Bar Nuts, and Oven Roasted Potatoes With Open Faced Pesto Chicken Red Pepper Sandwiches!

Gluten free treats at Happy Atelier!

This lemon raspberry pastry was great!

Some of Stockholm’s streetlights feature these fun love lights! (Samkönade Trafikljusen, a temporary art piece to celebrate LGBTQ Pride, now a permanent part of Stockholm’s traffic landscape.)

Lounging in the lobby of The Nobis Hotel.

Dining area in The Nobis Hotel.

Nothing like spending time in the Kungsträdgården in summer!


In front of the National Museum.

There are many fine bridge walks to be had in Stockholm!

Dan with Moderna Museet sculpture garden.

Detail from one of Rashid Johnson’s paintings in his Seven Rooms and a Garden exhibition at Moderna Museet.

We would like to be formally added to this Rashid Johnson installation, please.

Where there is a reindeer painting, there will be a Babe!

Sistine Chapel recreation exhibit in Moderna Museet.

Art takes on many different forms.

The Stockholm Toy Museum! A Must-See if you make it to Stockholm!



Babe found the musem’s Goofy collection!




A small section of the museum’s collection of Tintin cars.

The kaleidoscopic Barbie ABBA installation at The Stockholm Toy Museum was a highlight!

Wowza!

Gamla Stan (Old Town) … we absolutely loved Gamla Stan!

Serious face outside of Riddarholmen Church.

“Hell Street” where Gamla Stan’s executioner lived (house #3).

Mårten Trotzigs gränd (Alley of Mårten Trotzig) the narrowest street in Stockholm. It was a tight squeeze!

The flat that Frida and Benny from ABBA lived in around 1974!

While Babe may look happy and very much alive in this photo, this square was actually the site of the grisly Stockholm Bloodbath! The building behind Babe is painted red in remembrance of this infamous day.

There are so many cozy little nooks and crannies to enjoy a sip of bubbles and some people-watching in Gamla Stan.


Stockholm lit up at night is a sight to behold.


If there’s a xenomorph in your city, Dan will find it.

If there’s an adorable red vehicle in your city, Babe will find it.

Mammut Bar, a 17th century cellar – turned – heavy metal bar, filled with glimmering candles, haunted memorabilia, and a fantastic heavy metal soundtrack. A radical place dripping with character!

Sweden’s second royal family: ABBA (with Babe)!

Sweden’s second royal family: ABBA (with Dan)!

We got to pose on the park bench from this famous ABBA photo shoot.


Dan’s next guitar!

Dan recording and mixing ABBA’s next hit record. To you music nerds out there reading this, this is a Harrison 4032 40-channel analogue audio mixing console. Three ABBA albums were recorded with this console (“Voulesz-Vous”, “Super Trouper”, and “The Visitors”). This console also gave birth to Led Zeppelin’s “In Through The Out Door” and Genesis’ “Duke”.


Babe got plenty of new fashion ideas from the many costumes of ABBA on display!



We think the guards at The Royal Palace take their jobs too seriously.

The hippest Kungsträdgården Fashionista around.

Adjö for now, Sweden!
Next up: Switzerland train rides!
All aboard for the next part of Babe And Dan’s Fantastic Voyage!
Finland!
August 11 – August 18, 2024
After a great experience with our camper van in Iceland, we flew Icelandair over to Helsinki, Finland. Finland was incredible! After all the driving and the packed itinerary of Iceland, we made it a point to slow down and relax in Finland, but we did see and experience so many things.
Here is some of what we did in Finland!
We explored and did some reading in the National Library of Finland and visited their “Most Beautiful Books of 2023” exhibition.
We spent time lounging and people-watching in Senate Square.
We explored Market Square, visiting the shops and vendors that sold delicious treats and souvenirs. We explored Old Market Hall, a traditional, 19th-century venue featuring shops & stalls offering unique Finnish specialties. Dan tried the salmon soup with rye bread after a few folks recommended it, this was a wonderful treat.
We visited the Kamppi Chapel, also known as the “Chapel of Silence” since it is intended to be a place to calm down and have a moment of silence in one of the busiest areas of Helsinki. This was a lovely and meditative experience.
We visited Base Bar, a heavy metal bar with a collection of heavy metal patches and artwork on the walls, a great rock music soundtrack, and nice outdoor seating for great people-watching.
We enjoyed relaxing in a few saunas, which is very popular in Finland!
We stayed at a nice hotel for a few nights, and then we booked a cozy studio Airbnb apartment a bit removed from downtown Helsinki. It was still easy to get around, as Finland’s public transportation system is excellent! Our Airbnb was great, we had a nice balcony overlooking a park. We got to do a lot more cooking in Finland than we were able to manage out of our camper van and the campgrounds of Iceland. Our Airbnb was across the street from a great grocery store. One of our meal highlights was some fresh salmon filets, asparagus, and roasted potatoes!
We wandered Helsinki the first evening of Helsinki Festival, a large universal Nordic festival of art, music, and culture. We experienced composer Lauri Porra’s BASSO, which was commissioned for the festival. BASSO was performed at night in Senate Square and featured 130 bass voices, including a choir, low-frequency wind instruments, and a rhythmic section of electric bass players and percussionists. Dan was hoping to see a heavy metal rock concert at some point during our travels, and BASSO was beautiful and as heavy as it gets, so it was a treat! We saw a lot of other live art and music and dance performances during Helsinki Festival, as well.
We enjoyed a great canal cruise of the archipelago and shorelines of Helsinki. We saw the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, the Helsinki Zoo, the massive fleet of Finnish icebreakers, the Degerö Canal, and many wonderful cottages and mansions on the shoreline, as we learned about the history of Finland from our fantastic guide.
We saw a beautiful sunset and a giant rainbow on one of our last evenings in the Airbnb.
We visited Nuuksio Reindeer Park, where we got a chance to visit with reindeer and feed them handfuls of lichen! Such a wonderful experience! They even had a white reindeer! We learned that white reindeer are very rare, as they are easy targets for predators in the wild. White reindeer, we learned, are often born deaf, as the park’s employees believed this reindeer to be, and they are easy targets, being bright white while wandering the forests of Finland, so they don’t make it very long in the wild. So it was an unexpected treat to meet this one. While at the park, we also got to dig for Finnish amethyst and we got to take some amethyst home with us as a souvenir.
We also hiked through Nuuksio National Park and enjoyed the beautiful natural sights and thick tree growth everywhere. The smell of Finnish nature was fantastic. We wish we could have bottled up the smell of the Finnish forest and taken it with us. It’s easy to see why it is said that the forest is the heart of Finland.
Sadly, our time in Finland flew by. There was so much more we could have seen and experienced, but it was time to go. From the Port of Helsinki in Katajanokka Harbour, we boarded the Viking Cruise Ship “The Cinderella” and took an overnight ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm, Sweden! We enjoyed the views of leaving Finland from the top deck of the ship, enjoyed exploring the ship, playing bingo, watching some night club entertainment, laughing in our cozy little cabin while we fought over the top bunk of the bunk beds, and enjoying our morning coffee the next day while watching the Stockholm Archipelago emerge in the morning sunshine as our ferry approached and docked in Sweden. Now it’s time to explore a new country!

Kveðja, Iceland! Hei, Finland!

The National Library of Finland


Senate Square


Old Market Hall


The salmon soup with rye bread was exceptional!

A photograph of a portion of the 130 bass voices performing BASSO, which included a choir, low-frequency wind instruments, and a rhythmic section of electric bass players and percussionists. Senate Square was packed to capacity for this summer evening performance at Helsinki Festival! BASSO was only performed once and the performance was broadcast live on a Helsinki Radio station.

We need to get Babe one of these rides when we’re back in the States.

The unique Kamppi Chapel, the “Chapel of Silence”. A great reminder to slow down and enjoy the ride!


Rock solid collection of patches on the wall at Base Bar!

See what’s written on the wall behind us?

Babe enjoying one of our creations in the hotel’s kitchen!

Nice view from the balcony at our cozy studio Airbnb!

It’s not every day you get to see a rainbow in Finland.

Canal cruise of the Helsinki Archipelago! Wondering if this place is for sale …




Reindeer time!

It feels like Christmas morning.

This is where magic comes from.



Dan and the white reindeer looking into each other’s souls.

Mining for Finnish amethyst!


Ahhhh … the forest … the heart of Finland!

Ahhhh … Babe … the heart of Dan!



Quite the bus stop.

From the Port of Helsinki in Katajanokka Harbour, we boarded the Viking Cruise Ship “The Cinderella” and took an overnight ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm, Sweden! Neither of us have ever been on a boat this big!


View of the Korkeasaari Zoo, leaving Finland.

Bunk beds on the ferry!
Reykjavík Inspiration
August 10, 2024
An incredible day today in Reykjavík. We visited the Recycled House installation in Reykjavík. We walked along the sculpture and shore walkway downtown to the Reykjavik Art Museum’s Hafnarhús location to view an art installation by Jónsi, singer of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. The installation was magnificent, and inspired by the Icelandic landscape. The installation included sound, visuals, and a particular scent. The scent was created by Jónsi’s perfumery Fischersund, which he runs with his three sisters. We loved the art installation and also visited the perfumery a few minutes down the road, where one of the Icelandic folks working there read some of Jónsi’s poetry to us while we sampled some of their signature scents. Words can’t explain what an inspiring day of art this was for us, our senses, and our brains.
We then walked around through downtown Reykjavík, enjoying the sights and the people-watching for Pride Weekend, and eventually made it back to our campsite. Another incredible day. This country just gives and gives, and we’ve loved being here. It’s hard to say goodbye.




One of the most incredible art installations we’ve ever experienced! Thank you so much for the inspiration, Jónsi!







Trolls and the End of the Ring Road
August 9, 2024
This morning we walked through the Fossatún Troll Garden. There was a stone monument with instructions to recite the following lines with your hand over your heart: “Yes, it is a long and difficult road, and life is brief and much will go astray. But graceful through temptation and hardship’s load, your goal will always shine and bide your stay.” These words are meant, along with the power of the rock, to purge and then absorb worries and negative thoughts. We each recited these words, and then recited them in honor of our friends and family. Hopefully this will bring positive days to those we love!
A bit more driving today, and we are back in Reykjavík for the evening. We have driven around the entirety of the Iceland Ring Road! It’s been an inspiring journey, and we’re so thrilled to have gone through this experience!









Westfjords and Witchcraft
August 8, 2024
Today we visited the Museum of Sorcery & Witchcraft in the village of Holmavik in the Eastern Westfjords in Iceland. We learned about the fascinating history of these topics and related events in Iceland. Dan sampled the fantastic Sorcerer’s Meatsoup, which was a version of Icelandic Lamb Soup, or kjötsúpa, and some tasty rhubarb pie. We finished driving through a portion of the Westfjords region and we’re back on the Ring Road again. We’ve made it to Borgarnes and are camping overnight at Fossatún Campsite & Troll Garden. We’ll check out some troll hills in the morning!








Future WC
August 7, 2024
Just a photo of a cool and futuristic-looking public roadside WC today! Just kidding. We have tons of photos across our phones, hopefully we’ll get more photos added in the coming days, but here’s one, for now. We spent a lot of time driving and soaking in the views of wild horses and perfect landscapes. We traveled to the Westfjords region of Iceland and spent the night there.

Gardens and Sunsets
August 6, 2024
Northern Iceland. Most of our time today, aside from driving through gorgeous scenery, was spent strolling through the Akureyri Botanical Garden. The sights and smells of the flora in this cliffside garden overlooking the water and buildings of Akureyri was a mind expanding and rejuvenating experience. We camped overnight nearby in Eyjafjarðarsveit and saw a spectacular sunset (the sun never fully sets between May and August in Iceland, as twilight gives the appearance of constant daylight, but it looked like the colors of a sunset, to us!)







Rejuvenating Nature Baths
August 5, 2024
Lots of driving today through the glorious landscapes of Iceland. Today we soaked luxuriously in the Mývatn Nature Baths, a set of geothermally heated pools and steam baths in the Lake Mývatn area, and stayed overnight at Ferðaþjónustan Bjarg campgrounds. There were horses grazing on the grounds, overlooking the lake. It’s so magical here. The way the cloud light reflects on puddles of water. Random sparkling rain storms. Horses and sheep stuck to the sides of hills. Mountains out of nowhere. Black beaches. Cliffs and chasms. Troll houses. Bursts of flocking birds glinting in sudden sunshine and blue skies. Rolling seas shrouded in mists. Icebergs. Elves and fairies. Sea monsters. We’ll never forget this place.




Waves and Wyrms
August 4, 2024
More wonders today. The hypnotic waves under a blanket of soft mist in Hornafirði. Cliffs and massive rock formations in the surf at Djúpivogur. Farms and houses dotted across Stöðvarfjörður. We explored and stayed overnight alongside Lake Lagarfjlót, which is said to be the home of the legendary Lagarfljót Wyrm, a cousin of the Loch Ness Monster!









Black Diamonds
August 3, 2024
Today we visited Diamond Beach at Vatnajökull National Park. We saw icebergs floating in the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, ice chunks washing onto the volcanic black sand beaches, frozen diamonds popping flashing in the sun, beautiful contrasting colors of blacks and blues.
We then explored Höfn, a small fishing town in south-east Iceland. We visited the Pakkhús restaurant overlooking the harbor. Dan sampled the Flóki Single Malt Sheep Dung Smoked Whiskey and found it eminently palatable. Babe stuck with a taste of prosecco and an orange Fanta. We then walked back to our campsite and got caught in a sudden rainstorm, which we’ve found to be frequent during the Icelandic summer. We changed into dry clothes, laid out our wet things as best we could in our van, and laughed at another beautiful and eventful day.











Highlands and Waterfalls
August 2, 2024
Last night we drove through Vík and into the Iceland Highlands and spent the night at Þakgil camp grounds, located in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. The drive to get there was spectacular. There were torrential rains and high winds overnight, pounding through the valley, but we were safe and warm in our van, and it was fun being in the middle of a storm in the mountains while we slept. We drove through areas like Höfðabrekkutjarn and Mýrdalssandur, where we learned some Game of Thrones scenes were filmed. Babe also found an epic forever-sweater hand-knitted in the traditional Icelandic fashion out of Icelandic sheep’s wool, it’s a great design and it’s like wearing a space heater on your body, it’s so warm!
We also went through Fagurhólsmýri and Vatnajökull National Park and enjoyed a great hike up to Svartifoss Waterfall, we searched out some fairy homes and troll homes, saw mountains and glaciers and saw some unbelievable scenery.
Onwards we travel around this incredible country!










Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
August 1, 2024
Our first full day in Iceland. We slept overnight at the Reykjavik Eco Campsite. We hit the road and we’re instantly overwhelmed and in awe of the landscapes we are seeing. The color palette of blacks and browns and greens, one million earth tones, with clouds and sky and splatters of ice and snow and sudden shocks of bird flocks or bounding sheep. And then: Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. An astonishing vista of black sand and crashing waves and crags and sheep and puffins soaring out to sea and returning to their nests in the crags. We spent a few hours soaking in the beach, eating some snacks, watching the wave crash and the sheep grazing on the surrounding hillsides. We are on another planet!










Iceland, Here We Are!
July 31, 2024
We’ve arrived in Iceland!

We stocked up on some grocery treats in Keflavik … cheese, crackers, nuts, fruit, a few treats and essentials. Plenty of awesome treats for us!

We picked up our camper van at the Reykjavík airport that we’ll be traveling in and living out of for the next two weeks. A Diesel Volkswagon Beach Caddy. The back seats fold down and create a bed we’ll be laying on. We’ve got two sleeping bags, a small gas stove, a table and chairs, kitchen supplies, a large jug for water, and our backpacks.

Snacks taste better when you’re eating them out of your camper van in Iceland … cheese and crackers have never tasted so good!

Testing out the back of the camper van. These socks are going to see some wild adventures! We will be driving the Iceland Ring Road between now and August 11 with the goal of driving around the whole country. It’s chilly and very windy and spattering rain off and on. Much different weather than back home. Nice to take a break from the heat and humidity of the USA East Coast Summer. Time to hit the road!
South Philly Popsicles
July 30, 2024
South Philadelphia, morning of July 30, 2024. Heading out with two big backpacks containing our lives for the next two months. Eating the last two popsicles from our freezer. Ready for adventures. Ready for anything. Time for some magic.

