Leipzig Day 2 – from the Jewish Cemetery to the Stasi HQ

If you’ve been to Europe, you know that Sundays are not the best days to play tourist. In most cities, 99% of stores and restaurants are closed on Sunday, and Leipzig is no exception. Luckily, we had several sources of activity available to us despite the Sunday effect: (1) personal sights courtesy of the infinitely-patient [...]

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Leipzig – Eating

I had low expecations for the dining scene in Leipzig – the former GDR’s image may have informed this impression, as did the fact that in Prague, we ate a whole lot of dense potato dumplings that I think are still weighing me down.  That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety [...]

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Leizpig Day 1 – Seeing the Sights

Today was an action-packed day. Our gracious host was Hubert, a German lawyer who handles restitution-of-Jewish-property cases (what a huge back story that is!). Having spent five hours with him, I feel confident that he’s one of the smartest, most patient and thoughtful people I’ve ever met. It’s impossible to detail, even in this lengthy [...]

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Leipzig – Touchdown

Guten tag from Leipzig, Germany, where J.S. Bach was choirmaster for 27 years, Goethe studied law and Felix Mendelssohn lived and worked.Jon and I have just checked in to the Leipzig Westin. Our Air Berlin flight here was uneventful, though as a testament to how often we fly budget airlines in Europe, we were surprised [...]

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Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, all! Yesterday heralded the Year of the Golden Pig. And you know that the Golden Pig shows its snout only once every 60 years, so this is no ordinary Chinese New Year. Among other things, it’s a good year to bust out with a kid because then he/she will have an [...]

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Cheyne Walk Brasserie, Chelsea

A few weeks ago, we went to Cheyne Walk Brasserie for the first time with Cathy and Bobby for drinks. I had my doubts about going there because a lot of restaurants in Chelsea have struck me as either inexpensive and mediocre or expensive and mediocre. But for drinks, I’d give the place a try. [...]

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Happy Birthday to Me

Well, first of all, Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m celebrating this evening by eating the last slice of birthday cake (see photo above) from a fabo dinner party that Jon cooked up for me this past Saturday. “Where’s Jon tonight on this most important of Hallmark holidays,” you might ask? He’s at the Brit Awards, of [...]

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Snow in London

Yesterday morning, Jon and I woke up to find two inches of snow blanketing the city (see above photo taken from our small patio). We haven’t seen snow in years! Usually, we just get rain, so when we saw snow, it felt like a holiday – Christmas morning, even. Sadly, the holiday ended quickly when [...]

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Things to Do in Marrakesh (besides shop and eat)

Overall, based on our five days in Marrakech, I’d say the main things to do are to shop for handcrafted goods, eat and wander aimlessly. The other “sights” were nice ways to kill time, but none of them were anything I’d travel to Marrakech specifically to see, which I guess is a sign the city [...]

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Eating in Marrakesh

In general, the food we had in Marrakesh was limited in choice (i.e., all Moroccan), and while the food was never totally awful, it was rarely that amazing. All our meals consisted of some combination of flatbreads, tomato-and-cucumber salads, chicken or lamb braised in a tagine (the cone-shaped cooking pot used in Morocco), and of [...]

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