Our two week journey started in Valletta, Malta, then had us on to Zurich, Switzerland, Vaduz in Liechtenstein, Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria, back to Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, and finally a short stay in Vienna, Austria before flying back to Japan.

It has been about four years since we’ve made a trip to Europe, mainly because of the impact of COVID on international travel. In 2020 we had tickets to Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Bulgaria – all of which were cancelled due to the pandemic. It was a matter of years before we got our money back – some as cash and some as credit, and so we have been really looking forward to another attempt. Obviously Ukraine was out (this time) and so I cooked up an idea for a trip that would take us to some smaller countries that we’ve been wanting to see, that would keep us in the Swiss and Austrian alps to avoid the summer heat, give us a chance to see our friends in Zurich, and also finally get to Slovakia.

We expected that there would be lots of changes after three years of pandemic, but in the end things were much the same as they were before COVID, and in some ways it was even easier to travel in the age of eSIMs and cashless payments. There were no head injuries this time, and the biggest troubles we had were dealing with a very hot summer and my own personal struggles to understand tipping customs in each city.

We’ve never had a bad visit to Europe and this one was a lot of fun – we were tired out but full of great memories and stories. The purpose of what you’re reading here is to keep those memories alive for us down the road.

So following (from oldest below to newest at the top) are the travel events and our thoughts from each day of the two week trip. Happy reading!

Up early we checked out of our hotel and made the short walk across the street to the station. The machine spit out the tickets we needed, and we boarded the train to the Vienna airport after a short five minute wait. We got great seats right next to the luggage rack, but it was a quick trip and nobody even came by to check our tickets.

It was a bit of a walk to find the terminal we were looking for, Terminal 1A. It was housed in a small almost temporary-feeling building. As you might expect for a flight to Taiwan there were a lot of Chinese folks – part of a tour group – and they were all jockeying for position in line. They were doing it oddly – they had all lined up for self-check-in and then they all lined up again for regular check-in so that they could check their bags through. Some people tried to cut in line a little bit, but eventually we got to the front.

After checking in we did a little shopping before going through security, then a little shopping after security too. Souvenirs, souvenirs, souvenirs! We found a nice bar/restaurant that served us a couple of proseccos and a club sandwich that we split. Again the facilities overseas are way better than Kansai Airport. Our waiter was super professional and looked intense – he was working the room efficiently and without joy.

Soon enough it was time for boarding and we got lucky with an empty seat next to us – we could spread out for the 12 hour flight and really enjoy it. I didn’t really sleep – watched some movies and played some games. I think Kuniko played Bejeweled for like six hours straight!

We slept maybe an hour at the tail end of the flight, and then we arrived in Taipei. We walked around the airport and looked for dumplings, but the best we could find was braised beef noodles. Not bad, and it hit the spot after all the air conditioning – Taiwanese people really like their air conditioners set to high in the summer.

There were lots of flights to Japan – we went to the gate of our flight and actually handed over our boarding passes when we were rejected – we were on the wrong flight. Our actual flight’s boarding time matched this flight’s departure time, both to Osaka. So we had to go to another gate and sit around for a half hour and then try again. A little embarrassing, but we had traveled a lot by that time and I thought it was understandable.

It was just a short trip to Kansai Airport, and then we caught a bus to Kobe and train back to Nishi Akashi. As usual we took a taxi after a quick shopping trip for milk, eggs and other essentials. The ancient taxi driver sort of chickened out when asked to drive down our street – he didn’t believe it was safe. Kuniko handled it so well, give him a warm congratulations when the old guy made it through to our house.

After that it was snacks and prosecco, and sushi on the horizon. I think we’ll be eating fish and veggies for a while…

We had a little bit of a sleep in this morning, and then tried to get the coffee machine working. It was either broken or we were too dumb to figure it out – I’m guessing 50/50 chance. I’m just glad we didn’t buy any milk last night.

Took a walk to a different Billa supermarket, and picked up lots of chocolate nut wafers and peanut butter bars as souvenirs for our students/co-workers back in Japan. The staff wore a funny expression on his face as we bought stacks and stacks of these things. I just said, “These are really delicious.”

Had our coffees down in the hotel lobby, maybe they are making sales based on the broken coffee machines in the rooms. The staff were once again super kind and everyone spoke English well. After I paid the bill the staff watched us go and waved goodbye.

In our room we did our final packing (including all those wafers and snacks) and then left for the station to catch a train to Vienna. The station was pretty busy, and we had to kill a little time outside until finally they posted the track number of our train. However as we got close it turned out that we had read the number wrong, and so we stood around for a while until the number showed up. Then there was a major rush to the platform, but we were in a good position.

The train arrived a little early, and there was an initial rush to get seats. Luckily Kuniko is great at grabbing seats on trains and we got some comfortable ones.

On the hour-long train ride we sat and looked out the windows. There was a lot of agriculture and more windmills – today they weren’t spinning. Next to Kuniko a Serbian(?) guy struck up a conversation – he works at Heathrow airport in London and was doing a little traveling. While he was nice there was another bossy guy walking around making sharp comments to his companion. A scary dude or just under a lot stress?

Along the route we passed some very new train stations that were being completed. Judging from all the open fields and empty space I couldn’t understand who was going to use the stations in the future.

Soon enough we rolled into the newly renovated Vienna train station. It was really nice – lots of shops/restaurants and wide open spaces so easy to navigate with luggage. We walked across the street to check into our next hotel – another Motel One like we had used in Innsbruck. This time our room was on the eleventh floor and we once again had a great view of the city. The room was spacious with a really cool wide chair – exactly like I would like to have up in our library at home. Can I fit it into my suitcase?

From there we went by subway only two stops out to the lively Stephenplatz, and had lots of good memories of our previous trip to Vienna. Did a little sightseeing while we made our way to Demel – it was quite crowded on the streets. The Demel cafe was also really crowded – it looked like we’d have to wait in line for a while. We had eaten here before (and you can buy the Demel cakes in Kansai anyway) so we went back out on the street and chose a cafe at random with shade and outdoor seating. Turned out to be an Italian place, so we had wine and panini while we watched all the tourists.

Next to us a group of older Americans were keeping a low profile while they ate, in contrast to some of the other Americans we have come across on this trip. The food and wine were OK but nothing we’d remember for long.

From here we walked over to St. Stephen’s Cathedral which is inspiring no matter how many times you see it. I wasn’t sure we had been inside last time so we walked through it this time, and I think it was the first time for me. Lots of cathedrals on this trip but I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

We both felt like even though we had spent a long time in Vienna last time we were here it felt somehow more elegant this time around. Maybe we were tired the last time we were here? Despite all the tourists the city was quite beautiful, and it was nice just to take it all in without needing to rush from place to place.

After the cathedral we stopped in at the Manner shop. This shop saved us the last time we were here as it was the only store open in the area selling souvenirs. Unfortunately this time there was an odd smell in there (horse pee?) so we didn’t buy anything and went instead to go look for an early dinner.

Since we were in Vienna we went looking for wieners, and found a restaurant called Zwolf Apostokeller – an underground cellar/restaurant. It was still just the middle of the afternoon so we walked right in and got a seat. The design of the place was such that unfortunately the toilet aromas from upstairs were wafting down into the dining area – not good. But we did manage to get some good food out of it.

We had burenwurst (excellent!), debrecziner (spicy sausages – only so-so), and extrawurst (sliced sausages splashed in vinegar, similar to bologne). We also drank lots of red wine. We liked the St. Laurents better than the Zweigelt, both local wines that we saw elsewhere in Austria.

Our waiter was a little weird, he was focusing most of his attention on a big group of Spanish customers, so we didn’t stick around too long after eating. We caught the train back towards the train station, and then checked out the ticket machines as we’ll need an early train to the airport the next morning.

We went over to the big Billa+ supermarket and did some shopping for our evening: a couple bottles of kefir, two mini bottles of sparkling wine, some water and a salad. We do miss eating veggies! We also walked through the HEMA store near the station. It was kind of a ripoff of Flying Tiger, and it was fun to listen to Kuniko talking through all her shopping options. She was asking me lots of questions but soon I realized that she really wasn’t asking me but herself. This was a situation were my presence was totally superfluous.

So back to the room where we watched the view of the city from the totally cool double wide chair that I wanted to steal. While we ate and drank we saw many young people checking into the youth hostel across the way. A quick google search told us that it was only 9 euros a night! I prefer private toilets and sleeping arrangements but, wow – what a great price!

We’ll do final packing tomorrow for our return journey back to Japan.

In the middle of the night I had a dream – I remember that I was climbing a ladder, not sure where or why. I awoke to Kuniko pushing me away – apparently I was trying to climb her like a ladder. I think for both of us it was a hell of a way to wake up!

We arrived at breakfast ready to challenge to sparkling wine, with the option to make it a mimosa if the wine was terrible. But actually it was not bad. The rest of the breakfast was good too – especially those homemade yogurts.

We checked out of the hotel and rolled the suitcase to the nearest Metro station, and it was an easy ride a couple of stations to today’s departure train station: Budapest – Nyugati. The subway system was so efficient that we arrived quite a bit early for our train to Bratislava, and so we sat on a bench and watched them clean and prep the train. Once they began boarding they loaded up someone in a wheelchair using a very manual system of a platform with a wheel to raise it to the level of the train floor. As soon as they were boarded people rushed to get on.

We had a reservation for our seats – it was required when we booked the rail pass for this leg of the journey. The train was pretty crowded, though. Across from us was (maybe) a German couple – two big people who were friendly but quiet. Behind them was a young American couple who boasted to their Korean seat neighbors that they had been traveling for five weeks through Europe. We couldn’t hear any responses from the Korean couple but that didn’t seem to stop the Americans from explaining all the details of their trip. Kind of like what I am doing right now in this journal.

As we traveled along towards Bratislava an older American woman sitting across the aisle from us was taking her first train trip (ever, apparently). She was trying to figure everything out and was verbalizing everything that she was thinking about to whoever happened to be around. She wasn’t sure where she should sit, how the tickets worked, she tried to use American dollars to buy water. This had us and the German couple across from us trying to stifle our giggles as we overheard it.

An unfortunate German lady sitting across from her made the mistake of using English and so she kind of had to adopt the American woman. The poor lady had to answer questions like, “Is this a non-stop train?”, “Is there a restroom nearby?”, “When do we arrive?”, and my favorite: “What state are we in now?”

Luckily she had a reservation for her seat when the train conductor came by, but unfortunately she didn’t print it out – she claimed that this was the first she had heard that it was necessary to print, but every single other passenger had managed it. She had an email, and the conductor insisted that without a print she would have to pay for ticket (again). But at some point the conductor must have decided to cut his losses, and he managed to scan the ticket from her email and move on.

The older lady drifted off to sleep now and then, thereby depriving us of her amusing comments.

Across from us the big German couple set out some beverages that they had brought on board: a Red Bull and a bottle of apple juice. I was surprised when the big guy took the apple juice to drink. I was even more surprised when his wife drank the Red Bull and then settled in with a blanket to go to sleep. Maybe energy drinks work differently in Europe.

We got off in Bratislava while most of the other passengers were continuing on to Prague. Once we got off the train we tried to follow the signs to the exit but surprisingly for an EU country everything was in the local language. We took a few guesses and found the right way but throughout the city we rarely saw English around – I thought that was unusual.

Our hotel was nearby so we walked over but the staff was loudly telling all arriving customers that they wouldn’t open check-in until 3 pm. He was steering people towards either the bar or the luggage storage closet. We chose the closet and decided to go look around while we had the free time.

There were bathrooms down the stairs on the basement level, and so we went down to use them. The decorations were unique, with classic rock playing in the background and a strange sink that sprayed water at your general direction when activated. Kuniko and I were laughing together about getting wet from the sink as we left the toilet and the hotel staff looked at us strangely – rarely are the toilets so amusing.

The first thing we discovered in Bratislava was that it is not easy for pedestrians to get around. Cars and streetcars had priority, and we often had to calculate carefully how to cross streets or get somewhere. Sometimes there were two or three crossing lights for pedestrians, even for just one street. Cars came from both directions and also from turns so you really had to keep your head on a swivel.

This was our first time in the country and the city of Bratislava was much like other European cities. The buildings were old an beautifully decorated with dramatic facades. The scale of the streets and city blocks was bigger than other cities, more like something you’d see in Moscow or Minsk.

As we walked we took pictures and followed our map and eventually found our way to the historic Old Town district. We saw Michael’s Gate, and looked for a cafe to hide from the sun and get some food. We took a side street and found a place called “The Hidden Cafe” – so we sat down and started checking out the menus. One was in Slovakian and one in English, so we could figure out what we wanted easily enough.

The server came up and we did a double take as she was a dead ringer for Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones. Well, almost – she was wearing super tight shorts and a lot of makeup – kind of like a sexy Sansa. So Kuniko pointed at the area of the menu with the glass wine and said she’d like one white wine, but the problem was she had the Slovakian menu and it was the correct location but the opposite side of the paper, so she was pointing at what was in fact onion rings, and asking Sansa for white wine.

After some consultations we were able to communicate our true order with Sansa and we had a good lunch. All the wines we tried were great in Slovakia, and we also had a plate of different dumplings: sour cabbage dumplings, cheese dumplings (with crispy bacon pieces that were phenomenal) and some pierogies. Also we had an oil-marinated wheel of Camembert. All of this was much cheaper than anything we had had so far on this trip – Slovakia is an affordable destination.

Sitting on the street eating we had lots of people walking by, checking out our food or being amused while I took pictures of our meals. Sansa was always there to refill our wine glasses, and the other staff were really nice as well.

We did a little shopping for a keychain, and then found a supermarket nearby called Billa. It is a chain similar to Spar, but we were surprised how low the prices were. There was even a skinned and shrink-wrapped rabbit for sale for just 6 euros. Wow!

Back at our hotel it was still before 3 pm so a big line formed of people waiting to get their rooms. We went to the bar instead, and had some local beers and sparkling wine, and Kuniko also had a lemonade from a special menu that initially confused the staff as perhaps nobody had ever ordered it before. It turned out to be not that great – oops.

Finally the line started moving through the check-in process and we timed it so that we could get our room. We went up to the third floor and Kuniko had gotten a “premium” room – it was really nice. Lots of red, a free mini-bar, a semi-transparent toilet area, and a giant painting of Marilyn Monroe. Wow!

As soon as we settled into the room outside there was a big boom and we were surprised to see a big thunderstorm come through. The timing couldn’t have been better for us – we were dry and comfortable, so it was a good chance to take a nap and start getting hungry for dinner.

Closer to the dinner hour we went back out, navigating in a different direction to see new stuff and look for the Blue Church, one of our primary sightseeing targets. Kuniko led us via Google Maps (which seemed to be pretty ineffective in this country) through some interesting areas – it seemed safe but slightly depressed. There was a lot of graffiti and some “sex shops” but everyone was friendly and there weren’t too many homeless or people loitering around suspiciously.

It took a while to find but at last we found the Blue Church in a normal sort of neighborhood. The scale of it was a little smaller than we expected, but it was still beautiful and unique – maybe the only time we’ve visited a church that was quite blue.

From there we walked along the Danube river back towards the Old Town. I was really liking the vibe of Bratislava. The pace felt slower than other places we’ve been on this trip, and combined with the cooler temperatures (thanks to the rain) it felt really comfortable.

Out on the river super long river ships were passing. Some seemed like ferries that would go long distance, others for eating/entertaining cruises. We saw the UFO at the top of the major bridge – it was pretty unique but we didn’t really feel the need to go up for the view.

More sightseeing around the Old Town – a large cathedral, and another fortress on the hill overlooking the town. We had seen something similar in Salzburg, and I think Bratislava suffered a little in comparison after visiting Salzburg – I’d recommend seeing them in reverse order if possible.

Old Town was gearing up for dinner and there were a lot of people out. The crowd was different from previous cities – we saw almost no tour groups and most people were relaxing and taking it easy.

We passed many restaurants advertising “Slovak food”, but we had already chosen our dinner place, called “Kaliba Kamzik” because it had a large menu and specialized in local foods. We sat outside the restaurant and the server was very helpful while we chose our food and wine. She had a large bandage on her cheek (what happened?) but she was really kind and did a great job.

For dinner we started with a traditional garlic soup, I had bread dumplings stuffed with smoked meats and Kuniko ordered crispy pierogies. While both of our main dishes were a bit too salty and quite heavy, the garlic soup was amazing. The broth was almost clear, with pieces of smoked cheese floating inside that just melted in your mouth. Also there was some kind of lightly fried strips in the soup – it looked and tasted like Japanese atsuage. I really want to try to make something like this when we get back.

The wine was really good here – and we sipped on that while watching people walk by and listening to the very odd background music (is that anime music?). Next to us a local family was having a big night out.

After dinner we did a little more walking around, taking more pictures as it got darker, and finally made a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home. Our hotel room had a coffee machine and we were hoping to buy a small container of milk. Thanks to Google Translate we didn’t buy “soured milk” and so we gave up on the milk idea and went on back to the room.

Bratislava seems like a good place to relax and take things easy. The low prices are a relief after all the expensive places we’ve been so far. We are leaving tomorrow however, and wrapping up our trip in Vienna before heading home to Japan.

We got up at 7 am and decided to head down to our hotel breakfast. And it was not bad, not bad at all! Right off the bat we knew it was different because there were some sparkling wine bottles on ice next to the coffee machine – I’ve never seen that before in a standard hotel breakfast buffet.

But they also had lots of eggs, breads and cheeses, and even some homemade yogurts with some jam lurking at the bottom – yum!

Our plan for Budapest was to do a little bit of minor sightseeing, as we had already covered most of the dramatic spots on our previous visit. The more we looked around this time the more surprised I was that I managed to get all over the city with a big head bandage. This time there was no head injury in Budapest.

Our first stop was the big market hall across from our hotel. We’ve been to these kinds of places in other countries (like Lithuania) and it is fun to see the spices, meats, veggies and cheese that local people have to cook with. Downstairs we found several stands with old ladies selling pickle jars. The pickles were arranged in the jars to make little smiling characters – clever idea and probably all over Instagram by now.

From there we walked to the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library on the border of the Jewish district. It wasn’t open quite yet, so we explored deeper in the Jewish district and came across the Dohány Street Synagogue – a massive structure out of nowhere. We were interested in visiting – we visit so many cathedrals and it is rare to find such a big synagogue in our travels – but judging by all the tour groups queuing up it might have been a long wait. I was shocked to see the price for a ticket – most cathedrals are free and some charge a couple of euros, but the price here was about 13 euros per person. It seemed high for a quick peek inside.

Since we were still a little early for things to open we made our own little pilgrimage to the site of my head injury, the Budapest Marriott. Ah, here is where I walked through the lobby with the paramedics! Oh, I remember getting in the ambulance over here! It was nice to be in the same spot while not bleeding.

Again the weather was starting to heat up, and so we slowly made our way back to the library to cool down and take a look inside. We had to wait in a short line to buy visitor one-day tickets, and as the library is a popular tourist destination the process was easy. We took an elevator to the fourth floor to walk through the “Palace Rooms”. Originally the whole library was a palace, and the upper floors were preserved as they were (with some library books added in) to see the historical context of the building. It was certainly impressive to walk through, and we were there early enough that it was just us and a few students studying at the tables.

After I had hoped to pop into a Ruin Bar nearby, but despite Google’s information it was closed when we arrived. To kill a little time before lunch we instead went down the street and stopped in a little breakfast cafe. We sat at a counter bar and sipped Hungarian sparkling wine, near artwork featuring Jason Momoa.

Besides the sparkling I drank lots of water and even some banana juice to keep my energy up. I was feeling much better since all that sleep back in Salzburg, the more we walked the better I felt.

Around noon we moved from the cafe to Ghetto Goulash, to have some more paprika dishes for lunch. There was a line forming already when we arrived but the staff were happy to seat us outside at a comfortable table. The location and ambiance were great – it felt like a lunch place for locals rather than tourists, and we ordered a couple glasses of kekfrankos while we waited for our food. This time the wine was a little better, but still not meeting the mental bar that we had set. Maybe we were romanticizing the memory of the wine a little?

Our dishes arrived, beef in tomato sauce with egg barley and lamb paprika with egg noodles. They were served simply and both were excellent. We commented that all the paprika dishes we’ve had so far had less tomato base in the sauce than we’d imagined. The recipes we make at home often have a lot of tomato paste so it seems a bit more authentic to tone down the tomato flavor.

The food had good flavor, it was a nice atmosphere, and we really enjoyed our lunch. The staff brought the bill and I noticed for the first time that since we arrived in Budapest nobody has asked us about our tip amount. Later I researched that more and more restaurants just add a service charge to the bill so it is more streamlined. I don’t like tipping at all, but this system at least took a lot of the awkwardness and stress of the tipping custom.

On our way back to the hotel we popped into a convenience store to look for drinkable yogurt. I bought what I thought was vanilla flavored yogurt but got vanilla milk. It was good, though! While navigating the shop we inadvertently stood in front of some staff trying to pass with a cart – we didn’t notice but the staff just sort of shut down instead of saying something, and it was a little surprising. The cashier was totally dead inside – I felt bad for their situation. We found a lot of people that looked unhappy in their jobs this trip.

We found our hotel again, thanks to a big Thai Massage place that advertised across the street. It was a useful signpost for our navigation. Our hotel room had been cleaned so we could really relax and sip vanilla milk and escape the heat of the afternoon for a while. While researching things to bring back from Budapest I stumbled upon the idea to bring tubes of paprika paste back to Japan.

Since the market was right across the street from our hotel we went over and scored a couple to pack in our suitcase. The staff asked me if I wanted the receipt – I said no, and then he handed me the two big tubes, no bag. Kuniko laughed because I had misheard… he asked if I wanted a bag. So anyway, Kuniko had to carry around two big tubes of paprika paste the rest of the day. What a nice wife!

We walked around through town, passing areas that we sort of remembered from before. As the weather cooled it was easier to traverse the city, and every now and then we found something familiar. We were looking for one particular restaurant cafe where we had the best chicken paprika ever – but either it went out business or we mis-remembered the location.

But near St. Stephen’s Basilica we found a place that we had visited before called “0.75 L” – and so we decided to eat there for dinner and see how it was. We ordered some goulash – beef with vegetables, and also a burrata salad to go with the obligatory chicken paprika. More wine and beer – another kekfrankos but still not what we were hoping for. The food here was really good – a little salty but overall a tasty experience.

Right on the plaza in front of the Basilica is a great place to people watch. While we enjoyed our meal we watched our zen-like waitress handle orders from various customers, most using different languages. Two American guys had lots of questions and their order became like a negotiation. Our waitress patiently listened and delivered all the food like a pro.

After dinner we walked to the river, and started across the bridge to maybe take some pictures of the parliament building as it got dark. It was getting dark quickly though, and we were surprised to feel rain coming down. Photo trip cancelled! We instead ran for cover back on the Pest side, and hailed a taxi back to our place.

It was another hot and sweaty day – almost every travel day has been hot. One of the reasons for going to this area was to avoid the brutal heat but I guess it is just about everywhere. Maybe in the future we need to travel to the southern hemisphere for our summer holidays.

We both slept a lot! After going to bed early we got about 12 hours of sleep. Clearly my body needed rest, and looking back on the trip now I think this was the turning point to my quick recovery.

All the same, we wanted to be well-supplied for the long train ride to Budapest, so we went out for some shopping. On Sunday (yesterday) pretty much every shop was closed – they take a Sunday day of rest pretty seriously in the city. So today was the shopping day.

First we bought some snacks from the big EuroSpar next to our hotel. They had lots of interesting stuff there, and it was fun to pick an assortment and hope for the best. I also went in to the drug store to resupply my aspirin. The pharmacist working the counter was unlike any pharmacist I’ve seen in Japan – she was wearing a lab coat, sure, but the cleavage she was pushing out the top was like some kind of Halloween “sexy pharmacist” costume. We managed to find some aspirin/vitamin C combo tablets, and I tried to keep my eyes on her face and not elsewhere while making the transaction.

Back to the hotel to do some final packing, and I asked Kuniko if I could see the reservation ticket to check our seats. She reached into her wallet and… it was gone. She couldn’t find it in her bag, in the room – nowhere. She vaguely remembered throwing away some receipts and papers from her wallet the day before, but the hotel room trash was already taken out. Oh no!

We didn’t want to stand for the five hour trip to Budapest – so we headed to the station to see if we could make another reservation. As we arrived at the station it was clear something was going on. There were a lot of people checking the boards and it seemed like trains were delayed all over the place. The line to the ticket office was really, really long, but we had no choice but to get in line and hope for the best. Kuniko felt really bad about throwing away the ticket, but I didn’t blame her – it was something that could happen to anyone.

Finally we reached the front of the line, and luckily the staff that helped us was much better than the jerk we had last time. He explained that there was a fire on the German side of the border and that no trains were getting through. That meant that the train we had planned to take wasn’t coming, and so we’d need to rebook on another train. We told him we really wanted to have reserved seats whatever the price and he found business class seats for us on the train leaving at 3 pm. It shifted our plans about four hours later, but the idea of having seats for the long trip was totally worth the 50 euros that we paid for two biz class seat reservations. Our rail passes already covered most of the cost, so it was an easy decision.

So it turned out that losing our reservation paper was the best thing that could have happened to us. If we hadn’t lost it we would have checked out of our hotel, went to the platform and only then found out that the train wasn’t coming. We would have tried to rebook another train but it is likely that it would have been booked up by then. Never for us has bad news turned to good news as fast as that.

We walked back to the hotel and requested a later checkout, and the super nice staff said we could do it with a small 20 euro fee, and we jumped at the chance. The staff were so accommodating at this hotel – we were both grateful for the extra time with soft beds, air conditioning and a clean toilet. I didn’t want to have to use the toilet in the container box in front of the station!

So we had a chance to chill out in the room, eat chocolates and drink lots of liquids until it was time to catch our train. When we arrived back at the station with our suitcase, we couldn’t find our train on the board but the staff said it was on platform 4, and sure enough the train was already there waiting. We got on board and took our seats in business class – wow! There was a lot of leg room, a free welcome drink of sparkling wine, and plenty of space for our suitcase and bags. It was so great to go from possibly standing for five hours to reclining with sparkling wine. Once again the judicious use of money at the right moment can really change the situation dramatically.

As the train left we really got into the spirit of things and ordered up a light meal. The staff brought us a plate of Austrian beef and potatoes with a half bottle of red wine for Kuniko, and I had a Greek vegan salad and a tall glass of Austrian wheat beer. The staff was super friendly, opening the bottles, pouring my beer with a flourish, and generally being super helpful.

Later when we paid for the food (by credit card) he asked Kuniko if she’d like to tip. Tipping in Europe is a weird and sometimes awkward situation – I’ll write more on this sometime. She said, “Yes, I’d like to tip. Can you set the tip?” He entered in about 10% of the bill as his tip and it was done.

As the train made its way towards the Hungarian border we saw plenty of modern windmills, generating electricity and making the skyline a bit more dramatic. I hadn’t seen as many since we were in Denmark, where they really went big on wind power.

The staff changed once we entered Hungary, and we had to present our tickets once again. A guy down the way in business class got caught without a ticket, and had to pay for one on the spot. I wondered if there was any sort of penalty for that but it was handled pretty calmly from what we could hear.

After some back and forth on whether we should go out for dinner that night or just get to the hotel, we decided we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to eat a dinner in Budapest. I had a restaurant I wanted to try so we rode the train all the way the Budapest-Keleti station, and then used the Bolt application to get a taxi to the restaurant.

Rather than private drivers Bolt was working with the existing taxi companies, so our transportation was a yellow checkered taxi just like you’d see in New York. As we approached our waiting cab (reserved through the app) other people tried to steal it – for them it was an empty cab just sitting there, and so the driver had to determine if they were the people that had reserved or not. It looked like a pain for the driver, but when we showed my smartphone screen to him he knew it was me and we could go.

It was a short ride to TATI – Farm to Table, the restaurant that I had chosen. The interior was stylish and upscale, not the kind of place you want to show up to with a rolling suitcase. The staff acknowledged our reservation and offered to stash my suitcase in their storage room – nice!

Although the staff were a little snobby I was excited to eat some chicken paprika, and maybe drink some of our favorite Hungarian varietal kekfrankos. They had some on the menu by the glass, so we ordered up our food and waited eagerly for it to arrive. We focused on the pouch of warm bread with chive butter and tried not to fill up on it.

Kuniko ordered the chicken paprika and I ordered sheep dumpling soup with tarragon. The paprika was excellent – not a lot of sauce but the chicken itself was seasoned perfectly it was a slightly more modern take on the classic dish. The soup was excellent too – the tarragon balanced nicely with the meat and broth, I just wish there was more to eat. As for the wine it was a lighter kekfrankos so not as intense as we were hoping for but still OK.

While we ate there was a group of three sitting at the table next to us speaking English. One guy, an American, was talking non-stop about all his world travels and how old he felt as he was approaching forty. The other people struggled to get a word in as this guy was just a firehose of information output. It was hard not to listen and I sort of wished that they were speaking Hungarian so that we wouldn’t have to understand.

After our meal it was a little hard to get the attention of the staff, it seemed like they were not super interested in us or our needs, but finally we could pay the bill and wrap things up. I retrieved our suitcase from their storage area and refrained from stuffing it full of the wine bottles that they had lying around in there.

From there it was back in a taxi and on to our Budapest hotel. The drive was not really direct, but apparently that is just the way the streets work because later another taxi took the same indirect way.

We checked into our hotel and the staff seemed a bit, well, odd. Kind of like checking into a haunted house or something? We were tired and just ready for our room so we didn’t really mind. The elevator had strange controls – just touch panels with no really feedback after touching – unlike a button when you press it. That had us sort of tapping and pushing and pressing in various ways until finally the icon lit up. We didn’t really get good at it until the second day of our stay.

The room was a little different from previous rooms – decorated in a sort of 1970’s American style with lots of browns and tile and old lights. It was clean, though, and so we went straight to bed. Another day another country!

I slept well – even through a freak thunderstorm that blew through overnight. It had woken up Kuniko and she took some dramatic videos of the lightning and rain outside our hotel room. Glad we weren’t out in it!

We got up a bit earlier than the average tourist to try to catch some of the sights. First he we headed to Old Town, and it was a much easier walk when we didn’t have to worry about the heat and sun. On the way we passed a downed tree that had fallen in the storm, taking with it a set of signal lights. It must have been a big one!

In terms of sightseeing we had seen almost all the buildings we wanted to check out, except for two: the church graveyard and the fortress on the hill.

I was busy taking lots of pictures so I left the navigating to Kuniko, and she used her Google map application to guide the way to the graveyard. I followed, enjoying the cool weather as the path looped around the church and then starting going up steps. At the top of the steps was a gentle slope going upwards, which we followed while slowly losing our breath. Before we knew it we were halfway up the hillside, as joggers and people walking with dogs passed us going the other way. I was sweating pretty good now, and wished I had thought to bring a towel.

Google still had us climbing this hillside, and we ended up walking right up to the entrance of the fortress, which had just opened. The staff at the ticket counter was expecting his first sale of the day, but we just turned around and went back. We had wanted to check out the outside of the fortress but we weren’t really looking to go inside and tour the rooms.

So that was how we made it to our second objective and how Google decided it was time for vigorous exercise early in the morning. We had lots of episodes where Google pointed us the wrong way – this was the sweatiest one.

We went down the other side of the hill, capturing pictures of the city and the cathedrals under the fortress. The Sunday church bells were ringing and it was a nice moment to stop and listen. Along the path there was a little shed with a window high up, and a tiny ladder leading from the ground to the window. According to the sign there was a cat living in there who uses the ladder to come and go – how cute!

Around the next bend we passed the local brewhouse carved into the mountainside, Stiegl. It looked pretty old and had beautiful doors – more of a tourist destination than a brewhouse but it looked nice. Big Asian tour groups were starting to appear on the streets and the funicular was starting to run up and down the rails – too bad we went up the hard way.

Finally we found our way to our original destination, the cemetery was hidden behind one of the larger churches, and it was worth the effort. Each grave was really like a garden – somebody really is taking care of the plots. There was a tiny church in the middle of the graveyard and some of the graves looked ancient. It was really quiet there (maybe thanks to Google) but I’m glad we found it and could enjoy looking around.

Nearby was a historic restaurant called Cafe Tomaselli. We stopped in here for omelettes and Prosecco, and it was a nice break. The interior felt very old fashioned. The staff were all old friendly guys who delivered the food on silver trays and cloth napkins. The cakes were all stored in a display case nearby and a poor customer was trying in vain to get someone’s attention so that he could take away some desserts. We timed our visit well as the church services were still going on – I’d hate to imagine how crowded it must be during the post-church rush.

Later we visited the Mirabell Palace grounds, which was very nicely laid out and colorful. After visiting Schonbrunn Palace it was a little unfair to compare Mirabell – I thought it was nice but not really impressive. Also, we were stuck out in the heat and we needed to find more shade. We ended up going to the same cafe as the day before for another Bellini Spritz. I wasn’t feeling great so I had just a passion fruit juice with soda water, and it really hit the spot. The cafe was really busy – a line formed for people waiting to eat and drink there, so I felt a little pressure to get moving.

We headed back to the station, which was just as busy as before. We noticed that they had put a giant container out in front of the station, which had been converted to house toilets for the public. It seemed weird to see people lining up to enter the container – and it didn’t smell very good either.

We took a little siesta back in our room – rotated the laundry around for even drying, and then headed back towards Old Town for dinner.

One of the sights we often passed going back and forth between our hotel and the Old Town area was a couple of shops all run by middle eastern owners. A barber, an Asian restaurant, a pizza place, and a convenience store. Outside there were clusters of middle easterners hanging out, and most of the customers were also the same ethnicity. I only mention this because it was the second city in Austria that we came across these blocks, and I wondered if there was some reason why we’d notice it in Austria more than other countries on this trip.

It was still super hot, and we stopped on the way for a cool down at a bar that promised several wines by the glass. I also ordered a big bottle of water to drink with the wine, and it was nice to cool down. The place was playing classic rock, and it had a nice view of the plaza outside. These kinds of places are all over Europe and it is no big deal to have a drink and just relax and kill time there. No pressure to order more or move on, which is pretty nice.

Dinner was at a traditional place in Old Town called Sternbrau. We sat outside in a square underneath a shady tree, and there were lots of tables out there mainly filled with tourists. Since we were tourists as well, it seemed natural to eat there. Mainly we were there because the signature dessert dish of Salzburg is sold in a size that is more reasonable. But before dessert we ordered up some food and wine. Kuniko had a goulash that was quite good – another big rich meaty dish. I had a cheese plate and a sausage/bologna plate covered in pickled red onions. I think mine was actually two appetizers – I was getting tired of these monster main courses. It was actually refreshing to eat them – even though Kuniko accidentally ate the butter thinking it was cheese. It was the same mistake we made back in Estonia – why hide the butter within the cheese?

Finally we ordered the dessert – Salzburger knockerl. Usually served in a big pan it consists of three mountains of sweetened soufflé, usually with some fruit sauce. We knew we’d never finish a dish that big so we came to this restaurant as their menu featured “Salzburger knockerl for one”. After ordering there was a long delay – the other food had come out quickly so we were starting to get worried.

Kuniko was concerned and asked the waiter (who was replacing our original waiter – maybe it was the end of his shift). The waiter checked our order and said that the dish takes some time and we’d just need to be patient. No problem – we’ll chill and wait.

Less than two minutes after he told us that he showed up with the dish. I’m glad we asked about it.

And it was indeed just one mountain peak of soufflé, but it was exactly the same size as the traditional three peaks – just one huge mountain instead of three big mountains. It was sweet, delicious and it came with a bowl of raspberries and sauce to go with it. We couldn’t finish the dish as hard as we tried, but I think we did OK. I certainly know that anybody that finishes it alone probably needs to be checked for diabetes.

Eventually the bill came, and as Kuniko was picking up the tab I indicated to the waiter that he should present the check to her. He punched in the total from the bill into the little machine, and asked us the now familiar question: “Would you like to add a tip?” I was very proud that Kuniko replied with a simple “No.” She used her card to pay and we left. I didn’t like the tipping situation where the staff looks right at you and asks for a tip – it seems to be using social pressure to force money out of you. Very weird, but Kuniko did the right thing.

So then we walked slowly back to hotel, now that the sun was setting it was easier. I was really losing steam and so back at the hotel I took the last of my travel aspirin and tucked into bed early. It was only about 7 pm but I needed to get some rest and build up my appetite for Budapest.

Morning in Innsbruck brought a much different feeling. We walked around doing some sightseeing in the sunshine. No hooligans were out at that time in the morning, and we ate breakfast at “Breakfast Club”, were served omelets stuffed with alpine cheese by a cute server, and had two hot cups of coffee.

We did a lot of sightseeing and enjoyed seeing parts of the city that we missed last night. It looked comfortable and welcoming, and back in the historic center it was beautifully framed by the mountains above. The sun was catching The Golden Roof just right, making brilliant reflections and very nice photos. It was like a completely different place.

With our sightseeing complete we got another cup of coffee and a pastry at a Middle Eastern bakery. The mom made the coffees for us, and we sat outside and enjoyed the brisk early morning air. The bakery seemed family run, and even though her sons looked like gangsters on their phones the mom did a great job with the coffees and was super nice to us.

One thing I noticed around town were signs here and there saying HOTEL ROUTE -> but I’m not sure what they were for. Buses? Tour guides? Customers? The signs often had a color coded square as well, but I just couldn’t figure them out.

After two coffees we made haste back to the hotel to use the bathroom and pack up our stuff, and slowly made our way to the train station for a two train ride to Salzburg. The train came after only a few minutes of waiting, and we quickly found some good seats in first class with our suitcase above us in the overhead rack.

Once again a beautiful ride through great scenery, crisscrossing a scenic river as we went. At one point I checked my phone map and GPS and we were cutting through Germany on the way to Salzburg. This trip covered more countries than I had expected.

The train pulled into Salzburg station, which busier than I had expected. We followed the crowds out the front entrance and there were a lot of people waiting around. It was hot in the sun, but not far to our hotel, called the H+ Hotel, almost next to the station. We asked if we could checkin having arrived pretty early, and the staff was super nice and said that it would be no problem.

While we were finishing up our check in, another couple came in checked in as well. The man wanted to be sure that the extras he had paid for were ready – he had paid for early check in and also a bottle of champagne ready in their room. I guess I should have thought of that!

As we crossed the lobby we passed a Korean couple – the first Asians that we had seen on this trip in a while. Upstairs our room was nice – very spacious – and most importantly had a lot of hangers in the closet. It was time to do our mid-trip laundry.

Both of us like traveling light, and that means fewer socks and underwear in the suitcase and a little laundry in the sink. We hung everything up around the room and let them air dry while we enjoyed the city. First step, find someplace that was serving drinks.

Once again the area near the station wasn’t the best, which is pretty much the exact opposite of Japan. We walked past a few bars and gambling joints until we found a seat open in front of what looked like a friendly little cafe. We had sat down and ordered our drinks when just then two more people came over and sat down next to us, and lit up their cigarettes. That’s the bad point about cafe culture in Europe – you’re likely to get smoked out if you aren’t careful. We relocated inside and enjoyed a plush animal print sofa – with the same pattern you find worn by old ladies from Osaka.

After our drinks we struck out for the Old Town and historic areas for a little sightseeing. As we walked south we found more and more tourists, and another hot day out in the sun. Salzburg Old Town was similar to other places we have visited in terms of shopping – all the brand stores mixed in with cafes and tourist shops, most of which are housed in beautiful historic buildings. Where Salzburg was different was the dramatic cathedrals in the south part of town, with the imposing fortress on the hill behind them. The beauty of these buildings and how they were laid out was amazing. The scale of everything was just over the top, and we couldn’t stop taking pictures in a vain attempt to capture what it was like.

We knew that the next day would be Sunday, so we went into every church and cathedral on our list. We wanted to see things without the services going on in the background. After a lot of this we decided to grab some dinner, so we went to a place on my list: The Goldene Kugel. It was a traditional place where we ordered some pork neck roast with potatoes and au jus sauce. Kuniko had a unique kind of meatloaf in a tiny little tin, some pickled yellow peppers, and we had two salads – it had been a while since we could eat veggies. We washed these down with beer and wine (both delicious).

Outside the restaurant was a steady stream of tourists walking by. Some dude was disguised as a shrub along the walking path, and people watched with great amusement as he waited until an unsuspecting passerby got too close and then jumped out at them. Kuniko failed to see the humor, but everyone was really eating it up. Strangely there was a guy in a full clown outfit eating with his family at another table. The circus was really in town. Even inside where we were eating there was a strange guy at the window drinking heavily and speaking to nobody in particular. Good food but weird vibe!

We went back north a bit and visited Mozart’s house. He wasn’t home but we did buy a keychain for our collection. The shop staff looked completely empty – totally not into the whole shopkeeper thing. I hope she finds a better job someday.

Throughout town we kept seeing signs for bus tours covering the famous spots from the movie The Sound of Music. They were called Panorama Tours, I guess from the famous scene at the beginning of the movie with Julie Andrews spinning away in the mountains.

Halfway back to the hotel we stopped into a little cafe bar for more outdoor drinks. Kuniko had a Bellini Spritz (excellent!) and I had a rosé after the staff said the alcohol for cocktails was not available. The wine wasn’t bad though, and the atmosphere of the place was great.

Back at the train station we waited in a short line to make reservations for our next train trip, to Budapest. Our rail passes do not include reservations and I thought since my health wasn’t great it would be nice to be assured that we could sit down rather than have to stand up for five and half hours. The clerk we had was not a happy guy. I asked for a reservation for our train the day after tomorrow, and showed him the train number we wanted. He sold me the reservation and I paid in cash, then as we were walking away I noticed that it was for tomorrow – not the day after tomorrow. Back in line and I explained that there was a mistake and we’d like to reserve on the correct day. He said, “You told me tomorrow…” and sighed dramatically. I resisted the impulse to argue with him and just asked him to change it. He eventually did, but unfortunately we weren’t in first class anymore – he said first class was booked for that day. A part of me doubted this and thought maybe it was his form of punishment, but who cares and we got the ticket from him. Kuniko folded it in half and put it in her wallet for safekeeping, and the unpleasant task was complete.

Finally we went back to the hotel room to get some rest and watch our clothes dry out. We’ll be doing a lot more sightseeing tomorrow before the crowds wake up.

Before we left Zurich we wanted to say a final farewell to Roger so he met us in the morning for coffee at a nearby cafe. We thanked him again for all he had done for us – taking time off from work, driving us from the airport, buying us a great dinner. We talked a little about work culture in Switzerland versus Japan, and enjoyed the funky vibe of the cafe while sipping coffees.

Afterwards he walked us to a couple of places to look for luxembourgli – the Swiss version of macaroons. The shop he brought us to was a bit upscale. The shopkeeper gave us each a free sample – we had cheesecake flavor which was really good. Kuniko ended up buying a small package of 4 luxembourgli, so at that rate I don’t think the store will be very profitable. Kuniko led us to a bakery nearby that she had wanted to try yesterday, and they were selling Tirggel – a sort of honey cookie that I had wanted to try out. Roger was surprised to find it available in summer – I guess it is more of a holiday cookie. The ones we bought were in a small package labeled as “Romantik” size.

Back at the hotel we showed our room to a curious Roger, and then checked out and said our goodbyes at the station. Roger took a local train back to his home and we did some shopping at the station, picking up a cute keychain for our Christmas tree.

We caught our train out of town, but it was a little hard to find seats. Finally we found a couple of seats that seemed available – later we figured out that they are for the people who would accompany someone in a wheelchair. There was someone in a wheelchair nearby, but as they were traveling alone the seats were OK to take.

We ended up sitting next to an American guy who boarded after us. He introduced himself and he was a retired software engineer living in Plainfield, Indiana. He was traveling around Europe, heading next towards Italy – Venice, Florence and Rome. It was good to talk about his impressions of Europe and the software business in general. We exchanged contact information just in case he plans on visiting Japan in the future.

We got off at the next stop – Buchs – which is the closest Swiss town to Liechtenstein. My original idea was take an Uber there, but the application wasn’t working. There were plenty of Ubers in Zurich, but none out so far I guess. Next plan was a taxi, but none available. Finally we did what everyone else was doing and we bought two tickets on the bus. As it happened a direct bus was waiting right there, so we could get right on. Easy! We snacked on Kuniko’s luxembourgli while we waited.

The bus went right into Vaduz, and using our maps and the GPS we were able to get off at the stop right next to our destination, the wine cellars of the Prince of Liechtenstein.

We rolled into the tasting room complete with suitcase and found a very nice set up. We grabbed a seat inside the tasting room, and the friendly staff explained all about the winery and the wines made there. She pointed out right away that most of the grapes are actually grown in Austria, as the land there was originally the home of the royal family that would eventually start the country of Liechtenstein. Outside the winery was a vineyard or two of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and we could also taste wines made from those grapes.

On the whole we enjoyed the wines. Most were made in a lighter style, the sparkling wines were better than I expected and the whites a little bit better than the reds. Our tasting included six wines, and the poor staff had her hands full with four different groups of customers/tasters. When we left she asked which wine we liked best and I said I liked their Blanc de blanc sparkling wine, and she said that her father was the winemaker. He did a great job!

We took the suitcase for a seven minute walk south to the restaurant that I had picked out, called Adler. It was a bar/restaurant as part of a hotel in central Vaduz, and they had a menu of traditional foods. I had kassenspatzli (flour dumplings with lots of cheese and fried onions, with a dollop of applesauce). Kuniko had roasted salmon with veggies and a unique kind of red rice that had a firm texture. I had a local beer with my meal, Kuniko had sparkling wine, and the food was great. I guess we were hungry again because we were scraping our plates clean.

After lunch we walked around the central downtown of Vaduz, checking out the government buildings and seeing most of the country during a very short walk. It was bright and sunny so we had to be on the lookout for patches of shade to escape the heat. We saw some churches, the parliament building, the royal palace on the hill (under construction). We scored another keychain (very pricey!), and then started to try to figure out how to catch a bus back to the train station in Switzerland. Eventually we figured it out, and soon enough we were back in Buchs waiting for our train to Innsbruck.

We waited a while in the convenience store drinking water, juice and getting into those “Romantik” honey cookies. I wasn’t sure about the texture – they were firm as hell. The flavor was nice, but it felt an awful lot like chewing cardboard. Thick cardboard.

We decided to wait for the train on the platform, but when we arrived it was already there. We boarded in first class, and the cars were deserted. It was really spooky, like a zombie movie. Above the seats there was a small digital readout that said “ggf.reserviert” which according to Google meant “reservation possible”. Hmm.

We took seats anyway, and after about ten minutes another train pulled up, and pretty much every passenger of that train transferred to the one we were on. We were in the right place, and we kept our seats the rest of the way.

The next leg of the ride was just as beautiful. On both sides of the train tracks there were dramatic peaks and huge mountains, ravines, rivers and tiny villages surrounding a church. I often saw fields of corn – which was odd because we rarely saw corn on the menu during this trip. Maybe grain for the cattle? In some of the deep countryside we’d spot small cabins – too small for living but they must have served some purpose out there. I also saw more than one ladder in the forest up to a shooting blind, so hunting must be big here. There were some campgrounds that looked nice, even a waterskiing facility where the skiers held on to a handle connected to an overhead cable system. So much to see! At

Part of sitting in first class meant that staff were always asking if they could bring you anything from the restaurant car. I had a hot coffee while riding and you just need to pay anytime before you get off the train. I was feeling a sore throat coming on, so the hot liquid was an attempt to burn the engine clean. I was hoping not to catch a cold in the middle of our trip!

The train arrived a little late into Innsbruck, but since our hotel was right near the station we weren’t worried. As we rolled our suitcase towards the hotel we instantly felt a difference around us. The area was a lot dirtier than anything we’d seen so far, with lots of old guys drinking and some homeless people sitting around on the ground.

Once we reached the front desk of the hotel there was a loud group of young men who were goofing off, and so the feeling of unease grew a little bit more. The room itself was very nice – we had a room on the eighth floor with a spectacular view of the mountains overlooking Innsbruck, some of them with a slight dusting of snow on top.

When we took the elevator back down to the ground floor there was a large puddle of water in the middle – what happened here? Once outside we were headed to the historic Old Town, but to get there we had to walk through some dodgy neighborhoods. We passed a surprising amount of Middle Eastern markets and restaurants, discos, betting parlors, and bars. All the staff and customers were Middle Eastern and it seemed like they had built a community here. There were quite a few supermarkets open so we made a mental note to stop in and buy some water and supplies on the way back.

Although the neighborhoods we passed were pretty dinghy (and maybe a tiny bit scary) once we arrived at the Old Town area things looked much better. There were lots of shops and restaurants, crowds of tourists looking for dinner on a Friday night, and some sightseeing spots and beautiful architecture.

We checked out a few restaurants and settled on a traditional one called Ottoburg. We grabbed a table and although there were open tables when we arrived it soon became completely full. The place also had a lot of what seemed like regular customers – they were talking with the staff and managers like they came every day.

Kuniko ordered a sparkling wine that came in a huge glass, but strangely tasted like was watered down. My red wine was good, and then we had dinner – Kuniko ordered the “deer pan” – a dish with stewed deer meat, beets, spaetzel, and a citrus jam on a slice of orange. I had vegetarian dumplings in a butter cheese sauce, very oily! I thought it was a healthier choice but maybe not.

On one side of us a group of regulars were eating these huge sized portions – more food than we eat in two days they are consuming at once. On the other side of us a couple had brought their two dogs along on leashes, and as I watched one dog slipped its leash and made a run for it. I nodded toward the guy and he was able to catch the dog, but it was close.

I was getting a little hot and sweaty sitting there, so we decided to go rest back at the hotel. We walked back into the slightly scary area, and now that it was getting dark the vibe was even stronger. As we crossed one street some young guys in a car burned rubber and skidded out near us, putting us on edge. All the supermarkets that we had previously seen had closed up, and so we had nowhere to go but the station for shopping. The station shops were also closed – it wasn’t that late on a Friday so WTF? We ended up finding a bookshop open that was selling waters, but we had to ring the bell for the staff to come from the back room and he looked supremely pissed that we had bothered him.

Finally we made it back to the hotel and Kuniko was asking me what the hell we were even doing here. I was also starting to feel the sore throat even more, so hopefully water and sleep will help. It was a rough and spooky night in Innsbruck for us!

We woke up craving some good coffee, and since this hotel didn’t have an included breakfast we went out to the station to look for a cafe. We found one right across from the station – it was called Gourmet Cafe and it looked like they mostly serve champagne and desserts during the day but they were serving lattes to us. The staff wore suits, there was gold and brass and wood and it looked like a pretty upscale place. The coffees were great, and even came with a tiny sliver of Swiss chocolate to snack on.

On our way back to our hotel we decided we could go for one more cup of coffee so we stopped in at the hotel bar/restaurant (open 24 hrs) and had a coffee there. The hotel we were staying in was quite nice, in a renovated building that once included a movie theater. They decided to go with the movie theme at the hotel and so there was a lot of art deco design and even a free movie every night in one of the theater rooms that they preserved.

Today’s plan was all about sightseeing in and out of Zurich. The last time we had come there wasn’t much time for looking around because we happened to arrive during a huge street festival. It is an annual festival and by chance we had missed it by only two days this year – good timing! We went to the lakeside to see two big sights: Fraumunster and Grossmunster. Two elaborate cathedrals that make up the skyline of that side of Zurich.

It seemed like Chinese group tourism was making a comeback as there were more than a few groups of Chinese tourists walking around. They could have been from Taiwan – not sure – but it has been a long time since we’ve seen as many as there were before the pandemic.

Kuniko had requested getting out of town to visit St. Gallens to see an elaborate cathedral, and a historic library. We decided to get some train tickets and take a ride out of town. We were surprised at the price. Two round trip tickets cost about 110 Swiss francs – wow! It is much cheaper to travel by train in Japan, and I thought it was expensive there.

It was about an hour on a double decker train to the north. As we traveled we had a top floor view of the Swiss countryside. As we discovered last time it is like taking a train through a fairy tale. Every area is immaculately sculpted and devoid of any kind of weed or invasive vines. There are forests surrounded by green fields, a surprising amount of manufacturing and offices in clumps around the cities, and in an odd contrast some creative graffiti near the otherwise clean rail lines.

Later it was a big contrast to see the countryside of other countries – Switzerland was just at a different level.

Eventually the conductor came by the check our tickets, and we were surprised to see that he was like twelve years old. Then we noticed that he was accompanied by another staff who was monitoring his work and helping him with his job. I’m guessing it was a sort of work trial or other education program – but it caught us off guard. He did a good thought!

We arrived in St. Gallens hungry, so we stopped at the first outdoor cafe that we came to. It was outside the tourist area and more of a business lunch kind of place, but we were so hungry we didn’t care. The staff was overworked and surprisingly not so good at English, but we managed to order some food and drinks. I had a burger and fries (my first choice was sold out) and Kuniko had a club sandwich. The burger was much better than I expected – a long ways better than a McDonald’s burger.

After we paid the bill (and the tip) the waiter’s English skills suddenly improved and he commented that he had visited Japan and really enjoyed it. He seemed like a pretty happy guy, just too busy at work at the moment.

After lunch we walked through the historic part of the town with a lot more shops and restaurants, and came at last to the abbey and cathedral area. It was covering a wide space and the cathedral was quite tall and dramatic, decorated inside in a baroque style. We were kind of spoiled after the spectacular cathedral in Malta, but this was still worth the trip. We had to buy special tickets to see the library, and although they were expensive it was eventually worth seeing. We still had to pack our bags into lockers, and wear some funny slippers before we could enter.

The library was filled with as much woodwork as books and although the total size wasn’t big the room was quite impressive. We’ve been to a few libraries in our journeys (and we were to see another one in Budapest), but this was one of the better ones. The highlight was a giant globe painted to represent the earth as they knew it at the time, and it was interesting to see the mistakes and misunderstandings in how they perceived the world.

At one point a class of kids was allowed to climb the staircase and walk around the top balcony. Adults weren’t invited so it pays to be a kid sometimes.

There were more exhibits underground but we couldn’t really figure out how to get there. Another exhibit in a separate building had some important local historical significance, and the staff seemed eager for us to stay and watch a movie about it, but we felt like we had seen what we wanted to see and ducked out without watching the movie.

On the way out of town we stepped into Flying Tiger to look for anything interesting (not this time) and then caught a train back to Zurich. Since we were on our own today we tried to think about where/what to eat, but after all the heavy food we’ve been consuming we thought about just buying some wine and cheese and staying in at our hotel.

With the help of Google Sensei I found an expensive department store with a big cheese selection, so we walked directly from the train station to the underground department store for some shopping. The cheese was kept in a temperature controlled room, and the staff was nice enough to let us taste whatever we wanted. It was a huge selection of Swiss cheeses, and it was hard to limit myself. I ended up buying three types (100 g each) and the price was only 13 Swiss francs. It would have costed ten times that back in Japan.

Besides cheese we picked up a beet salad, some stuffed peppers, and a bottle of Prosecco made in Zurich (really?) and a big jug of pineapple juice. We set everything up in a sort of buffet in our hotel room, and enjoyed drinking, eating and resting. These kind of breaks from traditional western dining experiences are very refreshing.

After dinner we walked around town a little more to stretch our legs. Down by the lake we sat and spaced out – watching people fly a drone over the water, swans begging for food from people lakeside, and a boat coming in from the lake to drop off some hotel guests. Eventually we walked back towards the hotel and stopped in for a yogurt passion fruit gelato to eat on the way.

Soon after that we were hitting the hay early. Tomorrow it is time to pack up and continue the journey to our next destination.

We were up fairly early today, and went right upstairs to enjoy our last rooftop breakfast. On the third time the staff seemed to recognize us (they didn’t ask for our room number this time) and even offered to mix in some cheese/ham into our eggs. Also for the first time we saw some other guests of the hotel at breakfast – until now we were dining alone.

After breakfast we went back down to our room for a little more rest and to pack up our stuff. Before we checked out we realized that we hadn’t eaten one of Malta’s signature dishes – pastizzi. These fried pastries are filled with various things – cheese, green peas, meats, whatever. We walked down the strip and bought three different kinds, and then brought them back to the hotel. The hotel front desk staff saw the bag and asked if we had bought some pastizzi – I claimed that they were just a supplemental breakfast. We ate one of them while it was still hot – the ham & cheese one – and it was really good. We put the rest in our bag to snack on at the Malta airport.

Checking out was easy and we caught another Bolt ride, this time to the airport. We arrived in minutes – and had plenty of time to kill at the airport. Besides snacking on the pastizzi we sat around people watching, drinking lots of water, and waiting for the check in line to open up. Surprisingly it opened up while we were walking by, and we were some of the first passengers to finish. Without our suitcase we went through security, and then on to the gate area where we found a cafeteria-style restaurant that served Prosecco. Woo-hoo! I grabbed two small bottles and checked out, and asked the staff for some cups. They gave me big wine glasses instead – nice!

As we sipped our drinks in the corner the airport terminal got busier and busier. There were a lot of young people wrapping up their party time at Malta, and there were fewer and fewer seats available to rest. It pays to get there early!

Eventually we caught a bus from the boarding gate out to the airplane, which was located a surprisingly long distance away. As the bus drove we passed huge construction sites, so I expect that Malta airport will be quite different in the future.

Our flight was somewhat delayed, but finally we could get on board. As we approached our seats we were surprised to see another couple sit down in them, making the guy sitting in the aisle seat get up so they could pass by and sit down. When we arrived we pointed out that they were in the wrong seat – just one row off, and they had to get back out, causing the aisle seat guy to have to get up again. Then we squeezed past him and took our seats. I was wondering if we should have just taken the other couple’s seats, but in the end our seats had a better view out the window so I was glad we did it. Unfortunately the aisle seat guy had a pretty ripe aroma, and so we had to put up with that for the flight.

I’m not much for views from the airplane but in this case we were flying pretty low and over some dramatic terrain. We watched Malta disappear below us, and then turned north, passing the coastline of Sicily to our east. The view of the island from the plane was complete, right down to a clear view Mt. Etna on the eastern side. I had originally considered a visit to Sicily as part of this trip, but in the end thought is was a little too much for the time we had. And later we heard that Mt. Etna erupted just a few days after we had flown by – so I guess it was a good thing we missed it.

Once we got to mainland Europe we passed over some strange coastlines in France(?) and then over the snowy Alps descending into Zurich. Upon landing the passengers broke into applause, which is a custom that we don’t see very often. Where does it come from I wonder?

We quickly got our suitcase and then found Roger waiting for us right outside the gate. It was great to see him! It had been a long time since he and his friend Phillip had visited us in Japan. He hadn’t changed a bit – still positive and friendly as ever. He drove us from the airport to our hotel in his car, and as we drove he filled us in on what he has been doing lately. It was great to catch up with him.

After dropping us off at the hotel he left to park his car and come back, and we went inside to check in. In the lobby was Phillip, patiently waiting for us. It was great to see him and very kind of him to come out and meet us. He wore a smiley face t-shirt with a big mustache – very stylish.

After we checked in and dropped off our bags in our room we went back downstairs and met Phillip to go out for drinks. We walked across the river to find a riverside outdoor cafe called The Rathaus, and ordered up a few beverages. Phil told us what he has been up to – getting over an antibiotics treatment, feeling better now and recently made partner at his company!

Roger showed up a little later, bringing along a special guest – Johnny! We had met Johnny ten years ago while dining with Roger at Maya’s restaurant on Lake Zurich, and he had been kind enough to drive us back after dinner. He was little greyer but he still had the same sharp sense of humor and still flirting with all the boys in the area. He especially was paying attention to our waiter, who was admittedly pretty good looking.

We drank some wine, Kuniko ordered a cocktail called “Schlampe” which means “Bitch” in German – that was good for a few laughs and Kuniko and I will never forget the word now. Johnny had us ordering another round while he insisted that we teach him how to say “big dick” in Japanese. He promptly taught it to our cute waiter who enjoyed dropping it around at surprising times. Kuniko was a little shocked with all the vulgar talk but it was good to have fun with these guys and relax.

Being back in Zurich was great – it felt exactly the same. The temperature was much cooler than Malta, not many flies (just a few wasps), and we sat outside watching the river go by. As usual you can tell that there is a lot of money in Zurich, and it felt clean and safe. We had really enjoyed our last visit, and it was good to be back.

After our drinks we all made our way towards the restaurant that Phillip had reserved for dinner. Johnny continued on to another appointment but it was great to see him and I’m glad that it worked out that he happened to be around.

The restaurant we visited was a sort of traditional place, in an old armory building. The tables were long and shared, similar to beer halls in Munich, full of dark brown wood and high ceilings. Despite our reservation there was still a bit of a wait, and as we walked to our tables we passed customers drinking from giant beer steins. Some looked larger than 2 Liters which is a fairly big beer commitment.

Kuniko ordered a traditional dish that we hadn’t tried last time, veal in a mushroom gravy sauce served with a big rosti (potato pancake). I had creamy beef dish seasoned with a hint of curry that really knocked our socks off. Roger and Philip recommended a starter so we had a big salad that was mostly just Gruyeres cheese and sausages, with a few pieces of lettuce and a couple boiled eggs. It was huge, and thankfully everyone else helped us with it.

I had a smaller beer – a local IPA that was quite good – and Kuniko had a local red wine (Pinot Noir) that was also tasty. There was something about how they ordered wine – instead of one wine you should order by mL. So if I said “two wines” it wasn’t clear how you wanted it delivered. We’ll need to work this out in the future.

We had two different waiters, and again I was impressed how they switched between languages as necessary. Our second waiter had sharp eyebrows and a passing resemblance to Nicholas Cage. He was a pretty funny guy too.

We passed out some gifts and snacks from Japan to the guys, and continued catching up on what everyone has been doing. They recommended dessert (already we were pretty full) so we relented and shared a caramel pudding. Roger ordered a monster meringue spiked with raspberries and ice cream. We helped him with that, but it was a lot of food.

Roger and Phillip split the bill and paid for us, and since we had paid for them long, long ago at a Kobe beef place it was hard to argue with them. But maybe it was a good think because of the rapid weakness of the yen. Roger went on home after that, and Phillip gave us a quick walking tour of the area before leading us back to our hotel.

It was great to see these guys, and we said goodbye to Phillip for this trip – hopefully we’ll have a chance to see Roger again later on during our stay. Once again we went to bed with very full bellies.

Despite our full stomachs from last night we were up early and heading upstairs for the rooftop breakfast. Something about the hot eggs, coffee and fresh orange juice – there’s always room for those. I chose a honey yogurt, with an ingenious design where you could tip a connected honey container into the yogurt container – and just let it drip in. Once again the views were great at breakfast, and the rising sun’s rays were shining across the table making breakfast a bit more poignant.

Today’s mission was to get out of Valletta a little and see some other parts of Malta. First, we used Google to find a walking course to the ferry terminal on the northwest side of Valletta that had eluded us the previous day. As we approached on the road we were passed by a delivery truck that made some familiar sounds – it was a truck imported from Japan with a Japanese voice warning about turns and kanji saying that it specialized in shrimp. Kuniko said the phone number on the side was an Osaka area code – how did it end up on Malta?

We stood under a tented area and waited for the next ferry – there were just a few people in front of us. As we waited more people started to show up, but since the sun was shining and the tented area was small people kind of spread out helter skelter instead of lining up officially. When the ferry started to come in we could see that it was a pretty big one.

A couple that had arrived after us gestured that we could board first, but I said that it looked like we’re all going to be OK so please go ahead. By weird coincidence when we were getting off the ferry on the other side we ended up near the couple again, and the woman gestured to us that we could go first – she said “we’ll all get there in the end” – kind of repeating back what I said in a more profound way.

As we approached the Sliema area of Malta by ferry we had great views. The water was deep and blue and fish were darting here and there. The area of Sliema was more modern than the historical area where we came from, and facing it was Manuel Island, with a fortress commanding a view of the bay. Despite the breeze it was getting hot – serious sunburn risk! We went through a lot of sunscreen on this trip.

After getting off the ferry we did a little shopping in the area at some of our old favorite European stores: Spar and Flying Tiger. We walked along the streets in the shade until we reached Tigne Point, went to an air conditioned shopping mall for the clean restrooms, and then walked around the point snapping photos of Valletta from this side. Already there were swimmers in the ocean – they had steps in stone going down to the water and it looked like a good day for a dip.

After getting our fill of the area we caught a 20 minute ride using the Bolt application to the southeast area of the island, a fishing village called Marsaxlokk. The village has a picturesque harbor with lots of fishing boats painted with blue and rainbow colors. Out here the sun was beating down, so as we walked around enjoying the scenery it was essential to look for shade.

The restaurant that I had hoped to visit for lunch was closed that day for some reason – you can’t trust Google for restaurant opening times – but there were plenty of other places to choose from. Besides restaurants there were some open air shops selling liqueurs, breads and other little knickknacks.

Eventually we chose a restaurant with outdoor shaded dining, right next to the water. While we waited there was a family working on their boat – they all were wearing tight and minimal swimsuits, and looking forward to a day out on the water.

Lunch was a shrimp cocktail (with raw shrimp, yum!), fried fish (not really tempura but quite good), and arancini with squid ink. I had a local craft beer, and Kuniko had a coconut/mango mojito that turned out to be a little too sweet. While we ate and drank there was a constant battle to bat away the flies and wasps that showed up. This was a recurring theme throughout our visit – but it kept Kuniko busy and at least there weren’t mosquitos like we have back in Japan.

After paying the bill the manager offered us free coffee or drinks on the house if we wanted to stay a while – we didn’t take him up on the offer but it was a very nice gesture. All the staff of the restaurants were fluent in not only English, but also the local Maltese language and it seemed like they spoke Italian as well. It was impressive to watch the staff switch languages effortless between customers and somehow knowing the right language to use at the right time.

On our car ride back to our hotel area we could again check out the landscape. We passed a pretty dramatic cemetery with large gravestones, and most of the buildings were built with the same materials and so had a similar color pattern – a sandy beige that blended in with the terrain. There were vineyards here and there to provide the wine that we had tasted, but other than that not a lot of green.

Back at the hotel we found that our room had been cleaned, so we celebrated with a little wine from the hotel fridge, writing in this journal, and I ended up taking a nap. I was surprised when Kuniko woke me up – she had been awake the whole time and I had slept for several hours. Now we had about 20 minutes to get to our dinner reservations down the street. I certainly slept a lot during this trip – but I guess that is all part of being on vacation.

Our restaurant tonight was called Nenu the Artisan Baker – a sort of touristy traditional place that had come recommended online. After wiping the sleep from my eyes it was just a short walk from our hotel, and we stepped inside and walked down some transparent(!) steps over a diorama of early island life to arrive at the restaurant. We were the first customers, and I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to enter or not.

Despite the touristy feel it seemed like a good place. The staff were mainly south Asian (we saw a lot of immigrants working service jobs on this trip). We figured out the menu and the wine selections – we even had a photo of the in-flight magazine ad that promised a free glass of wine.

Dinner was quite good! We ate fried fish over pickled vegetables, rabbit ravioli that had excellent flavor and made me want to use rabbit meat in future dumpling making sessions. The gravy for the dumplings was really tasty as well – rich and savory. The main course was roasted rabbit – we picked up the pieces and ate them by hand like a roasted chicken. There was a lot of meat here – maybe one and a half rabbits, and it was tough to finish it all while nibbling around all the bones.

The restaurant felt a little like an Italian restaurant based on the decoration and music, but from what I heard there is still a lot of Italian influence on the island. We weren’t that far from Sicily actually – it made sense from a geographical point of view.

As we ate Kuniko kept up the battle against flying insects, and gradually the restaurant started to fill up with customers. Each time a new couple arrived the woman (and only the woman) would go first to the restroom – hmm… Our waiter seemed to be new, so he was getting advice from the manager, also south Asian.

It was a lot of food so we skipped dessert, and headed out to walk off the meal and watch the sunset back near the ferry dock. Walking around town after evening was nice – the sun was down so the streets were cooler, and filled with people enjoying the city and its nightlife. Near the center of the city there was a theater with an instrumental group practicing (the theater itself was empty of spectators) but the music spread through the town and had a sort of dramatic theme to it. There was plenty of live music coming from various restaurants, and nobody was wearing masks or thinking about COVID, which was nice to see.

It was a good time for photos, too. My new(er) iPhone took some pretty good pics with low light, and throughout the trip I was wondering whether to use my phone or my camera, probably frustrating Kuniko who had to wait for me to decide before moving on.

Finally we headed back to the hotel with cannon fire in the background. I guess that you can get used to just about anything – now we don’t really worry with heavy gunfire going on around us. Despite all the sleep I had earlier it was no problem to drift off once again.

After a solid 12 hours of sleep we decided that we should probably get up and take advantage of the cooler morning to do a little more sightseeing. We started off by going to the rooftop of the hotel, which had a lot of tables and a nice view of the eastern harbor of the city. The sun was rising and we were surprised to find someone else up there, recording a time-lapse video. It turned out she was another guest at the hotel, she was from New Zealand and was really nice – we bumped into her quite often during our stay at the hotel.

With her permission I ducked under the camera and took some pictures from the rooftop – taking in the harbor and a huge cruise shop docked there with sleeping tourists not yet ready to debark and explore.

We got our act together and went out ourselves to beat some of the other tourists. This time we wore proper footwear and walked down the street towards the northern coastline. We passed a church that had their door open, and we peeked in. They were preparing a church service on a Monday – interesting. We walked in an unsteady line to the coast and then followed it along towards the harbor that we had seen from the rooftop.

I took lots of photos of the ocean views and the historical buildings. We found ourselves near the lower gardens, and found a large bell structure as a memorial to past soldiers stationed there. Eventually we found our way back to the hotel, and headed up to the rooftop for breakfast.

The hotel breakfast was quite good – the staff prepared what you liked as far as eggs and coffee went, and you could take cold cuts and local cheese, yogurts (I liked the coffee flavored ones), and some fresh squeezed orange juice. We sat on the rooftop dining al fresco, enjoying the food with the view.

Our first stop after breakfast was St. John’s Co-Cathedral. We lined up outside with a few minutes to go before they opened. There weren’t too many people there yet, and when they opened up at 9 am we were one of first few through the doors. From the outside the cathedral is remarkably normal – nothing flashy and it just looked like a big rectangular stone building. Once we got inside it was completely different.

The interior was dramatically decorated – every surface was engraved with messages for and from the dead. We walked on floors made up of stone slabs colorfully decorated with messages, skulls and angels. It was one of the best cathedrals I have ever visited – just so beautiful. We covered most of the rooms, the crypt, the balcony, and again I went nuts with the photos.

Elsewhere we visited the Triton fountain, where several greenish “fish people” frolicked in a large pool that sprayed water in various directions. It must evaporate a lot of water in this heat.

By now the buses had started discharging tour groups near the southwest gate of the city center, and it was amazing how many people were coming in. Before it got out of hand we snuck in a visit to the Upper Barrakka Gardens, a scenic (but quite dry) garden of trees and fountains that looked like it would be much nicer with a bit more water.

We decided to take a break back at a cafe across from the cathedral, and engage in some relaxing in the shade and watching the world pass by. We ordered a local soft drink called Kinnie – a sort of sweet and bitter soda that I liked but was a bit too sweet for Kuniko so she switched to prosecco. I had a Cisk Excel beer – which turned out to be the low carb version of regular Cisk beer. It was a typical hot weather lager, refreshing but not very special. Since we were drinking we shared a Maltese platter – a sandwich of tuna with olives and onions, some beans and bean paste, and some French fries on the side. It was just the right amount to share.

Before falling asleep last night I had heard big noises that I had thought was furniture falling – turns out it was cannon fire. One of the island traditions is to fire off cannons periodically. I never did discover when they would go off but it seemed like it was usually when we were sleeping. Our hotel was near the cannon battery, so it was a recurring theme to hear them in the night. We tried to hear them at the stroke of noon, but for some reason we didn’t. The cannons were pretty mysterious.

After chilling out for a while we decided to do recon on a ferry ride to another part of Malta the next day, but for some reason although we could see the ferry terminal we couldn’t find the walkway to get there. We finally gave up and walked around some of the other parts of the city, and went back to our room to siesta through the peak of the hot afternoon.

We had reservations for later at a nice restaurant but found ourselves with some time to kill so we went to the MUZA art museum in the city center. The museum was focused on a theme of Malta and its residents, and it was quite interesting to walk through (and take advantage of their air conditioning). One area had works by a sculptor obsessed with motion, another area was full of violent religious scenes – some of which were fairly graphic. I enjoyed looking at the old maps of Malta, and it was interesting to find the very same street that we were staying on represented on the map hundreds of years old.

After the museum we did a bit more shopping for a cheesy keychain to hang from our Christmas tree, checked out Marks & Spensers, and received a phone call from the restaurant confirming our reservation. Eventually we made our way to the restaurant and arrived on time at Legligin for a traditional meal.

The format of the meal was a tasting course consisting of 7 courses, and we splurged for the wine pairing, ending up with quite a bit to eat and drink. The atmosphere of the restaurant was comfortable, and the staff all spoke English fairly well so we could understand what we were eating.

For posterity, here are the courses:

First, a tomato soup with basil and pine nuts (very good).

Second, we had a selection of tapas – caponata, local sausages, olives, fried eggplants, rabbit pate, and baked ricotta. (Excellent).

Third we had a seafood dish of snapper with couscous, and roasted octopus. These came with a bucket of mussels steamed in milk and white wine. (Not bad)

Fourth was a pasta – quite firm tube pasta with a tomato and cream sauce. We were starting to get full by this point, and the pasta was undercooked for our liking. (Not great)

Fifth was cute little roasted quail breasts with meal and a sour strawberry sauce. These were tasty and I think the first time I’ve had quail breast. (Yum!)

Sixth was beef simmered in mustard sauce with a side of boiled potatoes in fennel. The potatoes were a revelation for me and I really want to work this out to make at home. (Wow!)

Last was dessert – I had crème brûlée and Kuniko had tiramisu. We thought the brûlée was nice but Kuniko makes a better tiramisu on her own. (So-so…)

Each one of these courses came with a medium glass of wine – all local stuff – so we were feeling pretty good by the time we finally left. It was a lot of food and we were totally satisfied with the experience.

We needed to walk around a burn some calories so we went the the southeast side of the city to watch the cannons fire now and then. More and more people were out enjoying the nightlife, and we walked by parties just getting started while we walked through a food coma back to our hotel.

When we arrived at our hotel the room hadn’t been cleaned – maybe our timing wasn’t great since we had our siesta – so we called the hotel staff and they guided us to a special hidden cache of clean towels. Score!

The artwork in the halls of the hotel was pretty unique – lots of Japanese kanji and phrases mixed in with skulls and strange images. Kuniko was surprised to see the word アヘン – meaning “opium” in one of the paintings near the breakfast area. Pretty wild stuff.

So with that image and full bellies we went to sleep fairly early, with cannon fire for background music.

We were up at 4:30 am to get showered and ready for our big trip. We went through the usual summer routine of unplugging servers, turning off timers for the air conditioners and shrink-wrapping the top of the toilet closed to avoid evaporation and stinky pipes. We’ve got a big checklist and it helps when we’ve got foggy early-morning brains in our heads. This travel day was full of foggy brain moments – it was going to be a long journey.

We rolled our suitcase to the station and took a quick “before” selfie on the platform, and then transferred from the train to a bus at Sannomiya – the bus took us to Kansai Airport in record time. I slept through a bit of it but we still had no traffic and it felt like a blur.

Kansai Airport Terminal 1 was pretty busy. Travel is back – in a big way – and as we approached our airline check-in counter Vietnam Airlines had a very full flight. Not only full of people, but most passengers were Vietnamese families each bringing boxes and boxes of… what? Everyone had so many taped up cardboard boxes and it made getting through the check-in line a little more tricky. Along with the boxes were some misbehaving kids, and somehow the parents had to get them all through the long line of tired passengers waiting.

We finally got to the check-in counter, and I was a little worried because the flights of this trip were all purchased through a third party – using my credit from cancelled trips years earlier. I wasn’t sure I trusted the travel company – but we were in the system and everything was fine as the check-in staff input our information from the passports.

Suddenly, the staff asked me out of the blue if I have a visa for Vietnam. What!?! We are transferring through Ho Chi Minh City, not entering the country so I don’t need one, right? But now I’m second-guessing myself – did they change the rules? The staff wouldn’t ask me about it if I didn’t need it, right? Kuniko has a Japanese passport so she is fine but I needed a visa on arrival when we traveled to Vietnam last winter… did I screw up our trip right here at the beginning?

It was “Oh, shit” moment #1.

I told the staff that we were transiting, not entering the country so I didn’t think we needed a visa. And she looked back down at her computer and said, “Oh, right. You’re OK.”

It took a while for my pulse to calm down but it was a hell of a way to wake up in the morning.

After clearing security we bought a couple of small sandwiches, some snacks, and we toasted the start of our trip with a canned highball and a beer near our departure gate. That’s right – a highball at 9 am in the morning because we’re in an airport on vacation!

As we waited by the gate, Kuniko was startled to hear our names get called over the PA system – we are to report to the airline staff immediately.

Oh shit moment #2!

In a really weird moment the staff said that the two seats we were assigned do not recline so they want to change our seats to more comfortable ones elsewhere. I figured they were rearranging family members and it just worked out in our favor, I guess. What a relief!

It was a five and half hour flight to Ho Chi Minh, and we spent it watching movies, eating the not-so-bad inflight yakitori-don, and trying to stay warm under some pretty oppressive air conditioning. I was just sweating on the journey to the airport and now I’m struggling to stay under my tiny airline blanket for warmth. For the first time I saw full size sparkling wine bottles on the economy drink cart, and to my astonishment they opened one up for us to have with our lunch. On the second round I asked again and they opened up yet another bottle. Not bad, not bad!

We had spent time in Ho Chi Minh International Airport last winter and found it a pretty good place – there is a choice of restaurants, a place with a bar, and so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad spending a longer layover. The layover was for eight hours, extended to nine with a flight delay from the airline. I imagined sipping cocktails and eating noodles and relaxing – but there is a limit to how many cocktails you should consume in a nine hour period.

We got started with a couple of drinks and a plate of Char Kway Teow (I know it is Malaysian but it sounded great). The seats at the bar were the exact same ones we used in winter, and it was kind of fun to recreate the moment. We were determined to get our fill of noodles so we walked around and built up our appetite and then sat down for more noodles (braised beef pho). There was a black bean sweet miso sauce on the table that really went well with the noodles – it is my mission to find a source in Japan once I get back.

As we sat at our table in front of the big airport observation windows a huge thunderstorm rolled in, and through the rain we watched the planes come and go. Bamboo Airlines – that was a new one for us to see.

We eventually found our way back to the bar, passion fruit margaritas, fresh and fried spring rolls, and just watching people and killing time. The bar staff were walking around talking with customers, and I noticed that while they talked their coworkers were secretly taking a picture of them talking to foreigners – what was that about?

More walking around, more people watching from various benches. A young woman sat next to Kuniko and promptly fired off a smelly fart. Apparently the rules are different in the airport. Slowly getting tired – but still eating well.

Our last meal in the airport was a delicious bowl of dry noodles that were the best of the day – I’ll go straight to this shop next time we’re there. The staff at the shop were super-friendly, and everyone was smiling. How do they keep that up?

Now we were getting close to boarding time, and it was tempting to lay down on the bench seats and get a little nap – the fear was that we’d sleep through boarding and blow the whole trip for a little bit of sleep. So I stayed vertical, and we eventually got on the plane at 11 pm local time. As soon as we sat down in our seats (window and middle seats) we pretty much just crashed. I don’t remember the take off, I do remember the flight attendant trying to wake me for dinner and I sort of waved her off like she was a bothersome mosquito.

We ended up sleeping for about six hours of the twelve hour flight. Since we were blocked in by aisle seat guy who was totally asleep, I had to wake him to get by and use the toilet in the middle of his night. Sorry dude – I’ve been there and it sucks.

Kuniko got hooked on playing Bejeweled on the in-flight system, I was listening to music, and eventually breakfast was served. Me and the aisle seat guy both chose the omelet, but it was the last one so I let him have it as a sort of apology for waking him up. The noodles I got instead were cold and flavorless – I considered it my penance.

It may seem here like this is a negative experience, but actually I enjoy all this stuff. Travel by plane is not comfortable but there is a sort of comfort in the routine knowing that when you get there you will be in someplace completely new.

We deplaned onto a bus in the cold Paris morning – my clothes were more for Mediterranean summers. Despite being an hour late on departure our plane arrived on time at Charles de Gaulle Paris, which meant that we’d easily make our connecting flight to Malta. We had sort of half-fantasized about missing the Malta flight and spending the night in Paris eating well and then going on to Malta the next day, but it remained an unused back-up plan.

The airport proved to be a little tricky, however. We had to pick up our suitcase and enter the EU there, then find our terminal for the Malta flight. I asked an information staff which terminal and he told me “2G” – but after quite a bit of trouble and a bus ride to the terminal it turned out that he had said “2D”. I guess with the French accent “D” and “G” are pretty hard to distinguish, and my big mistake was not having him write it down. But in the end it was just a hiccup and we made it to the right terminal for check-in with plenty of time.

The Air Malta check-in counter was right next to Air Serbia, and both had long lines of passengers waiting. It was absolutely fascinating to see the differences in the two airlines’ passengers. Air Malta had excited people looking forward to a beach holiday on a Mediterranean island and everyone was chatting excitedly. Air Serbia’s passengers looked like they were being sent into exile. Their faces were uniformly serious and frowning, their body language looked like they were expecting the police to show up at any time.

Once we got through check-in and security we hoped for a little champagne and the God of Wine delivered – a little bistro in the center of our terminal that had champagne by the glass. Two please! We also had a salmon sandwich (meh) and some melted cheese bread (excellent) and we toasted the success of our trip so far. We were surrounded by gourmet shops – macaroons, a cheese(!) shop, meats and wines – French people take their food seriously. As we enjoyed our second round of champagne the guy next to us suddenly left, and we didn’t notice until the staff reacted later that he failed to pay for his food/drink. Wow!

Pleasantly buzzing from our champagne we found our way to the boarding gate and got on the small jet to Malta for a two and half hour flight. After the long haul, a simple two and a half hours was a piece of cake. To live just two and a half hours from Paris – ahh…

Malta had a very small airport and since we were in the Schengen zone there was no immigration so we got our suitcase and walked right out into the hot sun. It was warm here, similar to the heat of Japan but without the humidity. I used our eSIM and the Bolt application to hire a ride to our hotel – it was convenient and cheap.

Less that ten minutes later the driver dropped us off on our street, and it took a little bit before we found the entrance to our hotel. It was a little boutique hotel called Ursulino Valletta. The owner checked us in, and we took an elevator ride up one floor to our room for the next three nights. It was clean and comfortable, with air conditioning (good) and even a welcome bottle of Maltese Chardonnay in the fridge (great).

It was the afternoon here, and so we thought we’d do a little walk around before we finally collapsed into bed. We put on our flip-flops and headed out to explore a tiny bit.

Our hotel was in the center of the historic (world heritage site) city of Valletta. The buildings were unique in architecture, with wooden windowed boxes covering the balconies and slick stone streets that made stepping around in our footwear a little dangerous. Surrounded on three sides by the beautiful blue ocean it made a wonderful contrast with the color of the old buildings, and the long streets tended to slope upward and downward in the distance.

It was hot in the sun, tolerable in the shade, and fairly windy. Since the streets were so narrow you had a chance to escape the sun by staying in the shadow, depending on where the sun was in the sky. Later we’d stay inside until the sun went down a bit to make it cooler to travel. There were quite a few tourists on the street even during the hot afternoon – but I suppose if you stay in the historic city center you should be ready for tourists (like ourselves).

Nearby there was a big food hall – full of different international restaurants. We found a little place in front of the food hall that had more traditional food – and settled down at a table to catch our breath and do a little eating.

We had fried goat cheese balls, served on top of a fig paste, with a sweet cranberry sauce on the side. It was OK, but lacked something – maybe the cheese wasn’t salted? Interesting taste. Kuniko ordered a cosmopolitan, but she wasn’t too impressed. The place was OK for a start, but we’d have to seek out some better dishes in the future.

We stopped in at a gelato place that was doing good business – I had a blood orange and ginger combo with lime and basil, and Kuniko had tiramisu with hazelnuts. It was so hot the gelato started melting right away – you had to eat it fast to protect your hand and clothing.

Pretty drained we finally headed back to the hotel, appreciating the air conditioning and struggling to stay awake. Finally gave up at around 4:30 pm and went to bed. What time was it in Osaka? Who knows? The last thing I remembered before drifting off was the crashing sound of furniture tumbling down the stairwell of our hotel – I hope everyone was OK!