I Read, Watch and Listen to a Ton of Content. My Newsletters share what I learn
Okay, April was just an Epic month of travel that was one of favorite trips of all time. We took an incredible road trip that began in Paris and ended in Munich. We saw so many amazing locations. Some locations were planned and some were unplanned. The unplanned locations sometimes become your favorite stops. It was so fun to be able to stop anytime we saw something interesting to photograph.
Travel ✈️: We arrived in Europe at the end of March after being in Dubai for 5 weeks.
We started our Europe trip in cold and snowy Paris. I did not expect it to be so cold and I arrived completely unprepared #amateurtravelmoves. Of course, my wife Zena, planned for it #experttravelmoves. So the first thing we did was head to the Japanese store, Uniqlo which was right by our hotel, to purchase a down jacket and thermo underwear. Yes, it was that cold!! Uniqlo makes amazing down jackets that are incredibly warm and they come with a small pouch to fold your jacket into. It is a perfect travel jacket!!
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
We spent 10 days in Paris. It was wonderful!! It is such a pleasure to not be in a rush. We could take our time, pause, breathe and just enjoy the city. I also really enjoyed being able to leisurely take photos. Here is a google map of my favorite Paris Photography Locations. One of our fun challenges was to find the best croissant and baguette in Paris. In the interest of science we made sure to select a large sample size :). I think the ones from Cyril Lignac (Chaillot, 2, rue de Chaillot, 75116 Paris) are exceptional. Here is a list of other great locations to try.
By the way, calories do not count when you are traveling
Leaving Paris
We rented a car in Paris and our first stop was Mont Saint Michel. It is an easy 4 hour drive. But the incredible yellow rap seed fields that we kept seeing along the way required a few stops to photograph. I love finding tiny farming roads to take photos of the landscape.
The thing about going to a bucket list location like Mont Saint Michel (MSM) is that you want good weather especially for photography. The day before we arrived there were complete white out conditions with pouring rain. I noticed that a lot of people will only go for 1 day to MSM which is really risky.
We had incredible weather so we cut our 3 day stay down to 2 days which was perfect (2 Sunrises and Sunset Opportunities). My hotel recommendation is either the Mercure Saint Michel or Le Relais San Michel. When you visit MSM you can either stay within the gated area or outside the gated area. It is much much easier to stay within the gated area especially for photography. We stayed at the Mercure, and it was perfectly located right next to the shuttle to Saint Michel. I will write a longer post on Photography at MSM. From Saint Michel we took a day trip to Saint Malo which was also well worth it. It is only about 1 hour away and it's a wonderful city to visit. I will write a separate blog on each location.
From Mont Saint Michel we drove about 2.5 hours northeast to Honfleur. Honfleur/Deauville are 2 very elegant small towns on the northern coast of France in Normandy that are very popular summer beach spots. We had a wonderful stay at La Ferme Saint Simeon. The area is well known for Cider and they even have a Cider Route which is beautiful to drive through.
From Honfleur we drove about 1 hour to Étretat. Étretat is coastal town in Normandy with incredible white chalk cliffs that look like the cliffs of Ireland. It is well worth a 2-night stay to explore the cliffs and small town. We absolutely loved our stay at the 5-room hotel Le Tilleuls Etretat.
From Etretat, we drove about 2 hours to Bruges. Bruges is another perfect 2 night location. The town is small, elegant and very walkable. I think the city is better to photograph at night when you can get reflections in the water. We loved our hotel the Hotel Van Cleef. It is perfectly located and has exceptional service.
From Bruges we drove about 1 hour to Ghent and stayed at another beautiful historic hotel called 1898 The Post. The hotel was a former Post Office and you could not ask for a better location. Ghent has more of an Amsterdam feel than Bruges but is also well worth visiting. Did I mention that Belgium has the worlds best French Fries? One of the highlights of Ghent was seeing my friend Anika who is working on her PhD at the University of Ghent.
From Ghent we drove 2.5 hours to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a very challenging place to drive between tourists, bikes and trams. So if you decide to rent a car in Amsterdam be very careful. For some reason we did not enjoy Amsterdam as much as we have in the past. I am not sure if we have changed, the city has changed or something was just off. It did not help that we did not really like our hotel, the Pulitzer, which gets incredible reviews. I did not like our room and the service was not very good. When you stay in a hotel that you do not enjoy it throws everything off.
The best part of going to the Netherlands in April is Tulips and Windmills. For Tulips the easiest location is Keukenhof (check out my previous blog post) but the fields around Lisse are also incredible. If I ever wanted a drone it would be to take photos of the Tulip fields.
One of the best day trips from Amsterdam is to roam the Tulip fields around Lisse and Noordwijk. Both of these areas are about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Amsterdam. You will find dozens of places to stop and admire and photograph endless tulip fields. Here is a Google Map of Photography Locations. On this trip we could not decide between visiting the Windmills in Kinderdjik or Zaanse Schans. We ended up going to the latter since it was closer and it was fantastic.
From Amsterdam we drove about 2.5 hours to Dusseldorf, Germany. My wife grew up in Dusseldorf so I have spent a lot of time here and it has become a home away from home in Europe. We always stay in the Breidenbacher Hot Hotel which is perfectly situated between the old town and shopping area of Königsallee. This is one of my absolute favorite hotels. I was so happy to be able to see our friend Philip while were were in town. We also took a day trip to Bonn, a city I had never visited before.
Unfortunately, my wife had to unexpectedly fly home to deal with a family situation so I stayed a few days longer and then flew to Zurich. I loved being in Zurich and hanging out with my friend Daniel was amazing. He showed me locations that I would have never seen. Zurich is a beautiful city. I was able to use points to stay 3 nights at the Park Hyatt. The service in this hotel is just incredible.
From Zurich I flew to Prague for my Photography Workshop with Scott Kelby that was planned for 2020 and postponed 4-5 times. I will write more about the workshop in my May Newsletter.
So here is a summary of our trip locations
- Paris (10 Days)
- Mont Saint Michel (2 Days)
- Saint Malo (Day Trip from MSM)
- Deauville/Honfleur (1 Day)
- Etretat (2 Days)
- Bruges (2 Days)
- Ghent (2 Days)
- Amsterdam (4 Days)
- Dusseldorf, Bonn (6 Days)
- Zurich (3 Days)
- Prague for 8 (Days)
- Dubai
- Munich
How About Some Music-my April Playlist?
To read 📖 I am reading an article called A New Vision for Wolf Conservation After 150 Years of Yellowstone by Emily Qiu.
Books I read so Far in 2022
Two books stand out this month from my reading list. The first is the The Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah presents us with a fractured family. Two sisters with no relationship at all with their mother, who treats them, even as adults, with inexplicable coldness. Upon the death of their father, their mother falls apart at the seams and begins to behave erratically. It isn’t until she reluctantly begins to tell her daughters the story of her life in Leningrad during the war, under the guise of a fairy tale, that the lives of these three women begin to turn a corner. While it is a bit depressing somehow we kept on coming back to listen to chapter after chapter. The second, Taste, by Stanley Tucci is happy, fun and just pure entertainment. I love watching Stanely Tucci discuss food. Perhaps you have seen his series Searching for Italy on CNN.
The 2022 Reading List
- Love Poems of Rumi (A) --5 Stars
- How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie (K) --4 Stars
- The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (K)--4 Stars
- Who will cry when you die? By Robin Sharma (K)--4 Stars
- The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackay (A)--5+ Stars
- The Order by Daniel Silva (K) --5 Stars
- Atomic Habits by James Clear (A) --5 Stars
- The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (K)--4 Stars
- Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris (K)--3 Stars
- John Adam’s by David McCullough (A)* (5 Stars)
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (1 Star not Recommended)
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (A)
- Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score (K)
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown (A)
- How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by CLINT SMITH (A) **This is an incredible book
- The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger (K) (Amazing)
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (K)
- The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kichimi (A) Weird Not Recommended
- The Lion Trackers Guide to Life by Boyd Varty (K)
- The Obesity Code by Jason Fund, MD (A) fantastic
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (A) Love it-really an amazing story
- Ikigai by Hector Garcia (K) Not that good
- The Last Green Valley: A Novel by Mark Sullivan (K) 10 Stars
- The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Chris Lefteri (K)
- The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo (A)
- 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson (A)
- The Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah (A)
- The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper - (A) Average
- Taste by Stanley Tucci (in Progress) (A)
NB: A = Audible, K = Kindle. * In Progress
Health - One of the most important things you can do to keep healthy is to move. I have been using my Pedometer App on my iPhone and I am really enjoying it. I have found it to be the best way to track my steps each day.
Weight Loss Since Jan 10th (20 lbs or 9.5 kgs)
To Watch 💡 Why Wide Angle Lenses Are NOT "Landscape Lenses by Mads Peter Iverson
Some photos of Prague as I count down to my workshop in May 2022
I signed up for the Prague workshop that in 2019. It was postponed 5 times because of Covid. I am looking forward to seeing friends in Prague and have been looking back at some older photos from Prague.
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Credits:
@Vito L Tanzi