Taylor Travels

Travel Photos & Stories

Magical Morocco

Guys, this is a long one. But this trip was one of the highlights of my traveling life and unlike any place I’ve been to before, so I’m not about to skimp on pictures or words. It was my (and Ben’s) first time in an Islamic country, too, so it was extra unique and interesting for us. I hate the word unique, but that’s the best word I can think of to describe it.

At the Chellah in Rabat.

We were very, very lucky to have connections in Morocco that made our experience there even more amazing. Our family friend, Kent Crookston, has lived, researched, and taught in Morocco for many years (everyone we talked to who knew him says he’s a legend there) and was able to put us in contact with some of his friends there. In Rabat we stayed with an awesome LDS couple who work for the U.S. Embassy, and we absolutely loved them. Kent also put us in contact with a couple, Julie and Zach, that are about our age and are working there for the Peace Corps.

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Living Luxuriously in Madrid

The next few days we spent in Madrid were with my parents and some family friends, the Grays. Matt played on the men’s volleyball team for the Allianz olympics with my dad, so he and his wife, Erin, joined our fam for our first leg in Spain. From Zurich, we all took a train to Basel and then flew from there to Madrid. Because we were traveling with jetsetter Dave Sandberg, we got to stay in hotels that are way beyond our budget and way nicer than anything we’ve stayed in the rest of our trip.

There is no other word to describe our first hotel other than incredible. It was a Westin and its location was absolutely perfect. About a block from the Prado and the Parque del Retiro.

This fuente de Neptuno was right outside our window.
Ben and I slept on the rollaway bed and the couch, respectively. And respectfully.
Another incredible buffet breakfast. This was my oxymoronic selection one morning—green juice and churros con chocolate + other fried, sugary delectables.
Taken from my phone. But you still get the idea of how crazy luxurious this place was.

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Switzerland Part 2: Zurich with Family

I’m way behind on blogging, and being without internet for three days hasn’t help out with that. So without further ado, here is Part 2/2 of Switzerland.

The view from our Airbnb bedroom.
After a few days on our own, we met up with my parents, who were staying at a Hilton by the airport. My dad’s company is a huge international insurance company, and every four years they have an Olympics. My dad was playing on the USA’s men’s volleyball team, so we went and watched the finals. We got to their hotel early that morning and mooched off of the buffet breakfast for the Allianz Sports group.

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Switzerland Part 1: Mt. Pilatus and Lucerne

ZURICH

After our train layover in Milan, we took a train to Zurich. Our previous two trains had been really nice and comfortable—we even magically ended up in first class on our ride from Rome to Florence—but this train to Zurich was kind of miserable. Our seats were at the edge of our carriage, and people were constantly walking through the doors to use the bathroom. It was also the squeakiest vehicle I’ve ever ridden in. Plus, there was no AC and the air was stifling and hot. But besides the inside of the car not being super fun, the views of Lugano and Como and some other Swiss towns were pretty spectacular.

After we got settled at our Airbnb, we walked a few blocks to a popular, cheap bratwurst place called Sternen Grill. “Cheap” in Zurich means one bratwurst, plus mustard and a slice of bread is 7 CHF (Swiss francs—or about $7.75). I must admit that the brats were delicious, though I wasn’t a fan of the mustard that came with it, which was basically straight up horse radish. We had fun sitting on the edge of Lake Zurich, eating our cheap brats, and feeding a few breadcrumbs to the swans.

 

Our 7 CHF meal.

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When in (Rome and) Florence

I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m behind on blog posts because it means that we’re enjoying ourselves too much for me to sit down and write stuffs or gather pictures. But I don’t want to get too behind, so here are some tidbits from our time in Italy.

 

ROME

From Amsterdam, we took a plane to Rome, where we had about 24 hrs to cram as many things in as possible. We got to Rome around 5 p.m., so we had just enough time to get some dinner and gelato and then people-watch on the Spanish Steps.

 

 

There was a huge group of loud, inebriated German high schoolers here at the Spanish Steps later that night, which was fun to watch.
Making an awkward chin support out of my gelato. This was from Venchi near the Spanish Steps—highly recommended.

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I amsterdam

We like ships and Dutch things.

I’ll give a brief run down of what we did here in Amsterdam and then let the pictures do the rest of the talking. We really, really enjoyed our time here and felt like three days was just about enough time to see and do what we wanted.

Friday
  • Went to the Anne Frank House Museum. Very, very moving and emotional.
  • Found an East African restaurant on a side street and ate everything put on our table. Used our hands, which is a very satisfying way to eat, I discovered.

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Family Time in Zuidlaren, Nederlands

Ben is half-Dutch from his mom’s side. So after landing in Amsterdam on Wednesday morning, we immediately took a train to Groningen, about two hours away, where Ben’s great-aunt Agnes and her husband Herm Jan picked us up. They live about 20 minutes from Groningen in the village of Zuidlaren. Their house used to be a big barn, but now it’s a beautiful home with my dream backyard.

 

The view of the backyard from our bedroom.

Herm Jan took us on a walk to an old windmill in their village, which Ben was enamored with, and then we stopped by Agnes’s friend’s 90th birthday party. There, we met Agnes’s mom (so Ben’s great-great aunt), who turns 100 next month. LET ME TELL YOU, the Dutch may be the healthiest, happiest people I’ve ever met. Great-great-aunt Djoe is about the spriteliest, most active, jolly lady ever. She kept grabbing my face and smiling and saying my name over and over.

The birthday lady—90 years young.

Great-great Aunt Djoe.

The next day, Agnes and Herm Jan took us on a little family history tour, and we visited the farms where Ben’s Grandma Tena grew up. We did a lot of driving through Holland’s countryside; so many cows, horses, and sheep, and SO MANY CUTE HOUSES. Took way too many pictures of those. The thing I couldn’t believe was how every single house was adorned with the most beautiful flowers and gardens.

Gma Tena’s second farmhouse she lived in.

Half thatched, half tiled.

Herm Jan having a peek inside.

This was about my fourth attempt to get them to look at the camera for the picture.

Pretty and old things inside the building next door.

They have Nova-everything in The Netherlands, too!

We visited Agnes’s cousin’s farm, too. Their house was really old, and they’ve changed almost nothing about it. Also they only speak Frisian, so that was interesting to listen to.

Agnes and her cousin’s wife, Amy.

One of their cats just had kittens. So precious.

This was not a prop.

Agnes’s cousin Reink.

When we got home, Agnes and Herm Jan led us to drinks and crackers in their garden and then treated us to dinner at a nice restaurant in town. Can’t get any better than that.

If you’re still with me, here’s a small sampling of my Dutch houses/flowers photo collection.


Experimenting: Soupy Pies and Shutter Speeds

Well, here we are. The first blog post. I’m going to try and keep the text to a minimum on this, so here are some 4th of July pics from yesterday cuz ‘Merica.

Thanks to a few friends, I now have a mediocre grip on the basics of my camera, but keep in mind that I still understand so very little about it. So no judgements, plz.

Ice cream pie with granola crust and homemade blueberry and raspberry sauce. Recipe here.

I didn’t read that this was supposed to set for at least three hours until about 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave, hence the soupy texture.

Luckily it had just about enough time to set up in the freezer at our host’s house.

We hit up our old Stadium Ave neighborhood—via our friends who still live there—to get an up-close show of the fireworks (and to see our friends/family). First, though, there were the annual street fireworks.

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