After the successful trip to Sölden last year, I thought why not try again. Unfortunately, it seems that global warming has increased demand for the higher altitude mountains — not a rental to be found. I booked a short stay near Chamonix for Christmas, but while a great value it was a bit remote and quite small. But when catching up with Andrea Macario (an old Nokia colleague and a master organizer of ski holidays whom we’ve joined before) I found the crew was meeting up in Val Cenis in the south of France. While searching, I found a interesting accommodation in Les Alpages — walking distance to the lifts and a spa complex with sauna, whirlpool, and ourdoor pool. It also turned out that Thomas, one of the other Nokia colleagues, owned a place in the same complex, so we went all in. Just like the old beach rentals, these were only available for the week and so our little holiday turned into an extended holiday.

The journey was a bit more complex than our regular Austria trips — over 1200km from Berlin. So we decided to take a slow route down, stopping in Munich (where we were able to have a lovely burger dinner with Jo who was returning from Kitzbuhel) and then for an overnight in Milan. Another complexity was how to pack for the 10 day trip including all the linens for the apartment. Amazingly, we managed to pack everything in the car… except that Teo decided to wear pajamas and we were left with just one pair of sweatpants (latter supplemented with a extra pair of Uniqlos in Milan).

Chika had booked us into the Westin in Milan, which was a nice dash of luxury in our bohemian adventure. While waiting for the room, we had a late snack. As long as we were going big, I decided to splurge with some caviar and champagne — while we didn’t make to it Rome, we acted like Romans. Afterwards, we walked through the town which was a bit mixed due to the fact that it was the second day of Christmas and some things were closed. While we didn’t find pants for Teo that day, we did enjoy some fantastic gelato at Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato. The Mont Blanc was amazing. Afterwards, as most of the classic italian restaurants were on holiday, Chika booked us at the hotel restaurant PanEvo where we had an amazing (but overloading) Lombardi course dinner.

The next day, we had booked tickets to see Da Vinci’s last supper mural at the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie. It was incredibly difficult to book tickets via their online system (they only go on sale at noon the Wednesday before and the system was constantly crashing), but finally I managed to get 4 tickets at 8.15, 8.45, 9.00 and 9.15. I went first, and then luckily they allowed Chika and they boys to go all together. Educational mission was accomplished!

After tasting Teo’s pasta during the snack the day before, I was dead set on getting some good pasta so I booked us at Maccheroni – La Carbonara N°1 di Milano. The pasta was amazing, and their eggplant parm was so light I could have eaten 4 portions. Kai rated the carbonara a 9.5. We then rushed back to the hotel to pack and head up to the mountains.

While not the most adventurous part of the journey, the trip to Val Cenis wasn’t so easy. The navigation showed that the shorter route was closed (we later learned that this is always closed for the winter) and then later showed the longer route closed (which was because I had the wrong POI in the navigation). But finally we arrived into our new 1-bedroom abode. Luckily, with the Japanese background the small space didn’t cramp our style as much as I thought. Every night the couch turned into 2 trundle beds, and given the ski activity people were quite tired in any case.

Given that we had the full week (6 days to ski), we were relieved of the pressure to be at the 9am opening of the lifts. Overall, it was positive ski week but it took a bit to learn the mountain. Due to the short days and the situation of the valley, finding the sun was a bit of a challenge. But on the second day, we met up with Thomas and his family and found all the sweet spots on the mountain. The snow up top was great, and the boys took advantage to barrel down the mountain at top speed. We managed a few days of apres ski with the whole crew (including Andreas extended Italian compatriates) and some nice meals and drinks at the varied restaurants of the resort.

We managed to do a majority of the dinners in our small apartment, and our meager supplies from Germany helped to complement our Italian groceries (including some divine fresh pastas Chika bought at Peck in Milan and 2 small rotiserie chickens which we serindipitously found at a discount grocery store outside Torino on a fuel stop).

But the grand meal was the raclette party for New Years Eve at Andrea and Andres chalet. With 11 adults and 11 children, it wasn’t clear how it would all go off, but with the Italians and French team in the kitchen it was a spectacular classic complete with all the trimmings. We did an early countdown around 10.30pm followed by some fireworks in a beautiful winter mountain setting. Chika drove us back home and we were able to celebrate the true New Years just in time, followed by our family viewing of Stranger Things season 5.

While it was cold (some mornings started at -11c), we decided to ski the last 2 days (Teo and I took of New Years Eve due to Teo’s shin pains) and leave early on Saturday for a full day drive to Berlin to avoid the holiday traffic on Sunday. We had a last aperitivo session with the Nokia crew at Thomas’ flat and then packed up the apartment for an early start. We managed to get on the road by 6.20am and made decent time to Basel (some road constructions slowed us down) by 13.00 for a lunchstop at a local markethalle.

Over time, the arrival time creeped later and later. We stopped for an early dinner snack at a rest area outside Heidleburg around 5pm, and then we found the snow we had been missing in the mountain. At some points the conditions were so bad we were driving at 30km/hr, but Chika perservered. Even at on point we started sliding in the snow, but Chika calmly got the car back under control. The rest of the trip was a slow journey back to Berlin, finally arriving safe and sound around 1am, almost 19 hours after setting out.

It was a great time all being together without the day to day distractions of work and other duties (although Teo managed to keep up with his book reading and Kai worked on his presentation). It was so much fun that we are all a bit saddened about going back to school/work, but all the more encouragement for planning the next adventure.

Planning transatlantic trips always take some planning, but 2025 pushed it to the limit. We were in the process of moving apartments in Berlin, and I had booked some frequent flyer tickets just to have something in the breach. Luckily we found a new lease starting September 1, but required leaving a few day earlier than planned. The nice bonus of frequently flyer tickets was that it was easy to change with the lower demands for USA travel and we were able to still maintain our clan meetup in Atlantic City and depart the following day.

Chika has a wedding and a half marathon, so it was me and the boys again. While Teo was shooting 100% on charming the Lufthansa lounge to allow for extra guest, I decided to check out the alternative Priority Pass option which was sufficent for our coffee and snacks before boarding the plan. It was a relatively easy flight and was able to secure the Global Entry interviews for Kai and Teo so our next trip will be even smoother. We shuttled off to home with at stop at the pool and some of mom’s chinese chicken wings to fill us before we passed out. We quickly fell into the regular routine of gym/pool, some shopping (new shoes for Kai), gin tournaments, and lots of eating (french toast, salmon, and more ). I snuck out for the night to check out the happy hour scene with my partner in crime (Allan) and ended up at El Bar in the Northern Liberties complete with some serious pool games and very random karaoke. We finally met up with my brother Mike for a family day. We spent time at the pool, Kai and I played tennis, and of course we grilled up some great steaks.

Finally it was time to head down to the beach. The first days were great weather with time for sun, sea, and biking out to Ocean City to try out Mallon’s bakery buns (good but definitely not Casel’s). In an unexpected surprise, I found out that my Penn pal Suzann was over in Ocean City so we were able to have a long over due catchup. But then Hurricane Erin made its way up north. While we luckily didn’t get a direct visit, the sunny days turned to cloudy. We quickly shifted gears and made our “lemonade”. The first day, we decided to venture to Ocean City as we had some leftover amusement park tickets. The good news was that it was much less crowded, but we had arrived over an hour before the amusement park opened. Never fear. We started with some Kohr Brothers Custard, followed by some go-karting, arcade playing, and candy shopping. Finally the park was opened and the boys were able to go onto some wait-free rides. In the evenings, we cooked, ate, played cards, and watched movies. Since it wasn’t raining, we made 2 fishing excursions where the boys both caught fish (although too small still to keep) and met David a pro-fisher who fixed our tackles and gave us the tips where to find the fish.

Using his superhuman powers, Mike managed to fly back from California Thursday with both flight and baggagge delays heading past 1am, work a full day of work, grab William in the car to be down to the beach shortly after 8pm, and then rally for a triple Margate bar tour before we both passed out. By the time Mike and his crew arrived, the weather had improved although due to rip tides the ocean experience was limited. The planned excursion to see The Who on their farewell tour was nixed — Daltry was not able to keep up the pace. We switched gears and sent Teo and cousin William off with my parents for pizza and ice cream, while Mike, Melanie, Sydney, Kai and I checked out Cardinal for some great seafood, steaks, and drinks. On Sunday, Jillian, Riley, and Stella came to our rental place for nice bagel brunch — great to make our annnual catchup. Later, the great lobsterfest returned. It was amazing, although next time we plan to add a few more lobsters for the hungry crew.

Monday was the last day at the beach and we planned to make the most of it. Due to the insistence of William, we started the day at the Aquapark. Why spend to go to a water park when the beach and pools are free for the taking you might ask? Well, it turned out to be a highlight of the trip for the boys, so worth every cent. To settle a final bet, Mike and I biked up to White House Subs to validate once and for all that it is better than Dino’s which we had visited earlier in the week. We grabbed the last rays of sun and surf, and then headed for Mikado to ensure that Kai had his share of American sushi. We ordered up a feast and managed to finish most of it, and then while leaving we got to see Melanie and Mike’s photo posted by the door (they are royalty there).

We managed to fit in a lot on the last day, including one last visit to the pool and the gym before heading off to the airport. As we were leaving earlier than planned to get home for packing, we upgraded ourselves a bit to premium economy to enjoy the last moments of the trip. It was a bit too short, but oh so sweet.

Back in November 2018, we wanted to experiment with our 3rd row car with my parents and had decided on Świnoujście Poland as it was only about 3 hours drive and could be accommodated with minimal luggage. Fast forward, we wanted to do a city break during the many (many) spring holidays in Germany and thought let’s try again. Now becoming a Hilton devotee (thanks to my credit card perks), we switched from the Radisson. The hotels are in fact almost identical, just that the Hilton is a little shorter and 100 meters further towards the beach.

Unfortunately, Chika was working but our favorite houseboat driver Kunal and his son Linus were up for the game. We ended up getting a late start, so needed to skip the lunch in Sczechin and still only arrived at the hotel around 4pm. It was fully booked out so we didn’t get upgraded and had to improvise parking. At least I had called in advanced to book ourselves at the asian restaurant. The weather for the weekend wasn’t promising, but at least the kids got to check out the large indoor aquapark before dinner. We ordered a massive feast — shrimp/vegetable tempura, tuna tartar and a few miso soups for starters, followed by some teppanyaki, udon, and a giant sushi/sashimi plate for me and Kai. We were hoping that the pool table in the downstairs lounge would be open after dinner, but it has been taken over by the disco (it was Saturday night) and we decided to turn in after a long day.

The following morning, Kunal and I decided to be ambitous and go for a swim in the Baltic — just an incredible way to start the day. My Italian friend Nicolo (who now lives in Poland) had recommended a pizza joint 10 minutes away and we decided to check it out for lunch (all except for Teo who had devoured an omlette, 3 pieces of eggs benedikt and a few waffles for breakfast). It was a pleasant spot with decent food, but as we were about to leave it started pouring rain. An espresso later, it had calmed down so we could hit the arcade on the way back to the hotel.

We then all decided to hit the waterpark. It’s quite a nice complex, with one slide (the red one) that is probably too fast for my generation. But in addition, they had a great sauna complex which was almost too relaxing. We had booked a fish restaurant for dinner and all dined well — even though there were a few schnitzels on the table. The waitress decided to gift us 3 shots at the end of the meal (2 being maddog/Polish espresso — vodka, raspberry syrup, and tabasco) and as Kunal wasn’t drinking I ended up having 2 (3 was just too many).

Back at the hotel, the Nations League Football (European) championship was on between Spain and Portugal. Was was supposed to be a short stop turned into an epic match down to the penalties. Truly an amazing game.

The last day the boys hit the waterpark one last time and then we headed off for a late lunch in Szechin. Kunal picked a great spot — I loved my beef short ribs — and then it was time to face the music and head back home. Another successful trip complete, even in bad weather — maybe this should be an annual thing?

It’s a constant challenge to fill the German school holiday schedule with:

a) Unique activities
b) Something kids will enjoy
c) Something that won’t kill the budget for the rest of the holidays

So when hanging in Barcelona with our friend Jo who has just relocated to a nice house in Brussels, a plan was hatched for an Easter holiday escape. I had received my new 550e Touring BMW, so transportation was covered. As the straight drive was a full day affair, we decided to break-up the trip on the way with a stopover in Düsseldorf/Köln. Düsseldorf is a regular stop, as it is the home to the biggest Japanese populuation in Europe, and with a large variety of Japanese eats and treats, but since I had a Hyatt certificate for a free night which worked best in Köln we spent the night there.

Even before starting the roadtrip started, we were able to enjoy a leisurely Friday. It was holiday and thus everything was closed, but instead we went over to visit Daniel for an early afternoon barbeque which turned into a later evening party with cakes provided by Katarina who joined from a separate party.

Our goal in Düsseldorf was to eat, and as it was a Saturday we didn’t want to get shut out of restaurants for being too late. We left shortly before 7am — a bit later than anticipated, but successfully brought us into the Japanese main street of Düsseldorf shortly before 12 noon. We parked at a convenient charging station on the main street and went to a local shop recommended by my friend Jun (always the go to man for food recommendations). Afterwards, we stocked up on some supplies (i.e. Bakery my Heart Japanese sweet breads), ate soft serve matcha ice cream, and then headed to Köln.

The Hyatt Regency in Köln is a special place because it was my first stop in Germany back in 1990 when I joined a bunch of fellow British Pink Floyd fans to see the Rodger Waters show at Potzdammer Platz in Berlin. At the time, the hotel was brand new (just opened in 1988) and I don’t think the booking agent realized they were going to have 100+ hooligans in their hotel. As least they didn’t remember me as I checked in.

We went down to enjoy the swimming pool, but in a strange twist of German weather I was able to enjoy the sun out on the patio while the boys swam. Afterwards, Kai and I did a quick workout and then adventured into town across the bridge for some sushi. Teo who had already put on his pajamas opted for the katsu sandwich he had bought earlier in the day.

The next morning we feasted on our bakery goods from the day before and headed out to Phantasialand — a well executed theme park located about 30 min southwest from Köln. Luckily the weather still held, and we had a great day with managable queues — we rode everything we wanted and most of the best rides we did twice.

From there, we drove on to Jo’s place located in the southeastern part of Brussels city. It was a great house with 5 floors, giving everyone a good amount of space to do their own things. Jo prepared an excellent thai curry for the weary travelers after which we left the kids to the video games and toured the neighborhood ending up at the James Joyce Irish pub (but of course drinking local Belgian Beer), meeting some of Jo’s local friends and playing some darts.

The next day, we worked to bring some cultural activities into the mix, visiting the Atomium — a huge structure built for the 1958 World’s Fair. From there we went into the city center for a look around before heading back to cook some Japanese curry.

On Tuesday, as the weather was holding and Jo was working, we decided to go for a side trip to Bruges. One note about travelling to mideval towns with very large BMWs — leave plenty of time to find parking. We ended up running to catch our reservation to visit the famous belfry in the middle of the old town, which was not ideal given that it is 366 steps to reach the top. But with a mission in hand, we succesfully made it and then followed up by rewarding outselves with a smashing course of Belgian waffles. I have to say that the savory ones were incredible — super light, but great combinations with eggs, salmon, or in my case fresh buffalo mozzerla and balsamico. That evening, Jo prepared a great barbeque with endless rounds of grilled chicken and sausages, which on top of the adventures of the day put me into a food coma.

The next day, the weather finally caught up to us. Armed with umbrellas in hand, the boys and I went to one of the local parks nearby which hosted an interesting military museum full of armaments going back into the 1800s. For once Teo was more engaged than Kai. Following, we made our way to Menma, a ramen place which is sister to a higher-end Michelin star eatery. Jo joined, and we all enjoyed some tasty bowls of noodle goodness — perfect for the rainy day. After we decided we needed a nap before heading off to some indoor lasertag to continue our out-of-the-house activities. Having yet to sample the famous Belgian frites, we swung by Maison Antoine — a stand in the middle of a nice square — to test the fare. And it was really good fries. To round out our must do list, Jo prepared some great moules (mussels) for a lighter dinner.

The next day, Jo had a conference at the Parliament, so we took the opportunity to get an early start on long and wet journey back to Berlin. It was a solid exploratory mission, and one that is likely to be repeated again.

Planning holidays around weather seems to have become less predictable than in the past, especially around skiing. I recall driving up to the French alps in 2022 as torrents of rain ran through the river along side of the road. We did manage to pull of some good skiing (including a visit over to the Italian side of the pass), but you never knew how it was going to turn out until the end.

Fast forward to fall 2024, and while searching through Airbnb I found a lovely house in walking distance to the lift in Bad Gastein (the place where I slept through the very first Eagles Superbowl victory). Forecasts were on for big an early snowfalls in 2024, so we booked in with Teo’s schoolmate’s family (Damien and Elsy). But as we got closer to the season, it seems there wasn’t so much snow as anticipated. In fact there was no snow in the East of Austria. So with 2 days left in our cancellation window, we decided to find another solution. At least we had the apartment in Munich to use, and from there we could do day drives to different mountains.

Closing in on the holiday, there was one mountain in Austria which seems to be getting a good amount of snow (Swiss Alps also were performing better, but the Swiss Francs made it a much pricier option). In a stroke of good luck, I found another big apartment right by the Gondola in Sölden. It was only for 3 nights, but would definitely be better than driving back and forth from Munich. And thus the snow hunters were on the move.

We all met up at the Munich apartment on the Sunday. I had been feeling under the weather, so the initial plans of driving through the Nuremburg Christmas markets (and my favorite burger joint Hoserer-Rolly’s Amerikanische Küche) were squashed.

Chika wanted to do some ski lessons before starting the season, and I wanted to relax and sleep in. So on Monday, Chika, Elsy, Teo, and Damien took off before sunrise by car to the mountains while Kai and I took a nice train trip via Innsbruck where we had a great brunch at a rooftop restaurant Lichtblick and some additional time to finish holiday shopping.

After another train and a bus, Kai and I arrived at the Airbnb. It was a massive place with 4 separate sleeping areas. As we were heading into the holiday, Kai and I did a grocery run to get us sorted out for the next days. We ended up eating our meals in the house (although we needed to keep our Christmas ski tradition of take out sushi.)

Our first day on the mountain was a bit ominous — many of the lifts, especially at the top, were closed due to high winds. But by the afternoon, things started to settle down and we even saw the sun. The next 2 days were incredible days of skiing, with clear skies and good snow. Teo turned into a dynamo on skiis — I could barely keep up.

Sölden was a really nice mountain, and as a James Bond fan I couldn’t resist visiting the site used in the 2015 Spectre film twice — first for drinks with Kai and then for lunch with Chika. Really unique experience.

The only downside to the trip was that after taking a photo of Kai jumping in the snow park, I must not have properly put my phone into my pocket and as of the time of this writing is still lost on the mountain.

As an epilogue to this story, we wrapped up this year with a first time ever race for us as a family and me altogether — the Berlin New Years Eve run. We did the 2K version, which was perfect for me — I still got my medal and Berliner donut.

Normally the airport experience after the vacation is a bit of a downer, but even with the basic facilities in Cancun (the Patron Tequila Boutique with free tasting was one exception) we managed to play a few rounds of cards before I left mom, dad, and the boys to head off to Wisconsin (Chika has already left at 6am to make her connection back to Europe.)

This time, I was able to enjoy an upgrade on the way to Chicago — nothing exciting, but at least you were able to get food and drinks. We arrived at Chicago O’Hare more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule, which gave the option to catch a bus to Madison instead of the Uber. But my brother Mike (who had flown in on his fraternity brother’s private jet and had been drinking since noon) called for the Uber approach.

I almost thought everyone had gone to bed when I pulled into town around 10pm, but Mike again suggested to meet up for “a drink.” Our cousin Aaron and his crew had been eating at Naples 15, an Italian restaurant in the area, so we decided to make that the rendezvous point. It seemed that a few of Mike’s fraternity brothers had the capacity for a few more drinks, or maybe they had missed me after the long while, and so our crew of six arrived at the restaurant congregated near the bar looking for signs of Aaron or his son Daniel.

What happened next was a healthy lesson in humanity. The owner of the restaurant, seeing us quite lost and confused, comes over to welcome us and starts offering us some wine. Time went on, we found our cousins, there was more wine and some pizzas, and then at the end of the night a check arrived… for $600?! i wasn’t privy to the interactions, but I don’t seem to recall anyone ordering up $150+ bottles of wine. Luckily the bill didn’t come to me, as I probably would have been thrown in jail (or beaten up) for refusing to pay. But maybe being in enemy (i.e. Bagder) country, the other guys decided to take the loss.

The next day was an amazing fall day and the campus was fully alive with weekend festivities. I walked out to meet Aaron and Uncle Allan (who had driven in from Milwaukee) at Memorial Union where we soon discovered we were missing at least one of the tickets (I am not sure I would be using Stubhub after this experience). We circled back to town to meet up with Daniel’s crew and Michael for lunch, and then it was time to get the pre-game started.

One of Mike’s friend’s son was also at Wisconsin, so we started at the first house party along fraternity row. Was was suprisingly refreshing was that even with Penn State emblems blazing, we were all treated like everyone else (although the signage hanging from the frats did not suggest such friendliness and there was the one girl who gave us the bird in the photo below). Mike and I made a solo journey over to Daniel’s fraternity house which had a huge lakefront beach party — I can only imagine how difficult life must be with all these kinds of study distractions.

Finally it was time to roll on to the game. Due to the Stubhub issue, I went with Mike’s Penn State group as they had an extra ticket. While our seats were about as high up as one could possibly get in the stadium (Section AA), we were able to enjoy the game with the help of the local $10+ beers sold at the stadium. It was a solid first half, and I took the opportunity to join the Wisconsin crew down at the 17th row. It was a great game with the Nittany Lions victorius 28 to 13. Afterwards we ended up in the one bar where we were able to get some food and drink.

As it was quite expensive to fly from Wisconsin, I chose to fly back from Chicago and with the help of my old Nokia/BMW colleague Randy, we were able to round up some of the old crew. We had a fantastic dinner followed by drinks and more drinks. You can’t seem to go wrong in that town. Monday was spent flying back and recovering from the weekend — thankfully dad offered to pick me up at the airport.

Tuesday, the boys and I took the train down to Philadelphia (giving mom and dad a break after the long weekend with the boys) to meet Mike and with an extra bonus of Sydney joining. We tried a new dim sum place followed by matcha ice cream cones and even some arcade play time followed by dinner at Mike and Melanies’. While we had planned to hit Great Adventure one last time on our seasons passes, they ended up dropping Wednesday night off the schedule so we just did our usual things of shopping, gym/pool, and eating mom’s food and dad’s fresh grilled burgers.

Finally, it was time for the big Halloween day. As the weather was so perfect, we decided to make a trip up to New Hope for lunch on the terrace at Havanas — a great choice. Then it was time to head on down for the festivities. Times seem to have changed since my childhood of walking around the neighborhood collecting candies. Our first stop was a neighborhood party in Mike’s area with a home built maze (those who finished the maze got an extra large candy bar) as well as food and drinks. Then we jumped into cars going to the second neighborhood with more food and drinks. Then we jumped into the car yet again for a third party (after a stop with Sydney and Kai for $6 bowls at Chipotle for those wearing costumes) complete with a firepit and an Asian Freddy Mercury belting out Queen tunes. With 3 parties down, it was time to call it a night.

It was a big agenda and we did it all (less the Great Adventure visit). It wouldn’t have been possible without such a great team making it all come together so thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. We all had such a great time, planning already started thinking about how to do it all over again, but for now we will simply have to return to our civilian lives.

Given all the uncertainties about the world of tomorrow, the best course of action is making the most of today. So when the window opened for another holiday across the pond, we didn’t dither and we didn’t dabble – we bought the whole enchilada.

The boys school holiday provided a 2 week window, an ample canvas but with many aspirations. Having been to the Caribbean at an all-inclusive resort a few years back (and Club Med Florida as well), the idea of sunny resort life was still resonating in our minds – especially being able to celebrate Kai’s birthday together. Then we had the chance to enjoy a proper American Halloween (although cutting our jet lag recovery time into slim margins for error). And lastly, the opportunity to join my brother (and his Penn State fraternity crew) and my Wisconsin/Atlanta family for a big football matchup in Wisconsin was too big to waiver.

Meanwhile, the execution was not without its challenges. Hurricanes were wreaking havoc in the Gulf, airlines were pricing tickets as if it were Christmas (at least the Christmases of a few years back), and Chika had a business trip in London starting after the first week of the holiday.

But for our crew of fearless travelers, there was nothing to deter us from our mission. One Sunday evening on a train bound for Munich the airline fares dipped, and after a few hours we had our planes booked, our Caribbean adventure secured (with refundable frequent flyer tickets and cancelable resort rooms), and a manic deadline to get as much sorted out as possible with the office before leaving (which all got delivered.)

The good news about our travel abroad was that we were able to go as the whole family – Teo didn’t have to charm the ladies guarding the lounge to let us have an extra guest this time and I had someone to share drinks with.

While we were able to have an easy start of the journey (8am house departure), we landed quite late in the USA (with a huge security queue) and arrived at my parents almost 4am Berlin time.

The upside to the late arrival was that we could chip at some of the jet lag we needed to get past and Sunday is the perfect day to relax and chill. But that would have to wait because it was William’s 10th birthday extravaganza in New York City!!!

Our Uber (dad) dropped us to the train where we commuted to NYC. As we had already done the observatory at the Freedom Tower, Chika decided to go running in Central Park, while the boys and I hit Chinatown to hunt for Pokémon cards and get some luxury bubble tea. We met up with the crew at the Black Tap Soho, a carnival of calories featuring an eclectic menu of burgers (I shared a wagu burger with Mike that was delish) and the most insane milkshakes I have ever seen. Even Frankenstein would have been taken aback.

The party ventured on to hit golf balls at Chelsea Piers (I was having nightmarish thoughts of what Teo could do) while our crew strolled up the sunny New York Streets to Penn Station.

Monday then became our rest day, with French Toast, gym/pool, some shopping, and a steaks on the grill dinner.

Tuesday we were off at 7am to Newark Airport to catch our flights to Cancun. On the downside, the lounge passes for mom and dad didn’t work but on the upside we were able to get an upgrade for dad for the flight down. Luckily we were heading for plenty of eating as our airport sushi was pretty weak.

By 3pm we were checking in at the Hilton All-Inclusive. It’s a nice new property quite secluded by a big wetlands — great for a chill few days, but not a launchpad for exploring (pyramids will be visited the next go around). We were taken care of by a great host — Dulce Castro — who has the biggest smile and is incredibly warm and friendly (if you should somehow happen to meet her, say hello from us). We did (as planned) secure a nice upgrade to a connecting sea-view suite, which was great to allow everyone to do their own thing even with the jet lag still lurking. As if fate were complicit, the first activity of the day was a Möet Champange tasting as if they knew Chika was arriving.

The weather was pleasantly unpredictable – we had more sun than clouds even when bad times were predicted. I can happily say that I made it into the ocean 4 days in a row. From our room to the pool/beach was only a few minutes so as soon as the sun showed itself we were in our loungers.

As usual, we tried to make the most out of the eating options. For our dinners, we did Italian the first night, then Mexican, and closed out the last night at the grill restaurant. Thanks to my Hilton AMEX, we had $200 resort credit and freely splurged at the grill with a 40oz porterhouse and grilled lobster. They were so happy, they even comped us a delicious bottle of red wine. As far as the other meals, breakfast was always good – there was always some interesting mexican dishes to spice up the routine. And with lunch, there were always great salads (including ceviches) plus tacos and burgers. One day with Chika and the boys we tried the asian a la carte menu which was also a nice diversion. And last but not least there was an ice cream bar with churros — mom was in heaven.

Probably one of the unplanned highlights was that chess.com was having their convention at the hotel. While we couldn’t get a face to face with the grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, Chika was able to get a whole bunch of schwag from the chess.com people and Kai was able to join in the ongoing games in the lobby.

For Kai’s birthday, they delivered cakes on the eve of his birthday, the day of his birthday, and again at birthday dinner. As the adage stated: let them eat cake.

As the first chapter came to a close, Chika flew back to Europe to catch up with business appointments, mom and dad brought the boys back to the homestead, and I continued on to Wisconsin via Chicago.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Every trip to the USA ends with feedback from the boys: why can we stay longer? So this year I decided to extend the trip to 4 weeks with the thought I could work the first week (and also meet up with my USA counterparts). But this apparently was against BMW rules and so my 3 week vacation became a 4 week vacation. Oh the horror. Chika had business to attend to in Japan, so we needed to make the journey on our own.

Somehow in the planning, I chose to do the outbound via Brussels (maybe was a little cheaper). But in the middle of the transit Teo asked: why didn’t we fly direct? I started asking myself the same question. At least we were able to pickup some good belgian chocolate on the way.

We arrived tired after a long day, but we quickly settled into our routines. Mornings with Pop Pop’s french toast and other breakfast delights, followed by the gym/pool and then some additional outings. We were able to catch up with the bigger clan starting with a day at the Great Adventure amusement park with Uncle Mike and cousin William (the first of many outings thanks to a great deal on season passes with upgrade to Diamond — more about that later). We followed this with a great grill/pool party with Aunt Melanie. The next day we met up with William for some great dim sum (where Will ate more than I could have imagined) and the Franklin Institute.

The timing of our trip allowed me to participate in my friends Brendan and Raquel’s son Benjamin’s Bar Mitzvah in NYC. A fantastic event with their great friends and some fun kibbitzing with local congregants after the service. And of course a great opportunity to catch up with Patrick, Stirling, and an impromptu visit from Allan to enjoy some fun NYC experiences — including an amazing peruvian meal at Artesano which was amazing and a great bike tour through Brooklyn (thanks Patrick!).

I rejoined the crew in Atlantic City and took advantage of the proximity of the bus depot to the best cheese steak in the world at White House Subs. We settled into our beach routine enjoying the beach life — beach, eat, beach, eat, etc. We did manage to mix it up with some fishing activities. While we upgraded our gear from last year, we were not able to catch any dinner.

The rest of the clan joined us down for a long weekend, kicked off by Aunt Melanie’s successful triathalon, followed by lobster fest, belated birthday celebration for Mom and Dad at Chef Vola’s, an epic bikeride with Mike to Strathmere, and of course a visit to Ocean City boardwalk with cousins Jeff and Oliver.

Having conquered the beach, it was now time to head north to visit our friends in New England — Ben, Tonya, Asher, and Arya Mezrich. With an morning break departure, we were able to get to Vermont by lunch time. Undaunted by the weather, we managed to visit their lake front 2 days in a row but also fit in some major table tennis action (I was mainly undefeated, with the exception for 1 loss to Simon who was up writing up a story about Ben.) When the weather finally broke, we went to Storyland for a great day at our second amusement park of the trip followed by a great house party where I ran into an old friend (and Chika’s former work colleague) Soo.

The following day, we needed to adjust the schedule because it was family baseball day for the Mezrich family at Fenway Park in Boston. They were extra kind sharing their extra seat with Kai, who at his very first game was treated to seats in the owners box behind home plate — not sure how I will ever top that. Teo and I in the meantime decided to head into Boston China town for some excellent dim sum at Dynasty. I somehow let Teo take over the ordering, and the next thing we knew we had huge amounts of food arriving — including a brisket with rice roll dish (very tasty, but way too much fat on the brisket).

In the evening, Ben and Tonya took me to the Quinn House, a cool refurbished social club in the redone Algonquin, with our friend Russ. A great time to end the northern part of the trip.

We departed the next day to the Six Flag New England, since our Diamond Pass upgrade got us into every park. Was fun to try some new rides, and we especially liked the Superman rollercoaster. From there we took the long leg of the trip back to Yardley.

While it was supposed to be the winddown part of the trip, I managed to make 2 excursions to Philadelphia. 1st, I just randomly noticed a Facebook post showing a book tour stop of my old friend Adam from my Nokia days. Was super fun to suprise him and catch up (and strangely enough was my introduction to Soo from my earlier post.) Then the boys and I decided to try the Hurricane Water Park at Six Flags topped with a few rollercoasters to wrap up on this trip. And then in another last minute call, I decided to drop back into Philadelphia to catchup with Allan again for a happy hour tour — hitting not just Dirty Franks for some great Yuengling beers and darts but also capping it of with giant slices from Lorenzo’s on South Street. Even better than I remembered.

4 weeks seemed to fly by too fast, but then it was finally time to go. A great time was had by all, perhaps too good — my scale noticed a non-negligible change since I left. But all in good service of family and friend time. Can’t wait until the next one.

Every year in Germany we have this crazy holiday season in May with 3 out of 4 weeks (depending on your region) having days off. This year, Chika was off working in Japan so I needed to source a plan. I suggested doing a “glamping” trip to my friend Kunal, and his son Linus signed off (after getting permission to invite a friend).

As Kunal and I are both overly busy with work, traveling, kids, it took us some time to settle down on a final venue. We had finalized on the idea of a houseboat, but at the last minute the one we were looking at around Brandeburg was gone. I found another one in Poland close to the Baltic Sea and we decided to close the deal.

We left on Thursday and met up in Szcechin for some pierogis in an intersting market hall (after fighting through some nasty holiday traffic) and then finally to Kamień Pomorski, the inlet where our houseboat was located. Kunal had arrived early and took care of all the registrations. While compact, the boat had many ammenities. There were 2 sleeping cabins, a living room (with convertible couch), kitchen with gas stove, dining table, refridgerator, bath with shower, roof deck (which we brought up table and chairs to enjoy the early evening) — all while being part of a boat.

We decided to do the mandatory boat driving training to fulfill the insurance requirements the next morning. We wanted to explore the local fish restaurant, but it was closed and then the kitchen in the marina restaurant was closed (because it was after 8pm), so we ended up eating the morning’s breakfast taco plan for dinner (which the boys liked). And since we found a great bakery in town, we had more than enough to eat at breakfast (although the boys asked for more egg tacos).

The boat training was quite the adventure after the engine died (because the gas wasn’t properly connected) and we started drifting into other boats. Kunal and I were thinking how pleasant it was with our 10 ton boat in the harbor (which would demolish any thing we hit), but the boys made us press on — “We came here for advenure” cried Linus.

The boys wanted to eat on the boat, so Kunal and I went out shopping. Since the kitchen gear was very limited, I decided to do a simple pasta meat sauce with some fresh noodles. My clients were quite satisfied. Afterwards, we headed out into the harbor. Kunal did a great job piloting the boat, and we were able to anchor for a while to let the boys go swimming. As we wanted to get back this time for dinner, we returned back home on the earlier side. The local fish restaurant turned out to be great.

All the boys decided to come on the last bakery run. On the way we decided to check if the ice cream place with giant cones was open. It turns out the owner was there! But the soft icecream wasn’t ready 🙁 We asked how long (in our Polish gesture language) and he said 5 minutes. As we needed to go to the bakery and come back, it was on. And yes, at 9am the boys were having ice cream for breakfast. As we needed to check out early at 10, we decided to visit the beach by car. It turned out to be much nicer weather there with clear blue skies and sun. We played a bit of touch football on the beach (I am not sure if I remembered all the rules correctly) and then had a final lunch where Teo had a giagantic burger.

Overall, a great trip. The only question is when we should repeat it again.

The dynamics of our family is such that we have event collisions more frequently than one would like. In this case, Chika had a business trip in Japan and had a follow-on opportunity AND the boys were off for winter break. Usually, this would have been a straight forward ski trip week, but, among other factors, Teo was recovering from a badly sprained ankle.

While Chika’s plan were in the initial phase, I decided to check in with my college roommate Ranjeev based in Dubai whether he would be around during the first week in February. He offered to hold the dates, I booked some frequent flyer tickets (unfortunately from Frankfurt, but at least direct) and hotels on points, and then waited to see what happened. Finally, Chika got the green light for her project and operations began.

I had prepared 2 options: to drive directly to the airport on the day we flew, or to fly out the night before and stay in the airport hotel. As there was a lot of complexities involved in the trip, adding stress to day 1 wasn’t worth it. We were able to drive out on our own schedule (after a great dim sum lunch), visit our favorite Japanese cafe, Imori, in Frankfurt, and even fit in a workout in the hotel gym in the morning.

While I generally do not really like flying out of Frankfurt airport (it’s too big, long queues, etc.), it was a simple walk from the hotel to the terminal — experience couldn’t have been better. While we had some delay on our departure, our flight was in general very smooth. It did take us a while to get through immigration and get a taxi to our hotel, which when combined with our delay resulted in arriving at our hotel, the VOCO on the Palm, around 1am local time (10pm German time).

The next morning, I needed to manage my regular meetings while changing hotels. I opted for the late checkout which allowed time to do a little grocery shopping for breakfast, and was able to drop the kids off a the rooftop pool for a short visit before jumping onto calls. I was able to successfully checkout and get us into the taxi so I could take the next meeting before checking-in during regular Munich lunch hour.

Our main location for the visit was the Double Tree Hotel at Jumeirah Beach. It’s a short drive to my friend Ranjeev’s place, it had both a pool and beach access (so kids could do something besides video games while I was working), and with Diamond Hilton status we would get some nice perks. It turned out to be even better than expected — we got upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen (and a washing machine!), free breakfast for the 3 of us every morning, and a $200 credit (from my Hilton credit card).

What I realized from workcation perspective is that the 3 hour time zone difference was golden. That meant we had time to go to the pool, hit the gym, go for a walk, and of course have long leisurely brunches (with unlimited eggs benedict) at the buffet. And then at lunchtime (or 3pm Dubai time) I could reconnect with the kids at the pool or the beach. The weather could have been a bit warmer (was in low 20s), but we managed to get into the water every day.

On our first night, the boys wanted to go for sushi. Ranjeev came by and took us to his go-to spot. I couldn’t believe it when it came — the epic 84 piece collassal sushi boat. It was so much, they needed to bring a side tray to carry all the pieces over. The team did very well, with only a few that got away. The next 2 days were fairly basic, eating locally on the beach side (some Shake Shack of course, and then we tried the hotel restaurant).

Finally the big day came on Thursday. I had taken the Thursday and Friday off so we decided to plan a big excursion. Due to some technical difficulties (we weren’t sure if Teo was 40kg yet), we decided not to go to the Jebel Jais zipline experience (with top speeds of 160km per hour!!!). Instead we went to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, one of the most famous amusement parks in the world. Unfortunately, the fastest rollercoast and main attraction was closed that day. But we managed to spend over 6 hours there and enjoyed a great lunch break at PF Changs.

On the Friday, we decided to do some pool time and then head up to the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall. What I realized was that I needed to book tickets a few days in advance… But we did get to see the building at day and night, plus the great fountain show in the plaza in front. Ranjeev and I got to have a nice late dinner at a great seafood restaurant next door to our hotel and close out the solid week.

Saturday was departure day which would usually be a waste. Except in Dubai, when our flight wasn’t leaving until Sunday at 1.35am. We packed up all our stuff, with the exception of a change of clothes, and hung out at the pool for the whole day. For late lunch, we did an excursion over to Bluewaters Island, a nice man-made island with lots of shops and restaurants. We had some nice (but expensive) Japanese tapas and bought a nice plane pillow for Teo.

Afterwards we headed over to Ranjeev’s house for some chess and to say hello to his wife Sukaina, who unfortunately been sick and couldn’t join for our events. Some last minute shopping needs (figs for Yukie and hot sauce for Chika) prompted the final excursion to the mall, with a stop at the food court for dinner.

As Ranjeev dropped us at the airport, it was a bit sad to leave this happy place. We will definitely come back. As Teo kept noting, people were super nice. They even allowed us to have one extra person into the lounge before flying back.

The next morning after the redeye, we met Chika at the airport hotel which was great to have a cat nap and freshen up. Unfortunately, due to a parade we couldn’t make it to Imori for breakfast, but we did manage to get some crepes at the train station before their departure back to Berlin (I was off to Munich).

Bottom-line: Dubai is clearly a great destination for the family, and we intend to be back more often.

See outside

Burj Khalifa