European Superlatives
Well, that’s a wrap, folks. We ended our Euroventure, and moved back to San Francisco this month (well, Berkeley to be precise), chock full of experiences and the memories to last us a lifetime.
To remind ourselves when we're grey and and hunched, we came up with 80 Superlatives from our time in Europe. We recognize it’s a long list – at the very least, please skip to the end for the grand finale!
Here goes.
Location oriented
1. Best City to Visit: Paris – the City of Lights!
2. Worst City to Visit: Vienna – mneh, it just wasn’t…
3. Best city to do work on a Thursday of a long weekend trip: London. So many cafes, so much wifi.
4. Most Christmasy Christmas market: Lake Como, with a giant snow scene projected onto the town square
5. Number of countries visited: 18
6. Nicest people: Easy win – the Scots
7. Cities we could call home in the future: Copenhagen, London, Edinburgh, maybe Chamonix
8. Most random and most satisfying place to visit: Kalundborg
The background here is that Sarah did her undergraduate thesis on Danish renewable energy policy, featuring an entire chapter on this town in northwestern Denmark. Kalundborg is one of the world’s best examples of industrial ecology, where one company’s waste is utilized as another company’s input. Here, pipes all over town lead from one facility to another.
9. Most common Goose camping spot: Chamonix (15 nights!)
10. Most frustrating thing about Paris: dogs not allowed in parks. Also, the grass in parks is off-limits to humans. What are parks for then, if not dogs or bare feet?
11. Most frustrating thing about Munich: everything is closed aaaaalllll of the time. Sundays, forget it. But also evenings, and sometimes seemingly afternoons and mornings.
12. Best use of being in Europe: tie! We trekked to both of our paternal, ancentral roots. On the Zisa side, we visited the Piedmont region and Sicily in Italy. On the Penndorf side, we made it to Landshut and Leipzig in Germany, and Graz Austria
13. Least enjoyable negotiating: the Souks of Morrocco
14. Best concert hall: KKL in Lucerne
Event oriented
15. Most underrated occurrence: Sarah’s miracle driver’s license.
To get a German driver’s license, you need to pass a VERY extensive written test (in English, but seriously, it’s a hard test) and a behind-the-wheel in German. We entered Sarah into the queue to start this whole process, even though she didn’t speak German, and when we went back to the Munich DMV to check on the status, lo-and-behold, they had simply authorized her driver’s license without any tests. Miracle? German kindness? Or mistake? Don’t ask…just drive!
16. Worst photo: Sarah’s German driver’s license mug shot… taken when she thought she had to take all of the aforementioned tests.
17. Nearest experience to death: the time Truffle got bit by a viper snake while we were hiking in the mountains
18. Best hike: any that ended at a mountain hut.
Second place: the one backpacking trip we took, which ended up posting our tent right where Sarah is standing in this photo
19. Best running route (local): Our loop around the Isar River in Munich.
20. Best running route (non-local): Even though we were disappointed overall (see: #2) by Vienna, they have a big, dog-friendly trail system
21. Best music festival: Rock en Pomme, on a small apple farm in rural Normandy
When Dave’s 22 year old colleague heard we were en route to Normandy for the weekend, he invited us to a local farm’s second annual let’s-have-friends-over-and-good-bands-and-sell-beer-and-it’ll be-fun-for-everyone-festival. No one spoke English, but it didn’t matter. People camped under trees, rocked to some French music, jammed into the wee hours, and ate delicious food.
22. Best concert: Front Country in France
23. Best car camping spot: Isle of Skye, Scotland (before the attack of the midges)
24. Worst car camping spot: Isle of Skye, Scotalnd (after the attack of the midges)
25. Most surprising touristy event that kicks ass: Oktoberfest
26. Sarah’s first German words: Ziegenkäse (goat cheese) and Scharfkäse (sheep cheese)
Observation oriented
27. Most surprising thing(s) about cows: they’re mountainous, they’re way faster than they look, sometimes those dough eyes turn aggressive, they’re musical (bells!), and they sound like dinosaurs at night
28. Most bizarre sign: “No Drones” on a hiking trail marker in Spain
29. Coolest discovery: hut culture
30. Most aggravating German phrase: “it’s impossible” when, in fact, it’s actually very possible.
31. Fastest internet: darn near anywhere in Europe, including any home internet and the LTE on our phones
Food oriented
32. Best croissant: Ble Sucre in Paris
33. Best beer: difficult tie - Copenhagen, Lisbon, Edinburgh microbrews
34. Best soup: Suppenkuchen in the Viktualienmarkt
35. Best sauerkraut: Sarah’s stand that she went to for all fruit/veggies, also in Viktualienmarkt
36. Best Kaiserschmarmm: Frauenhofer
37. Best chocolate: tie
a. the free Toblerones that hotels in Switzerland leave on your pillow.
b. Modica from Sicily: unheated cocoa beans that retain the grit and nutritional value of the natural plant
38. Best Brezn (Pretzel): Hofbrauhaus (close second is… surprisingly… the Lufthansa lounge in the Munich airport)
39. Best milk: pour your own, straight from the cow, raw, 1 Euro for a liter, milk from a German side of the road farm
40. Recipe Sarah needs to get: Obazda
41. Best ice cream (excluding gelato from Italy): our spot in Munich [we dont even know what it's called]
42. Best meal: home cooked Meyers pasta
43. Best restaurant meal: raclette in Chamonix for Christmas Eve
This is the way to do Raclette right: the hot coals on the right melt the cheese block, while you use the flat spatula thingy to scrape the cheese over your potatoes onto your plate.
Money oriented
44. Best purchase: Grey Goose!
45. Best purchase for the Grey Goose: outdoor shower
46. Best purchase under $10: Sarah’s antique sauerkraut pot bought off the German Craigslist
47. Most obnoxiously expensive place: Switzerland. Think 20 EUR basic salad.
48. Best bargain in Europe: artisanal French baguette for 90 cents
49. Most overpriced item in Germany: water at restaurants
Skiing oriented
50. Best cross-country skiing that formally allows dogs: Davos
51. Best cross-country skiing where Sarah took Truffle: St Anton
52. Best ski resort within 90 minutes of Munich: Kitzbühel
53. Best ski resort within 3 hours of Munich: St Anton (reminder, Tahoe is 4 hours from SF)
54. Best ski sleeping spot: St Christophe, behind the municipal green power center
55. Worst ski season in the Alps: this year, with a close second being last year (wah wah)
Visitor oriented
56. Best visitors: tie! Lee, Lauren/Patrick/Clara, Patty/Frank, Brittney/Lief, Lindsey/Matt, Donna/Peter, Nick/John, Courtney/Pat, Jenny/Ryan/Weston, Mama Penndorf, Janey/Ben, Rose, Johannes, & Marselle/Tim
57. Best activity with a guest: Sorry Oktoberfest, this one goes to tobogganing with two-year-old Weston
58. Nearest miss: Michael, who arrived in Chamonix 6 hours after we left...but fear not, 6 months later met up with him in Cham (he likes that place too)
59. Most distant cousins whom we didn’t know existed prior to our move but who live 45 minutes away from Munich: Family Scheffler (Annette and Dave have the same great-great grandfather; in other words, their grandfathers were cousins)
The extended Penndorf family in Munich
Munich oriented
60. Most grumpy Europeans: Bavarians
61. Most obvious #GermanInefficiency: scheduling a visit to the doctor for the sole purpose of getting vaccination booster shots, and upon arrival being told, “oh, we don’t carry those” and then having to go purchase the vaccinations yourself
62. Most unreasonable time Sarah got yelled at: it was her fault that a doctor couldn’t find a vein when getting blood drawn
63. Best place to get flowers: Cut-yourself farms
64. Best biergarten: Zum Flaucher
65. Best summer activity in Munich: beach-like atmosphere by the river (with or without clothes)
66. Most surprising attire: Hmm, this is close. One) that Bavarians wear dirndls and lederhosen as nice attire (think: weddings), and Two) French rouge is a real thing. All times of the day, all ages, all occasions: Parisians love red lipstick always.
Potpourri
67. Most annoying thing about the Goose: the batteries being mostly dead, but Volkswagen checking them while still under warranty and saying they’re completely fine
68. Biggest regrets:
a. Sarah: her haircut in Munich (you don’t cut curly hair wet! ever!)
b. Dave: not visiting Jenny/Ryan or Shirin/Lee one last time
69. Best view: Eiffel tower twinkling from our Paris apartment
We had to climb on a chair, but then we got this view of Paris. Hard to tell from a photo, but right in front of us were Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph and Mr Eiffel's Tower, sparkling every night at 10pm, 11pm and midnight
70. Best work spot: Tushita Tea House
71. Truffle’s best friend: Mango, the yellow lab of our downstairs neighbors from Michigan
72. Most changed from living in Europe: Truffle!
Why? She got a new diet (raw red meat!) which means better digestion, harder poop, more tail wagging
73. Longest nights slept in a row in the Goose: 11
74. Fastest the Goose drove on the Autobahn: 155km/h [96 mph]
75. Fastest Dave drove on the Autobahn in a rental car: 185 km/h [114 mph] just after taking this picture (don't try photoing and driving at home, folks)
Home oriented
76. Best item brought from home: jumper cables (especially when Sarah is camping in the Goose with Michael and he swears that the battery can support leaving his phone plugged in all night)
77. Item most missed from home:
a. Sarah: friends
b. Dave: beard trimmer (Mat Loving, are you reading this…?)
78. Thing we’re least looking forward to about moving home: the daily commute into the city from Berkeley
79. Thing we’re most looking forward to about moving home: vegetables
Bonus:
80. Best souvenir we’re bringing home with us: