Topic: Travel

We didn't plan to land in Venice on my birthday.. but its not exactly a bad place to celebrate, 'eh?

Venice is beautiful --- no doubt about that! but it's more jam packed than Times Square in July, or New Years. You can't move it's so congested with people (and yes, the canals are a bit stinky, too). I thought Venice was pretty, but would have preferred it with a little more breathing room. There were just so many tourists …

Mountains, mountains, everywhere!

Innsbruck is such a pretty town with beautiful snow capped mountains in all directions! It also had a lot of veg options!

We got in late in the afternoon and settled into an Italian bistro for dinner. Scott ordered his classic cheeseless veg pizza while I was all over the vegetable soup and salad.

The next afternoon we wandered into a street fair and were over the moon to find a vegetarian stand with many vegan specialties. …

I don't know why Germany has such a bad reputation for being anti-veg. Both this trip, and my trip 5 yrs ago, I had no problem finding vegan options. What really has impressed me is that the trains in Germany take care to offer veg fare...even with icons indicating what is vegetarian.

Anyway after Hamburg, Berlin & Cologne I'm in Munich.... with Scott, my best friend Jim, his girlfriend, his sister and her friend Craig.

All of us (except Craig) …

Scott & I met up in Paris before heading to Munich to meet our friends at Oktoberfest!

Scott arrived early in the morning (7am!) and we ran out to see the sites once we'd connected at our rendezvous point.

The Louve is damn impressive, I must say. After walking around looking at paintings (though, for me, I got most excited about some of the ceilings!) we were starved and dipped into a cute Italian bistro and ordered our eat-out standby...cheeseless …

My amazingly wonderful host, Dorothee is newly vegan and took care to seek out veg-friendly restaurants all over Hamburg to take me to.

Shortly after I arrived (many hours late thanks to a train delay elsewhere in Germany!) we scurried off to an adorable cafe. The soup of the day was vegan (indicated as such on the chalkboard!) and since it was just cold enough (I'm loving the fall weather) I ordered it.

This lentil-carrot-potato soup was just lovely. It …