Law, Partially

To start November and get to Spain, we flew a godforsaken European airline, Air Europa, that got us safely to Madrid, but disgusted us and annoyed us in the process. (The timings weren't good for Milan-Madrid flights, and this airline offered the most convenient time.) I missed the first night in Madrid with food poisoning courtesy of a Milanese airport ham sandwich -- not recommended. We had several hopes and goals for the Spanish leg of the Great Adventure to the South -- not all of them culinary -- Goya, Alhambra, and Mezquita. In Madrid, we wanted to soak up the Spanish cosmopolitanism of the imperial capital and see the Museo del Prado, hoping to recreate our Louvre success with our nascent art fan. In Andalucia, we wanted to explore the tapas heartland and the multicultural history (again, with the multicultural family's interest in multiculturalism...). I was worried how Bobby would react to his constricted pasta supply in Spain. Back in London, Bobby would almost a...

Ambitions to write entries in every city have crashed. Entries by region? Failed. As we wind down the first half of the trip and leave Italy for points west, maybe I can succeed in documenting our adventure by country. If India travelled to France, Italy would result. Just like India, Italy is even jammed onto the southside of a continent. And just like in India, we enjoyed our adventure, though some days we were dirty and tired of it, and just like in France, we ate very well and went to museums. In Florence I felt like I was in India, often walking in streets (few practical sidewalks), along with cars driven by the unsympathetic, breathing in exhaust fumes, amidst crumbling old buildings and throngs of people. India is of course more crowded, dirtier, and poorer, but sewer smells often linger in those medieval Italian city centers as they do in India's more crowded neighborhoods. Like in India, sometimes I'm amazed that Italy works at all. But it works, and it is a great ...

Celebrating the start of fall and the big boy's birthday falling just after, we decamped from north London for British places even further north. Nainai flew in from Cedar Rapids to adventure with the FD Linges. Months earlier, Christine and I had planned a route, booked a car, homestay lodgings, lunches and early dinners at restaurants, and seats on a scenic train route. We booked with Nainai's discerning consumer preferences in mind. We hoped to make this her best trip ever. We planned to chase down her ancestors in Nottinghamshire and Beatrix Potter in the Lake District; she also had Scotland on her list of places to visit, so grant that wish we did. Although she lives far away (at least 13 hours by plane, plus train (i.e., Piccadilly Line)), Nainai is an important part of Bobby's development. Bobby often talks to her over video chat, and Mum and I often put our child development questions to her. Usually we just need reassurance that his seemingly illogical behavior i...

The Cotswolds are an "Area of Outstanding National Beauty." Under England's (and Wale's) AONB scheme, changes to the landscape are limited by law. So in the Cotswolds we end up with these rolling, grassy hills dotted with medieval stone villages of golden limestone, looking just how you would expect the English countryside to look. Bobby dashing through the village common in  Kingham , a small Cotswolds village where we had dinner at the Kingham Plough, an upmarket pub (many, or most, of the pubs in the Cotswolds seemed to be upmarket). We had occasion to pass this fine weekend in the Cotswolds because I had a Thursday meeting in Birmingham. Birmingham is about a one and half hour train ride from London, so on Wednesday I loaded the family on the train with me. We spent two nights in Birmingham, famed for its early entrepreneurial role in the Industrial Revolution, now laced with old canals and warehouses and more recent waves of redevelopment. On Friday we...