Law, Partially

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 ...

Maybe one year is too long to take to plan a vacation. With so many weeks available to envision the trip, you get ideas like: I will document the entire trip in real-time on our blog. Also, let's make non-refundable hotel bookings because they're cheaper -- when we've planned so far ahead, what could get in the way of the trip? Almost two weeks into the London Linges' Great Adventure South, and I am writing the introductory entry that probably should have been written before leaving London. This fall, Christine, Bobby, and I all find ourselves in natural transition points. Christine just graduated from LSE; she's pregnant and unemployed. I agreed to move my consulting practice from London to Minneapolis and am (temporarily) unemployed in the meantime. Bobby, not yet tied down with a mortgage or state-mandated schooling obligations, goes where the trains and planes (and his parents) take him. His employment consists of going on adventures. We're already in Eu...

We had a good life in the Lower Holloway area of Islington. Bobby's nursery was very close, and many kids living in our building also attended. His best friend lived in the same building. There were many cafes, all of which knew how to make babycinos (ingredients consist of foamed milk and some chocolate powder), including one on the ground floor of our building. Some of the last few babycinos at the New Zealand-style cafe, Sacred, on the ground floor of our building; since the hamburger restaurant across the square closed, Sacred became a de facto hangout for the local gangs of small children. King's Cross was two stops away on the Piccadilly. This area north of the station was an old intermodal port, where goods could be transferred from train to ships on the Victoria Canal. The big brick building was grain storage but is now an art school with various restaurant chains on the ground floor. Next door are former coal storage buildings that now house a high-end s...

Having a toddler is also a lot of fun. And London is a big fun city to explore, for toddlers and dads alike. Every morning, we talk about busses. Bobby earnestly asks if we can take a bus. On most weekdays, we tell him that we have to go to school but maybe during the weekend we can take a bus. He then says " Mummy take bus " or " Baba take bus ." If one of us leaves early, he says it's for us to take the bus. Luckily, he rarely complains much (knock on wood) about having to go to school and how it prevents him from taking the bus. On the weekends, we plan our days around how we can ride in public carriage. Some weekends, we take the bus to parks we could walk to, or we take bus rides to parks in adjacent neighborhoods, especially Stoke Newington , which is just a very nice little village with a big park (Clissold). Today started early and terribly. Who knows what time the little guy woke up, but he woke up his baba at six to tell him he needed help with t...

Ireland exudes a certain romantic lure. Christine, Bobby, and I had never been but were drawn. We wanted to jam one last European trip in this year before heading to the U.S. for Christmas. How could we have known the weather would be so cold and rainy in December? We were anxious to spend some time in Ireland because so many people talk so fondly of the place, and it has experienced a remarkable economic transformation (we, of course, being contributors to the blog Law Partially are always interested in the legal-socio-economic structures underlying our tourism destinations). I love the  Irish language  and Irish names. I love that the language is so old and a bit strange and actually hardly used anymore. We almost named our first born Seamus, and I still plan to name our first daughter Siobhan, even if Mum so far hasn't been convinced. Besides, visiting the Long Room of the Old Library at Trinity College was a bucket list item for Christine and me. In the Long ...

We had several goals in visiting Paris this fall: introduce the city to our new travel buddy, hazard a trip to the Louvre with a toddler in tow, and find some parks, pastries, and wine. In all regards, the trip was a delirious success. Paris is the most favored city -- after Tokyo -- for Christine and me. We both studied here: me during the autumn several years before Christine in the spring. We also passed some time here with my family during another deliriously successful trip in 2014 (also in the autumn). Bobby even visited the city when he was just a little pain au chocolate  baking in his mum, and she and I came for the French Open during the famous spring 2016 floods in central Paris (lots of rained-out tennis that week...). The Louvre is a particular favorite of mine. As a student, I had class in the Louvre most Wednesday nights. It's easy to dismiss it as "touristy," but it is also an unrivaled trove of the world's cultural artifacts kept in one of the gra...

Strutting into one of the first sunny days of the season, in the courtyard of our building, 10 May. Highbury Fields is a big park near our house. This curved street along the park's edge is called Highbury Crescent. We all like the stately old houses along the crescent. In this photo, Bob, sporting his jean jacket from his cousin-in-law Beth, is strutting toward the Highbury Fields playground, where we passed many a sunny (and not sunny) summer morning. 11 May. The FD Linges' ongoing European vacation, with this 26 May stop at the Colosseum. For Mum's and Baba's anniversary this year, 8 June, we ventured to the biggest grocery store in the neighborhood, Waitrose, where we had some coupons, and bought ingredients for a special family dinner. Bob was tearing through the store, filling his shopping basket with whatever the hell he felt like, Baba trailing behind and placing those items back on the shelf. The next day, we went to Lord'...