Are You a Couch Foodie, Garden Foodie or Stove-Top Foodie?

Recently in a cycling forum, a question floated over the Internet: “Do you have a discerning palate?” That got me thinking about foodies, people who pride themselves as food connoisseurs, worldly arbitrators of food dishes from a dizzying array of cuisines. Just a Stove-Top Foodie: Homespun Knowledge I fancy myself as a foodie. Not a…

Easily Drunk on Cycle-Touring in Wine Regions

It’s annoying to have my  health problem whenever we go cycle-touring in the wine regions of Canada, U.S. and Europe: I get easily drunk on alcohol. You could say I am afflicted by a common problem that isn’t just confined to some Asians (although there is that stereotyping). My ears become quite red: fast like a supremely…

Cesky Krumlov: Czech Interpretations of Medieval and Renaissance Architecture

For another architecturally rich visit in a quieter, smaller town beyond the hustle and bustle of Prague, is the town of Cesky Krumlov.    It is 180 km. southwest of Prague  –a pleasant train ride in old, but clean Czech trains.  We stowed our bikes into the bike train car and settled into our seats to watch…

Romanticizing the Best: Asian Craze for Gourmet European Desserts

Romanticizing either one’s own culture or another culture, can be as simple as introducing a foreign food dish, which becomes wildly popular over time.  Popular, because not only the dish tastes great, but the consumer purchases and enjoys the dish as partaking in a refined, higher class or more worldly expression of their personal taste….

900 Years of Architectural Legacy: Why Prague is a Royal Empress

I had heard of Prague’s splendid old World charm.  But I was unprepared for the city’s dizzying variety and historical compression of architectural centuries at each street corner and with each turn of my head.  Good thing we could explore its astonishing richness of Romanesque, medieval, baroque, renaissance, gothic and art nouveau building wonders, by…

Supersized Meals Along Cycling Trips : Gulping Surprises

I’m not sure why it is, but the  most memorable super-sized meals have been during our cycling trips.  Why does this happen out of town?  Maybe I don’t eat out often enough in local restaurants in my home city. I spend more restaurant dollars and sample more culinary variety  when we’re travelling and touring. After a 100…

European City Museums More than Second Cousins: Centuries of Rich History

Some European city museums can be rich treasure troves of history and art  –meaning centuries of a municipal life. Maybe my North American view of the city museum, as the lesser cousin, was previously influenced by our shorter history — if we do not include aboriginal history nor the Vikings landing on Newfoundland’s shores. Social change, political…

Behold a Stork! Sightings During Cycling Trip

Some European countries have a historic love affair with the stork. This bird was the convenient explanation for little children in Germany, France and elsewhere, for how babies were delivered into the world. While on the Northwest coast, it’s the kitschy toy whales or seals, in Germany and France, it’s the fuzzy stuffed stork, decoy…

Tour de Gateau, Torte and Kugelhopf

I never thought I would be doing some food blogging as part of my European trip stories. But after my earlier tour de foodie blog posts on  spargel (white asparagus) and dumplings, a European Tour de Gateau (cake) seemed appropos. During my discovery and devouring of delightful cake slices, I did not jot down any…

Come and Get Your Dumpling: Some West-East Comparisons

Dumpling means different textures and tastes for different cultures.  Depending on the country origin, a dumpling can be served with sauce. In other cultural cuisines, the dumpling is never served with a sauce  or else you could insult the cook. In German cuisine, there is the dampfnudel or dumpfnudel. I wondered if we would actually…

Stained Glass Art – A European Sampler of Refracted Light and Colour

My interest in stained glass art stems from only two introductory courses I took evenings over 20 years ago. I learned stained glass-making, both by using the easy copper foil technique for small pieces  and also the traditional, more difficult use of soldering lead channels and grouting those channels to hold heavy, larger pieces of glass….

Freiburg, Germany: Cycling Among Medieval and Renaissance Restoration

Freiburg is seductive:  a well-preserved gem of German medieval and renaissance architecture with cycling embedded into its daily life.  We stayed and spent most of our  4 days in the historic downtown core.  However we did take 3 cycling side trips for a few hours each except our trip to Basel, Switzerland. Hotel Am Rasthaus…

Cycling for Spargel, Kirsch and Blue Painted Bikes: Black Forest Region, Germany.

Without any preplanning, our first few days of our European cycle touring ride became a mini Tour du Spargel or Tour du White Asparagus. The trip segment in southern Germany was marked by the region’s known spring culinary delights:  spargel or white asparagus, cherries, and strawberries.  Also for two villages, the rides were marked by local…