A Cannoli Worth Traveling the World For

After traveling to Italy, I said that anyone who could send me a cannoli would receive 5 points in my blog game*.  No one has sent me one yet, but I got the next best thing, although I had to travel around the world for it.  My sister-in-law recommended a restaurant in Little Italy in Baltimore.  

They had world-renowned cannoli.  It was $6, but it was worth it.  Overall, the second best cannoli I've ever had (of course, the first being my mom's ;-).

* A contest that still stands, by the way.

Wine and Winter

If there is one thing that upstate New York is - it is cold.  I joined some friends to take a trip to the Finger Lakes Wine country.  As we passed through the cold landscape - we saw winter.  True winter.

Old barns.  Some older...

...than others.

This sign is almost as confusing as the ones found in France...

We stopped at a couple of wineries to sample some of the Finger Lakes wines.  After living in France, I wasn't expecting anything to stellar, but I was pleasantly surprised!  There is a wide range of quality, but some vineyards produced quite nice wine.

A point if you can name this winery we visited.

After all that wine, we needed to eat something, so we stop at a creamery for ice cream.  They even had a "jalapeño popper" flavored ice cream. I had to try it.  To my surprise, it tasted exactly like a jalapeño popper.  It had ground-up jalapeño, some cheese, and a swirl of raspberry.  Not bad, actually.

We also stopped at quite a spectacular waterfall.  It plummeted into a river that was mostly iced up.

The shore of one of the Finger Lakes was quite beautiful in the winter.  However, it was incredibly freezing.  I got this cool picture of the cold water and a plant coated in ice.  

The pier was even coated in ice!

It was cold, but what was really cold was the wind.  And there I was, without gloves, taking pictures.  I think was the closest I have ever gotten to getting frost-bite.  Would not recommend!  I will have to go back - when it's warmer!

A City in a Star

One of the towns I've visited in the Netherlands is Zwolle.  The canals in Zwolle are shaped like a star, as you can see in this current map of the city.

A city in a star

This zig-zagging canal has its origin from hundreds of years ago, when this shape became a very popular way to defend a city against the then dominant weapon of the canon, rather than having a singular, circular wall around the city.    

A map of Zwolle from 1652

And a bit of military history for you (for a point): why are the turrets on the points of this star shaped fortress triangular rather than circular?

Here's the city center of Zwolle, complete with a green angel.

Some of the fortifying walls still stand today.

And another thing Zwolle has: llamas!

A Sign like No Other

Driving through Europe is very different from driving through the United States, and each country has given me a unique perspective of what driving is all about.  Especially France,  which we attempted to navigate several times.  So, I present "Road Signs you would never see in the US".

First, we start with France:

No parking: anywhere, ever.

Lanes spontaneously disappear, reappear, merge, and head to oblivion.

An example of two adjacent highway sign in France.  Signs like these are typically over the highway and list every possible town the highway will go to, and you are expected to read them while plummeting down the road.

While a similar one in the US reads:

Traveling around Europe, we see other interesting signs.

Italy:

London:

Scotland:

Switzerland:

Germany:

 the Vatican:

Pope gets Right of Way

Wales:

Road may suddenly disappear and reappear

And pretty much all of Europe:

Streets of Amsterdam

Continuing on my visit to Amsterdam, I was able to explore little known parts of the city.  The cold temperatures and snowfall made them pretty desolate.  It was still nice to walk through the cold snow-covered streets.

Someone went shutter-crazy when designing this building!

With the ground being so water-logged, a real problem in the Netherlands is sinking houses.  Here is proof of this - the house in the middle has sunk, unevenly, into the ground.  I wonder if the floors in the house are now sloped!

I tried playing marbles inside.  I failed.

The snow covered streets, of course, do not impede bike riding.

It did, however, freeze this couple solid as they shared a bottle of wine.

Here's a really weird shaped house.  I imagine fitting furniture in that corner would be tricky.

Some of the pretty buildings in Amsterdam.

Finally, an HDR of the canals as evening falls.