Krik's Picks

After spending 3 days and nights enjoying the quiet, natural beauty of the High Atlas Mountains , we concluded our stay in Morocco with 2 nights in Marrakesh. I have to admit, despite the beautiful historic buildings we saw, the noise, the traffic, and the constant hassles of finding your way through the city almost spoiled it for me. The son of Joseph School Here's an example. One day, we were trying to find our way to a walled garden that we wanted to see. We were lost and I was about to try using Google Maps on my iPhone to find our way when a man stepped up to us and offered to lead the way. We didn't really want a guide, but we let him lead us. Of course, when we got to the garden, he wanted to be paid. I reached in my pocket and pulled out my change - 5 dirhams. "Not enough," he said. He wanted 20 dirhams. I told him, honestly, that I did not have 20 dirhams. I offered the 5 dirhams again, and when he declined, I went to put the money back in my pocket. ...

A baby goat, 1 day old We travel for experiences like this. It was Day 2 of our stay at the Kasbah du Toubkal in the High Atlas Mountains. We were on a hike with a guide. As we passed through a Berber village, we came across a woman tending a goat and its kid. The guide asked about it, and the woman told us it was just a day old. The woman asked if my wife would like to hold it. Of course she did. Here's the photo to prove it. I first read about the Kasbah du Toubkal in 1843, the Economist Magazine's lifestyle supplement. The article was about high altitude lodges and the description of the Kasbah in Morocco captured my imagination. It offered an "off-the-grid" experience (though not literally. We had reliable cell phone service in the Kasbah and on the hiking trails. Wifi was intermittently available, but not very fast or very consistent.). Morocco seemed like an exotic destination but reasonably safe for western travelers. We enjoy mountain hiking. The Kasbah...

Last October, my wife and I spent nearly a month visiting several countries. As our itinerary came together, we had to give Lisbon the short shrift. We'd only have 3 nights there. But by prioritizing the sights we wanted to see, we felt that would be all right. We expected to have a half day when we arrived and then 2 full days, one of which would be a day trip to Sintra. Alas, when we arrived at the Bordeaux airport for our flight to Lisbon, it was fogged in. Our flight was delayed and delayed again. We finally took off 4 hours late. By the time we got to Lisbon, we only had time to get settled in to our hotel and explore our immediate neighborhood. But that was alright because we picked a great neighborhood. Our hotel was located right at the  Miradouro de Santa Catarina. This is a popular plaza high above the Tagus River. In the evening, crowds gather there to watch the spectacular sunset, to drink wine or beer, to socialize and to listen to the street musicians who perform ...

This post is more than just a restaurant review. It's also about how a restaurant can try really hard and still make a customer frustrated. First the review ... My wife and I loved our dinner at Rosaline ! We ended up there in sort of a happenstance way. I serve on the board of an anti-hunger advocacy organization - Mazon . We have a board meeting in Los Angeles every year. My wife comes along, and we usually make a short vacation of it, a brief respite from the cold and snow in Minnesota in February. We made reservations in advance at several restaurants, either favorites from past visits or new ones that we wanted to try. When we got a phone call from one of those restaurants, seeking to confirm our plans, we discovered that there would be a private party in the main dining room. We would get a table in the bar. That didn't sound too good to us. We liked the ambiance of the main dining room, and we didn't particularly like the ambiance in the bar. So we cancelled that...

One of my goals for the trip my wife and I took to France last autumn was to learn more about French wine. I've always felt uncertain about ordering French wine. Show me a wine list, and I can be fairly confident about picking a good wine from California or Italy or Argentina. But not so for the wines from France. The irony is, on our past trips to France, we've always liked the wine with our meals. Often we would just order a carafe of house wine, and often it would be a Bordeaux. Then, when we'd return home, if I tried to order a French wine at a restaurant, too often it didn't live up to our expectations. So on this trip, we planned a 4-night stay in Bordeaux specifically to become more knowledgeable about the nuances of wine that's produced there. Saint-Emilion  During our stay, we did 2 wine-oriented day trips. One day we joined a bus tour to the Medoc region, where we visited 2 chateaus and tasted their wine. The first was Chateau D'Arsac and the ...

If I had known how easy it would be, I would have more seriously considered taking the train from Paris to San Sebastian, rather than flying. I had read some reviews online that made me think that the Euskotren from Hendaya to San Sebastián would be unreliable. I recalled the hassles of using the commuter train from Naples to Sorrento and worried that the Euskotren would be like that.  So as I explained in the previous post , we ended up flying from Paris to Biarritz and then took a bus to San Sebastian. Then, after our very enjoyable stay in San Sebastian, we had to figure out how to get back to France and to our next destination - Bordeaux. I was very frustrated and had gotten to the point where I considered renting a car one-way. Fortunately, my wife insisted that we ask for help.  Our very helpful staff person at Lagazpi Doce  reassured us that the best option was to take the Euskotren. She told us that the station was nearby and that since it was a commuter train...

Technically, I suppose legally, our trip last autumn included 4 countries - France, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. But actually, the time we spent in San Sebastian really should have counted as a fifth country - Euskadi , the Basque Country. The food, the people, the language (sure, they all speak Spanish, but among themselves, they speak euskara ) all are distinctly Basque. Even the name of the city is differentiated; call it San Sebastian if you want, but you'd better understand that locally it's called Donostia. This was the second city in a long trip that my wife and I took. In many ways, it was my favorite. Getting here from Paris did present some logistical challenges. I considered taking a train. But that would have taken most of a day. So we decided to fly to Biarritz and then took a bus to San Sebastian. We had to get up early to get to the airport, and then after we arrived in Biarritz, we waited for about an hour for the bus. It wasn't bad, but in the end, we mi...