on the ground

Battlefield Vegas Shooting Range

The whole establishment is decked out. Lots of vehicles outside and tons of guns inside to look at with LOTS of DO NOT TOUCH signs! I decided to do the “Black Ops Gamer Experience”, which was a lot of fun. There was a constant flow of people, but the establishment is very well organized. No reservation was required either, which I was happy about. Basically, a cart of guns you selected are rolled over to you unloaded.

Continue reading

Napa Valley Wine Train

I don’t always drink wine, but when I do it’s on a wine train in Napa Valley! Yes, you can lean out of the windows for footage. Hopefully you enjoy looking at grapes, because the scale of grapes growing is vast and impressive. I actually don’t recall taking this video. Perhaps it was after my train tour and I was a little tipsy. Like they say, “when in Rome!” That might also explain why I’m standing on the track unable to see whether a train is coming in the opposite direction about to take me out.

Continue reading

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Viewing and walking around these ships reading their history is definitely something worth exploring in San Francisco. https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/hercules.htm https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/balclutha.htm https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/eppleton-hall.htm

Continue reading

San Francisco Maritime USS Pampanito

The USS Pampanito was a fun ship to go down into and walk through the different areas within the ship. https://maritime.org/uss-pampanito/

Continue reading

Antwerp Self Tour

I only spent a total of six hours in Antwerp. Basically, I scheduled a half day stop here while traveling between Brussels and Amsterdam. I got off the train, locked my backpack in a locker at the station, and headed down the main street towards the water. It was mid-morning, so it wasn’t busy at all. Passed quite a few jewelry stores on the way!

Continue reading

Barnacles Temple Bar House

This hostel is literally a stones through away from the Temple Bar and the tourist bar area. It was a lot of fun being that close to everything. Obviously, it puts you in the middle of the tourist areas, so you’ll need a plan in order to experience something more than being in a tourist trap situation. Location Barnacles Temple Bar House 19 Temple Lane Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Dublin

Continue reading

Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, London Eye

I spent a day viewing the sights by myself just walking and riding the tube. It’s extremely easy to get around I see a lot from the outside in a single day. I like to do a lot, but want some down time so I normally only visit a handful of sights per day. Big Ben and Houses of Parliament Is there much more to say other than this is an iconic sight that you should probably stroll by at least.

Continue reading

Bruges Hostel

I only spend one night here, but the people running it were super friendly. They helped me with a handful of questions, like where I could do laundry, etc. Snuffel Backpacker Hostel Ezelstraat 47-49 Bruges https://www.snuffel.one/en/home-4/

Continue reading

Bruges Self Tour

I had planned on a bike tour here, but it was pouring rain. I started heading to the meeting point and had to stop to buy an umbrella. At that point I was wet and didn’t want to ride around getting soaked, so I decided to skip out on it. Instead I went to the Belfort Tower and walked around the Historic Centre area. I refused to pay to walk up the steps; it seemed like a rip off.

Continue reading

Brussels Bike Tour

Per my normal approach I took a bike tour when I first got to Brussels. It was actually the most taxing bike tour I have ever gone on. Maybe they changed the route since I went, but at the time there were hills and some iffy spots to manuver. I personally thought it was a blast, but there were definitely some unhappy customers. At least we didn’t get yelled at by locals, like I experienced in Berlin!

Continue reading