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Belgium Europe France Germany Luxembourg

Day Trips From Luxembourg, Ranked

In three days, Sam and I went to the adjacent regions of three different countries as day trips from Luxembourg. It’s the kind of thing that makes me marvel at both the distances and the transportation networks across Europe – coming from the Western US, you can’t even have a similar experience in US states, let alone different countries. It was a great start to the trip and I would recommend any of these destinations, but part of why I keep up this website is to reflect on my own experiences, so here goes.

Third Place: Metz, France

Full disclosure, we weren’t even planning on going to Metz because I’d made this exact same calculation when I was planning this trip based on travel blogs. But the universe had other plans, and instead of the nice, 2.5 hour nonstop train ride from Paris to Luxembourg, we had a stop in Metz and then another stop in Thionville and then a bus ride, and we wanted to have dinner with Sam’s friend in Paris. So we did a stopover in Metz. I was glad to get the chance to explore it a bit before we headed up to Luxembourg City. Perhaps ranking it last is unfair of me, because we only gave it about a half day, which was the least amount of time of any of these places, but I’m also not entirely sure what we would have done with the other half day.

Pros: It’s very convenient, only an hour by transit even if there’s no rail and you have to do a bus bridge. Cheaper than Luxembourg. French food, and in particular, French bread. Charming, small Old Town with a few cool old churches and castles.

Second Place: Namur, Belgium

Namur was my top choice for a day trip, because I really wanted to visit the French part of Belgium – when Alan and I went to Antwerp, we stayed pretty north, and I was interested in going to a new region. I compared Namur, Liège, and Dinant, and Namur had by far the best train connections to Luxembourg. Still, I am going to ding this one in the rankings because of how far it was. Two hours by train was the scheduled time, and it ended up taking us closer to three to get there because our train broke down and we had to get off at the platform and wait for the next one.

My phone informs me that our unintended transfer point was Libramont

Still, despite that strange start to the morning, I really enjoyed Namur. We were there during some sort of food truck festival, which made for a fun lunch.

The best thing we did was take the cable car up to the Citadel. The views were amazing, we had a lovely walk down the hill, and we even found the golden turtle that functions as a de facto symbol of the city, which was something I had wanted to see! We also headed to the Félicien Rops museum, who was billed as Belgium’s most controversial painter. After seeing the room in the museum entitled “Eroticism and Satanism,” I can see why.

Pros: I think the Wallonia region is the most culturally interesting of the three day trips, especially if you’ve traveled to the Flanders region of Belgium in the past. The linguistic division of Belgium is something that we talked about in French class, and the way that my travel has worked out, it was easier to come to Namur from Luxembourg than it was to visit Wallonia when I was in Antwerp and Ghent. There were some solid museum options and we definitely could have spent more time up in the area with the citadel, as they had built that area up more for tourists.

First Place: Trier, Germany

Trier wins because of its Roman ruins and because of its proximity to Luxembourg City. Only an hour away, and it is seriously dense with options of what to do. We started at their symbol of the city, the Porta Nigra, which was an old Roman gate. Fun fact, part of the reason it was preserved so well is because a Greek monk started living in it to get away from society. We also made it to the Roman baths, which were over a larger site with a subterranean portion, and there was an amphitheater nearby that we could have gone to if we hadn’t wanted to eat dinner before our train back.

We also headed to the Karl Marx house, which was a well done museum that read like a cautionary tale – what if you really like philosophy and you think that workers should have a few rights, and then a bunch of politicians decide to take your life’s work and use it to justify a lot of terrible things, like genocide or imprisoning people in Siberia? Pretty rough, if you ask me.

We also had a chance to explore some of the city center, which was beautiful and had a few plaques to commemorate history that Sam had to translate for me, including a very old pharmacy. Sam also found us a potato restaurant for dinner, which for me is the peak German food experience!

Pros: Between the short distance and the German rail system, this was definitely the easiest, logistically. I also think it’s the best option for history lovers, between the Roman ruins and all the other historical sites spread out across the city. Trier has the oldest bridge in Germany, dating back to the 2nd century, and somehow it’s still both standing and in use.

Regardless, all three were excellent and I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong here. We went every direction from Luxembourg City and found something cool – north to Vianden, east to Trier, south to Metz, and west to Namur (well, northwest, but we’ll still count it). It sits really well at the crossroads of a lot of interesting places, and it was the perfect way to start out this trip. Once we were done in Luxembourg, we headed back to Paris to start the main event: the Olympics!

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Europe Luxembourg

The Castles of Luxembourg

For the summer of 2024, most of my travel plans revolved around one thing: the Paris Olympics! I got an ad for their hospitality packages last year and was immediately sold. I’ve always loved the Olympics, and it has been on my bucket list to go experience one in person. This year, it was being hosted in one of my favorite cities in the world. Sam decided to join me and we planned out a two week trip around it. We started in Luxembourg!

That might sound random, but Luxembourg usually has easy train connections to Paris, and it’s one of the countries that I hadn’t been to yet in Europe. Unfortunately the theme of this trip seemed to be construction work on the trains that we needed to take, so it wasn’t quite as straightforward as I planned, but it ended up being a great place to start our journey. While it’s on the expensive side, it is clean, beautiful, and central to a lot of cool day trips in this region of Europe. We were well acquainted with their train station by the end of the trip!

Once we arrived in Luxembourg and dropped off our bags, we headed into the city! I wanted to start along the walls of the Old City, where I knew we could see the most iconic view of Luxembourg. We walked along to the Casemates and then headed into the city to find a museum and dinner.

We headed to the Natural History and Art Museum, which gave us a nice overview of Luxembourg’s art and culture. Most of the exhibits about Luxembourg were focused on what is unique about it vs. what it gets from the other cultures around it, since it sits at a crossroads between several larger powers. I’ve seen it put in the regional “BeNeLux” category with Belgium and the Netherlands, and it does feel different from both of them – richer, certainly, and it has the sense of being the textbook example of a European fairy tale city. This feeling only intensified when we left the capital city.

One of the days, we spent the morning traveling north to Vianden! Fun fact about Luxembourg, the public transit is entirely free within the country. When you’re traveling to one of the nearby towns just outside of the border, it’s subsidized so that you’re only paying for the portion once you leave Luxembourg. It made it super easy for us to get on a train and then a bus to Vianden.

From the minute you arrive, you can see Vianden Castle on the hill. It’s a pretty magnificent sight! The bus, of course, dropped us off all the way on the other side of town, and I was a little worried it was going to be steep hike up to the entrance, but the walk through the town is a gradual uphill the whole way. It was nice getting a chance to see the town as we made our way to the castle. I would have liked to have breakfast in Vianden, but there was only one café that was open and it seemed to be mostly in a hotel, so we had opted for a breakfast in the Luxembourg train station instead.

Once we got to the top of the hill, Vianden Castle was really cool. They had a great section on the history of the castle, including the restoration efforts, which were only started in the 1960s after the castle had stood in ruins for decades. There were also some nice views of the countryside from the castle grounds!

In my opinion, Luxembourg is underrated. It is a bit pricier than its neighbors, but it was so well-situated within the region, and everything we saw there felt like a quintessential, perfect fairy tale location. There isn’t a ton to do in Luxembourg City itself, but exploring more of the country and the surrounding areas meant we easily filled three and a half days in the area and could have spent more time there. Next up, the day trips we took to France, Germany, and Belgium!

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North America United States

Stopover in Detroit

It’s wild that after all the time I spent living and traveling through the Midwest, I never made it to Michigan. On my way back from Washington Island, I decided it was time to change that! I took a flight path that took me through Detroit and had one full day there.

I didn’t have a particularly ambitious itinerary for my visit. I wanted to go to the Motown Museum, but it was closed the day I was there. Instead, I explored the city center. Detroit is such an interesting city – for probably 50 or 60 years, it was thriving due to the automotive industry, but when the industry left, it felt into decline and for a while, Detroit considered the most dangerous city in America. Lately, there’s been somewhat of a resurgence. Definitely not back to where they were prior to going through urban blight, but there has been a concerted effort to improve the city and bring back more cultural institutions.

Part of how this manifests is through street art and outdoor spaces. There are a lot of monuments and murals throughout downtown, and there seem to be a lot of new parks or spaces for bars and restaurants to serve outside. It seemed to me as if some of that was working – while there were areas where I didn’t see anyone else out walking, there were a few streets that had a lot of residents out and about.

Canada is just on the other side of the river, although I didn’t cross over. I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly interesting to see on the Canadian side. I wanted to walk along the Riverwalk, which is meant to be pleasant, but it was closed off for some sort of event.

The main goal, besides exploring the city a bit, was to get Detroit style pizza! I ended up meeting a friend for dinner and trying it. I love that it was invented as a way to reuse the automotive plant parts, and I thought the end result was absolutely delicious.

I came away wishing I’d had a little more time in Detroit! I had a nice time exploring, but I didn’t get to go to any of the museums or anything, and it felt like the city had more to offer. I love seeing cities that are working to change negative perceptions – from what I could tell, Detroit is doing an amazing job to work on rebuilding itself after the deindustrialization that happened in the 70s and 80s. I would definitely be interested in going back.

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North America United States

Washington Island Weekend

This is the year that I turn 30. To celebrate, my high school friends and I did a mini-reunion where we all went up to Washington Island together! One of my friends arranged for us to borrow her aunt’s cabin for a long weekend. Washington Island is a tiny island off the tip of Door County, which is that long skinny tip of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan. We flew into Milwaukee and rented a car, and after about a four hour drive, we had to take a ferry to get to the island. Also, a note about the Milwaukee airport: they have a section officially labeled the “recombobulation area” after security, which I found charming and delightful.

Door County is adorable! It feels like the Midwest’s answer to Cape Cod, with boutique shops and local produce off the side of the road. We had stocked up on groceries and each of us brought a craft to teach the rest of the group, so we were ready to have a relaxed weekend of spending time together and exploring a bit of the island.

The main sites of Washington Island, in no particular order:

The local Norwegian-style stavkirke. Fun fact, there are only 9 of these in the United States – most are in northern US in areas that had a large number of Scandinavian immigrants, but one of them is in Epcot in the Norwegian pavilion. So I’ve now seen two of the nine in the US, I suppose.

The lavender farm. For an extra fee, you can pick a bouquet of lavender, which we did, and then they have a café with a bunch of foods that incorporate lavender. The lemonade was excellent!

Schoolhouse Beach. No sand, just rocks! We swam in the lake, which was chilly but doable.

Nelson’s Hall Bitters Pub. I’m going to link to the Atlas Obscura entry here, because their description is pretty thorough, but basically it is the oldest continuously-operating tavern in Wisconsin. Founded in 1899, it managed to survive Prohibition by “prescribing” bitters, which was challenged in court and won. Nowadays, if you do a shot of bitters, you get a card that you sign and stamp with your thumb declaring you a true islander! I wouldn’t do the shot of bitters again but it was a fun night out.

Last view from the ferry 🙁

Washington Island was amazing. I cannot recommend it highly enough. We had such a good time exploring the island, and when we weren’t out picking lavender, we were learning how to knit and embroider and basket weave together. I also saw my very first fireflies, which was magical! I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a cool destination in the US.

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North America United States

Shenandoah National Park

Moving from Salt Lake City to DC, I did wonder if I would be able to find good hiking and outdoorsy activities out east. While I stand by the statement that Salt Lake is the best place in the country if you are outdoorsy but also want to live in close proximity to a city, it was fun to explore our closest national park: Shenandoah!

Our friend Chelsea came into town and the three of us headed there for a weekend in June. This isn’t necessarily the time of year I would recommend, as it was brutally hot in the afternoons. We did a couple hikes but we made sure to get up bright and early so that we could beat the heat as much as possible. While I would have preferred a slightly later wake up time, it was beautiful to see the sun rise over the mountains.

The hikes were nice – mostly wooded trails, with a few rocky sections, and a nice payoff of views out over the landscape. We also saw quite a few deer and some raccoons (which, incidentally, is the first time I’ve seen them in the wild. I often heard them rattling around in the trash cans of my college campus but they were concealed).

We spent one of our afternoons avoiding the heat in Luray Caverns, which is a massive cave system in that area of Virginia. The rock formations were incredible! There was one section, called Dream Lake, with a perfect mirrored illusion reflecting the stalactites in the water, and it felt like something straight out of a fairy tale. They also had a pipe organ set up in the cavern near the end that was attached to the stalactites, and we got to watch them play music on it, which was a pretty cool way to end the visit.

The one thing I would say about Luray Caverns is that I struggled with the fact that it was privately owned and operated, instead of being managed by the National Park Service, like the caves I’ve been in up to this point in the US. It felt wildly commercialized, and I’m much more interested in spreading a message of conservation and education – some of the behavior that was allowed in the caves, like throwing coins in the water, was absolutely shocking to me. I would still recommend visiting, because the cave system was amazing, but it is something to be mindful of.

All in all, it was a great weekend trip from DC! Once we rented a car, it was easy to get to, with good hiking and activities, as well as nice local restaurants in the small towns surrounding the park. I would definitely go back. Hopefully on my next visit, the weather is a little cooler!

Categories
Canada North America

Memorial Day in Montreal

Once I returned from Nepal, I looked at the calendar and realized we had a long weekend coming up. I asked Sam if he wanted to go somewhere for Memorial Day, and after looking at flights, we decided to head to a destination that both of us had wanted to explore for a long time: Montreal!

It’s not a long flight from DC, either. Only about two hours to get to somewhere with a pretty unique vibe. Montreal definitely feels like a North American city, but it does have a certain European flair, from the coffeeshops and cute walkable neighborhoods. It’s also got a great food scene, which I didn’t really realize going into this weekend – we had amazing food for every meal!

One of our best meals was very serendipitous – Sam had heard of a specific bakery, and we went there to check it out. As we ordered our pastries and chatted with the man working behind the counter, it turned out that he had worked for a different subsidiary of our same company. He asked if we had figured out our dinner plans, and ended up helping us make reservations at this pasta place that was fantastic. Our seats overlooked the kitchen and it was so fun to see them make the food as we had our meal!

We also checked out several museums while we were there. We learned about the history, saw the old sewer, and explored the art scene. We also went in the Biodome, which was one of the more interesting zoos I’ve been to lately – each section was its own habitat, with open areas for the animals that made it feel a little more like how they would live in the wild than most zoos manage.

I wanted to check out the Olympic Stadium, which was hosting some sort of music festival when we were in the area. There wasn’t much to see, but they did have a small exhibit on the history of the games in Montreal.

And of course, we couldn’t leave without trying both of the Montreal specialties: bagels and poutine! Both classics, and it was fun exploring the neighborhoods that were full of cafés competing to offer the best Montreal bagel.

One of our morning outings was to the titular Mont Royal, where the name Montreal came from. I’m not sure I’d call it a “mountain” but we took a bus up and had great views overlooking the city. There were a lot of paths crisscrossing around and we saw plenty of people who were there to run and bike. Definitely worth a visit, especially if it isn’t as hot out and you want to spend some time outdoors.

My biggest takeaway: I loved Montreal. It felt very livable, with a lot of nice neighborhoods to explore and enough amazing food options that you would never run out of restaurants to try. I would definitely be interested in returning, and I’m excited to explore more of Quebec now that I live so close!

Categories
Asia Nepal

Stopover in Kathmandu

This time, Chelsea and I managed to sit on the correct side on the flight between Paro and Kathmandu. And wow! The views were spectacular. I think this is the best window view I’ve ever gotten on a plane, full stop. We got to see the Himalayas up close, and the pilot came on over the announcements and pointed out various significant peaks, including Everest. I read Into Thin Air at a formative age and have a great degree of respect for the Himalayas, so it’s always been a dream of mine to see Mount Everest from a nice safe distance.

Kathmandu has a very different vibe from anywhere in Bhutan – it’s a lot more populous and a lot more chaotic! The most similar place I’ve been would probably be Hanoi, and the skills I learned trying to cross the street there came in handy in Kathmandu. We made our way to our accommodation, which thankfully let us check in even though it was mid-morning.

Once we had stored our luggage and gotten our lives together a bit, we headed out to explore the city. We wandered around Thamel for a bit, got lunch, and spent a portion of the afternoon in the Garden of Dreams, reading and going through the various exhibits in the surrounding buildings. Our first lunch was fantastic – in general, I was very impressed with the food in Nepal. It didn’t hurt that we had mostly had buffet food in Bhutan as part of the tour, which wasn’t bad but was also…. just fine. I also had never had momos before! The Nepalese place that Sam and I used to get takeout from never had vegetarian ones, so I tried those for the first time on this trip and they were incredible.

The next day, we headed to two of the three Durbar Squares around Kathmandu Valley! These are royal squares, and they’re UNESCO sites that have some of the architecture from previous kingdoms that used to rule Nepal. A lot of the buildings were damaged in 2015, and you could still see some areas that had fault lines or damage, but I was impressed how much of it had been rebuilt. We went through a few exhibits in the one in Kathmandu, which had a pretty comprehensive history of how they transitioned into their current form of government. I didn’t realize how recently they transitioned to democracy.

From there, we headed out to Bhaktapur, which has one of the other Durbar Squares! We took a taxi there and back, which was pretty straightforward, and then we just wandered around. If you want a guide, there are a lot of people around who offered to take us around for money. There were lots of markets and restaurants as well. We only had a half day here, because Chelsea’s next tour had a meeting and dinner that evening, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip out from the Kathmandu city center.

I knew this was going to be a short time to explore Kathmandu, because it was really just a stopover and I had to fly home so I could get back to work, but I was still disappointed to have to leave so soon! I really liked Kathmandu. I have a few other places I would love to see in Nepal as well, and I will need to figure out a way to get back here again.

It’s a long series of flights out there from the US, but definitely worth a visit. Looking forward to my next trip to Nepal!

Categories
Asia Bhutan

Hiking to Tiger’s Nest

If you’ve ever seen any pictures of Bhutan, there’s a very good chance it’s been a picture of Paro Taktsang, aka Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It’s probably the most famous building in the country. Most itineraries place it on the final day, making it a sort of grand finale to a trip to Bhutan! The monastery is only accessible by hiking, which is a 3.5 mile out and back trail with an elevation gain of 1,948 feet. Alltrails considers it to be a hard hike, which is mostly from the elevation and the sheer number of stairs.

The start of the stairs!

We woke up very early so we could get started before the sun got too hot. This was the right call – it was a lot less busy when we were hiking up, and by the time we were heading down, the trail was crowded and it was getting quite warm. We had our packed lunches from the hotel. The hike started with a short flat walk through the woods, and then we came around a corner to start the stairs.

From there, the hike was a lot of stairs! The halfway point, more or less, is the café. One of the wildest things is how far away the temple still is when you’re at the café – the picture below hopefully captures the scale. Still, the stop to eat a little and get some coffee helps a lot psychologically, even if it’s right back to more stairs. At some point, you get to the end of the stairs and it flattens out for a bit.

The most amazing moment of the whole hike is when you round the corner and the monastery comes into view! After marveling at it, and taking all the pictures you could want, there are two more sets of stairs. The worst is the staircase going down, because you know you have to immediately go back up again to actually get to the temple.

Touring the monastery was a great reward for the hike. We’ve seen a lot of cool Bhutanese architecture while we’ve been here, so it wasn’t especially different from the dzongs and temples in other places, but we appreciated it more here after the effort it took to get here! The hike down wasn’t too bad either, because after the one staircase up, it’s all downhill. We had a relaxed afternoon and then a cultural show with dinner, and then the next morning we all headed out for our international flights to our next destinations.

And that’s a wrap on Bhutan! It’s a fascinating place. Years of isolation from the rest of the world has left Bhutan with a truly unique culture, and I’m glad I had the chance to learn more about it.

Categories
Asia Bhutan

Going Over Dochula Pass

The next morning, we headed out of Thimphu and went over Dochula Pass! Our first stop was the 106 memorial stupas, and a viewpoint that probably would have been amazing if the clouds weren’t so low. The drive through the mountains was beautiful and gave us a much better sense of the countryside of Bhutan.

From there, we had lunch and then took a nice walk out to the Chimi Lhakhang Temple, which is perhaps better known as the Fertility Temple. One of the aspects of Bhutan that is so fascinating is the part of its history dealing with the Divine Madman. Basically, he helped people reach enlightenment through intercourse, and so phallic symbols are a way for Bhutanese people to protect themselves from the evil eye. It’s hard to describe how many phallic symbols you see across the country. They’re painted on buildings. They’re sold in shops, with elaborate paintings and shapes and carvings. Our driver had one as his compass. Needless to say, I have a number of photos that I cannot show publicly from this trip.

It’s strange to have to edit my pictures in this way. I had to do that a little in PNG, because some of the tribes have traditional outfits for sing-sings that are more revealing than the West is comfortable with, but this is a whole different level – most of the photos from this area are unpostable because of the phallic imagery!

Once we got to the temple, our guide asked us if anyone wanted to do the fertility ritual. Two women in my group did, which was very cool to be able to watch! Basically, they had to put on what was essentially a backpack made out of a large dildo, walk around the courtyard clockwise three times, and then receive a blessing. This included rolling some sort of dice to learn about the gender and name of their future child.

From there, we kept driving to the Punakha Dzong! This one is often considered the most beautiful in the country, and I would have to say I agree. Seeing it over the river was stunning.

We had one more stop before we got to our hotel in Punakha, which was the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan. It’s beautiful over the river in Punakha – I loved the view from our hotel room while we were here!

The next morning we did the whole drive in reverse (with less stops) and headed back to Paro. Our first activity was the National Museum in Paro, which was an interesting experience. I’ve never seen a museum designed quite like this – it was in a cylinder, and you started around floor 3 or 4 and then went up to the top and then all the way down. There was a prescribed path that felt a little bit like a labyrinth, especially in areas where it took you down a staircase and then immediately back up another. Eventually, I ended up sort of separated from the group and I was working my way through the historical artifacts of Bhutan all on my own. It felt a little surreal.

After the National Museum, we headed down the hill to the Paro Dzong, which was smaller than the other ones we’d been to. We also stopped by some local archery grounds! Archery is Bhutan’s national sport. This was underscored when we arrived and our driver reached into a compartment in the bus where he kept his own bow and arrows, and he joined in. I’ve seen archery on TV before, like at the Olympics, but I don’t think I’d truly understood how far the distances were that they were shooting. It’s pretty incredible, I’m definitely glad we got a chance to see it.

We had a little free time to wander around in Paro, which was nice. Chelsea and I found a market and a path along the river. I love the chance to get lost in a city (or at least try, Paro isn’t big enough or windy enough to truly get lost). We had dinner at the hotel and then had a chill night – we knew we had an early rise the next morning so that we could hike to Tiger’s Nest!

Categories
Asia Bhutan

Thimphu, the Gateway to Bhutan

From Istanbul, I headed to Bhutan! My friend Chelsea and I had been talking about going for several years, and so we finally made it happen in 2024. Bhutan is one of those places where tourism is pretty regulated, so we signed up for a GAdventures tour that would take us to Thimphu, Punakha, and Paro over the course of about six days. We met up in the Istanbul airport and flew to Kathmandu, and then from Kathmandu to Paro.

My first view upon landing in Paro!

The flight from Kathmandu to Paro is well-known to be one of the most challenging routes to fly. Part of this is the altitude and part of it is the terrain – to fly into Paro, there’s a drop down into a valley and then the pilot has to fly with mountains on both sides. It’s also an absolutely gorgeous flight if you sit on the correct side (left from KTM to PBH, right from PBH to KTM). We didn’t manage it on the way to Kathmandu but we heard the pilot come over the radio as we passed Mount Everest! Once we landed, we went through immigration and customs in Paro, which is a very fancy airport, and met up with our group so we could all drive to Thimphu.

Not all of the roundabouts are this fancy or have people directing them, but this one is pretty cool!

Thimphu is the capital of Bhutan, and has the interesting distinction of being the only world capital that doesn’t have any traffic lights. I also find it very interesting to see the architectural styles of Bhutan – they adhere very rigidly to specific aesthetic standards, both in their architecture and in their decoration. We went to one of the schools where they teach people the traditional painting and art styles. It’s great to see that they’re preserving that component of their history, but what it means for visitors is that you can’t actually tell how old something is based on how it looks. The shop on the corner might be in a building that was from the 1600s or might be built earlier this year, and it would look more or less the same.

Visiting the school was pretty cool. They were teaching a bunch of different disciplines, so we could wander through and observe as the students worked on their various paintings and sculptures.

One of our other visits in Thimphu was the Royal Takin Preserve! I had never heard of a takin before, but they’re a national symbol in Bhutan. Apparently, they like humans a lot, and when the Bhutanese people thought that they shouldn’t keep them in enclosures and released them back into the wild, the takins just came and lived in downtown Thimphu, so they’re back in their preserve now. They were really cute.

We also headed up to the top of a nearby hill to see the giant Buddha, one of the symbols of the city.

Our last stop of the day was the first of many dzongs, the fortresses that used to help protect every town in Bhutan! This was the Tashichho Dzong, and it was gorgeous. It was fun to go from Istanbul to here and see two cultures that did a spectacular job at designing these beautiful, intricate palaces and religious institutions in two totally different ways – Türkiye with tile, Bhutan with paintings and carvings. It felt like everywhere I looked had new interesting features to examine. We headed out of Thimphu the next day, but I’m glad we had a chance to explore Bhutan’s capital first.