As you may (or may not) know, I took an international vacation in October for this first time since February 2020. My husband and I have a tradition of going on a big trip abroad each year. So this was our first one in a while. I felt a little rusty packing and doing all the things one does in an airport. We went to Switzerland first for a week followed by a second week in southern France.
In Switzerland we spent nearly all of our time in and around the Lauterbrunnen valley, which apparently inspired Tolkien’s Rivendell. So that was a fun fact to learn. The mountains there are gorgeous and we got super lucky that the clouds held off, for the most part, at the top of the ones we wanted to visit. In France we stayed in Orange and did various day trips from there. We tasted Rhone valley wines, took a scenic bike ride, and visited a lot of Roman ruins.
The only downer is that we paid the “travel tax” in the end. After evading THE THING for 2.5 years, we caught it despite our masking precautions and eating outdoors everywhere. However, as of writing this, what made me feel bad was actually a co-infection of strep throat. (So when you see those headlines saying people are now getting co-infections, hi, it’s me, I’m the problem, it’s me. See what I did there?) Trying to get a doctor’s appointment was interesting because even their virtual appointments were booked 5 days out. So that was a whole other thing, but in the end I got a house call and some antibiotics. So I guess that’s a new thing now?
Anyway, let’s talk book stuff…
Continue reading “Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: October 2022”