We spent a week in Berlin where I learned the real reason the wall came down, Kentucky Fried Chicken! Apparently the Eastern Bloc couldn’t resist the colonel’s secret recipe. Finger Lecken Gut! Of course KFC can’t get all the credit for the downfall of communism. McDonald’s offers BIG MACS MIT CHEESE on the other side of Checkpoint Charlie.

Visited the Wishing Tree at the Venetian. The branches were bronze. The leaves were gold plated. Glass birds dotted the branches. Fake chirping was piped in. And I had to log into Instagram to make my wish. I like my chances!

Slogan battle at the airport. . . The vending machine said, “Fueling people to be their BEST!”, getting you ready to battle fellow humans. The free water station said, “No water, no life.”, getting you ready to battle nature. The slogans stressed me so out, that I went thirsty.

We flew to Portugal for the holidaze. For one week we rented bikes and toured the Algarve. For the second week we rented a car and zipped around southern Spain. So lots of time exploring old medieval streets where surprisingly, we found the feeling of nature?