re: Anybody listen to Tom Fitzmorris lately?

His wife has been writing the Dining Diary the last few days, chronicling a recent trip to Eastern Europe and all the crappy food and low rent hotels she experienced because she did not want to make plans, spend money on food, or otherwise divert from a breakneck travel schedule. I think I would shoot myself if I had to travel with her.

Reading that was painful and a perfect example of the Americans that’s Europeans dislike and distrust.

I read that. I am sure they had a good time but that is not my style of travel. Just the opposite.

Holy moly, I just read the travelogue. Painful. Why would someone plan an exhausting driving itinerary and choose such terrible hotels? The smaller, independently run guesthouses of that part of the world are great, and affordable.

Why go all the way to Salzburg to dine in a hotel restaurant? A stones throw from that hotel is a nifty walk up Balkan sausage sandwich stand tucked into a covered passageway (3 euros, so good I inhaled one and immediately returned to buy another, you can eat while window shopping in the jewelry stores nearby), an ancient travelers restaurant operating since 1200 inside the St Peter’s abbey, and buy a loaf of the abbey’s bread, baked from wheat milled on site from the historic water-powered mill. Oh, and one of those cool Nordsee all seafood restaurants (yes, it’s a German chain, but imagine a seafood market crossed with a La Madeline or similar fast-casual, but with better visual merchandising). You can get everything from salmon to raw oysters, crab, etc. You can pick out raw seafood and they’ll cook it, or you can choose from an array of hot and cold items.

Not to mention the dozen-plus confectionary shops/tea rooms selling handmade Mozartkugel. Sigh.

This is what happens when you do no research before traveling. Serendipity favors the prepared.

Hell, as a student, Dr. Leder ran the LSU in Germany trip and took us on a weekend run to Vienna. I watched the nutcracker in my LSU rugby jersey, and had Chocolate cake in the coffee shop. We hit Ubersalzburg and had beers in the Eagle’s Nest.

This woman is probably a blast and we just don’t even know. She married Tom ffs.



On a side note, I run into Tom’s brother from time to time. He’s way cooler and a normal guy. Not pompous or faggy at all.

What are you referring to? The way they treat restaurants and their employees?