Radio

Like any other passionate traveler, I have a long list of cities to cross off my wish list. One of the cities I was most looking forward to visiting while living in Europe is Copenhagen.  My husband and I planned a birthday weekend get-away in October and I am thrilled.

Since I have never been to any Scandinavian country, I can’t tell you exactly what I am attracted to, but from everything I have read and seen, Copenhagen to me represents the best of design, nature and food all rolled into one.

I am most looking forward to visiting this restaurant: Radio

The restaurant owns two acres of land where they grow vegetables for the restaurant.  The interior is modern but still reflects the natural simplicity that is associated with Scandinavian design.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Bistro Franz

If you have been to the Czech Republic as a tourist, Brno, the second largest city in the country, is most likely a city you have never visited.  Perhaps you recognize the name as a city you passed on route to Vienna or Mikulov (the Moravian wine region in the south), but not as a city you spent time in and visited.

I don’t know why Brno is passed over time and time again, but if more spots like Bistro Franz open up, which serves seasonal dishes made with local and organic  ingredients from local suppliers, it may give tourists and design-conscious-Prager-foodies a reason to get in the car and drive the hour and a half to visit.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

I for one, now have this spot on my radar.  I will follow up when I go visit and taste test in person. Did I mention this place serves brunch on the weekends including porridge, scrambled organic eggs, and pancakes?

Antimultivitamin for Red Pif

Design worlds are colliding!  One of my favourite artists/illustrators in Prague, Antimultivitamin, whose work I saw at last year’s at Design Supermarket, designed the logo for a wine bar I love in the city called Red Pif.  If you haven’t been, Red Pif is the wine bar in Prague 1 that has massive window shutters that look like wine bottles (you can see in the illustration below what I am referring to).  The restaurant and bar has a beautiful interior and an impressive looking wall-of-wine.

Photo Source: Antimultivitamin

This year, Design Supermarket returns to Prague December 5th-9th.  I can’t wait to see what new, local designers I discover this time round.

Somewhere in Provence

I am somewhere in Provence today hopefully visiting this “quaint” place: Comptoir Loranger

Photo Sources: 1, 2-3

My Love Hate Relationship with Google Maps

I need to vent!  I am going to rant a bit before boarding a plane for Lyon about mapping. I travel, I plan, I like to stay organized, I like maps and I like maps with pretty colours and pictures. Is that too much to ask?

I often use Google maps as a map tool to chart out driving routes, walking trips, city escapes and everything in between but for some reason, despite all my mapping and input of content, I am never satisfied with my end result.

I admit, Google maps is good to map driving routes from a functional perspective and to have all of your addresses organized in a list, but if you want to get a bit creative and make your stops look a little nicer with some visual eye candy, you are out of luck.  The Google map’s point of interest graphics are limited, drawing lines in the program is annoying, and deleting lines and points are even more annoying.

My husband and I spent a couple hours putting the finishing touches on our honeymoon road map which kicks off today and we both were extremely frustrated by the map process.  Yes our stuff is in there, but it looks like crap.

All is not lost.  I know it is possible, someway, some how to make a nice Google map.  Cee Cee, behind the great Berlin weekly email newsletter has a terrific Google map with all the cool spots in Berlin.  Cee Cee, I need a lesson!! If you ever stumble upon this post and feel like making someone’s day, please, let me know how you created such a beautiful map of Berlin?  Kudos to your superior mapping skills and/or graphic design.

Photo Source: 1

Cee Cee seems to know what to do and how to navigate the design frustrations and limitations of Google maps  because their maps look amazing and are easy to read.  I even watched the Google map video help guide and still felt that the design oomph I desired was unclearly explained.   I am open to any or all tips, suggestions or learning points to alleviate the stress associated with future maps!