Is It the Wheat or the EMFs? Why Europe Changed My Health

We just got back from one of the most incredible trips of our lives— Germany, Switzerland, Lake Como, Piedmont, and Lake Lucerne twice. And it was not just beautiful, it rearranged some things in my body that I want to talk about. My husband Brooks is here with me for this episode. We're going to walk you through where we went, what we ate, what we tested, what surprised us, and what came home with us that we can't stop thinking about. And if you've ever come back from a trip in Europe and thought, why do I feel better over there, you are definitely not imagining it. Our food is totally different. We're going to get into that as well. And I wanted Brooks on because I tend to weird memories about things, meaning I get my timelines off. I'm not exactly always accurate. So Brooks, my fact-checker, will be here with me for all the details, especially if I'm naming places we went, saw, did. He's here to make sure I stay straight and I'm saying it all. I'm gonna take you with us place by place, how we did this trip, how— what we planned. This was our third trip to Europe together. Brooks has a— it's not really a secret side of him, it's an interesting side of him where he likes to play travel agent. It's really fun for him. He likes to take the challenge of finding out the best places in unique areas. But along the way, as we take you down this journey, we're going about what we noticed a lot differently in Europe versus here, the hormone shift I had to make on the trip, and the digestive enzymes that came with us on vacation everywhere and why. And also some special testing that we did in Germany, which was really, really cool. So Brooks, welcome to Midlife Conversations.

Thank you for having me.

It's like your third time, I think, or fourth time on podcast with me. Usually just hear one side of my conversations. Okay, so let's get into it. So we're going to start with before we left for Europe, before we left for Europe, because that was a really fun night. So we're getting ready to leave the next day and Brooks comes in. I'm like half asleep. I've taken all my sleep supplements, all the things, my progesterone's in my system, my sleep nighttime supplements. It's all in there. I'm in bed ready to zonk out. And Brooks comes in and he's like, hey, weird question for you. I'm like, okay. He said, you have your passport, right? Uh, no, I did not have my passport because Brooks keeps them in our secret location all the time. So did you think that you had misplaced them, or were you convinced that I had misplaced it?

I wasn't. I knew we had to have had— I knew there was a logical explanation because just for the— those of you that know, I am very process-oriented. Like, when I come home, like, my watch, my wallet, my keys, my phone, there's only two places, really three places it ever is. There's two places in the house or it's on me. And that's it. And so these passports are in a fireproof envelope inside of the fireproof safe. So basically, they're always together. And so every time I go to the thing, I was like, my passport was there, but hers wasn't. And there had to be an explanation. And it was when Natalie— for those of you that followed on social media— when she had her sex change. But the sex change is when, again, we were flying, and somehow— and apparently it's pretty common in Arizona because they make this mistake. I think they just do it intentionally to people. But when she'd gotten her driver's license, they put her sex on there as male instead of female. And it had been like that for, I don't know, a while, a bunch of months, until one— you weren't with me, but you were flying, and they almost didn't let you on.

Yeah, I was flying, and they were like, hey, we can't let you board because it says you're a different— you're a male. I'm like, wait, what? No, I'm definitely female. So we had pulled the passport out to go get that straightened out of the DMV, and then when it came back, it was in a file folder with like our marriage certificate and all other things proving that I'm female.

There was a list of things— birth certificate, marriage certificate. There was all— so instead of going to the DMV, I brought all the documents I would need, and the passport was one of those. Well, I didn't bring them, Natalie did, but I got them together for her. And then I guess, yes, just when came back, everything was in that folder. So I put the folder back because it had all the important documents in the fireproof envelope in the fireproof safe. But it was really nice, come after 2 hours of frantic searching after 11 PM, to—

so Brooks has me completely freaked out. I'm like, wait, we have like almost a 2-week trip planned. I'm half asleep already. I'm trying to look through everything and I'm like, did I misplace it? And Brooks was surprisingly calm going through everything. So I was like, he must think that maybe he misplaced it. Cause if he was convinced it was me, he'd be like, get your butt up and go find this thing. But just so you all know, if you do lose your passport, it is not a quick situation. So first of all, it was like a holiday weekend. I think it was like a, it was on the weekend and Monday was going to be a holiday.

So Monday was Memorial Day.

Yeah. So we were going to be really screwed. Like there was no way we were going to be going to Europe if we couldn't find it because we were going to have to somehow get our butts to LA and then go wait non-holiday to the— and see if they can expedite it. It was going to be a whole situation, but Brooks found it and we were off to Europe. But so we had another little, little glitch beforehand. So we have this thing where we only do carry-on. And the reason we only do carry-on is Brooks would have always been down with carry-on, But me was not always down with carry-on. And our last time going to Europe, we lost our bags. And what— now I say lost, like we got them several days later, but what created a frenzy is I wasn't strategically packing and I had a lot of important things in that bag, including my hormone patches, which yes, I know that's dumb, but I did. So when we had our flights got diverted, our second flight was canceled to Europe the last time. My— they couldn't get us rebooked quickly because we had to go wait for our checked bag, which never showed up. So we sat at London Heathrow waiting for a checked bag for almost 5 hours, which never came. And it honestly, like, consumed us our first few days of the trip because we were having to track—

I would say it consumed you.

Well, it consumed you too, because I had to have you calling and looking. It was a whole— it just, it added. And then we had to go buy clothes, we had to just go do a lot of stuff, which shook me up. And it made me say, I will never check freaking bags again, ever. So we decided, we decided we weren't going to check bags, which was— we had the system down. We've traveled many times without checking bags now. However, we had a little bit of a bump because we were flying Lufthansa. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, Lufthansa. And I happened to read that they weigh your carry-on non-check bags and they have to be 17.6 pounds.

Do you know how small 17.6 is? Which is 8 kilograms. So everyone's like, why 17.6? It's 8 kilograms.

But do you realize how small that is? So now we're like unpacking everything going, okay, we got to weigh everything. And we were super strategic and we did it. Like we were really, and then, you know what, what's really the kicker. So we were flying business class and we did watch them weigh everybody that's not in business class. Like they weighed everyone's bag. You couldn't board without it. They did never weighed ours. And it was questionable online. It said if they feel like weighing it, they will. So just to know, if you're flying Lufthansa and you are not checking a bag, you have to be making really mindful that it's less than 8 kilograms or there's a chance they're going to make you check it. So there's that. But anyways, we did it, we did it. And our little trick, by the way, with checking bags is we bring an empty duffel. So if we buy anything or on the way home, we can then check a bag. So we're just— we're more worried about getting there and having that mess up our system. And by the way, the way that I do it, and then Brooks is going to share what he does, and then we'll get into sort of the whole trip because I don't know how interesting the, the check bag situation is for all of you. But for my situation is I have like these really thin silk skirts and tank tops in like every color, and I pack those and I wear sneakers and that's literally my uniform for the trip. Plus a jean jacket, maybe like one pair of flat shoes to change into, but we're really strategic. And then I pour all of my supplements, I put into little mini bags and then my liquids, like face stuff, all of that, I pour them into little tiny travel size tubs. What about you, Brooks?

I, I was in the military and packing light and packing simple isn't a problem for me. So I know there was a lot of wheeze in there. There was a lot of, really, those were a lot of Nathalie's, and I'm like, I'm just grateful that we had those bags misplaced for 3 to 4 days in Rome because it's so nice now watching my wife pack light and it's just, it's great.

What's funny though is I have this really good carry-on bag and I couldn't get the weight down on it and I realized the bag itself weighed 10 pounds. So I was laughing that I did have this really light designer Louis Vuitton bag from years ago. And that's what I ended up taking because that only weighed like 3 pounds. And so I was laughing that I'm like, like hippie minimalist, you know, granola backpack traveler, but with the bougie bag. That was me.

And it's just funny, like people will see something online and they'll be like, I wasn't really worried about it. I mean, yes, if you have a bag that looks obnoxiously huge, but that's one fun fact. I'm 50 years old and I've literally never had a suitcase in my entire life. Yeah, I've always been like, I was a kid, I had swim bags, but then in the military, I've always been a big fan of big backpacks or duffel bags or something soft-sided.

So, which Brooks said this, not me, he said that you should have your man card revoked if you have to use a roller bag. So he just, he won't use a roller bag either. Yeah.

Like when I see these, like, I got it. It's a full-size suitcase, but I see these men going around the airport with their dainty little like bag with four wheels. Like, dude, carry your bag, pick it up. Be a man, carry your bags.

All right, so let's get into the trip. So where we went— so we flew into Frankfurt, Germany, which was great. We flew through LA to Frankfurt. We were business class. It was good. And then when we got there, we had a naked day experience. Brooks, tell them about the naked day experience because that was really interesting. You had a naked day experience like 2 days in a row, I think.

Well, I had the naked day experience and then I was actually kind of surprised that you actually— I wanted to come explain it so you had, you could actually see it for yourself because it sounds—

well, back up. Where was the name? The name of the hotel we stayed at was Vitaly. Is that how you say it?

Vitaly? Yeah, the Vitaly Hotel. And there was like a, they call them a thermal or a therm—

thermal, a therm lounge right next to it. So we didn't know what a therm lounge was. We knew there was a swimming pool, we knew there was sun, and we knew there were like jacuzzis. And so Brooks decided to venture over there. And what did you see when you walked in?

Well, I heard something about like you had to be naked. So like you get bathrobe and slippers because it's attached to it. So I went through the thing and I go in there, I was like, everybody was in swimsuits. There was a lap pool, there was kids, everyone was playing around. And I was like, okay, that's weird. I need to go get my bathing suit. So then I got my bathing suit. But then when I went in the locker room, I was like, wait a second. And then it was, it was just took my mind a second to kind of figure out what was going on. Because it's like you could kind of see in the locker room. So it wasn't completely hidden like in the States where I was like, oh, there's some naked dudes there. And then I was like, I went in, I was like, wait a second, there's like naked guys and girls changing like in the same area.

And then outside people are laying fully out naked, like full out naked.

Like I've been to spas where there's like the men's side where like, you know, there's no clothing or whatever, but it's only men. And there's like the women's completely separate. But this is just full on, like there's separate restrooms inside of the thing. But like the The lockers in the changing area, there's only one. There's like men and women, everyone's just—

So apparently Germany specifically has— I forgot what it's called, it's sort of with an F or something. They have some law, some— where anyone can be naked in certain places. Lakes, parks, pools, spas. It is accepted. It is okay. And I will tell you, it was definitely weird to me. Definitely weird. However, I will say what I noticed about it was how no one cares. They're just— it's just normal. It's like free. They're not self-conscious. They're just— and I, I was the weird one because believe me, I was not naked outside. Brooks was naked outside. I will just share that. And he was—

but not when you were with me, because when we went, it was in the evening, it was getting cold, the sun was almost set. So we were just like— you could wear your towels, or there was people in bathrobes. But yeah, I was out there for about 2 and a half hours, and it was really kind of fascinating because I look back like when I was a little kid— this is just an example You know, you go to a swim meet and like everyone's in a Speedo. And I remember I had a friend who's just like, I'm not going to wear Speedo. So he wanted to wear board shorts. But trust me, like if you went to the Olympics and everyone's in a Speedo and you show up in board shorts, you're kind of the odd person out. Like you're the one that really— because you're so worried about like, I don't want to wear Speedo, so you wear board shorts. That's kind of what it's like there. And I think one of the most interesting things to me is I was just— I was outside getting sun. And again, just people everywhere. But there was a woman there, you know, she's laying out, didn't think of it. But then like I heard kids' voices. Like I was just laying there with my eyes closed. I was like, I thought it was like adults or whatever. But then there's like 3 kids. I mean, these girls were, I don't know, 9.

That's just weird. I just, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that one.

But this is, but this is what the part that's so fascinating is like the girl, like her mom's naked. Like the girl comes over, just gives her mom a hug. And I was just watching these kids, and like, if you just seen a video of these kids playing, you would have never in a million years guessed that they were playing, that there was naked people around. And it's just the difference is because for them it's normal. Like, if those were US kids, you just spotted them from a mile away because they would have been giggling and gawking and pointing or whatever. But it was just interesting, these kids, like, there was literally nothing. They weren't staring at it. Like, they were just kids being kids. Like, it was perfectly So like it was just a normal thing.

So Brooks went to naked day 3 times. The 3rd time was with me, so he was not naked. He said it was stretchy for him. I was the prude and did not. Nope, couldn't do it. Was in my bathrobe, was not, not having it.

Could not. Well, it was just, it was stretchy for me in the sense that it's like, okay, you know, like I've been in swim locker rooms and things like that. But literally to just, you know, you can like, you go to the pool, like everybody in the pool is 100% naked.

I'm talking like there's dudes walking with their ding dong hanging out on like with like a walker. I'm like, what is hap— like people are— and this was this one guy. I was in my bathrobe laying down. He kept doing laps and he put his hands on his hips like he was proud. I was like, this is fricking weird. I'm sorry if there's anyone German listening that loves it and has embraced it. That is amazing. That is not the path for me. It's just, I don't need to go to naked day ever again like that. It just wasn't— not the experience I need. So let me tell you what else we did in Germany, and then we're going to get onto like all the other places we went. So then this was really cool. So those of you that have followed me or listened to me for a while, you know that one of my sponsors, the products that I love is a product called Lila Quantum. Like I have one on my desk right here. If you're watching on video, you see it here. I've got these blocks. I wear their necklace. I have the gold color one, the silver. I, I love their stuff. I've never quite been able to explain it other than I say, I just feel calmer with it. Like I feel different. And Philip, the founder, he had made another company called Quantum Upgrade, which is more, it's like a streaming service where I'm not going to get too much into the details here, but it's a quantum entanglement and you turn it on away from you. It's like you turn it on and you don't have to be logged in or anything. You just turn it on and it basically covers you. And I know it sounds weird as I'm explaining it right now, but when I was going to be in Germany, Philip is like, I would love you to come do this third-party testing. Because I want you to actually get these measurements of your HRV, your stress levels, all of these things, so you can see what that stuff does to you. So, you'll have actual third-party testing with real scientists. This is not owned by them. This is third-party testing. So, in order to do that, before we left for Europe, 10 days prior, I had to disassemble all my LEELA stuff. I had to turn off my Quantum Upgrade. And Brooks has always known I love these things, but he wasn't a user of them. He didn't really understand, but I had to turn it all off to have a baseline. So, when we were there, we met Philipp in person, which was amazing because I'd only seen him on podcast interviews and things like that before. And, we did two different types of testing. We did this EEG device, which is basically, it's a 256-channel EEG, specifically, scientifically, and clinically approved diagnostic evaluation method. And, it's operated— this was cool— it's operated by one of Europe's top 3 scientists regarding EMF impact. So, EMF is those electromagnetic fields. So, think like cell phone, the towers, all the things are around. And, it measures your HRV during this testing. So, we did this baseline test. They basically did a 10-minute baseline, no phone, no EMF exposure. I was excited for Brooks to see this. And, if you're watching on video, I'm going to show you the thing they put on my head so you can see what this looked like during the testing. Then, what they did is they took an iPhone 16 and I had to do a 30-minute 5G phone call. So, literally, I was— it was right at my ear for 30 minutes. And within 5 minutes, I had a raging frickin' headache. And I know some of you are probably sensitive to EMFs and some of you are not. I had a raging headache. It was awful. Then what we did is I had a reset, took a break, and then we did the call again, but they put Quantum Upgrade on. And this was frickin' cool because they tested everything and I have a full data report full data report of everything that it saw. So, it saw changes in my limbic system, my frontal, my temporal. It saw changes in my stress brainwaves, my calm recovery, my limbic system, everything, even my HRV, how it changed. So, if this was really cool, this really convinced me of the science. I don't know, Brooks, what did you think seeing this? I know you were super skeptical about all this.

Like on which part of it?

I mean, all the testing in general, like to see, because you know that I have these blocks or I wear the necklace and I say that I feel calmer or I'll turn the Quantum Upgrade on. But to do the testing, what did you think?

I thought the test, I mean, that, that, what was it called? That special EEG device with, because most, you know, the 256 channels, they said that thing costs like $200,000 for that piece of equipment. It started making sense to me. Like, I think we, like, I think we think we want to understand everything. It's just like, okay, I know that if I get out my phone and I record a video, like, I think some of these things we just accept, but I couldn't explain exactly like, yeah, I know that there's Wi-Fi, I know there's packets, but how they actually move, like how this 4K video gets from my phone and goes all over the world instantly. I don't know that I could totally explain it. But it started making more sense to me as far as like, I get with these metal blocks, I get the energy. And part of it goes back to even when I was doing car stereo, even when I've done stuff with radio frequencies, you know, how metal, how things can have impacts with that stuff. So, and then for me, it was seeing that, that blind testing, because they did, they had that, they had a stand there with the phone literally next to your head. And then they turned on the— and I think the thing that shifted for me regarding the, the Quantum upgrade is it's like, yes, the mechanism that you communicate with it is online. But apparently there's 3 massive— and I don't know the details, we didn't get to get into that, but there's 3 3 massive physical things on 3 continents that it's kind of connected to. So at least from that sense, it wasn't just like, oh, anybody could put up a website and do this thing, but it was connected to these 3 massive— let's just call them metal objects. I don't know the exact, but like there's something big enough that can affect an energetic field, and there's 3 of them on different continents. So that made more sense to me. And then seeing the results—

so I'm gonna bring on a separate podcast, I'll bring Philip and that scientist back online to kind of explain all these results, but just to give you kind of like an overview. So, I'm just looking at like my HRV, for example, it went down 47% and then recovered fully by putting Quantum Upgrade on. It was just frickin', it was crazy. And it showed, it literally could show, it showed how my brain responded to a 5G call and then how turning Quantum Upgrade on was able to bring that back to baseline. So, I don't know, I'm convinced. And now, now Brooks is going to have one on his desk and by, he's like, we got home, he's like, I'm gonna put one by my bed now and I'm going to turn. So, he convinced— anyways, not to make this all about that. I want to get back into kind of everything we saw in Europe. But, I'm telling you, if you're sensitive to EMFs, what I saw there was amazing. I will be a customer for life of Quantum Upgrade and Leela Quantum. So, I'll put all that below if you want to try any of this out. In fact, the Quantum Upgrade, you can even try for free. So, you can see, but I'm convinced after doing that testing. So, actually, we did that testing and then we had dinner with Phillip. That was fun. And then, we were going to be off the next day before we were leaving Germany, we went to a Brooks bucket list place. Brooks, where did we go?

We went to Stuttgart.

What was in Stuttgart?

The Porsche Museum and Factory.

What'd you think of it?

I enjoyed it. I mean, a lot of the stuff I knew just because obviously I've got multiple, you know, 300 to 800 page books on Porsche, the history. But it was great to see the museum and stuff in person. They have a Michelin star restaurant there. That was fun. It was great. So yeah, and the thing is, it was on the way. Yeah. So we didn't have to go out of the way because for where we were going, this, it was completely on the way. So it was a nice little stop for a couple of hours too.

So I probably wouldn't recommend like you're flying to Germany just to see the Porsche factory, but it was cool since we were there. I thought it was cool to go see that.

It was fun. Unless you're picking up a car, European delivery. That's true. Highly recommend it.

That's true. We're Porsche drivers, so we, all of our cars were born there. So we, we love So then, okay, so then we were going to head to Switzerland, but we stopped in a place called Constance. Constance, is that how we pronounce it?

Constance.

Constance. And what I described Constance as, I said, if San Francisco, California and Encinitas, California had a baby, it would be Constance because it reminded me of both those. But how did you pick that place? What made you— and that was a really cute Brazilian hotel. Can you tell about like, why did we pick that place and what made you pick that?

Well, that was— there was 2 nights on the trip that I didn't really have booked because they were just kind of flex, because I didn't know how long we'd be at the Porsche Museum. And it was just a matter of— I didn't realize there it's not getting dark till after 9 PM. So that was kind of one of the things that shifted so we could drive further south. And so really, I knew that you like water. It got us down to the pretty close to the border of Switzerland, which made for a shorter, a shorter drive the next day to Lake Lucerne. And it just, it seemed like a pretty cool place. And for one night, you know, it would totally work. It was by, and it was very close to the water. And I know that you love water, so I always try to—

it was a cute little town. He found this little Brazilian hotel, which I— the Brazilian hotel was, was super cute. The one thing I noticed right away was we walked in the room— Brooks doesn't even notice these things, but I was like, a holy perfume smell. Like, what the heck? So I was— it was the only room they had left in the hotel. It was like an overpowering scent. And I asked them, I'm like, this is— and they actually came to smell it. They're like, oh, we do that because the person before you was smoking, so to cover up the smoke we put more perfume. So that was not amazing.

And for everybody out there, like, she makes it sound like this is walking through like Sephora.

That's what it felt like.

Maybe to her, like when I opened the door, I got a very slight whiff of it and within 30 seconds I couldn't smell it. We opened the doors, like I'm just saying, I don't know that it was this, it wasn't crazy bad, but these are just, there are different perceptions of it.

So if you're ever in Germany driving to Switzerland, I think that Konstanz was a cool one-night stop. I don't think I would have spent more than a day there, but like the one night was fine. We walked down to the water, we had dinner there. Brooks had bratwurst or whatever the heck that thing is called.

I didn't, I had a wiener schnitzel.

Wiener schnitzel and bratwurst make They make their way to every menu in Germany. It's interesting. But yes, he had Wiener Schnitzel. Wiener Schnitzel. It looked like a fried flat piece of fish. That's what it looked like. Wiener Schnitzel.

Simple.

What is Wiener Schnitzel? It's like pork or what is it? Did we find that out?

I think so. It doesn't— it's a German—

I didn't love the German food situation. I will say that. I love the Italian and Swiss food, but not the German.

Because the Germans have a lot of porks and you don't really eat pork.

No, I'm not a pork eater.

They have a lot of sausages. We went by that one store that was like all sausages. You were just—

oh my gosh. So by this point, I— yeah, that was— anyways, well, we did that one night. So the next day we drove to my favorite place ever. We went to— we went next to— wait, we went to Lake Como next, right? No, it's Switzerland. I'm gonna give you— went to Lucerne next. Went to Lucerne. Now here's the thing about Lucerne. I, 33 years ago after college, I did a, like, a backpacking tour in Europe. Europe, right after college. And I remember a lot about that trip, but the thing I remembered the absolute most, like it's so perfect in my brain, was Lucerne Lake. And I remember seeing these rolling green hills and the Swiss Alps and cows with bells. And I just remember thinking then it was the prettiest place I'd ever seen. And this was in my early 20s. So I told Brooks, I'm like, "If we're near Switzerland, I really want to go back to Lucerne." So we did 2 trips to Lucerne this trip, but this first trip we stayed at this freaking amazing hotel. What was the name of that hotel, Brooks?

Château Gutsch.

Château— it looked like a castle on top of a hill, and that was freaking gorgeous. That might have been one of my favorite days. And the reason it was my favorite day is, one, the views are epic. We walked all around Lucerne, so that was great. We did like a whole big walking day around Lucerne. And then that night, Brooks and I had not had— we're not drinkers anyway, but we had not even touched a glass of wine or anything in probably 2 years since our last Europe trip. But they gave us— because they were doing some party underneath our room and it was loud so we went to dinner— they gave us some champagne and we're like why not? So we started drinking champagne which then started us drinking champagne every night of the trip by the way but you keep throwing wheeze in here like yes!

We both did let me set the stage so when we walk in our room it felt like walking into a speaker box because literally right downstairs I guess they do this once a year for the graduating class. So there was like 4 hours of a DJ. And I don't know, 200+ people on this big terrace, literally right below our room. And if you were in the room, just, it felt like you were in a speaker box. I went, I was like, hey, how late is this supposed to go to? So it's gonna go till 10 PM. I was just like, okay, I guess I mean, obviously, at this point, they're not going to stop this party because one person So I just kind of was like, okay, great. Just not what I had planned. And I guess they passed somebody. So when we were at dinner, they said, hey, because of the noise, you know, they brought us each a glass of champagne. So they ended up giving us 2 glasses of champagne.

So it was great. Natalie over here, me, was buzzed like super quick from like a tiny glass of champagne. And I'm like, well, let's keep it going. So we just, they kept refilling it. It was really fun. So next thing you know, we're back in our room on the balcony. We're adjoining the party. Like they have a party right out down our balcony and we're like dancing. We're like sitting there singing along to it. They're playing all music that we love. And I had fun that night watching the sunset, watching the moonrise over there. We had— I was like, this is the best way to club. You're right by your own bathroom, your own room, in your own bed. No one else is there to talk to you, but you're like at a club. It was perfect. I loved it. That was my favorite night, which was just interesting that Natalie loved it. So it was fun and I was in my favorite place. So anyway, so that was a really, really fun, fun time there. I loved that hotel. It was so cute. Little castle up on the hill. Spectacular views.

So absolutely, it sits above the city so you can see everything. Highly recommend this private little— what do you call it— like a little gondola that takes you down.

Oh yeah, it was like one— it's not like— yeah, it wasn't a gondola, it was like not a ski lift either. It was a lit— it was like a lift on the side of the mountain.

It was like a little lift that just went up and down, you know, every whatever format. So it would probably hold 4 to 6 people, and that way you could just ride in there. You walk around the town to the lake.

And we loved walking around the town. Like, we— that was our probably our most active day. We usually— we walk a lot in Europe. We didn't walk so much this time, but that day we did. We walked a lot that day. It was fun. I enjoyed that. So, okay, so then we were headed over to Lake Como, which I was dying to see. I was so excited about Lake Como. And I— it's a toss-up. Well, actually, I'm gonna say Lucerne is probably the prettiest place in the whole world. Lake Como is a pretty darn close second because it was spectacular. Now, Brooks crushed it with our hotel find there. Like, you could not have found a better place. That place was insane. How did you find it? Tell what that— what was that?

It was the Grand Hotel Victoria. That's so perfect, right? It's right there in Menaggio. So if you don't know Lake Como, think of it as like an upside-down Y. And so right in the middle of the Y, what you've probably— most people in America have probably heard of the Bellagio, thinking it is like the hotel casino in Las Vegas. But the upside down part of that Y is where Bellagio is in Lake Como. Just, it's really hard. It's a lot harder to get there if you're driving. And so usually there's ferries, but right there, Menaggio, and there's Bellagio, and I'm just blanking on the other place. Was it— it wasn't Verona, something with a V, I think. But there's like a little triangle there where the ferries go. And that's just where there's more activity. And we talked to people that stay on the lake before, and they're like, it was awesome, but we couldn't walk anywhere from our our hotel. Like, it was like our hotel was on the water and there was literally nothing, so we had to take cars. And that's why I really chose Managio, because you can walk around, there's shops, there's restaurants, like there's other things to do in that area, and it's easier to get everywhere else. And plus, since we'd rented a car, I really wanted a place that I could park a car easily. And so that's why I chose Managio, and it's easy. And from Managio, you can get everywhere else.

Okay, so this resort had so much that we didn't even get to experience because we weren't there long enough. But they had an epic spa, like incredible spa there. They had another property that you could have access to, which was like their beach club, which was a private beach club that was probably a 5-minute walk up the road. But the best thing we did in Lake Como was we did a private boat tour. And let me tell you, that was worth every single moment and penny of that. It was so beautiful. I enjoyed that so much. Now, Brooks had booked it for 2 hours because he— which is funny, this is funny. At first I was like, 2 hours? I want to go a lot longer. And so when we got on it, we extended it to 3, and I quickly realized at like the 2-hour 45-minute mark why people do 2 hours, because you gotta pee and there's no place to go unless you jump in the water. So I get it now. But I would say if you could do it, the 3 hours was so amazing because that was beautiful. I loved that tour. That was beautiful. And we had a perfect day for it.

Yeah, it was incredible. So from 10 until 1 PM, we were out on the water and it's like perfect blue water, amazing lush green trees and mountainside.

It's so pretty. And just to see the homes and the hotel, it's just, it was beautiful there. And then what's funny, the thing I didn't like that we did, but it ended up being pretty fun is we took a ferry, um, to the other side of Lake Como to see Menaggio.

And, um, to see Bellagio.

See Bellagio. See Bellagio. And I didn't love that whole thing, but what's funny is on the way back, in that boat line of all things, I saw my first cousin who I hadn't seen in years. Like, what? How in all of all the places in the world I run into my first cousin in line for that ferry? That was really funny. She didn't— they didn't even— I was like, how'd you even find me? And she didn't. Her son recognized Brooks because I guess Brooks is recognizable with that white blonde hair.

Yes, right.

That was funny. So anyway, so that was— so we were at Lake— I would have stayed. That was my favorite part, probably a favorite resort of the trip. I would have stayed there longer. Brooks had a very different favorite hotel, which we're going to get to next. And that's when we then headed from Lake Como into this other area of Italy that we had. We went to northern Italy, this area called Piedmont. And this is very Brooks, where I love water and green. Brooks loves more Tuscan style. He wants more remote, like no people around, no touristy stuff around. So he looks for these little private things, and you crushed it with that place. He found this place called Villa Madonna, which is beautiful. It only has 18 rooms. 18 rooms. You can tell about that a little bit, how you found it.

It's 18 rooms. I just— I'm— I know I'm very old school. I'm a very analog, tactile like, I just like the, the classic stuff. And I guess I'll kind of compare, like, I know, like, the Hotel Grand Victoria, like, it was amazing. Like, the room is beautiful, everything has been completely redone. But just let me contrast this. In the Hotel Victoria, like, it was frustrating the crap out of Natalie Jill because there's a big touchscreen panel there that, like, does everything. Like, you can't just go over there and open the blinds a foot because you want to look outside. Like, you got to go to the touch panel and Is it the blinds or is it the shades? There's a button and then it's just like there's 7 presets for all the lights. Be like, I just want to turn this light on to brush my teeth. And it's like, it's almost too much. It's just, it's almost too much. And then you go to a place like Villa La Madonna and there's a metal key with a leather, like a leather tag on it. And like all the keys are literally in a box behind the front desk because there's only 18 of them. And it just— everything is just very older, classic. It's just, it's just beautiful. The other thing is too, is that the Hotel Victoria was built in like the 1700s or something, like way long ago. It's like, it's a vineyard because this area of, uh, it's spelled— you'll see it both things— it's spelled Piedmont, which is like how I think, but they call it Piemonte in Italia. So it's like a winery and they're like Alba's there. So you've got white truffles, hazelnuts, That's, you know, basically Nutella.

Oh yeah, they make everything.

And there's actually more Michelin star restaurants like in this part of the world per capita than like anywhere else.

And the service there was incredible. Like they never forgot, like they knew I was celiac and like right every meal, no matter who it was, they always came right over with gluten-free. They were always really aware. Like they really got to know who their guests were since there's such a small amount.

Yeah, they really got to know your desk. Like everything there was just top notch, very nicely done. The pool's phenomenal, but just— I could, I could literally go live there.

You could live there. He wants a job there. He wants to, he wants to literally pick their eggs every day and grind their wheat. Like, you would like to live there?

Yeah, I would live there. I mean, like, they make, they make their own wine there. Like, everything that you consume there comes from within about a 15 or 20 minute radius of the place. Like, everything is handmade. From the cocktails to the bread to the fruits. Like, everything is in season. Everything is just—

I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I and Brooks are different people. So where I have— I can do like one day of nothingness, like, that's great, and then after that I'm antsy. But what I will say is, during our downtime there, I learned about all types of topics, and I educated Brooks on what I learned too. Like, I learned about flies. And I wanted to understand why there were flies everywhere. And then I learned that flies actually pollinate things the way bees do, and we wouldn't have chocolate if it wasn't for flies. So I have a new appreciation for flies. Then I also learned about— I wanted to know about the wheat and like why— now I'm celiac, I couldn't have wheat regardless, but I was like, why do some people, they say that they can eat wheat and bread and pasta in Europe and they don't have any issues, but they have so many issues in the US? And I learned these things. So I'm going to share with y'all just real quick. I'll just recap it real quick if you need to know, if you want to know. If you don't, you can fast forward here. Here. But one, I learned that there's a grain difference. So basically, US grows something called hard red wheat typically, which is high, tough, rubbery gluten. So it's like 13 to 15% gluten. And they do that so industrial baking machines can process it quickly. Where Italy, for example, they use soft durum wheats. Now, some farmers in the US use that, but not all. And those are lower in gluten, gluten to like 9 to 11%. So your stomach actually breaks Italian wheat better. But there's more. Wait, there's more. I learned all about soil health. I had heard about soil and mineral depletion, but I didn't understand it before. So basically, US mega farms, they rely on massive monoculture, meaning like the cornfield is the cornfield, the wheat field is the wheat field, and they only do that same crop there over and over. Where in Italy and other European countries, they rotate the crops. So like you'll have wheat one year and And then it's corn the next day, rotate it, which helps with not depleting the soil. Because it depletes the soil so much in the US, US also adds synthetic fertilizers. So basically, those synthetic fertilizers and growing the wheat differently, that is harder on our microbiomes. That's another reason. And then there's two other more, two other more in case you're interested. Glyphosate. So, not everyone uses glyphosate, but Roundup is still popular with a lot of of farmers. And US uses that to help dry crops faster, believe it or not. And those chemicals totally irritate our gut lining. Where in Italy, glyphosate is a pre-harvest drying agent used as that is heavily restricted or even banned. So, they don't have that at all there. So, even if somebody says that they don't use glyphosate here, they still have runoff from other farms. So, the glyphosate can get in us. And then, another really important thing, if you all have heard, Brooks loves making sourdough. And I know many of you read about the benefits of sourdough. So, if you think about the baking process, most U.S. bread, not sourdough, it's rushed to rise in under an hour by using fast-acting things like yeast. But, traditional Italian bread is more like sourdough. So, it's a slow fermentation, takes over 24 to 48 hours to rise. And, that slow process, it effectively predigests the gluten before you even take a bite. So, those are all the reasons if you're wondering why you might be gluten sensitive um, here but not overseas, that is— that's, that's why. That's why. I don't know, that was one of those— like, I told Brooks I should start a— remember when PBS used to go— it's— what was it called? You Should Know, or If You Know, Good to Know. It was like— I remember that little— I can still hear it as a little kid. It was like Things to Know. I said I should start a Things to Know because I like researching stuff like that. So anyways, that's what I learned all about bread.

All about bread. And so one of the big things in this area was the whole slow food movement started here. And I know this would probably— again, this would drive my wife crazy, and that's why she would go on researching rabbit holes on her chat while we were sitting there doing something. But they call it aperitivo, which is kind of— it's kind of like a pre-dinner where you get like a really light bite and a, you know, drink or something, and it kind of leads into dinner. But I was just absolutely loving these 2.5 to 3-hour dinners that we would have there.

I was so fidgety.

Yeah, she was super fidgety, and I just absolutely loved it.

Like, dinner in Europe, it's slow, it's nice, but it also makes you fidgety.

It doesn't make you fidgety, it just— but like, that's the problem I see with stuff in America. It's like we've been told that like bigger, bigger is better, faster. It's just— but nobody's— nobody is taking time to be present to actually enjoy anything. Like they're sucking down calories, like, so they can go hustle to the next thing. Like everyone's in motion, but they're like, I just don't find it very fulfilling.

Well, there was some other reasons that I noticed. Well, okay. A couple of things. One, they don't, the tipping culture is very different there. So it's not a standard 20% tip and they don't try to turn tables over super quick. So like what we would notice is the way they would do reservations in Europe, at least in Italy and what I saw in Switzerland too. As it would be like, you have a dinner reservation, but you can come between 6 and 9. So they'll ask you what time, but literally that's your block that whole time. So they're not trying to turn tables over quickly and they're not counting on tips. So you can tip, but it's not the same as US. It's much, it's lower and it does, it's not, they don't expect it.

Well, tips have become like an entitlement, I think, in the United States. And the other thing is too, you gotta remember like where we were staying in some of these places, like they only had finite amount of rooms. Yes.

So like, it was, you know, that, uh, but even the big place in Lake Como, like, they had lots of rooms, but they, they didn't rush the dinner. It was very like— and they weren't expecting—

they had lots of rooms, but that was also at that club. So it's just like, yeah, they had tons of space though. But yeah, it's just, it's just, it's a completely different, different way. And I, I think years ago I would have thought that they were wrong or whatever, because America, like fast and intuitive, but just now I think that Americans have really gotten this wrong. And I think we're coming up short because one of the nights, like, you went to bed and I sat there for another 2 hours. Just the guy, Gregori, like, he was, he was phenomenal, phenomenal waiter. I think he was like almost 60, but so much life experience and just watching him interact with the other tables and his jokes and so much life experience. Like, he was just He was amazing. And so, and that was the night that I did this 4-course tasting menu. I had a 4— it was a tasting menu, or was a 4-course menu within a 4-course tasting menu for the wine. And this is the thing, like, we don't really drink that much, but like the last time we drank literally was when we were in Italy and we were at some place that makes their own wine. So, you know, we had a glass. And that was always cool here is I did this you know, each course I got a wine to taste, but all the wines were basically from this property or were from—

you learn the history.

I started tasting stuff like, oh, he was bringing me other samples and tastes. And I had this digestive which was absolutely incredible. You know, it's just very, very cool. And I just, I really like that. And I think it's, it's very hard. I think you still get it some places, but I think it's harder to find in the United States.

Yeah. Another thing I noticed about the food there, aside from not bloating and not all that, like what people say about their wheat and their dairy and even their wines. The portion sizes. So, you like, we would get a gelato every day and I would get a little scoop. It was like a nice small, it would be like a kiddie scoop here, but it was like the perfect size. Or their desserts, you even notice their desserts aren't as sweet, but they tasted really good, but they're smaller and they weren't as sweet. Like they use real ingredients with everything. Or if you get a pasta with your meal, it's like a little bit. So, nothing is these big huge portions.

Yeah, it's not just these massive portions where you feel engorged. So you can have 4 sometimes. I mean, there are some places, you know, like an 8 or 12-course meal, but it's not like you really— you enjoy the process, you enjoy the tasting. And that was the one thing when you are doing those 3-hour meals, that was where it was nice. That's where I really found like I would, I would space out my enzymes.

Yeah. So, so when you said that about the enzymes, that was the one supplement that we like brought the whole bottle Now, even though the food quality is better and you have less issues, Brooks and I both ate considerably more than we normally do. Like, we ate a lot. So, we had that bottle of enzymes with us and we each had 3 enzymes each meal.

Like, just helping out.

That's the thing.

Even on Sundays, like, I was having 6 enzymes because again, like, I was— that meal, like, was starting— like, I would have 2 enzymes, like, at the aperitivo because I was 6:30. And, like, I would have 6 enzymes enzymes over that, you know, those 3 hours. And I just noticed a huge difference. Even, even though I don't really drink that much, you know, that 4-course, that was probably the equivalent of like 2 glasses of wine, maybe a little bit more because they brought me some other tasters and things like that. But like, I felt fine the next day after that.

We— enzymes are like the best saver for everything. So we like all the time, they're so good. So y'all, not to get— make too much of a commercial about enzymes here, but your body makes less digestive enzymes after age 35. So, when you take enzymes, it helps your body break it down. And, the little example that Brooks and I once saw live is if you take pudding and you were to open up— we use MassZymes, that's the brand that we love and use. If you open up the MassZymes and put it in one of the puddings, but the other pudding you don't and you stir it and you were to put the puddings upside down, the one without enzymes would be all clumpy, the one with enzymes would come out as liquid. So, it helps you break down your food, like digest your food, predigest it for you so you don't have bloating, you don't have stomach issues. It helps move everything along a lot quicker. So, they're key. So, I was joking that our enzymes are on vacation with us. We started taking pictures of the MassLymes bottle like in Switzerland or like then it became this funny thing like, "Where else is the MassLymes visiting on this trip?" Right. Okay. So, after we had to leave this amazing place, Villa Madonna, which Brooks was very sad to leave. So, when we left that, we were driving. We had to make our way back up to, uh, Germany because we're gonna be flying out of Germany. So we drove back to Lucerne. I wanted to go to a different area of Lucerne. I told Brooks that I had really a specific memory. It wasn't the city of Lucerne, it was more the rolling hills and the cows with the bells. And I wanted to stay in a more remote area. So I was like, I don't care what the hotel is like, I just want the view. And you found the perfect spot. I was like, this is the prettiest place on earth. What was the name of that place, or what was that area? Is it The name of the area was Silisberg, and I'd have to go—

actually, I can look on my nav.

I'm gonna be honest, that hotel was like a 2-star. It was not a— it was nothing special. It was old. However, I did not care. I didn't care because that view was freaking the prettiest thing I've seen in my entire life. So we walked in this room, and I didn't care about the room or any of it. I just saw this view, and I was like, like, leave me here. I will stare at this view all day, all night. I love this view. That was epic.

That's what people have to understand about Switzerland, because Switzerland, you have the German, the Italian, as well as like a French influence there. You know, like as you get closer to like Lake Lugano is kind of the edge. So there's— it's Switzerland, but it's very Italian, whereas this Seelisberg was very German.

But driving to Zillisberg, y'all, so we had to drive. It was big, long, windy roads, mountainside. But there was this one area you have to cross the Swiss Alps and you're going up, up, up, up, up high altitude to where there's snow and it's cold. And I was— Brooks is like, "You're like a little kid." I was like, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Stop the car. Oh my God. Oh my God." There's literal big fluffy black and white and brown and white cows with the bells on the green hills. And you could see snow-capped mountains. Blue, blue, blue water, like the brightest blue you've ever seen. It looks like it's filtered and it's not. That was epic, that drive. That was so pretty. I loved that drive.

Yes, you love that drive.

I love Switzerland. It is so pretty. So we stay at this hotel that— so Switzerland speaks Italian, French, or German, not as much English. So, so like at this area in Zillertal, like the first— when we went to go eat dinner the first night, the waitress walks up, she's like, English? And we're like, yep. She's like, no, no, no. She like shakes her head like, no, no, no, somebody else needs to help you. So, um, that was an interesting thing. I, the whole menu was again, like wiener schnitzel and whatever that stuff is. I was like, what is this?

It's all very German. The German meats.

Yeah. I was like, I don't want pork or pork belly or liver. Gross. Not, not my food. I ordered a salad. It was like shredded celery with mayonnaise and walnuts. I was like, what? Okay. It was interesting. Different, very different. So that was wild, but that view. Okay. Let's talk about that view again. Yeah. We were— the same room view we had when we were eating dinner there, beautiful. Like I'm going to show a picture if you're watching on video. This was the prettiest view. And then to watch the sunset and then the sunset over the Swiss Alps like that, insane. And it doesn't set till late. It was like 9:20 when it was setting. So the next morning we got up, we went on a little walk and we found a bench and I just wanted to sit on that bench for like 24 hours. I was like, leave me here. I'm good. That was so epic there. I loved it. If you ever go to Europe, please make Lake Lucerne a stop because that was incredible. That is the prettiest place I've ever been in the— on the whole planet.

Well, yeah, Zürichburg just gives you— because you're on, you're on the lake, but you've got huge mountains right on the other— like, you're kind of on a mountain and right on the other side of the lake. Plus you can see the Alps and the snowcaps. Like, it's just kind of beautiful. You've got white, you've got rock, you've got crazy green and crazy blue water. Like, you just kind of have this spectrum.

Of— I could have stayed there longer. Like, I would have liked to stay there an extra day. Like, I just wanted to sit on that bench or walk around there. It was so pretty. I was so happy there. I loved it there.

Which is what's funny about my wife. Like, she, you know, 3-hour dinner, like, super fidgety. Yet if it's like— she literally, she could have been like Forrest Gump sitting on that bench and like just telling her life story to anybody that went by for like the next— so happy she would have been.

I was— it was just so epic there. I mean, so pretty there. I took a picture of the screensaver on my phone is now that picture. Nature. Like, I was like, I don't want to ever forget this image. This was just so pretty here. So then I was sad, but we had to start making our way back up to Germany. Oh, I left out a really critical part. So when we were leaving Villa Madonna, I keep all my supplements in these little bags. Like, so I divide out my supplements in little bags. I forgot, I left in my little bag my T3, which is my thyroid hormone. Y'all, you don't understand my thyroid. I've had a low thyroid for years, and it's taken years to figure out that I had this low thyroid and the right medication for it. And Being on T3 was life-changing to me, and I freaking left my T3 at Villa Madonna, and we were now 4.5 hours north, and I was like, "Great. I got to be without it for a few days." So, I was bummed, but Brooks was really bummed. He's like, "Great. You're bummed. I got to deal with your personality now." That's how that went. That happened for 2 days. I'm okay now. I'm back home as I'm recording this, and I have my T3 back in my system. But when you have low thyroid, it affects everything. So, everything feels different when you have low thyroid. But anyways, that was, that's, I did forget it at a hotel and Brooks kept asking me how I could have forgotten it. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. I just did. And now we got to deal with my personality problem.

And what was interesting is one night I was like, there was a bag of vitamins or supplements that I found on the floor. I was like, hey, like you dropped this. Or how she's like, where I was, it was on the side.

Like I should have looked.

No, but it didn't even, that didn't even jog like, oh, if he found that on the the floor. Where would—

so yeah, so there's that. Um, okay, so then we had to head back up to Germany because we were flying back home out of the same way. Brooks loves to drive, by the way. I left that out, especially when he got to hear that he was driving on the Autobahn, and which has no speed limit, and you can drive like a— yeah, I didn't, I didn't love that part, but he was very excited. So we drove everywhere. So we were driving back to Germany, and we now, on the way back to Germany, we stopped in a place called Basel, right? That's what it's called, Basel.

Yeah, like Art Basel.

Yeah. What'd you think of Basel other than the hamburger that we had there?

Well, that was like— it was purely just a stop based on it's about lunchtime, time to use the restroom, like maybe there's something. I mean, I've heard of Art Basel before. I didn't know much about it, but it was more— we were literally gonna go right through there, so we stopped.

I didn't love it. Um, I'll tell you why. It's part of Switzerland, but it doesn't look anything like Switzerland. And so I I did some research because I like to read and look, and I researched that it's the one area of basically Switzerland that they didn't maintain any of the old stuff. They basically like took it down because Big Pharma is really big there, a lot of Big Pharma money, and they basically knock down old buildings, old ruins, and it's like Big Pharma capital. So I didn't love that. It felt very— it felt like a dirty city. Nothing like— just nothing that I was impressed with. They had a water area that could have been pretty. I didn't love it. However, I think I had the best hamburger I've ever had in my entire life. I would like another one of those tonight, actually. I'm craving that hamburger. It was so good.

Let's also be clear, my wife did not have meat or burgers for 42 years. Red meat.

I didn't have red meat for 42 years. But this, now that I eat hamburgers, that in Basil, whatever that restaurant was, was the best hamburger of my life. And by the way, when we walked, a lot of people were not speaking English in Basil. When we walked into this restaurant, this one waitress, like we were trying to understand and navigate, trying to find gluten-free. We sat down at like 3 different restaurants before we could find gluten-free amongst the wiener schnitzel menus. And this one woman, she like, she looked like she's in her mid-20s. She walked up and she's like, hello. She spoke, spoke perfect English. And I'm talking to her. I'm like, how many languages do you speak? And she was, she speaks 4. And I'm like, this is what's amazing about Europeans. They speak so many languages where Americans typically speak one.

She's very cool. And I get it because like Europe is basically the exact same size as the United States. The difference is the United States only has one language. Like if you look at our states, like if you divided the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest, if every— if the different areas of the United States had different languages, we would all be better with languages. But when you look at like some of those countries, they speak 3 languages in a country.

So Speaking of which, even though it's a little hard to navigate food allergies or intolerances, uh, in foreign languages, EU has something that America does not, and I loved it. They have this coding guide. They're numbers. So like 1 means gluten, 2 means— there's different numbers for each allergen. And most menus in the EU have numbers. So no matter what you're looking at, there's a number. And if it has like 1 in it, for example, you know, there's gluten in it. So I liked that about all the menus. You could easily search and say, "Okay, this has gluten, this has peanuts, this has wheat." You could easily figure out what was in what. And I liked that EU regulation. Speaking of, Italy is phenomenal with gluten-free. They take it so serious there. They've got amazing gluten-free pasta, gluten-free ice cream cones for the gelato. They have gluten-free bread at every meal and they individually wrap it. They are on it when it comes to celiac. In fact, I was reading that they think of celiac. It's very serious. They test kids around age 5 there for it, and they think of it as a— they said a big tragedy because food is such an important part of their culture. So it's important to them to make it so it's celiac-friendly there. I also read that the government gives money to celiacs there to increase for their— for their food each month. I was like, what? So they really next level on gluten and celiac in Italy. I was pretty impressed with that. Okay, so we were in Basilica, uh, didn't spend a lot of time there, and then we were headed back up up. We needed to head to Frankfurt, so I was looking for a way on our drive of where else we could stop. And right before Frankfurt, about an hour out of Frankfurt— I kind of would have been nice to spend a little more time there— was a little fairytale town called Heidelberg. And Heidelberg was really cute. I liked it. It looked like a little— like castles and cobblestone roads and lots of shops and restaurants. And Heidelberg University is there. I, I don't know, it was kind of cool. I know we were sort of rushing it, but I don't know, it's cute. What'd you think of Heidelberg?

I mean, it was a nice, you know, not that far out of the way stop, just, just so that we had to get the car back by a certain time. But instead of just getting back and waiting at an airport hotel, at least it gave, you know, we probably spent between the whole thing hour and a half to get there and walk around and park.

Yeah, but it was, it was cool. I mean, I enjoyed it there. I mean, I was like, I, on a different time with more time, I would have maybe had dinner there, walk around. We did get gelato there. We had gelato almost every night. Almost every day in Europe. That was nice. You're gonna have to make gelato at home now, babe, so we can have more because now that we're used to it.

We had gelato in Italy, you know, that the gelato really started at Lake Como. And then yeah, Lake Como had really good gelato.

Yeah. I mean, just gelato in general was so good. And the fact that I could find gluten-free cones for the gelato was awesome. I loved that. So what I would say, oh, we learned some things too about the roads in Germany. If you've heard about the Autobahn and how you You can— there's no speed limit in areas of it. I learned, uh, while Brooks was driving like he was on a racetrack, that it's illegal there to pass on the right, and it's illegal to tailgate, which we shouldn't do that anyway. But you can't pass on the right. But can you explain about the driving things? I know this is a big thing to you, Brooks, about how Europeans have it different. I know they're not perfect there, but how they really— it's like the faster traffic always keeps left. They just know that. Share your perspective on all that.

I'm gonna botch the word, but it's— they have a thing called— it's "Rechtsfahrgewalt," which basically means use the rightmost lane available to you. And I was really disappointed on the first part of the trip when we went to Stuttgart. It was great.

Okay.

Because it was open. But I guess this is called— called like the, the A5, the A5 going from Basel up to Frankfurt. Like, yeah, there's traffic, but people just were not— they weren't moving over. And I know, and I could go into this for a long little bit. Like, part of the problem is, is like the automatic cruise control in these cars, because we had a BMW 5 Series, like a 2026. It was a wagon. I mean, the car drove phenomenal. Oh my God. Like, I couldn't— I felt like I was fighting that car half the time because even with the electric gremlins turned off.

Yeah.

Like they're always engaging. Like, I don't know, the car's braking and I turned the lane departure warning off and it's giving me lane departure warning. So it was just— I could see how it was causing, but it was just be annoying because it would be like the 5 or the 405 in California. Like there's 3 lanes, like obviously the trucks are in the slow lane and people need to move over. And even the people, if there's a big gap between trucks, like you always need to move to the right. Always.

People don't do that here in US. They like stake out on the left lane and drive very slow.

Yeah. People like get on the freeway to get in the left lane to not pay attention. And over there, like, that was the beautiful thing.

Like, there was— and you're allowed to flash your lights. You're supposed to flash your lights and tell them to move over, which in a lot of times it works really well.

But then people are like, oh, it's crowded. I mean, it was just because we were in the place with literally no speed limits. And we were like, there's speed limits, or someplace be like 120 kilometers an hour, which is basically, that's like 74 miles an hour. 100 kilometers an hour is 62 miles per hour. Per hour. So it's basically 6.2 miles per hour for every 10 kilometers an hour. And we were in the fast lane literally doing 90 to 110 kilometers an hour. It just like, people weren't moving over. And it was just, it was frustrating for me because I don't get to drive on the no-speed-limit Autobahn. And I'm like, you guys are doing, what's that, 9 times— you guys are doing 55 miles an hour in the fast lane. Like, just move over.

What was your favorite part of the whole trip? Mine was Seelisberg and the boat on— actually, I have 3 parts. I would say— I don't know, actually, that's true. I don't have 3. I have like 4. I would say the first night in Lucerne, the Seelisberg was incredible, the Lake Como. I'll go with those 3. Those are my 3.

I mean, it's hard. I mean, I just— I really enjoyed the whole trip.

It was great.

It's really hard for me to pick a favorite. I mean, I think my favorite place would be the Villa Madonna. I mean, Lake Como was beautiful. And I could also see how like in time I could get— I mean, there wasn't that much stuff to do. And we even had friends who were like, it's beautiful. Like, it's absolutely beautiful. But even they said it was probably like a 2-night place to base. I mean, that 3 hours we saw like a huge chunk of the lake.

Yeah.

And I mean, it was, it was beautiful. It was incredible. Like, yeah, Switzerland is beautiful country.

I would want— we didn't get to really see— we saw a little bit of the Rhine River. We didn't— if we had more time, I think we would have done more like Black Forest, Rhine River, like to see more of that in Germany because we didn't really get to explore too much of Germany. We were focused—

Germany is a huge country as well. Like the Rhine River is long. Yeah. I mean, it's not like— yes, we saw part of it, but yeah, we didn't get to see the part of it by—

so if I would say if we had had 2 extra days, I would have liked to have added that and maybe an extra day in Seelisberg, if I'm pronouncing it right, because I just— I could sit there longer. I loved that place. I loved that place. I was like, I would like to walk around and explore that. I wanted, I wanted to take a picture with the cows. I wanted to find the cows and hug them. Like, I just, you know, that commercial, they say happy cows come from California. I think they come from Switzerland. I just do. I loved it. Sure. Anyway, Brooks is so good at planning these trips. This was our third trip to Europe together. Two summers ago, we went twice. I would love to go every summer in May because I just, end of May, June is like the perfect time of year to go. I just really enjoyed it. There's so much— the things that I really appreciate there is just a different quality of life. It seems like people are less rushed, they're more present, more conversational, community-focused, more story-based, more focused on whole ingredients, like real food, um, even in skincare, just whole— the story behind everything. I like that they— that it's so much older in Europe, like older culture. And so you just— there's a lot of history. So I know Europe is huge and there's lots of different areas in Europe that we have not yet explored, but I will say, having been now to Portugal and Italy, different areas, and parts of Spain and Switzerland and Germany— Brooks has not been to England yet. I've been— spent a lot of time in England myself. But just really, if you have not ever been to Europe, I highly recommend planning a trip and not just staying in one area, like really exploring. Like take 2 weeks to go see some different areas because it's really pretty fascinating.

Yeah, I love being able to rent a car and then being able to explore.

Now Brooks loves this stuff, so if you feel like messaging Brooks on Instagram, he will help you plan yours, I'm sure, because he loves it.

Do you know how much time it takes?

I'm just kidding. No, but if you have questions about this trip or this itinerary, you can definitely—

yeah, but yeah, just— but it's also like, I enjoy research, I enjoy planning, like, I enjoy— like, it's also fun for me to try to create something that makes my wife happy because she's also, you know, pretty particular. And I try to, you know, get a mix of things in there. And I just like to do stuff more than just, yeah, go to this big hotel and sit someplace for a week or two.

No, I love— I think you did a great job of planning the different vibes. Like, it was like a whole bunch of different experiences, like, in one, like, different areas themselves have different vibes. And like, every hotel was unique. Everything, like, everything was super. And, and the thing is, we, we love like luxury hotels, but we also both like not so luxury if it's in a really cool area. So it doesn't matter that, that I'm not stuck on.

But it's also nice because like a lot of these areas, like, not everything's going to have like a brand new redone luxury hotel.

No, that was like the one in Seelisberg. Like, I was like, this is— the hotel was yuck, but I didn't care because it was such a pretty—

it just, it was what it was. Like, that was an older, like like, again, that's what people understand. Like, the United States has been around for 250 years. Yeah. Whereas like you have places over there that have been around for 1,000 years or more.

It's crazy. It's—

and it's just like there's so much more history. So obviously, I mean, that was the weird thing when I was planning this trip. Like, you look at some of the— you go to some of these places in Europe, I mean, stuff's astronomically expensive. I remember I found this— I was like, oh, like, holy cow, there's actually a room that's under $1,000 a night. And then it was literally like a 161-square-foot room.

Yeah, that's crazy.

And it's time, but that's the thing you don't realize is like when they were building some of these stuff, it's like, you know, there's a castle, like, you can't just go remodel a castle. Like you can kind of do stuff like the rooms are kind of set to the, to the way things were back then. So, but I like that character. Yeah, it was very, it was easy just to get like, great, another touchpad, great, another completely redone. I mean, there's, there's a time and place for that.

We only stayed at one hotel like that. That was the one in Lake Como. Everything else was more— was older.

Older. Well, but that was an older hotel, but they'd added like— there's rooms like they'd added that back part on.

Anyways, good job, Brooks. I loved— I loved how you planned it. There'll be more Europe trips because I like this side of you and I think it's fun and I want to go back. I love traveling. I love it. The flight, uh, for those of you that are curious about that, it was— we flew from Phoenix to LAX LAX to Frankfurt. Frankfurt. It's an 11-hour flight. So as we're recording this, we are definitely a bit jet-lagged. We're recording this the day that we got back, which is a Monday. We're airing this on a Friday, which is when you're listening to it, but we're definitely jet-lagged because it's 9 hours ahead there.

So yeah, so it's basically like, what is that? It's basically 11 o'clock at night, almost midnight where we were.

Yeah.

So And we got back like 20 hours ago.

I'm a business class snob, but we have flown to Europe before in premium economy, which is a way better value, by the way. And Brooks loves premium economy. Tell them about that for a minute.

For people that want to know about that, I just think premium economy is the best value. Like, yes, business class is nice, but I also think you're paying like a huge premium for not that much more benefit. And let me just give you an example. So So on, I did get Natalie to do premium economy. We went to our Portugal and Spain trip and just for like, for both of us, round trip premium economy was $3,300 for both of us. And then you look at, for that to have been business class, it would have been $12,000 or $13,000.

That's a big difference.

Delta. So it's like $10,000 to be slightly more comfortable on a flight, but then I go, that'll buy you 10 nights of a $1,000 a night hotel room.

So, so long story short, don't make it like you're not going to go because you can't do business class. Like, you— their premium economy— if I— if it was the only way I could go to Europe, I would definitely do premium economy.

Premium economy international is nice, is better than continental United States first class.

True, because you get— you get almost— it doesn't lay flat, but it lays pretty—

it doesn't lay lay flat, but it goes back really far. It has a footrest for you. You have your own little section. You have your feels.

So they still feed you.

Yeah. And let's be honest, like, if you look at, you know, say the flight is 10 or 11 hours, it doesn't matter. You're still going to be jet-lagged. You're not like— it's not like it's this great, you know, on the way back, just because the way times were, like, I didn't sleep at all. Like, I didn't even like lay flat once in 11 hours. So like Yeah, I mean, she does, but she's just like, she's going to do it because it's there. Plus, she fits in those things better because she's 5'2".

Okay. One thing I forgot to mention that we did both do that I turned Brooks on. We already talked about Lila Quantum and Quantum Upgrade, which by the way, y'all, I'm going to link all this in the show notes. The enzymes, which you must get, that's a must for travel and for home. But we also tried, I'm going to do an episode coming up here about this, these detox patches. So, I've had Lindsay, who is the founder of the patch, she makes these transdermal supplements, basically all types. She has a vitamin C one, she's got wellness ones, but she sent me these detox patches before and there's some magic in there. You put it right over your liver and it's transdermal, so it bypasses getting processed through that, but it helps you kind of move things along and get it out of you. And I got Brooks hooked. Brooks was even asking me for those on those trips. He was like, "Do you have a detox patch?" When we'd overeat.

Well, I did. Well, it wasn't so much overeating, but it's also just like I've probably had in the last 8 or 9 years, probably 10 total drinks.

This was good for the post-op. So we weren't hungover at all.

Nothing. No, that was just the thing. So it's just like, you know, having, you know, 4 taster glasses of wine. Well, it's not a lot. It's just, it's more the example I use is that one of those, and that was when I asked, is one of those earlier nights, I just, the next, I was like, wow. I was like, it's like if somebody never worked out out for 2 years or 3 years and then like went and did a really hard workout, like they would feel it. And it's kind of the same way, even though I didn't have that much alcohol, like when you just don't have it in your system, like it wasn't like terrible, but I could definitely feel it. But the patches, I will say, like the patch definitely helped.

So she's gonna— we use— so I'm gonna link those below too. I shared on my stories and some of you asked. For those of you who want to see pictures of all this, You can either look on the YouTube video, which we'll release a few days after this episode, but also on my Instagram. If you go to Europe, my most recent highlight, I filmed a bunch of stuff along the way if you want to look at pictures and see it all. But let me know, did you like this episode? Do you want more conversations with Brooks? Do you like this or you want me to get back to my regular topics? You can let us know that as well. Thanks for listening in. I'll also link below the recap we did when we went to Europe 2 years ago. We've got an Italy recap and a Portugal recap. I'll link those below too, if you want to hear those conversations. They're 2 years old now, but if you want to hear our adventures on both of those as well. Thanks everyone. Bye.