7 physical letters from us – #124

Last week I said I'd share more about the trip, including a way to follow along offline. Here it is.

We left Italy a few days ago. Right now I'm spending a few nights with Sina for our 11th wedding anniversary, in Czechia and Germany. Long walks in the October rain, sauna and fall leaves. After those last five ultra intense weeks. This is the pre-trip, before we pick up the kids again at my parents' place and start the actual one.

Short version of the next few months: different countries, Europe until the end of 2026, mostly Portugal. From the beginning of 2027, also intercontinental. Homeschooling. Transitioning into being self-employed.

The offline part is a little print magazine. We're calling it Whereabouts.

We collect this stuff while we travel anyway. The addresses, the receipts, the notes about which place is only good on a Wednesday. We wanted to make something out of it instead of leaving it on a phone, so we're making it at cost.

If you've been reading this newsletter for the past two years and you like the curation and the taste, we're happy to share something with you.

Seven editions, from places we visit on the trip. No. 1 is about Merano. The others are probably Portugal, and then we honestly don't know yet.

What arrives:

The first letter ships at the end of October. Until then it's 79 euros for all seven. After that it's 99 (because we need to reprint single editions while traveling…)

From Europe with Love / Whereabouts

If you’re new around here: Every week, I share 5 of the nicest products from Europe I’ve discovered in the past 7 days.

I scout, you explore.

With love 🌞
Jakob

P.S.: The Ruzha throw by GUNIA project was the most-clicked product in last week's issue. The matcha bowl by Fenek Studio came second.

P.P.S.: If you find something that belongs here (also if you made it yourself), send it. Two of this week's five came in that way.

Upload a video and VideoToFlip pulls the frames, then prints, cuts, binds and finishes the flipbook by hand in their own workshop in Serbia. Momcilo Popov sent it in a few weeks ago. I love the idea and will definitely try it soon.

When I asked about an unexpected customer, he told me about families turning videos of their kids into flipbooks for relatives in prison, who otherwise couldn’t watch them. That was unexpected.

Studio Malíská makes this by hand in Karlovy Vary, about 40 minutes from where I'm writing this, from hard Karlovy Vary porcelain with a glossy dark blue finish. Lenka Sárová Malíská shaped it after a paper boat, and says the little boat is a symbol of travel. Seventeen and a half centimeters bow to stern.

A frosted glass block on a graphite steel stand, designed by Ramūnas Minkevičius for KISMAS and made in Lithuania. The color doesn't come from the LED. It comes from color-effect filters, the kind used in film and theater lighting, slid into the diffuser. Seven spares in the box, and the glass block isn't fixed down, so you turn it by hand.

Thanks, Petras, for the recommendation.

Norwegian brand Wilfa developed this with the Norwegian national baking team: seven liters, 700 watts, up to five kilos of dough, and a system that turns the bowl and the spiral hook at the same time so the dough stops climbing up the hook.

Not a thing we'll be carrying around for the next year, which is a shame, because I'd use it.

Take me back to the 90s. A corded phone on home Wi-Fi for kids, with a real keypad and parent-approved contacts. YAPA commissioned British studio Aetha, led by former Dyson designer Tom Parsons. The frosted shell shows the components inside. YAPA-to-YAPA calls are free; calling approved mobiles and landlines needs a monthly plan.