Choose Your Journey

  • Over Hill and (Yorkshire) Dale

    Over Hill and (Yorkshire) Dale

    My brother and I have this tradition. We come to England and visit him and his wife, then they move. Sometime later we will visit them at their new place, and shortly afterwards they will move again.  It’s like they are in the witness protection program. Recently, however, they broke with tradition, for they have scheduled…

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  • Celebrating in Madeira

    Celebrating in Madeira

    Kathrin and I had two good reasons to take a trip somewhere during the middle of September, our anniversary on the 19th and my birthday on the 20th. We had considered several destinations–Austin, where we have family, quite a few of whom have birthdays in September; a cruise along the Croatian coast; touring through England’s northeast…

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  • Mountain Hiking in the Dolomites

    Mountain Hiking in the Dolomites

    Close to two years ago, Leon and I planned on hiking the Alta Via 1 in Italy’s beautiful Dolomites mountains. Our original date was September 2021. As part of our preparation, we went on a hike in the Taunus mountains, a small “mountain” range (more accurately foothills) just north of Frankfurt. During that training hike…

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  • Biking Behind the Iron Curtain

    Biking Behind the Iron Curtain

    A Locomotive Adventure For this summer’s bike trip, we decided to go behind the Iron Curtain and bike along the Moldau River in the Czech Republic. Our plan was to take a train to the start point, and back from the endpoint. Doing so with a bicycle is challenging. The fastest trains, ICE, have very…

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  • Conclusions of Our Caravan Adventure

    Conclusions of Our Caravan Adventure

    This vacation was a learning adventure.  Now let me tell you about the other side of the vacation – living in a caravan for a week. We deliberately chose different levels of parking lots and campsites in order to get the full experience.  At the low end was Eisenach, where we stayed in a lonely,…

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  • Following the footsteps of Bach, Luther and Goethe by Caravan

    Following the footsteps of Bach, Luther and Goethe by Caravan

    We decided to try a new type of traveling – caravanning. It’s a popular way to get around and we wanted so see if it was for us.

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  • A Wonderful Week of Summer in Skiathos

    A Wonderful Week of Summer in Skiathos

    Kathrin and I wanted to spend a relaxing week somewhere new. We considered two destinations–Ireland or a Greek island. Since our main goal was to go someplace warm, the question became, where are Condor’s destinations in Greece? A colleague and friend of Kathrin’s recommended Skiathos, a quiet, genuinely Greek island that isn’t overrun by tourists.…

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  • Bruges, Part 2: Castles and Beaches

    Bruges, Part 2: Castles and Beaches

    The next day, Sunday, we went on an all-day bike tour of the castles in the area. I like to think of it as the West Flanders Castle tour. In all, we stopped at 8 castles. They varied in their “castleness”, some looked more like a grand Maison, while others were more noble, there were…

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  • Exploring Bruges and West Flanders, Part 1

    Exploring Bruges and West Flanders, Part 1

    Part 1 – City Sightseeing and Castle Tour Following a long, Covid-induced hiatus, Kathrin and I were once again on the road. After considered several destinations both near and far, we decided to stay closer to home and spent 6 days in Bruges. We were there once before, but only for a night or two,…

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  • Our Bavarian Vacation, part 3

    Our Bavarian Vacation, part 3

    Stage 3: Highline179, Zugspitze, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen With stories of royal intrigue behind us, we started our day with the Burgenwelt Ehrenberg and Highline179. Burgenwelt Ehrenberg is a complex of castles and fortifications in the valley and on the mountains above. The complex dates back many hundreds of years ago and was a major defensive facility…

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  • Our Bavarian Vacation, part 2

    Our Bavarian Vacation, part 2

    A pilgrimage stop at Andechs On Monday we traveled on to the next stage of our trip – Bavaria’s most famous castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. But first, we had to make an important stop at Kloster Andechs. What’s so special about the Andechs Monastery? For one thing, it owes its existence to a mouse. According…

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  • Our Bavarian vacation part 1, Munich

    Our Bavarian vacation part 1, Munich

    What does every American want to see during a vacation to Germany? Neuschwanstein, Oktoberfest, Hofbrauhaus, Linderhof. These are the most famous places in Germany, at least to most Americans. How many of these places have I seen since moving here? 1. Hofbrauhaus. In 7 years I have yet to see the “real” Germany. With COVID-19…

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