After visiting the Cathedral Suzi and I sat in an outdoor café on the plaza in front of the cathedral enjoying a coffee and deciding what to do next. There are a good number of chalk artists in the plaza … Continue reading Ukrainian Modernism.
I first saw the cathedral at dusk from a train pulling into the station. I was staying on the train, on my way from a student seminar in Bonn in 1964. The Cathedral seemed dark and menacing, backlit by a … Continue reading Cologne Cathedral
German trains do not run on time. We were on our way to Cologne from Copenhagen. This was the last of our missed stops from the 2023 World Cruise. No the Zuiderdam did not sail up the Rhine to Cologne, … Continue reading “I don’t know what’s happened to our country, it’s a shame.”
Thirty two years ago our lives changed forever. The Berlin Wall fell. Our family had been in Berlin the summer before and the wall looked permanent. We went back the next summer in time to see streets opening in the … Continue reading Walking the Line Between Hope and Despair.
Thirty years ago, this week my family was in Berlin. We had been there 10 months earlier and saw a wall that looked permanent. Three months later we saw it come down on TV. We went back in June 1990 … Continue reading 30 Years Ago This Week — Berlin.
Two weeks ago, I was thinking how odd it was for everyone’s bags to be out in the hallway awaiting pickup while we were still settled into our stateroom. Sunday night was our turn to put out our bags. Each … Continue reading Ending in Amsterdam.
It was strange seeing all luggage lining the halls on Sunday night and ours was not there. Others were wrapped up in packing, we were not but could enjoy the evening. On Monday Morning when we went to a fashionably … Continue reading Amsterdam Turnaround — “Flip a Ship.”
When we got on the ship several people asked “Why Zebrugge” and “Why Antwerp?” Especially “Why two days in Antwerp? This is the Celtic Explorer, the Celts left Belgium more than a thousand years ago.” Sailing down the Schelde River … Continue reading Antwerp Postcards.
St. Charles Borromeo Church is easy to miss if you are not on a tour. While it is “hidden” in a little square it is not small. It does not appear in my Lonely Planet book or on either of … Continue reading Confessions and Anguished Angels.
When we arrived in Antwerp we did what we often do, check in with the local tourist information office to get a map, mass transit map and timetable and to buy tram tickets. The women at the desk told us … Continue reading Antwerp’s Two Cathedrals.
I love Art Nouveau movement and always live cities where there the movement has taken over the architecture of a neighborhood. There are several neighborhoods in Antwerp where there are fine representations, including Zurenborg neighborhood near the Berchem tram stop. … Continue reading It’s a Bourgeois Town
Yesterday was a “sea day” on Prinsendam. There are not enough of them on this segment of the cruise. I like a day at sea to recharge, and go to lectures and to ask the Captain questions. This sea day … Continue reading Einstein on the Beach
We are onboard and underway, on our cruise to Iceland and Greenland. But we weren’t sure that this would happen. I had complications from surgery the week before we left for Amsterdam and I didn’t get clearance from the docs … Continue reading Rising to Sea Level, the North Sea Canal.
Here are the promised pics from Amsterdam’s Canals on an absolutely beautiful day taken from the hop on/hop off cruise. Continue reading Amsterdam Canals
Our Cruise to Iceland and Greenland leaves from Amsterdam. Given the vagaries of Alaska weather and our desire to avoid jet lag on the cruise we arrived in Amsterdam with four nights and three days to acclimatize. Amsterdam is … Continue reading Amsterdam Thoughts
This trip I decided to spend two jet lag nights in Munich, or rather Freisling, a small town near the airport. This time I decided to take the train from Freisling to Fussen and the onward bus to Hohenschwangu and … Continue reading A Train Trip through Bavaria.
This is the second part of a letter. For the first part see the post posted just after this one. The train pulled into Fussen and everyone ran for the 78 Bus to Hohenschwangu to visit Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss … Continue reading Neuschwanstein
The Lille Christmas Market is the first one I have attended in France. Lille bills itself as the most Flemish town in France. It’s thoroughly French in language but the architecture is more Flemish-Dutch. It is the heart of French Flanders … Continue reading Lille, France Christmas Market
Hasselt “Winterland” Market is, perhaps the most commercial Christmas market we have encountered in Europe. It reminds me of the tables under the grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair. There was a collection of kitchen wares, knives, trinkets, I half … Continue reading Hasselt Winterland, 2014
The last time I was at the Brugge (Bruges) Christmas fair, in 2007, it was a short visit. It was raining and cold. The skating rink in the middle of the main town square was more slush than ice and, … Continue reading Brugge (Bruges) Christmas Market, 2014
Valkenburg is perhaps the most unique, and possibly the most interesting, Christmas Market in Europe. I have been back to this market in The Netherlands three times now. The first two times with our friends Dave and Carol Lam. (The … Continue reading Valkenburg Christmas Market, 2014
We have been through Lille before, many times on the train from London to Brussels, but have never seen more than the railway station. This time we went with our friend Dave Lam and his daughter Rachel to visit the … Continue reading Lille “The Most Flemish Town in France”
Hasselt is the chief town of the Belgian commune of Limburg. It is near the Dutch border and there is a similarly named province in the Netherlands. Suzi and I visited Hasselt after Carol Lam’s Funeral with Dave, and their … Continue reading Hasselt, Belgium and the Begijn Movement.
Freising is a town near the Munich Airport where the airport hotels are located. But it is an old city. It had a cathedral before Munich, a brewery too. It is a place I lay over on trips to and from Tbilisi for jet lagging. I have posted from this delightful town before, including a post about the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world. These pictures are from an afternoon stroll around town. Suzi had never been here and I wanted her to see it. Continue reading Freising, Bavaria, redux