2024 Germany

For my last journal entry I think I’m just going to talk about my takeaways for this trip. Even with Germanys much older history, I feel like it has much more in common with the United States than other European countries I’ve visited. I know it’s hard to come to any…

Alas. Our last full day in Germany. We debated back and forth on extending our trip and exploring more. Perhaps Belgium or Switzerland. But we decided this morning that we will leave on time as previously planned. Germany has been mostly good to us. The weather had…

I’d been waiting for this day for many moons. Today was finally CASTLE DAY. Last night I prayed for a little bit of sunshine at the castle and I think we had the perfect mix of sunshine and clouds to get good lighting but no dark shadows. It was magical….

Where do I even start today? We got to sleep in a little this morning but even so, getting up was rough. I waddled around the room this morning getting ready and when I finally got downstairs I had about 3 1/2 minutes to eat breakfast. But I managed. The forecast…

Friday the 13th. The temperature in Nuremberg this morning was in the mid 40s. Crazy right? I chose this time of year to travel because it was supposed to be warmish-cool. My weather apps are telling me that it’s been about 12 degrees colder than average temps for…

I’m not sure what to write today. I woke up with a bit of a sinus infection. The weather is being quite rude. It is too cold for me. I need my vitamin D. And my face hurts. The schedule for today was Weimar, Coburg Castle, and then Nuremberg. Weimar is known for the…

Today we departed Berlin for a long day of travel and sight seeing. We left early to try to get to Dresden early, however, we hit the worst traffic jam that Dresden has ever experienced. Why? Last night the main bridge in Dresden collapsed. Nobody was hurt,…

Wow. Berlin is huge. Like, I mean, HUGE.  Today was a long day and I’m pretty tired so I’m going to keep the words short and the pictures plenty. The theme for today was World War II and the Cold War. I have to say, I feel like I am came into this a bit…

For some reason I thought we were departing Hamburg first thing this morning but I was overjoyed when I realized we still had a couple more stops in the city. Hamburg is a vibe. It really has something for everyone. Cafes, night life, architecture, theater, a river,…

We skipped breakfast this morning on account of all the bread we had last night. Whoops! The room wasn’t as hot as we anticipated especially with the window cracked open. With 42 guests in our group and one elevator in the entire hotel, we lugged our bags down the…

Last night, our tour director told us that our coach had charge ports in every seat, decent WiFi, and that we would watch a safety DVD. None of that turned out to be true. We have an unbranded coach as opposed to one with our tour company name and specifications. It…