On even years our summers were dominated by home leave back in the States. Odd years we spent our summers exploring Europe. Two years earlier, from 10 -25 August 1991, we had visited Berlin and Dresden in former East Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Budapest, Hungary just before the end of the Soviet Union. The last time we had been south to Switzerland and Italy was the Spring of 1989, before Will was born and the girls were too young to remember the vacation. Now that he was almost four, the kids were now old enough to understand and enjoy their travels. My Canadian colleague at NATO recommended a villa in Tuscany that he and his wife and many from his delegation had stayed at on previous vacations. So we booked an apartment in ... read more

It was springtime and time to go to England again. This time we had made reservations at a farm cottage in Cornwall, a part of England we had never been to before. 2 April 1993 Friday. We drove from Overijse to Calais and caught the ferry to Dover. From there we skirted around the southern side of London and then headed southwest until the we reached the A303 which took us to Stonehenge. We stopped and walked around the assemblage of massive stones, which were placed precisely to align with the solstices and equinoxes; and other than astronomical purposes also served as a site for Druid ceremonies. We then continued west and then up the A36 to Bath. We found Robin and Rhona's home where we would stay two nights. The kids had fun playing with ... read more

16 July 1992 Thursday. We flew from Brussels to Washington Dulles, arriving mid afternoon. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Fairfax City, and watched the Presidential debates on TV. Ross Perot was very popular, with his emphasis on out of control Federal budgets and the national debt. Almost twenty years later this issue is still the top of the national debate, as nothing has been done to reduce spending and tax equitably. 17 - 19 July 1992 Friday through Sunday. We drove to Virginia Beach to visit Linda's brother Marlan, sister in law Arlene and their kids Ashley and Rhett. We went to the beach near Dam Neck, used by military families, as both Marlan and Arlene were Navy. We also toured Norfolk sights and the last day visited Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg. At each ... read more

It had been some time since Linda and I had been on a ski trip. By now the kids, or at least the girls, were getting to be old enough to learn to ski. Our church was sponsoring a week-long ski trip to Innsbruck, Austria, so we signed up knowing that we would be with good friends. So on Friday, February 14th, Valentines Day, we loaded up our car with our snow gear and drove part of the way to Innsbruck, and on Saturday completed the journey to the ski village of Igls, just south of Innsbruck. Our ski lessons were from Sunday through Friday. Linda decided to stay with Will and sled. She really never enjoed downhill skiing. Tamara, Rosanna, and I were assigned to our respective classses based upon our previous experience. The girls ... read more

I am publishing this blog on the 20th anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union, which is also 20 years after the events in this blog took place. This blog, falling on the last day of 2011, coincidentally also completes my effort to blog every trip I have taken since 1949. I originally wrote these blogs for my family and friends. However, it turns out that most of my readers are fellow travel bloggers, so these blogs are for you too. Working at NATO Headquarters from 1984 to 1995 gave me a front row seat to history; namely the end of the Cold War. I lived through the Reagan buildup, where in our case the NATO Infrastructure Program budget was tripled, thereby allowing NATO to build facilities to withstand anything the Warsaw Pact could throw ... read more