Reims is noted for several things -- Champagne, May 7th 1945, Reims Cathedral, & part of the Joan of Arc story. We started this morning with a visit to the museum that commemorates the signing of the terms of the Nazi surrender to the Allies. The museum is in the actual building that housed first the German occupation forces and then Eisenhower's headquarters. The room where the signing took place has been preserved as it was that early morning. It was the map room for the Allied Forces and the maps are still on the wall just as they were shown in the pictures of the signing meeting. Our next stop was an 11am champagne house tour and tasting. I am beginning to actually understand the differences in the types and processes. Of course Gary found ... read more

Let's see -- We have been in the Munich area for 4 days so far... We met our friend Joe at the airport and had dinner with him in Moosberg. A small town just north of the airport but might as well be a different planet, it is rural and has a great cobblestone street atmosphere. The next day we did OKTOBERFEST!!! It is the 200th anniversary. Liters of good German beer, sausages, radiches, sauerkraut, and of course a pretzel. Will we, in America, ever learn to make a good pretzel roll? We went back to Moosberg met some of Joe's family friends from California for dinner. Gunther and Sita are from Germany and come back here at least every other year. It was fun to have someone that speaks fluent German help us with the ... read more

OK - let's call it exhaustion!! I have not been able to hold a computer mouse let alone think clearly enough to write a blog entry. We have walked our old fool feet off and by the time we get back to the hostel it is all I can do to make it up the eight flights of stairs and flop on the bed. So here is an update on the stuff we have done in Berlin... First we are staying in a room for two at the East Seven Hostel in Berlin... It is wonderful and clean. I can see why they have won awards for Best Hostel in Germany. Each morning you can buy a cup of coffee (made by order from their espresso machine) for .50 euros. I have fallen in love with ... read more

Here we are in Amsterdam. Sorry that I haven't been keeping up but in Iceland we were using the hotel's computer so I didn't have time to really work on this. We have taken about 300 photos to date. And I promise to get some of them on the site really soon. I will write about Iceland later. We are staying at the Hotel Keizerhof here in Amsterdam which was built in the 1600's and is such a wonderful, restful place with a garden and a big sitting room. Mrs. Mary De Vries is our hostess and she has been running the hotel for 52 years. Yesterday after we arrived, we asked for directions to the local pub (brown cafe) for a dutch beer. When we got to the pub we met some locals and enjoyed ... read more

We are in the final planning stages for our 2010 adventure in Europe... Here is the itinerary as we think it will play out. Obviously, the wedding day is set and some of the time we have reservatons. Sept 2 - leave SeaTac Sept 3 - arrive Iceland Sept 8 - fly Iceland to Amsterdam Sept 13 - pick up car and head east into Germany Sept 14 - arrive in Berlin Sept 18 - on to Dresden Sept 19 - Dresden to Prague Sept 21 - Prague to Regensburg, Munich and Bavaria Sept 26 - begin heading south and then on to the Romantic road and the Rhine and Mosel river regions, then west toward France Oct 7 - arrive Parthenay, France Oct 9 - Wedding Day for Danielle and Max Oct 10 - off ... read more