ddissent

Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802Travelling is a funny sort of thing. Especially big trips like this one. You build it up in your mind and try to keep the anticipation in check. Then the trip arrives and it's a flurry of traveling and getting settled into the trip. The first few days always seem to go at a nice steady pace, and then by the time you are halfway through, it seems like the afterburners kick in and before you know it, you're on a plane again, heading home.This trip was no different.I awoke around 4:30 am. Unable to fall asleep again, I jumped online to check us into the flight ..... aaaaand we're delayed. After I did the check in, I tried to catch up on this travel blog a bit but I was just fuzzy and ... read more

Geo: 48.7598, 8.23979I don't even know how to begin to describe Baden-Baden, let alone Baden-Baden on a cool September morning. Magical is one word that comes to mind. Fairy tale like? All I know is there are only a handful of times in life where I truly wanted to stop time ..... and this was one of them. It was around 9:55 am. I was standing by the fountain in the center of town, church bells from the cathedral were ringing. The air was cooland crisp. That perfect temperature and smell ... end of summer\beginning of fall air. Heather was pressed up beside me and I had my arm around her. The morning sun was cascading softly across both of us, making it appear as if we were almost glowing. It was indescribably beautiful and perfect. ... read more

Geo: 47.9972, 7.85377Spelling counts. Spelling counts, especially when you are in a foreign land, using a GPS. We found this out this morning. Thankfully, we discovered it early.After another relaxing breakfast, we packed up our VW Touran and headed out. Destination - Freiburg. For this trip, we have basically been putting in the city center of the next destination and then tweaking it once we dig out the address. This is more because we are so immersed in this trip that we don't think "hey we need the address for where we're going" ...... It's more like "WOW .. look at that" "That's Awesome" "SQUIRREL!" ..... of should I say "EICHHÖRNCHEN!" ... The best part of learning how to say squirrel in German is ... well ... Tim and I walking around saying squirrel in German. ... read more

Geo: 47.5714, 10.7017 I was a little surprised this morning that I felt as good as I did. For the last several days, I have done things to my body that would put Richard Simmons into an absolute tizzy ... the only saving grace being copious amounts of walking, hiking, and climbing ... and zero minutes in front of the idiot box. But I felt great. Wonderful ... WUNDERBAR!! (for the record, if you try and spell check 'Wunderbar" it wants to change it to "underwear" .... I FEEL UNDERWEAR!! Oh I could spend the rest of this blog commenting on this but I'll spare yinz ....Breakfast at the Hotel Hirsch is something you must experience to fully understand. I wish I would have taken a photo of it, but after the past several days of ... read more

Geo: 47.8005, 13.0444 We awoke to mist and clouds covering the Alps. On a cold, rainy Pennsylvania day, this might have sucked. But the view here was almost ... natural. We had learned from talking to some folk in these here parts that for this time of year. It is natural. Once all awake we spent a lazy lazy Monday morning just hanging at the cottage. Around 11 we decided that we wanted to see more than just misty mountains so we headed out. On the way out we stopped at the store to pick up breakfast for tomorrow. Waking up to a house with no food kind of sucks. It's not lost on me that this is the norm for way too many people in the world :-(Visiting a grocery in story is, for the ... read more