Collette departed yesterday with the grandkids to escort them back to Denver. The airlines wanted $100.00 each to escort the kids and didn’t want any stop-overs. Both seemed unreasonable to us so Collette decided she would take one for the team and escort the kids back to Denver. This was an “almost” free ticket on Aer Lingus (total cost was $300.00) so it didn’t really make a big difference, except for her travel time.

Home

MUST have the Dutch pancakes!!!

Pancakes with hot cherries! The Best!!!

Start with a good ol’ English breakfast

Meanwhile, I went back to Amsterdam to wait for Collette to return to Europe so we can begin our adventure. This won’t be as long as previous trips, only 9 weeks, but we’ll have a chance to see some places we haven’t seen before.

Our first stop will be Poland. We’re going to continue our WW,Too (War and Wine Also) tour from years ago with stops at Grudziadz, Westerplatte (site of the first shots fired in WW2), Mragowo (Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair command center), Warsaw (Jewish Ghetto, Treblinka Extermination Camp), and Kracow (Auschwitz Extermination Camp, Schindler’s Factory, Wieliczka Salt Mine-St. Kinga’s Chapel).

Next, we’re on our way back to Austria. We’ve been to Austria twice, once on our honeymoon in 1982, and once with friends in or around 1988, hard to remember. We have a home rented in Zell am See, a resort town located on Lake Zell, south of Innsbruck. We have a house on the lake for a little R&R and casual touring around the area. I’m sure the Little Woman is looking forward to climbing the Alps, again.

After Austria is Switzerland and another house on a lake but not before stopping to see Neuschwanstein Castle, commonly known as “Crazy Ludwig’s” place. This house in located in Unterterzen, Switzerland, in the municipality of Quarten, in the Wahlkreis of Sarganserland, in the canton of St. Gallen. So, where the hell is that? Less than an hour south of Zurich. And again, we’ll be there for 7 days.

Moving right along, our next stop is in the Strasbourg, France. First noted as a Roman settlement in 12 B.C., this small French town was added as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988 and celebrated its 2000^th anniversary that same year. The cobblestoned town center is an island surrounded by the river Ill. But Strasbourg has a dark past, as does almost everything involved with the Nazis. More on that later.

Getting close to the end, our next location is Bruges, Belgium. Yes, I know, we’ve been there before but not for an overnight stay. Our last trip to Bruges, the Venice of Belgium, was just a day trip from Brussels. This time we’re staying in Bruges to see more of this beautiful ancient city. Best known for its picturesque medieval architecture, Bruges is also a great place to eat waffles. Hey, its Belgium!

Now, finally, on to our last part of this adventure, the Danube Christmas Market cruise! Yay! Collette and I will take the train from Brussels to Munich where we’ll meet up with friends Jon & Paula Wright. After a couple of days trying the beer in Munich, we head off to Regensburg and our ship, The Var, on Viking Cruise Line. The next 7 days we’ll be floating down the Danube to Passau, Germany; Krems, Austria; Vienna, Austria; and finally, Budapest, Hungary. Should be a great time.

For now, that’s it. Collette arrives in Amsterdam tomorrow at 11:20am then it’s off to Brussels for a short overnight stay. The next morning, we pick up our leased car and head off to Gotha, Germany, just because it’s on the way to Poland. But if we had more time, we would definitely take in a tour of the Friedenstein Castle. This castle is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture, and one of the oldest, in the world. The castle was built in early 17^th century by Ernest I and was one of the largest palaces of its time and one of the first Baroque palaces ever built. BUT that will need to be another time…