If you take a guided tour, the usual time for a stop is about an hour. If you drive yourself, you make up your own limits. My wife and I took a train from Paris to Chartres in July 2008. Our car was waiting at the train station. We rode down the Loire Valley and across to Normandy. We dropped…
The coast of Normandy is a two and half-hour train ride from Paris. There are a number of car rental agencies around the Caen train station. You will need to take a tour or rent a car to see Normandy. This region became famous for the allied invasion on June 6th, 1944. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history.…
Some of you may remember a 2008 film called “In Bruges” starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. The movie inspired us to travel there for three days in early June 2019. We took an early flight from Heathrow airport outside of London, landed in Brussels and then an hour train northwest to Bruges. The first written documents about this city…
At one time, Stavanger was extremely quaint. I remember seeing the port in July of 1979 bustling with activity. It was one of those surreal moments. I was there for one night to take the express ferry to Bergen the next morning. I always wanted to go back. My wife and I had the pleasure of spending three days…
Anytime! There is so much to see and do. If you ever get the opportunity and time, though, we would highly recommend seeing Paris when the Tour de France comes into town. Most every year it is the last Sunday in July. Due to Covid19, the race started for the first time in September of 2020. The Tour de France…
My parents always remembered where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7th, 1941. I vividly remember being at St. Joseph Elementary when John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963. And I bet many people remember where they were when the Challenger blew up in the Florida skies on January 28th, 1986. These memories are called…
In front of the Oslo, Norway train station is a sculpture of a large tiger. It does make a very good place for a photo opportunity. The nick-name “Tiger City” came during the late nineteenth century. The nearest actual Tiger is thousands of miles away. The perception was that Oslo was “a cold and dangerous city.” Today, it is…
A day should be given to visit the beautiful village of Roskilde. It is only a 40-minute train ride from Copenhagen. This village is only 18 miles west. It is in Roskilde you can view Viking ships, a royal cathedral and stroll through a quaint village. You really can’t get lost as there are large signs everywhere. If you…
When I first heard of this strange named city I said, “Opps-salad?” Where in the heck is this place? Let me first explain the story on how we found to travel there. By a bench in Brindisi, Italy—an Italian port town famous for being the gateway to Greece—I met Bertil Larsson. The time was early July, 1979. We struck up…
Sweden’s capital and largest city is Stockholm. Earliest records of date back to 1252. Stockholm is actually on 14 islands connected by 57 bridges. The city is nicknamed “The Beauty on the Water.” Today, Stockholm is a mixture of the old and new. If you ever hear of the word “Stockholm Syndrome,” it means when hostages form a liking to…