“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince Herb and I first met our German son-in-law’s parents about eight years ago. They were visiting California for the first time, and we had driven to Los Angeles to meet … Read More
Mary Oldenburg. Growing up, I didn’t really care much for my last name. It was long, compared with my friends’ names, and sometimes I would get teased about being old. And it had that “u” in the last syllable, which most people assumed was spelled with an “e,” requiring an explanation or a correction that … Read More
“It was June and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” ~Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib A few months ago, our son Andrew emailed an article about Hamburg titled “The Cool City that German Tourists Keep for Themselves.” Ever since spending time in Germany’s second largest … Read More
Berlin and I have had a rather fleeting relationship. I first met Germany’s capital city nine Junes ago on what could arguably be called a “Berlin in a Day” tour. Herb and I had been traveling on a Baltic cruise that stopped for about twelve hours in Germany’s port of Warnemünde. We’d signed on for … Read More
“The river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere.” ~Herman Hesse, Siddhartha The Crystal Mozart had docked overnight in Passau, giving us a morning to explore this “City of Three Rivers” before setting sail on … Read More
Rain was falling softly along the Danube, covering the town of Passau in a misty haze. It was the first time in almost a week that the sun wasn’t ablaze overhead, and although it’s rare to wish for rain when traveling, we were hoping the showers would help fill up the river’s precariously low water … Read More