Just in case there actually is anyone out there who visits my site and wonders “where the hell has he been?”, let me fill you in. I’ve been on a really long vacation in Europe.
I left L.A. back on June 5th, arriving in Paris the following morning. That’s were my Trafalgar tour entitled “the Best of France’” began. It was a wonderful two weeks in what some of my wingnut friends refer to as “surrender monkey central.” Some of the highlights included Nice (with an afternoon trip to Monaco), driving through southern France to Birratz on the Atlantic coast, driving north through Bourdeux wine country, a visit to St. Mont Michel and later that same day to Omaha Beach and the the nearby U.S. cemetary (which was a very moving experience), an afternoon visit to Monet’s house and gardens, and a couple of days in Paris (where I achieved a lifetime ambition to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower…it was truly awesome!).
Two great weeks in France.
Given that I had about a month off between the end of the spring semester and the start of the summer, I decided to double up and take a second tour, one by Scandinavia conducted by Globus named “the Scandinavian.” The two tours were separated by a few days, so I headed up by train to Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam before flying to Copenhagen for the second tour. We spent two weeks exploring Denmark, Sweden and Norway. My favorite stops were Copenhagen (went to Tivoli Gardens a couple of times), Stockholm (an absolutely beautiful, waterfront city), Bergen (with it’s famous German Pier buildings) and Olso (be sure to check out the City Hall and Resistence Museum there if you get a chance). The scenery in Denmark wasn’t much to write home about (mostly flat farmland), but Sweden was more interesting (with lots of forests, rivers and lakes, and hills and low mountains), and Norway (as you might have guessed) had the most breath-taking scenery.
Another couple of weeks in "scary, socialist" Scandinavia (just another group of countries with objectively higher quality of life measures than our beloved U.S. of A.)
All in all, a wonderful month spent in Europe away from the wingnuts!