Eric, Susan, & Peter Explore Northern Europe

I first travelled to Europe around 1980.   Even into the early 2000's, the cost of a rail ticket depended only upon route, class of service, and date of travel.   Since eurail passes generally provided marginal (if any) savings, it was reasonable to keep our options open and purchase tickets for individual trains just a few days before departure.   Now european trains are priced like airline seats, so last-minute bookings can get spendy.  Lesson: in the future, I'll either purchase either fixed-fare passes or pin down all travel reservations ahead of time.  

  We arrived in Milan last night and are staying at a hostel that's clearly the heart of the local community.   The architecture is urban, and much of the infrastructure is a bit decrepit,   As if NYC neighborhoods from our youth were wired a bit more like Delhi or Juarez.   Our first instinct was to be anxious, but then we noticed the social dynamics. The Madama Hostel's builiding is a former police station.  The staff and residents are very friendly and helpful.  There's lots of artwork and signs clearly signaling that "love is love" and statements celebrating gender-id-orientation inclusive norms.   Our hostel also hosts a continously busy sidewalk tratoria (restaurant).   Long tables seating maybe a dozen, all in lively conversation, and some conversations clearly extending across multiple tables.  Every few blocks contains another park with a similar dynamic.   Do people in the neighborhood actually lik...

Our travels to Vestland were motivated by Peter's desire to hike on blue-ice glaciers (which he expects to vanish before he's an adult). And so we did.  Well, two of us did.  The hike, lead by a sherpa from Nepal, was tough.  The lead in to the glacier took about one and half hours follwed by another hour or so ice trudging with krampons and ice picks.  I could not do more than meet the glacier at its edge but Eric and Peter made the trek.  They said it was crunchy, surprisingly beautiful and slow.  I waited and froze.  It was amazing to see the blue ice and sobering to realize how little is left.   Norway is more striking than I imagined. Experiencing the fiords and mountains is as close to a religious expereince as I have.  I'm grateful Peter convinced us to see it.  Of course, we continued hiking despite the exhaustion and sore knees. 

 Leaving Berlin was supposed to easy. One change-over followed by sleeping in a private couchette to awaken in Bolzano, Ialy. The souless German train service helped us leave Berlin and stranded us for awhile in Hannover. Overnight accomodations, gone. Scramble to figure out what had happened, calls to two German speaking friends, more calls to other train services, flights, a cascade of unfortunate opportunities and a booked train arrival in Hannover for 2:00AM arriving ??? All other passengers from the cancelled trains were told to all go on the same train and "just look for a empty seat".  We talked about different strategies to get on and find seats but anxiety was pretty high and there was no  place to actually wait except for a Burger King as the train was delayed more and more.  Around 2:15AM passengers waiting on the platform finally boarded and dashed for seats.  We found two in the same open car but Eric walked the train and found three young Germans w...

A smooth train ride from Hamburg to Berlin. On this trip, that is no small thing.  Our hotel had a very young vibe but older folks were there too.  It's a hotel/hostel chain where we were able to do laundry, rent bikes and have easy access to the U-Bahn (metro). We arranged for access to the Reischstag Dome which looks down on the German Parliment centered by a cone of refelctive mirrors. It not only reflects the sun but is mean to remind the politicians to be refelctive and transparent with the people for whom they work. Maybe an idea to pass along? Before the dome, we paid our repsects at the Topography of Terrors, a musem dedicated to the SS and the Nazi regime.  Housed over the bulldozed buildings that once contained SS headquarters and prison, it holds records, photos and the narrative of what lead to the Holocaust titled "What Germans Knew".  Alongside the musuem, below street grade, an area was excavated revealing prison cells that contain more stories.  ...