The Bavarian Castles and Oktoberfest
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Obviously, I was dragging a bit on the morning of Sunday, September 30, 2012. After the Volksfest in Stuttgart and a few liters of beer the night before, not to mention the six hour time difference, it was amazing that I was even functioning at all. But I was. In fact, I actually had very little issue getting myself ready and getting downstairs at the Hotel Traube for our first European hotel breakfast of the trip. By most standards, it would have been outstanding, but up against some of the other ones I’d had before (and would have during the week), it was just fair. It had the meats and cheeses that most of the others did, but for being a morning-after beer meal, it just wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been. I sorely missed the bagels and lox that were enjoyed so frequently in Amsterdam. Read the rest of this entry »
Bob and I began our sixth day of travel through New England on the morning of Monday, July 9, 2012, at the Comfort Suites in Norwich, Connecticut. We had a nice breakfast and then headed toward our first destination of the day, the Trumbull Cemetery in Lebanon, Connecticut, about 2o minutes north of our hotel. This is the final resting place of Declaration of Independence signer William Williams, not to be confused with any of the other dozen or so famous William Williams throughout history. This one had been elected to the Continental Congress to replace Oliver Wolcott, and although he arrived too late to actually vote for it, he became a signatory of the Declaration on behalf of the state of Connecticut. 
You may recall that my step-brother Bryan and his wife Erine re-located to Germany last July, as Erine’s government job as an auditor took them to town near Kaiserslautern known as Trippstadt. My mom began to brew and simmer the idea in her head to take a trip to visit them as soon as they hit the door. I initially hoped to put off the visit until 2013, knowing that the vacation schedule of 2012 would be pretty full. I ended up bypassing both a trip to India and a possible one to Easter Island and instead opted to tag along to Germany. I was mostly excited that our visit would coincide with Oktoberfest, as that’s most certainly a bucket-list event. My aunt Diana and uncle Tom decided that they’d go along too and pretty soon plans were underway. 
Even though Bob and I were only on day five of our two week journey through New England, I was constantly looking at our itinerary, concerned that we would run out of time before we finished everything on it. We had a nice full day ahead of us, but this was the first day that we cut a few things out for the sake of expediency. Being a Sunday on July 8, 2012, it also limited us from doing a few things as fully as I’d have liked. But of course I’ve learned from experience that you can’t have everything on these journeys. The day would go surprisingly well, especially considered that it began in the house where Lizzie Borden’s parents had been murdered.