A recent trip to Scandinavia gave me the opportunity of a lifetime: visiting the capital city halls of Sweden, Denmark & Norway. A trifecta! Stockholm & Copenhagen built their modern city halls at about the same time, but Oslo wouldn’t start construction until a few decades later… yet they all have similar themes. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Read More »scandinavia: capital city halls
My second year of tour guiding began with yet another assist on the Best of Europe II tour, this time with Dave Hoerlein as lead guide & mentor. He had so much good advice —just like Mary Carlson during the previous year— and gave me the confidence to become a lead guide myself. I still remember many people in this group & hope some of them will stumble upon this post!
The selection above comes from six rolls of film taken during the May portion of this trip. I can tell my composition is improving, but I’m still not able to handle exposure as much as I’d like. All in due time…
Read More »25 years ago: may 2001
Let’s get started with the first post about a 2025 trip to Sicily. Once again I helped train a new guide for Rick Steves’ Europe & found myself in awe… mainly because the whole island resembled southern Spain in so many ways. I fell in love with Trapani at first sight because it felt just like Cádiz to me!
Read More »sicily: trapani
Not originally included in Operación Verano Fresco, the excursion to Bremerhaven was a last-minute decision… thinking we’d have a quick look around & return to Bremen for the city hall tour. But we soon realized that the city had so much to see & decided to forfeit our pre-paid Rathaus tickets. That beautiful waterfront, a preserved trading ship from 1380, a World War II U-boat & an emigration museum kept us busy all day!
Read More »germany: bremerhaven
Allied forces inflicted Germany with such heavy damage at the end of World War II that entire cities needed to be rebuilt & gradually grew back. Religion also returned with about the same number of Christian worshipers as in the 1920s, so reconstruction of Protestant & Catholic churches accompanied the housing boom… with decoration inspired by current trends. Modern stained glass panels became a common sight in churches throughout West Germany.
Read More »germany: modern stained glass