May 5, 2025 IJmuiden, Netherlands is the port of entry for Amsterdam, the city that I am most familiar with in Europe. I first came to Amsterdam 50 years ago as a backpacking college student. I took an Icelandic flight from New York City to Luxemburg with a stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland for $99.00! My Read more

May 4, 2025 Belgium was the first to fall to The Third Reich. During the “Hunger Winter” of 1944 tens of thousands of people died from malnutrition. Families ate soup made from wallpaper paste. People were digging up tulip bulbs to eat. Food was rationed, hidden, coffee was a memory. The Nazi’s did not just Read more

May 3, 2025 OMAHA BEACH This is how it started: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In the company of our brave Allies and brothers Read more

May 2, 2025 Cherbourg is primarily a commercial port with few tourist attractions. When we arrive at ports like this Chongae and I typically take off by foot and see what lies ahead. After we got through the port, I saw a sign for marche which I recognized as “market” in French, so we took Read more

April 30, 2025 Porto has a particular pace. Not slow, but surely not rushed. The server in the cafe comes over to your table when they are ready. As an ex-New Yorker this took some adjusting to. New York spirts. You dart between traffic. You eat on the go. Crowds slow you down. You are Read more

April 28, 2025 We love Lisbon! Perhaps it is the familiarity – we’ve been here many times – but we also find it beautiful. The city sits on the wide Tagus River, rising from the banks in steep hills. It is a combination of styles, from classical to Moorish. The buildings are covered in colorful Read more

April 25, 2025 When a city values art not as decoration but as essential that is something special. To build with love, to create with care, to have your life’s work reshape a city’s soul, merging the sacred and the artistic, that is spectacular. Antoni Gaudi was a sickly child. He had rhematic fever, instead Read more

April 22, 2025 On our last visit to Gibraltar on December 10, 2024, I wrote in my blog that Gibraltar was not worth a special visit. I saw it primarily as a refueling stop between Northern Africa and Southern Europe. I think I feel into the trap like tourists that come to the United States Read more

April 21, 2025 On our trips to Casablanca, (most recently read blog 11/22/2024), this Muslim country and especially the city of Casablanca has always been much more welcoming than other Muslim countries/cities we have visited most notably Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt and Tunis, Tunisia. I wanted to try and figure out why that was the Read more

April 19, 2025 Arrecife just does not seem like it belongs where it is. On my second visit to this city, I am even more impressed with its beauty. The landscape here seems like a legend. Steam arrives from the earth like a warning. You can actually roast a chicken by dropping it into a Read more