Every year, Rolf brings me on a holiday, a small one and a big one on alternate years. For our first holiday together, he told me to draw a circle with Bergen at the center and with Rome as the farthest point. His idea of a small holiday is anywhere within that circle. A big holiday is outside that circle.

That did not nake it easier for me to choose.  There were so many to choose from within England, Italy,  Germany, Poland, Russia, the Baltics, Finland and, of course, the other two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Denmark.  In the end, I chose to see as much as I could of Norway and a little of Sweden. We drove leisurely across Norway, stopping at every lovely place along the fjords and having picnic lunches at rest stations in the mountains. The account of this travel is in "Destinations - Scandinavia".

Summer 2003 should have been a small holiday and we decided to "explore" at least 3 of the Rhine valleys. We should have known that it could not have been small, far from it. Köln (Cologne), Bonn, Aachen, Koblenz, and the Rheinland Pfalz deserve at least a week each, especially the "Lorelei valleys" of St. Goar and St. Goarhausen that I loved so much.

This page is dedicated to my friend,
Ian James R. Andres
who liked my holiday bulletins so much
that he created a webpabe and inspired me to continue it.