Tag: 2024-04 Pilgrimage

The morning came way too early, but getting up to pack and get ready to go home was easy. We talked to both kids via FaceTime before leaving for the airport. As a big fan of the movie “Goodfellas,” it is no surprise that I was thrilled to fly on Lufthansa Airlines. We took a… Read more

Today is our last full day of tours, and we packed in as much as possible. We took a bus tour through the city and saw many historical places, including Check Point Charlie, The Reichstag Building, Brandenburg Gate and a remnant of the Berlin Wall. We even passed near the location of Hitler’s bunker and… Read more

Today, we disembarked the ship and traveled to Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany. This is the location of the 1945 Potsdam Conference, where Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman met to negotiate the end of World War II. The palace (built in an English Tudor style) is named Cecilenhof Castle and was the home of the… Read more

Today was all about the Protestant Reformation. Wittenberg is where Martin Luther famously nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door. A fire destroyed the original door in 1760, but the bronze-covered door (pictured below) replaced it and displays the theses in Latin. The church, now Lutheran All Saints’ Church, was built on the palace… Read more

We deviated from the schedule a bit this morning and went off on our own instead of joining the tour of the porcelain factory. It was raining when we docked in Meissen (after leaving Dresen two hours before), but it cleared up, and the sun came out to make it a glorious day. We walked… Read more

We began the day with another panoramic bus tour of beautiful Dresden, but I could not stay awake. I started dozing off in the first 10 minutes of a three-hour tour. Leroy feared I would begin to snore so we bailed on the rest of the tour. (I only remember the tour guide telling us… Read more

Today’s adventure found us docked at Bad Schandau, a small spa village on the River Elba. After breakfast (the best Eggs Benedict I’ve ever eaten), we took a 30-minute motor-coach ride to The Bastei, a National Park in Germany. It was magnificent. We took a short hike to the historic bridge, which offers many panoramic… Read more

I have been receiving lots of kind feedback on these posts and emails. Thank you all for following along. It has made the trip memorable. It’s encouraging to keep writing when you know someone is enjoying the content. Trying to gather, process and write my thoughts each night has become a cathartic practice. I have… Read more