Berlin is the city that makes my heart skip a beat. The buildings and streets define and narrate my lifelong obsession with my ancestral home (Germany) and its history like an interactive storybook. First, Berlin was the cultural center of the Weimar Republic era (between WWI and WWII) when the painters, filmmakers, musicians, architects, scientists,…
Tell me if you’ve heard this before: “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste. I’ve been around for a long, long year, stole many a man’s soul and faith. And I was round when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain, Made damn sure that Pilate washed…
A kremlin, the fancy Russian word for fortress, is not an entirely rare sight across Russia but only one has the distinction of being THE Kremlin. Moscow and its Kremlin were founded in the 12th century. Prior to the 1900s many people lived inside the Moscow Kremlin walls just as they would in any village. Soviet…
In the Heart of Transylvania is Harghita County, home of the Szekelyfold. The Szekelers are a group of Magyar/Hungarian origins who formed a battalion of frontier guards that defended the land against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages.
Something bit me in Transylvania, and that is no joke. I kept a close eye on the painful new swellings and watched for any strange symptoms but they have healed, and now… I guess I’m… fine now. Before I begin, I found a video on Youtube that someone else filmed of Sighisoara that truly shows…
Etowah is a tiny town of less than three square miles. It is located in the East Tennessee region of Appalachia, where the state lines of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia begin to meet. Tennessee Avenue, also known as Highway 411, is the main street through town. Etowah is about an hour southeast of Knoxville,…
Dahlonega is a small town in North Georgia with around 8,000 people in less than nine square miles. It is located an hour southeast of Blue Ridge, or an hour and a half north of Atlanta. The city takes its name from a derivative of the Cherokee word for yellow or gold, as they were the…
Ohio has a program called Five Rivers MetroParks with initiatives all around the state’s southwestern region, and it is named after the five distinct waterways flowing into it. This blog is specifically about the public park system that Five Rivers MetroParks has created in Dayton, and will exclude the many additional and wonderful sites in…
Fire Blocks At the corner of N. Jefferson Street and E. Third Street, you will find yourself in Dayton, Ohio’s Fire Blocks Historic District. Several large historic buildings line both sides of Third Street as it extends from Jefferson Street up to N. St. Clair Street, the distance of one long city block. These buildings…
Ernest Hemingway brilliantly said “never go on trips with anyone you do not love.” Taking that to heart, I am so grateful for my friends that double as perfect travel companions. We have been to a lot of amazing places together and were each super excited to get back to Key West. Cayo HuesoKey West…
Driving the Overseas Highway from Key Largo to Key West takes about two hours if you do not stop, but there is no fun in that! Here are the two places you absolutely must visit in the Keys. Gilbert’s ResortThe FIRST stop you have to make is at Gilbert’s Resort in Key Largo! Gilbert’s is…
Phoenix is a huge city I have not yet completely wrapped my brain around, but we quickly learned that is partly due to the absence of a defined city center. Locals will tell you that there is a different surrounding town to go to depending on which type of entertainment, shopping, or nightlife you are…
Traveling through Arizona recently, we stopped into Scottsdale’s Historic Old Town District for a few hours. Scottsdale was founded in 1894 and incorporated at the start of the 1950s. Winfield & Helen Scott, along with Winfield’s brother George, moved into the valley and planted citrus groves, naming the town Orangedale at first. The name changed…
A Natural Wonder Sedona is a place of mystical lore, a geographical vortex for healing energy, a haven for self-care and alternative medicine, a mecca for wine lovers, and a hub for artists. It is located between Flagstaff and Phoenix, just about an hour from Flagstaff and two hours from Phoenix. Within a reasonable driving…
Arizona’s Verde Valley is comprised of the communities/towns of Sedona, Jerome, Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Camp Verde, and the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Sedona and Jerome had so much to see and do that I am writing separate blogs about them. SEDONASedona is the northernmost community of the Verde Valley, and it was our first destination after we arrived…
We learned that a ghost town typically has to have less than 100 residents so I reckon any time #101 shows up, they gotta start killin’ folks.
Williamsburg is located in southeastern Kentucky near the Tennessee state border; between the Daniel Boone National Forest and the Cumberland River. It is known as the Gateway to the Cumberlands, for its proximity to the Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland Falls, and the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Other famous attractions in Williamsburg include the Kentucky Splash Water…
Fernweh 