15 years after our first trip to Germany's capital, we returned to the former east Berlin for dinner in the Nikolaiviertel at Alt-Berliner Weissbierstube. The first sign that greeted us was the now brightly lit U-Bahn station sign above. The second sight was Berlin's tallest landmark the TV Tower peacefully scraping the lower reaches of… Continue reading Germany for Thanksgiving – Berlin

With a restful night behind us, we bundled up (windy and 37 degrees) and walked through the Western section from our hotel by the memorial church on Kurfürstendamm to the palace of the Prussian monarchs in Charlottenburg. Built first as a summer residence in the 17th century for the self crowned King Friedrich I and… Continue reading Germany for Thanksgiving – Charlottenburg

A short three hour train ride in Germany's high speed train network, we arrived at the birthplace of the VW Beetle back in 1938. Wolfsburg is the world's largest car plant, beating out the River Rouge complex by Ford and Toyota's mother plant. Below you can see the massive size of it all. Factory aside,… Continue reading Germany for Thanksgiving – Autostadt Wolfsburg

Picking up our tradition of Thanksgiving overseas trips away, Greg and I met in Frankfurt as I was already in Europe for work. Our journey will take us to the famed Wolfsburg plant of Volkswagen before heading to Berlin. Stay tuned as we explore the German capital and all this world-class city has to offer.

On this unusually warm and sunny winter day, I undertook a walking tour of Nuremberg's documentation site the NAZI regime called its headquarters between 1931 and 1945. My tour began at the exhibition wing of the building once designated to have become Hitler's plenary hall with room for up to 30'000 spectators. Built to resemble… Continue reading Nuremberg – Reflections on the Dark Day’s of history

With an afternoon to spare I chose to visit the railway museum for the German railway Deutsche Bahn which is considered the worlds oldest rail museum. One of the prime exhibits is the imperial train set built for King Ludwig II in 1866 which comprised of 8 rail cars. Due to two world wars (see… Continue reading Nuremberg – Deutsche Bahn Museum

With three days of meetings and a second overnight trip to Manhattan within a couple of weeks behind me, I thought I would share the newest architecture with you. On a sunny afternoon, I had a bit of time to meander through Manhattan before my flight and guided by my dear friends Jim & Kurt,… Continue reading New York’s evolving architecture – a new take

"Can you hear the drums Fernando" are the  opening lyrics to the song that escorted me for the past 42 years.  42 years - I cannot believe it! Now to be perfectly honest, I hadn't thought about writing a blog on music but when I heard the latest version recorded by legendary CHER for the… Continue reading Ode to the song of my life…

I had 9 hours to contemplate this trip and my experiences aboard SAS back to San Francisco. Stand out #1 Our last meal in Oslo at the we established Lofoten restaurant where fresh seafood delighted our pallets. Regular readers will have noticed that I didn't blog about meals this time in the same frequency. The… Continue reading Scandinavian Jaunt – wrap up

As promised, here is my review of Le Champlain's signature feature - the underwater lounge which in my opinion represents a game changer. This innovation was over two years in the making as maritime requirements had to be proven first. As #ponant points out, this laminated window is formed out of 14 layers of glass… Continue reading Scandinavian Jaunt – Blue Eye – a revelation!

Almost 24 hours have passed already since we got on board this sleek 184 guest vessel and I am impressed on several fronts. Atmosphere aboard The warm feeling materials kept in elegant woods and leather paired with whimsical high quality soft goods in hues of birchy tans and cream tones make this sleek and efficient… Continue reading Scandinavian Jaunt – the ship – Ponant’s Le Champlain

Our second day of excursions took us to the town of Olden from where we rode a bus to the end of the valley to start our hike to the glacier. This was the perfect excursion to catch fresh air and discover the stunning valley and glacier. The well maintained path climbs over 2 miles… Continue reading Scandinavian Jaunt – Briksdalen Glacier

After a smooth and comfy light to Copenhagen, I changed planes and flew to Bergen in Norway. A short 1 hours and 5 minutes to this maritime masterpiece of a well preserved town. First photo is of downtown Bergen and the next two are from the Brixen neighborhood with its old storefronts and warehouses. On… Continue reading Scandinavian Jaunt- I have arrived