The Netherlands  "There is not a richer or more carefully tilled garden spot in the whole world than this leaky, springy little country.”

The best of the Netherlands and Belgium. A solid 10 of a trip!    The people were ever so kind and friendly!
Planes, trains, boats, buses, bikes, walks. We were thankful for the business class air.  In 22 days…..
Amsterdam, Haarlam, Keukenhof, Rotterdam, Delft, Goud, Bruges, De Hahhn, Brussels, Arnhem, Otterlo, Hoge Veluwe National Park.

Our accomodations were superb. As we do with all our travels ...hours and hours were spent researching, planning, and organizing this trip,, netting a perfectly executed itinerary.

Highlights:
Amsterdam….The Dutch capital is a watery wonderland.  We loved  taking a  bike and barge trip out of Amsterdam to quaint evocative old towns where we enjoyed the canals, churches, museums and sitting in cafes soaking it all in. We biked about 80 miles and the weather was perfect. There was very little wind. Half of the group elected to use electric bikes but we chose the standard models and it worked out well. We pedaled to the  Zaanse Schans windmills. They were fantastic, as well as Keukenhof, the world’s biggest flower garden.  We cruised past seas of tulips and expansive green fields.  Our guides were fantastic and the other people on board came from 8 different countries around the world.
Back in Amsterdam, we had a moving experience at the Anne Frank House and loved the Van Gogh museum.
Rotterdam….They upgraded our room to the “Lover’s Suite”   at the Hotel Pincoffs. The room and hotel were incredible! Rotterdam was completely destroyed by the Nazis and their reconstruction is architecturally superb! The buildings were eye popping one of a kind designs that included a “vertical city”, a forest of cube houses, a pencil shaped residential tower, a swooping white cable stayed bridge, a fantastical horse-shoe shaped market and an ethereal “cloud like” building housing the city’s history museum. 
We took day trips to Gouda and Delft.  Shops stocking huge wheels of cheese spanned these two gorgeous quaint towns.
In Bruges, Belgium (the Venice of the North) we walked and walked mesmerized by the town’s beauty. We loved the Belgian beers, particularly Hoegaarden. My favorite was Rochefort 10 Trappist Ale. The chocolates are indescribably glorious.  We took day trips to Ghent and Brussels.
Arnhem/Otterlo Hoge Veluwe  In Otterlo we stayed at another fabulous hotel ..The Sterrenberg. It had a great wellness center-nude only- and yes we used the steam and sauna in our birthday suits. When in Rome….
We took a nice nature hike and rode bikes provided by the National Park, in Hoge Veluwe. A park that combines forests, sand dunes, marshes and ponds. The real treat however was at the park’s center . The Kroller-Muller Museum is one of the nation’s best with a fabulous assortment of artistic masterpieces, with a Van Gogh  collection that rivals the namesake museum in Amsterdam.
May 5th is the Netherlands national holiday-“Liberation Day” celebrating the freedom of almost  five years of Nazi occupation (1940-1945) In Otterlo there was a memorial ceremony that we attended that was quite emotional. The speakers included people from the Dutch resistance and survivors of the Holocaust.

 "We're eyeball to eyeball...and I think the other fellow just blinked."

Dean Rusk

We just returned from a 10 day trip to Cuba.  It was fantastic! For me Cuba will always be allure of a forbidden fruit. We found it to be unique and upbeat.  The people were warm and friendly. We enjoyed the people and culture of Havana, Vinales and Varadero. Soulful - experiences are abundant. 

As a young man I vividly remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.  On our Havana City Tour we passed by the missile site. Incredible! This trip was time warped, like going back to the 50s or 60s. We were picked up in a 1956 Chevy.  Cuba has the best mechanics on earth. Also great farming and medical.

As in all of our trips, we combine the best of city culture with the natural world. Havana is so damn beautiful and Vinales has some  of the most beautiful landscapes in Cuba. Varadero has awesome beaches for stress free relaxation. 

The rum in cuba libras, and pina coladas is mighty ƒine.  Cristal is really a good beer. And the cigars are mild!

CUBA ROCKS!!

 OK short boring trip report due to jammed schedules. We spent 3 days in Nashville with our good friends the Damons and took in the music scene which included the Country Music Hall of Fame and a concert at the Grand Ole Opry.  We also visited the Civil Rights Museum as well as Hermitage…Andrew Jackson’s home.

The Damons stayed in Nashville while we took a road trip through Kentucky and spent time at the Mammoth Caves National Park, and Abe Lincoln’s boyhood home. We did a short hike to Knob Creek where Abe purportedly almost drowned, but was saved by a childhood friend.

We stayed  for three nights in Bardstown, the hub of the Bourbon Trail. It is a fabulous “down home” little town and we loved it there. The restaurants were really good and one night we wolfed down Kentucky "HOT Brown”  the region’s speciality dish…..An open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and tomato covered with a creamy Parmesan cheese sauce and broiled until bubbly. It is a about 1000 calories and 54% fat,  a tasty dish perfect for a heart valve bypass procedure later on.

We also enjoyed old fashion bourbon cocktails at the Talbot Tavern, the oldest Bourbon Tavern in the USA… built in 1789, when you would arrive on horseback. 

The days were spent touring several distilleries. Our favorite was Jim Beam and we really liked 1792.  Makers Mark was really hard to find even with a GPS. The grounds were fabulous but the culture was too corporate and impersonal.  

It had been a long time since I had been in Louisville and I was there on business,  so this time we took advantage of going to the Mohammad Ali Center and the Louisville Slugger facility where ELG treated himself to a custom bat with his name, Red Sox and number 8 (Carl Yastrzemzki’s number) engraved. ELG loves souvenirs and Gerry even made an exception and bought herself a baseball shirt. 

The Ali Center was fabulous, we could have spent the whole day there. 

Thats all folks

Respectfully submitted

 "Night falls over Machu Picchu to the sound of Abba's 'Dancing Queen’."

It was a hellish return from Helsinki to Phoenix. Twenty four hours in the making. These types of adventures require the resilience of a 25 year old.  I do not have the energy to write a comprehensive account of our travels, so I will provide some highlights and photos.

We were able to spend a few days in New York before crossing the big pond. We stayed at the historic Beacon Hotel and was able to catch Hamilton on Broadway. It exceeded our high expectations. Fantastic!!! We again enjoyed walking  the “High-line Trail” and then got together with Reno High School classmate Mary Goldring and husband Steve for a cocktail. They are such nice people!  We also enjoyed the Whitney museum. The 9/11 memorial was sobering and emotional.

In Stockholm we absolutely loved touring the ABBA museum. We flew from Stockholm to Bergen Norway, a 900 year old Hanseatic town. From here we ventured into the heart of Norway’s Fjord region. This was breathtaking scenery. Our resort Lofthus Hotel was off the charts. We had a great hike up to some splendid waterfalls. From here we had a long drive to Oslo where we visited Vigeland Sculpture Park, and the Hollmenkollen Ski Jump, as well as the Nobel Peace Museum. From here we took an overnight cruise through the North Sea to Copenhagen. Copenhagen was crowded in the  bustling parks, outside cafes, restaurants and shops…..  absolutely beautiful. We had a scenic boat ride through the canals and spent an evening at Tivoli Gardens. From here we flew to the harbor city of  Helsinki which we found quite charming and would have liked to have spent more time there. 

We engaged in plenty of other activities and sights and hit the Hard Rock for souvenirs in four cities but ….”Thats All Folks"