We finally managed a trip back to Arkansas in coordination with Liza’s mother Alpha, to spend some time with family, but also to see some sights that had escaped us on many prior visits. We met up with Alpha in Dallas (thank you American Airlines for neither flight being late) and continued on to Little Rock. After telling the rental car company no, we don’t really want the behemoth SUV to drive down the road (seriously, a choice between an Expedition and an Armada … what are we, the Spanish off in search of gold?) we stopped in for “dinner” at the Flyway Brewing Company in Little Rock before continuing on to Hot Springs.
What started out as a trip to Germany for a family event – a symposium honoring Adolf Weissler, Robert’s great-grandfather – quickly grew into a bigger trip encompassing Iceland and Scotland. The joys of retirement – no need to hurry home! This could probably be three posts, but we’ll try to do it in one.
In February 2019 we set off on a long-awaited birding trip in South Africa, from Cape Town to Kruger National Park, with Birding Africa. Our tour was bookended with several days on our own in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
We decided this year to spend the Christmas holiday in New Mexico, to do some birding (sandhill cranes, rosy finches, etc.), see friends, and enjoy the cuisine (“red or green?” being the standard “which chile sauce do you like” question). We packed quite a lot into a one week trip!
Holiday greetings to friends and family, near and far! Seems like just a couple of weeks ago we were putting together last year’s Weissler Holiday Gazette, as we still like to refer to our annual missive that debuted back in 1993.
In October we were delighted to attend the wedding of Richard Wanerman and Cindy Drakeman in Princeton NJ. (Richard’s father Rob is Robert’s second cousin.) And since we were “in the area”, it was a perfect chance to get to another national park (Valley Forge National Historical Park) and to go birding down in Cape May, at the very southern tip of New Jersey, home to the famous Hawk Watch.
As part of our continuing mission of “let’s see all the national parks” (must use Robert’s volunteer park pass, after all!), in August and September we visited three more biggies: Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park, finishing off in Wyoming with a national monument (Fossil Butte) and in Utah, a national historic site (Golden Spike).
We cycled along the Elbe, toured Berlin, and traversed Norway on the Bergen Railway. What next? A couple of days in Iceland, taking advantage of IcelandAir’s stopover deal. Just enough time to figure out whether we should go back and see more – and the answer is an emphatic yes.
After a wonderful cycling tour along the Elbe from Dresden to Magdeburg, and visiting Berlin, the four of us (Liza, Robert, and Tom and Diane) flew from Berlin-Schoenefeld to Oslo for a week in Norway. We spent a whirlwind day and a half in Oslo before embarking on one of the great railroad journeys of the world, the Bergen Railway. This is the second of three posts.
In May we set off for Germany to cycle the Elbe Radweg, to visit the great cities of Dresden and Berlin, and to visit some Weissler family history sites. While planning the trip, Robert said, “you want to go to Norway, right?” 🙂 Yes! the Bergen Railway from Oslo to Bergen is something he did back in 1976, but was definitely on my own bucket list (routinely ranked as one of the “great railroad journeys of the world”). And finally, we were able to fly with IcelandAir and get the “free” layover on Reykjavik. So off we went! This is the first of three posts. Continue reading Germany: Cycling the Elbe; Dresden and Berlin – May 2018→
