July 20

Epilogue.... the "father unit" weighs in...

I did not take the time to read "the blog" while on our trip - just did last

eve/this morn.... and... thank you, Cheryl - you captured the journey quite

well ala' "The Notebook" style... so we can share with all who wish to read

and can help us remember in the future.... you made the comment a few times

that pictures can't really do justice to what you see and not sure words can

capture what you feel... but you did a great job at it

By the numbers...

·         13,042 kilometers on/in the VW Golf = 8,100 plus miles (10 days of

that --- about ¼ = "left side" driving in the UK/Ireland)

·         up/down mountains/hills (literally in/out of the clouds in

Austria), through "city streets" (many would not classify as even an alley

in the US), some we had to pull in side view mirrors to fit threw, one time

we had to pull in the side views - squish one side into the bushes and let a

bus inch by coming down the side of a hill.... to the other extreme of

flying down the autobahns....  a few times at minimum 140 (~87ish) and

sneaking into the "fast lane" to pass going 160+ (100ish).... anything

slower would have meant an angry / on your tailgate driver in that lane

going ~~200++ (120++ish).... zipping by

·         240 some miles "hiking".... right at 6 miles per day average....

with some down around 2 miles (flying days, etc.) and 10 double digit

days...peaking at 18.....  65 miles of that in one 5 day period.... 2 days

walking the streets of Paris (record setting 38 Celsius), 1 "off" day in the

middle (only 4 miles), followed by 2 days in London (sorry about the

blisters, Cheryl....)

·         Numerous cities/towns.... and numerous "off the beaten path"

villages, campsites, and just nothing theres but = wows!

·         17 countries

1.       Italy - 12 nights (5 of those =  2 weekends and 1 night on way

"out"- with our Italian "family" the Scarbolo's - we stayed in same hotel in

Palmanova... a few kilometers from where they live)

2.       France - 7 nights

3.       United Kingdom - 7 nights

4.       Germany - 5 nights

5.       Spain - 3 nights (1 right on the border with Andorra)

6.       Ireland - 3 nights

7.       Netherlands - 1 night

8.       Luxemburg - 1 night

9.       Lichtenstein - 1 night  (the mountains we looked at from the tent

were only a couple of kilometers away across the Rhine in Switzerland)

10.   Austria - 1 night

11.   San Marino

12.   Slovenia

13.   Andorra

14.   Belgium

15.   Poland

16.   Switzerland

17.   Monaco - only 1 we did not at minimum stop to walk around in and have a meal/drink.... traffic was nuts (and it is small)!

·         10 nights in the tent, 2 in the car, 5 in Airbnb, and 24 in hotels (7

Holiday Inn / 1 Doubletree - rest = "local")

·         31 different overnight spots = 24 "one night stands" plus

Palmanova = 5 nights (2+2+1) ... and 2 consecutive nights in same spot =

Venice, Florence, Paris, London, Munich and Benecarlo (unplanned - "the

robbery" - right on the Mediterranean Sea in Spain = in spite of the reason

we stopped there, still beautiful)

·         Rock and Roll Pilgrimage completed... (along with more churches

and castles then I ever could have imagined... and all other sorts of

mountains, oceans, sites, etc....)

·         Jim Morrison "death site"

·         Jim Morrison grave

·         Jimi Hendrix "death site"

·         Hyde park - the Stones played what became a tribute concert there

2 days after Brian Jones death.... and other times (along with many

others...)

·         Beatles - London = Abbey Road / studio, Apple headquarters @ 3

Savile Row, Liverpool "birth" sites (including Cavern Club !!), Hamburg

sites

·         Keith Moon / Mama Cass Elliot "death site"

·         Keith Moon grave (memorial - ashes scattered)

·         Brian Jones grave

·         John Bonham grave --- about as middle of nowhere as we were on the journey to find this one

·         Plus  a few others along the way.... U2 sites in Belfast, London

in general, Marc Bolan marker right by Keith Moon's , etc.

·         R.I.P. it up, tear it up, have a ball....

From the heart...

·         Same as last summer when we traveled to Alaska .... with a little

different "stress" this time ---- last year was mostly just about bears! ---

we had traveled parts of that journey before and it was mostly wide open

roads.... this year was "foreign" (we had been to Italy before, but we did

not drive)... lots of it in major metro areas (with really busy/really

narrow streets), and lots of it were hanging off the side of narrow winding

mountain roads...  we did not pre-plan any of the stops --- booked our

evening stop every day basically the afternoon of the day (except the few 2

day stops)...

·         But same as last year = another 40+ days with "just" Cheryl = the

biggest "wow"! .... my job has many perks and also plenty of "downside" ---

I am "gone" every week for 5 days / 4 nights.... away from the one I love /

my soulmate... and we compensate for that every weekend... and now once per summer for "one" very intense 6 weeks....  we were almost never more than a few feet apart... sharing the good and the bad.... mostly "glowing", with some growly minutes when the stress bubbled over.... we have been "one" for ~39 some years... but these past two summer journeys take that "one" to a whole new level.... better if that is possible - what we did not already know about each other, we do now.....  I love you, Cheryl... thanks for the journey (last 6 weeks and LIFE® ~39 years together and counting...we are one)

·         and 1 engagement! ...  the pride, joy and love in Max and future

daughter Sarah's eyes / entire bodies... was incredible to be a part of so

soon after - congrats and welcome to our soon to be new daughter.... enjoy

the journey!

·         and returning home - John-Paul picked us up at airport in Indy and

soon after we had some time with Aurora and some "baby time"... catching

Ariana and Edward before bedtime... and then in the morning again before we drove rest of way home....  the sites and experiences of 6 weeks in Europe are all dwarfed by the site and experiences with just a few hours with the grandbabies!

And one overall "take away" from the journey....

·         FREEDOM

·         We all take it way too much for granted....

o   open borders --- Europe moved to open borders only 30 years ago....  We only showed our passports only moving into Andorra, the UK, and Ireland… and only cursory checks...  we did have one full unexpected checkpoint moving from the Netherlands into Germany... think that was related to Hamburg and G20 ...  we freely moved wherever we wanted --- camping on the ground at times in the open...

o   Hamburg riot gear ... sitting stopped in traffic for 4 hours with

literally hundreds and hundreds of police vehicles weaving their way in

between cars.... and then next morning walking 3+ miles in and out of the

"zone" right in between full riot gear equipped / armed with automatic

weapons across their chests police...   at one point I literally walked

right in between two of them.... doing their jobs to protect the freedom of

others and their right to protest... and protecting all from those who got

"out of hand"...  NOTE - all major attractions in all countries/cities had

automatic weapon / bullet proof suit equipped police/military walking around to some degree as you entered key areas

o   walking in two protest parades (by random chance)....  joined in a "gay

pride" march in Udine, Italy for a few hundred feet.... and in London we

stepped right in front of a protest march against extremism.... from St Paul

cathedral to across the London Bridge (where the stabbings occurred a few

weeks prior) we literally were right in front of the parade that had started

right as we went through the square in front of St Paul...  we ducked into a

pub at the end as the parade caught up to us and I went out and marched

along in it for a few blocks out onto the bridge...  (lots and lots of

automatic weapon/riot gear police/military here also ---- second only to

Hamburg.... most I had ever seen until Hamburg.. and Hamburg was a factor 10+ (100+?) more than London... and London was "scary enough" to see that many)

o   the robbery .... the cost of freedom is freedom - for all...  a little

bit of our own stupidity.... and I am not naïve - the world is not all

"good" .... but the majority of people everywhere are.... we continued on

... if we would have stopped "evil" would have triumphed....

o   US customs / entry... of all the borders we crossed this was the most

intense... getting back into our own country ironically

o   Abe...  the night after we got back we went to see the play at

Lincoln....  slavery ended here only a little over a hundred years ago...

(showing my age there... now over 150.... but not that long ago in the

bigger picture .....  tears in the eyes at this one along with many of the

others noted here....  ("our" own slavery and the atrocities that went with

that ended only ~70 some years before the atrocities of Hitler's reign)

o   Normandy --- we walked the cemetery with thousands of crosses with young men buried... that gave their lives for "nothing more" than freedom for others an ocean away from their homes.... we spent one evening walking ~6 miles along "Omaha" Beach and watched the beautiful waves and sunset (and camped in the tent right off the beach on a cliff right by a bullet hole pecked concrete "bunker") ... and the next morning we walked "Utah" beach...another beautiful area.... the same beaches where those young men died horrible deaths not so long ago....

o   in Berlin there is a square where Hitler and his cronies did the

infamous "book burning" - Bebelplatz -- .... just another one of the

multiple of "squares" in Europe...  nothing really much different - tall,

elegant buildings (and a church-as always) on all sides - big open

cobblestoned space in the middle... other than we walked over a "glass

plate" right in the middle of the square....  about 4 foot square --- and

hazy from years of use / and sort of hard to see through.... I laid down

prone and used my hands to shade around my eyes...  there was a buried room under it.... a cube about 12 foot on all sides.... a floor and 4 walls....

all painted stark white... the 4 walls were completely covered with built in

book shelves.... all painted stark white... all empty  -- to symbolize the

books that were burned and can never be replaced...  makes you think

o   the Berlin wall - some sections remain as a reminder ....  this one is

"ancient history" to our kids, but we grew up in a world where a wall (and

death if they tried to cross it) separated a city and families...

o   Anne Frank...  "punch in the gut"...  going through the house she hid

in....  one quote I saw there referenced hers was only 1 story... and right

below her name in the roll call book from the concentration camp she ended up at before she died there were listed 4 "Adam Franks" - their stories unknown to all....  and they were only 1 "story" each of 6 million plus....

o   Dachau... this ended up being one of our longest stays in any one

"attraction"...  Cheryl got absorbed in reading the history in the museum

parts... I went outside (the walls were closing in on me) and wandered

around for a long while in what was the roll call area ...  later we walked

through the area they piled bodies waiting to cremate them... walked through the gas chambers... and again the numbers are staggering....  and "we" did this to "us"... people did unspeakable "atrocities" to other people... and literally right outside the walls was a normal community with normal day in the lives going on.... all hidden by the government by "fake news" to use a current term - but people still "knew" what was happening and feared

"Dachau"...   Cheryl's quote when she caught up with me after her time in

the museum area (very stark - original buildings).... "this is a very

disturbing place" - and it was....  and it should be --- "Never Again" is

the quote on the memorial wall....

o   One more day of Peace and Music...  we must celebrate (and protect) the FREEDOM we all take way too much for granted....