Our last full day was spent at Parc Aventura in Brasov. It was a day of rope courses and ziplines through the Transylvanian forest. Our travel day meant saying goodbye to our host’s parents. The house had served as an excellent base for our day adventures. We traveled back through the mountain passes in much … More Ziplines and One Last Vlad Visit

Bran Castle’s story is a tale of two characters. The first is Dracula. The book and movie character that most people associate with Transylvania. Stoker never visited Romania, but based on the description in his books and sources he used, Bran Castle was the inspiration. The second is Vlad Tepes. This is the historical figure … More Bran and Rasnov – Brasnov, even

Day 7 of our Spring Break trip would be spent taking in the countryside of Romania with a circuit that included stops in Fagaras, Sibiu and Sighisoara. We began with a drizzly drive to Fagaras and a visit to the Fortress  Castle Citadel. It’s called all of the preceding, but however it’s called, it was … More Transylvania Road Trippin

As the rest of the family finished up the packing, I went down to the Radisson Blu to pick up the rental behemoth. I had reserved a van through Sixt. After walking around the bar for awhile, I finally found the small desk with the small Sixt sign sitting on it. There was only one … More Peles Castle – Not that Pele

We awoke on our last morning in Istanbul and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a good Turkish spread of fruits, cheeses, olives and simit. The van taking us to the airport arrived right on time and we all serenaded the birthday girl with our beautiful morning song. Greene was turning 24 today! We … More La Mulţi Ani

Spring break this year would be spent again with my mom, with the added benefit that she would travel back to Saudi with us for a short stay. We decided to spend a few days in Istanbul. This was to see the sights and give mom a few days to adjust her body clock. We … More Istanbul (not Constantinople)

We woke up with one purpose on Christmas Eve – Rodelbahn. We had told the kids that there were sledding trails that were a few kilometers long and that was going to be a have-to-do while in Germany. Unfortunately, Grainau was unique in that it had snow on the ground. Much of the surrounding are … More Holiday Road – Part 4 – Zugspitze and Christmas

We were out the door early on day 7 to make the drive to Grainau with a stop in Rothenberg ob der Tauber. The short drive through back roads was foggy and slow going, but our loose itinerary for the day removed any stress. We arrived around 9 and picked a spot outside the walls … More Holiday Road – Part 3 – Rothenberg ob der Tauber, Grainau, and Neuschwanstein

Day 4 started with an early morning train ride for a day trip to Salzburg. We took the S-Bahn to Munich Hauptbahnhof. We grabbed some Starbucks and walked down the platform to our train about 10 minutes prior to departure. The train ride took an hour and 40 minutes, and the German train system efficiency … More Holiday Road – Part 2 – Salzburg, Dachau & Eltmann/Bamberg

I’m now patiently waiting on my Clark Griswold badge to arrive in the mail. Our Christmas this year was spent in Germany. More on that shortly, but first; we’ve hit London, Paris and Rome this year. The visit to Germany means we have now completed the Pig-in-a-Poke itinerary. Oink Oink. We left out on an … More Holiday Road – Part 1 – Munich