It sounds like a dream, swim in the famed Blue Grotto on the Isle of Capri, just off the coast of southern Italy. Images of my Little Mermaid heydays at my neighborhood pool came to mind as I set out for Capri’s waters on a sweaty day in June. The Blue Grotto bears a small opening, being only 2 meters wide and 2 meters high. You better like everyone in your boat for you will have to get cozy. All passengers, including the man row, row, rowing his boat into the cave must lie down as you head into the Blue Grotto. On days when the winds are not in the Blue Grotto’s favor, boats are not Continue Reading
Where are you going? Battling Irish Tricksters in the Village of Teelin
It is freezing cold. No, it is colder than freezing cold. It is June in Ireland and I am dressed in my newly purchased Donegal wool sweater. To make the cold even more bone chilling, we can’t seem to get the peat fire started. At the top of the northwest end of Ireland in Donegal County, the little village of Teelin can’t be heard. It is quiet with only a couple hundred people if that. The day my family drove into town, I think the population added on 7 for good measure. There are many that boast Irish heritage. I am definitely one of them. Sadly, most do not still have relatives in the Continue Reading
Where are you going? The Baptism of a Distant Grandmother in Fulda, Germany
I am standing in the Fulda Cathedral, just northeast of Frankfurt in Germany. Mass is about to begin but I have to be on my way out of town. Where I am standing, the structure I have found myself today is strangely and distantly familiar. I would not find out until I returned home that my great great grandmother or great great great grandmother was baptized in the Fulda Cathedral. Regardless, I’m sure she really was great. Now I understand why it felt familiar. Fulda is not packed with tourists. In fact, when I told people where I was going, they had no idea where the town could be. Continue Reading
Where are you going? Finding Sisterly Comparisons at Hawaii’s Akaka Falls
A blond, brunette, and the ever-important redhead set out for the big Island of Hawaii. Bar jokes could ensue, but rather these three hair colors find something even more creative than a trite joke in the Hawaiian landscape. That blond and that brunette are my two sisters. Yes, we have three different hair colors and yes we are all related. Just one of life’s genetic mysteries and my family happens to posses that quintessential bar joke. One side of the big island of Hawaii is predominately covered in black lava rock. With the beating Hawaiian sun, the combination of hardened black lava Continue Reading
Where are you going? Crossing a Red Headed Stranger on Lago Maggiore’s Islands
I have met my match on an island in Italy. It sounds like a dream, but my match is not. The island however is. This match that I speak of totes the same hair color as myself. He is around two feet tall, but he lives in perhaps one of the most beautiful, blooming places on earth. Today, I am wandering the islands that make up Lago Maggiore in Italy. Tourists, for the most part, stop in Lago di Como for George Clooney and company all have mini palaces along its shores. The closest glimpse to their fabulous lives is by boat, but at a distance. However, Lago Maggiore is different. It is just as Continue Reading
Where are you going? Traveling by chairlift to a Luxembourg Castle
I am just minutes away from going medieval and I don’t even know it. Driving a Volkswagen station wagon, you wouldn’t even know it. I look more soccer mom than medieval princess. I am heading to Luxembourg today, a country so small many have never heard of it. Belgium, France, and Germany almost smoother Luxembourg from showing people just how beautiful it really is. The landlocked country may be small, but its castles are huge. As I drive just outside of Vianden, a one-way road leads me into the town, no highway or massive freeway. It is ridiculously green with just farm animals Continue Reading
Where are you going? Getting Lost in Bruges, Belgium
My rental car unknowingly moves through Bruges, or so I hope that is where I am. I am lost. The small streets of Bruges weave around countless canals. To say that I am confused would be an understatement. The city looks a lot like Venice, except in Belgium form with waffles, fries, chocolate, and beer on every corner. If Bruges looks dreamlike from a car window, I can only imagine how it feels without the separation of glass. I have to find my hotel. Bruges boasts a 2,000 year old history when Gallic-Romans settled here. The history of Bruges is without question centered on being a trading Continue Reading