ERILAR'S OLD TRIPS COLLECTION
All of the trips described below were formerly full web pages like the ones still attached to my home page, with extensive text and many fotos. I think I've managed to attach links leading to my Google map site ewith its interactive maps of the trips. If you want more info about any of them, you can always e-mail me at erilarlo@chibardun.net
and ask, as even those former web pages were a mere fraction of the information I collected and hundreds of fotos I took on each trip. Those listed as Elderhostel(now Road Scholar) are in most if not all cases offered regularly, so itinerary details would be available here. I particularly recommend any run by Scandinavian Seminars.
1997: Kreuz und quer durch Deutschland mit
Enkelkindern or The 3-Generation Family German Trip of the Century or "Oma, why
are we going wherever it is next?"
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Planning for the trip had begun in a vague way a couple years earlier with
a list of places I knew about but had never had a chance to visit despite several trips to Germany,
as well as friends I wanted to visit again. When my daughter and grandchildren became part of the "trip
without students" we added some places she wanted to visit with Alli and Brad(then 10 and 14). To
keep the trip down to a month, we both gave up some choices, but my top three "new" medieval sites stayed
in.
We actually survived living in a single room most
of the time and many hours on trains. German youth hostels had really been upgraded since the last time my daughter
Kathi and I made a similar trip in 1981; all the ones in which I reserved beds for us had family rooms
available, and since we had a 10- and a 14-year-old with us, we not only got our own room instead of
sharing one, we were all charged the "junior" rate everywhere except Berlin, where Oma doesn't
count as a family member, and were eligible to stay in a Bavarian youth hostel(verboten for
adults without children along).
We were also rather lucky regarding
weather, considering the incredibly wet summer
Germany and its neighbors were having; we only really got soaked clear to the skin
once! We didn't get clear skies a couple
times when we really wanted them, but we
had some beautiful days at some crucial points. There should be more details here. |
1999: HUNTING CASTLES IN THE SNOW
My last several student trips were
with the same airline, so I had collected enough frequent flyer miles to go
to Germany all by myself and do exactly what I pleased in 1999. I only
had enough miles to go in mid-winter, but once I retired I caould do
things like that, and there aren't many tourists around then to clutter
up the castles and museums. Not a bad time for a castle hunt. Not a bad time to visit a few German friends, either; they weren't likely to be off on vacation in February. At the
time I thought it might be the last German trip, but I keep hunting. I found some youth hostels that were IN castles, a couple others quite near some, and visited some friends I hadn't seen for years. What's a little snow to a Wisconsinite? | 
Interactive map here
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2002: ICELAND: SAGAS AND MORE
 Interactive map here.
For better than a quarter of a century I'd wanted to visit Iceland, home of the sagas and other Old Norse literature, and particularly Thingvellir, where Europe's first parliament was up and running before the end of the first millennium(before 1000, that is). Being a total coward about driving in nearby cities, to say nothing of another country, and knowing I was not going to find public transportation to take me wherever I wanted to go as I do in Germany, Iceland stayed on my wish list until I discovered that Elderhostel offered a trip to Iceland called "Land, Folk & Saga"! It sounded as if I'd designed it myself. So I signed up, sent in my money, began reading and rereading sagas, history, a couple books on Old Norse women, digging around on the Internet, filling my travel notebook with important information, packing and repacking, making sure I had not only my passport and ticket, but copies of both in more than one place, and finally it was time to leave. It was a fantastic trip!
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2004: Voyagers and Pilgrims
| In 2004 I thought I ought to visit a different country for a change, and found something called "Culture Along the Pyrenees" being offered by Elderhostel. It was only two weeks long, however, so I thought I'd add a little on to it . . . and the "little" grew into another two weeks in Scandinavia. There was this lovely cruise along the Norwegian coast . . . and I'd have to fly into Copenhagen first. . .Viking Ship Museum! . . . and fly back into Oslo. . . even MORE famous Viking Ship Museum!. AND there were open-air historical museums in both cities--another of my passions. WHEEEE!
The French part is, I believe, still being offered by Elderhostel. We visited a number of former pilgrimage sites, which was interesting for a medieval history lover like me, but my high point on the trip was Carcassone. It could have been subtitled "Basques, Cathars, and Pilgrims". 
Interactive map here.
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Interactive map
here. |
2006: Germany and Switzerland
Interactive map here. |
In 2006 it was time for
another totally self-planned trip. I decided it was time for a little
exploration of Switzerland. . . but I couldn't resist beginning it with a German detour. There was an area of former East Germany I hadn't properly explored. There are some nice castles along the Saale River, so my first planned stop was Saalfeld. It was a long trip from the airport, though, and I stopped in Erfurt, where I had to change anyway, for a little sightseeing and lunch. There was a castle just before Saalfeld that I only spotted from the train, but I did go to visit another in Rudolstadt. Then I moved on to Quedlinburg, a UNESCO World History site, with its great medieval history and many Fachwerk houses. While I was there I took a trip via narrow-gauge railroad behind a steam engine up to the top of the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz mountains.
Planning the Swiss part of my trip began with St. Gallen, which had been on my "someday" list for a long time, and then I added visits to Bern and Interlaken, along with some detours. I managed to get in three sightseeing boat trips as well as visiting a really great open-air historical museum. |
History Along the Gota Canal
That's what
Elderhostel calls it, and there did turn out to be lots of history,
which made me happy 8-) I not only wasn't far from land, with the minor exception of one large lake, but sometimes only inches away. Some of those canals are REALLY narrow! We went through a total of
66 locks and under, past, and even over 58 assorted bridges. And toward the end of the part of the trip on the Juno, our little ship narrow enough to get through the canals, we visited Birka, a MAJOR Viking site! Afterwards we had a couple days in Stockholm, where I visited the
Vasa Museum with the group, then on my own a small medieval museum and a big open-air historical museum, the Skansen museum.
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2008: Exploring New Territory, Mostly Islands
For 2008 I decided to take a totally different kind of trip. Elderhostel had one that looked really interesting, exploring really strange territory for me: islands in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, starting with a few days on Malta, then cruising from island to island, a couple stops in Spain, then more islands in the Mediterranean and Atlantic before flying to Lisbon for a couple days.
Interactive map here
Malta was fascinating, as were all the places we visited. I saw Neolithic remains, Greek temples, the Alhambra and Gibraltar on stops in Spain, volcanic sites in the Azores, and much else. The ship we traveled on was lovely and fairly small. I had a couple problems, however: I fell on some steps in a museum in Malta just before we embarked so I had a black eye the rest of the trip(my other bruises didn't show), and I discovered I was a poor sailor. I thoroughly enjoyed all our stops, but the stretches on open sea were pretty bad 8-( Nevertheless, my memories of the trip are really positive ones.
2009: Exploring Sicily
Looking through the Elderhostel trip offerings for something in April to pair with my yearly trip to to Kalamazoo for the Medieval Congress in early May, I saw the timing for "Treasured Sicily" fit in nicely. I've tracked the Staufer, particularly my favorite emperor, Fredrick II, across Germany itself and thought it might be time to visit his favorite territory, Sicily. His Sicily included southern Italy, too, of course, but the island would do for me. I'd also read about the Normans who preceded him and knew about the Greek and Roman sites there, so I was sure there would be lots of history for me on this trip, and there was. In Palermo, for instance, we found some of the Norman history. Another day, we went to Selinunte, an ancient Greek city, and on yet another to Agrigento. Later, as we headed across the island for the last part of our trip, we stopped along the way at a Roman villa, Villa Casale. On the far side our bases were Syracuse and Taormina, whence I finally got a really good view of Mt. Etna from an ampitheater built by Greeks and converted to a colosseum by the Romans. |  Interactive map here
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