It’s a Very Small World…

When traveling I enjoy meeting and talking with new people, learning where they’re from, etc. Shortly after leaving Basel, Switzerland, this week, MSH (my sweet husband) and I sat with a couple from Montana and had a great time talking about how much we enjoy living in the PNW.  

JD&LD are from the areas where my husband has lots of relatives from both his adoptive and biological families.  During our chat, JD mentioned that his last name was Davidson, to which I replied “the Davidson family with buildings in Anaconda?”… Turns out yes, he is a descendant in that large Montana family which arrived in the 1800s and remains to this day  

But more amazing is that I have already built a portion of his family tree because MSH’s youngest half-brother (Peter, who was adopted at birth) is a Davidson thru his birth father’s line.  It was amazing that JD and I were quickly discussing names and relationships of people.  Turns out that JD and Peter are second cousins, sharing a set of great-grandparents.

More on our travels soon, but I wanted to share this interesting bit of genealogy info with you.  

Enjoy your day, dear readers!

Three Countries in Three Days…

In my previous posts I’ve said we are traveling in Germany, but that’s not 100% accurate. On Wednesday we were in Strasbourg, France, for the day.  Today (Friday) we are in Basel, Switzerland.  We will return to Germany on Monday and continue our trip north on the Rhine River toward Amsterdam.  

We enjoyed a wine tasting in the Alsace region, which is in France but was moved between Germany and France numerous times in history.  We cruised a canal in Strasbourg, as well.

Walking tours with local guides have allowed us to see many city walls, castles, and cathedrals, such as these from Breisach, Germany.  We’ve had wonderful German sausages, and when we stopped for an espresso at a cart in the Freiburg market square, we found a barista who lived in Eugene until a few years ago!  Tommy was very friendly and asked that we say hello to some mutual friends.

        

Today is a rest day for us, and tomorrow (Sunday) we will board our 2nd Viking river boat for our sail to the Netherlands.  

Have a lovely week, dear readers!

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old…

 I learned this song in brownie scouts at a very young age:

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.

After arriving in Munich on Monday and having a lively tour of the old town followed by a sobering visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp, we are now on a Viking River Cruise from Nuremberg to Basel, with stops in half-dozen cities along the Rhine-Main rivers. We learned on our June 2025 cruise how easy it is to make new friends for the duration of the trip, and in one case a couple from Arizona was on a road trip last Fall and we met them for a lovely dinner on the Oregon coast.  We have also shared text and email with other travelers met on our travels.  

After only two days on this trip, we have connected with a couple from north of Seattle and found we have much in common, including a mutual friend in Eugene!

We made our second port stop this morning at Bamberg, Germany, and an OLD friend from high school met us as the tour bus unloaded.  We were “marching band kids” and had a good time remembering some of our activities from that time.  Tim is retired Army and married to a German woman, so this is a perfect home for them.

Dunny, Deb, Tim Boles

We will be passing thru more than 50 locks over the next few days, so watch for a picture or two in my next post. 

Enjoy your day, dear reader!

Travels to Munich, by way of Texas

 

We have been in San Antonio for three days and boy howdy has it been fun!  While I claim Oregon as as my home, I was actually born about 50 miles from San Antonio, at Bergstrom AFB in Austin.  I left for Germany with my mom at age 6-weeks on the SS UNITED STATES.  (My dad was stationed at Hahn AFB.). For more on this interesting ship, see my blog post from November 2022 or send me an email for a full article about the ship.

I have been attending the GSMD* annual conference, attended by descendants of the 50 Mayflower passengers who survived the winter of 1620-21 in Plymouth, Mass.  On Friday we took a tour of the WWII Museum of Wars of the Pacific in Fredericksburg, TX. As both a military brat and a Navy mom, I found it fascinating.  Admiral Nimitz, head of the Pacific fleet in WWII grew up in Fredericksburg and we enjoyed touring the museum honoring him, as well as exhibits of PT boats, part of a Japanese submarine, and other equipment used by the Pacific Fleet. 

Friday dinner was excellent.  We ate at SiloPrime, in the Fairmount Hotel on Alamo Street.  The history of this hotel is fascinating -  it was put on wheels and moved six blocks thru downtown in 1985.  There are numerous YouTube videos showing the move as it happened, and here’s a link that tells the story:

https://memoriesofsanantonio.com/2025/03/30/the-fairmount-hotel-it-was-a-moving-experience/

Saturday was a full day of business meetings, followed by a dinner with keynote speaker Blaine Bettinger, DNA guru.  He is one of my favorite teachers, and his presentation did not disappoint!

It’s now Sunday and we are at O’Hare airport waiting for our flight to Munich. Updates to come!

Have a lovely weekend, dear readers. 

*GSMD = General Society of Mayflower Descendants

One Carry-On Bag, 5 weeks abroad

Yes, you read that right.  I am heading to Europe for a 5-week trip, with one carry-on suitcase plus a "personal item" bag which fits under the seat in front of me.  MSH and I generally do carry-on only, as we don't want to potentially lose a bag or have it delayed at our travel location.  This also allows us to avoid the baggage claim area in airports.

One bag does, however, mean I have to plan very carefully what's going IN that suitcase.  I purchased a new bag this year, mainly so I could have four wheels for easier moving thru airports.  Turns out it is more than 3-lbs lighter than my older bag.

Airtags have been attached inside both bags.  (Check one of last year's France blog posts and you'll see why I'm a fan of this wonderful little tool.)

I've finished packing, and here are a few thoughts about how I make this work:

• Wear my heaviest items rather than packing them - for me that means  I'll be traveling in jeans, tee shirt, sweater, scarf, raincoat, and tennis shoes .
• Pack primarily solid colored tops and bottoms and a couple of light-weight dresses, with colorful scarves.  This plan makes mixing and matching easy to do.
• Be willing to wear things repeatedly - I'm never going to see these people again, right?
• Keep small items washed up - I carry a pack of washing sheets (unscented) which, when added to water, turns into laundry soap!  I also have 2 travel clotheslines made from bicycle tires, twisted so that it's easy to hang little items likes socks and undies without clothespins. These work in about any shower I've encountered over the past 10 years.

clothes line - similar to mine

         

We will fly to Munich in a few days and I'll report back after that.  Have a lovely day, dear readers!