Chris and Debbi's Adventure

World War I ended 107 years ago. No one who experienced that war is still alive. No one who is the child of someone who experienced it is still alive. Yet the continued commitment to honor the men and women who served during the war in an area called the Ypres Salient in western Belgium is amazing. And the reminders of the intense and repeated battles that took place in a 54 square mile area there are abundant. Depending on how you count, up to one million people died in the area in a four-year stalemate that included trench warfare, one of the first uses of poison gas and one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions that has ever occurred. It also produced the poem “In Flanders Field”, written by a Canadian doctor who worked in a damp bunker just behind the front line and had presided over the funeral of a friend the day before writing the poem. That poem's reference to red poppies is the reason that remembrance poppies are the symbol of those who have died in conflict. Initially...

We sold our cars before we left Omaha and have relied solely on our feet or public transportation for the past 7,000 miles. Of course we’ve ridden buses, metros and trains. But we’ve also been transported by ferries, bicycles, a funicular, a barge and a cruise ship during the past three months. We have found traveling by bus between cities can be a good option when we don't have far to go. They are inexpensive, comfortable and convenient for luggage. But they can be much slower than trains and a more inconvenient schedule when traveling a log distance . Almost daily, we crossed rivers using ferries on our week long bike and barge trip in the Netherlands. We were told ferries for the vehicles and pedestrians are more feasible than bridges because the river is just narrow enough that bridges would have to be too steep to accommodate all the boats and barges that would pass underneath. We traveled from Belgium to London on the Eurostar train that uses the 35 mile undersea tunnel below...

I do not like mountains. I don’t like traveling around hairpin curves, being in vehicles close to the edge of a precipice or even being able to see the bottom of a valley if I am in motion. In the USA, Chris and I have added hours to some road trips so we could avoid crossing the Rocky Mountains. I have an intense reaction to heights. So, it’s not just mountains I dislike. I don’t like going over long bridges, I will not climb to the top of any lighthouse, church tower or rock formation to admire the view, and I lose my sense of uprightness on especially long or open escalators. This Washington DC Metro escalator at Wheaton station is the longest single span escalator in the Western Hemisphere. It is 237 feet long, has a vertical rise of 115 feet and takes almost 3 minutes to ride. Riding it is like taking a single escalator up 11 stories. Chris and I had to ride that escalator in April BECAUSE THE ELEVATOR AT THE STATION WAS OUT OF ORDER!! I probably spent close to 15 minutes verify...

A former hospital has never before appeared on the “Top Sites to Visit” list for any location we’ve visited. In books and movies, shuttered hospitals are usually featured only as eerie and  abandoned institutions where cruelties were inflicted. But in Barcelona, a  complex that was an active, working hospital and medical center until just 16 years ago has been restored to its original condition and is open to visitors as an architectural and artistic jewel. All the buildings are adorned with ceramics, statues, mosaics and stained glass. Chris and I spent nearly three weeks in Barcelona in May. This extended visit allowed us to see the most popular sites in Barcelona (Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Picasso Museum, Gothic Quarter), as well as several less visited sites, like the Banksy Museum , Mercat de Santa Catarina and what was once the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau . This hospital complex was a landmark in hospital design when construction started in 1902. And it was ...

A recent social media trend posits that many men regularly think about the Roman Empire. The idea is that the empire’s perceived strength, military prowess, leadership and enduring influence on politics and architecture “speak to the male psyche”. As with most social media trends, the whole idea could be completely false. Chris claims he has almost never given any thought to the Roman Empire, and I am certain that I haven’t, because when we traveled to Portugal in 2017, I was astounded that we encountered occasional ruins from the Roman Empire – I had no idea its control had ever extended into Portugal. Our first Roman ruins. We wandered round and round Evora, Portugal, in 2017 to find these fenced off, poorly marked Roman columns hidden on a side street. AMAZING (we thought at the time)! Since our first stop in Europe more than a month ago, we have seen Roman ruins galore - two amphitheaters, a bit of a surviving circus, a couple forums, some temples, a theater, living quarters, bat...