Two Week Roadtrip Wrap

Our trip was completed with one more night in Brugges, Belgium. I have written about this town in prior posts, so I will keep my comments short. Overall each of our stops on this 2 week tour was an enjoyable feast for the eyes and mind. More time could have been allocated to each, but we were able to get a solid flavor of the towns without feeling that we were missing too much. It’s difficult to say if there was any one place that was the highlight, each was interesting in its own respect, and I am glad that we made time to visit the places we did. From medieval to modern, we were able to gain perspective on the geographic and architectural features that influenced the people who drove events of recent history: rolling fields and forests for the Meuse-Argonne where thousands died, the remote mountains that inspired the castles of King Ludwig, bustling Munich where Hitler found his lungs in the cacophony of the beer halls, the Austrian hills where Mozart was inspired and the von Trapps sang, medieval defenses along key trade routes in Bavaria, a granite quarry where murderers coerced the undesirables to extract stone for Nazi building projects, the symbolic center of the struggle between Communism and Capitalism in the German capital, the quiet calm of canals and bikes, and the impressive stone wealth of a previously powerful Belgian city.