Photographic Journey-Germany and Beyond

Five Friends/Four Weeks/Five European Countries*/Five Cameras

Five Friends/
Lucy Banfield/Archie Banfield/Barbara Laffoley*/Cathy Mackenzie*/Ron Van Gemert
Four Weeks/
June-July 2014
Five European Countries/
Austria/Germany/Luxemburg/Netherlands/Northern Italy/France*
Five Cameras/Mostly all digital, point and shoot

    This amazing “Germany and Beyond” adventure was truly about each of our passions to travel and explore new towns and villages and revisit past places. The past places held many fond memories and were well worth the return visits. The new locations as well as those where some of our co-travelers had lived or worked in past years, were simply fascinating and pulled at our heartstrings in various ways.

I think that we would collectively agree that that we sought out good interesting food, beverages and intriguing sights and were not disappointed. The restaurants and open air markets certainly kept our attention. We enjoyed: World Cup Soccer on a daily basis, taking trains from small villages to large cities, driving and riding for most of us, the gorgeous immaculate countryside, taking a narrow gauge train and a cable car down to an Italian town filled with hustle and bustle combined with quiet wine bars to retreat to and a realization that, it is a small world after all, because the proprietor of the we frequented, was the “guy” we happened to see on ‘you tube‘.

Other highlights included: the White wine region of Germany, Cruising the Mosel River which mysteriously joins the Rhine River in a beautiful location, fit for any photographers dream. And it goes on; the chance to travel to the highest peak in Germany by way of high-tech cog railway and cable car, topped off with a Bratwurst and German Beer at the top. On the way down a stop at another mountain site was in order. This time with a platform to walk on and look down a mere 3000 feet! Since we were there we feasted on a German strudel with Bavarian cream sauce.

Churches, cathedrals, museums, wine, beer, new friends, interesting sights, challenging wifi connections, laughs, cows (Belgium Blues), flies, slick cargo trucks, unusual cars, castles, one with a genuine moat, bicycles, brotchens, white asparagus,  it all caught our eyes one way or another…..Enjoy our photographic exhibit, Germany and Beyond.

*Barbara and Cathy added France and an additional 2weeks and ventured to France together.