My daughter has pestered me for years to take her to Germany. She wants to see where I was born, where her grandparents went on their first date and where they got married, where they make VWs and she wants to try a Berliner Weiße mit Schuß (Berlin white/wheat beer with a shot of raspberry syrup). In other words, family-connected sites. For me, a trip overseas had to involve the Mediterranean and archaeology, and I had no desire to go to Germany. Some other year perhaps.
But the day came when to my shock I couldn't walk all over creation. Yes, folks, I got old and decrepit. Seems I put that "roots" trip off too long. So anyway, folks, we're going, Hell or high water. Berlin and Hamburg, the North Frisian island of Amrum, Schloß Scharfenberg, where I was almost born; Meißen, where I actually was born, practically on the hospital steps; Dresden, which is nearby and has a VW factory; and Prague, whose family connection is more remote--one ancestor came from there and one descendant of that ancestor died in nearby Theresienstadt--but I love it dearly and want my daughter to see it. Besides, one of my Etruscan-interest buddies is going to try to join us there.
For time and money reasons, I tried to keep it simple, with no extraneous stops, but my daughter insisted on a trip to Wolfsburg (even though we're visiting the VW factory in Dresden) and a quick stop in Denmark because her Icelandic pen pal is now living there. I last saw her (the pen pal) when she was 13 or 14 and now she's a professor and the mother of two and her golden hair has turned brown! What the heck. I've never forgotten that her entire family met us at the airport in Iceland (quite unexpectedly) and swooped us off to the family farm. Besides, Amrum is already practically in Denmark.
Just hope my legs hold out!