Our days of hopping over to Europe from Dover and hopping up to Europe from Adana are long over, but that doesn't mean we have to give up Europe completely, does it?
I miss traveling. I miss Europe.
So I determined that this summer we would tour Northern Europe. We would visit
Finland
Denmark
Germany
Poland
Switzerland
and Norway
Due to time, budget, and energy constraints, I realized that we would have stay in Wisconsin.
That makes things difficult.
Fortunately, Wisconsin has strong immigrant communities from all of these countries, as well as some super dedicated historical societies. So, as long as we were okay with experiencing the rural culture of these countries a century (or more) ago, we would have no problem tackling a whirl wind tour of Northern Europe this summer.
The Northern European Tour is definitely mom's idea. The kids were lukewarm at best. (I couldn't even get them excited about traveling in our Subaru time machine!) Greg was dutifully supportive. Really, they should all be extremely grateful. After spending the winter reading Wisconsin travel books, it's a miracle I scaled back my grand European Wisconsin Time Machine Style Tour plans to something that can be completed in three Saturdays.
Saturday marked the beginning of our summer European adventure, and we knocked out four countries in one day, thanks to fabulous Old World Wisconsin. We hit Finland, Denmark, Germany, and Poland. (I'm not sure when we'll swing by Switzerland and Norway, but at least they're only in the adjacent county.)
Upcoming posts will include a little overview of our Old World Wisconsin experience (and pictures of my kids of course), as well as some pictures the kids took in the different areas. David was in charge of Finland and Germany, while Mary was in charge of Denmark and Poland. Then later in the summer you can look forward (because I know you will) to posts about Switzerland and Norway.
So, yeah, I know it's all really lame and dorky. But when you're stuck in the Midwest, you gotta do what you gotta do.
P.S. The princess in our family won't be seeing real castles anytime soon. But her mom is happy to live vicariously through others. (For now anyway.)
