Travel Maven blog

River cruising, new Viking vessels in Europe

For river cruisers in Europe, this will be a year for boning up on stories about Viking gods, goddesses, and heroes.

Viking River Cruises, largest of the many companies that operate long and low vessels on the busy rivers of Europe, is introducing six identical boats this year, all named for famed Vikings.

You might recall that Odin is the god of wisdom, Freya the goddess of love and fertility, Njord the god of wind, Aegir the god of the sea, Idun the goddess of youth and rejuvenation, Embla the mother of the human race.

Vikings Odin (pictured above in Kinderdijk, The Netherlands) and Idun floated out of Amsterdam this weekend on their inaugural voyages.

Moving a household back to U.S. from Germany

Hello from Germany where I am helping my son and his family of five pack up their house and move all their belongings back to the United States after three years abroad.

All is well, or will be totally when the U.S. passport arrives for one-month-old Bethany, who will need it to make her grand entrance into the United States. The passport is in the mail. Somewhere.

Meanwhile, we are, on a Sunday, getting ready for the house packers who arrive Monday morning at 8, with a crew to pack up everything that isn't moving.

In Europe, house packing is quite a business. Now that summer is here and school is out, families are moving to new jobs, from country to country, all over the world.

Actor McCarthy, Afar get top Lowell Thomas honors

Afar magazine, the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle won top honors as the best travel publications in North America in the 2010 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Travel Journalist of the Year is Andrew McCarthy, actor, director and now travel writer, who won the gold for his portfolio of articles in some of North America’s best travel magazines.

The awards were announced today in Leipzig at the annual conference of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). As president of the SATW Foundation, which oversees the contest, I have the priviledge of announcing the winners.

Among other winners:

Celebrity Eclipse cruises on rescue mission

Celebrity Cruises newest ship, the Eclipse, has yet to be christened -- the official naming is Saturday in Southampton, England -- but already she is on a rescue mission.

The 2,850-passenger ship is loading Spanish travelers, trapped in England by the volcanic ash that has disrupted air traffic all over Europe, and delivering them to Bilbao, Spain, where some 2,000 stranded United Kingdom travelers await transport back to England on Thursday.

Cruising on Celebrity Eclipse, backwards on the river Ems

The Eclipse, Celebrity Cruises newest ship, has passed its first test.

While still a month away from an inaugural cruise in Europe with paying passengers, the Celebrity Eclipse was cheered by thousands of well wishers and curious onlookers as she slowly made her way on Thursday along 20 miles of the river Ems from shipyard to sea.

In groups of several hundred to a single woman walking her tiny dog, locals lined the riverbank to stare, wave and marvel that a structure so large as a modern cruise ship – 1,040 feet long and 121 feet wide -- could navigate their meandering, muddy river.

On land, we were quite a sight, a striking white 15-story building floating lazily through the flat farmland of northern Germany.

Onboard, our river adventure was far from lazy.

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Germans celebrate 20 years after the Wall

As Germans celebrate this next week and the world watches -- 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain -- here are some Internet sources for remembering, with maps, pictures and perspectives. 

You might start with my series: Remembering the Berlin Wall and Cold War, including ideas for travelers to explore Eastern Germany and Berlin, experiencing old lives, chills, and fears. 

Others I recommend:

Twenty years later, how Germany has healed the scars of the Berlin Wall.

You may comment on the Berlin Wall Twitter site.

Take a historical and geographical journey of the Berlin Wall through the memories of those whose lives were shaped by it.

Cycling the Berlin Wall, a peaceful ride where guard dogs once roamed

Museums where you can see glimpses of life under communism

The Trabi revived as an electric car

"Wind of Change" is the anthem most associated, cigarette lighters aloft, with the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago this November 9.

Vacations in Germany, planning a trip