There’s this great little pub and restaurant where we like to go with our guests or just the two of us. The place has a unique name, ‘Hell.’ This comes from the time when towns did not have street names but rather, district names. Any place where it was always dark and gloomy was considered […]

Our good friend Mark Schmidt, the same person we have purchased our last three company vehicles from, offered us a ‘test drive’ today in a new VW Beetle convertable. I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough. Jenean, newly arrived from America, poses with the skyline of Rothenburg in the background.

The Romans extended their empire all the way into England and this is well known. What is not so well known is that the capital of the empire north of the Alps (not counting England) was Treverum, later known as Trier, Germany’s oldest city at more than 2,000 years. Trier boasts a wealth of excellent […]

My Volkswagen diesel van takes a little oil from time to time. This is normal for a high performance rig like the one we drive around Europe. Sometimes I have to buy a liter (a little less than a quart) of oil at a gas station. It costs a fraction more than at the dealer […]

From time to time, I’ll recount a story from BB (Before Blog). Here’s one from Ireland: My wife and I were traveling through the back roads of County Tipperary, careening along narrow little roads one van following the next. I was in the lead. We were getting lost and having fun doing it. After half […]

I’m a big believer in taking the little roads, and I mean the Little Roads whenever possible. These are called ‘Class D’ roads in Germany. Class ‘A’ roads are the Autobahn. Class ‘B’ roads are state highways. On to the more interesting, ‘D’ roads are the little paved former footpaths which connected the villages. These […]

One of my favorite places to bring guests for lunch and a stroll afterwards is the miniscule village of Beilstein on the Mosel River. This hamlet survives entirely on tourism. Of course, it wasn’t always this way, as the castle ruin and vineyards surrounding the village tell a story of a bustling crossroads of trade […]

One of my favorite places to bring my guests is a place that I’m really not supposed to drive to. The road in is clearly marked “For Farmers Only.” I’ve always wanted to add a line in magic marker, “and for James Derheim, sometimes.” The road winds its way through fields and vineyards, coming to […]