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It was our last stop on the nine months of travel before we returned home to Virginia. The kids were ready. Tom and I were ready.  But, we still had a few fun things to see and do as we returned to London.  Mom needed a few more castles in her life and Lucy needed yet another excuse to wear her "fancy" dress, so we had a day at Windsor Castle. Honestly, this was a bit of a surprise to me. It was pretty, of course, but surprisingly laid-back. When I lived in DC, I toured the W

In all of England, the kids were most excited about our trip to the Warner Bros. Studio for “The Making of Harry Potter” tour. My mom, Tom and I were also pretty excited about this. Prior to purchasing tickets, my dad did not know a boggart from a hippogriff, that quidditch is a sport or that a galleon is wizarding money. We required that he read at least the first book and watch the first movie before he came with us.  I don’t know if he is a wizard or a Muggle, but he is ce

England is full of wonderful things to see and do, but I only had one “must do” item on my list for this trip. That was to go to Oxford and do a C.S. Lewis and Tolkien tour. Whenever I'm asked the question, "if you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?" I always say C.S. Lewis, or as he is called by his friends, Jack. Really, I don't need a conversation with him. I mostly just want to listen in on a conversation between him and other sma

On the next leg of our Great British journey, more family joined us. My brother Alan, sister-in-law Kristi, and my newly high-school graduated niece, Kaeli, made the trek over the pond to join us in England. Unfortunately, my nephew Jack wasn’t able to get away from work.  The "must-do" list was simple. Kaeli really wanted to do some thrift-store shopping. Kristi wanted to visit some pretty English villages and gardens. Alan just wanted to go to a classic English pub.  So, th

We passed from England into Wales with no more fanfare than a sign on the road.  Most notable though was that the signs went from only English to English alongside the most indecipherable language I have ever seen. I thought Polish was tough, but it was nothing compared to the way my head hurt looking at anything Welsh. I’m sure it’s a pretty language, but boy was it difficult for me to figure out how to say any of the words. We stayed in the coastal town of Llandudno, which

I could have happily hung around the village of Hawes for the entire duration of our stay, but there were quite a few side trips we...

The next stop on our Great British Road trip was the Yorkshire Dales. This was inspired by a recent read of James Herriot’s hilarious...

London is such a beautiful city. I could easily come back here and stroll these streets for a lifetime. Plus, the British are some of my...

But we were also going to Wales. Soooo, was our next country actually Great Britain, or possibly the U.K. or maybe the British Isles? How...

Carol’s maternal grandfather, Anthony Wojnar, immigrated to America from Poland in 1911. The Ellis Island records say he took the...

One of the most important things to do while in Krakow is to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.  It’s an education, a hard...

Our last stop in Poland was the city of Krakow.  We had a great place within walking distance to the old section of the city, where we...

After leaving Torun, we drove further south toward Zakopane, where we would stay for a few days.  But along the way, we took a break at...

Our next stop in Poland was the city of Torun.  We had a cute and quirky Airbnb that was walking distance to the historic old town. When...

While my last name is Puskarich (of my father-in-law’s Croatian roots), many of the traditions Tom brought into our marriage are adopted...

Over the next week, we explored the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Which is known for its port cities filled with Venetian and Roman ruins,...

If you could only do one thing in Croatia, I would say that it has to be Plitvice Lakes. I have not seen anything to equal it in...

Croatia has been something of a vacationing hotspot in recent years, but we were going for slightly different reasons, family ones. ...

We took the train from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, to Milan. It was a little chaotic at first, with poorly marked train cars and a tight...

We had done a lot of mountains, so today we were switching it up and heading to the town of Thun.  This place was unexpected and reminded...