Author: James Moore

Introduction to Christmas Markets

2025-03-02 / James Moore

Inspired by our December 2024 trip to see Alpine Christmas Markets, we recently updated our website to include our first winter trip to Europe. It was in 2015 and we had an incredible experience on Trafalgar’s German Christmas Markets tour. We saw markets in historic medieval cities and others nestled in modern business districts. Visiting Rothenburg, Nürnberg, Dresden, and Berlin we learned not just about holiday traditions, but what life was like in post-WWII East Germany. From the food to the sites, this trip was arguably one of our most impactful since we’ve made multiple trips back to see these festive markets and hope to see more in the future.

Pictures from Frankfurt, Dresden, and Berlin.

Fun with Family

2024-11-03 / James Moore

In late October 2024, we took a trip to Florida to visit James’ family. We were a little worried as our trip was only a couple weeks after Hurricane Milton cut west to east across the central part of the state. We were lucky none of James’ family was drastically impacted by the storm.

We traveled there for a week staying with James’ sister in Tampa. We really enjoyed the time just lounging around the house with her and her husband. We also visited Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival with his Aunt; we love trying the foods from countries all over the world. We had a great visit with James’ parents in Lakeland seeing some of the improvements underway at the 55+ community where they live. We also managed to work in an escape room and a city escape adventure (puzzle game similar to an escape room, but outside in downtown Tampa). James and his brother-in-law had fun in the nose-bleed seats of a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game.

James and Julie entering Epcot

Dark Chocolate Fondue – yummy

James and his sister on the City Escape Adventure

James didn’t have to turn his head as players skated to each end of the hockey rink

A Tour of the Emerald Isle

2024-09-02 / James Moore

It has been almost 10 years since we visited Ireland on a Brendan Vacations guided tour. We enjoyed a 9 day clockwise route of the entire island (including Northern Ireland) beginning and ending in Dublin. We tasted whiskey, kissed a castle, encountered a cattle traffic jam, walked in the footsteps of “Giants”, experienced “The Titanic” before its ill-fated journey, and so much more.

The Journeys page now includes “Ireland 2014“. Enjoy!

Cruising the Inside Passage of Alaska

2024-06-29 / James Moore

Another Journey has been completed on the website. Check out our 2013 trip to the Puget Sound and subsequent cruise through the Inside Passage of Alaska. During our trip, we visited some beautiful country while enjoying time with family. We saw Naval destroyers, glaciers, salmon, lumberjacks, and more.

Pike Place Market flower stall in Seattle

Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Aloha – Garden Isle

2024-06-09 / James Moore

Last month we spent 9 VERY relaxing days on Kauai; check out our updated Jaunts page. We have visited Oahu (2001), Maui (2015), Hawaii (Big Island – 2019) and wanted to compare Kauai to the others. The Garden Isle carries a different vibe – very green and more laid back. We stayed in Kapa’a, on the east side in an AirBnB condo. The location was ideal and the view from the lanai – picture perfect AMAZING! We tasted delicious local dark chocolate on a cacao farm. We explored the Northwest side where James took a 2 hour hike while Julie stayed at the trail head to watch the water. We visited Waimea Canyon where it is hard to describe the landscape. We enjoyed a sunset cruise to experience the Na Pali coastline. We saw botanical gardens, Jurassic Park filming locations, and found a friend’s commemorative brick at the Kilauea Lighthouse. The lush landscape also held many waterfalls to find. Chickens & roosters are everywhere; even working as car rental counter greeters!

Each Hawai’I island is unique and special. We have enjoyed unique adventures on each of the islands!

Mahalo no kahi hoʻomaha kupaianaha! (Thanks for an amazing vacation!)

View from lanai of water, beach, and grass. — View from our Lanai

James and Julie on ship with green jagged cliffs and ocean — Visiting the Na Pali coastline

Saluti everyone

2024-05-05 / James Moore

Our journey to Italy in 2012 has been uploaded!

Our 15th anniversary trip to Rome, Florence, and Venice has been added to the Journeys page.

Thankfully, we found a document where we had kept notes on the activities and locations we visited each day. We did need to condense the information since James tends to get a bit wordy when writing daily vacation notes; at least the first half of the trip. We hope you enjoy taking the journey to Italy via our pictures!

We are getting closer to our first vacation of 2024. Check back in a month or so to see where this “jaunt” took us.

Until next time – Ciao

Making Progress

2023-11-12 / James Moore

Today we finished the last of our Jaunts, Journeys, and Joyrides from 2011 and before. You never think you’ve taken too many pictures until you’re looking through them to remember what a trip was like. Add to that typing up your memories and having them grammar checked and word smithed. This starts to help you understand the reason why it takes some time to update some of our trips. Since we’re adding our current trips as we go, that leaves 6 Joyrides, 11 Jaunts, and 7 Journeys to fill in the gap between 2012 and 2022. I’ve loaded the next round of pictures on my laptop and will get working on those 2012 trips soon.

A Bright Colorful Rose

2023-02-27 / James Moore

In 2003 we made our first international trip visiting Paris, France. One of the highlights for James was visiting the cathedral of Notre Dame. While we had our first digital camera, the “big” camera was still film and James was just learning what photography meant to him. He did manage to get this picture of the south facing rose window from inside the dark building.

We’ve decided to return to France this summer. While we won’t be able to go inside the cathedral, as repairs from the 2019 fire are still ongoing, we recently completed a puzzle of the same window James tried to photograph.

Our 2022 Christmas Vacation

2022-12-31 / James Moore

We decided to take the week leading up to Christmas and get away to a warmer climate. It turned out to be great timing since central Iowa had sub-zero temperatures and strong winds while we were gone. We loved our time in Jamaica, but the travel aspect could have been better. Check out the whole story on our Journeys – Jamaica 2022 page.

Des Moines Christmas Market 2022

2022-12-06 / James Moore

We enjoyed a chilly but sunny afternoon at the Des Moines Christmas Market browsing the offerings by local artists and food vendors.

Each year we make it a point to visit Christkindlmarket to remind us of the fun we had the 2 times we visited the Christmas Markets in Germany and Austria.

Our first visit was in 2015 when we journeyed from Frankfurt to Berlin by motor coach. Our Trafalgar Travel Director Stephanie shared history and stories about the region. We visited the markets in Frankfurt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nuremburg, Eisenach, Erfurt, Weimar, Dresden, Leipzig, and Berlin. We really enjoyed Dresden and still felt the tension of East vs West in Berlin.

Our next adventure was in 2018 when we embarked on a Uniworld Cruise from Vienna, Austria to Nuremburg, Germany. Since we spoke so fondly of the Christmas Market atmosphere, James’ parents joined us. The cities we visited are located on the Danube River. The atmosphere was a bit different since we stopped during the day in Vienna, Durnstein, Linz, Passau, Regensburg, and Nuremburg. We extended our stay and traveled by train to Munich (with a day trip to Neuschwanstein).

If you have the opportunity, we highly suggest a trip to any of the European Christmas Markets. And if there happens to be a local Christkindlmarkt, show your local artisans some love!