Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Last Updated: May 2026
Zermatt, Switzerland is a beautiful alpine village nestled at the foot of the iconic Matterhorn, one of the most photographed mountains in the world. As part of our Tauck Switzerland tour, Zermatt was among the highlights of our journey — renowned for its stunning beauty, traditional chalets and year-round mountain activities. The village is car-free, preserving its tranquil environment and allowing visitors to immerse themselves fully in the mountain atmosphere.
Last Updated: May 2026
Gruyères is located in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, and is famous for its cheese which has been produced there for over 800 years. The medieval hilltop village is one of the best-preserved in Switzerland, and a day that combines Gruyères with Lausanne, Montreux, and Château de Chillon packs an extraordinary range of Swiss history, scenery, and flavor into a single excursion.
Last Updated: May 2026
Lausanne is situated on the northern shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, rising dramatically from the water’s edge in three distinct levels. Known for its picturesque old town, Lausanne is built on three hills, each connected by bridges and staircases, contributing to its distinctive cityscape and providing stunning views over the lake and the Alps. The city spans various levels — from the lakeside Ouchy district to the bustling shopping areas around Le Flon and the medieval heart atop the hills, where the Lausanne Cathedral stands. Lausanne was our first stop on our Tauck Switzerland tour, and it immediately set a very high bar.
Last Updated: May 2026
Some trips stay with you for years. The river cruise Sandy and I took aboard Uniworld’s River Duchess — from Amsterdam to Bucharest — is firmly in that category. Over three weeks we sailed through eight countries along three connected waterways: the Rhine through Germany’s most celebrated wine valleys and cathedral towns, the Main through Franconia’s medieval heartland, and then the Danube itself — broad and green through Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, growing quieter and wilder the further east we traveled.
We wrote a dedicated post for every stop on the journey. This is the post that connects them all — a stop-by-stop account of twenty-one destinations in the order we visited them. If you are researching a similar cruise or simply want to revisit the journey with us, the links below will take you to each full story.
Last Updated: May 2026
The day before we had toured the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest — a building designed to project absolute power at enormous human cost. On our second day from Giurgiu, we drove north of the city toward Snagov Lake for something entirely different: an elegant royal lakeside palace, a medieval island monastery, and one of the most persistent legends in Romanian history. Sandy and I had barely recovered from Ceaușescu’s colossus when the pine trees opened up and there was the lake, calm and silver in the morning light, with a small white church visible on an island in the middle.
Last Updated: May 2026
The River Duchess docked at Giurgiu, a port town on the Romanian bank of the Danube, and we boarded motorcoaches for the 65-kilometer drive north into Bucharest. The approach to the city is unremarkable until suddenly it isn’t — the Boulevard Unirii opens up wide and at its far end, filling the entire horizon, sits the Palace of the Parliament. Sandy said nothing for a moment. Then: “That’s one building?” One building. The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is one of the world’s most awe-inspiring and controversial architectural achievements, a colossal structure that dominates the cityscape and serves as a dramatic symbol of the country’s complex modern history.
