No Longer Innocent But Still Abroad.

My decision to piggy-back on Mark Twain’s best-selling work, “Innocents Abroad” by paraphrasing his famous title to “No Longer Innocent but Still Abroad” led to some acrimonious and loud discussion in our house. She, who often pontificates about my behaviour, wanted to ensure that the last word of the title “abroad” would not accidentally or intentionally evolve into a two-word expression – “a broad”. That was definitely taboo.It was only after I provided a sworn written statement of assurance and promised to elucidate the matter in the introduction that I was permitted to proceed.I must admit that I am not a huge fan of that book of Mark Twain. In the context of today’s political correctness, it would be banned as somewhat racist, condescending, and judgemental. In the days when Dr Seuss’ “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street” did not survive the caricature of “A Chinese Man who Eats With Sticks”, there is no room for doubts that forbidden racist words and sweeping general comments about the cleanliness and mental capability of the inhabitants of foreign lands would have interfered with its publication or acceptance.Nonetheless crass commercialism leads me to set my hesitation aside and use my inspired paraphrase of his title in the hope to attract the attention of potential readers.Some people do not believe that it makes sense that we would leave such a pleasant place as Kelowna as often as we do and for such extended absences. Sometimes we have doubts ourselves, but our suitcases are constantly itching to be of service to us. They prevail.This trip is a revenge trip. It is one of our many attempts to get even with the corona virus that has affected our quality of life and that of our family and friends. Maureen had wanted to repeat her previous success in Oberstdorf, and I certainly supported that ambition but the annual competition had succumbed to the pandemic in years 2020 and 2021. We were not going to let that awful virus get away with it. Our voyage was structured like a barbell or if you are literally minded like book ends. At the other end of our adventure, you will find an often postponed and cancelled Viking River cruise on the River Elbe. It was a long-standing ambition. It had been booked but cancelled on many different occasions in the past. The first cancellation followed the tragic death of my first wife. Once remarried, Maureen agreed to humour my obsession. We booked the cruise only to be twice confronted with its cancellation due to COVID19. When things returned to a somewhat normal state it was natural for us to target this cruise once again. What remained to do was to fill the gap between the competition in Oberstdorf and the start of the river cruise in Berlin. We solved that challenge with a stay in Schliersee and Munich.Maureen and I invite you to join us on flights from Kelowna to Calgary, then on to Paris to eventually land in Munich. From there we will drive to Oberstdorf for an international figure skating competition, rest on our laurels in Schliersee, revisit Munich before taking the high-speed train to Berlin. There we will join our fellow Viking Cruise passengers. Eventually we will reach Wittenburg, do a pilgrimage to the famous porcelain foundry at Meissen, visit Potsdam and Frederick the Great’s dream palace and estate at Sans Soucis. From there we will sail to Dresden and marvel at the landscape of the “Saxon Switzerland National Park’ near Bad Schandau. At that place the Elbe River will unfortunately suffer from a lack of water. We will miss the last short leg of our itinerary and be bussed directly to Prague where the river cruise terminates for most passengers, Our suitcases have sweet-talked us into arranging an extension that will take us to Olomouc, Krakow, a sobering stop at Auschwitz and Birkenau, then on to Warsaw before returning home via Frankfurt and Vancouver.Bon voyage! Read more