weed6886's VirtualTourist Home Page

How the hell did I get here? I always seem to be someplace other than where I expected to be. Where do I begin? Well, I'm from California. I joined the Army, and had a job where no women were allowed by law(I personally disagree with this). When I left the Army, I stayed with my wife in Germany. Now, I am a house husband, staying home to raise my two children, ages 5 and 3, and living in a small, rather conservative village in norther Bavaria. And at the end of the day, I'm always amazed at how hard "women's work" can be.

So, I read all these pages on VT, people who hike around the world, people who every year travel to exotic destinations. I actually don't travel very much. Most of my travels are all within an hour's drive of my house. Growing up in California, my favorite pastime was exploring the old ghost towns from the gold rush. No ghost towns like that in Germany, but central Germany has it's own ghosts. Ruins of castles dot the countryside, and more recently, the Cold War and the partition of Germany left its ghosts scattered across the middle of a now unified Germany.

Well, since I'm trying to fit in here, I guess I should share my humble travel plans for the future.

Große Inselberg, Thüringer Forest: driving time 1hr, 20min

Grenzmuseum Schifflersgrund/Hessen: driving time 2hrs, 35min

Castle ruins on Hutsberg moutain/Rhön: driving time 20min, hike to top 2 hrs

Milseburg mountain/Rhön: driving time 40 min, hike to top ?

June 2007: Croatia; Slavonski Brod/Zupanja, BIH; Tuzla/Kalesija/Memici area

Dreaming of the near future: Serbia; Vojvodina/Belgrade/Mali Zvornik area

Bulgaria; Belogradochik/Melnik/Neesebar

That's how I look at it anyway. Being a tourist in my own neighborhood is quite interesting. So, I may not get the chance to backpack across India, or some other exotic trip, but exploring the area I live in keeps me busy enough anyway. And I can do it while the kids are in kindergarten! I figure that by writing as much as I know about the area I live in on VT, it may help make somebody's trip easier in the future. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the areas on my pages.