Tartu is in the southeast part of Estonia and it’s one of the larger cities. I am sure during the summertime, spring and fall there are a lot of outdoor activities but during the winter you get very much restricted to the city and there’s really not that much of interest so I’m not sure I would recommend spending much time here during the winter.

Tullamore, Ireland is an interesting place to visit for a couple days and especially to go out to the Belvedere estate where you can visit even with the kids. There are a number of activities there for the whole family so it looks like an enjoyable place to spend an afternoon if the weather is good. A lot of it is outside and the beautiful gardens and views are very nice.

England’s small towns are really interesting to walk around and enjoy the old buildings and see how they have been repurposed for shops and for other purposes. Ely Ely is an important town for England. This is where Oliver Cromwell looped for 10 years when he became the Lord protector after executing King Charles the first. This was the first attempt to create a republic which ultimately failed when Charles II became king evidently because Oliver‘s son failed to effectively carry on his father‘s leadership abilities.

Pamplona (Iruña) i’m sure you have heard about the “running of the bulls“ in Spain. That happens in Pamplona and the reason I wanted to visit. It’s on the way to Madrid from France by train so it’s very easy to access. It’s kind of an interesting city and I think you need two days to look around and see most of the sites.

in the southwestern end of Cornwall you will find this little port and fishing village which is Quaint little Porthleven, a very nice place to spend the day, walk around, get some food, enjoy the seagulls flying overhead and slowing down. Spent some time to go out to the very point where the old church is which is now a memorial building.

From Tallinn, Estonia I decided to fly directly to England and the “cheapest“ airline was Ryan air which landed at an airport north of London. Cambridge is not too far from the airport and I wanted to stay away from London since I’ve been there twice, it’s very expensive and I wasn’t really interested in walking around right now in the city.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is the cathedral to visit in Dublin. You need several days anyway to explore the city but here you will see why you need to visit this cathedral.

Riga is the only city I visited in Latvia but it’s a very interesting city and you should spend two or three days here walking around and seeing the interesting sites. One thing about the three countries in this area, the people are very welcoming, friendly and willing to help out with whatever you need so feel free to talk with people.

Vilnius is a great walking city and there is a lot to see here so planet at least two or three days, three nights, so you have time to relax and see what’s going on. I was lucky to be there during the new year even though it was snowy and cold. The people in Lithuania are extremely friendly and love talking with other people so you will most likely never have a problem there that can’t be taken care of easily.

this is just a gallery of some of the recent trip through Germany, first to see the rod Stewart concert and then to go on to Poland Köln (Cologne) One of my favorite cheeses Flix operates buses throughout Europe but also private trains. They supplement the other train systems. This is a pretty easy to understand sign Berlin

KGB detention center Lithuania is a great place to visit. The main city which is Vilnius as a lot of very interesting things to see including museums. But you will find also that it is not a very expensive city and the people are extremely nice and interested in speaking with everybody which makes it extremely adventurous. I started off going to the KGB detention center which is partly recreated but a lot of it is still intact.

if you visit Poland I highly recommend this as the top one or two cities to visit. You will need at least two days, maybe three days if you’re going to visit the concentration camps which in themselves are a whole day tour. A beautiful model A very good accordion musician. I will insert a video below.

The city is interesting from a religious perspective since there have been a lot of different groups passing through, staying and then moving on. The best known of these groups is the Jewish population that has been here for so many hundreds of years, was expelled, came back, was working closely with the governing people and then again on the wrong side of governance.

Look at some interesting Banksy Art. Photos by Bill Smale

I was surprised by Warsaw, such a huge and impressive city. But it wasn’t the quaint place I imagined so I saw what I found interesting and moved on to Krakow.

When you come to Poland it is a good idea to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. It seems you need to book individual entry up to a month in advance and they probably put you in a group? Most everyone was in a group tour which is advisable since there is a progression of buildings to visit and the details are extremely important.

Poznan in winter is still a small town. But it’s almost halfway from the German border to Warsaw so it seemed like a good place to stop over for a few days, see how the trains work and cut the trip to Warsaw in half.

exploring Segovia is easy from Madrid. It’s a very short ride, less than an hour, and after you visit this town you can go back through Madrid to Toledo for a very short train ride there as well. One main feature of Segovia, of course, is the aqueduct where you will start your journey into the old town.

as I mentioned in the previous post on Toledo it is definitely one of the “must see“ cities in Spain. It’s a very short train ride from Madrid which is more expensive so you may want to stay here in a very beautiful old town atmosphere and take a day trips into Madrid. I stayed in Grecco which is right above the gelato shop so on your way back to the very comfortable room you can stop in front and have a delicious gelato.

there is a very interesting story about the Jewish quarter in Toledo indicating how powerful these people were in the Gothic and Moorish periods of Spanish history before the people took it back from the Moors. It seems the Islamic groups lived peacefully and with tolerance with the different religious groups but that was not to continue after the Christians took the territory from the Moors.

last year I bought a ticket for the Rod Stewart concert Köln, Germany on December 2 so I had to plan my travels accordingly. I had originally planned a month in Ireland but my friend was visiting France for a week and asked me to join so I cut my trip to Ireland short. Then I made it down to Spain and then back up to Germany for the concert.

when you go to Spain make sure you go to Cuenca. It is a world heritage site for a reason. You go up by bus to the castle uphill or you can walk though it is quite a distance and could be tiring depending upon your degree of fitness. Walking back down to the town is a piece of cake and a very interesting stroll.

as you walk around Madrid you’ll find some very interesting things so keep your eyes peeled.

the more you look around, the more you will find interesting any place especially in Japan where so many things are different but you have to be on the lookout.

when you are in Madrid make sure to visit the Prado museum since it is the premier national classical art museum. What you will be saying is about 95% paintings many of them by very famous artists and in about 5% statues and figurines.