Currently on our way to Brussels Belgium, from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, our initial intent was to get to Atlanta and over to Paris, France for Christmas. We’d heard through the grapevine that Paris at Christmas is one of those sensational romantic moments that was just NOT to be missed. It rivals New York’s Christmas season, in fact.

However…

In the aviation world, we learn to expect the unexpected and to be flexible when the need is there. In this case, the need for flexibility was there. It’s Christmas weekend, domestic routes and flight loads are well overbooked. We really thought, “we’ll never make it unless we can make it to JFK”. Well, we made it to JFK but…the scene changed quickly as we sat in JFK waiting for the paris flight…poof, overbooked… our plans rearranged...what should we do now? My husband, Doug, says “How about Brussels?”. We look up the loads, the flight there and back look good, let’s go! It’s a good thing I’ve learned how to think outside the box and go with the flow. So, we decide to head for Brussels, Belgium. We’ve been to Brussels before, over a year ago and had a great time, so we were already confident that no matter what happened – we’d be together and we’d have a good time.

The life of a pilot wife is not all that it’s cracked up to be. We deal with constantly being home alone, running the house, cars in the shop, paying the bills, single parenting and all sorts of other miscellaneous dealings that we have to take care of when our husbands can’t. Our husbands have to deal with being away from home 4 to 6 days a week, lack of sleep, maintenance problems, bed bugs, missed holidays & special occasions, scavenging for food, managements “your overpaid” tactics and begrudged passengers. One of the only perks left for a pilot and his family are travel benefits with our airline, which enables us the opportunity to fly pretty much anywhere anytime we want. Now, this doesn’t mean we have a guaranteed seat, it doesn’t even mean we’re “going” to make it to our destination much less back... it only means we have the opportunity to try if and only if there isn’t a seat occupied by a paying passenger. We call it “strand-by” as we can get stranded anytime, any airport. Since my husband and I don’t have kids, we’ve taken this exploration of ours to a new level – once a month, we try to go somewhere we’ve never been…We’ll use a Friday and Monday to travel and stay in the city/town for 2 days max unless we have a week off to travel from city to city. Our purpose is to explore our world as much as we can before we “settle down” and in doing that, we bring back a little something from another country for others to enjoy and appreciate. So far, we have been to London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mainz, Munich, Milan, Florence, Zurich and Dublin. This year, we’re planning on exploring our world a little further westward and becoming the world travelers most think we are…. in that, we’re including Asia and Japan. Maybe even Australia. Although it is true, we will need to take more than 4 days to explore those locations.

 Part of our definition of “Explore Your World” means giving yourself the ultimate challenge of stepping outside your boundaries, learning about change, challenge yourself with other culture’s and adapting them to your own. In a sense, I see it similar to the book “who moved my cheese”, only my cheese for this article isn’t career oriented, it’s travel oriented. In traveling, I get my dose of challenge and it enriches my life to understanding the “real world” outside of our own US boundaries and it allows me to incorporate some of those riches into my life here at home.

The challenge I enjoy most is the challenge of languages. Going over into another country, not knowing but 3 sentences and attempting to blend in to the culture is not as easy as one would think. They can tell Americans right off most of the time. The best way to learn a new language is simply by immersing yourself into it. Take the book with you everywhere. Stutter and stammer as much as you like to get the pronunciations correct. To see and understand a country, you need to try and learn some of the language before you go – the reception from the people is a lot warmer when they understand that you are trying to learn “their” culture and they will always smile and help you when you get stuck communication wise.

From what I’ve learned so far about the European culture, most have one class structure. They pay the same amount of flat tax; they are not as materialistic or capitalistic as we are here in the US. They enjoy other more important amenities such as parks & gardens, food, long dining hours and vacations/time off. They typically work a 4 day 10-12 hr week and get at least 6 weeks of vacation a year (starting). The cities are built up vs. out. Modes of travel are typically by train. There’s metro or underground train and then there’s regional, intercity and country-to-country high-speed trains that are above ground. It’s actually much easier and cheaper to travel by train than it is by car because parking is hard to find and the roads are sometimes very narrow.

France is known best for its gastronomy or culinary skills – both in food and drink. Wine is plentiful and inexpensive. You can get a great bottle of cheap wine for fewer than 2 euros ($2.60) and have a picnic in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower for fewer than 10 euros ($13) with a baguette, fromage (cheese) and wine with a café crème and warm nutella crepe for dessert. The food alone is something that I would move to France for!! Every single restaurant serves an enticing droolable feast whether you’re in the city or out in the country. Champagne Country is an area where all of the champagne vineyards and caves are located. There isn’t a single bottle of champagne that doesn’t have the “Champagne Region” seal of approval and all are fairly inexpensive compared to our distributed prices here in the US. The Palace at Versailles should not to be missed. The Palace is very grand in scale (at least a half day to get through it) and on Sundays during summertime, the palace operators turn on the remaining 400 fountains while playing baroque music in the background. Imagine strolling through the garden mazes, fountain to fountain, taken aback as if your actually living in the time of Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution…ok, back to reality…Many Americans will say that French people are rude but it’s only when you speak to them without trying to fit into their culture that they can get a little irate. Often, we would hear Americans complain about the French NOT speaking English. France is not an English speaking country and I guess some American’s forget that they are not in the U.S., they’re in France. It’s their country, their culture, and their language. It’s like that in any country outside of the US.

Germany is known for it’s plentiful beers, sausages and chocolates. Each region in Germany is completely different from the other and few have similarities. Munich (Bavaria) is known for its Oompah Bands, hofbrauhaus (beer houses) and lederhosen. It is more of the “traditional” Germany and has kept a lot of its traditional fare and flair. Köln (Cologne) is known for its Dom Cathedral, which rivals the Notre Dame in Paris in both size and height, its Kölsch beers, mile long shopping area and ice cream. Frankfurt is known for it’s traditional picnic table style restaurants – where you always sit next to someone you don’t know and make conversation while eating a nice long 4 hour meal, sipping apfelwine (apple wine). Both Frankfurt and Köln are known as the forefront of the Rhine region where some of the best German Rieslings are made. There are many midevil castles along the Rhine River, still standing, that are now hotel or tourist areas. Berlin is known as “the country within a country” which is rich in history of WWII, Checkpoint Charlie and German Unity.

Beer is Germany’s water. If you want water in Germany, you have to ask for it but the wait staff will automatically bring you a beer and keep refilling until you tell them to stop. What’s interesting is that the beers taste like flavored water. Because their naturally brewed, they don’t have the impurities and preservatives that our American beers have, which in turn takes away the buzz/hangover effect. Belgium is similar to Germany in that it has various amounts of beer that can only be tapped into their own special glasses. Belgium’s beers are also naturally brewed using ancient recipes and laws. Belgium is also known for it’s rich Belgian chocolates, Gauffres (waffles), mussels and pomme fritz (fries) and hand woven lace. Folks in Belgium speak primarily French. However, with it being the capital of the European Union (EU), you’ll actually hear a mixture of German and English as well. If you travel about an hour north, you’ll get to a small city called Brugge. Some will recognize this city as being an important battle location in WWII, others will recognize it as another Venice since Brugge is layered with canals throughout the town.

Switzerland is another country that is a must visit if not just to go into the Alpine Region. Taking the semi vertical tram up the side of a 45 degree mountain into the town of Murren is really a sight to behold…snow covered mountain tops in 60 degree weather… eating fondue and talking with the locals... you’ll hear stories of how each Swiss man goes into the military at a young age, completes school and stays in the military service until they are 30 years old…you hear stories of how the alpine people live in the winter time and how cows are adored animals and how they are carefully nurtured up the mountain during summertime and back down as winter approaches…constantly grazing on new grass…all while being milked by ranch hands. Then you’ll travel back into Zurich for Expovina, which is a “wine festival on boats” for 15 euros all day long. 8 boats, literally hundreds of European wines on a lake full of white swans and whatever you do, don’t forget Oktoberfest!

Where ever you decide to “Explore Your World”, make sure it’s something your interested in, whether it’s history, architecture, fashion, food or even engineering...but challenge yourself to get outside the box and see what’s going on out there. Furthermore, get away from the touristy areas and explore areas that most people don’t or won’t go.