Dec 2018  Ellen Rauch and Lynda Wills visit the Palatinate and Hesse.    4 Days, 2 people, roundtrip from Frankfurt  

How would have thougt that the trip unveiled the immediate neigborhood of Ellens Rauchs ancestors to Hildegard von Bingen, the most famous women in Middle Ages alternative theology and mystic. In 1112 she lived in the Disibodenberg Benedectine cloister at Odernheim in the Palatinate and later Ellens family owned a vinyard right next to the still existing ruins. Wolfgang had made an appointment with Hans Lahm who showed us the old records of the Rauch family in his Odernheim archive. Ellen and her friend Lynda discovered more on her family as the tour continued to Blankenbach in Hesse to trace the Rimbach family. Ellen had brought pictures from America and Hans Rimbach was a wonderful host with family pictures from Germany. Visits to the church and a promenade through Blankenheim ended with a music session at Alberts home.     

Sept 2018  Dennis and Jeanette Henneberg. Pedmontese Cattle, Bernina Sawing Machine and Family History   6 days, 2 people.  From Italy to Northern Germany

When we met at Munich Dennis and Jeanette had already traveled to Italy to visit Pedmontese cattle breeder and had toured the Glazier Express in Switzerland. We had designed their itinerary for Lake Constance, a visit to the Bernina sawing machine factory, the Rhine River valley and finally started a 6-days excursion together to Thuringia, Berlin and Hannover. 4 year ago Dennis brother Larry and his wife Carolyn had already visited some of these places: the Henneberg castle and house near Meiningen - common name variations re "Henne": "hen" with no evidence of noble blood as we alraedy knew but with a lot of joy as went their - and the Hüneberg farm and backery at Groß Munzel. Now we said hello to our earlier hosts aand distant cousins. And there was another unusual hello in 2018 when Dennis and Jeanette invited my German travel group on a trip hrough the Midwest to their farm near Beatrice Nebraska.   

Aug 2018 Libby Rauch came by Boat. A Shore Excursion at Mecklenburgs Baltic Coast    1 day, 4 people 

Libby Rauch's mail from South Carolina (she is not Ellen Rauch from Boston) came as a "blast from the past". It was more  then 12 years ago that we had traveled together to trace her family history in Württemberg. It was also several years ago that we met in the US when I arranged a shore excursion for German passengers aboard Hapag Lloyds MS HANSEATIC in Charleston SC. Now she was on a cruise in the Baltic Sea and her daughter Beth was a joung lady. Christie and Lauren were with them. A full days excursion started from the Warnemünde cruise terminal to sites and cities, beaches and leisure spots and to sites of recent German history in the lovely country of Mecklenburg. At 08:pm they were back aboad:  "Leinen Los" and see you next time Libby.

July 2018  Bill Crede, Dennis Fick and Friends on the Road    7 days, 6 people      Roundtrip from Amsterdam 

Travel light - no waiting time at the luggage belt - was the motto of Bill Crede, Dennis Fick, Michelle Innis, Jenny Brooks and Steve and Anette Poettgen as we met in the arrival hall at Shiphol airport. During the next days and thanks to an open friendly spirit of visitors and visited we met super nice people in Ramsdorf and got invited by members of a local marching band to taste from their BBQ in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The next day we had an unexpected get-together with the Major of Castrop-Rauxel during a beach volleyball tournament on his marketplace as he learned that Steve's parents gave him the middle name "Castrop". In Bamberg the beergarden evening with the local soccer team was likewise memorable as the open air church service in front of Bambergs cathedral the next morning. Of course there were serious places and subjects on our tour such as the bridge of Remagen and we exchanged many thoughts on German-American history not only over wine or beer. Looking back it seems that this was just the perfect way to do it since this trip enchouraged family and friends from Missouri to come in 2020.

June 2018  Bob and Vicky UIllrich travel through Germany. This year: The North    10 Days, 2 people.  Miles and More from Amsterdam 

The first time that we met was years ago during heritage programs together with Udo and Doris Thörner in Venne and the Osnabrück area. 2018 was already the 3rd time that we traveled together on personal itineraries which again included Bobs family history and sites of the Louisville KY German heritage, a prominent subject in Bob's and Vicky's articles and books. It was a Northern route from Amsterdam via the great Northsea dyke to Oldenburg and onward to Hamburg, Lübeck, the Baltic coast, into Poland and on to Berlin. Göttingen and it's University tradition was a must for Bob and Dessau and Vicky collected infos for lectures on the Bauhaus at Dessau. But all highlights on our tour could not match the joy when Vicky's delayed bag was finally delivered to Hamburg.

May 2018   Group Tour: Tom Heuer and the Rosenbohm Family. Germany Revisited.       12 Days, 21 people 

Tom Heuers family goes back to Hilbert Rosenbohm, farmer from Etzhorn / Oldenburg who emigrated in 1857 via New Orleans to Peoria County Missouri. After we met years ago in Oldenburg to discuss additional research Tom brought a large group already in 2008 to travel and trace the Rosenbohm history. 10 years later this jubilee tour again included the Rosenbohm sites and an interesting route throgh Germany. We visited Inge Lamken and her family in Wiefelsted, had a wonderful reception in the Rosenbohm furniture store in Oldenburg and Doris Hilbig opened the doors for us in Hilbert Rosenbohms childhood farm in Etzhorn. Inge joined the group all the way to Munich. Highlights were a festive dinner at Engers palace right at the Rhine river, Berlin, Lutherstadt Wittenberg with the still ongoing events of 500 years or Reformation and the Romantic Road to Munich. Tom has compiled a wonderful fotobook "A history of the Rosenbohm Family. Von Deutschland nach Amerika" and I enjoyed his and his family's friendship during wonderful days in the mountains of Colorado in 2019.