In September, Mr. CG and I traveled to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I wanted to explore this part of the world because of my family’s connections to it, and indeed I was excited to see my last name, which is so rare in the U.S., all over the place in Germany and Austria. At the same time, I’ve always been nervous about going to Germany, and in many ways it was difficult. In traveling to Cologne, Munich, and Vienna we were steeped in the history of Hitler and the Holocaust. We saw places where Hitler gave speeches and a beer hall where decorative flags have been painted over swastikas. We visited the concentration camp Mauthausen, which author Eva Eger writes about in her excellent memoir The Choice. We saw quite a few Holocaust memorials but my favorite one was in Vienna; it’s a square designed to look like bookshelves with the spines facing inward, representing the many minds that were lost (and also because Jews are known as The People of the Book).
Of course, it wasn’t all serious! Travel for me is about learning about different cultures and history, as well as seeing beautiful parts of the world, so this trip didn’t disappoint. My favorite place was Murren, Switzerland, in the Alps, which was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. We rode gondolas high into the alps, hiked among its peaks, ran into herds of cows, and climbed into a waterfall. I also enjoyed the beer culture of Bavaria, eating black forest cake, riding a luge, and exploring centuries-old homes in an outdoor museum.
This was our first Rick Steves’ tour — U.S. readers may be familiar with his travel books and TV shows. I enjoyed the tour maybe more than Mr. CG did. I liked having most things planned for us, and I enjoyed talking with the other people on the tour. But the downside is we had no say in how long we wanted to spend in each place, and we moved around every day or two. If I’m visiting a place where I felt strongly about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, a tour wouldn’t be the right way to go. But for this part of the world so I was happy to have someone with lots more expertise plan my trip. It was a very active trip, which was great, but we were pretty exhausted after two weeks.
Our trip was greatly enhanced by the glorious summer weather we had. While we packed for 60-degree weather, what we got most days was 80s instead. Almost no rain, no clouds – which is concerning from a climate change perspective, since we were walking around the Alps and actually had to buy shorts and tees so we wouldn’t faint from the heat. But it really made the trip so much nicer!
I read a lot while traveling, though for various reasons I haven’t been able to complete a book since I got home. Here’s what I read in September:
- Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
- Georgie, All Along by Kate Claybourn
- Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
- Heartstopper Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman
- The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
My favorite reads:
It’s always a little challenging to get really absorbed in a book while traveling (so many distractions) so I don’t know that I was able to appreciate these books as much as I should have. My favorite was the third volume of Heartstopper – and I sort of watched and read simultaneously and was impressed by how much the show is consistent with the books. Happiness Falls and Chenneville were both really good (please see my reviews for more info).
I really enjoyed Tomorrow but I didn’t come away loving it the way many readers have. I did enjoy the in-depth look at the gaming world, and I appreciated the way gaming was always about building and telling a story, as those are the kinds of games I like best. Also the characters were really interesting (while also being really problematic), but their relationship was so frustrating. Would I have enjoyed this more if I hadn’t read most of it while sick and while on a plane? Probably.
Most disappointing read:
I had mixed feelings about The No-Show, as I often do with Beth O’Leary’s books. Here, I think she tried something that just didn’t fully work for me, and I never really bought into the romance.
On the blog:
I posted my 20 Books of Summer recap, and reviews of The House is on Fire, Happiness Falls and Chenneville.
What I’m reading now:
I’m reading T.C. Boyle’s Blue Skies — Boyle is a favorite of mine, and I always appreciate Boyle’s dark humor. I’m also reading Cinnamon and Gunpowder, a book about a female pirate captain who kidnaps a chef. For a book combining piracy and food it’s surprisingly dragging a bit.
What’s coming up:
Heading into the last three months of the year, I feel like I don’t want to plan out my reading too much, and thankfully I don’t have any ARCs to read in October. I want to make more headway on some of my challenges, but I also just want to read books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. I’ll be posting more Tuesday about my plans for the rest of the year.
That’s my September wrap-up. Hope you’re enjoying the fall, whether its Oktoberfest, Halloween or pumpkin lattes. I’m enjoying the hot weather while we still have it. Hope you’re reading something good!
