Five Things That Could Have Ruined My Vacation

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Coco

When I was in the throes of wedding stress many decades ago, someone told me that anything that goes wrong will just make for better stories down the road. I’m not sure how receptive I was to that perspective at the time, but now it’s an outlook I try to apply to big events–especially when I’m stressed over details and logistics. It served me well on our vacation, because several things went wrong that could have ruined my vacation, although luckily they didn’t. 

5 Things That Could Have Ruined My Vacation

I’m linking up with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness!

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Listening To Church Bells In Bremen

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Coco

The market square in Bremen really is a central part of the town. It’s surrounded by several churches, lined with a few cafes, near the building that has one of the city’s two public restrooms (although using it will cost you 0.5 €), and, yes, the site of the city’s Starbucks. So, needless to say we spent a lot of time walking around and through the market square.  

Bremen Market Square

When my husband wanted to poke around the big department store, I decided that I would rather go to Starbucks people watch in Market Square. I got more of a treat than I had bargained for when the noon church bells started ringing.

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Put Your Mettle To The Pedals

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Coco

This summer I’ve been focusing on cycling to prepare for the Farm to Fork Fondo in hilly Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I’ve even swapped my weekend long runs for a second day on my bike. The Conte’s Bike shop ride taught me that I have to keep my head in the game to make it up those hills, but this week I realized how important my attitude is during my weekly indoor cycling classes. 

Put Your Mettle To The Pedals
When I encourage people to try indoor cycling, I remind them that the intensity of the class is up to them. No one else knows how hard the resistance is or how hard you are pedaling. (Even at places like CycleBar that display your numbers on a screen let you opt out and keep your data to yourself.) But that means it’s also up to you to challenge yourself and push yourself beyond what you feel comfortable doing, so you can get stronger. Continue reading →

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Highlights Of My European Vacation In Brussels And Bremen

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Coco

If you saw my Weekly Wrap post, you know that last week I was on vacation in Europe. If you’ve known me for a while, you know I am horrible at planning vacations, so when my son had an opportunity to study abroad this summer, one of my first thoughts was that it would make vacation planning easy! I even let him plan our itinerary, which is how we ended up spending the weekend in Brussels before we headed to Bremen where he is studying.

Brussels Grand Place At Night

Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium

I could go on and on about my European vacation, but I’ll try to focus on five things  for the Friday Five  link up hosted at Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness.

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Running In Bremen Germany

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Coco

Last week we went to Europe to visit our son who is spending a few months studying abroad. We started our trip with a weekend in Brussels and then headed to Bremen in northwestern Germany where he is staying. I had never heard of Bremen until he had this opportunity, but it’s a fantastic place with an interesting history. Despite the jet lag and busy sightseeing schedule, I managed to carve out time to go running in Bremen on two of our three mornings there.

Running in Bremen
Bremen is proud of its starring role in the Brothers’ Grimm fairytale about the Town Musicians of Bremen,. It’s quite an odd story, but images of the donkey, dog, cat and cock are all over town and part of the city’s official logos. Continue reading →

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