Recap of March 2026
Navarre – Florida’s Most Relaxing Place
This year Michigan’s winter was so cold and snowy that we almost didn’t escape it’s icy grip. In fact, at the last minute, we had to cancel our plans to drive to South Carolina because the weather and roads were so bad. Instead we flew on a non-stop flight from Flint, MI to Destin, FL to escape the winter in Navarre, FL for 27 days. Like the signs say, Navarre is very relaxing. But maybe a little too relaxing after a few weeks.
We stayed at a brand new (opened for less than 2 months) Residence Inn in Navarre, FL. It was right on the bay and the bridge that takes you across the bridge to the island of Navarre Beach. The room was nice consisting of a 4 room suite (bedroom, bathroom, living room, and fully equipped kitchen) with a balcony overlooking the bay. Karen insists on being able to cook our own meals when we have a long-term stay.
This trip we were able to secure two e-bikes (usually bring our own bikes when we drive) and a nice keyboard (to keep up on our newly acquired piano skills) for the entire stay. So we made ourselves quite at home.
While Navarre had many friendly people and the weather was pretty great, my only significant issue with the area was its lack of a pedestrian/bicycle friendly infrastructure. Other than a couple of bike paths (that were difficult to get to) there was almost nowhere to ride or walk, unless you were on the side of a highway with 50 m.p.h. speed limits.
Once we got across the super narrow bridge to Navarre Beach, we were able to ride on a path or the side of the road with very little traffic. During one of our rides on the island, we unexpectedly ran into a pretty major Mardi Gras parade. We were surprised at how big the parade an crowd was for such a small, out of the way island.
Of course we located two decent breweries in Navarre. St. Micheals was closest to our hotel with decent beer but only food trucks for food. Ye Old Brothers Brewery was about a seven mile bike ride away and had some very good beer (doppelboch, dunkel, marzen, and pumpkin) until they ran out. Then we were forced to self supply from Total Wine in Pensecola.
As I mentioned, Navarre was a little too relaxing after a while. So we decided to take an overnight trip to New Orleans (about a three and a half hour drive west of Navarre). Karen had never been so we stayed at a J.W. Marriott just a short walk from the French Quarter. The first day there we listened to local music on Bourbon Street and around the French Market. It was a fun day! The second day we took a “free” walking tour of the French Quarter with one of the best guides we ever had – anywhere. We learned much about all of the different cultures that influenced New Orleans over its history. As a bonus, our guide was an accomplished musician and songwriter, so he gave us a nice perspective on the musical history of New Orleans too. Definitely the highlight of our trip!
Marvelous Marquette
It’s been a few years since we’ve been to Marquette in Michigan’s upper peninsula. I guess we didn’t quite realize how much we missed it. The small college town charm, Lake Superior at your doorstep, beautiful bike trails and being immersed in nature, immediately reminded us that this is one of our favorite Michigan destinations. Once again, we enjoyed staying at the nicely maintained Marriott Fairfield Inn during the last week of August. To break up the drive we stayed a night in Petoskey both on the way there and back.
Our timing happened to span Northern Michigan University’s move-in weekend and a 3-day music festival in Marquette’s waterfront, Lower Harbor Park.
Holland & Belgium (post Elbe River Cruise) – June 2025
After the Viking Cruise, we traveled by plane to The Hague (South Holland in the Netherlands), and spent a few days there, then traveled by train to Ghent, Belgium. This was Karen’s dream- to be able to bike through Belgium and enjoy the beautiful sites!
We stayed at the Marriott in The Hague, which happened to be right next to the site of a big NATO conference two days after we left. But the security was already beginning to impact our movement in and out of the hotel. However, we were still able to enjoy the bikes provided by Marriott with our proximity to the North Sea, The Hague, and Delft. The neighborhoods (including Embassy residences) were very nice near our hotel also.
The highlights of our stay in The Hague had to be riding the beautiful bike path along the North Sea and our ride to Delft (one of our favorite cities).
Viking Elbe River Cruise – June 2025
The Elbe River Cruise, in June of 2025, marked DaK’s sixth Viking Cruise. Although it was still very enjoyable it was our least favorite Viking experience. The reason came down to how many times we had to pack and unpack during our 10 day Viking trip. We had 2 nights in a Berlin hotel, then 3 days on the Viking Astrid, then 3 days on the Viking Beyla (due to bridge construction blocking the Elbe causing us to “ship swap” to the Viking Beyla for 3 days), then 2 days in a Prague hotel. It is so nice when you can just walk off a ship and see many different places while all of your belongings stay in one place (on the ship).
There are only two small Viking ships on the Elbe (1 each direction) which only hold 98 passengers each, due to extreme water levels (at times 3 feet or less in some spots). In fact we were very lucky to have some heavy rain the week before our cruise that raised the river level enough to avoid being bussed along the route. Our itinerary consistested of 2 days in Berlin (including a day trip to Potsdam), Wittenberg, Meissen, Dresden, Saxon Switzerland (Germany)/Bad Schandau, Decin (Czechia), and 2 days in Prague. There really weren’t any bad stops as they all had something to offer.
3 Days in Bavaria (pre-Elbe River Cruise) – June 2025
Before we started our Viking Cruise, we decided to spend a few days in Munich. One of our favorite places to bike. We had so much fun exploring the English Gardens and the city streets. We had even more fun hopping on a train and heading to Mittenwald, one of the most beautiful towns in the world! Once again, we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn hotel and found the amenities suitable with easy access to the Munich East train station.
