Two Tour Guides to Serve You
By James Derheim | February 26, 2010
James and Jenean Derheim sometimes lead tours together, especially when it’s a large family or larger group requiring us to use two vehicles. And, sometimes they lead tours separately. Jenean’s schedule has openings for tours in the months of June, late July, August and September. Jenean is our France expert (she speaks French) and she also knows Italy, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as the Eastern European areas. If you’re interested in a private, custom-designed tour in 2010 but see the calendar showing “full” don’t assume that all hope is lost. Contact us today through our e-mail address of info@europeanfocus.com
Topics: Private Tours in Europe | No Comments »
Prime dates for 2010 going fast, reserve now for your adventure
By James Derheim | February 25, 2010
The Cain Family from Texas were guests of ours in 2009
Topics: Germany Tours, Private Tours in Europe | No Comments »
Best Germany Travel Offer Yet!
By James Derheim | January 18, 2010
Switzerland & the Alsace
“Cozy Hotels Exploration”
2010
Led by James Derheim
Jim’s on the hunt for the ultimate “Cozy Hotels” of Germany! Come along on this exploration of towns and hamlets both known and not for this once in a lifetime opportunity to help create awareness of Germany’s best-kept secrets on Jim’s new web site and book project.
“Micro-Group” tour
just four adults!
(We need just two more, a couple preferred, age group 45 to 75)
14-day tour
Exact dates TBD but close to June 10 to 24
DAY 1:
DAY OF ARRIVAL in Frankfurt, Germany / Miltenberg (1)
We leave the airport and drive east, bound for the small town of Miltenberg am Main, northern Bavaria. This entire town is the epitomy of “Cozy” with many half-timbered houses and a grand old hotel called “Zur Riesen” or “The Giant.”
The Riesen has been welcoming guests since the 12th century. Among the luminaries who have stayed here is Martin Luther, Friedrich Barbarossa and Elvis Presley.
The current owners rescued the Riesen from certain destruction in the early 1970s.
We stay here one night and of course, in Cozy Hotel style we have our nightcap in the downstairs restaurant, just a short ride up the elevator (installed in 1970) to the rooms.
Plenty of time to pursue photographs worthy of a postcard
DAY 2:
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (2)
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria. Rothenburg is about two hours from Miltenberg using the back country roads. We stop in the small town of Weikersheim on the way to see a castle and check out another potential Cozy Hotel.
We stay in Rothenburg two nights. You stay in the ultimate Cozy Hotel (just six rooms!) located in the heart of the old city center. Jim stays in his apartment about five minutes’ walk away.
Rothenburg is Europe’s most well preserved medieval city. A wall, with towers and many buildings dating from the 1600s and 1700s and before encircles it.
Downstairs is a lovely, dark and romantic pub and restaurant with some of Rothenburg’s best food and drink. A huge wine list presents wines from Franconia and other regions of the world.
DAY 3:
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
After breakfast in your hotel, you’re left with free time until noon to visit a museum or shop on your own. We meet at midday for lunch. The afternoon is also left to your own explorations. There are half a dozen worthwhile museums in town, Jim can help you pick one or two depending on your interests.
Jim suggests we go out to a country inn tonight to have schnitzel.
Later, you may wish to join the Night watchman on his rounds. This one-hour long tour explains the history or the town in a fun, entertaining way. The tour starts at 8 in the market square.
Note: Jim’s friends own a shop in Rothenburg and they offer to ship your purchases home to you.
Visit towns not on the normal tourist agendaNürnberg & Spalt (1)
We take the back country roads west to the city of Nürnberg where we spend most of the day seeing the sights. We then go to a town where Jim has never been before – Spalt, located south and a bit west. There must be a Cozy Hotel in this well-preserved old town! We’ll find out.
Taking an ice cream break in Regensburg
DAY 5:
Regensburg (1)
We travel south with a stop in Ingolstadt to scout for a Cozy Hotel. Then, on to Regensburg for the night at a hotel Jim knows and loves. (Also a Cozy Hotel) Regensburg’s history goes back to Roman days when it was a military camp, established around 187 A.D. Jim shows you the 14th century bridge and the sausage kitchen built to feed the workers building what was at that time a real wonder of the world. The sausages are still the best!
DAY 6:
Berchtesgaden (2)
We travel the back country roads to the Bavarian Alps and the beautiful small town of Berchtesgaden. Jim knows hotels large and small here, but our mission will be to stay in a place where Jim has never stayed before to see if it warrants status as a “Cozy” hotel or inn.
DAY 7:
Salzburg/Berchtesgaden
After breakfast, Jim shows you the sights of Salzburg including the house where Mozart was born and the house where he lived as an adult. Also, the house where the composer of “Silent Night” lived. We can also debunk some of the common misconceptions about the filming of the “Sound of Music” and the story of the family von Trapp. Jim will show you some of the sights in Salzburg connected with the real and the fake stories of this famous family. Two guests from 2009 in Salzburgs Mirabell Garden
DAY 8:
Scenic Drive through Austria / Schwangau (2)
A woodcarver in the Schwangau area
Those sights include:
• The 18th century pilgrimage church at Wies
• King Ludwig’s fantasy castle “Neuschwanstein”
• Oberammergau, associated with the Passion Play and the wood-carving capital of Germany
Anyone seen a girl named Heidi lately?
Scenic Drive / Weesen, Switzerland (2)
Another eye-popping alpine drive as we pass from Germany through Austria and on to Switzerland for a two-night stay in the lakeside village of Weesen. Jim discovered this place in October, 2009 and it was a real treat. The scenery around Weesen is tremendous. We use the hotel Jim discovered (“almost” a Cozy Hotel) to scout around and locate other contenders.
DAY 10:
Switzerland
Scouting and taking in the scenery. Enjoy a cruise on the Rhein River
DAY 11:
Alsace (France) (1)
We leave Switzerland and spend the night in the Alsace probably in Colmar.
DAY 12:
Through the Alsace back into Germany (1)
We take the Route du Vin up through one charming, colorful village after another, stopping often to check on potential Cozy Hotels. We cross the border late in the afternoon for an overnight stay at one of Jim’s favorite Cozy Hotels in the hamlet of Gleiszellen. The food and wine make this stop well worth it.
The Rhein and Bacharach (2)
We travel up through more vineyards to Bacharach for a two-night stay at one of our best-loved Cozy Hotels. Bacharach is also one of the most charming places to wrap up our adventure. The village has a castle high above it, and a wall around most of the village built in the 1300s and still standing strong. Towers here and there once protected the town from invaders. Now, they welcome crowds of daytrippers during the day.
DAY 14:
The Rhein and Mosel Valleys
Visiting these two river valleys, in particular, the hamlet of Beilstein on the Mosel to check out a potential Cozy Hotel.
DAY 15:
Day of Departure
After breakfast in our hotel, a trip across the Rhein and to the airport taking about 45 minutes.
This exploration of Germany’s known and little-known corners is priced at just $12,500 for two people sharing a double room. (Priced at about $7,000 less than what we would normally charge for a trip of this nature)
Does not include round-trip airfare
Including
• A knowledegable guide who speaks German. James Derheim has been living and working in Germany since 1989.
• Ground transportation with plenty of room for personal space and luggage.
• All meals with freedom of choice (within reason) from the menu including beverages. No set menus.
Exceptional, small hotels and inns, some visited for the first time (which is part of the theme of this trip)
• A photo CD showing images of the places we visit
Sign-up deadline is February 15, 2010.
Total cost for two persons not including round-trip air: $12,500
Deposit: $1,500 (Visa or MasterCard accepted)
Balance due: June 1, 2010 (Check)
For questions:
James Derheim
Owner
European Focus
1408 State Street
941.330.0877
References gladly provided
Stunning Alpine scenery
Topics: Cozy Hotels, France Tours, Germany Tours, Switzerland Tours | No Comments »
Aviation Security - time to get real and stop the smoke and mirrors
By James Derheim | December 29, 2009
Is aviation security mostly for show?By Bruce Schneier, Special to CNN
December 29, 2009 7:38 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Incident on Detroit-bound plane led to tightening of airport security
Bruce Schneier says politicians react to incidents by imposing “security theater”
Trying to predict what terrorists will do next is futile, Schneier says
He says it’s better to put resources into investigations
Editor’s note: Bruce Schneier is an author and technologist who specializes in security. His books include “Applied Cryptography,” “Beyond Fear” and “Schneier on Security” and his other writing can be seen at http://www.schneier.com/
(CNN) — Last week’s attempted terror attack on an airplane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit has given rise to a bunch of familiar questions.
How did the explosives get past security screening? What steps could be taken to avert similar attacks? Why wasn’t there an air marshal on the flight? And, predictably, government officials have rushed to institute new safety measures to close holes in the system exposed by the incident.
Reviewing what happened is important, but a lot of the discussion is off-base, a reflection of the fundamentally wrong conception most people have of terrorism and how to combat it.
Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It’s rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear.
The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don’t think this way: They are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats.
A “movie-plot threat” is an overly specific attack scenario. Whether it’s terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists contaminating the milk supply, or terrorists attacking the Olympics, specific stories affect our emotions more intensely than mere data does.
Stories are what we fear. It’s not just hypothetical stories — terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with explosives strapped to their legs or with bombs in their shoes, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened.
“Security theater” refers to security measures that make people feel more secure without doing anything to actually improve their security. An example: the photo ID checks that have sprung up in office buildings. No one has ever explained why verifying that someone has a photo ID provides any actual security, but it looks like security to have a uniformed guard-for-hire looking at ID cards.
Airport-security examples include the National Guard troops stationed at U.S. airports in the months after 9/11 — their guns had no bullets. The U.S. color-coded system of threat levels, the pervasive harassment of photographers, and the metal detectors that are increasingly common in hotels and office buildings since the Mumbai terrorist attacks, are additional examples.
To be sure, reasonable arguments can be made that some terrorist targets are more attractive than others: airplanes because a small bomb can result in the death of everyone aboard, monuments because of their national significance, national events because of television coverage, and transportation because of the numbers of people who commute daily.
But there are literally millions of potential targets in any large country — there are 5 million commercial buildings alone in the United States — and hundreds of potential terrorist tactics. It’s impossible to defend every place against everything, and it’s impossible to predict which tactic and target terrorists will try next.
Security is both a feeling and a reality. The propensity for security theater comes from the interplay between the public and its leaders.
When people are scared, they need something done that will make them feel safe, even if it doesn’t truly make them safer. Politicians naturally want to do something in response to crisis, even if that something doesn’t make any sense.
Often, this “something” is directly related to the details of a recent event. We confiscate liquids, screen shoes, and ban box cutters on airplanes. We tell people they can’t use an airplane restroom in the last 90 minutes of an international flight. But it’s not the target and tactics of the last attack that are important, but the next attack. These measures are only effective if we happen to guess what the next terrorists are planning.
If we spend billions defending our rail systems, and the terrorists bomb a shopping mall instead, we’ve wasted our money. If we concentrate airport security on screening shoes and confiscating liquids, and the terrorists hide explosives in their brassieres and use solids, we’ve wasted our money. Terrorists don’t care what they blow up and it shouldn’t be our goal merely to force the terrorists to make a minor change in their tactics or targets.
Our current response to terrorism is a form of “magical thinking.” It relies on the idea that we can somehow make ourselves safer by protecting against what the terrorists happened to do last time.
Unfortunately for politicians, the security measures that work are largely invisible. Such measures include enhancing the intelligence-gathering abilities of the secret services, hiring cultural experts and Arabic translators, building bridges with Islamic communities both nationally and internationally, funding police capabilities — both investigative arms to prevent terrorist attacks, and emergency communications systems for after attacks occur — and arresting terrorist plotters without media fanfare.
They do not include expansive new police or spying laws. Our police don’t need any new laws to deal with terrorism; rather, they need apolitical funding.
The arrest of the “liquid bombers” in London is an example: They were caught through old-fashioned intelligence and police work. Their choice of target (airplanes) and tactic (liquid explosives) didn’t matter; they would have been arrested regardless.
But even as we do all of this we cannot neglect the feeling of security, because it’s how we collectively overcome the psychological damage that terrorism causes. It’s not security theater we need, it’s direct appeals to our feelings. The best way to help people feel secure is by acting secure around them. Instead of reacting to terrorism with fear, we — and our leaders — need to react with indomitability, the kind of strength shown by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II.
The best way to help people feel secure is by acting secure around them.
–Bruce Schneier
RELATED TOPICS
Transportation Security
Terrorism
September 11 Attacks
By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant “bring ‘em on” rhetoric. There’s a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats.
We should treat terrorists like common criminals and give them all the benefits of true and open justice — not merely because it demonstrates our indomitability, but because it makes us all safer.
Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism.
Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.
Today, we can project indomitability by rolling back all the fear-based post-9/11 security measures. Our leaders have lost credibility; getting it back requires a decrease in hyperbole. Ditch the invasive mass surveillance systems and new police state-like powers. Return airport security to pre-9/11 levels. Remove swagger from our foreign policies. Show the world that our legal system is up to the challenge of terrorism. Stop telling people to report all suspicious activity; it does little but make us suspicious of each other, increasing both fear and helplessness.
Counterterrorism is also hard, especially when we’re psychologically prone to muck it up. Since 9/11, we’ve embarked on strategies of defending specific targets against specific tactics, overreacting to every terrorist video, stoking fear, demonizing ethnic groups, and treating the terrorists as if they were legitimate military opponents who could actually destroy a country or a way of life — all of this plays into the hands of terrorists.
We’d do much better by leveraging the inherent strengths of our modern democracies and the natural advantages we have over the terrorists: our adaptability and survivability, our international network of laws and law enforcement, and the freedoms and liberties that make our society so enviable.
The way we live is open enough to make terrorists rare; we are observant enough to prevent most of the terrorist plots that exist, and indomitable enough to survive the even fewer terrorist plots that actually succeed. We don’t need to pretend otherwise.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bruce Schneier. An earlier version of this essay appeared in New Internationalist magazine.
Note from James Derheim: Removing shoes at U.S. airports - pure nonsense. A classic case of planning for the last attack and meant only to placate the public, not to actually prevent the next one. Airline travel is becoming absolutely ridiculous. Worse, the placebo effect of all of the extra “security” which did not stop a man from boarding an international flight - without a passport no less! with a bomb strapped to his leg.
Topics: Private Tours in Europe | No Comments »
European Focus “Village” featured on the web
By James Derheim | December 29, 2009
Check out
http://shoppinginsarasotafl.net/
to see photos and learn about our retail operation in Sarasota, Florida.
Topics: Private Tours in Europe | 1 Comment »