​It was a year ago today that we were in London near the beginning of our 20-day adventure that would take us by train to some of Europe’s most iconic sites. About the time of this post we were finishing up our walking tour with our guide and finding our way to the West End to see a production of “School of Rock, The Musical.” Kids loved it and the show made for a nice end to the London portion of our trip. By mid-morning the next day we were traveling by Eurostar to Paris. 
 
Our new season of adventures gets underway ten days from today with a five-day trip to the North Carolina High Country. We will pack in an amazing number and variety of activities in this short experience. In July we’ll be in New England for 12 days. And for sure, just like last year’s Europe and Virginia Highlands trips, no day is ever the same.
 
We hope you’ll follow our travels here on Facebook as we get underway.
 
And if you’re curious about 2020, we’re heading out to Wyoming & Montana for ten days in July. Sign-ups have started and you can read more here: http://www.mindstretchadventures.com/2020-wyoming--montana.html
 

On the Cover! Nothing like old news, but the Christ Church Episcopal School magazine from last spring was buried beneath a ton of other old magazines around my house. These two are both "retired" MindStretch Travel Adventures campers. The magazine is from last year so both guys are now ninth graders.
Tripp (left) is a veteran of four MTA trips including Europe, Colorado Rockies, Wyoming - Montana, and North Carolina Mountains. And Benn has two under his belt -- West Virginia - Tennessee and the North Carolina Mountains.
We're excited that Tripp's little brother, Nate, will be joining us for his first adventure this coming summer on the North Carolina High Country trip.

Just one of the great perks about a MTA experience is that boys get to choose what they want to eat. It gives them freedom to explore something new or stick with the familiar.
 
The above photo shows two brave campers in Paris this past summer having steak tartare (I think I have that name right).  You can see on their faces just how much they enjoyed their choice!
 
In the bottom photo, taken in Cripple Creek, Colorado just over a year ago shows these two same guys along with some of their buddies about to sample their first “Rocky Mountain Oysters.” You’ll need to Google that if you’re not quite sure what it is because I’m not about to tell you.
 
And as I often say, “That’s part of the adventure of a MTA trip.”
 
Click to learn more about our 2019 travels and start planning your own menu.

Last night I was fortunate to be in the audience in Tryon at a concert by the Kruger Brothers. If you’ve never heard of them, or never heard them…you should check them out. http://krugerbrothers.com
 
The brothers are two Swiss-born musicians accompanied by an American guy and their music is is a blend of Americana roots music, a little bluegrass, folk, and even classical. Doc Watson was one of their inspirations and in fact the brothers settled in Wilkesboro, North Carolina to be near Doc and his musical influences.
 
And so how does this relate to how an MTA experience can turn boys into storytellers?
 
Well Jens and Uwe Kruger talked last night of their early musical experiences and how part of that was busking as young kids and teenagers on the streets in Western and Eastern Europe.
 
And that reminded me of a MindStretch Europe trip in 2009. We were exploring the streets and canals of Amsterdam and happened upon a string duo. It so happened that one of our adventurers was a 12-year-old who had recently started to learn the mandolin. As things would happen, Mark Gilbert was soon handed over the mandolin from one of the street musicians and the other European musician accompanied Mark for a number or two.
 
I’m guessing Mark no longer plays the mandolin, but I’m guessing he still remembers his entertaining me, his fellow travelers, and absolute strangers as he played on a canal bridge in Amsterdam.
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And that’s one more chapter in turning boys into storytellers.
 
We hope you’ll be interested in being part of your own story this coming summer.
 
Read about the opportunities available this summer.

​Switzerland – Turning Boys Into Storytellers
 
In just about nine months we’ll be trekking around Europe – our sixth trip across the Atlantic.
 
You can check out info right here: http://www.mindstretchadventures.com/europe-by-eurail-2018.html
 
So this little report is just to relate how one day can be so memorable…even in a trip of many days.
 
This is about an adventure we had one day during our 2015 trip and it was so grand we’re repeating this set of activities this coming June. While based in Bern, Switzerland a couple of years ago we took a day trip to the alpine village of Grindelwald, Switzerland. We reached this village in the Alps via a special scenic train. During our Europe trips prior to 2015 just getting to the village was our goal and it was absolutely perfect right there. Lots of shops, cafes, and incredible scenery and then that scenic train ride back to Bern.
 
But we expanded that day during our 2015 and added something entirely new and the boys and leaders this coming summer will get their opportunity to do the same. From Grindelwald we took a gondola several stations up the mountain where the views and the weather changed. It was gorgeous and it was cold. We had lunch up there in the elements and this was just the start of our day. From the station at “First” we started our descent back to the village. So if the gondola ride up wasn’t fun enough, it gets better on the way down. Boys took a zip-line down the first leg of the journey. From there they had a short hike to the next station, and from there they took scooters the rest of the way. Boys had the option of skipping an activity if they weren’t comfortable with the “high adventure” part of this day, but of course most were 100% on board.
 
It was an all-day day trip from Bern and we loved it. And, I can’t wait to be back. In fact, three boys will be comig back on the 2018 version for their second Europe experience. There “could” still be a spot or two if you know something who needs some amazing storytelling adventures in his life.
 
And that’s how boys become storytellers on a MindStretch Travel Adventures trip.
 

With the 2016 trips full (both have been for months), we decided to go ahead and put together thoughts for our next two seasons. Many parents appreciate the opportunity to know our dates well in advance so that they can make plans for their sons' participation in a MTA experience.

Right now we only have trips, dates, and basic info ready for you to check out. We've chosen to return to some of our favorite destinations including the Virginia Mountains and the Colorado Rockies in 2017 and Europe and the North Carolina Mountains in 2018. Full details for the 2017 trips will be ready in just a few months. We already have over two dozen boys express "very" early interest.

Check out the info by clicking here.

In just over 60 days we'll be in Europe for the first of three trips this summer. Check out this video of the day we'll spend in and around Grindelwald, Switzerland. It involves a narrow-gauge train ride up to this alpine village, a gondola ride even higher up, a zipline trip down part way and an additional bike ride...plus hiking around a lake. Can't wait!

Check out the link below to get a taste of what's in store.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdFX6ncDMx8

The MTA traveler above wistfully watches the passing scenery during our last trip to Europe in 2013. We were traveling this day from Bern, Switzerland to Barcelona, Spain. I was really excited because it was my first trip to Spain, and probably the first for all the boys on this particular trip. But I had been to Europe three previous times and Spain had never been one of our destinations.

We had a wonderful time in Barcelona including taking a bus tour of the city and swimming in the sea (for most of the boys), and it was also about this time in the trip when I was thinking...maybe it's time to "re-think!" This 2013 trip, like the previous three, had always traveled with no itinerary and no reservations except for the first two and last two nights leaving all the other cities, countries, hotels, activities basically up to chance. Oh, past experiences taught us to travel smart but it could sometimes be a bit unsettling to find out that we couldn't get to the place the boys had voted to go to. But if getting to some of those places did work out (and it usually did), we then had to find a place to sleep. That always worked out as well. However, these adventures could be stressful just because of the unknown. I remember leaving Barcelona with no real plan. We got on a train headed to some small town in France which we were told was very nice. It wasn't what we had planned but we could get there and were told we would enjoy it. I remember getting out of the train station without a clue what was there. It wasn't exactly in the guide books. We went back into the station and after about ninety minutes of talking with a train ticket agent and with that agent spending a lot of time on the phone helping us out...we were soon back on a train headed to Paris - a destination we had been told we couldn't get reservations for just a few days earlier.

A few few hours later, on a Friday afternoon we arrived in Paris on the week of the last stage of the Tour de France which would end in Paris on Sunday. We had no place to sleep. I could go into detail, but will just say a couple of hours later we had found a two-star hotel that amazingly Ray & I remembered staying in during the very first Europe trip in 1981. 

And it was also then that I decided the next trip to Europe would be different. We would plan an itinerary, select and reserve hotels, and make the train reservations in advance....and that's exactly what I've been doing for the past several months. Slowly the trip is taking shape to be, by far, our best European experience ever. As one of my co-leaders said, "Mark, think of all the extra time we'll have to do things instead of standing in line trying to make train reservations, finding hotels, etc." And he's so right. Without hesitation I'm sure this will add the equivalent of two days of activities to our 2015 adventure. And it has been a fun experience. So far I've sent out and received hundreds of emails, made international phone calls, sent money transfers by wire, etc. And it's all coming together. 

No need to bore you with the details here, but hotels are booked, some activity reservations are made, and other activities will be assembled into "discussion points" for the boys to consider this June. Subscribe to this blog and you'll have a chance to follow our adventures this summer as we visit some incredible places like Brussels & Bruges, Belgium; Strasbourg, France; Bern and Grindelwald, Switzerland; Venice, Italy; Vienna & Innsbruck, Austria; and Munich, Germany. I am totally pumped for this 2015 Europe by Eurail adventure. 

And that is just the beginning of our summer experiences. This coming summer will be our most ambitious calendar ever with two nearby domestic trips filling out the summer.