Welcome to North America – Our Passion 2.0
About 10 years ago – the children had grown up and the map of Europe in our living room was filled with hundreds of marking pins – my wife and I flew to the United States for the first time together. The infinite vastness, the beauty of the mountains and lakes, the world of animals and plants and last but not least the cities and towns fascinated us so much that from now on we returned to the North American continent every year.
The colored states and provinces have been visited on our tours
Big, bigger, great
After 15 trips (including 6 to Canada), we probably saw more of those two countries than most Americans or Canadians: Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco in the USA, Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver in Canada, just to mention some of the cities. We watched the waves of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and travelled around the Great Lakes. We hiked the trails of the Rocky Mountains and suffered in the heat of Death Valley. Marmots, rattlesnakes, moose, a few bears and even a wolverine crossed our path. We followed the footsteps of those Germans who found a new home in Texas or Wisconsin, and more than once we faced the memorials of both World War I and II.
Lands of Heroes
During all those years, we encountered American and Canadian national heroes and important entrepreneurs. Terry Fox, John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos or Tim Hortons are just a few names on our long travel list. We visited Google Campus, the Boeing factory, the first Amazon Go store and Leonard Cohen’s grave. Each of these sites told us a story that often also has an impact on people’s life here in Germany. However, the real heroes of that continent are the people we met on our travels. Almost all of them gave us a warm welcome, provided us some insight into the customs of their country and left us with a friendly advice for our further journey.