Swill Season this Octoberfest

Oh drats, Switzerland is still in a holding pattern. The political Gods really are punishing me this time. I might be stuck watching the debates this Friday after all.

And, rather than the Alps I might resort to the Adirondacks this week. The two don't come anywhere close to compare but in a world of freelance videography you have to be flexible enough to bounce back from disappointment and last minute changes and make due with wherever the assignments take you.

Still, it pays to brush up on my German because last week, while in Boston, the German Travel and Tourism board was in town to entice several travel writers to Berlin, Frankfurt and Baden-Baden for the holidays. What's old is new again by focusing on the romance and beauty of castles, parks and gardens.

Mutti was raised on the outskirts of Stuttgart so naturally I'd bring her along as my translator. Perhaps I'll even write a dramatic piece on how she escaped the Russian front while in Prussia during WWII. She was just a baby but her brothers and sisters, who still live in German, remember the entire ordeal.

There are less and less who can recall their impressionable childhoods as vividly as Onkel (Uncle) Horst and Tante (Aunt) Henni - especially during the swill season of October-fest! Here's hoping that I can still get back to the Motherland before the end of the year.