My name is Nicholas (Nick). This is a travel blog which covers part family vacation to share with friends and family and part family history research, which occurs/occurred from 9/6/2026-10/1/2026, accompanied by my parents Jim and Pam.

In 1936, two college students, Bill, and my maternal grandfather Sam from Dartmouth decided during their summer vacation to book passage on a Norwegian freighter to explore Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany by freighter, foot, and bicycle. Nazi Germany at the time was hosting the 1936 summer Olympics, so my grandfather and his companion received a first-hand account of the events and cultural climate of Europe leading to the second World War.

Bill happened to write about their European journey, as his journal entries were mailed to his father, who happened to be a newspaper editor of a local New Hampshire newspaper. Without Bill’s permission, these journal entries were published as articles in the newspaper like a serialization. These articles provided the main reference point of revisiting the locales Bill and Sam explored in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and part of what’s now modern Poland. Even with modern technology and my gumption of potentially making this a bike trek to cover as much ground as my grandfather and Bill covered, I compromised, as I’ll produce only a partial reconstruction of their trek in the 1930s. For a modern American, I was honestly lucky to receive as much consecutive paid time off from my work, not enough naturally to cover an entire summer vacation of course. Also, I confess after committing and plan to commit to several races as a cross-country runner enthusiast, I desired a leisurely vacation in Europe as opposed to a race to meet a checklist of locales. As my father said to me during our trip planning, which I’m paraphrasing, one should live on a vacation not run through it. Finally, to include my parents in this endeavor, since this is particularly salient to my mother, it made more sense to make this more of a vacation than an expedition. It is nonetheless my hope and goal that this log references those journal entries and that they are shared with his family and for future generations.

In addition to Bill and Sam’s trek revisits, there is an additional historical side quest in Malmo, Sweden. Pam has wanted to explore Malmo, Sweden where her mother Dorothy, whom I’d sadly never known, had graduated from one of the first physical therapy schools. We are hoping to find records at the university to shed light on the little known part of my Swedish heritage.

Finally, in Oslo, Norway, I plan on embarking on my first international running race, as I’ll be competing in the 10-kilometer city race during Oslo’s marathon on September 12.

The rough itinerary for this trip is to travel to Stockholm, Sweden on September 7 — happy Labor Day! — Oslo, Norway on September 11; Bergen, Norway, September 15; Stavanger, Norway, September 17; Malmo, Sweden, September 19; Copenhagen, Denmark, 9/20; other yet-to-be-decided locations in Denmark. I part ways with my parents on 9/24 to embark into Germany; first, Hamburg and then Berlin, September 25 for the remainder of my trip until September 30 when I return home.

One final note: It is my sincere hope that the children and grandchildren of Bill have access and will take something positive from this travelogue as this is intended as a memorandum of Bill as much as my grandparents and their descendants.

Welcome!