North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats Around the World

11/20/2024

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. On a bit of a cold and snowy day, you can close your eyes and think about the beautiful green landscape of Ireland. Hopefully you still have it on your radar.

This is a great way to experience a country without the hassle of planning. You basically show up and enjoy. All the flights, transportation, hotels, tours, and more are ready for you to enjoy. It is a stress-free way to travel. The price of the tour is approximately $5,600 (there are a few fees if you upgrade your room and protection plan).

February 1st is the last day to register for the trip, but now is a great time to register. ACIS (our tour company) will offer a $500 scholarship to a registered traveler if we can get five people to register before December 1st. If we get five people registered from now (Nov 20) to December 1st, I will randomly select one of the five to receive $500 off your trip price.

Are you a student who might be interested in earning credit for your travel? I also teach a class in the spring semester in which you can earn up to three humanities credits. These credits are often used for graduation or transfer requirements. Students can use financial aid to pay for the cost of the tour.

I would be happy to visit with you more if you have any questions. I hope you can join us.

Trip Site (more details and registration links) - https://acis.com/tripsite-trip-overview/?key=MjAyNXw1Mjc3Mg==

A quick Ireland short https://www.youtube.com/shorts/igT5G1vHz34

10/24/2024

It's a great day! Do you know what would make this day better? IRELAND!! You should go.
If you do, you can visit Cork.

Discover Cork! The city on the River Lee in southern Ireland took on an urban character when the Vikings founded a trading port there. For his hometown John ...

09/30/2024

Are you ready for the trip of a lifetime? Is Ireland on your bucket list? We are going to Ireland in June of 2025. Stop in and find out more at our informational meeting.

Thursday - October 3rd - 5:30 - Red River Valley Room - NDSCS Hektner Student Center.

Check out our trip site to learn more about the trip details. https://acis.com/tripsite-trip-overview/?key=MjAyNXw1Mjc3Mg==

08/26/2024

Next stop: NASHVILLE!!!

07/02/2024

Thank you all for sharing in our 2024 tour of Bavaria. We had an amazing experience. It is so fun to reflect on all that we did along the way.

Hopefully, you enjoyed following along. Maybe you said that you would love to join us sometime. Now is a great time to get serious about it. In June of 2025, we are going to be traveling to Ireland. This is going to be another epic adventure. We may see more of Ireland than most Irish people do.

Check out more about the tour here - https://acis.com/tripsite-trip-overview/?key=MjAyNXw1Mjc3Mg==

You are going to want to take advantage of it.

Check out this Trip Site for details on our upcoming travel adventure.

06/28/2024

Day 8 – An Extra Day in Zurich

So today was our last full day on this tour. It has been a really great trip. Thank you all for following along. I hope that it has given you a glimpse of what we have been up to. Maybe it has inspired you to want to see more of the world. I would love to visit with you if you have questions. Next year we are planning a trip to Ireland in early June. Maybe you want to join us?

Today dawned early. It is funny because I’m not actually sure what day it is (I know… it is Thursday but you get the point). We woke up early because the other two groups are flying out of Zurich this morning and we need to get them to the airport. As our original plans for this tour evolved, I saw an opportunity for us to spend an extra day as an individual group and explore the city of Zurich. We all agreed that we had to take that opportunity. Once we dropped the group off at the airport our bus driver brought us to our hotel. We said goodbye to Michael (he was a fantastic coach driver), dropped our bags at the hotel, and then hit the streets of Zurich. Kinga was our guide for the day, and she walked us through the city and explained more about the history and culture of the major Swiss city. Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland (402,000 ppl) and it is one of the banking centers of the world. It is also an expensive city to live in (not to mention visit). The city was settled by the Romans over 2000 years ago and has seen some religious transformation through the years. Many of the churches we have visited up to this point have been Catholic. Now we are seeing mostly Protestants. While they are still impressive, they are not as ornate. One church that stood out was the Church of St. Peter. This church has the largest clock face in Europe. Even larger than Big Ben. We also saw St. Johns Church, Fraumunster Church, Pedigerkiche, and Grossmunster. They are all located in the old town of Zurich, and this makes the skyline very impressive. We stopped at the Zurich train station and strolled along the Bahnhofstrasse (the posh shopping street).

We had a couple of hours of free time for lunch. I found a nice café with an outside grill along Lake Zurich to enjoy the warm day and watch how the people of Zurich enjoy the summer. Many of the other travelers found a great Middle Eastern restaurant to curb their hunger.

We joined back together after lunch and purchased the city travel pass. This allowed us 24 hours to use the city modes of transportation. This gave us access to buses, trams, trains, and boats. Yes, you read that right boats on Lake Zurich are used as public transportation. We jumped on a boat and took a 1-hour ride to our major destination of the day, the Lindt Chocolate Museum. This tour was going to be sweet……. Get it….. It was very cool. The walking tour gives us the history of chocolate and its influence in Switzerland. Switzerland had a lot of waterpower available to run the machines and great milk and when you put those two things together you get great chocolate. One of the coolest things about the tour was free chocolate. They had three chocolate fountains and 8 chocolate dispensing robots. In the next room, they gave each person a variety of Lindt chocolates. By that point in the tour, we were all overly full. Of course, we had to stop at the factory shop and fill our bags with some chocolate to bring home.

After the factory, we rode the boat back to the city and then jumped on the tram for a nice ride back to the hotel. I think we were all thankful for the tram. It was about 80 degrees, and our feet were starting to slow down.
For our final dinner together, we gathered around a table at a really good Italian restaurant. Each day we shared our favorite part of the day and today was no different. We also shared our favorite part of the trip. It was so wonderful to hear each person’s perspective on what was impactful to them. I’m not sure that anyone selected the same thing. That is a sign of a great tour. Of course, we had to express to Kinga (our tour manager) our appreciation for her. She is very good at her job, and it showed in how smooth the trip went. She was awesome.

We all zipped back to the hotel for our last night. We had to think about how to pack our bags and get ready for another early morning. I know that we are excited to board the plane and get back to the US.

What did we learn today? There are so many things that need to go well to make a trip like this great. We were so fortunate. This itinerary was set up well. The weather conditions were very good. Our group blended well. The food was great. We had a nice blend of activities and free time. Our bus driver and tour manager were both top notch. I’m sure I’m missing others. I have talked about travel being life changing and I have seen sparks of excitement planted in our group along the way. I am so appreciative of their trust and their willingness to explore. We had a fantastic tour. Now… Time to pack.

06/26/2024

Day 7 – An Alpine Adventure in a Charming Town

We are at the point in the trip where we are starting to think about home. I told the group that it was a very good thing. To me, that means that we have almost squeezed as much out of the trip as you can. But we are not going home today. There are a few more adventures out there for us.

We woke up in our Lucerne hotel (Hotel Waldstaetter Hof). This is a unique hotel that has a wonderful European feel. The rooms are large, but they may not have all the amenities we are used to. I don’t think they have the air conditioning on because we are only minutes from the Alps. This makes the room a little less comfortable at first but once you open your windows you can hear the city traffic and let the cool mountain air in. After a bit, the room is exactly how it should be.

This morning, we had a great adventure planned. We all hoped that it would be clear and sunny to take full advantage of the day. It was a bit cloudy but we will have hope. We loaded up on the bus at 8:20 and headed to Alpnachstad. This small village is located at the base of Mr. Pilatus. This high mountain is about 7,000 feet overlooks the Lucern Valley and has a 360-degree view of the Alps. To get to the top of the mountain we loaded into the steepest cog rail train the the world. After a beautiful assent, we arrived above the tree line into a bright sunny day on one side of the mountain and an overcast day on the other. It was a great example of how weather is affected by elevation. This was a breathtaking experience. There were a couple of Ibex lying on the mountain side and the cool thin air was wonderful. There were even some friendly Alpine Chough around and one found me especially likable. He might be lucky I didn’t cook him for lunch. Many of us hiked several of the paths available. There are no words to describe the experience. On the descent, we took the tram and gondola down to the town of Kriens on the other side of the mountain. We are thankful for our bus driver Michael. He is a vital part of this fantastic tour because without him we would be doing way more walking. He has been there to pick us up and drop us off without fail.

We drove back down to the main city of Lucern and stopped at the Lion Monument. This lion sculpture was hewn in 1821by a Dutch artist Lukas Ahorn. The sculpture was created to remember Swiss soldiers who were massacred during the French Revolution. The statue was beautiful. Look sad look of the dying lion was one that can make even the hardest person get emotional.

Kinga then took us for a guided walking tour of the Altstadt (Old Town) of Lucern. Many of the squares and landmarks in the old town are as old as 1400s and 1500s. There is an amazing amount of architecture in Lucern and seeing it side by side helps you point out the differences. We stopped at the Hirschenplatz, Weinmarkt, and Muhlenplatz. These three squares are surrounded by history. We all walked across the Spreuerbrucke bridge and saw another beautiful baroque church (Jesuitenkirche). We were all given some free time until dinner and we all split off in different directions. A couple of us went up to the city wall, some grabbed some ice cream and coffee on a city sidewalk along the river and a few hit a city bakery for some fresh sandwiches. I even hit the famous Aldi. For me, it is a must-stop.
There are several things I like about Lucern. As a guest in a hotel, the wifi is free and there are many spots around the city where that same wifi is found. You also get two days of free city transportation. We didn’t use it but it was cool to know it was there. They do a great job of marking their landmarks. They have signs that explain everything and other signs that point you in the direction you want to go. The river is the main landmark and as long as you know where it is you are never lost. There are also hundreds of outdoor cafes to sit down and enjoy a spritz or a cup of coffee. Everyone we met spoke English well and it made it easy to feel welcome. It has an awesome selection of shops to get many different things in. Just a heads up that it is more expensive. It sounds like Switzerland as a whole can cost a pretty penny.

We finished our day with a wonderful meal of salad, sausage, roasted vegetables, and chocolate mousse Tomorrow we have an early day. Part of our group is flying out in the morning from Zurich. We have arranged to stay in Zurich for an extra day to get one last full day of adventure in.

What did we learn today? Free time is so valuable to ensure you have a good tour. There is a balance between organized activities and time to do what you want. I get asked a lot about my free time. Group travel is a bit different from a normal vacation. We have activities planned each day so that we can take advantage of the time we have to see the “heavy hitter” spots, but having time to get away from the group gives everyone time to relax. On this trip, we have had free time every day. Today for example we have 5 hours of free time this afternoon to do what we wanted. As we travel everyone grows in confidence and looks forward to the free time each day.

06/26/2024

06/26/2024

We took the steepest cogwheel tram to the top of Mt. Pilatus today. What a view!

06/25/2024