On Friday, Aug. 8, my husband and I participated in an event known by the rather gruesome name of Dodentocht, or Death March, hosted for the 39th time by the good people of Bornem, Belgium, a town of some 20,000 just to the southwest of Antwerp. We weren’t the only ones there with ties to the U.S. military community. For brief stretches of the walk, we enjoyed the company of fellow Americans based in Schinnen, Netherlands, and I did see at least one U.S. soldier in uniform.

As July 2008 drew to a close, Stars and Stripes closed its doors on its former home on a small base in Griesheim, a village outside of Darmstadt and about a half-hour’s drive to Frankfurt, and relocated to Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern. With that move, the world outside my window has changed completely, and distracted me from my blogging duties. But we’re settling in, and I’m regaining the chance to let thoughts of travel carry me away.