Ah, June. Don’t you just love this month, with all its glorious light stretching late into the evenings? What an ideal time of year for after-work gatherings at a cafe or a hurriedly thrown-together barbeque or picnic. It won’t be long before the length of the daylight hours begins its slow but inevitable decrease, but with three months of (fingers crossed) warm summer weather ahead of us, who’s really going to complain?

There are many ways to note the passing of the summer solstice, a date that nearly coincides with celebrations held throughout much of Europe to mark St. John’s day. The saint being honored is none other than St. John the Baptist, and the day upon which he is celebrated falls just after the solstice, on June 24.

If you're contemplating a trip to a Mediterranean paradise such as Turkey, Croatia, Malta, Italy or Greece, your first instinct might be to go with one of those all-inclusive package deals. You'd most likely end up with a charter flight to a busy resort offering the usual array of beaches, pool and buffet dining. That's nothing to sneeze at, but by midweek you might find yourself longing for a change of scenery or physical activity more strenuous than laps across the pool.

When it comes to planning your next vacation, are you willing to gamble? How would you feel about purchasing flight tickets to a destination unknown? 

Did you ever have one of those perfect days out that made you feel like you were on a mini-vacation? I did, just a couple weekends ago. I now hold yet another recipe for a fun-packed and relatively inexpensive outing, and I'm pleased to share it. 

Any great plans for this coming Saturday evening, May 17? If you won’t be tuning into the camp and glitz of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, you could always check out one of the more than 2,000 events being put on in conjunction with the 5th Edition of the European Night of the Museums. The site’s handy map of Europe will help you to find the locations of the various spectacles, concerts, illuminations and other fun stuff that is to be laid on. Here is a tiny sampling of things you could check out:

When’s the last time you’ve been to a concert? You might have paid 50, 60 euros or more to see a single performer. Imagine the impact to your savings account if you were to do that 50 times per year! There is a wonderful, money-saving alternative: Spring for a music festival ticket this year. For around 130 euros, you can immerse yourself in three or more days of today’s top artists performing back to back. What a sensory overload that would be! And would you ever be content again going to see just one act perform?

Have you taken your bicycle out of storage yet? Spring is a great time to get your wheels in gear and start exploring what lies round yonder hill or in a neighboring village.

Germany is blessed with plenty of trails that can be ridden on any given weekend; alternately, get out with thousands of other cyclists, hikers and in-line skaters for an auto-free day, when huge swaths of highway are taken up by people traveling under their own steam and cars are banned.

It was a long time coming, but spring, glorious spring, is here at last. And what better sign of spring can there be than flowers?