You can get very bored on a long train ride, but you won't get bored if you know what is ahead on the tracks. Brenner Pass is a beautiful place, and the exciting thing is that you can see it by train If you want, you can even stop at one of the many train stations along the way and stretch your legs and talk a walk around one of the several lovely small towns. Brenner Pass is a feast for the eyes. Have your children count how many church steeples they see along the way, or how many small villages they see. Watch for hikers and take in the breath taking beauty. With photography by John D....

Take a trip down the Rhine River in Germany with Photographer John D. Weigand former K-12 teacher and award winning author and poet Penelope Dyan and see some of what they saw on their very special trip. You will be surprised at the castles you will see and how colorful the small towns and villages along the Rhine River are. Most of all, you can let your imagination fly as you compose wonderful stories in your head and pretend you are one of the princesses or princes of the castle returning home after a long trip. Then you can return to your very own castle. Do you know where that is? Read...

Han's Christian Andersen said, "Every man's life is a fairy tale, written by God's fingers." And if we begin as empty slates for God to write upon, then this is what must have happened to Hans Christian Andersen Now you can walk where he walked and see what he saw and find out what motivated him and inspired him to be a great writer. John D. Weigand and Penelope Dyan traveled to this magical place to see where all the inspiration began and to experience the serene beauty of this place they call 'Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen.' Kid's can use this book when they travel to Copenhagen and...

The city of Civitaveccia, Italy is well known as the Port of Rome, even though Rome is an hour away by train. If you happen to arrive here and decide not to go to Rome, or if you are passing through this city, then there are quite a few things you can see and do. You can watch the boats, take a walk, see street venders, ride an amusement park ride, have something good to eat, go shopping and more. You are in Italy and the hospitality will abound Take a walk through the part of Rome by looking through the lens of photographer John D. Weigand, and by looking through the heart of award winning...

Izmir, Turkey is an exciting place to visit, full of history and culture and more facts than you could ever possibly keep inside your head, so the best thing to do when you go to this place is to simply soak it in, relax and take a step back in time as you explore this part of Turkey, which is actually a part of Asia. The Turks will tell you that people who are from this part of Turkey in Asia were the first settlers of America, the first Native Americans. They will tell you that it was their ancestors who crossed the Bering Strait during the ice age, and that their people are Nomadic and to...

This book is recommended by 'Simply Hotels' and the edicational website 'Maisey Goes To Barcelona.' It is a child's picture book, and sometimes even older children and adults enjoy reading it and looking at the pictures. Children can add things to the book (if they like) and write in the book and on the blank pages at the end of the book, and Penelope Dyan encourages them to do so to make the book their very own. It is a guide for the very young with colorful photographs of a walk down La Ramba (the heart of Barcelona) to the statue of Christopher Columbus pointing the way to America. There...

Malta has been inhabited since it was settled around 5200 BC from the Italian island of Sicily. Later, the Phoenicians and the Greeks arrived, the Romans and the Arabs, and the French and the English. Malta is a virtual melting pot. The Siege of Malta (also known as the Great Siege of Malta) took place in 1565 when the Ottomans invaded the island, then held by the Knights of Saint John. For the next 275 years, the knights called this island home. They built towns, palaces, churches, and fortifications. Malta is rich in history and is a very fun place to explore and to see. Take some time to...

A review of this book in Today's Zaman, 'Turkish Delight': Exploring Sultanahmet with a child, 2 October 2011 / MARION JAMES, ISTANBUL reads in part as follows: If I were taking a child around Sultanahmet, we would arrive home exhausted and fall into a deep sleep, imagining ourselves to be characters from Istanbul's exciting historic past. This child's eye view is captured in a delightful series of guidebooks by Weigand and Dyan. The Istanbul guide is entitled "Turkish Delight" and children are taken round the city by a simple rhyme which accompanies 20 full-page photographs. "What a surprise...