Blue Ridge Mountains
A Journey Through Stories
There are journeys we remember for a particular place. Others stay with us because of everything that happened along the way. In April 2025, ours was a little of both.
From 4 to 19 April, we travelled through a part of the American South that I had wanted to experience for a long time. We started in Charlotte and continued through Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — through cities, small towns, coastal landscapes and mountain roads.
I love travelling through the United States. Its vastness, its changing landscapes, its music and the stories connected to so many places make a road trip here something quite unlike travelling in Europe.
Our journey came at a time when the political atmosphere in the country already felt complicated. The trip, however, had long been planned and booked. And travelling has always meant something more to me than headlines: meeting people, discovering places and experiencing a country for myself.
Part of this journey followed the world of Nicholas Sparks , whose novels and films I have loved for many years. Places such as New Bern, Southport and Edenton suddenly became more than names on a map — they became part of a journey through stories I had known long before arriving there.
From Cities to Mountains
Two weeks on the road took us through very different landscapes and very different sides of the American South.
Music Along the Way
Some journeys acquire their own soundtrack. In Tennessee, ours was unmistakably country.
An Evening at the Grand Ole Opry
Country music has long had a special place in my heart, so an evening at the Grand Ole Opry was naturally part of the journey.
I had known the Opry for years — from television, recordings and simply from hearing about this legendary place — but I had never actually been there.
Nothing quite prepared me for experiencing it in person. Even my friends, some of whom had perhaps expected simply another country music concert, were amazed.
Artists such as Lauren Alaina and Lady A took to the stage that evening, alongside many others, and the entire night unfolded as a wonderfully produced show. Again and again, we found ourselves looking at one another, surprised by who appeared next.
What impressed me most was that the Grand Ole Opry did not feel like a museum celebrating country music’s past. It felt alive — bringing together its history, today’s artists and generations of people who simply love this music.
For someone who had known the Opry for so long but had never experienced it in person, finally sitting there was something very special.
Following Loretta Lynn
Another story that has fascinated me for years is that of Loretta Lynn.
Her music is part of it, of course. But what has always stayed with me even more is her extraordinary life — where she came from, what she overcame and the journey that eventually made her one of the defining voices of American country music.
So one day we got into the car and drove to her ranch and museum in Tennessee.
And this time, the surprise belonged partly to my friends. Some of them barely knew Loretta Lynn before we arrived. But standing there, surrounded by the places, objects and memories of her life, they suddenly discovered the scale of the story behind the name.
It was one of those wonderful travel moments when a place you chose because it means something to you unexpectedly captures everyone else as well.
We left impressed — not only by the artist, but by the life behind her music.
Loretta Lynn’s Ranch deserves its own story. A separate Places & Stories feature will follow.
And, of course,
a little shopping
We all enjoyed discovering Nashville together, but when it came to country fashion, Sönke and I were definitely the shoppers of the group.
We both love the style, and Sönke has a particular passion for collecting cowboy boots, so naturally a few new pieces found their way into our luggage.
We also each bought a genuine Stetson hat — complete with one of those wonderfully large hat boxes. And that turned out to be part of the fun.
There we were, walking around Nashville carrying our enormous Stetson boxes and attracting rather more attention than expected. Again and again, ladies would smile at us and call out: “You have to wear them, guys!”
We didn’t. The hats stayed safely inside their boxes.
But apparently, two guys walking through Nashville with oversized Stetson boxes were enough to become a little bit of an eye-catcher anyway.
Into the Blue Ridge
And then the journey changed.
The roads became quieter. Towns disappeared behind us. Forest replaced streets and the landscape began to rise and fall around us.
We had reached the Blue Ridge Mountains — part of the Appalachian Mountains and a landscape famous for the soft blue haze that can settle across its distant ridges.
After days filled with cities, music, roads and stories, there was something almost immediate about the change of pace.
Here, surrounded by forest, the four of us had rented a cabin called View-Topia .
And it was a dream.
Our Cabin in the Woods
For a few days, this secluded wooden cabin became our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Living With the Mountains
The house itself became part of the experience.
Warm timber walls, high ceilings and enormous windows gave the cabin exactly the atmosphere I had imagined when thinking of a mountain retreat in Georgia.
During the day, light poured into the living spaces and the landscape was always present beyond the glass. There was a wonderful sense of being sheltered inside while still remaining connected to the forest outside.
A Porch Among the Trees
One of those places where doing very little suddenly feels like exactly enough.
The covered porch, with its stone fireplace and the forest beyond, captured everything we had come to the mountains for: quiet, space and time together.
Warmth in Wood
The warmth continued throughout the cabin.
Each bedroom had its own character, but the language remained the same: timber, soft fabrics, warm light and windows opening towards the trees.
It was comfortable without trying to be a hotel — and perhaps that was precisely its charm.
A Home for a Few Days
View-Topia wasn’t a hotel — and that was exactly what made it special.
We could cook together, sit by the fire, step outside into the woods or simply stay in. After so many impressions on the road, having a place where the four of us could slow down felt like a luxury in itself.
Thanksgiving at View-Topia
Standing in that wonderfully generous American kitchen, I immediately started imagining a proper Thanksgiving dinner: a huge turkey in the oven, all the traditional sides, friends around the table — the whole celebration.
Coming from Europe, where our ovens sometimes seem to have room for only a rather modest bird, the scale of it made me smile.
Here, I felt we could finally do Thanksgiving properly.
When Evening Arrived
And then came my favourite time of day.
As evening arrived, the mountains became silhouettes and the world outside the windows turned deep blue. Inside, the wooden rooms began to glow in warm light.
Those are often the moments I remember most from travelling. Not necessarily the famous sight or the place everybody tells you to visit, but an evening somewhere far from home, sitting together and looking through a window.
And simply thinking: how wonderful that we are here.
