Looking Back at 2025

1. Preface
2. Most Viewed Posts of 2025*
   1. 1. Müllerthal Trail Route 3
   2. 2. Beer & Hike: Bastogne
   3. 3. Hiking to Burg Eltz
   4. 4. Beer & Hike: Brasserie de Bellevaux
   5. 5. Brewtiful Bangkok
3. Blog Posts which had only 1 view in 2025
   1. Masterpiece Weekend: Oktoberfest 2017 pt. 1, 2, and 3 (1 ea.)
   2. Brewtiful Scotland
   3. The Spell of Flanders
   4. One Year Anniversary of ‘The Best Day Ever’
4. Other Awards
   1. Highest Ranked Drunken Masterpieces
   2. Highest Ranked Beer & Dickens
   3. Biggest Surprise
5. Final Remarks

Preface

One of the most enjoyable posts to write every year is the one that looks back at the last year and reflects on the blogging experience. It is the one time each year that I ponder about how my blog reflects outwardly rather than inwardly. Does anybody other than me find anything of value about my blog?

I started this blog in the Summer of 2016 and it has always been about the personal journey. I have no business model. I am not trying to be an influencer. You won’t find many recommendations of where to stay, where to eat, tips on finding travel deals, insights from interviews with pub owners or master brewers, or stories about mingling with the locals. I am a solo traveler with a great deal of dogged introvertedness. I have no problem with the spotlight or being at ease in social situations. It is the lingering affects those situations have on my psyche that I prefer to avoid when I am traveling. I save those social moments for friends and colleagues or when I have no other choice rather than proactively trying to create them with random strangers. So, each blog post is a way that I formulate my own travel companionship. There is the person who takes the adventure, and there is the person who sits down weeks or months later and reflects on it. These two have become inseparable in my identity and each cannot exist without the other. This is admittedly a double-edged sword. I struggle with investing in travel when I cannot envision how it would fit into my blog or when circumstances would hinder my independence to create the narrative that I want. You could say that I am a bear to plan travels with.

While I write solely for my own enjoyment, I do hope that someone actually finds pleasure in my blog posts. It always fascinates me to see which posts were the most viewed over the course of the year (or which ones have sunk to the lowest depths of obscurity). In the past, there was never a problem with the integrity of the analytics. However, starting in September 2025, something happened overnight which changed all of that. An onslaught began of AI bots from China and Singapore. The viewership of my blog skyrocketed due to hits from these countries. I don’t believe you will suddenly see busloads of Chinese tourists carrying a booklet of my blog posts at your nearest tourist site. These hits skewed my statistics almost beyond recognition, and I can no longer be certain about which posts were actually the most popular with real viewers. So, I decided to look at my data going back to the inception of my blog and remove all views from China and Singapore. The result was discovering some measure of good news. In 2025, I did achieve my personal record number of views by a small margin from all countries excluding China and Singapore.

But deciphering the most popular blog posts seemed to be a daunting task. Analytics do not break down the views of each blog post by country. These bots pounded my site relentlessly teaching their AI models, but I could tell that some posts were victimized more frequently. Let’s have a look at the final top 5 and see which ones seemed to be AI bot assisted. And despite the extra boost of AI bots, let’s take a look at the ones which languished at the bottom, hidden from the world.

Most Viewed Posts of 2025*

1. Müllerthal Trail Route 3

The Müllerthal Trail Route 3 post was first published in 2021. Of the three Müllerthal trails in Luxembourg, Route 3 is probably the 2nd most popular to actual hikers. Route 2 is generally considered to be the most prestigious. While my Müllerthal Trail posts generally perform pretty good, I could clearly see that starting in September 2025, this blog post was appearing at the top of daily view counts. By the end of the year, it had surpassed the blog post that I believe was the official winner.

Conclusion: AI Bot assisted

2. Beer & Hike: Bastogne

Last year’s runaway winner stayed at the top of my list until finally succumbing to the bot-assisted #1 in mid-December. There was actually a moderate drop-off in the number of views in 2025 compared to 2024, but I believe this post’s statistics are legitimate. It was on pace for this number of views in September. It pleases me a great deal to see this one at the top of the list.

Conclusion: My legitimate #1 viewed blog post of 2025

3. Hiking to Burg Eltz

My 2-time most viewed blog post was knocked off by #2 on this list in 2024. It continues to remain popular and even bridged the gap with #2 in 2025. This was the same situation in September. There was no sudden rise in views, so I believe the statistics to be legitimate.

Conclusion: My legitimate #2 viewed blog post of 2025

4. Beer & Hike: Brasserie de Bellevaux

Here is the poster child of the effects of the AI bot phenomenon. This is a hiking post from the Covid era which sank to such low obscurity as to only garner 1 view in 2023. Since it is one of my Battle of the Bulge-themed hikes, I was quite disappointed to see this one floundering. I did a different variation of this hike in 2024 so that I could visit the brewery cafe while it was actually open. While it is nice to see this post in the spotlight, I know that it was not due to any human interest or interaction. For some reason, AI programs in China and Singapore seemed to latch onto this one.

Conclusion: AI Bot assisted

5. Brewtiful Bangkok

When first published in 2020, this was one of my most popular blog posts of the year. Then it practically disappeared for years until the AI bots discovered it. It has a unique place in my pantheon for several reasons. It was one of the last great adventures I did before Covid came, and it was my first foray into discussing food on my blog (unavoidable when you visit Jay Fai’s restaurant). Unfortunately, I have to attribute its resurgence to the suboptimal effect of the AI bots rather than the sudden discovery of this post by Google searchers trying to find great beer joints and restaurants in Bangkok.

Conclusion: AI Bot assisted

Clearly my Top 5 was affected but fortunately not completely obliterated. My Bastogne and Burg Eltz posts continue to be two stalwarts in an internet world gradually being overtaken by AI.

Blog Posts which had only 1 view in 2025

Masterpiece Weekend: Oktoberfest 2017 pt. 1, 2, and 3 (1 ea.)

The story of Oktoberfest 2017 is legendary in my life (and the lives of those who were with me). It is hard to believe that it occurred over 8 years ago. However, as the experience was quite individual and very much a time capsule type of blog experience, I doubt the narrative would have much value to a search engine. There are plenty of resources to find tips or accounts of Oktoberfest which might either encourage one to attend or help make the process less daunting. But that was the best weekend ever, and those posts were so much fun to write.

Brewtiful Scotland

When I started my blog in the Summer of 2016, the first trip I took was a car journey around Scotland with my daughter in tow. This was the 4th blog post I ever posted. When I look back at it, it makes me wince and grind my teeth in agony. I was a new blogger trying to find my voice, and that post was like a nerd asking out the popular girl at the very moment puberty hits his vocal chords. That post exists only for me to reflect on how my writing style and the content of my blog have evolved. It brings little value otherwise to the internet. For that reason, it is a novelty that remains there for the occasional accidental view.

The Spell of Flanders

During the dark days of the Winter of 2023 when I was lacking adventures to write about, I decided to start featuring some of the classic travel books in my personal collection as a way to add content to my blog and keep it moving forward. It was a side project that lasted for a few blog posts before the Spring of 2023 brought new adventures. I never got back to this project, and it barely scratches the surface of my book collection. There is always the thought far in the back of my mind that some descendant of one these authors will discover that people still care about these old books.

One Year Anniversary of ‘The Best Day Ever’

My very first Oktoberfest was in 2015, the year before I started my blog. This blog post is a recounting (a very entertaining one I might add) of that experience. Similar to my Masterpiece Weekend posts above, this is very much a time capsule post, although I believe it does give a reader an accurate sense of the Oktoberfest phenomenon. Things have changed in the last 10 years though. During my last Oktoberfest in 2022, security had become much tighter, making it more difficult to ad lib your way through an Oktoberfest. Hopefully, that has eased up over the last three years.

Other Awards

Highest Ranked Drunken Masterpieces

I was hoping that my Drunken Masterpieces: Uffizi Gallery post would give this one a run for the money, but my Rijksmuseum post seems to have this award locked up every year. The Uffizi post only ranked 8th out of all my Drunken Masterpieces. No AI Bot assistance here.

Highest Ranked Beer & Dickens

My Beer & Dickens posts are dear to my heart, yet I realize they will not appeal to the masses nor reach a large audience. I look forward to the opportunity to go on a Dickensian exploration as much as any travel experience. This year’s unofficial winner got a huge boost in October which I believe was due to the AI bots.

The real winner in my opinion was my Beer & Dickens: Philadelphia Pt. 1 which had a steady amount of views each month and fell just short of the North Wales post.

Biggest Surprise

When the September AI bombardment hit, my Cliffs of Dover Hike post was in the top 5. It’s views continued to be steady without any sudden inflation. It proved in 2024 to be a post that was gaining some steam, and I believe the results are legitimate. It would have made the top 5 without the AI bots.

Final Remarks

On December 29, 2025, China suddenly disappeared from my blog analytics like a switch went off somewhere on a server. As I write, it is only January 3, but I only have one hit from China in 2026 so far. Singapore now sits at the top of the heap, but not at the levels that China alone was accounting for. Hopefully, things will go back to normal. In the meantime, usually I like to list my travel goals for the upcoming new year, but they are currently in a state of disarray. That is not to say they do not exist, but I don’t remember feeling as conflicted about what I would like to do. In that sense, what adventures will come in 2026 may be just as much a surprise to me as it is to the reader. But there is one thing I can guarantee, I will write about them. I want to thank each and every person who has blessed my blog with one of the views that helped achieve my personal record. May each of you and your circle of life have bountiful health and happiness in 2026. I also want to send a special thank you to those that reached out to me by email either to ask questions or give me feedback. Those meant a great deal to me, and I apologize if I am not always timely with my replies. Please know that I cherish all messages and comments. God bless you all and Happy New Year.