@Longer Version: 1985 Trip

(May 30 to October 31)

This year, Pan Am World Airways was not only non-stop to Frankfurt, it was on time! We had purchased specially-priced ($250) one-way tickets, and would figure how best to get home some months from now. Best possible travel decision ever, stay tuned!

When we parked the camper in Hugo’s neighbor’s garage in 1983, we expected to return in 6 months, but 20 months passed before we got there. To our delight the camper started with no problem, it needed no air in the tires, and no water in the radiator! The only problem was that mice had feasted on paper bags of cocoa, chewing gum, and other such goodies!

About a week later we left for the Frankfurt area, followed the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers for a while, then to Monschau, Germany. Crossed the border to Nijmegan, Hattem, and Amsterdam, in The Netherlands.

After a few days in Antwerp, Ghent, and Brugge, Belgium, we traveled along the Channel coast, through Dunkerque and Fecamp, to Cousin Monika’s at Montivilliers, near le Havre. As we headed west from here, we couldn’t resist another visit to dazzling Honfleur. In the mid-1400’s the citizens of Honfleur were boat builders, so the roof over the wooden St. Catherine’s church is constructed as two large boats, upside down. Spent a night in Ste. Mere Egilse, where a stained glass window in the town church commemorates the US Army paratroop landing on D-Day, WW II, when a parachute caught on its steeple (shown in the movie, “The Longest Day”). Fougéres was as beautiful as remembered, as were Mont St. Michel, Dinan, and St. Malo, with the sign, “The Museum of France.”

A little more time in Brittany, then back through the Loire Valley, with its dozens of Chateau’s. Couldn’t resist another visit to the Cathedral at Chartres; we rented bicycles to see the grounds of the Palace at Versailles; spent a couple of days in Paris; on to the Cathedral in Rheims; then to Toni’s for a short change of pace.

Now we headed to Strasbourg and the Alsace of France, spent several days in Switzerland, into Italy and through Milan and Venice to the Republic of San Marino. We visited Florence, Siena, spent a couple of days in Rome, then to the outstanding Villa d’Este fountains and the Villa Adriana at Tivoli. In Pescara I was required, or permitted, to stand, push, and jostle in line, jam-packed together from “tosies” to “nosies” (Where is Gina Lollobridgia when she is needed most!), to buy a ticket for the ferry to Split, Yugoslavia.

From Split we drove south along the Adriatic coast to Dubrovnik, about the most glorious old walled city we have seen in all of Europe. The rough roads were a problem as we drove the length of Peljesac Peninsula to Orebic, where we paid our quarter to ride a small boat to the Island and the walled stone City of Korcula. A “who can imagine this exists” kind of city.

The high-arched, marble pedestrian bridge in Mostar, built by the Ottoman Empire in 1577, deserves all the accolades it receives, it’s beautiful. While we didn’t spend enough time in Sarajevo to become greatly impressed with the city, we received a good impression of some of its citizens.

In Zagreb we were awakened at 6:00 AM by the police and taken to the campsite office to explain our passports. We usually present expired passports to the campsite office because we hate to let them hold our valid ones. Almost no one notices the “Canceled” stamp, but this time they cared, but not too much, our only real joust with police in all our travels in Europe.

It took several days in Vienna to see the city and to obtain visas needed to visit Czechoslovakia and Poland. We talked to a half dozen people who had driven into Czechoslovakia, and all reported a very unpleasant experience. In contrast, ours was the only vehicle at a small town border crossing point early on a Sunday morning, and we were welcomed and had no problem. Our visit to Tabor (where in the 1400’s Taborites, a religious group, dug 27 miles of tunnels, as a place to hide), Ceské Badejovice and beautiful Prague was very worthwhile, even though our paranoia obstructed our enjoyment, somewhat.

Soon we crossed into Poland, to the city of Wroclaw and spent an interesting day visiting in the homes of mothers, sisters, uncles, and friends of the Polish family (who we had met in the campsite in Vienna in 1980) who, with our help, had moved to the US in 1981. Our couple-of-hour visit to Auschwitz was almost more than we could handle, so we continued to Kraków and spent the night. We found Kraków a fascinating, intriguing, but depressing city, so soon we drove on to Warsaw. We were just barely making it from day to day, so heartfelt was our angst, and so sorry did we feel for people unfortunate enough to have this Government. Finally, after a good night’s sleep in Warsaw, Emmy said, “I feel like a new woman,” and I said, “Goodness knows I need one.”

Warsaw was terribly damaged during WW II and while a portion of the old town has been rebuilt to earlier specifications, most of the city has been reconstructed in boring “Socialist Modern” architecture. We had planned to visit with one of our daughter’s former college professors who lives in Poznan, but when we telephoned him from Vienna he said he was leaving for the US the next day. He told us to keep his phone number with us, as the Dean of the School of Law would be staying in his home and he was a good man to know in case we had a problem. Now the only problem we had was that we had no problem, so we called him anyway and spent a delightful day with the family.

The 100 miles to the East German border took three hours, and another three hours were spent trying to move 100 feet past East German Customs on the bridge over the Oder River, into the “other” Frankfurt, Germany. We continued past Berlin, into West Germany, then turned right to catch a ferry to Denmark, another to Sweden, and soon another back to Denmark. Drove to Hamburg, then to Cousin Toni’s in Mettlach. On the day daughter Linda and Dan arrived in Europe on their slightly delayed honeymoon, we all went to nearby Merzig for the wedding of one of Emmy’s cousins.

We saw more of Germany, then after a few days in Mettlach, drove across Luxembourg, Belgium and into The Netherlands to Rotterdam. We (the camper and us) boarded a Polish ship, SS Stefan Batory, sailed to London for a day, then after ten days on the Atlantic Ocean to Montreal, we drove the camper to California. Much better than a return flight on any airplane. Our only Atlantic crossing without jet-lag, and a good way to end our sensational 156 day trip!