@Longer Version: 1995 Trip
(May 16 to August 31)
This year discount tickets were available from Air Canada, so we flew to Toronto, wasted a couple of hours, then to Frankfurt, and to nearby Cousin Klaus and Helga’s to get over Jet-Lag. We then spent a few cold, rainy days finding a Motor Home.
Three of Emmy’s cousins (Josef, Hugo, and Toni) have died since our last visit, and Cousin Bärbel now owns the long-time family home in Mettlach. The Saar River has recently been changed into a canal, and 1,000 year old Mettlach’s Main Street is a pedestrian zone filled with restaurants and ice cream stores, instead of large trucks barreling through the narrow street.
We visited the nearby old Roman Capital of Trier, spent a day in Nancy and Metz, France, then while visiting Strasbourg and the French Alsace someone broke into our Motor Home! We don’t know if someone surprised the robber, or what, but while everything was disturbed, nothing was stolen.
Our 44th anniversary was celebrated at the “Strasbourg Cafeteria,” a bite here and a bite there as we walked the streets of this beautiful city. We must always visit the beautiful French Alsace, no other area compares.
While taking a picture of Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s birthplace in Kaysersberg, the Video camera quit. We had planned to go south from here, but taking Video pictures was an important part of the trip, so back to Mettlach we went. A couple of USA phone calls solved the camera problem, temporarily.
We visited Margit and family in Essen, and near Bonn spent a night each with Cousin Reinhold and family, and friends Peter and Uli (in their small suburban town, water is still delivered through a 2,000 year old Roman Aqueduct!). Then to Cousin Gerd and Monika’s home at Nauborn, Germany.
Stopped in Alsfeld, then the former East German towns of Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, and Jena. We saw the memorial to the Buchenwald concentration camp high on the hill above Weimar, but did not visit this year.
It was cold and rainy in Naumburg and Leipzig, and in Dresden we saw the start of the $100,000,000 restoration of the Frauenkirche, fifty years after the WW II bombing. Using a computer they will place the 10,000 still-usable original stones (fire was so hot, most melted) in their exact former location among all the new stones.
Near Prague, I found a flail, an unusual item for my cane collection, then a few days later, in Plzen, we bought another! Beautiful Prague, with St Vitus Cathedral, the Charles Bridge, and the Old Town Square, is fascinating.
In Nürnberg we visited friends, and stayed at the campsite near the Nürnberg Stadium, where Hitler gave his famous speeches in the 1930s. The city of Passau, high on a hill surrounded by three rivers, is as beautiful as we had been told, and our visits to Hallstatt and Salzburg, Austria this year, as in previous years, were in cold, rainy weather. We could see nothing of Berchesgarden, Germany in the fog and rain, but with a light June snow in the Austrian mountains, we found Wagrain where Joseph Mohr wrote “Silent Night.”
Several beautiful sunny days were spent walking all over Venice during our seventh visit to that special city. The camera failed again, but was repaired in nearby Padova! We continued through Ferrara, Bologna, and to the country of San Marino for our fourth visit. We revisited San Leo, Gradara, Gubbio, Spoleto, and a dozen others, then to Assisi. Surprise! an escalator leads from the parking lot, part way up the hill to the town of Assisi.
In Perugia, after driving a 26% downgrade with a left turn through a small arch, we were in no condition to hold the camera still for pictures! Well, we made it OK, but Emmy set a record for shrieking in G above high C, and thank goodness Jim’s pants were washable.
Siena’s city-hall tower, with 400+ steps to climb, had visitor's information shown in 65 different languages! The view made the climb more than worth the effort. Then to San Gimignano (14 of the original 71 towers remain), and to Florence for our 5th or 6th visit.
Europe is overrun by tourists, and dozens of small “Tourist Trains” are available for narrated sight-seeing jaunts. Most cities have restricted driving in downtown areas, and parking near where you want to be is almost non-existent.
Lucca’s Amphitheater is about the size and shape of others, but instead of seats, it is surrounded by apartment buildings. The TV aerials ensure that the residents can still watch the circus, ball games, and horse races, just like Amphitheater spectators of old! There are stores (one named “Mary Poppins”) and restaurants (one named “Spartacus”) in the first floor, and tables and chairs in the “playing field.”
The leaning tower of Pisa sure does, so much it is closed for repairs. This part of Italy was so jammed with people the campsites were double-crowded and triple-priced. In Sarzana, Restaurant Bambi had an empty parking lot, so with the owner’s permission we spent the night.
After visiting Cinqueterre, we drove to Portofino, then found a new parking garage filled the space where we camped overnight in 1988. Our vehicle would not fit the new parking area, and the police would not let us even pause in the spaces reserved for residents. We had to back-track to a parking lot, then ride the bus to see this famous sea-side town.
A couple days were spent at San Remo on the Italian Riviera, then in and around Mentone, Monaco, Nice, Roquebrune, Eze, Peillon, Grasse and Fréjus, on the French Riviera. We went on to Arles, St Remy, Le Baux, Avignon, Nimes and the Pont de Gard, revisiting 2,000 year old Roman Amphitheaters (still in use), some Aqueducts, the Pope’s Palace, and other places of interest in this beautiful part of France.
One afternoon and night were spent in the town of Aigues-Mortes, where Crusade armies assembled in the 1200s. To see these old, old floodlit walls 100 yards out our window during the night, is almost beyond description. Our night-time Video of this, and of the floodlit walls of Carcassonne (with 52 towers and a double wall), are worth a million words.
After Toulouse, Cahors, St Cirq Lapopie, Rocamadour, Sarlat, and Périgueux (the old Roman Amphitheater is now a city park), we spent the night in the driveway of a friendly family from Scotland who had refurbished a French farmhouse.
A day was spent in tragic Oradour sur Glane, where the town and over 600 people were exterminated near the end of WW II. Several days were spent visiting the beautiful cathedrals in Bourges, Orleans, and Charters, and in the cities of Versailles and Paris. Then to Mettlach and Cousin Bärbel and her “new” 180 year old home. She teaches the German language to Germans who are now permitted to return from Russia. One of them, Olga, gave Emmy a permanent and me a haircut. We made day trips, including visits to Saarburg (Emmy’s father’s birthplace) and the City of Luxembourg. Our second visit to the Maginot Line means we have spent more time there than the Germany Army did in 1940!
I found ten additions to my cane collection including three that belonged to cousins who have died, four from here and there, plus the two flails from the Czech Republic. A part of a Paris fountain, found near the Eiffel Tower, now resides in that collection.
During this 107 day trip we visited with cousins and other friends in about 18 different homes, spent 47 nights with Bärbel, 55 in the camper, 28 in places we had not stayed before, 6 nights in driveways, and drove 5,292 miles in 8 countries. Come to think of it, no wonder we were tired!
All in all, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there” is not a cliché, it’s the truth!
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