/Summary: 1988 Trip to Europe

(July 30 to December 6)

Our Pan Am World Airways tickets were good for one year, and the flight was non-stop, except it left Los Angeles eight hours late. Cousin Josef’s friend at his office had a 1985 Renault vehicle with a Pilote RV body for sale, so we bought it.

Spent a few days with Cousin Toni, a day with neighbors from La Quinta who were visiting Germany, then a month in France, at Paris, Angers, Limoges, Périgueux, Rocamadour, and Bordeaux. A night at Lourdes, and another at Carcassonne, and days at the old Roman ruins in Arles, Orange, Avignon, and the “Pont du Gard,” the Roman aqueduct just north of Nimes.

Stopped in Menton, Monaco, Grasse and many hill-towns, like Tourrette, Peille, Eze, and St. Paul, the “Perched Villages” in the mountains just above the French Riviera. Followed the “Route of Napoleon” over the French Alps, with another visit to Pérouges, then to Domrémy, Nancy, Metz, and across Luxembourg and home to Mettlach and Cousin Toni.

Spent the next ten days in Germany, a few days in France, a week in Switzerland, then over the St. Bernard Pass to Italy, and the terrible smog of Torino. Up the hill to Sacra di San Michele, then a night in the RV in Portofino.

Spectacular little towns include the Cinque Terra, Nicola, Ortonova, and Carrera, the mountain town of marble quarry fame where Michelangelo selected marble for his “Statue of David.” We bought a marble rolling pin from that quarry.

The tower at Pisa still leans, and the city of Lucca, its wall and the Amphitheater, was worth a visit. Spent several days in Florence, a few in Venice, then to Yugoslavia to visit Ljubljana, and the Amphitheater in Pula. We followed a snowplow across the Alps to Salzburg, then a night in Berchtesgaden. Drove past Munich and Stuttgart, spent a few hours in Speyer, then home sweet home, in Mettlach, at Toni’s house.

We traveled by train to Frankfurt to see their Christmas-mart, visited Trier and other nearby locations, and just took it easy. On December 4, 1939, early in WW II, Cousin Hugo married Maria, and Cousin Fina married Köbus, and now we were invited to the double 49th anniversary celebration.

Overall not as efficient as some of our trips, but still a beautiful way to spend 130 days.