Back to MCD Home Page Back to Vacations Home Home Home Home Home Home < Home |
Europe 1991: June 20 to July
8, Vacation in Europe
We had been thinking about this vacation for several months as Bruce and Marlene had suggested that we go with them when they went to visit their daughter. We had several planning meetings to make the arrangements. Since we had different areas we wanted to see, we agreed to spend only part of the time together. We had many examples of good fortune. There were two examples in Amsterdam alone. Kay and I were to meet Bob and Att at the American Hotel. We got to the Amsterdam area latter than we would have liked. We elected to check into our hotel and take public transportation to the American Hotel rather than attempt to find the American and a place to park. We took a bus to the Central Station to make connections with a trolley. While walking to the trolley, we saw Bob and Att on a trolley heading for our meeting. We waved and caught the next trolley to the hotel. The next day we were to meet Marlene, Bruce and Annette at the Central Station. Since parking there is a real problem, we decided to get there early. About 4 blocks before we got to the station we waited for a car to go by before pulling out, and trerethey were! We saw each other and met at a better place. Twice in two days meeting someone like that was something. It took a while to get used to the road signs, especially in the cities. It was difficult to determine the direction, was it straight or should we turn left? What is the correct lane to be in? Driving in the cities was hectic at best. Getting downtown was usually not as difficult as leaving the city. Every city had Centrum/Zentrum signs to follow. We finally started getting out of town by finding a wide road and following it until we found an autobahn sign. We followed the signs to the freeway and then picked the correct direction. This might have meant more driving at times, but it was sure easier and faster. The drivers on the autobahns drove very fast but generally drove with courtesy and good judgment. Most autobahn drivers tried to drive in a manner that benefited traffic as whole. This, of course, also benefited them. We drove 2,000 plus miles which was enough to get a good cross section of drivers and roads. Money was not much of a problem even though at one time we carried currency from 6 countries. We started our vacation on Thursday afternoon, June 20 about 2:30 pm. We met Bruce and Marlene and their friends drove us to the Akron-Canton airport. The airport had really changed since our last visit. It now looks like a modern airport. After about a 90+ minute wait we departed for Chicago. We spent 3 1/2 hours in Chicago and then we were on the way to Brussels, Belgium. We got paged in the Chicago airport. A family wanted us to change seats so they could sit together. We did and it worked out to our advantage also. We were upset that the 4 of us could not sit together on either ocean crossing. The 8 hour trip was uneventful except just before takeoff a set of oxygen masks fell down and it took 1/2 hour to repair them. We were basically on time and the flight was pleasant. We made arrangements to pick up the rental car before going through customs. They gave Kay a hard time on the price, but the matter was settled. Kay says, "Do your rental agreement through AAA and get a discount. Be sure to bring all the paper work from the USA." Our bags were not inspected either leaving the USA or arriving in Brussels. In fact no one would look inside our luggage throughout the entire vacation. When we went to pick up the car, it was a Ford Sierra, rather than a Ford Escort. The Sierra was really a nice car, about the size of our Tempo but with several nice additional features. Since we either had no owner’s manual, or one written in German, it took a while to learn what all the buttons were for. Upon leaving the airport we headed for The Place. This is supposed to be the place to see in Brussels. We had some problem finding it, so we asked a few people on the way. Marlene was acting as guide since she was the best at speaking French. One woman even had us pull over and spent quite a bit of time with us. Eventually we got close and parked. We still could not find it without asking some friendly policemen. They told us to go up one block and turn right. When we did that, there was The Place. It had been surrounded by other buildings and we kept missing it. It was worth the search. We had a snack at an outdoor restaurant. A Scottish traveling musician entertained us with a banjo and singing. We then walked to the famous Mannikin-Pis bronze statue. This statue was smaller than I expected and not easy to find. We then went to the Ancient Museum where there were many famous paintings, Rubens, Rembrandts, etc. We then headed for France. This was our first good look at European highway signs. In a city, until you get used to the signs they are impossible to read, after that they are only very difficult. All we were trying to do was leave Brussels heading for Waterloo. After a problem or two we asked directions at a gas station. A man getting gas at the station started to explain all this and then told Marlene to have us follow him. We did that for fifteen minutes or so and then were on the road to Reims. We had been headed in the right direction but, there was construction with no well marked detour. He was one of the many helpful people we met. It would have been very time consuming to get on the correct road without a guide. We were on our way to Waterloo. At the last minute we decided to wave at Waterloo instead of visiting it. We had a very nice dinner at Charleroi, Belgium. We picked the meal by ordering what the people next to us had. It was a very large, very good, shish kebab. This area had about 15 restaurants in a row. We were directed there by a young man. In the midst of these restaurants there was a "working girl" sitting in one of the store windows. That was interesting. Very pretty black lace, what there was of it. We spent the night in Givet, France. The hotel was along the river. It was a nice hotel with pleasant English speaking owners. We wandered through the small city that evening. There was a very noisy but enjoyable music festival going on. Lots of young people were dancing and having fun. The next morning we wandered up and down the river enjoying the sights. There was a large castle overlooking the city. This castle, on more than one occasion, kept this area of France free as it was too difficult to capture. It was not due to open for tours until late in the afternoon, so we departed the city on our way south after a little breakfast. We had an interesting drive through Charleville-Mezieres on the way to Reims. We took several pictures there. We all remarked that the drive reminded us very much of the Ohio River valley. The Reims cathedral was our main reason for this side trip into France. The cathedral was large and plain but ornamental also. A possible reason for this is that this and most other cathedrals had an open, wide entrance. A car could be driven in right in. The floors were very plain. Ornamentation was kept to the windows and carvings. I had parked my car in a parking garage. When we went to leave, I found out I didn't know how to pay. That was clear when we got to the exit and there was a gate across. The ticket machine would not take our ticket to open the gate. It seems all over Europe that you pay at an automatic machine when you are ready to leave but before you get to your car and then put the electronically stamped ticket into the exit gate slot. Live and learn. Now we are on our way to Epernay the home of Champaign. This would prove to be a more exciting visit than we intended. It was raining puppies and kittens by the time we entered this fair city. While we were driving through a T-intersection that was protected by a yellow flashing light about 30 or so feet from the intersection, I glanced to the left to see what traffic was coming. Apparently the driver in the car in front of us thought the light had been red and she stopped in the middle of the intersection. We were unable to stop on the wet cobblestone streets, even though we were only going about 10-12 k/h. We lost our right front headlight; she had her exhaust knocked loose and the rear bumper bent in their old car. We called the police but they did not seem very interested and spoke no English. They said to fill out an insurance form and get on our way, and they then left. The woman happened to have an accident form in the car, we did also as it is required in rental cars. We went to a near by restaurant to fill out the form. She spoke no English; Marlene spoke a little French and could read it fairly well. The woman stated that she stopped 3 meters before the red light and that we pushed her into the intersection, a distance of 30-40 feet. Even though the restaurant manager and waitress said the light had never been red, she would not change her story. We put our version next to hers and exchanged forms. The waitress spoke a little English and helped us very much. She called two local Hertz offices but found no one who spoke English and they had no cars anyway. An interesting sidelight during this was that in the car with her was a man who never said a word. At one point he went by this very busy intersection and imitated the Mannikin-Pis bronze statue. Since the car could be driven, we decided to go directly to Luxembourg to get another car. The Champaign cellars and the Verdun battle fields were now off the itinerary. We all wanted to see these but I was afraid to take the chance of it getting dark. We found our way to the Luxembourg airport and exchanged the car. The two people there spoke excellent English. They seemed almost amused at our tale of woe and gave us another car. This car was the exact color and model of our previous car. I hoped that this was not an omen of things to come. On now to Heidweiler via Trier We found a little restaurant in Trier before heading for Heidweiler as Annette was not expecting us for dinner. We arrived there almost exactly on schedule. We re-met Annette and met Chuck for the first time. The next day we went to Bernkastel with Annette and Chuck as guides. This was a very interesting city. It had lots of nice shops, a river and a castle on top of the hill. It was very similar to many of the cities we were to visit. After Bernkaskel we went to a wine festival in Trier. It was mobbed. This was about the first nice weather weekend of the year and everyone was out to take advantage of it. Then back to Heidweiler for another night. Kay and I decided to accept another night’s hospitality so the next day we went to Spangdahlem Air force base and met Chuck for lunch. We had an interesting tour of the base. We watched the jets take off and land and the hustle and the general bustle of a base. Spengalem is really a city itself. There are schools, play areas, movie theaters, etc. We went into a book store or two and bought items at the Base Exchange, Now for the grand tour of Trier. Trier is a very interesting city. We started sightseeing at the Roman amphitheater. It was built about 100 AD. They say it seated 20,000 people. There are grassy areas where people could sit, but 20,000? I don't see how unless there were other arrangements or the 20,000 were close together. We walked around in the arena, and in the cellars beneath the arena. The lions had been kept in the cellars. At ground level there were several rooms that seemed to be dressing rooms or waiting rooms. I walked up to the spectator's area where there were great views of the amphitheater. When I got to the prime viewing area, there was a lion attacking a helpless visitor! No, on second sight it was a wilder than usual Kathleen doing the attacking. No one appeared to be injured during this action. We left the amphitheater and drove to the Porta Nigra, the black gate. We walked up to the top and had a good view of the area. This gate was very interesting and has a long history in the military action in Trier. We ate in the courtyard where many a bloody battle was fought. The enemy was usually lured into the courtyard through a gate and then they met their unfortunate, for them, fate. We then started walking to the other sights. We visited the Dom. Christ's robe is stored here but was not on display this year. We saw other beautiful churches in this area also. We walked around the palace and saw some very nice gardens. The Kaiserthermen, imperial baths, were next. The tour of the grounds, and under the grounds, was more interesting than expected. There are many passages and rooms underneath. We did not get lost, and all found their way to safety. On the way back to the car we again went to the Hauptmarkt, the main square of old Trier. This is where the wine festival had been the day before. We again saw the interesting fountains and looked around. Now back to Heidweiler. We spent another night there, our third, and then on June 25th we headed for Idar-Oberstein, Heidelberg and the rest of our journey. We were now on our own as Marlene and Bruce were going to stay in the area another day before heading for Paris. It seems that during most of our European driving we have been along side or a river watching the many barges plying their way. Many barges carry a car for transportation. A row boat and a bicycle or two are very common also. There is quite a bit of recreational boating and some jet skiing on the rivers. We even saw one sailboat on the 60' wide expanse of water. In places there would be a railroad track to our left and a river to our right with very little space between for the road. During this, and other days, we frequently pulled off the main road and went into a small village. In all of them we found interesting things to see and do. Almost no one spoke English in these villages. The dress was much more casual than in the big cities, about like what you would expect to see in the US. Much of our grocery shopping was done in these villages. Local shoppers all carried a shopping basket to the stores and bought only what fit into the basket. This seemed true even for the few who drove. It must be normal to shop frequently. Virtually all villages and cities had signs pointing to tennis courts or sportplatz areas. Unused outdoor table tennis tables were a common item. We frequently used these areas for rest, relaxation, or eating. There was another interesting thing we saw everywhere. When driving around in a strictly residential area, every few blocks we would see a cigarette machine outside on a post or a wall. They were everywhere. I have never seen anything like this before. Not even in smoking mad China. Several villages or cities had a festival or carnival going on. Many of the rides had English signs and lettering. We drove to Heidelberg via Idar-Oberstein an interesting little town. Much of the driving was on non freeway roads. On this day and the next, we saw many castles in the sky, or rather on the hill tops over looking the road. We would be driving along with only ordinary farm building in sight when suddenly a large castle would appear out of nowhere. Perhaps that is why this is called the Castle road. We got on the autobahn well before Heidelberg just in time for one of the many traffic delays we would encounter due to road construction. These delays occurred on both main and local roads. I guess there is no way to avoid this anywhere. Our goal in Heidelberg was to see the river, the university area, and especially the castle. We drove around the city for a while getting a good look at the river front, and then headed for the train station, a likely spot for tourist information. We got the information and headed for the castle via the university area. There are three ways to get up to the castle, take a lift, drive up, or walk up a very steep hill. We walked. It was a difficult but interesting walk. We spent quite a bit of time in the castle area. We walked the gardens, saw the many sights, climbed many stairs, and saw many beautiful views of the castle and the city below. This was our first castle visit and we wanted to absorb as much of the atmosphere as possible. We left the castle and decided to head east and south to find a place to spend the night. We spent the night in Eberbach just a few miles east. On the morning of June 26th we headed south for Gundelsheim and the autobahn. This took longer than expected due to stop and go traffic in a couple small towns. We would be stopped for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, road construction again. We got off the road and visited another small town. A carnival was going on with rides and Las Vegas booths. Many of the exhibits must have come from the US as English was the language of the day. Now back on the autobahn headed east. We elected to leave the autobahn and head north to Rothenberg, a city that is expected to be well worth the extra driving. We ate lunch at a very nice restaurant just outside the prime tourist area where we looked over the guide books of the local sights. We started by walking to the Rathaus which is worth a visit in almost every town. Then we went to the Stadtpfarrkirche St. Jacob. This was a good church to visit. I visited the Kriminalmuseum while Kay rested, wandered and wrote cards. This was a fascinating museum. It is amazing what horrible things you can do to people without actually inflicting physical pain. They had a dual mask where two women would be fastened together facing each other about 6 inches apart. They would remain there until they made up any arguments. There were masks that would whistle with every breath, there were many things I would not want to be involved in. There were also several methods of execution and physical torture. We wandered throughout the Centrum area, walked along the city wall, visited the churches, in and out of several shops and in general taking in all the sights. Kay was right; this city was worth a visit. Now to Nurnberg: This city was high on the list of cities I wanted to see. It is now June 27th and we are in the center of Nurnberg. We started out sightseeing at St. Lorenz Kirsch. This was a good first choice as it is a beautiful church. I was maybe the nicest church of our trip so far. There was a very ornate wood hanging over the altar. The windows were beautiful and the carving ornate. Stands were being built for a concert that was coming up over the weekend. After leaving the church we walked through the city gates and entered the train station and a modern shopping area. We then spent a while in the Germanish Nationalmuseum. We saw a carved bed that was almost worth the visit. There were many paintings, carvings of ships, large ornate things that we could not figure out what they were, etc. This was interesting but we would have enjoyed it more if the signs had not all been in German. Frequently museum signs are in 3 or 4 languages including English. We then went to the Hauptmarkt area for some lunch and sightseeing. There is a beautiful 60' Gothic fountain (Schoner Brunnen) highlighting the market. The Frauenkirche is also there. We missed the noon clock display by an hour. We ate at a Burger King. After we paid, Kay asked for some just plain water. The cashier said, "Do you want ice in it?". Kay was not too shocked to say yes please. She then added that she didn't know that ice water was available. The woman said she would do that "just for you". St. Sibelius church was the next stop. This is another beautiful church. There was an organ concert in progress. I recorded a few minutes of it. This was the first church we had been in where there were pictures and signs all around showing the destruction during the war. You could easily compare then and now. It was interesting and impressive to see the results of the renovation. It was raining lightly when we were ready to leave the church so Kay stayed inside while I walked to the Altes-Rathaus. During the walk the rain picked up considerably, meaning I got very wet. I stopped in a store or two to browse and keep dry. After waiting a few minutes for the rain to ease, we headed for Die Kaiserburg castle. To see the inside of the castle you must take a German language tour. While we were waiting for the tour to start we climbed up a tall tower. This about did us both in, but the view was worth it. The Imperial Castle is a collection of many buildings and was the residence of the Holy Roman Emperors. About 3 minutes into the tour, the woman tour guide, left the tour. After a few minutes she came back with scripts of the tour in English. We, and the others involved, had made no mention of the fact that we did not know German. When we had been in the museum earlier we wondered what the several tall, ornate objects were. During the tour we found out that they were heating stoves. Such a simple answer and we would never have guessed. The double chapel with an ornate upper part for royalty and a plain lower part for the common folks was a highlight. The tour went next to a building that contained a well where the water was about 2,300 feet down. The guide played music by pouring water down the well. This tour was well worth the time and money. We then walked by the Albrecht-Durer Haus. Durer's paintings had been featured in the museum earlier. We went through the city walls and looked into the city beyond. We would have walked along the top of the wall but never found the way up. The castle stables were the next stop. They have been converted to a luxury youth hostel. There were many youth inside playing cards and sitting around talking. The eight hours we spent in downtown Nurnberg was time well spent. Nurnberg lived up to all our expectations. We then headed for Allersburg a small town a few miles south. We had hoped to contact Juanita Down's brother. We called him but no one answered. Off now to the Regensburg area to spend the night. We stayed at the Casino hotel. This hotel consisted of 3/4 buildings, an hotel, soccer, golf, tennis club, squash, bowling, banquet hall, therapy rooms, in other words the works. The first restaurant we went into was very expensive and we left. The next was the other extreme, a small bistro. They had no menu, just a few items on a board. We didn't care for the selection so the nice waiter asked what we did want. We gave him a general idea, some kind of fish for Kay and sandwich for me. He said ok and made up a meal to satisfy us. It was very a good meal. Regensburg is one of the best preserved cities in Germany. The war caused virtually no damage. We passed over the Danube River using the Steinbruke Bridge getting a view of Bruckturm, the Bridge Tower. We parked near the bridge and walked to Dom St. Peter. We then walked through a large part of the city going into several stores, a park, and eventually getting to the auto club. They had no information on getting into Czechoslovakia, at least none that we could understand as the clerk did not speak any English. Even though it was later than we planned, we left for Prague on this 28th day of June. We had no idea if the entry will be difficult or easy. In a few hours we would find out. All went smoothly until we got about 7 kilometers from the border. Then the traffic became impossible. There was a deluge of cars and the truck traffic was even worse. This was a two lane road and traffic our way was using both lanes plus the pedestrian /bicycle lane. What a mess. We were directed to a side road and this was no better. Eventually we rejoined the main road. Finally the border was in sight! We reached the border traveling the last 5 miles in about 90 minutes. The border crossing was anticlimactic. The Germans waved us through, the Czechs also. The road to Prague was a passable but narrow 2 lane road. Not far into Czechoslovakia e changed $20.00 for 600 Kronen. The money exchange station had been advertized along the highway so we were surprised at what the places looked like. It was a private home out in the country. We went up to a gate and pressed a button to get in. After walking up a sidewalk with beautiful gardens on both sides we entered an enclosed porch. A man was sitting in a small room and dealt through a small window. We later stopped at a tourist information center and bought a detailed map of Prague. We hoped to be able to use the map to find the sights. Entering the outskirts of Prague, we saw several bright blue or purple buildings. We thought that this was an unusual building color. We found it difficult to find our way on the Prague streets. Street signs were impossible to see and highway numbers were non existent. We finally saw the Diplomat, an American hotel, and stopped to ask directions. It turned out that we were only about 4 blocks off our intended path. A kindly desk man at the hotel gave us directions to the Hradcany Palace and Charles Bridge, recommended that we walk there and take public transportation back, told us where to get the trolley and sold us the tickets. He said not to park downtown as the car might be gone before we got back to it. Not bad help for a non-guest at the hotel. We left our car and started walking to the palace. We found the castle after walking 5 or six blocks. The palace covers a very large area, and includes concert halls and museums. The buildings are very large. We saw the palace sights, got a wonderful view of the city from the palace walls, and changed more dollars into kroner. We then headed down the steep hill to the river. After getting a block or two out of the way and almost finding the wrong bridge, we came to the Charles Bridge. This is a world famous landmark with thirty statues lining the bridge. Several vendors were selling their wares. Just before rain caused them to pack up, we bought a painting complete with frame. When we got to the end of the bridge it was raining very lightly. We found a restaurant under the bridge and found it to be a very fancy place with table cloths, cloth napkins, flowers and candles on the tables, and very well dressed waitresses. I was afraid it might cost more kronen than we had. We had excellent dinner, Hungarian beef and a veal dinner, with a very tasty desert to top it off. The two dinners cost less than $10.00. We then walked around part of the downtown area. We showed a passerby or two our metro tickets hoping to find the trolley stop to return to get our car. None could help us. Finally a trolley came by and I asked the driver what to do, he waved us on but would not take the tickets. After a few minutes he said to get off and catch trolley 26 and ride it for two stations. The second trolley driver took the tickets. We rode the two stops and we were back at the Diplomat hotel. Our car was still in the driveway where we had parked it. Up to this point every person we talked to when we needed information spoke enough English to help us. In fact their English was better, on the average, than elsewhere. This was a surprise as we had been told that English speaking people in Czechoslovakia would be rare. One of the biggest mistakes we made on this trip was not staying overnight in Prague. Prague was well worth another days visit but instead we headed out of town with Dresden, Germany as our destination. On the way into Czechoslovakia we had seen dozens of Zimmer freis. On the way out we saw none. We probably would have spent the night in Czechoslovakia had we found one. We did see many hitch hikers. This would prove to be the longest day of our trip. We had no trouble driving out of Prague. It was evening and no trucks and almost no cars were on the road. After we left Prague we could see mountains in the distance. We reached the German border a little after 10:00 pm. As expected, no one wanted to see our passports. We spent the night in Dippoldiswde Germany. We drove the last few miles through a rather heavy rain. We slept in an out of the way hotel in an out of the way town. We would have been happy to have stayed anywhere as we were both tired. We had a late snack at the hotel. This snack was made up of leftovers from our car, crackers, buns etc. A woman Kay met in the hallway, while looking for the restroom, was going to hitchhike to Berlin in the morning. We did not offer her a ride as we were not sure if we were stopping in Dresden. On June 29th about 9:00 am we headed for Berlin. We drove through downtown Dresden but did not stop for sightseeing. As usual we saw a lot of the city on our way through. This was our first visit to East Germany. It is not near as spiffy as West Germany. We saw many abandoned East German small cars along the road in various stages of being stripped. People seem to use them as a free parts depot. If anyone needs a part they stop to see if the abandoned car has it. Just before noon we entered the outskirts of Berlin. We planned to stay there for at least a day. While we were attempting to get downtown we were driving on a very narrow one way street about 10' wide. What do we see coming the other way, a police car with his siren blaring and lights blinking. What did he expect us to do? At any rate we just sat there and shrugged our shoulders. After he backed out, we went through and all was well. We had decided to find a hotel on or near Kurfurstendamm (Ku'damm). We drove around and finally found the area. In the process we went by virtually all the sights of East and West Berlin. We found a parking space downtown and went into the Europa. This is a large shopping building with many shops and eateries. There were signs posted saying: “This is a private building for shopping. It is not to be used as a meeting place”. Several security guards were in the area. We went to the Information Center there and got a room reservation as we didn't want to waste time looking for a hotel. The hotel was about 6 blocks away so we decided to walk there, check in, get the lay of the land and then walk back to the car and drive back to the hotel. We stopped at a Burger King on the way and met a couple from Detroit. They were traveling Europe by train. We found the hotel, checked in and walked back downtown. The shops along the street were something else. They were not for people in our economic bracket. A woman's outfit for $2,500, $900 shoes, $95,000 car, everything for average family. We came upon a celebration, parade, or at least a large noisy gathering. It turned out to be a gay rights rally. There were probably 5 bands, floats, and some wildly dressed men in mini skirts, etc. Kay was the first to recognize that all the participants were men. It was a wild party, broken beer bottles, noise, it was the first gay rights rally for us. We were not impressed. We then drove back to the hotel via a circuitous route, got something to eat at a Greek restaurant and retired. Our plans were to go on a 4 hour bus tour in the morning. We hit Berlin on a weekend so shopping in major stores was not possible. Kay really wanted to spend some money in Berlin. The next day we took the tour of Berlin. We had driven by almost all of the sights the day before, but this time we had a guide with us. The tour was well done. Even though we had seen many of the sights the day before, the tour was worthwhile. The guide told us a lot about the history of Berlin. He pointed of the bullet holes remaining from the fighting, where people were killed trying to get over the Berlin wall, the old and modern church downtown, other churches, the Belleview Palace, and a multitude of other interesting sights. We visited two museums during the tour, the Egyptian Museum and the Pergamonmuseum. The latter was especially interesting. The tour took the full four hours, two of which were in museums. Since the bus must have been driving no more than 10 mph, it is obvious we did not cover a very large area of the city. On June 30th after lunch we left Berlin. After we got into the car we decided not to go to Potsdam but to proceed directly to the Hamburg area. Kay decided that we were going to spend the night in a genuine Zimmer Frei. She directed us off the Autobahn in an area impossible to find a room, I thought. A few miles east of Ludwigslust she spotted this Zimmer Frei sign, we turned around and went back. This was out in the country. The man spoke no English but that was not a problem. When we inquired about a place to eat supper, the man called another of his roomers to answer our questions. He had spent 2 years in England as a doctor and spoke excellent English. He directed us to a small country restaurant in Kummer. We had an excellent meal picked out by the owner. He knew enough English to suggest items, but not enough to understand us. We liked the backwards running clock, the country decor and the hospitality. Kay had a little trouble taking her shower this evening as the owners were using the tub to dry their laundry on a wooded rack. She manager to get clean and I waited until morning when the laundry had vanished. They served us a nice breakfast the next morning and we were on our way. July 1st, on our way to Hamburg: One week to go. This is a city Kay has been waiting to visit as her relations were from this area. We took an indirect route back to the autobahn through some small towns and one manufacturing town. We then made our way back to the autobahn, still in East Germany, headed for Hamburg. After a few miles, two consecutive cars pulled along side, honked, and opened and closed their fingers. We stopped and inspected the car but found nothing wrong. What they saw will forever remain a mystery. It was easy to tell when we entered West Germany. Traffic picked up speed from 100/110 kph to the normal 120/160 kph. This happened right at the old border. We found our way to downtown Hamburg. This is a big city. We found a parking garage near the tourist area, parked and started to walk to the Rathaus. Next was the Rathausmarket. These were interesting places to see as well as a place to get a bite to eat. The main train station was the next stop. We were surprised at the number of beggars on the streets. By the train station there were several people in many layers of coats sleeping on the benches and the ground. They must have been part of the homeless of Germany. We went on a bus tour of the city of Hamburg. As usual the tour was worthwhile but could easily have been improved upon. After the tour we saw more of the downtown sights, old churches, buildings, walked along the river, etc. Next was an attempt to find the residence of her relations. At least find where they lived in 1947. We asked directions and found the street. On the way to the street we walked through a questionable neighborhood. We saw drunks, trash, everything you would expect to see in a US slum. Finding the house number was harder, as we did not understand how the address was written. We had the city zone and the street address mixed up. Kindly people straightened us out and we eventually found the building. It was an apartment with a security entrance. Kay rang a door bell of an apartment with a name we could pronounce. We entered the building and went upstairs to the apartment. The person who came to the door spoke English and was very helpful. He suggested we see the old man at the chair store down the street, but the store was closed. We then went to the nearest police station and talked to a policeman. He understood what we wanted, looked up a couple names in the phone book, called but the people who answered did not know or remember Kay's relatives. The policeman did suggest an address of the records department to visit tomorrow. We were at the parking garage for several hours. The parking cost more than some of our rooms. A woman Kay talked to at the garage said it was worth it as other garages were not as safe. She offered Kay a cold drink. Now time to find a place to sleep. We set out for the Wedel area, as Kay had relations there many years ago. This area appeared to be above average in wealth and a place was not easy to find. The first place we stopped had a hotel sign on the building. The clerk said they did not have any rooms in this building. ahotel with no rooms? We had seen 4 signs directing us to the next place. We went in and were told that they were closed for the month of July. Off again on our search. The next stop also had been advertised several times. There were several cars in the parking lot and 8 or 9 men in the restaurant. The clerk told us the restaurant was closed. They had one room that would be ready in an hour. Three or four cars of people came in after us but I don't know what happened to them. Anyway we found a place to eat and returned to a nice room. They furnished a good breakfast the next morning. This hotel has in Heist. July 2nd. We went then to Wedel and did some grocery shopping. We went to the city hall and found the marriage certificates of Kay's grandparents. Off to Hamburg again. We went via the river through several small suburbs. We could see the freighter traffic going up and down the river. I dropped Kay off at a bookstore and picked her up 30 minutes later. She bought some gifts and a newspaper. The first paper I had seen for some time. We parked at the auto club, got directions and headed for the bureau of records. We walked a while and Dick had the bright idea of going up the stairs to a highway bridge and save some time. It turned out the highway bridge was a railroad bridge. I said lets walk along the tracks for a block or two and then down to the street we want. Good idea except there was no way to get to the street. So we walked directly into the Hamburg main train station along the tracks. The railroad personnel were not overly happy about our method of getting downtown and shuffled us off the tracks into the station. This was an interesting experience. I am glad we did it but am not sure I would recommend it to other tourists. The homeless people we saw the day before were still there. It still was not easy to find the address we were looking for. We asked several people with no results. We found the street ok but could not find the address. We went to the main post office and talked to the postmaster. Could you just walk into the postmaster's office in a major US city? He was on a long phone call so we waited. After the call we explained our problem and he really got excited. You British, you come over here speaking no German expecting no problems. When I went to England I at least knew school English. Also, my 12 year old son was given a bad time and was refused lunch at a restaurant. Why should I help you? I told him we were from the US. He said that is different. My daughter spent 2 years there and everyone was wonderful to her. We asked where and he said Ohio. After we told him we were from Ohio he could not do too much for us. His secretary gave us better directions and we were off. After a couple false moves we found the place. The only trouble was it was 3:00 and they had closed at noon. Thursday was the only day they are open until 3:30. At least Kay got an address so see can write for information. We then headed for the Bremen area. We found a hotel in a city a few miles north of Bremen. It was a nice place with a huge shopping center down the road. It was closed for the night. This probably saved us a lot of money. When we went down to eat we found that the owner/waiter spoke little English. He came and sat next to us trying to find out what we wanted to eat. The other people in the restaurant were laughing at or with us. Kay asked if they were laughing at or with us and the couple next to us started talking to us. The man spoke perfect English. He was a ship captain. For 10 years he captained a ship going between Miami and Panama. Now he is a pilot on the Elbe River. He and his wife were biking from Hamburg to Frankfort. We had interesting conversations with them that evening and the next morning. Among the many things they told us was that the price of gasoline went up 25 Deutch marks a liter because of a tax to help support East Germany, many East Germans hitchhiked only to ride in a big western car, and several other odds and ends. On July 3rd we headed into Bremen. Kay wants to see the statue of the Bremen Town Musicians, a rooster, cat, dog, and a donkey quartet that came to Bremen to seek its fortune. This story was a Grimm's fairy tale. We went to the downtown area, found a place to park and started wandering. We went into a couple stores and bought an item or two. We passed through a mall like area and came to the tourist area. We saw the city hall, a large beautiful church, an interesting statue, some interesting stands, went into a small shop or two, wandered around on several very interesting streets, but no statue. We then stopped and ate a sandwich. After eating we asked a girl who was sitting on the street by the restaurant where the statue was. She pointed to it about 50 feet away. We had walked all around it without seeing it. After taking several pictures we decided to head for Munster. This did not turn out very well. What we wanted to see were two major churches. We found them but traffic was horrendous. We drove by and stopped to look but we never parked. We gave up and headed out of town. We heard on the radio that a major British athletic competition was in town to add to the normal congested situation. We ended up for the night about 3 miles outside Berg-Steinfurt several miles east of Munster. This was a 4 year old motel, hotel, guest house, and resort area in the country 2 miles off the main highway. It was made up of several cabins, a restaurant, barns, etc. The owner dressed in native dress. There were cows and horses across the street; swimming was available down the road. Rides in horse drawn carriages were available. There was a large biking group of adults and children in a cabin near to us. We called Annette and talked to Chuck. Bruce, Marlene and Bob were all still planning to meet us in Holland. We celebrated the next morning, July 4th, by getting a late start. It was after 11:00 before we got going. We entered the Netherlands just before noon. We stopped right at the border to change $300. into 606 Guilders. This exchange rate made it easy to figure costs. We drove through Enscheda on our way to Apeldoorn. Our main objective there was the Het Loo Palace. We stopped first at the train station information center as was our usual approach. Here we got information not only on Apeldoorn but on all the major Dutch cities. We spent almost 2 hours walking the palace. The grooming of the grounds was incredible. We had never seen so much attention to grooming of grass, bushes, flowers and trees. The palace itself was also immaculate. Only a small part was open. All the displays had signs in English. When we first entered the parking lot I thought there would be no place to park. Everyone was trying to grab the space under the trees. I gave up and drove on ahead. Lo and behold there we found almost empty, partly shaded parking for many, many cars. We then headed for the Utrecht area. We decided to find a place in Zeist not far outside Utrecht. We went in and rented the room sight unseen. I was leery as the place did not look to good from the outside. The room was on the second floor up very narrow, steep stairs. When we entered the room it probably was the nicest room we had on the whole trip., a model corner room. In fact it was featured on their postcards. We wandered through the downtown area and ate at an Isaly type place. The waiter helped order most of the food as we had a little language problem. It was good. The next day, July 5th, we headed for Utrecht. We drove to the downtown area and walked extensively. We walked the canals, through the narrow streets, into several stores and bought the obligatory pastry. I think Kay bought a pastry almost every morning during the vacation. At last we arrived at the main reasons for our visit to Utrecht, the Dom and the Domtoren. The Dom is an old church, started in 1215, disconnected by a storm from the Domtoren. The walk up to the top of the Domtoren, cathedral tower, was to be a highlight. The walk is up 465 narrow, twisting steps. We went with a guide and a group of grade school kids. We let the kids go on ahead as they walked faster. Kay was usually last at each stop by a minute or two. One boy was always worried about her. He would ask, Frau ok? I would assure him that she was. The view was well worth the walk. It was a magnificent sight. The things to see on the way up were also interesting. The tour guide did a very nice job in Dutch and English. We toured the church after coming down from the tower. We them headed for Delft where we planed to spend the night. We went to the information center in the Centrum area to look around and book a room. The information center was on the central square with a church at one end and the city hall at the other. We rented a room about a 10 minute walk or a half hour drive. It was especially hard to find as the street was only one block long and no where on the street saw there a street sign The hotel/Zimmer sign was less than 1 1/2" high. We did find it and the room was not bad at all. We walked back to the central square area. We were amazed at the large number of canals in Delft. They were almost as common as the streets and maybe not as wide. Many seemed to be 10/12' wide. We saw many churches, stores, houses and the other sights you would normally see. We ate at an outdoor cafe in the central square. It turned out to be the same one where Bob and Att ate when they were there. We were tired from the walk up the Domtoren and went to bed. Today is July 6th and The Hague is the first destination of the day. We went first to the museum area. We walked through a park, wandered the city streets and came to the Mauritshuis Museum. We spent a lot of time there as it was filled with great paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyke, and many others. We walked by a consulate or two, along a few canals, visited a church and a store or two and then returned to the car. Our next stop was the beach. We found the big beach resort area that included two big hotels and numerous shops and eating places. We then headed for the beach. The beach was really a nice place, wide and plenty of sand. There were many people of all ages enjoying the sand. Not many were in the water as even though the day had felt warm when we were downtown it did not feel that way on the beach. The wind was blowing about 30 mph right off the cool water. Almost all the beachcombers were huddled behind a windbreak instead of under umbrellas. I walked down to the nude beach area and there people were just as sensible as they were in the open area. It was now getting late and we to meet Bob and Att in Amsterdam so we took off. We arrived there, checked into our hotel, the Bastion, and took a bus and trolley to meet them at the American Hotel. We had a nice walk and ate dinner at a very nice restaurant that they knew. They even had lots of ice water. We then walked the couple miles back to the central station. It was interesting walking the streets with two people who really knew the area. During our walk we saw one of the many street performers doing his act. As part of his act he took off his clothes, while remaining mostly decent, and then did a wire act. There were two young American girls near us during this act. One of them would stand with her hands over her eyes saying, What is he doing now?. She was even better than the act which was not too bad. We then took the bus back to the hotel and they went on their merry, merry way to Leiden. Before we can sleep we must completely repack everything. The last few days we had been traveling alone so we could use the whole car. Tomorrow we are meeting the Beardens and the next day getting on the airplane for the trip home. This is July 7th. We met the Bruce and Marlene on the way to the central station and then went sightseeing. The main thing we wanted to do was go on a canal boat tour. This tour was very nice. After the tour we took a trolley to a place near the American hotel again. We had another good dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then we went for a walk. One of the spots we had to see was the red light district. Even though it was 10:30 am on a Sunday there were girls on display in the windows. We also saw a group of youths messing around with dope. After a brief drive around town we headed south for Belgium. It was nice that Annette was able to be with us in Amsterdam. She drove near us about half way to Brussels. We spent the night at the Hotel Egmont in Mechelen, Belgium. This was a few miles north of Brussels. There was a large festival going on in town. We found the hotel using the information center and walked to the hotel leaving the car downtown. After checking in we all walked back to the car. This was the only place in Europe where we were asked for our passports except when we got off the plane in Brussels. I think they used them to properly register us. Almost every other hotel/pension/Zimmer they did not even ask us our names. We always paid the next day and usually had to look for someone to take our money. Speaking of paying, we found the same thing on public transportation. No one ever asked you to pay. They expected you to have your ticked punched by an automatic machine or to buy a ticket from the driver. I asked Bob about this and he said that that is the policy. You can pay or not as you please, but, if an inspector happens to come aboard and check the fine for no punched ticket is large, $50 or so. We walked through a nice city park, with a kissing bridge, and found a nice outdoor restaurant. I told Marlene that I wanted a grilled cheese and clam chowder. She ordered for me and we were both surprised that I got a grilled cheese and clam chowder. We explored the festival, looked at the churches and drove back to the hotel. July 8th, our last day in Europe. We headed for Brussels. We dropped the car off with no trouble, even though it was a different car due to the accident. We waited around awhile, and got on the plane for Chicago. We had a nice flight back, ate at the Chicago airport and headed for Akron. Friends were there to pick us up and took us to Wadsworth and we were home again. It was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed it even more than I expected to. We were all glad we went. |
| Reviewed: 17 June
2009 |