This trip was with the International Student Exchange (ISE), Europa House.  My group of 30 people was labeled "J-15" because the trip officially started on June 15. there were other groups "J-14" and "J-16" doing the same tour before and after our group.

ISE leader "Uncle Roland" commented thought that a J-15 reputation was following our group across the countries at all the towns. Group J-14 is very quiet, boring (dull) etc. J-16 is a mixed group. We so have a super fun group of travelers in J-15. To show how much more active our group is, 22 people from our group went skiing in Switzerland. Only 10 people from J-14 went, and 8 people from J-16. There were about 6 people (including Paul and I) who had never ever skied before!

I make references to many people (first name only) on the trip throughout this journal. I may have change some names, or I'm vague in places to protect the guilty....

Note as of 2004: ISE is still business, but they now do customized group travel to Europe.  Their headquarters is at the University of Illinois. 802 W. Oregon Street. Urbana, Illinois 61801. (217) 344-5863. Web site is  www.clubeuropatravel.com.

Click here for huge full big DETAILED road map of exactly where we travelled

Hotel list for our trip:

Significant waters that we saw on this trip:

PRE-DEPARTURE

Well here it is, page 1, day 1. Packing was so hectic. Somehow everything went in my suitcase. The first weigh-in was 36 pounds - Holy Cow ! How was I supposed to carry that thing all over Europe - up tons of stairs geez.

Got up at 5:00 am to go to the airport. Wait, get our seat assignment, wait - leave Bye!

Right now I am laying in a park near central park in New York City, New York. This whole city is a trip. I've been offered joints, ounces, heroine, cocaine, ludes and angel dust so far. About 25 feet away from me now is whole group of odd people - this is really freaky.

My deduction so far is that people in New York are very nice. I took a 20 minute bus ride into New York City from the World Airways terminal. I hope I can find my way back in time - 12:00 a.m . - that's when the plane is supposed to leave New York. Geez 12 hour delay.

Anyway, a lady in the terminal told us how and when the buses worked so we might make it back the right way. We were walking down 43rd street, just admiring the view (what view?) and this man stopped us. He seemed really nice. He was in Vietnam and was warning us of all the weirdo's in New York. He asked where we were from and why we were here. He wanted to shake my hand and welcome Floridians to New York then he started to lift my hand up and I pulled it away but he kissed it anyway - he's the weird one.

Paul just took a picture of me writing this on the grass.

We've seen everything here - Times Square, Broadway -"Give my regards to Broadway! statue in the heart of the square - then the play houses - Grease, and some new releases were showing. Finally the millions of movie theaters - Wow! One after the other. Down 42nd street - it's all porn. Never have I ever seen so many adult movies and book stores.

All the high rise buildings! I'm sitting here now looking straight up at one, two, three, four. They are surrounding me. We went in the NYC public library. We found that you need a pass to take a picture.

Well, back in good old Newark Airport terminal in New Jersey. These layovers times are the pits. We left the lovely litter - ridden park and zig-zagged our way to a Blimpies to eat dinner then to the transit authority to station - that was an experience. All those buses - millions of 'em! all that carbon monoxide! It was 5:00 too and everyone was getting off work. I came to the conclusion that New York grows on you. I was kind of beginning to like it. It's such a dirty city though - filth all over the place. It was the people that was so different, like I said, it grows on you.

In Atlanta we had one hour and 20 minute layover. We met some other people going on ISE. Scott was in our group. Right now he is in New York City still! We go to the airport at 11:10 then made our way to the World Airways terminal at 12:30. Come to find out our plane doesn't leave until 12:00 midnight! We hung around here deciding what to do. We called a place to get our luggage and store it for the afternoon, then took a daring bus ride to the city. Our first impression was so gross! Yuk the city stunk. We walked 42nd Street, peeked in the porn palaces then ate at a good old KFC in the heart of the city. Yeah Kentucky! We walked around more then passed out with dead tired feet in the park. we got back to the terminal about 6:30. Wait. Check baggage at 8. Scott still isn't back. It's a 12 hour wait between flights. YUK. .

Different time, totally different place. We boarded the plane at 11:10 p. . Scott got there about 10:50 with tons of stories to tell about his experiences in NY. He saw two plays and met a famous playwright who might visit him in Palm Beach etc etc.

We sat and sat. Finally the place started moving at 11:55 but we didn't take off until 12:10 a.m. We had dinner at 1:15 in the morning, then drinks at about 4:30, then I got to sleep. Wake up at 5:30 for breakfast. We landed (yeah! at 6:10 which is really 11:10 London time. We lost a whole nights sleep. We got our bags, found our group, waited, exchanged some money. Waited, took a 1 1/2 hour ride to the hotel - we finally got there at 3:30 - almost totally DEAD TIRED.

 DAY 3. Tour London England

In London, England. The rooms are so small. We slept till 4:30 then went to buy an adaptor, eat, see the city, etc. We got back, then I took a hot bath! We've been up for about 60 hours with 2 hours of sleep on Tuesday night stuck in there.

We are now leaving London. It's hard to write in this bus but I guess I better get used to it. We're on Westminster Bridge now. We just passed the Abbey and the House of Parliament. It was really beautiful, but the walls were very dirty with soot. It's so strange, everyone is driving on the left side of the road!

The gas (excuse me- petrol) here is L110 which is really about $2. a gallon. That's one thing - the money. It's not too hard to figure out here. No telling what it will be like in France.

We had a most exciting experience last night (this morning really). These roads are terrible to write on. Paul came knocking on our door and told us to get up that it was 6:20am. . and we wanted to get up at 6. Wash faces, go to the bathroom down the hall, then saw the clock. They all said 11:45 and we had set 2 alarm clocks! We got dressed and went to Paul's room to find out if it was just a joke or what. It turned out that some guy in Paul's room didn't set his clock back or ahead or something so it went off at the wrong tyme (they spell tires, tyres too).

What a jerk. We had only slept 3 hours. It didn't feel like we had slept nine. We went back to sleep. After completely waking up then got up- really got up at 6. We were down to breakfast by 7. It was pretty good - 2 eggs and toast with some homemade strawberry jam and tea which causes bathroom stops. We were on the bus, loaded and off to France by 8.

I wonder what the speed limit is, the bus seems like it's going pretty fast sometimes, but not up hills. The country side is so beautiful. It's green all over!

I guess I should write in this every chance I get. Let's see, where did I leave off. We had to catch a boat to cross the English Channel. We rode on a Hovercraft to Calais, France. It ran on land and water. It was lifted up on the waves. It wasn't half as bad as the Hydrofoil we rode to the Bahamas on. It was a 40 minute 63 mph ride. So that's the channel that all the people are trying to swim. We met our guide for the rest of the tour. He's speaks a rough English, stuttering all the tyme. I guess I better get used to it.

We landed at Calais - a port for the sea ferry service from Dover England, we saw "Six Burghers of Calais"- a statuary by Rodin. We only drove by it though.

We got to the restaurant (I guess you could call it that) at about 5. That's in the city of Ognan, France. It was an experience. First we waited outside. The air is pretty cool now. I took a picture of the people around that rose garden. Then we went inside to get fed meat and potatoes. Those poor people serving us were freaking out. We had a big group of people We got a lot of trip rules and bus rules etc. following our dessert of Neapolitan (peanut butter) ice cream.

We got off to see the castle of Chantilly at 7:15 it really was pretty. Its a 16th century castle of the Dukes of Conde'. We only stayed about 5 minutes to take pictures. Paul got a group picture all these weirdo's. I think there is 46 of us. Wow. Oh on to Paris.

After we saw the castle we got back on the bus and headed for Paris. We got there about 9:30 p.m. then took a vote to take a boat tour or check into the motel. We decided to go ahead and get the boat tour "over with". There was hundreds of people on this slow boat tooling down the Seine River for a long way, then back again. We actually saw the Tour d'Effel - there is one! We got checked into the motel and ready for bed by 1. So tired!

This morning we woke up at 8:20 by accident. It was supposed to be 7:45 but we had breakfast (tea and hard French [why French?] rolls) at 9. Then we were off to the historical Paris by tour bus. Paris is the capital of France. We have a nice lady who tells us about everything. Now let's see if I can remember what we saw:

We did not see the Catacombs here, becuase we see some other somewhere else...

Pictures of Eiffel Tower. Paul went up it for 9 francs. It was built in 1888. 

The awesome view from top in each direction.  These photos were taken 1979.I guess Ihave to go back and see how things have changed.

The Jardin du Trocadero is on the Seine facing the Eiffel Tower.

Place de la Concorde on the Champs-Elysees. This is where the executions took place during the revolution. Now it's a beautiful square. 

Paul in front of this photo

Our group in the photo below:T, ? , Lois,? Oliver,Sylvie, ? , ?,
Bob (red jacket), Sue G, Kathy (white sweater) Suzi, Monique, ?, Marilyn, Scotty, Bryan, Heather,
?,Gary?, Kathy, Ron (in back), ? , Reinhart, Jeff, Gail , ?

?, Vicki, and MaryAnn in this photo:

Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris and the Ille de la Cite. Constructed 1163-1345. Gothic architecture with the famous flying buttresses.

Arc de Triomphe, and beneath it is the Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of World War I.

Grand et Petit Palais off the Champs Elysees.  

They were built in 1900 for the Exhibition and now have exhibits in them.

In the grande Palais is the Palais de la Decouverte - where they do scientific studies.

The Hotel des Invalides on Avenue de Tourvill. That's where Napoleons Tombe is, under the 318 foot gold dome. The Musee de L'Armee is in it too.

At the Centre National D'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (the Beauborg Center) we visited the Musee National d'art Moderne on Avenue du President Wilson. It is essentially a steel and glass box with brightly painted conduits and ducts throughout the building. Inside is the National Museum of Modern Art. 

It has moderne painting and sculptures by Brancusi, Matisse and Picasso.

Dinner in Paris that night was a great experience. It was at this little restaurant. We had a wine-type drink before the meal and we also had wine in baby bottles! It was unreal. Dessert was an apple dessert. It was good.  We had entertainment too- a man playing the guitar.

  Lisa? & Suzi

After dinner we went to see beautiful Eglise Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Paul and I were stunned by the 20th century stained glass windows and the view. The entire view of the city of Paris and the church was beautiful!

Today we saw the Palais du Louvre.  One of the world's largest palaces. The Museum of Paintings was incredible. We had a guide from 10:00 - 12:00 who just showed us famous paintings - Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci. Plus only two others. We didn't see much of the whole museum at all. We saw the Mona Lisa, Wingless Victory of Somathrace.  It was pretty impressive. I'd like to go back to the museum and see more than one section of it. But at least I can say I was there now.   Adjacent to the palace is the Tuileries Gardens (Jardin de Tuileries) on the Seine.   The palace which stood there was destroyed in 1871. Now it is a park that extends from the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde

This was the entrance to the Louvre in 1979 .  And Pau'ls picture of Mona Lisa. It is behind glass.

This is our bus parked right beside the Louvee museum picking us up.  I bet you can't park that close now!

We got back on the bus and drove to see the 17th century Chateau de Versailles. My ticket for "Saison 1979" to "Visite du Parc et des Jardins a 16 h des Grandes Eaux" was 6 francs.  It was truly beautiful. We saw the King's Grand Apartment, and the Hall of Mirrors - awesome.

The Hall of Mirrors:

Visite du Parc et des Jardins

Right now I'm sitting on the grass where we "had some picnic" for lunch. We're going to see Bordeaux. You can't see the castle anywhere but I guess we're around it somewhere. We were given some money to buy fruit and cheese this morning at the market so we had a picnic for lunch. Anyway.

The "town" (not "city" Reinhart says) of Bordeux was about 50 minutes away. We saw the Cathedrale St-Andre. I was disappointed with the palace. It was supposed to have been the pleasure castle of the French kings. It was just that there were too many tourists. We were herded through there like cows. through every room- well not all rooms. Just on path through the whole palace.

So many people. Every different nationality in the world. We had an extra hour allotted to our time schedule so we paid 6 francs each to see the Palais Gallien gardens. That was well worth the money.

Hiking up to see the sites.  Jeff.  Marla helping Brian.
 

We got back on the bus and took hours with traffic drive to the hotel and ate at a restaurant around the corner. then we got some pastries Yum! um! a French chocolate eclair and had 45 minutes to get dressed up to go out.

We saw the French cabaret at a place called "Casino do Paris". This is the Palais Royale by the Theatre Comedie Francaise. Home of Cardinal Richelieu. We saw a show called "Paris Line".

My show review as an uncultured 19-year old virgin that doesn't know how to appreciate art - yet:    The first part of the show was quite disgusting in parts with naked women and men dancing all over the stage. There was steps from the ceiling to floor, men in tuxedo's and women wearing next to nothing dancing around. After intermission it got a lot better. There was a lot of talent. A lady juggling, a comic on a unicycle, a magician who was really terrible, then a chorus line debut show. the whole show was like the follies except a lot more promiscuous.

After the show, we drove up to the Basilique du Sacre'-Coeur (Montmarte district) It has a beautiful dome - 254 feet (79 meters) across. Sacre Coeur (church of the sacred heart) was pretty. We walked around to see the painting. Built to fulfill a national vow after the France_Prussian war.

We were all to accustomed to dressing casual, it was really strange to be all dressed up just walking around Paris at night.   There were some fireworks going off too, It was beautiful. Rinehart said it was someone just getting married. I thought about Mom and Dad in the 1956 Pontiac and us in this bus! Up all those little little streets Gerhard is a good bus driver.

Today wasn't too eventful compared to others we've had. It was a free day, the whole day, unlike any other group. It's because we saw Louvre and Versailles in one day, other groups are doing them in different days. Anyway.

We got up about 12:30, it felt sooo good not to be forced to get up. We got a ride to the Place de la Concorde on the bus. That was about 2. Then we visited the Musee du Jeu de Paume to see impressionist and post-impressionist art. This was really impressive. We saw paintings by Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Van Gogh. I could appreciate these since mom got us that Masterpiece game when we younger.

I must say I was unimpressed with some of the paintings (this statement from an uncultured 19-year old that doesn't know how to appreciate art - yet).. Some of Salle Cezanne, and Van Gogh especially. He paints green faces! and Monet and Manet (looks like the same style as the artist who painted our portrait) follows.

After we finished criticizing the "great works of art", we went with Oliver on the Metro which is the subway of Paris. That was an experience. It was nothing like New York. In Paris they were clean and lighted and so very organized. A person would have to be pretty dense to got lost when trying to find a destination.

Some other things that we saw in Paris:

This bus is jerky, it's difficult to write.

We stopped by a pastry shop to get something to last us till when we ate dinner. We ate dinner around 5 at the same place we ate the night before. The food was decent. We had roast beef with potatoes and pineapple for dessert one night, then pork and rice with ice cream ("glaces" in French) for dessert another night.

After dinner we laid down for nap then Reinhard had organized a night out for all of us. We were just going to go into town to a disco to dance. We got there about 8:30 at night and found out they don't open till 10. So we sat down at a cafe like they have all over Paris.

A lot of people got beer. They came in huge mugs at least 30 ounces for 32 francs. I split a bottle of wine with Alex, and two other people that I learned their name yet. The bottle was 55 francs which was surprisingly came out to about $1. 0 a glass. One girl ordered a screwdriver and ended up paying 27 francs - $9. 0 - Wow!

Everything is really expensive here. We went to a supermarche to get some lemonade or something to mix in the water here. We couldn't find anything worth getting. We got some fondant (au lait) to wait on the bus. It was only 2. francs or about $. 0 How did I get off of last night. Oh yes prices.

It was expensive to get in the discos to. 20 francs. So we ended up just walking around.

We're finally leaving Paris today. Tuesday, no Monday the 18th? It's easy to lose track of time. The days just go by after so much happens. All the pictures all the walking all the seeing and trying to believe it's there, and then thinking there's so much more to go.

Abbeville is on the banks of the Somme. In Chantilly (lacy had a pretty face and a pony tail,. . ) we saw the 16th century castle of the Dukes on Conde.

We just now drove into Riems. We stopped by a supermarche to get our picnic then we visited the Mumm Champagnery.

Everything on this tour is so organized. We drove up to the factory, got off the bus and began the tour. We went down and saw where they stored it in huge vats for the first fermentation. Then down deeper to see a little of the 15 miles of tunnels that they have dug out to store the bottles in. They were stacked perfectly so that if the 80 pounds of pressure in the bottle got to be too much in the bottle and blew up, it wouldn't affect the other bottles to blow up too. It was pretty neat.

Then we saw how they had bottles upside-down and a machine turned them over and forced the corks in them , then put the wire on to keep the cork from coming out. Then putting labels on. We took an elevator up instead of climbing all the stairs up again. We could buy bottles too if we wanted.  A couple people bought bottles - only to regret it later when then BLEW UP in the hot bus!!!!   This picture is Reinhart pretending to drink a large bottle. 

Then we took off for Reims Cathedrale where Joan of Arc was burnt to death. It's a 13th century gothic church. It was really beautiful from far away on the outside. But when you walked inside, it looked really rundown. It had only tapestries, old and dusty hanging on the walls. There was a beautiful rose window in front, and two smaller ones on the sides, like Notre Dame had. I was much more impressed with Notre Dame and Mont Martre especially more.   Here is Suzi in from the Cathedral:

After that we took off to find a place to have a picnic. Reinhard had stopped to get the bread. We had ham, liverwurst, Pepsi, wine and cheese. Along with champagne of course.

This country is really beautiful. Green everywhere.

Paul has a cold. He is pretty sick. This hectic life isn't helping him much either.

Geez we've been on this bus a long time. He said we should get into Heidelberg about 7:00. That will make 11 hours - about 2 for lunch etc. Oh boy do we have a full schedule tonight. Check into hotel, dress, go to dinner and go for a walk and go to a big place where students are to have been. Oh boy.

Well I;m bored again. This bus riding is really the pits. I've written 13 pages today. I'll run out of paper at this rate.

T is sleeping usually all the tyme that I am writing this. She even slept through Champs Elysee too. Whatever. I hope Paul gets well soon. I hope we get there (where is "there"?) soon.

I still can't believe that this is day #9. I am going to run out of paper at this rate. Today is Wednesday. I'm pretty sure about that. It's so easy to lose. I suppose I could write in this tomorrow on the bus but I'm still waiting for my hair to dry so I have time now.

 Today we had breakfast at 9:00 then a lecture on Baroque Art. These are notes from the lecture:

After the lecture we had a break until 12:15. I went to the post office with Vicki who was mailing some thing home. Oh well. It ended up costing Vicki 10. 0 DM to mail it home. That's decent - about $12. 5.

The next thing we saw was the castle, the Elector of the Palatinate, also called the Kurpfalzisches Museum. We walked about 1. miles down this road then up and up and up so far up on slanted cobblestones in the hot weather that we had today. Willie, who gave us the lecture on art was our tour guide. there to tell us about the "castle".

There was a place for the moat, prison and everything. We saw the Schloss, a big square with statues.

Oh, we saw the worlds largest wine barrel in the Heidelberg Tun. It is 49,000 gallons. Nearby there is a figure of a dwarf court jester Perkeo, who according to legend drank the entire contents of the barrel (in one year).  Here is T in front of the barrel:

The view from here was really pretty. This was the castle with the big knocker and an iron gate with sharp spikes and lantern that lowered to save people outside the gate.

After we saw the castle we walked down down the hill and looked around the shops. There were so many!

 I really loved Heidelberg. There was only that one street that all the shops were on. They numbered from 1 to about 250 which was the 1. mile walk.

I bought a mug that says Heidelberg on it. I want to get some smaller ones in Austria. We got a big glass jar of lemon tea to mix with the water when we're really thirsty and don't want to pay 75 cents for a coke.

So now I have those extra heavy things in my suitcase. I had lots of extra room so I filled it with heavy stuff. Oh well. We went back to the hotel - such a long walk!

We had 40 minutes to relax from all that walking. Then we had get back up and walk a mile to dinner. We ate at the same place as last night, after we finished around 7 we went to a german McDonalds and got a shake. They serve "bier" (beer) at the McDonalds here! Then we began the walk to the suppl - a student inn where people drink bier. This was the Roter Ochsen (Red Ox) wine cellar. We got there at 8 (a 30 minute walk) but left at 8:30 cause Reinhard wasn't there yet.

I took a bath - how nice! It felt sooo good on my feet. We got to sleep about 12 midnight. Bea got home at about 1 am. Vicky still hadn't shown up so we had to leave her in Germany! Willie, the station manager, will take care of her though. I hope she's OK. She was drunk in the suppl last night and last anyone knew she was talking to a german guy who spoke English. She'll hopefully catch up to us in Switzerland with J-16.

Breakfasts were very good in Germany. Coffee, tea or chocolate with bread (not French! - yeah. and butter and good jam.

We passed the border to Switzerland around 10:30. He collected our passports but they didn't stamp them! So I wrote in it. We had lunch at this nice rest stop restaurant. They had swings and merry-go-round. These high altitudes are making my ears pop.

We just entered the town of Luzern, not Lucerne. Luzern is capital of it's canton (there are 25 cantons in Switzerland). Gosh, Switzerland is certainly a different country than any that we've already been in.

We saw Mount Pilatus in Lucerne. Legend says Pontius Pilate was wafted by the devil here after the crucifixion.

We drove around Lucerne so we could see some of the sights. We got off the bus to see the Lowendenkmal sculpture. It was a beautiful lion carved in the side of the mountain and a pond in front of it. It stands 29 feet high and 43 feet long, carved in 1821. There was writing inscriptions under the lion to commemorate Swiss soldiers who were killed defending Tuileries in Paris in 1792.

When we saw the monument, I wasn't sure what it was for or anything because he just pointed us in the direction and said to go see it.  I'm glad we did.  here I am in 1979 and again in 2003:

Paul went off with some other people and T and I changed some money and went shopping.  We changed some money and went shopping. There were little stores all over the place. We got the little beer mug that says "Lucerne" on it in this small shop.

We saw Heather and Jeff on the street so we followed them to the famous watch store that Reinhard told us to see and buy things at.  Thank goodness we saw them cause we couldn't find the store anywhere in the city.   I had just decided to walk the wrong way when we saw them.

It was a really nice store. A lot of people were buying watches. They weren't that expensive there only 98 to 200 francs.  Marla, Scott and Heather and Vicky bought watches.  They weren't that expensive there only 98 to 200 francs.  T was looking at them rather intently but there wasn't any that we both really liked.

 The store was three levels high. I bought some angels there that were 6 francs each. It was a good price for a Goebel. The Hummels weren't too fantastically expensive either. They ran from $10 to 50 dollars. I know I should have got one but T didn't want me to spend money. She did find a music box that she really liked though - surprised me.

We had to walk a long way back to where the bus was. We walked on this beautiful 14th century bridge it was called Chapel Bridge but there was a tower in the middle of it. The bridge tells the history of the city and nation on 112 murals on the roof as you walk the length of the bridge. It was built in 1333 over the Ruess River. It's the oldest covered bridge in Europe. It's called Kapellbruke and it goes from St. Peters chapel to the water tower- the chief landmark of Lucerne. It was a beautiful covered bridge and I tried to take a rushed picture of it.

Note: This bridge burned down in August 1993.

We got back to the bus, dead tired and so hot and thirsty. We crossed this busy street and for all we know got cussed out in a foreign language for not knowing to walk in the tunnel underneath that particular street.

Oh yeah, some gossip - Vicky was waiting for us on the bus. She's had an exciting trip so far. She left her suitcase in London and didn't have it for a night. Well she went to the Suppl with everyone else to drink. I just remembered I wrote that already. Well, she had to catch a train to Lucerne-because she couldn't have come with J-16 cause we would move on before they would even arrive at the next place. It cost her $25. to do that. She had to carry all her things that whole long was to the parking lot where the bus is. How she even found it I still can't figure out.

We finally met uncle Roland on the bus then.  He gave us the standard first talk that we had already gotten in France.

We then drove from Lucerne to Entlebuch - we stopped for views of the city.  First photo is Bob in the middle, second is Suzi in the middle with Ferrel, Marilyn, Bob/Suzi, Paul and Kathy.

We ate dinner in Entlebuch where we had fondue, yum yum. She kept giving us more and more meat so we had to finish it. There was ice cream for dessert. (Fondue originated in Switzerland.

Then we got room assignments. He went from the third floor, from where all the guys were put, to the best first floor room. We got a double on the second floor. Surprise, a double and the room was absolutely gorgeous! The bed had feather comforters and there was all the room in the world to actually open our suitcases and walk around. We were only in the room from 8 that night till 5:30 am anyway.

After dinner, Reinhard taught us "some waltz and polka" so then everyone had a good time.

Uncle Roland commented thought that a J-15 reputation was following our group across the countries at all the towns. Group J-14 is very quiet, boring, dull etc. At the Paris show we sat across from them in the theater then during intermission we exchanged stories of happenings in towns. J-16 is a mixed group. We so have a super fun group of travelers in J-15.

Reinhard is a constant partier. He is a medical student in Austria. He is also a ski instructor. He dances very good! He's been in numerous dance contests he said. He also plays the piano very good too. Bob played a couple songs on the piano, then Reinhard played. He was very talented.

The next morning at 6:00 we had a great breakfast of crescent rolls, rolls, chocolate, coffee, tea, cereal, egg and ham and orange juice. After breakfast, off to Switzerland and Bernese Alps. 

We ate lunch in Montreux then had a ride to Saas Almagell. We got there about 3:00 pm. We were staying in peoples houses. We got moved into our rooms - Yuk! We got a small cold room which is built on extra to another smaller hotel which 12 girls had to stay in. At least we had hot water though. But 2 nights here! ick.

We took off for a walk, no a hike up a mountain trail to Saas Fee. It took a whole hour to just got to the city which was like a resort place. It has a soccer field and tennis courts. We also found on indoor swimming pool in the city. It was so beautiful, the sun was shining on the mountain snow so high up.

We kept walking past the city and up the mountain. Reinehard just kept on going. We got to some snow! finally! We had "some snowball fight" on the mountain. Everyone was so cold and wet because it was raining all the was up the mountain. My feet were sopping wet. Paul was pretty much over his cold, but this sure didn't help his recovery. 

We finally started the hike down. Oh such a long way. It took 1 hr and 20 min to go down.  We got back at 7:00 pm, then went into dinner at 7:30. We were all so so tired. We sat around awhile and talked before we went back to the cold room to soothe our blisters.

The next morning - get psyched! Paul and I had decided that we were going to go skiing despite Chris's warning, threats, and reasons why we shouldn't. I didn't even listen to her, I said yes I was going only because there were some others who had gone the day before who had never skiied before. They had a great time, so was determined to also.

I think T was at one time thinking about joining us, because it looked like it was going to be another one of those experiences that you could never experience again. She decided not to go and just to be happy with worrying about Paul and I. It cost us 52 francs each to go and Paul and I hadn't exchanged near enough money so Reinhard loaned us 100 francs to pay. We paid him back later in the day.

To show how much more active our group is, 22 people from our group went. Only 10 people from J-14 went, and 8 people from J-16. There were about 6 people (including Paul and I) who had never ever skied before.

Now here's how it went. We had breakfast at 6:30 am, took off for Saas Fee in a horse-drawn carriage at 7:00. I'm not kidding.  We loaded all the gear, ski's, heavy boots in the carriage.

We took our gloves, sun glasses and courage. In Saas Fee we transferred everything to horse-drawn buggies which took us to where we were the day before by the snow. We then had to take our shoes off and put on our heavy boots. It was such a mess because they got all messed up the sizes. They all looked the same. Then to find the right skis! Impossible! I rode up the Gondola carrying skis that were too long that didn't even fit on my boots.  We got to the top and there was snow everywhere! At the top we tried to find our correct skiis. It was a mess trying to find the right ones. I found mine finally. The ones that I carried had to be emergency adjusted to fit Sue. After that mess, we proceeded to carry the skis through this tunnel 259 meters long. We were all trudging along wondering why we decided to do this. Boy was that miserable. We got to the end of tunnel, put on your skis.  Give them your ski pass - my ticket says Luftseilbahnen Saas-Fee Sommerski Egginergebeit Tageskarte personlich 28 Juni 1979Fr. 25-

Saas Fee is at 5900 feet but the highest point is 11,700 feet. It has 63 miles of slopes. Longest run is 6 miles

It turns out the first slope which was supposed to be a bunny slope, but it was really like the intermediate at the Rockies a lot of people said.

Well, a whole bunch of people just took off down the mountain. Paul went without even practicing turning. The first hill was a killer. I walked down most of it, then attempted some sideways runs and slow turns which didn't work.

I was getting pretty discouraged and my pants were quite wet. Farrel, Gail and Sue and I were the last ones down. Sue was good. She helped Gail all the way down. I went down doing something they called "snowplowing" the whole way.

Paul went down fast and took the T-bar up the second slope to the very top of the mountain. He went down that slope about 8 times he said. I didn't go down that one at all becuase it look very steep. I stayed on the first slope which wasn't quite so hard. Those skis were just so heavy and trudging through the snow was so difficult.

The people that weren't skiing were watching us from the gondola station. I got tired and rested there on the terrace. I was fun watching the tired skiers come swooshing in.

Boy was it hot. Geez, I was down to just my t-shirt. That was so neat! Summer skiing, the man said. I got a burn on my face. A lot of people are real Indians. And we go the riviera tomorrow to get more sun-burnt. Oh boy.

Reinhard was a really good skier. Jeff, who also had never skied before was up on the expert slope with Reinhard. He did tumble down most of the way though. I'm surprised someone didn't get hurt really bad. There were so many crazy people.

The gondola went down at 2:30 and we all made it on. The horse carts were waiting for us at the bottom to take our tired souls home.

I got back with the absolute worst headache in the world. I had some chocolate - Oh so much chocolate we bought there. Took some aspirin then slept for 1 1/2 hours before dinner which was at 6:30. Paul's knee hurts even more now, and so does Gail's. Jeff is sore all over and my shoulders are pretty sore. Bob did give me a back rub that was nice.

Karens blow dryer wasn't working.  She knew T had one so she asked to borrow it.  I thought T was being very difficult about loaning it to her.  She was barking out so many warnings "don't leave it on too long", "don't put it too close", "don't blow it up", don't this don't that.  Made Karen very sorry for asking.  T got her point across.  It'll be the last anyone asks her for a favor. 

At 8:00 a festival was supposed to start in the town so we were staying at the main hotel till then until we walked down to see what the festival was about.  Then we went back to the main hotel up the road a ways and sat and talked in the lobby. We got to sleep at 12:45.

Our path in Switzerland followed from Lausanne on Lake Geneve through Avenches, Bern and to Luzern. Back to Lake Geneva to Vevey and Montreauz, near Gestard and Saas Almagel is near Adelbden.

We didn't get to see the Matterhorn up close but we did drive near it.

We also saw the Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva. It is a 13th century former prison. We also saw Weinmarkt- Brunnen. It's a square in Lucerne with a gothic fountain (on the weinmarkt).

To bed at 12:45 last night, and up this morning at 4:45 because breakfast was at 5:30 am! This is cruel and unusual punishment. There is supposed to be a lot of traffic on Sunday so we had to leave early to get to Nice by 8:00. It seems like we will got there by 5:00.

Wow! We're on the road again. There are so many tunnels in Italy! It's dark then bright.

We drove by the Mediterranean Sea and stopped to eat at Lago Maggione. We ate spaghetti, salad, veal and zucchini squash.

We checked into our hotel Medics in Nice. Before dinner some people went swimming. We got a little dressed up and met in the lobby at 8. All 45 of us walked to find the restaurant "Au Soliel". It was full of people already but we fit too. We ate the usual- meat and potatoes. After dinner some people went walking down to the beach.

I was too tired. I went back to the room. I boiled some water in a glass (not corning or pyrex) and the bottom broke off of it - oops! We had hot tea it was sooo good! I wash my hair at 11 pm, talk, then finally sleep around 1:10 am.

Breakfast in our room at 8:00 am. That was terrible. Kathy left early to do laundry with Bob. So we saved her chocolate.

At 9:00 am it was off the Grasse in the Maritime Alps for a tour of a perfume factory. We didn't buy any though. It was all so expensive.

After that, we all got our swim suits on (top and bottoms) to go to Cannes. All other groups only went to the rock beach 1/2 mile from the hotel but Reinhard got Gerhard to take us to the resort on French Riviera- Cannes. It was really crowded. We drove down the Boulevard de la Croisette.

We got on the beach by 11:30. It was a very interesting experience. After all this was the riviera and women did not wear the tops to their suits. You could tell the bunches of Americans who were covered. All the guys were keeping pretty calm.

Reinhard brought a picnic that we ate on the grass. There were chairs in the shade all over that we found out you had to pay to sit in them. It was only a small public beach too.

The beach was fun.  We buried Reinhard in the sand. Here is Brian and Marla piling the sand:

We left at 4:30 and didn't get back to the hotel till 5:45. Dinner was at 6:30. After dinner, no time for a shower, get ready to go out. Get dressed up - T wore her turquoise dress and I wore the red t-shirt one. Kathy wore Tina's one with the round collar because all her clothes were still damp.

At 8:30 go to the Monaco and Monte Carlo Casino. We got there at 9:30. We planned to meet at the bus at 10:30. What a complete waste of time for us. We weren't 21 so we didn't even try to go in the casino. We only walked around the 1 1/2 hours. It would have a more exciting if we could join in the fun. I wish they hadn't built up that night so much. Some people in the group did sneak in and loose money- Sue 90 francs, MaryAnn - 60 francs.

Reinhard was still drinking so we didn't leave till 11:40. Got home at 12:20 and I still had to wash my hair. That night was such a total waste. We sat with Marla, MaryAnn, Scott and Brian awhile in the restaurant. Whoopee. Kathy and Lee (the AXO's) walked around with Alex and Greg - double date?!?. I was mad that they built up that night so much. A lot of people lost money - Sue 90 francs, MaryAnn - 60 francs. Wow.

To sum up France. . . Oh boy. What all did we see there? Our path followed from North Calais, through Abbeville, down to Chantilly to Paris, side trip to Versailles, east to Reims, then out of the country to Germany, Switzerland, then back in France way south at Nice and Antibes to Cannes (beach) and Grasse.

I went to sleep with my hair wet.

Up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30, pack tote bag for 2 days and 2 nights of clothes. Leave at 8:30 on our way to Venice. Drive drive drive. Got into Italy at 10:40 and exchanged some money - $50. 0 = 40,000 lira. Wow. exchange rate is 800 L = $1. 0, went to 845 L also.

We had to leave all our suitcases on the bus (which doesn't lock) so everyone was really scared about their luggage. You can open it up whenever you want to get your suitcase - or rip off someone else's.

We stopped a few kilometers before on the road so people could get the stuff they forgot to cram in their tote bag.

We took a very short ride to Venice. We got to the port or whatever it's called on the mainland by Venice in late afternoon.  Here's the approach to St. Marks square from the water:

We walked to our hotel.  It was a former monastery for monks and it was right in the center of the town. It was named "Academia". We got a nice double room.

First thing Rudi introduced himself and the city. Then we ate. I don't like the food here. Usually the bread is what fills you up, but the bread is not edible. We each had a drink for L300 each. I am really just tired from traveling.

After dinner went for a walk to St. Marks Square with a bunch of people.

Suzi in 1979

Grandpa and Grandma in 1961.  They are my inspiration to travel. They saw 60 countries in the 1950's on propeller airplanes!

On the walk home, we stared walking in completely the wrong direction so we got really lost. However, we did find ice cream for L300, coke L500 (for one coke) and L1000 for water! We finally found our way there, walk around then home by 11.

I see what all the warnings were about these Italian men! Rudi said it was like a pastime for them to try to pick up tourist girls.

In the morning breakfast was hard rolls at 8. Lecture by Rudi on Venice. It was really interesting. It took 4 million oak trees to make the platform for 1 church! There are over 400 bridges connecting the canals to make walking across the city possible. Over 400 churches too. He said something - a tower which was leaning bad - It symbolizes American girls - "always inclined but never fallen".  I thought that was real cute.

We had a tour of the Church in the Aquar (I'll got the name from Monique's tour book) and the Square, and the Doge's Palace ( my ticket for AL PALAZZO DEI DOGI says 300 Lira. the exchange rate was 800 Lira = $1 USD.  That was a cheap ticket!!!).

Then we visited a glass factory.
Murano glassmaking originated in 9th century. Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction of the city’s mostly wooden buildings, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291.

A man blew some glass for us.  We learned how first the glass was baked for 24 hours after being heated and formed the gold is baked on the flower put on and baked again, It's called 3-fired glass. T didn't want to buy anything so I had to secretly buy a small vase anyway. It was $15 (L12,000) but really pretty (L800 = $1. 0). It is the start of my collection of vases that you can fit in the palm of your hand (upper left in the photo below). The other pieces are Murano glass that Mom purchaased when they lived in Italy in 1956-57.

Next was lunch. We had pizza - that was really good! Then we headed for Lido beach. We had to take a boat ride then a hike across the island to get to the sea and not the polluted inlet. I didn't like Lido beach as much as the Riviera - the sand was different. Also the water dirtier. We left there about 3:30 and got on the boat (L500) to get back to Venice.

Sylvie and I got off the boat at the St. Marks Square stop with Jeff and Heather. I took a picture of Sylvie feeding the pigeons, then these two guys saw us taking pictures and handed Sylvie his camera to take a picture of the both of them. Then they switched places and we were in about 5 of their pictures. I guess they would tell their friends we were girls they had picked up and use the pictures. We had just gotten back from the beach so we looked terrible, anyway.

That's what I really like about this trip. Everyone sees each other at their absolute worst with 2 hours of sleep, tired feet and after 12 hours on the bus. We all get along so well. Anyway. So after Sylvie and I were model stars, we walked and walked and walked all the way across the entire city to our motel. I had 30 minutes to get cleaned up then dinner at 6:30.

After dinner (which was yuk), we had 15 minutes to get ready for the gondola ride - rush rush. We walked 1/2 way across Venice to get to the boats. A man took a group picture that I bought for L1000.

There were 6 people in our boat - Jeff, Lisa, Paula, Heather, T and me. We had a bottle of wine to share. It was a blast. Our driver was really good. He did some 360's on some of the turns. We had a nice ride through the streets. Rudi had an accordion and tambourine and we sang songs the whole way and after the ride too. 

Here is our official group picture taken in Venice.  (not sure about some of these names)

FRONT - Ron, Driver, Reinhard, Beth, Lois, Sue - Linda, Vicky - Kathy, ?, Marilyn, Marla

SECOND - Paul, ?, Connie, Gail - Lisa, Gary, Heather, Celia?, Cheri?, Alex, Scotty

STANDING - Jeff, Bob, Sylvie, Mary Ann, Karen, Bev?, Bea?, Paula, Oliver

BEHIND - Kathy, Ferrel, Sue, Suzi, Sylvie, T, Susan, Nancy?, Monique?, PalmBeachScott?,Cordelia?,?,Linda?, Martha?, Brian

T was talking to this guy. They were talking in Spanish some so he was really getting interested in her. Then he started getting really friendly with her. I noticed that she looked very uncomfortable so I went over where she was. She seemed a little relieved, then she shoved him towards me so I asked him if he wanted to dance. We danced, then he went right back to T. That plan didn't work, so we worked out an alternate. I got Jeff to go over and drag T away from the guy. It was an interesting experience, especially for T.

Paul was dancing the whole night too. I asked him once to dance. He's pretty wild on the dance floor. I was mostly with this guy who actually was able to put up with my mistakes when I disco. He was a good lead so I caught on but then he wouldn't let me sit down. Finally I did, but he dragged me out there again after I'd cooled off.

The price to get in only included one drink and the others were too expensive so we had to make due. We were supposed to get back to the monastery by 12:00 when they close, but Linda was dancing with Rudi so he didn't want to go back. Well, the boat home was slow down the road (waterway) so we didn't make it in on time. Oh well.

7:30 breakfast - bread rocks. Then back on the mainland and on the bus (the luggage was safe) by 9. We're on the bus now headed for Florence Italy. We went through the Apenine Mountains and had lunch in Florence about noon.  We had a tour of Florence. The guide was terrible. A short lady with a heavy accent. She didn't seem to realize there was 46 people around her trying to listen to her. .

We had an art history lecture. These are the notes:

We saw a church and a bell tower (separate! the gates of paradise and the building they were attached to.

We visited Galleria Degli Uffizi (Uffizi Gallery). It has one of the richest collections of masterpieces in the world. It was build in 1565. Saw paintings etc by Rubens, RembrandtCimabue, Giotto, Botticelli, Paphail and Titan. Saw the "annunciation" by da Vinci.

Then we had the afternoon free. I wrote a letter to Mom and Dad. We took a nap. I can't remember now what we did. I think we shopped.

Dinner then we went to a high place (like Montmarte) and saw a whole beautiful sunset of Florence.

Friday. Florence (Day 18). Tour of the city in the morning. Our hotel was the original House of Parliament for the city (state?) It was the first one that carried our luggage up for us. We were in room 91 on the top hot floor. 87 steps up. There was a big lobby big green chairs and couch, a dining room and the 1st and 2nd floor. The bathrooms was around the corner down the hall. It was a big hotel, about 3 other groups were also staying there. Lunch was on the 2nd floor room.

Florence was a beautiful city. We went to the Leonardo DaVince anatomical display that was being shown only this summer. My ticket says "BIGLIETTO D'INGRESSO AI QUARTIERI MONUMENTALI DI PALAZZO VECCHIO Lire 1.000 Disegni Anatomici Leonado da Vinci" The exhibit was really worth it visiting. I wanted to buy a souvenir and T tried to convince me that I didn't need one. Well, I'm glad I got the poster. We went to Accademia and saw Michalangelo's David.  

One of these pictures of David is in gardens at a museum in Sarasota Florida.

Went to Battistero (baptistery), built in 1000. The 14^th century bronze doors are Ghiberti's famous Gate to Paradise door by Donatello. Here is my picture in 1979 (Marla and Jeff), and again in 2006 - they have cleaned up the panels!

We went to tivoli and we saw the castle and all the fountains. They had a fountain that you could walk under. It was pretty cool. Huge fountains all over the place, Sylvie took my picture. It was at the Fountains of the Villa d'Este. A renaissance villa built centuries ago. Huge gardens.

Then we went back to the bus. J-14 was also there. We had to wait on Janet and Ron because they got lost and couldn't find their way out of the gardens. Stay with the guide! J-14 group went on and we caught up with them at the restaurant.

Dinner this night is one I will never forget. First was spaghetti, then a choice of filet of sole, chicken. I took trout. It was really good. Then the wine. Reinhard kept putting more bottles of wine on the table. We also toasted champagne. I didn't care, I guess. I just ate and drank, then danced. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Thanks to Jeff who added stuff from other journals etc. It odd that I didn't mention Vivoli's in my journal...

This is from Marilyn's journal - ‎6.29.79 Florence. Dante's Home, Medici Chapel, Baptistry, Duoma, Bronze Doors, Academy and more. Shopped the flea market. Pizza party..VIVOLI"S ice cream and a night at a disco!

Emails

June 29, 2009

 Marilyn - Vivoli's Ice Cream, Florence - Remember this place...I know Jeff does! Mmmmmmm...hazelnut and cream! Yummy!!!

 June 29, 2009 

Marla - Yes, I do... it was AWESOME!!! You and I went there TWICE!!!! We have great taste!! XO Florence was also Togas! It was Alex who dared us....

June 29, 2009

 Marilyn - i Awww..that crazy Alex...gave Gary a run for his J-15 casanova status!! Ha ha

June 30, 2009  

Katherine - I still have a little plastic ash tray from Vivoli's... How did THAT end up in my bag????

July 5, 2009

Jeff - Best Damn gellati anywhere. Mmmm.... pistachio, chocolate. I went there twice too 8-)

Funny that Kathy mentioned the plastic ash tray.  This is my ash tray in photo to the right.  I didn't take any photos of Vivoli's in 1979, but when I went back to Italy for Mom & Dad's 50 wedding anniversary, I remembered this place and we had some gelato.  Here's Mom & Dad in front of Vivoli's in 2006:

I got up at 6, took a shower, then went back to sleep. Up at again 7:30.

I was threatening not to go with the group. I think I was more ashamed for my extensive driking the night before than anything else. I didn't want to see anybody. Then, the first thing Bob asked to sit next to me. What could I say? Kathy's boyfriend Peter was in town that day I he wanted to to sit next to me.

(I need to finish writing. . I keep falling asleep. I'm so tired. Bob always stands in the aisle and looks around at people. Anyway. ) 

We drove through Pisa on the way to Rome. We actually got to go up the leaning tower of Pisa (the Campanile). 274 steps to the top. 6 stories! It's all marble too. It has a 13-foot lean and you could really tell when you were at the top.

In 1174 it was a bell tower for the cathedral. It was pretty incredible. I'm glad we got to climb it because you certainly can't do that any more. It was closed to tourist in 1990. In February, 1993 they placed a 600 ton counterweight at the base of the tower to keep it from collapsing.

Took this pictures at the top of the Leaning tower of Pisa:

Sue - holding it up.  What a great memory of a very fun girl!      Emails July, 2009 Marilyn - and on a very sad note..I found out today that we lost Sue  in January to a fast acting cancer. I spoke with her still grieving husband, Bob. I let him know about the J-15 group and he may visit us and share in our memories of Sue. Marla and I kept in touch with Sue for awhile after Europe. For me, I remember will always remember that bright smile of hers that lit up a room and her funny and bubbly personality!! My heart goes out to her husband. This news makes me even more grateful to have found all of you! Marla - Sue was SO MUCH FUN!!! She signed my Trip Diary book "your drinking buddy" -- and that we were.  Marilyn is right -- she was ALWAYS happy -- great smile. She was also as tall as me, which is always a rare find for me. If you don't remember which person she is -- Look at the Gondola ride -- she's the other girl -- the one with the smile and the short dark hair. In the black and white group shot in Venice on the stairs, she's right there in the front kneeling in the dress.   She was one of us who gathered in California for the 1-year reunion. She and Gail came from Kansas -- we had a blast. I remember recreating the baby bottle dinner. Sue's husband  Bob - This web site is an "eternal" tribute to Sue. It starts with her obituary, which was of course correct at the time of her death. But now I'd like you to focus on all the positive things there. There are photos of her and her artwork and her family. There are sweet memories, particularly in the posting labeled "Sue-isms"   Sue Fahey 1959 - 2009 - Obituary - www.tributes.com/suefahey

When we got to Rome, we had an excellent guide. Her name was Erica. She's been a guide for 10 years in this program.

We went to Vatican City (the smallest country in the world). Ruled by the Pope and the College of Cardinals. It is the center of Roman Catholicism. Created in 1929. The Piazza San Pietro is one of the most incredible squares in the world. At one side is St. Peter's Basilica (Basilica Di San Pietro), and the other, Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina).

We went to the Sistine Chapel. What an awesome treat. It was so hot that day, I was going to die from the heat. We were outside standing up in the sun and the guide was telling us everything about the ceiling before we even saw it. We finally went inside where we got to see the ceiling. WOW.

Here are two pictures of the Sistine Chapel wall.  Dad took the picture on the left in 1956. Paul took the one the right in 1979.

So many people all over the place! I've used 6 rolls of film so far. I need to take more pictures.

It was really impressive, if it weren't for all the people in it. They were about done with cleaning all the frescos, but there were still two black fresco's that weren't clean yet the others you could at least see some colors.

The big fresco - wow! on the left side people going up to heaven, on the right side falling to hell. It was incredible. Christ's life is depicted along the right wall, and on the left is the life of Moses. It took Michelangelo 4 years to complete it. "The Last Judgement" is on the wall behind the altar.

Next we went to St. Peters Cathedral (Basilica Di San Pietro).

Here are two pictures of the St. Peters.  My grandfather took the picture on the left in 1961. I took the one the right in 1979.

This church is HUGE!   You have to walk and walk and walk just to get around inside the church ! geez! It is the largest church in Christendom. It was started in 1452 and took 200 years to build. 100,000 people can fit in that church! We saw a monument with the skeleton falling down. and a sculpture of a the mother holding child all in 1 piece of marble (La Pieta by Michelangelo). The red marble was put together from 5000 pieces all around the statues. the dome in the cathedral has a elevetor to get to the top.

Another part of the square was the Vatican Palace (Palazzo Vaticano) where the Pope lives. The letters outside the building looked 3 feet high - they were actually at least 6 feet high. There were monuments dedicated to popes all over. There was actually a body of a past pope too (on display). Something to a man - the 27 day pope.

WE SAW THE POPE!   We were in the Papal Audience - we actually got to hear His Holiness speak. Very moving experience. It was very crowded. It got a picture of the Pope in his window were he was speaking from. Paul got up on a light post to get a better view.  He always speaks from this window - He is waving at us!

After The Pope, go to buy stamps and mail post cards in the Vatican - the mail goes faster. We had lunch at a hotel down the street from our hotel. Then sistine tyme 1-4 every afternoon. T slept the whole time. Karen and Irma went shopping and I did laundry. 

At 5:00 pm meet in the bus to go to the Christian Catacombs. These are subterranean cemetaries used by the Christians. It was so damp and gross. I only took one picture of it. The walls were so high with holes where the bodies were. The tour was spooky, Well worth seeing.

Dinner was at a really cute restaurant. I loved it! The pizza was fantastic with sausage and mushroom. Wine to drink- but not for me! I drank water.

J-16 met us there too. Afterwards both groups took off for the "3 coins in the fountain" fountain - The Trevi Fountain. It was not a good experience in 1979. There so many people all over the place - tons of Italians. Two people fell in the fountain.

Here is my 21-year old Mom and Dad in front of the fountain in 1956.

On their 50th wedding anniversary, they returned to the same fountain and I took this picture in 2006:

Mom and Dad  lived in Italy for a couple years and their great memories is the reason that T, Paul and I got to go on this Europe bus trip.

So, everyone made their wishes at the fountain and then we left to go back to the hotel. Finally sleep at 12:30.

Today we saw some more sights around Rome.

 The Roman Forum (Foro Promano). built in 203! There is a temple of Julius Ceasar.

The Colosseum

Rome 1979

Rome 2006

The Pantheon. Constructed 609.

Rome Pantheon 1956

Rome Pantheon 2006

Also the Piazza Navona. A typical 17th century Roman square. In the center is Bernini's Fountain of the Rivers in front of Borromini's Church of St. Agnes in Agony. It was a nice square. There were people selling stuff and a big chalk drawing on the bricks. I got a post card which shows the Pizzeria Ristorante that we ate at.

Since my entries of this day are so vague - hope Marilyn doesn't mind - this the entry from her journal:

‎7.1.79 Rome. Erica was our tour guide. Saw Moses. Learned about the chip in his knee and the self portrait in his beard. Went to the Forum. During the fire the people dropped their coins and they are melted into the ground. Went to the Coliseum, learned about the killings that went on there. Went to the Pantheon, Temple of All Gods. No windows just a light from the top of the dome. Raphael is buried there. Then went and saw the POPE!! He spoke in St. Peter's Square at 12:00 noon.Went to a cafe for lunch. Everything closes between 1-4. Went to Tivoli Gardens. What a sight! Ate at a real great restaurant (getting fat!) Bob, Marla, Kathy and I had a great time at dinner. 101 ways to use a napkin! Dressed the statues with them..ha ha. Suzi got sick on the bus.

So I have to fess up that Marilyn's last statement is unfortunately true. I had to wash that blue dress to get the yuck out....

Monday, July 2! Up at 7:20 breakfast (yuk) take off for Naples. We got on the road by 8:40, then drove and drove. etc. We stopped at a restaurant on the way. Also stopped for bathroom stop which was desperately needed by some people.

I bought some cookies that cost L460. I gave him 1000 and got back 4 candies in exchange. How strange. They really don't like to use coins in Italy. Then, Paul also bought some candy too. He only had 450 so he gave them a candy to make 460 and they took it!

We didn't actually stay in Naples, we went to it's a little town called Sorrento. It is near where Ulysses of Homers Odyssey heard the Sirens.

We got to the hotel about 2:30 . What a fantastic hotel! It is definitely that best hotel we've been in yet! Out room was 68 steps up! It was a good size. They had just put 1 extra bed in it. It had a shower, toilet, 9 towels and mirrors all over, and a closet, every room did! They all had balconies too. Everyone was out on their balconies and we could talked to each other. All the guys were on the 4th floor.

We all had clothes lines strung up the second we got there. Then I was in the pool by 3:20. It felt sooo good to swim in a pool. It's a change from the sea. We've been in the Mediterranean, Iranian, and Tauaniah seas. I think that's what it was.

Dinner at 6:00. Fancy dinners at this hotel. After dinner, go to a wood laying store. We didn't get any demonstrations or anything there. Just a store with high prices. T got a plain box which was 14 dollars. A lot of people went across the street where prices were about half what they were at the store where we were. I guess they pay the our to bring us there or something.

Then we went to a native show of tambourine dancing girls. The men had some kind of percussion instrument. All the dances got pretty monotonous after awhile. We got one drink with entrance price.

I got a bourbon and coke ‑ it was so strong!  And I said I wasn't going to drink after the last night that I got so sick.  We've had so many opportunities to drink on this trip.  Paul got what was supposed to be a pina colada.  The bartender obviously didn't have any idea what that was.  He got a pure alcohol drink it seemed. 

The show also had a magician who was obviously nervous or else he was just terrible. He stuffed his mouth with cotton then pulled out thread, then he did it with razor blades. Yawn. T says it's the first magician that's showed her how to do the tricks. He put a pigeon in a cylinder then stuck swords through it. It had to scrunch up in the end. He had another pigeon in there already! Oh well.

Got to bed by 1 am, up at 6:45. Breakfast then take off for Capri. It was a relatively long bus ride and we had a boat to catch. When we got there, there was long walk/hike to the boat. We went down 128+20 steps, then we walked down more roads. The boat ride took an hour to get to the island.

We tried to go to the Blue Grotto but the tide was up so we couldn't go in it. That happend for J-14 too. I don't think any of them went in it. They said to come back later so we went back to the island.

We took the Feniculare (like the one at Niagra, Paul said) to the top of the mountain. Then we proceeded to walk to the other side of the mountain. We went down so far, down hairpin turn roads, down steps, more steps then to see the rock beach. It was so crowded.

We climbed over people, and over rocks to the last beach and then proceeded to plant our bodies in and out and around the rocks, stones and pebbles.  Here is ?, Paul, Jeff, and Brian on the rox:

We had bag lunches that we ate. Then we went swimming. The water was so clear. It was beautiful, but Reinhard got stung by a jellyfish and others were stung by sea urchins and things. The water was really salty too, not like the water at good olde Crescent Beach at all. It dried on your skin.

This was also where my bathing suit top came undone - how embarrassing ! Heather luckily had a safety pin so I could fix it quickly. Thanks Heather!

At 1:00, a lot of us picked up camp to attempt to go to the Blue Grotto again. We paid L200 to ride to the top. We weren't stupid this time - but oh did we squish into that bus.

We took the Feniculare, then we got in a pretty big boat to the Blue Grotto. The we had to climb into little row boats on these big waves! Awkward. The guy rowed us to the floating spot where we had to pay. My ticket says "Sippoi-Capri Autoservizio. Capri Marina Piccola. Then they took us into the grotto. It was a little entrance. We had to lay on the bottom of the boat and duck. He pulled us into the cave by a rope.   There is a boat in the entrance to the grotto in these 1979 and 2006 pictures:

1979	2006  That is my mom in the forground.  Dad and I went in the grotto. Inside the grotto looked the same as 27 years ago!

The grotto is beautful!!!!  It is 20 meters deep. The water is light from the sun from underneath the rock. There was a lion profile marking the entrance of the tunnel that went to Capri. It was beautiful inside. It was a cave and the water was crystal clear. The light shines under the rock to make the water a beautiful aqua color. 

 

I tipped the guy an American dollar only because he asked for a souvenir plus tips.

Oh, by the way, I've lost track of money now. (I've been keeping track of all the money in the back of this book) Oh well. 

We had to climb our way back into the big boats. Geez. When we got back to Capri we waited 40 minutes to catch the boat back to Naples. It was a big boat this time. A ferry. I slept the whole 45 minute ride back.

Then we had to wait around the street an hour until Reinhard came back to give Gerhard some money to get the bus. Finally at the hotel at around 6.

First thing-jump in the pool. It felt so goood - get the dried salt off.   Dinner was at 7. I ran into dinner with wet hair. We had chicken with carrots and bread and sweetened whipped cream for dessert. It was so good.

After dinner - take a shower then, that night go to a "water lemon" (Reinhard called it that) 4th of July party by the pool. We got Vodka and plugged the watermelons with the bottles. I wasn't having any, but Paul did. What a party.

It was Ron's birthday today. He was his first drinking beer - then finished with some vodka.  Ah oh, that's a bad combination for get getting sick.  Yup, someone else did it on the bus.  I can say it happens to the best of us.

Oh also, Reinhard got thrown in the pool too. So cold.

"Happy Birthday America" as Monique said at 12:00, but then it wasn't 12:00 in America yet was it? Oh well.

We went to see Pompeii today. It wasn't far at all from the hotel. At first it wasn't anything like I expected - a highly commercial front on a small out of the way relatively busy street.

We got the entrace tickets then began to walk through it. First to a main forum, then around the streets. That's a big place. I forget how many acres. An eruption of Mr. Vesuvius buried it in A.D. 79  He said 2/3 was already excavated and they are working on the other 1/3.

When it was first discovered - people looted all the valuable and stripped all the marble but you could still picture what was there. The street and houses were unreal.

We went into one the most well preserved brick house. We saw the color of Pompeii Red and the typical layout of a house then.

 

We went in the room which just last year opened to women over 18 yrs old- they had pictures of people "playing marbles" - sure! And the statue of the man who was a fountain - I'll say no more.

The street still had ruts where the wooden wheels wore the stones down. A bakery where 89 loaves of bread were found. a bath for men - sauna. everything!

After the tour we had a good guide to Casa Rossa restaurant on the side of Mount Vesuvius. We had spaghetti (for the last time he promised) as the anti pasta, then fish -it was good with vegetables. Dessert was a lemon chiffon with liqueur in it.

Then back on the bus for a long, long 5 hour ride. So hot! I had on the blue sundress that I had bought so I wasn't too uncomfortable.

We had to go to the Roman war port of Brindisi. We got to the dock about 6. then wait wait - passports processed load bus on the ship!  The name of the Castalia.  Finally got us on at 7:40. The boat is nice! We are on the Daphine deck.  We found our room- threw our stuff down then ran to dinner on the other side of the ship.We took off at 8:00 while we were eating a big dinner on the ship.

Dinner was excellent. Whole fish with squash salad - tomato and cucumbers, then hamburger and carrots then chocolate ice cream. It took our table 1 1/2 hour to eat we enjoyed it.

Put everybody and everything including the entire bus on a ship to Greece. Our room was a double. It had bunkbeds and a bathroom with a shower, and cold water. It was extremely nice compared to where the people with Eurail passes had to sleep. Some of them has to sleep outside, and there was only one bathroom for it must have been about 100 people it seemed. They were all on the top deck of the ship. We hung around the lower decks.

We got 2 candy bars to eat in case we missed breakfast.

That night - walk around the ship - it has a pool, and a bowling alley, and a movie theater!

I didn't feel good at all- I couldn't even talk that morning so I went to sleep early that night. I slept so well the best since the beginning of this trip. I think everyone said the same thing - Even Monique! Her poor back. she's been having to take valium because the pain get so bad sometimes.

We did get up for breakfast at 7:20 Yuk. Sit on the deck with oh so many people. All over the ship! If you have a Eurorail pass you can ride for free. There were people covering the entire floor area on the deck with sleeping bags and back packs. That's a terrible was to travel if you ask me. No bathroom. No food.

We had melba, rolls, hard boiled egg and jam and tea- so good. We docked at 12. We waited in the lounge to get off not with the crowd.

At Patras - Bus rolled off the ramp before a truck. Everybody was on the bus - Oh so hot hot. I wore jeans too what an idiot. Also my calves were in so pain - muscles are sore from walking down the mountain at Capri.

Bob taught T how to play spades on this ride. I can't believe Tina was actually playing cards! The first time in her life something other than crazy eights. 

Finally got to Athens at 6:30. Rooms assigned. Dinner was luckily changed from 7 to 7:30. We've been eating so fast lately. Dinner was two slices of meat with french fries.  We also had a Russian salad - kind of a potato salad with half a hard boiled egg on top - yum eggs twice today then Greek salad - tomatoes and cucumber with onion. Dessert was a custard with caramel syrup in a cup for dessert.

After dinner an hour, then takeoff for the sound and light show on the Acropolis. The effect were pretty good, but the show wasn't very good at all. At least it was in English. A lot of people in the audience got up to leave. I guess cause they couldn't understand or else we were too loud! We had to keep making wise cracks to stay awake during the show. I got a program to keep as a souvenir of the night. Also on the last line, it began to rain. Everyone put chairs on their heads to block the rain.

We had a long walk to the bus - dribbling rain. Marla was tripping all over the place. We got back to the hotel, so people went walking around - stores were still open! I went to sleep, I didn't feel good at all.

Next day - Breakfast 7-8 am. We didn't leave until 8:45. Sight seeing the first part of the morning. We went to the Acropolis. We parked at the bottom of the hill, then it was about a 10 minute walk up. 

Click here for various pictures of the Acropolis

Our guide said Acro meant "end" and poliss meant city. Every city has an Acropolis then. Acropolis was inhabited back in 3500 B. . It was the center of religious activity until the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosis banned pagan worship in A. . 429.

At the Acropolis we saw:

After dinner I saw a guy wearing my sorority jersey! He had bought it up an American market he said. He didn't even know what it meant. He spoke broken english but wasn't greek. I took a picture of him.

After eating and DRINKING, we just walked around. There were discos all over the place! The street was very crowded with people. We went to the Constitution Square and sat awhile. A bunch of guys sat sown beside us.

We went back to the bus, but it wouldn't start because the battery was run down. A bunch of us walked home - 30 minutes walk. They had to push start the bus so the others got to the hotel the same time we did. It was a very refreshing walk. I enjoyed it.

Anther view of the day from Marilyn's journal:

‎7.7.79 Athens Finally got to sleep after the party below us and the "peeping Gary's!" Left for the Acropolis. Saw the Parthenon. I can't believe my eyes! Marla and I walked all around Athens. Shopped around the square. I cut Nancy's hair! Packed for our trip to Hydra. Had lamb and baklava for dinner. Yuk!Some kids went to the disco.

email from Jeff July 7, 2009 - Hey, didn't you cut my hair too? I remember the light show at the Acropolis. We saw the Blue Grotto at Hydra. Thanks for posting your edited diary, Marilyn 8-)

Up at 6:00, breakfast at 6:40, leave promptly at 7:00 - they weren't kidding - 7 sharp. Jeff didn't make it. They left him at the hotel and he had to catch a taxi to the port. Now I'm on the boat to Hydra, or rather "Idhra".

The boat ride to Hydra was a total of 3 hours. The boat was so full. People standing the whole time. Back packers were on it too. I guess they got to ride free like the other boat. Oliver is going to do that immediately after this trip - geez- why. Anyway.

We got to the island at 11:20 and met Trudy the station manager there. She's from Chicago - no accent! It was nice for a change. Then we walked to the private home where we were staying. The island isn't that big.

There was one bedroom for all the guys and four bedrooms for the girls. That makes 13 beds for 36 girls. She put mattresses on the roof of the house so people could sleep out there. We found out we had only 2 toilets but there were 3 showers. Wow. Talk about roughing it.

After we got to the house, we had 15 minutes to change and get out to the clock tower on the harbor where we were taking a boat to the beach around the other side of the island. We had lunch at this cafeteria place on the beach. Sausage - like meat and rice with cold water - save the bottle. The beach was pretty nice there. The sand was really hot and the water was extra salty again. It kind of dried on your skin in flakes.

The boat left at 4:15. When we got back, there was a mad rush for the showers becuase there was a 5:30 donkey ride. I went on the 5:30 shift of donkey rides. It wasn't that exciting. Me and Ferrel were on donkeys led by one man, then Ron and Janet were on the other pair. We trotted along, then we separated from the group. We just went around back streets, and even up and down stairs!

Here is Kathy on her donkey. The other picture is Suzi on her ass that just took a dump - I have a personal assistant to clean up my (donkey) shit!

After the donkey ride, I washed my hair in the sink. Everyone else was taking off the Bills Bar. A joint where they plan for all the ISE people to go to. Bill had "special prices"- sure. Drinks were named Hydra Breezer, Southern Bride. They pretty much all tasted the same. For 50 "dracula" people were calling them.

I wasn't feeling very good at all - I had my 'period' and we were living out of a tote bag for 3 days and 2 nights. Great. I knew I'd get it once on this trip, but why did I have when 48 people were sharing 2 toilets? What a pain.

That night we met at 7:15 by the clock tower by the water front then we took off for dinner. It was this crummy little place around the other side of the island, past rock beach.  This dinner was the pits. First, a tomato-cucumber and olive oil salad. Then, get this, stuffed tomatoes was main course, and watermelon for dessert. (Our famous tomato cucumber salad made this dinner the infamous "RED dinner").

After dinner we walked toward home but stopped on some rocks first where Trudy told us a little about the island. She mentioned a lot of famous people who come to the island sometimes for vacations. - Mick Jagger for one. There was also the biggest yacht in the world there in the harbor that I took two pictures of. The guy who owns it was Onassis' main competitor.

Then we went in this place where we saw Sirtake dancing. We all trooped in and sat down. It turned out to be a great show. First two men danced. Then, they did 3 men where the last one was hanging on to a rag and he did flips and things like that while the middle man was supporting his entire weight my holding the other end of the rag. They got us up on the floor trying to learn it too. Neat. Anyway.

After the allotted time they dished out disco music and so many people just got up and left. I went back so I could get a bed. I didn't want to sleep outside, but some girls were already out there asleep. The guys were up on a higher rooftop overlooking the harbor. There were mattresses wall to wall. No sheets or anything. I go up about 3 to put my jeans on because I was so cold. T's cold got worse. My sore throat was OK, but my body wasn't. Boy did I have usually bad cramps.

Up by 7:30 to walk to a cafe at 8 for a rock-hard boiled egg breakfast with orange juice. Lots of flies and cats. Yum yum. Most people went to the beach but I certainly didn't feel like it.

Paul bought a swimming mask and went to Rock beach with the guys, he stayed all day. I just hung around the courtyard of the house, went shopping some and got lunch . We got a food allowance of 70 drackmas. We got a sandwich for 28, then a Suflaki for 12. I had two of those. Then we got some fruit - 2 peaches for 24, and 6 plums for 24. I ended up eating all of them the next day.

We left the island at 4:30 for the 3 hour boat ride back Yuk. The boat was full again. After the first stop it started to rain. We were on top wearing shorts because it was hot! We were back on the good olde bus by 8:15 at Piraeus.

Boy was that bus stinky! Some huge souvenir champagne bottle had exploded in the heat and the bus was so, so hot - it was disgusting.

We had a 3 hour drive to Delphi to endure. Or, so we thought. I felt absolutely crummy so I slept a lot of the way. We stopped on the road for Reinhard to phone ahead that we were running late. We got to the Delphi city limits at 10:30, late. That's when we were supposed to eat.

We didn't find the hotel and get into dinner until 12:30. We obviously got very lost. Paul could tell that we were turned around because he has such an awesome sense of direction..

Can't remember what time we got up. it was early though. I can assure you of that. Maybe 7 we left to go to Mount Parnassus on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth to see Apollos sanctuary at the Oracle of Delphi. It was pretty cool. We had a good guide. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there. It didn't seem like a long time, but his talk was an hour or more.

The photo to the right is The Oracle Scott:

The guide said that in the Oracle, to get the great decisions, a man (famed soul) would eat laurel leaves and get high. Then he would start rattling off all these supposedly great sayings which really didn't mean much, but people took them to mean something. Sayings like "Go come not killed in battle" putting commas wherever that's depending on what the outcome was.

It was some man who predicted a great power would be destroyed. The power turned out to be his own, so the saying went like this

Another prophecy about pregnant women that he told us was made "Boy not Girl" in other ways:

It goes either way.

That's like in Flowers for Algernon, Charlie made up the sentence(s).

 "that that is is that that is not is not is that it it is"

That makes no sense like that, but put in punctuation:

"That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that is? It is.

There. We also saw Archailolgilos Choros (Sacred Precincts). It was considered to be the tourchstone between gods and mortals. We saw the original theatre where the first "olympic" games were held every 4 years. It took five days for the games. There was a coliseum 12 kilometers away that people had to walk to for a day of games. Oh, the last day the medals were given in the theater like place where I took Paul's picture.

After seeing all of that, we took a short ride back to the hotel. Then we ate at a restaurant where there was a lot of people with back packs walking around. I only remember peaches for desert.

Then we were on the road driving North to get to Thessolnika:

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant - so nice. The waiters wore black jackets and bow ties, and get this - napkins draped over theie arma and a very upright stance. We had a good meal. It was some kind of meat, maybe pork and tater tots with cabbage and cucumber salad. Dessert was again a peach.

Afterwards, T and I went for a walk. We went a long way looking for a grocery store. I wanted to walk back on the other side of the street but T didn't want to. I didn't want to walk by all the same men who had already previously proceeded to stare us both up and down all the way down the street.

So we crossed the busy street and then we did indeed find a grocery store! We got 3 carnation strawberry and 3 chocolate milks - stroke of luck to find real milk! Then 3 packages of cookies - 2 orange and strawberry - they have the best cookies here.

On the way back to the hotel we met this guy who spoke English. He was Australian. At first I ignored him. He was nice so we stopped to talk. Next 2 more guys came up. It was his greek cousin that he was visiting here. We walked them to the train station where they were going to catch a train to Athens. Well that was exciting.

We found our way back to the good old Hotel Rotunda. We had a triple a room with Sylvie that night.  It had a bath (shower) toilet and everything! I washed my hair and got all clean.

Up for breakfast at 6:30, and on the road by 7. Drive, ride, play cards, write, read anything. We were going North from Thessolonika to Belgrad. Driving all the way through Yugoslavia.

I wore a comfortable skirt - comfortable for bus riding and bush stops if necessary because I was sick sick. Paul was sick the day before too.

We set our clocks (watches) backward, not one hour, but two hours! It was almost 11:00 when he told us to do it. I was really sick with stomach cramps and I didn't even think I would make it to lunch at 12:30 and now he put 2 more hours of waiting in there! Yeow.

I was taking medicine so I didn't eat lunch (I was well by the afternoon too). At lunch we saw them shaking pears from a tree next to where we parked the bus. We made jokes about that being our dessert. Turns out, it really was our dessert. The joke was on us.

After 14 hours on the bus, we got to the hotel by 7 pm. J-14 didn't arrive till 11:30 p.m. and we thought we were late!  They had an accident with a VW. Reinhard said the bus even had to go off the road. I couldn't imagine sitting 4 extra hours on their bus. Oh well. That's life that's called accidents can happen. We just get lost that's all.

We drove through Macedonia, then up to Bosnia-Herzegovinia, and the Serbia republic. We spent the night in Belgrad, Yugoslavia. What an eerie place. Very drab. The next day is up through Slovenia and Croatia.

The next day traveling West from Belgrad, Yugoslavia to Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. Gawd. Itinerary said "scenic drive through the varying Yugoslavian landscape". 

I have to insert a July 11, 2009 email from Kathy here - tooooo funny!

I don't remember if Belgrade was the place, but I DO remember that horrible pit stop... Two holes in the ground behind a wall. No paper. It was just awful. But I do remember driving through Belgrade on the bus, and for some reason Reinhard was at a loss, and so instead of imparting knowledge over the PA system, he said, "And look! There! Um.... Some Jugo-slavian inhabitants!" The combination of his accent and the humor just had Bob and me howling.

We were hours and hours on the bus. The petrol stations. Another full day of travel.   Tripped out travelers enjoying The Grateful Dead and Billy Joel tapes to get us through the miles of hours.

Email from Marilyn July 17, 2009  - Hey J-15er's ..I found a list of songs that were played on the bus..anyone remember? Sultans of Swing and Wild West End, Dire Straits. Stay, Jackson Browne. YMCA. Lost Wages and Deacon Blues, Steely Dan. 8 Days a Week. Canada, Joni Mitchell. Vienna, Billy Joel. Pitiful Me, Linda Rondstat. Take it Easy, Eagles. Truckin. Danny's Song..and who sung the "If we wern't all crazy we'd all go insane "..song!

This was Paul's typical spot - face down on the floor of the aisle.  I walked on his back a couple times for a massage.

The game tournaments were really getting off the ground. The day before there wasn't much interest, but everyone was getting so bored. There is chess tournament with about 8 participants, backgammon (including Paul and me - I lost the first round of play) with about 20 people in that one. Looks like Ron was winning, the Janel beat Ron:

Then there was the big spades game tournament. What a popular game. 10 teams of 2 each. Lea and I are partners. Neither of us felt good at all that 14 hours drive day. She was sicker than I was. We both used every bathroom stop not because we thought we should but because we had to.

Oh, I haven't said anything about the Yugoslavian bathrooms. They were totally gross gross. You smelled it 50 yards away, so it was no problem finding it. The males (picture of shoe on the door) was the exactly the same as the females (heeled shoe on door). That's how they marked the W. . s. It was the universal name for toilet.

There never was any toilet paper, and get this - not even a toilet. It had a porcelain plated hole in the floor with skid places to put your feet on.

Scott couldn't believe they subjected girls to the same kind of places. The other Yugoslavians just walked in, no problem, took their time. We couldn't believe it. It smelled soooo bad. We made such a big deal of forming lines far away. When it was our turn, you ran really fast, then peed as fast as you could so you didn't have to breathe while in the awful place. They were definitely an experience.

We took a vote on the bus to have bush stops instead. Most people were going outside on the ground instead breathing ammonia smell. Anyway.

The itin (itinerary) says evening arrival in Ljubljana. That was last night so I ought to remember. Oh yes. Hotel Turist in room 304.

Room assignments in the bus as usual. The guys fought along with the girls because there was no luggage to unload so they didn't get their rooms first. We got a double - nice rooms. Sink but no bath what so ever. Only 1 bathtub on the whole floor and 1 toilet. Oh well.

Everyone was so rowdy. Dinner was OK. It was meat (veal maybe), rice with peas and carrots then peaches for dessert. Then we went walking around. Talk about getting stared at!

All girls (even gays too, should I mention) came back with stories of guys' attacks or comments. You'd think the men there had never seen American girls before.

After the walk, we went back up to the 2nd floor and hung out in the lobby area with Jeff, Paul and Irma. First we tried to play 5 hand hear game but too many interruptions made it impossible. Sue and Gail were dancing in the halls then Paula and Oliver came back and Kathy and Bob were there too.

We started a card game called killer - winking game. Then played spoons with coins. Then Reinhard came - oh boy what a mess trying to teach him how to play spoons. He goofed up shuffling, then playing everything. I walked on Pauls back, then Jeff's back. Thrill. I also did some sit ups yeah for me!

So here is a history lesson - Yugoslavia no longer exists.  It broken up into the countries in the picture below. So we drive through: Macdonia (Skopje),  Serbia (Novi Sad), Central Serbia (Belgrade), Croatia (Zagreb), Slovenia (Ljubljana)

Up at 6:30 -7:00 Breakfast leave at 7:30 drive till about 11 am into Austria to see the castle of Hochosterwitz. The family who owns it lives at the foot of the mountain in a little house.

Then on to Klagenfurt Austria - We exchanged money

From Marilyn's journal: 

‎7.13.79 Klagenfurt/Penk Goodbye Yugoslavia. Hello Austria. We had a countdown crossing the border. This is Reinhard's hometown. He can't wipe the smile off his face! Drove by his high school and stopped by his house, all 46 of us, to say "allo mutti". But she wasn't home. We all felt so bad. Reinhard's mom is in the hospital so we made her a get well card and picked her flowers. Went to the hospital. Reinhard was so happy to see her!

We were so sad for Reinhard when we found out his mom was in the hospital!  Oh no! We wanted him to see his mum, so we did a little side trip and drove the bus to the hospital to meet her there. She came out to the parking lot. We gave her flowers and a card signed by all. Reinhard was so cute. He's been ecstatic with joy for so long because we're coming to Austria and here we are, and there he was standing next to Mom Reinhard. She was a very nice lady. 

Here he is hugging his mum, and huggin yours truly:

Reinhard took us to a great little ice cream shop where he used to go as a little boy. We found out two more things about Reinhard - he was a champion chess player at 12 years old, and also a graduate medical student with only a couple more years to go to school.

After visiting his mom, we got back on the bus to go to the biggest "water lake beach" in Austria. It's on lake Worthersee. It was just a long dock and lots of grass to lay on. We just played cards and tried to sleep. It wasn't that sunny. It was hardly worth even changing (communal) into my bathing suit for. At 4:00 we changed back into traveling clothes to take off for Penk.

What a beautiful drive. It rained a little we saw a rainbow. We stopped to get Petrol. How nice.

This is still day 30. We got to Penk about 6:00 which is early compared to the other groups. What a country. Such charm. We were all splitting up to stay in different places. There were 15 girls in the main hotel, then 4 somewhere else, 2 here, 6 there, then 10 guys somewhere. I was in this cute little cottage with Paula and Karen.

We had an hour till dinner. We all started writing postcards, journals etc. Marilyn and Marla and Beth were downstairs so I went to visit them awhile. M&M were dividing postcards. Marla figured out that she has mailed over 90 postcards! Geez. That's at $150.!

For dinner we met at 7:15 in front of the main hotel. Dinner was really good! It was an Austrian barbecue. We got at least 1/2 of a big chicken BBQ on a spit and french fries. It was definitely the best chicken I've ever had.

After that a small hike back to the hotel. It was pretty cold! A lot of people bought some of the dessert cake they had there. It looked sooo good. Paul got a piece and I only tasted it. I got a beer instead.

Their juke box was playing. They played the "YMCA" and everybody jumped up to do the queer dance. We also did 1,2-1234 Gator! I've never heard these before. Lea and Kathy got it from Kansas they do it there. Then, it's not a shuffle, but the guy carries you down to the other end of the dance floor. It's sort of like the hand-jive dance only worse.

I only stayed till 9 cause I had to go back and wash my hair . Tina never came out. She was rooming with Monique and Leslie (The first time that we didn't sleep in the same room! I walked back to the house where I was staying in the scary dark through this small pasture.

Paul had gathered a bouquet of flowers for me, and I was out on balcony getting them when Marla and Jeff (goodness!, and Reinhard and Maryln (who was engaged?! walking down the street towards the hotel. They had stayed up at the place where we had dinner and drank beer it looked like, or they acted like.

Paula and Karen were still up writing. I washed my hair in the sink - there's never any showers around these places. Had to go to sleep with it wet.

7:30 morning breakfast at the little house, the bus left at 8:30. Thank goodness it was out last tote bag stop. It was 4 days and 3 nights! It wasn't as hard as we thought but boy did we bitch about it when we were told to pack it.

It was cool in the morning. We started driving up and up. Such high roads. We were at Heiligenglut, Karnten on the High Alpine Highway. It's the highest road in Europe in fact. The road was not made for buses but there were at least 30 at the top. Neat. Oh! Above the clouds, it was like fog. It was really cold and rainy.

We got up to the Grossglockner (the highest mountain, 3797 meters) and didn't even want to get out of the bus. We did go to the bathroom then I got some postcards. We were supposed to have a pic-nic. Sure. What we did was just drive down the same road to a little bit cooler spot, and eat in the bus.

The sack lunch was a package of meats (bacon, swiss cheese, salami, ham) bread, peaches then minute portions of coke to swallow the roll with. Then a couple more hours on the bus got up to Salzburg about 6:20.

Here, the room checking was a mess. A bunch of people got rooms first in the Hotel Hartlwirt. Then so many people left over. 6 guys put their luggage in a car and followed it to their house down the road, same with 4 guys and 4 girls then 9 more girls put all our luggage back on the bus got on then followed this lady on a bicycle to our place of residence sown the road across the highway and down a street. Geez. What a walk in the rain!

Dinner at 7 in the main hotel 15 minutes away. We had to get dressed up to go a concert after dinner.

T was sick. She had the same thing I did the day we had the long drive. I told her not to eat anything and just take pills, good old Pepto Bismal's will cure anything that ails ya.

Dinner was lamb I think, with dressing that tasted like it has been frozen and quickly thawed. Yuk. Small scoop of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream.

I walked back to our house with Bea and Sylvie.   Sylvie wanted to change her dress cause hers got dirty.  I wanted to change my purse and see how T was doing.   She wasn't mush better so she decided to stay ‑ which turned out to be a wise choice.  I wore the turquoise dress then got a rose in the garden to put in my hair.   Too bad it was raining.

We drove into Salzburg city center, parked the bus then got out for a hike. Hike it was. Down this street to a fountain. Well it was raining by 8:45. But we all found the place for the Palace Concert. It was nice for a classical music that is. There were 3 pieces at about 40 minutes each. We heard Copin and Mozart. After each piece, the audience would clap and clap. They even did an encore.

After hike back to the bus. Gerhard let us (the people who weren't staying at the main hotel Hatwist) get off the bus at that main intersection. But we still had to walk a ways in the rain. Yuk. T was sleeping when I got back, but she woke up and I told her all about the exciting evening.

Next morning - sight seeing tour given by our lovely station manager. That lady was the pits! She the worst manager yet. No one really could understand anything she was saying.

We saw where the Sound of Music was filmed, but it was only saw the back of the house across the lake. Then we drove by the gazebo (where they sang 'I am 18 going on 19... ) and drove down the street that all the kids were hanging from trees on. She pointed out all the important buildings when there was one. 

We walked down getreidegasse, the city's oldest street. Saw Mozart's Geburtshaus (Mozart's birthplace) where he was born in 1757..

In the afternoon we saw the Lustschloss Hellbrunn (the Hellbrunn Pleasure Castle). It was a castle built by this man who liked to play practical jokes on the guests at the castle. We walked around these paths and stopped in one part of the house. There was a fountain when water spewed up it lifted a crown of gold. There was little holes all over the walls where the man would turn on the water whenever he felt like soaking some people.  The guide surprised us several times by turning on the water to get us wet.

Some displays were really cool. Water driven theater - type shows, including a giant village - about 10 feet long and 7 feet high. All moving parts were powered by water. An organ played underneath to cover up some of the sounds made by the moving parts.

Here is Jeff sitting a table where water sprays up from the seats:

That night was dinner back at the hotel. Yuk

Next day everyone collected laundry to get done. It was a mess. We left it at a place then took off for about 3 hour side trip drive to Munchen (Munich). We had a so-called city tour, but the guide told us that Munich didn't have a very interesting history so she wouldn't bore us with it. That's nice.

Then we went to Dachau concentration camp. It was all a museum. So full of people. Tour buses all over the place Geez. Talked about spooky though. .

Reinhard gave a tour of the museum to us, and about 20 other english speaking strangers. We saw a movie too. The theater itself was so dismal to begin with. Hard wood chairs. The movie got pretty bad too. Just pictures of how it was.  1943- WWII , what an awful period in history.

Then we drove Innsbruck to see the Olympiamuseum (Olympic Museum). This was the sight of the 1964 and 1976 Olympics. We got a yummy sack lunch of cold (good) hamburgers, apple, a hard boiled egg, and some orange drink in a plastic bag. Then we walked around and saw the pool - so big. I know what "olympic size" is now. It was shallow too. Jeff went swimming in it for only 20 minutes. You had to wear a cap.

That afternoon was free time. They dropped us off in downtown Munich to do whatever. First things first. We changed some money. I did $30, T did $50. Then on to the Deutsches Museum. Everyone had gone ahead on so we had to find our way by map. We ran into Jeff and Heather right by McDonalds - they serve BEER at McDonalds !!  Then we walked to the museum with them.

That museum is huge, giant humongous, big! It is one of the best science and technology museums in the world. It had something on every subject imaginable! Except math and geometry which Jeff wanted to see. We stayed about 2 hours and could have easily stayed 3 more. The chemistry displays were fantastic! Every display press a button and watch a reaction of some kind. Every single imaginable reaction! They had a huge deoxyribonucleic acid molecule too! I couldn't believe it. Everything I had done in chemistry class before I was seeing again. Kay would have freaked. The Physics displays were also excellent. the whole museum was. I could spend the day in there. So much to learn - to remember.

We had to leave by 4:15 to get to Neues Rathaus where the glokenspeil (the carillon) rings at 5:00. The square was really crowded but we saw many people from our group. The building was really dirty, but the figures were pretty neat. There was people going around on these tracks, then two horses coming at each other. The second time around one fell back as if they were in a battle. Oh well. There was a jazz band there too. They were just warming up se we couldn't really hear the music (crummy anyway).

Then we started walking toward the Hofbrauhaus, which was down a long street. Here it is:

This place is one of Munich's most festive beerhalls. Large women carring very large steins of beer.  

We ate dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. Heather and Jeff took off in the other direction to go to the other shopping area underground. Paul and I found some glass mugs that we bought. They came out to $2.00 each. Then I bought a t-shirt of Munchen and a glass.

The station manager lady kept waiting and waiting so we ate 10 minutes later than we expected. I wish we hadn't rushed so much to get there if we weren't ever going to eat on time anyway. We had 3 kinds of sausage, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut (repeated so many times) and paid 2. shil. for beer - we had to drink beer at the Hofbrauhaus! Jeff and Reinhard had a drinking contest - Jeff won too! He was pretty buzzed by the end of the night.

We left supposedly at 7:15 7:15 7:15 7:15 but we didn't go till 7:35. I should have figured. See, it was about 3 hour ride back and we had to cross the border and were coming back the next morning and the bus driver isn't allowed to be in the bus at least 9 hours of the day because of German rules. So se had to time things right because they'd check the meter at the border.

We got to the border. Reinhard and Gerhard had to get out. Apparently they wouldn't let us by, but Reinhard had a beer with them while we waited. We finally got across the border.

It was raining when we got back to the hotel. We had to all go the main hotel to pick up our laundry. They did a pretty good job of keeping them in the same sacs, basically. It cost $1. 0 to get my jeans done. Not too bad. Then a walk back in the rain. Yuk

Breakfast at 6:45 . The bus picked us up at 7:20 then we went back across the border (2 miles away) to go to Berchtesgaden Salzbergwerk (Salt mines). This mine has been operating since 1517. That was a blast. We had these huge white pants with draw strings and heavy black jackets and these cute caps with light blue ribbons. We had leather seat belt things. The guys were all in black. Everyone looked so funny. 

in back:  ? Sue G, Kathy, ? T, Jeff,Oliver? in front: ?, Lois?, Susan F. Marilyn, Marla

They took us into the mine. We went a ways on the train then slid 80 feet down on a wood slides 4 people at a time. It was so scary at first. fast! There were 2 tree slides going down, down, down:

Then a walk in catacombs (it seemed). A maze in that mine. Oliver is a mining engineer - that's what he's going to do for a living. Yuk. We took a mechanized boat thing across a water lake made in the mine. They flood a space totally and let the fresh water dissolve the salt 1 cm. a day till it reaches the top near the earth surface. Then they go through a process of getting the salt from the water. What a mess.

We took the boat across one of these partially filled cavities of water. Then we walked a little more then came to a little museum set up and a movie theater too that we watched a film in. We took an elevator up to that. Then we had to take another slide (130 feet this time) down. Then on another train (fast fast one this time) to the outside. They had a place to go by to take a picture of you if you wanted. We had to change out of our little get up.

While waiting on the bus, people spent the rest of their German marks on ice cream etc. I didn't get one though. We had to go back to Salzburg to pick up (Palm Beach) Scott who had to stay there to go a bank to pick up the money that his parents wired to him. He's spent $600 and got $300 more! I don't see how. Well, yes I do. He's said himself that he doesn't really watch the prices. We've only spent $510. That's for all 3 of us though. That is becuase T is always saying No to everything that I want to buy.

Onward. . We stopped at a restaurant for lunch. For dessert - chocolate torte. There is a famous torte in Vienna called (I don't know how to spell it) Soccer no Sachertorte. Anyway.

We got to Vienna (Wein) late afternoon.

At some point in Vienna we went to this amusement park. Here's Jeff and T checking out who hit their rear bumper:

In Vienna, the hotel rooms were all doubles! There was a rumor going around though about singles. Sure. Oh well. The place where we stayed was a dorm. They put extra beds in all the rooms. I wouldn't mind having a dorm room like that at all though. There was a kitchen area, 2 fridge and a big table that I can picture books all over during finals week.

First there was a big hassle about the bathroom. There were urinals in the girls bathroom so the guys used them until we kicked them out to use the one's upstairs. It was so cool. Everyone was all together. Definitely just like a coed dorms. It was Paul's first experience in a dorm.

Right before dinner we were trying to organize a whole party for Gerhard. It was his last day driving for us. We all gave 9 shillings for the party. Reinhard had gotten a cake, and a white t-shirt that we were all going to sign our names on. It was a mess. 46 people rushing to get ready and sign this thing plus a green poster board. Heather drew a Grabner Reisen bus in the middle and  I had volunteered to make a gum wrapper chain border. And we wrote "J-15" in the gum wrapper.

We were supposed to leave at 5:20. I think Gerhard kind of figured what was happening though why we were late. 15 minutes though. That is about normal for our group though. We drove and drove to a little town where we were told not many tourists frequent. Sure. There was only 3 tour buses there already. I bet they were having Austrian Heurigen parties too. We did find out what Gemuetlichkeit is - cold cuts - a whole place full of meat cheese, a tomato and some lettuce. Then we were told we would got our apple strudel at 8:30.

So we started singing for Gerhard's Farewell Party.  We did all the songs, etc. First they did Gilligan's Island song.

Scott, Marla Oliver Mary Ann (2 others) sang it. The words are so cute.

Gerhard was so happy. His smile is so cute. Then we gave him the cake, the poster, and finally the biggy - the t-shirt. He put it on right there. He loved it.

We finally got our apple strudel at 9:15. People were getting pretty drunk by then. I only had 1/2 a glass of wine that I didn't want in the first place. I was feeling really homesick that night. I had to get up and walk out. I couldn't put up with all that right then and it was such a beautiful night.

Bob had also walked out after me. He is that way though. He's not the type that likes crowds ever. He's always off away from everybody somehow, either in the very back of the group, or off to the side. Always observing. That's exactly how I felt that night. 

We took a walk up the street and watched some boys trying to get stuff from the bottom of a fountain. They had sticks with bottle caps attached and put their arms all the way in the water getting their sleeves wet and their noses in the water even. It was so cute. Then we went down the street the other way and discussed that a camaro was a car and a VW was sort-of a car. Kathy (AXO) and Scott were by the bus talking. We could hear the group getting louder each minute.

It was time to move the party back to the hotel finally. This bus ride home was unreal.

Lea was getting very upset because Kathy was leaving to go home the next day. I hafta admit I was getting homesick too (The Billy Joel song "Vienna Waits for You was playing).

Scott was sitting with Kathy first. T with Jeff (his head on her lap) and me with Bob, Lea further back. Then things started happening. Lea was getting very upset about something. Only a couple people knew, then it came out that Kathy was leaving to go home the next day. Lea was crying. Reinhard was talking to Kathy (he had just found out about it too). He was upset, then I was too. Bob had gone back to talk to Lea and I was crying cause I was getting homesick (Billy Joel was on). Reinhard sat down next to me and looked at me and says "Oh shit Susan, not you too.  I tried to comfort him and tell him not to worry about me, it was normal to be homesick.

The party back at the hotel only consisted of a couple of people sitting on the steps talking. T had to wash all her clothes. Paul had accidently dumped wine all over her. She even washed her jeans too!

City tour of Vienna. Kathy left in the morning. We didn't leave till 9 so we got to sleep late. Wow.

We saw Schnbrunn Palace - Hofburg (the Imperial Palace) at 2 Michaelplatz.

The guard had to check every single ID. Geez. Reinhard led the tour through this palace. Here we are on the steps and he is telling us about the place.  Like we really look interested. NOT!

Irma (white) Lois (blue) Vicki Beth Bev  Mary Ann Sue F. Gail Kathy Paul (plaid)  Gary         Ferrel (head turned) Janet (glasses) Ron, Marilyn   Brian (standing) Scott Oliver, Marla

Reinhard's tour was a fun riot.  The palace was fantastic, yet it was so different. 2 huge bookcases high. 50 pounds of solid gold to decorate it. Baroque style. There was a display of children's books out. Cute.

 We were sick of seeing castles and churches and ruins so everyone was a little punchy.  We zipped right throughout that castle.

There was a huge garden in back of it and it looked like a victory arch. It made a good picture.

This from Marla's journal -

Went to the Schonbrunn Palace -- nothing special -- old palaces starting to look alike, but Scotty mad the tour fun. Contemplated stealing crystals from the chandieliers for us; carried on of the palace antique chairs from from to room until Reiny caught on and told him to put it back!

We had lunch at Willies, then went back to Michaels square to see the Spanische Reitschule (Spanish Riding School). This is a performance of the Lipizzaner horses. The arena was huge. Everything in it was white except for a dark plaque. It was also used as a ballroom also a test flight place where some guy did some hand gliding from the (30 ft?) ceiling.

The rest of the afternoon (2 hrs) was free to sleep.

Then we got dressed up and met at 5:30. We went for a ride first up some mountain. Oh yes. The Kahlenberg hill. It was cool out and starting to sprinkle. Some people stayed on the bus but I went out just to look. There was a bee on the bus that I killed. Thrill.

Then we went back down the hill to dinner, which was at Willies again. We were all dressed up going in there. Then we took off for the Strauss Waltz concert. We sat near the back but had a good view of the floor. ISE had taken care of 1 drink a piece for us. The drinks were unreal. 50 shillings- that's over $4. 0! It was 50 shillings for just water too!

They played a lot of famous waltzes and had some dancers. Then everybody dances. The floor was so full and crowded with people but rian and I danced anyway. It was fun. I only got my toe stepped on once. The one thing most mentionable about that night was that there was so many mosquitos! Kathy killed 7 in the first hour. I didn't come home with any bites but a lot of people were scratching. We were told it would be over at 9:30 but we didn't leave until 10:45.

Oh also tonight we called home! I wanted to call so bad but T kept trying to talk me out of it though. She was trying to find every excuse possible to not call. I don't understand why, she's just so cheap (another word for "thrifty"). I wanted to call before every other time and she had a better excuse, so of course we didn't call. Well, I wasn't going to let her talk me out of it this time. Especially after the night before when I was so homesick. Anyway.

The next day was all free. Yeah! Breakfast was set for 9:00. We had an allowance of 25 shillings for lunch (not much). We took the trolley into town. We were stopped when we saw Lea, Kathy and Bob walking back. Heather had Kathy's and her only room key and Kathy needed it so Jeff threw it out the window to Kathy. The people on the street appeared shocked when we did that - rowdy americans.

We went just walking around Vienna at first. We really got to know our way around the city. We found the place that station manager recommended.

I'm really getting frustrated with the way T and Paul just stand around and don't really ever want to do or say anything. A very common conversation on this trip goes like this:

Suzi - "Well, where do you want to go?"

Paul - "I don't care.

T - " I don't either.

Suzi - "What about the museum?"

T - "How far is it?"

Suzi - "Down the street, then turn right.

T - "No.

Suzi - "What do you want to do then, stand here?"

T - "Yes.

Paul wanders off in space.

I finally took the initiative to go in some place to actually eat. I wanted to go to a pastry shop after lunch. There was a good place called AIDE. It was reasonably priced, but oh no, T wanted to go on and find a place cheaper. Well, so it turns out that all the smaller shops were three times more expensive. We ended not even getting one.

We walked all the way back to the trolley station and went back to the hotel around 4. Dinner was at 5:00. We met at the reception desk. Off to Willies again.

Breakfast at 7:00 in the cafeteria. It was a cafeteria. Upstairs was an auditorium. The complex also had a swimming pool that some people stayed at all day during our free day yesterday.

We left at 7:30 am. Ride ride ride.

Until we got to the castle of Ottenstein. It was a beautiful setting. A big field of wild flowers that I ran across. The castle has a moat and a lake by it. Now we got to do something FUN - We went on a boat ride. That was a blast. There was four people to a boat. I got in the first one.  Me, Brian, (K.C Sue, and Gail.   Everyone was splashing and crashing their boats. Then we had races all over the lake. There was a race to a big rock and Brian and I won that first race.  The next race was to get a leaf and bring it back to Reinhard on the shore.  It was so difficult to line the boats up evenly across the lake, but we wer off.  Paul, Karen, Ferrel, and Marilyn's boat won that race - beers for all in that boat.

Here's Karen and Paul (photo by Marilyn):

We walked across the drawbridge over the castle moat to go inside and eat our castle meal. Lunch was grease. That all. French fries and some meat. Pork maybe. Here's my napkin from the restaurant:

During lunch Reinhard had to fill out a very complicated grid filling in every single bit of money that we had in our possession. All pounds, french francs, Swiss francs, Deutche marks, Lira, Drakma, Denero, everything. Travelers cheques, lose money. What a stupid measure but the Czechoslovakians want it so . It's just to see that we aren't bringing in any lump sums. 

From Marilyn journal

‎7.20.79  Crossing the border, we had to write down how much money we have. Reinhard told us to behave. Put on shoes, don't laugh, take out gum, take off sunglasses, etc. The officer came on and checked our passports one by one. Changed money. Got off the bus and they checked the bus inside and out. They went through all the books, checked under and above the seats. Took out about 6 suitcases and went through them. Marla's was one of them (and Farrells).

It was a nice day and everyone was feeling happy.  While we waited, we made human pyramids on the lawn. 

  Here is our pyramid:

Sylvie (on top)
Suzi, Heather
Jeff  Brian Paul, Paula
Reinhard, Sue, Driver?, Oliver, Gary (on the bottom)

Then we had a long drive North to Czechoslovakia (which is what it was called in 1979. Now it is the Czech Republic , and Slovak republic)

Then we had a long drive to Czech we had to get through the border. What a hassle that was. It was in the afternoon. They checked passports when left Austria, then they collected then for Czech. A man came on board the bus to get them. Then we had to go change some money, but not much. They searched the entire bus. They look at all magazines, books, and all the tote bags were torn through. We were paranoid. Then they started yanking off suitcases to search. They only did 8 of them. It took up 45 minutes. Hassle.

We got to our Grande Hotel Europa in Praque at 6:30.  The hotel was huge and beautiful. Here's my picture of thru the bus window.  The itinerary said "Note suitable for mail receipt" for this hotel

Dinner was at half past seven. It took 40 minutes to eat. I couldn't believe it. When we got there the food was on the table, we ate cold cuts I think. Then waited on dessert. Yum - a block of ice cream.

That night we all went out to the big beer drinking place in Prague. That place was huge! And it was packed with people all over staring at us. An ISE group goes there every night so it's no big deal to them.

The beer was very dark. It was almost black and it was non-carbonated. It was really good. I had 2 mugs and just bearly felt the effect of the supposedly 13% alcohol content stuff. We sang songs in English, so did the other groups who were there. Most guys spoke English there. Some guys came up to talk to us (our group was sitting on a raised section of the bar.

Next day. City tour of Prague. We had breakfast then a man came to tell us some about communist life in a communist country. He, of course, spoke highly of his country. There is no unemployment, average income is 2500 crowns (8 cr = 4. 0). Then we got to ask questions. Reinhard was really dwelling hard on questions that we wouldn't even think to ask. "Are you a communist?" "No" "Do you enjoy living here?" "Yes.

We started to city tour at 9:30. We rode some then walked. This whole city gave me the creeps. We were actually behind the iron curtain. The streets were mostly deserted, no people anywhere. They were in very bad condition. Very few cars. Most people took the trolley.

We walked to what was once called the Golden Street. A small skinny house building- the wall of the city which was trimmed in gold. I was buying a postcard and stamps with Monique when the group left. No where to be found. Keep calm. Then panic. We couldn't find them anywhere down any street. Monique finally found them. Run to the bus down all these steps.

Then we went to Staromestska Radnice (Old Townhall) see the medevil astrological clock at 1:00. It chimed and all the apostles paraded by a window.

Finally we got to eat. It was a really gross restaurant. It was so dirty. There was one waitress for all 46 of us. First was funky meat and noodle soup. Then a weird whole potato and fatty grease meat. The waitress looked just like a witch. Her black outfit was tiny for her humongous body. Above the knees and the zipper wouldn't even zip. Oh well. Dessert was 2 sugary cake things. I ate 3 to fill me up.

We walked back to the hotel (10 minute walk), then had the afternoon free. Great. All the stores were closed, so what were we supposed to do? A lot of people went to the museum. I slept. Oh, I wasn't rooming with Tina either.

That night we went to the Laterna Magica show. We met at 4:30 in front of the hotel. Then we had a short walk over there to the show. The show was fantastic. I thought at first there was a problem figuring out the seats. I got a program (4 crowns). It was like all the actors really truly enjoyed doing the show regardless of the fast that they were in a communist country. I expected that that would make a completely different performance.

It was a pantomine show. It almost had to be because no one in the audience all spoke one language. A full semi circle of white sheet made a projection surface. They would project a clown dancing around on the screen then fall down and then they'd lift the sheet a little and the clown would come rolling out on the stage. Excellent effects.

Here are my scans from the show program:

After the show we went back to the hotel for dinner. We got some pastries for dessert on the way. We sat down at 7:10. They started serving some dinner. We didn't get ours till 7;45. Ate in 7 minutes them waited for dessert. Sure. He cleared the plates after 8:00, We got our dessert at 8:30 and out of there by 8:35. 1 hour and 15 minutes for a rotten greasy dinner of mystery meat and french fries.  Yuk. They weren't kidding about the waiters not serving unless they wanted to.

Bob was making dinner a little bit uncomfortable. We had the evening free for whatever but I was not going to put myself in the same situation I was in when we were in Vienna. I think it was in that dorm place.  After he left the dinner table,  I went back up to my room. When he came down the hall, just as he does with Kathy, he whistled. She knew it wasn't for her so.  He didn't do it again and I didn't go out there the first time he did it. Oh well.

I talked with Heather and Karen for awhile, then we went out to the lobby to see what was going on. Oliver, Linda, Paula etc were sitting around drinking beer playing cards. Then Gary came out. Bea, Leslie and Martha had dressed him up and put make up on him. He looked so cute. This gorgeous, masculine guy all made up. Funny. We had seem two other transvestites previously in the hotel. That was a weird place. Gary bought a beer at the bar then went and stood outside the hotel awhile. I got a picture of him. 

Breakfast at a normal time: 8:00. Leave by 8:30. We had eggs toast and jelly. yum. Drive Drive Drive. I can't remember now. Oh yes, this is what took so long. Getting throughout these borders. We had a problem getting out of Czech. because we had entered with an extra passport. J-14 leader had forgotten his and we brought it to him. Now we had one less and they had to know where it went. Geez. We were stuck in the bus for 3 hours.

For awhile there was another bus next to us. It was full of Americans! We were holding signs in the window finding out where they were from. There was a man and a woman from Florida! They held up a University of Flordiay card. Neat! I held up the cover of this notebook - a gator!

Well after we got through Czech; then there was East Germany. That was another story. Another hour wait- another search etc. Geez. 3 hours and 20 minutes total then off the W. Berlin. We got near the border by 6 but had to go through another passport check etc to get out of E. Germany. This was getting a little ridiculous. Well, that one only to 45 minutes.

We got checked into our hotel in the bus. There was 6 and 7 in each room, but they were big rooms. 2 floors of only us. But there was only 1 bathroom on each floor and hot water whenever it felt like coming out.

We met at half past seven to go to dinner. We went to a restaurant where we got our dessert first!  It was a cafeteria type place. Good meat and potatoes. Yum. That night was free. We just stayed at the hotel, washed, talked etc. Some people did go out to look around though.

Monday, July 23. Tour Berlin. Our city tour like no other city. It didn't include any museums, churches, or ruins! I have to admit, I liked that. We are all so tired of seeing stuff like that. Our guide had met Hitler personally. She has 4 brothers and sisters in East Berlin. She can only see them 2 times a year.

I loved West Berlin. It was like a little USA. We saw the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) and other monuments in the city, then to the Berlin wall.

The wall was built 3 times. The last and final wall was built in 1961 was one about 7 feet tall and 2 feet diameter pipe on top of that. No one is allowed within 20 feet of the wall on the east side. But on the West side, we could touch the wall. The pipe on top supposedly turns so it's impossible to climb over it.  Other places in the wall had razor wire, and broken glass. There were guard towers with 2 guards never facing the same way in each tower. There were crosses on the wall where people had attempted jumps from the building in earlier days. Yuk.

Here are some of my picture from this 1979 trip and again when I went back to Germany in 2008.

Berlin Wall pieces are in the United States. 

In 2004 I went to Las Vegas and I saw a piece of the Berlin Wall  in the Men's Bathroom in Main Street Station in Las Vegas.  How appropriate.  Here's my Las Vegas photos 

Here is a piece of the Berlin wall in Suwanee, Georgia

Back to 1979.  Looking from West to East Berlin - I saw this sign.

The West side had this staircase where they could look over the wall to the East side.  What a lousy way to communicate with your family on the other side.

We stopped at a little tourist place where all the groups stop to shop. I changed some money and got a t-shirt that has the Berlin Bear on it.

(I'll write in this right now. I don't feel like writing in this all right now but Paul told me not to stop writing so I guess I'll keep writing. Boy does my hand get tired sometimes.

That afternoon - we went back to the hotel and met in 50 minutes to go to a lecture on West Berlin and its economic situation in relation to E. Berlin. It was really boring. I hardly took any notes at all.

We saw a film of Hitler etc. Only 16 people went to it. Reinhard was upset that so few did go. The other lecture discouraged a lot of them from going. I didn't enjoy it at all. The man would only let us ask very specific questions, no discussion what so ever. Anyway, That lasted from 1:45 until 4:30 we got back to the hotel.

We had the afternoon free (2 hours). T and I went shopping and we only got some cookies.

The next morning was the other part of the Berlin tour. We went to the Reichstag Building museum which was the home of the German Parliament. First we saw a film. It was in German but our guide tried to talk over the film and tell us what was going on.

We also went to Zoologischer Garten (the Berlin zoo). What animal am I hugging here in this picture? 

The zoo was really fun. The monkeys were the funniest. There were ladies that the monkeys would "talk" to through the glass. Their expressions were so readable. We saw them feeding the seals and elephant seal. The cost was 20.30 and we went on Reihe 7 and Sitz Nr 27 (July 27?).

That night was the "Berlin Surprise". It was so good. We got hints from J-14 that it had something to do with an elephant. That was so stupid. It was an Argentina steak with baked potato dinner. Yum Yum. The first truly decent meal on the entire trip. Baked potato with garlic butter. Good bread. It was so good. All with red wine and a candle. I ate at a table for two with Alex. He's so nice. The dinner took a long time. I was so full.

After dinner we went to the KuDorf. It's an underground pub where you can go to drink. We had our admission paid then walked around the empty but already smoky joint. We all got our drinks fast then got out of there.

Then we went to a theater and saw the movie HAIR. It was fantastic! There wasn't much dialog (the talking was in German) so the audience laughed at that. All the singing was in English so we could sing along. It was the best movie that I had seen in a long time. After the movie we went to San Francisco's - a "Real American ice cream parlor.  It was like Baskin Robbins.

Next day - Breakfast at 8:30. It was raining but we wanted to go to East Berlin anyway. We took Bus 29 half way. Stupid us - we got off the bus too early so we had to walk really far - and it was raining!  We made it to Checkpoint Charlie.

There was me, T. Brian, Ferrel, Sue F. Kathy and Bob. Getting through the border was difficult. It took us 45 minutes in all.

They took our passports and checked them to make sure they were authentic

We had to write down all the money that we had with us.

They made us exchange some money into East Berlin money. Six West Berlin marks made to equal one East Berlin Mark

We had to buy a Visa, so I bought the Visa and I bough some stamps.

They searched my purse then let me walk through the checkpoint.

Finally we wre all checked out and through the gate. It's raining. What to do now. Walk. It looked basically like Czechoslovakia.

We saw the Fernsehturm (television tower) in the distance), then we found Marx-Stadt square. I took a picture, then we walked into this huge building. What was it for? We couldn't figure it out. We ate at a little cafe in the building. Pastries and coffee. Our bill is below.  Getting the money straight was riot. The lady was nice surprisingly enough.

You have to wait seven years to get a car here!

We watched the changing of the guards (they do it every half hour) then walk back. We stopped by a grocery store to use our E. Berlin money. We weren't allowed to take any eastern money back. We had to spend it all in E. Berlin. We spent from 10 am to 2 pm there.

I'm on the East side of the wall here.  Looks like the wall is patched.  Are those GUNS pointing back at me?

Getting out of East Berlin wasn't bad. It went fast. We got through checkpoint Charlie, got our passports stamped then took the bus 29 all the way home. We were beat. So much walking. Nap time.

T was asleep but I got her up so we could walk around some. We could use the exercise from all that ice cream we had been eating. We met at 6:15 to go to the other hotel for dinner. We had shish kabobs and rice. Yum. Then we had to go back to our hotel (what a pain - our hotel was in the middle of town though! and pack out suitcases up to put on the bus at 8:00.

We were supposed to meet in 45 minutes to go to a disco. Yuk We heard from J-14 that it was really sleazy and only gross people hung out there. So a big crowd of us went to San Francisco's again instead. Yum One last time. We couldn't pass it up. See we didn't have dessert so we got ice cream. Then walk around some. We also went to Burger King.

Heather and I were acting really strange just having fun that night. Brian and T were wondering about us. I watched Heather play with her marionette for a long time that night that Bob waited for me. Sure. He finally gave up. I went to write my postcards. 7 of them. I mailed them out for that last time. It's so late in the trip, I'm going to start beating them home. So many people were playing charades. I watched awhile then we went to bed at 1:00. Get up at 4:00 am.

Thursday July 26, 1979. Breakfast at 4:30 am. Leave at 5:00 a.m. Yuk. drive drive drive. We had to catch a boat to go Kobenhavn (Copenhagen). We stopped at a grocery store to pick the food already prepared for our picnic ("peek neek"). It started to sprinkle so we finished eating on the bus.

A 15 minute drive took us to the boat place, It was 1:10. The boat was supposed to leave at 2:00. Well, wait wait wait wait. We played more card games. We fianlly got on the boat at 3:30. The bus drove on the freshly-repaired ramp and we were off at 4:00. Behind schedule. It was a 3 1/2 hour boat ride. The sun was out and it was a beautiful.

I had a beer. Paul and Scott bought this orange Vodka stuff. Everyone was drinking we all felt real good for the 3 hour drive to Copenhagen after we got off the boat.

Reinhard had to call the restaurant to tell them we'd be late, real late. 3 1/2 hours late. We had our special Chinese food dinner at 11:00 p. . Yuk. Monique was wearing some hair-pins and the waiter was acting funny about Monique wearing eating utensils in her hair.

Mail check: I got a letter from dad. Thanks Dad! I sat at a table with Karen, Brian and Bob. Oh well. Rom checked in the restaurant. 4 girls - me, T, Heather and Karen. Rooms checked in the restaurant. They were OK rooms.  Bathroom and shower down the hall. 98 steps and no elevator and so heavy suitcases.

The boys formed a line to unload, stage on the stairs, and get the bags up to the rooms.  Here is Brian, Gary? back turned) Paul and Ron. Thanks guys!

Sleep finally. What a long long day. We were awake 21 hours!

Oh about the location of our Hotel Centrum. It was great! Sure. Right smak in the center of the red light district. Underneath our hotel was a porno shop. The view from our window (I took a picture) was a porn supermarket. Right next to the door of the hotel was the "Biggest Sex and Pornographic Store in Denmark" it said. So many gross things in those stores. Whores all over the place. It was interesting.

Breakfast at 8 then we left for our most unique of all city tour. We rode bikes. It was great. T was so scared at first. She hadn't ridden a bike in 9 years she figured out. Well, you don't forget how to ride. She didn't forget. 46 people rolling down the street.

We did see the sights. I took a picture exactly like the one in the itinerary! neat. We saw the Lille Havfrue (the little mermaid) statue. We rode all the way back to our hotel. My bike was making weird noises too. We took the bus to another hotel and had lunch. It was OK. 

Then we went to visit the Carlsburg Breweries.

That was a great tour. The beer factory (plant) it was so huge! In 1847 is was Denmarks first brewery. Their goal is to make beer with the most perfection to keep brewning in Denmark on an honorable leve.

At the end of the tour there were 3 tables full of beer that we finished off.  I peeled and saved labels for Carlsberg Citron, Carlsberg Grape, Carlsberg Appelsin.  There was plenty to give everybody a buzz. We had a good time on the way back to the hotel.

The afternoon was free.  I washed my hair while T went shopping for our dinner.  We had an allowance for dinner and lunch the next day. Everything was so expensive! We had a loaf of bread, salami, and yogurt and apple juice. yum yum.

That night was Tivoli Gardens. It's an amusement park. That was great fun. We went on two rides, including one roller coaster. it was fun. Tivoli so impressed Walt Disney that he decided to pattern Disneyland after it.

After all that fun, we (I) also managed to find our way safely back home to our red light district hotel.

Copenhagen, Denmark
My grandfather's picture in 1961.  My pictures in 1979, and 2008.  They removed the trees!
My grandmother's picture in 1961.

Next morning people were scheduled to go sailing. There was a (cold) 6:00 shift. We went at 8 am. We had great time.

The boat was 75 feet long and over 100 years old. It was used to help rescue people from the German occupation during the war. He told a story of one lady recognizing that that was the boat she was saved on and brought to Sweden.

We saw Sweden then turned around and sailed back. It was a blast. I climbed to the top of the mast. Paul stayed up there a long time.

Kathy and T:

Suzi on the mast.  Scotty on the front net.

The rest of the day was free. T and I went out at 12 to get lunch. We got a big thing of Yogurt (yum) a chocolate cake roll and cheese and crackers. Good lunch. All afternoon we stayed in the room and talked.  Karen and Heather me and T, Paul and Brian and Jeff all had a good time.

Dinner. Yuk smorgasbord at the same place we had lunch the day before. A lot of the food was already gone. But there was enough left to make me sick. It all had different spices. Too much spices paprika, peppercorns and bay leaves. Strange flavors like that that don't mix too well. Then we rode back to our hotel, wait 45 minutes.

Then meet in the lobby to go to the Benneweis Circus. I got a good picture of a clown, then the poodle act. It was great circus except for the animals acts. They aren't trained very well. The trapeze act was the best. There was a girl (wearing next to nothing) that all the guys were cheering for. So all the girls in our group cheered for the guy. It was fun.

Reinhard with a TALL clown,

The acrobats  - Very good trapeze act

My very own circus (aerial silk) in my living room.  I'm 20 feet high (and 52 years old) !!  Click to see more pictures

Oh yeah - I found an advertisement that our cute guide for the beer factory was displayed in. It was in a window. Neat. He was so cute.

So that night we didn't feel like doing much. All of us (T, me, Karen, Heather, Brian, Bob, and Scott) stayed in our room and talked first, then almost did a levitation seance then we told ghost stories.

Breakfast at 6:30. Our last chance to get those danish rolls and coffee. Departure was set for 7:30 but he announced to change it to 7:00. Oh boy. T was running late anyway. We had to get our suitcases down before breakfast as usual. Paul carried mine that morning for the first time. It was getting really heavy with extra things.

We headed for Gedser to catch the boat again. On the way we stopped at a grocery store to pick up our lunch. Form a line, grab grab. Munch out. It started to sprinkle so finished eating on the bus. It seems like I've already written this. Oh well. Then a 15 minute drive to where the boat comes. We had a long wait. We were on hour early. What else- play frisbee. The boat left at 2:30. We got on the bus, then Hans drove it aboard.

It was a cold rainy day. Yuk. First we parked ourselves by the grocery - gambling area. We played charades awhile. then I went upstairs to watch people play cards. I just realized that I had already written about the picnic that got rained out. We had lunch on the boat. I remember now. It was in plastic bags already prepared. Munch out on the boat.

We had to get back on the bus (good old Grabner Reisen) 20 minutes before docking. Drive off, then find that secluded resort hotel.

 We got lost (which was normal) but found it by 6. Dinner was set at 7. T and I got a room with Lisa.  Number 105 on the ground floor with an access door outside. It was great, it was beautiful! It had an indoor swimming pool, tennis, bowling, pool tables, ping pong, horseback riding, playground and a huge grassy area.   I was a very welcome change to crummy rat holes where had stayed before.We ran around the green green grass just outside our door. Then we played frisbee, frisbee, frisbee - 4 of them.

Dinner was good good. First soup, then mashed potatoes and gravy roast beef and green beans. Green jello in a champagne glass for dessert. After dinner the fun started. I went to watch people ride horses, look at the indoor swimming pool, bowling lane (duck pin bowling only) and shooting gallery. It also had pool and ping pong tables, air hockey games etc etc. We had a good time.

Breakfast at 6:30 (yum yum)! They had everything: corn flakes, meat yogurt, bread, jelly butter, fruit, coffee tea or hot chocolate, Yum yum. Departure at 7:30. We arrived in Amsterdam, Netherlands at 1.

We immediately had our city tour of Amsterdam. Everyone was so tired. We didn't want the tour. To top it all off our guide, the station manager was the pits. He had stayed out so late the night before and was tired. He admitted it. We just drove around and saw some canals etc etc.

For a tour this afternoon we went first to the Van Moppes Daimont diamond cutting place. Our group was headed in there. He described how everything was done. It was pretty interesting. Then we went upstairs to a showroom. They brought out boxes and boxes of diamond rings for us to try on. We were locked in the room. They didn't open the door till all the rings were back safe.

Next we were headed off to drive on the dike. They actually build them straight out to the sea. We went to a place where one of the few hand wood carvers of wooden shoes are. That was cool. He actually took a block of wood - a certain length, chipped away, then took it inside his little store and finished the shoe. Brian and Scott bought some shoes. There were souvenirs all over the place, in that little shop.

Sue, Scott, Brian, and Gary.

After that, it's off to the cheese factory. We saw how Gouda cheese was made. It was just a little place where a lot of tours went. One guy with funny eyes described how it was made. We were laughing the whole time. This is the place where Susan took the flash picture and his eyes lit up. They sold cheese - gouda - so good. But it was expensive.

Then, finally get to the hotel. We had to park on the bridge and lug our suitcase to the hotel around the corner. We stayed in the Hans Brinker Hotel. Neat. Paul (sweetheart) carried my suitcase up up.

That night was pretty much free. Reinhard was walking over to the red light district though so a couple people went. We stared and talked. J-14 was having their going away party. They had basically the same thing for dinner as we had.

T and I walked all the way to the station to change money. It was a good rate there and didn't close till 10:15 and it was a pleasant evening. We met a man who had just recently been to Miami when we stopped at McDonalds. I also convinced her to let us go in one of "those stores" (porno). It was interesting....

Next day - freeeee day. Connie and Linda got up pretty early. Went to breakfast. Yuk Yuk. We had a food allowance for lunch. First we went to Anne Frankhuis (house). Paul and Brian came too. It was so interesting. I read all the signs, posters and informative captions. It was a cool house. built in 1635. The cost was f3.00.

There is now (in 2012) an Anne Frank exhibit in Atlanta where I live. Too cool.  http://annefrankexhibitsandysprings.org/

After the tour, we just walked around go shopping. Walk to the central station where we had been the night before.

That afternoon we found a shop that sold charms. They were 925 (silver) but you needed a magnifying glass. We bought $40.00 (U.S. money) worth. A lot of South American countries. I bought a Holland t-shirt ($4). Then Paul found some clogs that he liked. We were on a very busy shopping street. Brian was nice to put up with all of us. Shopping, arguing etc. Paul's clogs only came out to be $15. 0. - good price for some nice ones in the states even- and now he can say go got them in Holland.

Dinner was set for 7:30. That afternoon, the other group (J-16) got in and had their dinner. We had ours. Our party plans were so-so-so messed up. Marilyn and Marla had bought a T-shirt that we were all supposed to sign and also a coke. 

What was really bad was the thing with the tips. Some people didn't want to give Reinhard any of his tip and give it to Gerhard and a little to Hans or all to Reinhard, none to Hans and a little to Gerhard. It was a mess. We were supposed to tell the stations manager there how to divide it. Geez.

Dinner was excellent. First a BBQ meat and smorgasbord of fruit, vegetables and melons for dessert. Yum Yum Then a BBQ sausage. Reinhard began his treasure hunt that we made for him after that. He had clues that he had to follow all over the hotel and drank a beer in a room as he followed the path. Then we all met in the Kapel (chapel) for the "big" party. Beer, wine and Pepsi.

We made presentations, sang songs (mickey mouse tune song, and Gilligan's Island tune songs) then Choo-choo train stupid game. I got a cold from Jeff or Oliver or Bob. Some how.  I hate it. After we were kicked out of the chapel- down to the bar. We sat and talked awhile.

Brian, Suzi, Jeff, Sylvie, Karen, Heather

Sue, Oliver, Marla, Gail, Scotty, Hans (driver), Reinhard

Sue, Paul, Driver? ISE staion manager?

I left to wash my hair. T stayed (I couldn't believe it). I was pretty drunk that night. Oh yes. I remember well. I took a shower in our room (we were lucky to have a shower!) then went to sleep on my wet hair. That the night I got the picture of Susan slapping Paul (it was part of the stupid game).

The morning after the farewell party - yukky breakfast at 6:30. We didn't mind cause we were going to London that day! Get suit cases down - they were oh sooo heavy! We had just bought 4 Heinekein mugs. Three in T's suitcase and one in mine. It was weight that we didn't need. Paul/sweetheart carried by suitcase down. Now that takes muscles to do mine and his. Load them on the bus parked a block away. We got a ticket for parking there. The police were standing there (unpatiently) waiting for Hans to move the bus.

Take off. drive drive our final long drive through Belgium where we didn't really stop except for a second to do bathroom stops. We got to Calais by 2. I got a picture of all the suitcases by the bus and the Hoverlloyd (craft?) station.

We weren't scheduled to take off till 3:30 so wait.

Say good bye to Hans. It finally came. Boarding passes, then board the wonderful Hoverlloyd.

? Sue, Gail?
Marla, Marilyn, Scotty
Lois? heather, ?
Karen, T

What a ride it was. Geez. Almost as bad as the hovercraft ride to the Bahamas except it wasn't hot and not too stuffy. I was glad when we go out of the 7 and 8 foot waves- killer things. I was feeling a little sick myself.

When we got to the Dover port we had a passport check. Then we got our luggage and boarded bus to take us to London and the good old Leinster Hotel that we'd heard so many "wonderful things" about. We made it there at 6:30 (including the hour ahead London time) There was Wolfgang (creep) waiting. We had room assignments in the bus.

That's when we started hearing the rumors. What's this? rumors about a delay? an airline strike? No! Not till Tuesday at least! Surely! Oh well.

We were rooming with Linda Connie, T and me. That night we had to go scrounge up some dinner. I can't remember where now. Our whole time in London we had to pay for our meals. We were doing fine on money (thanx to cheap T) so that wasn't a problem.

Anyway - Oh yes! My friend, Anne Lutz had written me a letter there. She was going out that night and told me to call her, but it was late and I thought she would have already left. I called her the next morning at 8:00. She was just leaving London that day! Her broken arm was bothering her and also there were riots in Spain where she wanted to go. The terrorists were attacking. I wish I had been able to see her though.

Thursday, August 2. This morning we had hard rolls and rotten orange marmalade for breakfast. then touring. 

We had a really crummy schedule.  Our tours were on Thurs, Friday and Saturday, but whoopee, all the shops were closed.  A lot of people were skipping a day of tours to go shopping.  I was tempted, but it turned out glad I didn't skip a day.

 We took off on our Windsor Castle tour which was really good. We saw the changing of the guards at the castle and some other church.  I was writing it all down then.  I was in another group then switched to T's so we could get lunch together.  We ran into Paul ‑ that was luck cause he was also on another tour bus.

We changed some money at a descent 2.8 rate then ate at this funky ABC delicatessen place.  Paul went off with another group and T and I went shopping.  I wanted by buy something, but T, of course, criticized everything.  I finally got a wedge-wood diamond shaped dish with a "lyre and girl playing" on it (see photo).  I think it's beautiful.  T.  of course thought it was the ugliest thing on earth and didn't want me to buy it.  The Lyre is the symbol for my AXO sorority. I'm so glad I bought that souvenir. 35 years after college, we have sorority reunions with all my "sisters". 40 girls came to the reunion in 2012 at St. Peterburg beach. That was a blast.

So we got back to the hotel about 5. Our guide was very discreet about the tip. Yes we left one for her.

We went out to Mickey's Fish Bar for dinner. T and Paul and Linda got fish and chips, Connie got Cod and I got pie, egg and chips. Yum yum. My pie was a steak and kidney pie. It was an interesting flavor.

I guess that night we just messed around.  I can;t remember.  What else is there to do.  I might remember later.  Oh yes.  I just remembered.  We went down to Picadilly to see about going to the Rocky Horror show.  We got tickets for Friday night at L2.  0.  Not bad for a live performance.

The next day - 9:00 take off the London tour. Lets see the sights. We saw so much! Through Hyde park monuments, memorials, churchs etc etc. Buildings right and lift. We had the same lady guide as we had the day before. She was good. That day we were dumped at this cafeteria place to eat. Bad food, but take it anyway.

We had just come from the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace. So so so many many tourists. I held my camera up over my head and snapped a picture of them.

 I was the last one on the bus to go to lunch. Afterwards it was raining. We went by St. eters (?) church (I think) in the rain. It was a cathedral. Yuk.

Home by 5, wash hair (in cold water! Yeow!). What the heck, it was my last shower-bath in Europe. I might as well make it a cold one. Shiver-cold. Dinner at McDonalds. We've eaten there in every other city possible. Then on to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  At Panton Street, SW1. The ad said "Now in it's 7th Year"

Our seats at the show were very far up. It was difficult to see all of the stage, but that the way it goes. A bunch of people from our group were sitting 2 rows behind (up). Some german boys were sitting behind us singing along. It was pretty annoying. The show was good. I didn't think it could match the movie- The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

After the show, we got a T-shirt then rushed to take the Picadilly Line home.

Next morning- 7:30 breakfast. Yuk yuk. 8:00 take off for Stratford. Long ride. We stopped at a place on the way to see Shakespere's birthplace. Lunch was at 2. We had a sausage or cheese puff pie and an eclair. Pretty cheap though. Only 14p. for a pie. Home by 6:45.

A lot things started going wrong that afternoon. Reinhard was there after the show last night and said that World Airways was indeed on strike. Crud. How are we supposed to get home ?!? We had a meeting to inform us - what? what? Not going home? That we were stuck in London? We went back to the room, then we had another meeting at 8 in the dining room. Oh so crowded with hot disgusted broke people.

What to do? Rush down to Victoria Station to hopefully get on a Laker Skytrain flight. No dinner tonight. We got to the station by 8:45 and found the already dreadfully long line (queue) of people. We were queuing too. Paul went home about 11 before the underground stopped running. He had a cold.

Well T and I stuck it out till 2:15 am in that long line when we finally got tickets on a flight to New York. Now that we had the tickets, we had a long as hell walk home at 3:00 in the morning.  We walked for 1 hour and 20 minutes and finally got back to the hotel at 4:05 am. Connie and Linda did not get tickets. They also had to walk and didn't get back until 5 am!

Oh, by the way, the tour company reinbursed us for the ticket home:

Oh we called home! Mom and Dad were glad (! ) to hear from us - but not to hear our sad news of our delay home.

Slept till 2 in the afternoon. It was great! No alarm clock whatsoever. Dinner at the Grove restaurant. I got the spaghetti that I had been craving. We talked with a man that was at our table. He was with the BBC the TV network. He had recently traveled in Florida. We had a good converstation so dinner lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.

On the way home, we got a huge can of Heinekein beer that we shared with Linda and Connie. Connie was leaving the next morning for home. Lucky. I took a hot bath. It was oh so nice. Then we watched some TV- long time no see huh?

We were being removed from the Leinster hotel the next morning. Our suitcases were put in a taxi and we walked to the Quest hotel. Oh yes. That wonderful welcome spot to Europe and here we were back again longing to get out of Europe. At least now we had tickets and a date and time to leave. Can't wait.

Well what was there to greet us at the Quest. Oh yes. Those 64 narrow turning steps to our room up-up. Last time it was room 12 - this time. 10A, our first room was almost next door. We exhausted ourselves. Those suitcases sure felt lighter the first time they went up those stairs!

It was T, Linda, and me in a room. We kept Paul's suitcase in our room. I repacked his messy packed mess, then we all took off to Mcdonalds (T's favorite). We went downtown on the top of a double decker red bus in London! Neat.

We shopped some, then headed for Victoria via bus to see about getting some tickets to see Annie. We could only get L2. 0 tickets on Tues night.

Then we got Paul to go to dinner back at Mickeys Fish Bar. Good, cheap fish. L1. 0 for a full place. That night we opened a big beer can and shared it with Linda. We were all rationing out what we beer wanted empty (in that case-drink up) or full.

Next morning ‑ get up for breakfast.  Get this ‑ they advertised an English breakfast ‑ scrambled egg and spaghetti or baked beans.  Yum Yum.  Eat, then go back to sleep.  Then get up, get ready‑ slowly.  Get T up, then go to the grocery store.  We got bread, peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches .  They were so good.  We did survived on peanut butter.

Bob had left a note for me to meet him at 5 if I wanted to go‑ cute note.  I saved it.  T discouraged me again not to do what I really wanted to do, so I didn't go.  She tries to force me into her boring lifestyle. .Sorry Bob, I gave into the older sister. I wrote him note to say I couldn't make it. So get this, instead, we all stayed home and munched out on bananas and Chocolate sponge cake. 

Note - I'm writing this note in 2012 - 33 years after this 1979 trip -  My sister and I get along great, but we both realized on the that 1979 trip that we were not the best travel conpanions so we never traveled together ever again.  When I travel now, I do not miss an opportunity to have fun - like on my trip to Dublin - now that was a fun night.

We took a nap, then got up to board the underground to see Annie at Victoria Palace.  We got there at 7:20 ‑ show time was 7:30.  It was an absolutely fantastic play.  There girls that played in it were so young.  Our seats were pretty bad‑ but what can you expect.  We got to see (from far up) what was going on behind the side curtains.  Neat.

We caught the oh so crowded sub home.  I washed my hair.  So nice.  A hot bath tub to relax in.  Wash my hair squeaky clean and condition the dry split ends with protein.  T and Linda went to sleep while I wrote some, dreamed some and dried my hair.  I  couldn't sleep.  Hot Damn we were on our way home the next day.

Breakfast again was good. Eggs, a tomato, toast and tea. Check out time was 10:00 am. We had to get our luggage packed up totally to travel, then get downstairs and out of the rooms.

This was the big dilemma facing us at the point: what to do with all the beer that we bought. 2. liter cans that weigh 5 lbs each. T had 2 in her tote bag and Paul and I had one each with an empty for show- not much weight there. We were just worried about customs. Anyway. one last final - "Pack 'em up and move 'em out! Oh the last time to shut and lock that thing. That last arranging job (the best one ever too). We put them in a room downstairs.

Now we had from 10 to 2 to waste. The bus would pick us up to do to the airport then. I took off for Hyde park. I'm writing this sitting in a park in London. It's starting to rain now where I'm sitting.  Anyway. I talked to a guy in the park. He was on drugs which made for a more interesting conversation. It began to rain harder so I wnet back to the Leinster. We had our PB and J S's for dinne.

We were at the Quest by 2 and bus didn't come till 2:35. We got to Gatwick by 4:00 and our flight was supposed to leave by 6:30. We were making good time.

Come to find out the 2:15 flight hadn't left yet. They left in our spot and we were delayed, only 1 1/2 hours (we thought). We were searched through customs. Ready to depart- here it comes. DC-10 electric problems. Keep close tabs on our waiting hours. It was 14 total by 9:00- sitting in the airport.

The captain kept us informed - good news; bad news on if and when we would leave tonight/ tomorrow- crud.. I talked to a man there who was traveling for 3 weeks in the states. I had just completed traveling in his continent and we were finally boarding at 11:30 p. . 5 hours behind.

Took off at 12:10 we were up and going on our 7 hour 50 minute flight to new York. We were taking a Northerly route. If we didn't touch our watches it would be landing at 7:45 a. . but it was really only 2:45 in New York. Talk about acquiring jet lag. That's one way (the only way) of doing it.

A lot of people's parents and /or friends / boyfriends met them there. If they were from around that area. We ran to the Eastern desk- lug the luggage. We made easy enough reservations on other flights but we had to get to LaGuardia. Take a cab - $12. So there we were at LaGuardia airport at 4:30 a.m . Well, we've waited before - do it again. That time seemed like nothing compared to what we were used to.

I went in the bathroom and changed clothes into a dress. Clean clothes gives the perception of a fresh start after traveling 30 hours. We were almost home. The airport started crawling with people close to 6:00 a.m. We gathered everything up and headed for the gate. Oh boy, so excited. It was time so say your last good-byes to anyone left. I think most people were ready to say by to each other about this time. I know I was pretty sick of seeing some of those people...

We boarded our plane at 6:50 to go to Atlanta. That's where I wrote a lot then in Atlanta - brisk walk to get put on a stand by for a flight 20 minutes away. We all made it. Yeah. We'll be home in about 20 minutes.

It's really hard to believe. Oh yes. We called home at LaGuardia - woke dad us to tell his our plans. I hope he's waiting for us when we got there.

The end of this journal. End of a long long trip. But it doesn't seem like a long summer. "Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our descent to the Gainesville airport . . .  Yeah Yeah. Last plane. Home.

Farewell Song by Bob I... sung to the tune of the Muppet Song (good luck remembering what that is!)

There's no more one night tote bags, or peek neeks on the bus...

wont take another ice cold shower, cause we end the trip tonight .(Bum,Bum, Bum,Bum)

There's no more bread for breakfast, and lunch and dinner too...

we'll never make another bush stop, 'cause we end the trip tonight.

And yet I'll miss my new friends, and Grabner Reisen too...so maybe I'm not ready, to bid this land adieu.  (Bum,Bum,Bum,Bum)

My memories of Europe, reflect our crazy crew...

and the thing I'll miss the most is our high libational, multinational, affectionational gang...known as J-15!

People ( I don't this list is complete - who am I missing)
 
Bea,
Bev,
Celia
Cherie
Connie (Linda)
Cordelia
Gail
Heather (Jeff)
Janet (Ron)
Kathy
Leslie
Lisa
Linda (Connie)
Lois
Marla
Marilyn
Martha
Monique (Canada)
Nancy
Paula (Oliver)
Sue P
Susan F
Suzi (T & Paul)
Sylvie (long hair)
Vicky

GUYS:
Alex
Bob I
Brian
Jeff (Heather)
Gary
Oliver,
Paul (Suzi & T)
Reinhard
Ron (Janet)
Scotty
Scott (Palm Beach)