Category: Germany

May 7, 1963 Last stop in Germany before Amsterdam and Home

5/7/2011

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We took the narrow back roads to Erlangen through tiny villages. We drove through Coburg, a typical German town, up to the "veste", a magnificent castle up on a mountain where Luther did his Reformation writings. Stopped in a Gasthaus - Braurei (guest house brewery) and drank some of their own brewed beer and ate Goulash and potato dumplings. Goulash here is made of tender beef chunks simmered in their own sauce with onions and gravy.

We stayed for the last three days in the hostel in Erlangen - warm again. Berlin was awfully cold. We had the car checked and repaired, straightened out our luggage, washed clothes, mailed packages, etc. Tomorrow we head for Amsterdam. We plan to see the tulips in full bloom and check out the diamond cutting industry before sailing home.

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A daily diary of a journey in 1962. Please post comments about where you were then on the Background page.

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1962 was pivotal. This is the background:

It was a year colored by the Cuban Missile Crisis, an escalating involvement in Vietnam, the Berlin Wall and the Cold War with Russia, Civil Rights issues, a nascent space program, Nelson Mandela in prison, Betty Friedan's, The Feminist Mystique, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the death of Marilyn Monroe.

In the face of all of this, Pat, Judy and I blithely took off for Europe with the intention of traveling through Europe and North Africa until our money ran out. We had a travel guide and a book titled Europe on $5.00 a Day. Since we had all read The Ugly American in preparation for the trip, we thought we were very smart to buy a used Volkswagen with Dutch license plates. We dubbed the car "Louie" since a cute guy from Switzerland named Louie had helped us acquire it.

There was no such thing as a cell phone, a computer, Twitter or Facebook. Our parents didn't hear from us for weeks on end. We wrote regularly, but letters took forever to deliver and we only vaguely knew where we would be next. It was a very cold winter and we followed the sun.

May 7, 1963 Last stop in Germany before Amsterdam and Home

1962 was pivotal. This is the background:

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