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Jan 8, 1963

1/8/2011

Zell am See

The sun was out and we set off for Zell am See. But we were told the road over the Grossglockner was closed, so we had to take a car train. Once off the train, we started up the mountain and broke a chain. Judy and Pat had to stand on the rear bumper so Louie could climb the hill. We rode all the way to the top and all the way to the bottom like that, then the other chain broke and wrapped around the axle. We finally got to Zell am See and found an excellent youth hostel, had a shower and washed our hair. Tomorrow we will deal with the chain.

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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.

Jan 8, 1963

1962 was pivotal. This is the background:

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