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Feb 14, 1963 - Not the Best Valentine's Day Ever.

2/14/2011

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Costa del Sol
We got up at 4:30 am so we could drive to Centa to catch the boat to Algeciras.  Once in Algeciras, we decided to try driving across to Gilbratar instead of going by ferry.  We got past the first gate but they got us at the second and sent us back.  We pleaded and cried, but our pleas were ignored.   So back we went, but not to Algeciras. We were determined not to spend another night there.  We asked the police on the traffic island between La Linea, Algeciras and La Roque for a recommendation.  Then we went to Algeciras to catch the ferry to Gibraltar.  We got there, picked up Pat’s watch and went to American Express to get our luggage.  It was a bit later than we had planned and we had to hustle to the ferry.  We got there and the taxi driver charged us 90 pesetas rather than the regular charge of 30.  We had to pay or miss our boat.  We had a terrible time getting our stuff on the ferry.  It was 6:45 and every Spaniard who lived in Algeceras and worked in Gibraltar was going home. Not one of them offered to help.  They just stood there on the deck and laughed as we struggled up the steps   It was crowded, cold and windy but we had to remain on deck  When we got off, we had to again have our passports stamped and go through customs.  Of course they wanted to go through everything.  He really thought he had found something important in one of the laundry bags. It was wrapped in white paper and quite heavy.  He unwrapped it to find a jar of apricot marmalade.  He quickly wrapped it and returned it to the bag, then didn’t bother going through our second suitcases.  We headed back to our pension to repack.  About 8pm our landlady came over and wanted us to come to her room where it was warm.  She had coffee and good little cakes for us.  We spent the entire evening with her chatting in a combination of Spanish, English and sign language. 


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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.

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