Europe 1987

In the summer of 87 Taylor & I took our first European trip. We flew into Paris for 4 days, staying at the Hotel de Deux Continents on the left bank, very near St. Germain de Pres. Then we took the overnight train to Frankfurt, where we had a VW Golf convertible rental car waiting for us. We had a tent with us & split our accomodation between campgrounds & gasthofs. From Frankfurt we drove to Kassel for Documenta, staying at a great gasthof in a small town just south of Kassel - to our dismay we have never been able to find that gasthof since. From Kassel we proceeded east to West Berlin, that year celebrating its 750th anniversary. We had to stay on the transit autobahns, not being allowed to venture into Communist East Germany. No rooms to be found in Berlin, we slept in the car at a rest stop en route to Nurnberg. Apparently I hadn't turned on a parking light (I was parked in a parking lot!) & the East German police knocked on the window in the middle of the night. He mentioned the parking light infraction, he held out his hand & said "zwanzig mark!". I tried in broken Deutsch to explain & looked at Taylor, who was horrified that I was arguing with East German police, determined not to be shaken down. Well I relented, paid the fine, the police officer went to his car & came back with an official receipt! Heading south through Nurnberg & Munchen, we visited Dachau then over to Weikersheim, down the Romantische Strasse to Schloss Neuschwanstein before heading into Austria at Reutte, staying at a gasthof there before climbing up to the Ruins of Schloss Ehrenberg the next morning. Making our way through Innsbruck, we did a small deek into Italy via the Brenner Pass, coming back up through the same pass to travel west through Lichtenstein into Schweiz, where we visited Einsedeln Cathedral & the Roman ruins at Basel. From Basel we headed down the Rhein to Koblenz, then along the Mosel to Trier (visiting Burg Eltz & Cochem en route), before driving to Koln to drop off the rental car. From Koln we took the train to Ostende, the ferry to Dover & then the train to London for a few days in the UK before flying back from Gatwick.

View 1987 in a larger map with points of interest table of contents

Frankfurt & Kassel (Documenta)

Dachau

Romantische Strasse

Austria

 Italy & Switzerland

Rhine Mosel et al

LONDON