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.
Notes on how to use the maps, if you wish to do so: 1) you can zoom in to any
area of the route using the "+" & "-" icons. 2)You can change the map to satellite picture view by
clicking on "Sat" - & then zoom in for a birds-eye picture of the
area.
3)Or you can click on one of the balloons and zoom in using the
prompts that will pop up. 4)Click on "View larger map" link located below the map. This will
bring the map up in a new window, with a column containing all the
points of interest(some with comments). You can click on the points
to take you right to a particular sight.
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
