European Trip 1996 Prologue | Italy | France | Germany | Last Days (Home | E-Mail)

Five and a half weeks in Europe. That's how it ended up, from Thanksgiving day through the Saturday following New Year's day. Somehow, both Lyn and I managed to get all that time off from our jobs. For me, none of it would be paid for. For Lyn, her employer would pay three weeks of her salary. One problem, we had around two weeks to arrange for everything!

Agnes and Lyn posing near the Eiffel Tower

We decided to visit our friends in France, Germany, and Switzerland. Our first plan was to go to the coldest area first (Hamburg we thought) and end up in the warmest (Paris we thought). During the weekend, we called all of our friends and told them of our plans. However, our friends in Hamburg really wanted us to stay with them for Christmas and/or New Years which would be near the end of the trip. We thought about for awhile and said "Why not?". Hamburg would probably be cold no matter whether we were there in late November or early January. Paris might be a little warm in November (unfortunately it wasn't).

We rearranged our trip. First stop was Paris for a week. Then on to Nancy, France. We would try and stop in Bern, Switzerland on our way to Italy. We would spend Christmas in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany, then the next few days in Herrsching, a suburb of Munich. Finally, we would finish in Hamburg for New Years. We would stay with friends the whole trip except for our time in Italy.

The tickets and the rail pass wasn't too much of a problem. Lyn's visas weren't as much of a bother as last time, but still a hassle. For awhile, though, we thought the trip would be canceled when Lyn received word from some immigration official that it would take months for her to receive an okay to leave the U.S.. He turned out to be wrong, but my heart still missed a few beats both when we left U.S. and when we returned.

Both Lyn and I were very busy on our jobs trying to train people to take over our work. At my work some new employees appeared shortly before our trip and I had to conduct a very quickly arranged class. We wrote a list of what we were going to take and what needed to be done before the trip, but we didn't get around to packing until the night before our trip! As expected, our airport shuttle bus arrived early. But I managed to do all the necessary tasks before our departure. I shut off the gas, water, and water heater. I locked up the bikes and motor scooter and I slightly opened a couple of windows. I turned on our little $10 burglar alarm as we left our trailer which we wouldn't see for the next five and a half weeks. I hoped it would still be there when we returned.

We chose Air France as our carrier. Shortly before our trip a TWA plance had crashed under mysterious circumstances and considering our contries recent bombing of Iraq, I was looking forward to flying on something other than an American airline. I found the leg room to be better than expected, but surprisingly, not the food. We had a non-stop flight, which is the only way I'll go now, but shortly before arriving and right after a meal, we experienced some turbulence and started getting nauseous. It's odd. The more we fly, the more relaxed I'm getting, but the more nervous Lyn is getting. I used to be terrified of flying, especially during take-offs, but would never let it stop me from travelling. Now, I just plop myself down in the seat and relax during take-off.

An interesting Paris store window. It's for a tanning cream. I think the kid is supposed to be saying "My mom is tanned all year", but, in that position, I would have been saying something else.

PARIS - November 29

November 29, the day after Thanksgiving, we arrived in Paris. It was cold and rainy. After many language problems, we finally got onto the shuttle bus into Paris. Our first attempt had failed in embarrassment as we didn't have enough money. I think it came to about 110 francs and I was thinking 11.0 franks. The driver wouldn't go for that, but it took a little bit to communicate exactly why. I couldn't believe a shuttle bus would cost over $20.

We spent about a half-hour waiting for Francoise at the bus stop. Though we were on the Champs Ellysee, all we could think about was getting out of the rain and cold. Two nights later we would be back on that street on way to visit with Francoise' employer, a doctor who lived just a few steps off this famous street. It was a very old building and there was an abundance of antique furniture in his house. Though it was Sunday, Jacques met us at the door in a suit. Jacques worked at the American Hospital and Francoise was his secretary. He had spent several years in America and his english was excellent. Just before leaving, he even examined my injured knee. I had bumped it a month before and the lingering lump had gotten a little bit bigger during the flight. As we were walking out, he mentioned his house in the country, "just a little place", he said, "no one around for miles". Francoise showed me a picture of it; it was a castle! Jacgues gave me a bottle of wine as we left. "A nice little wine" he said. Later on in the trip a Frenchman and an American living in France were drooling over this "nice little wine".

Next