One exception to the norm of taking long weekend trips to Switzerland and the French Riviera from Stuttgart was the trip to Rome. My Mom flew to Rome from Thailand, and her psychiatrist friend Mary, who had previously traveled to France and Switzerland with us in 1978, flew into Rome from the States. Friday after work, we took the normal transportation for a weekend trip to a distant destination, the overnight train with reservations for two couchettes. The train departed Boblingen about 6:30 pm and went directly to Rome...quite convenient. We shared the six-bed couchette compartment with two older German couples. They were on their way to Ischia off the coast of Naples. Normally one sleeps in their clothes in the couchette compartment as you are usually sharing it with strangers. However, our new German friends ... read more

As we had just been to the States for Christmas and my Grandfather Northcott's 95th birthday the previous December, we decided to skip seeing our families during our home leave of 1982. Instead we would head directly to the West Coast. 7 August 1982 Saturday. We flew from Frankfurt to JFK and from JFK to San Francisco, arriving late that night, or early in the morning Stuttgart time. I was too tired to pay much attention when initialing the various boxes on the rental car contract, something I would realize when I turned the car in and ended up paying for insurance for the whole time. Lesson one: next time stay overnight at JFK and catch an early flight to the west coast arriving much fresher. We would do this on subsequent trips. 8 August 1982 ... read more

My parents took another two year furlough, living in Nyack again from the summer of 1980 to the summer of 1982. They wanted us to come to the States for the Christmas of 1981 and to celebrate my Grandfather Northcott’s 95th birthday. I also had business to attend to in Florida. 12 - 17 December 1981 Saturday through Thursday. We flew from Frankfurt to Miami where my sister Sue and husband Rob picked us up at the airport on Saturday afternoon. On Monday I took care of business that would make me a Florida resident as I had no intention of ever moving back to Virginia, and didn't want to keep paying state taxes to that state. We toured around the West Palm Beach area with them. Our new nephew, Brendan, loved to eat at McDonalds ... read more

When we lived in Glan Munchweiler we took a trip to the French Riviera in conjunction with a weeklong trip that included northern Italy. After moving to Boblingen, we soon learned that we could do a number of longer distance trips over three day weekends by taking overnight trains sleeping in the couchette compartments. After work on Friday evening we would drive either to Kehl, Germany or Strasbourg, France where we would catch the the 7 pm train directly to Antibes, arriving about 8 am the next morning. We would check into the Hotel Royal located right across from the sandy beach on the Cap D'Antibes side of town. We would then spend Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings until about 1 pm on the beach. Sometimes we would walk the one kilometer over to the Juan ... read more

Linda’s sister Shirley was marrying Trevor at his hometwon in Northern Ireland. She had met Trevor while he was attending seminary in the U.S. To get to the wedding we bought a two week Eurailpass and took the train from Stuttgart to Paris where we met up Linda’s mom and sister Shirley. We toured Paris for a couple days, seeing everything between the Notre Dame and Louvre and the Eifel Tower. We then took the train to Cherbourg where we caught the ferry to Rosslare, Ireland. The crossing was only supposed to be 17 hours overnight, but due to the heavy seas it took 24 hours. I did not do well. Linda said my face was green the whole trip, which I spent in my bunk. I have seafaring heritage in my ancestry. My great grandfather ... read more