In September 1980 I attended a conference in Berlin, and decided to take Linda along. To get there by car we had to pass through East Germany, which required flag orders under the agreement that partitioned Berlin into four zones, one each for the US, UK, France and the Soviet Union. The Soviets were required to grant access to the other three countries forces following the Berlin Blockade. Crossing the border was interesting. We had to give our passport and papers to the Soviet border guards, not to the East German guards. We then had two hours to reach West Berlin. We could only drive on the autobahn that went directly to Berlin, which was built by Hitler and had not been maintained since. If we didn't arrive in Berlin within two hours they would come ... read more

From 1 March 1980 to 13 July 1984 we lived in Boblingen near Stuttgart Germany. I was offered a job as Technical Advisor at the headquarters of the U.S. European Command at Patch Barracks in Vaihingen, on the southern outskirts of Stuttgart. So on 1 March 1980 we packed up our possessions and drove from Glan Munchweiler to Stuttgart. We lived in a hotel in Vaihingen until we found an apartment in Boblingen, a ten minute drive on a forested road from Patch Barracks. Our apartment occupied the second floor and a Yugoslav family, whose husband worked at the Mercedes Benz factory, was on the first. Our landlady lived on the third floor. She only spoke the Schwabian dialect of German. So that we could communicate with her, we took another conversational German course, but gave ... read more

4 January 1979 Thursday. We had an interesting flight from Bangkok. We were seated in the last row, so the seats wouldn't lean back, and on an overnight flight that makes sleeping even harder. Some of the passengers were also interesting. There was a Jewish doctor and his wife from New York. He had many non-traditional solutions to our medical problems. For an upset stomach he recommended putting our stomach over the back of the seat and bouncing up and down. Anyway, we arrived in Cairo about 9 am, and took a taxi to our hotel. It was supposed to be a good hotel, but the elevator didn’t work and there were other maintenance issues. Just the month before that elevator had fallen and killed a number of Russians who were in it. Linda was too ... read more

Our other major trip for 1978 was to Thailand to be with my parents for Christmas. The cheapest flight there was Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines which had us stopping over in Amman. We decided to extend the stopover for a few days so we could see the major tourist attractions. 15 – 16 December 1978 Friday and Saturday – Friday night we flew from Frankfurt arriving in Amman, Jordan on Saturday morning. We relaxed the rest of the day, walking around Amman and making arrangements for tours on the next two days. 17 December 1978 Sunday. We took a taxi with a guide first west from Amman to Mount Nebo where Moses looked towards the Promised Land, but was prohibited from entering. The guide picked up some square stones that he said was the remains of ... read more

In October 1978 Linda and Bob attended a weekend church retreat with Steve and Kay and their boys in Berchtesgaden, in the German Alps just across the border from Salzburg, Austria. We stayed at another AFRC resort, the General Walker Hotel, which was used by Hitler’s elite guard force when he stayed here. We took a tour of the bunkers under the hotel. We also explored the surrounding countryside, to include the salt mines, the Ramsau church, and the Konigseesee, where we took an electric boat to an onion domed chapel on the far end. The mountains were those seen in the opening scene of the “Sound of Music,” and were just so beautiful with the first snowfall of the season. We also went to Salzburg to see where the "Sound of Music" was filmed.... read more