Blogs from Europe - page 14498

From Milan, we flew to Paris where we met another coach and a new local guide. Without missing a beat, or a stop in Paris, the group set out for the Loire Valley and its famous château country. It was a Friday afternoon and everyone was rushing to leave Paris for the weekend. Valene appeared to be getting along well with the local guide and complimented her on her chic attire. However, there evidently had been some sort of falling out overnight. By morning, the local guide had split, and was on her way back to Paris. Valene took over courier's seat and microphone. From our base in Tours, we were able to visit four château: Amboise (16th century), Chambord (1547), Chenonceaux (1522), and Azay-le-Rideau (1527). I returned to Chambord and Chenonceaux in 2015. Wonderful as ... read more

A visit to Luxembourg was the prelude to seeing Germany, Austria, Italy, and France in summer 1970. At that time, the cool way to travel from the USA to Europe was via Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines. Loftleidir flew from New York to Reykjavík and then on to Luxembourg, offering pioneering discount transatlantic airfares. Traveling this way, a one-night, one-day stopover visit to Iceland was added as a bonus and Luxembourg became the first country one encountered on the continent. We indeed had spent a day in Reykjavík to see the city, the geysers, and wooden churches in the countryside. And a bit of flightseeing. Then it was on to the Continent the following day, with the first stop Luxembourg--another definite bonus. I'd first known about Luxembourg through reading the book Five Little Countries of Europe. It was ... read more

We caught the train from Paris to Lucerne in Switzerland, via Basel. We then climbed aboard a ferry across Lake Lucerne to the small village of Vitznau, where we stayed for about a week at the Vitznauerhof Hotel on the waterfront. The hotel is still there, and Issy and I visited it when we stayed in Lucerne in 2017. My favourite memory of the original trip is catching a very small fish from the hotel's jetty, and Dad then getting the hotel staff to cook it up and serve it to us for dinner in the dining room. I insisted that we reenact the fishing part of the scene on a very cold and wet day in 2017, using a stick as a rod. I'm not sure where the rod in the original scene came from. ... read more

1964 Diary Entry "The next morning we got up and had breakfast and then we started to pack for that day we were leaving for London. At about 10 o'clock we got a taxi to the airport. There we had our baggage checked and then we went into the flight waiting room. Soon after that we were called aboard the plane. When we got in we prepared for take off. After take-off we rose and levelled off and after about an hour we landed in London. There we went through passport control and customs. Mum saw Auntie Beth out the door. After we'd finished we went out and saw Auntie Beth." .... and that's where the diary ends. Passport stamps and other assorted evidence tells me that we stayed in London until 11 September, interspersed with ... read more

1964 Diary Entry "The next morning we got up and had breakfast. After breakfast we went and had a walk in the Borghese Gardens. After walking for some time we came and started to pack for that day we were leaving for Frankfurt. After packing and paying our bill we caught a taxi to the airport. When we got there we had our baggage checked and then we went into the flight waiting room. After waiting for some time we were called out to the aircraft. After boarding it we fastened our seat belts and pre-pared for take off. By the way Mummy didn't like the idea of flying "Alitalia" which was the name of the line. After taking off the pilot headed straight up. When he got right up he started to bump, and we ... read more