Figure 1.-- I still remember my mother trembling "Oh, Ed" at my dad when the drop cliffs were many 100s of meters high. We drew the line at taking the VW microbus where there weren't even any goat paths. In Austria in the late 1950s, that meant loading the car on a railway train and going via the tunnels. Here I am next to our VW after it was loaded on the train. Click on the image for a full view. |
We got the opportunity to travel a good deal while dad was stationed in Italy. We both traveled around Italy, but also many places in Europe as well. We spent time in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and several other countries. It was a real education. We had great fun as a family, but I don't think we fully appreciated just what a fantastic experience it was. As boys we took it rather much for granted. Looking back it really was a wonderful opportunity that few American kids were fortunate enough to experience. The previous page showed me in the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark (figure 1). I was always amazed at the places where dad could take that car. We spent a lot of time negotiating mountain trails, especially in the Alps. There is a picture of us at the end of a 10 Km Alpine track that was literally a goat path a points. I still remember my mother trembling "Oh, Ed" at my dad when the drop cliffs were many 100s of meters high. The previous page showed me in the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark. The gardens were interesting. Mom especially liked them. After visiting the gardens I realized why all those movie theaters in America were called Tivoli. Few Americans understand the origins of the name. We also lived and traveled in France. While it never got cold enough to freeze, when we lived in Aviano, Italy, Toul, France was a different matter. We lived close to the German border, on the Mosel River. Of course as we lived in Italy, many of our trips were in Italy itself. Of course we went camping a lot, but we also visited many tourist sites as well. We went to all kinds of interesting places in Italy. The whole country is like a big museum. One of our favorite spots was Venice which had all kinds of interesting attractions. Since Venice was only a 45
minute ride from our house, it was a favorite place to visit and we went into the city on numerous occassions.
Where we lived in Italy near Venice was close to two countries, Yugoslavia and Austria. Of course during the Cold war we could not travel to Yugoslavia. We could, however, travel to Austria. It is a beautiful Alpine country and we all enjoyed our trips there. We did a lot of camping in the Alps, but we did not always camp. I still get nostalgic when ever I see a movie like the "Sound of Music" with Alpine scenes. I was always amazed at the places where dad could take that car. We spent a lot of time negotiating mountain trails, especially in the Alps. There is a picture of us at the end of a 10 Km Alpine track that was literally a goat path a points. My dad swears that he took us for a picnic where the introduction to the "Sound of Music" was shot. I'm not so sure, but we did have a family picnic there. Once in a while we stayed in guest houses which was a bit of a treat after several days of camping.
The previous page showed me in the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark. The gardens were interesting. Mom especially liked them. After visiting the gardens I realized why all those movie theaters in America were called Tivoli. Few Americans understand the origins of the name.
We also lived and traveled in France. While it never got cold enough to freeze, when we lived in Aviano, Italy, Toul, France was a different matter. We lived close to the German border, on the Mosel River. Here I, Robin, Dad, and Rink are checking out ice skating for the first time. Our chateau (lots of land) is behind me. There is an interesting story here. My dad seemed to collect interesting friends. Our landlord was a general in the French Army, and was one of the men that protected President DeGaule during the the Algerian paratrooper mutiny. Dad traveled a lot right at that time, and I remember having live machine gun barrels shoved in our car by the flick during the mutiny. I never got the full story, but the General unexpectedly stayed with us during that time, and we had to
leave the country shortly thereafter. In all, I liked living in Italy
a lot more.
Of course as we lived in Italy, many of our trips were in Italy itself. Of course we went camping a lot, but we also visited many tourist sites as well. We went to all kinds of interesting places in Italy. The whole country is like a big museum. One of our favorite spots was Venice which had all kinds of interesting attractions. Since Venice was only a 45
minute ride from our house, it was a favorite place to visit and we went into the city on numerous occassions. This of course was in the late 1950s before the city started to be abandoned due to flooding.
The Netherlands didn't have the dramatic mountains that we enjoyed, but we had some interesting times there as well. I still recall the windmills and flat countryside. While there were lots of historic and tourist sites on our trips, sometime we kids just needed to play. Here we are in a Dutch campsite using the family sized seesaw near the Zidersee. The two middle kids (David and I) are on the left, just about perfectly balanced by the oldest and youngest (Rink and Robin). If you look carefully, you'll notice that Rink and I am wearing Dutch canvas slip on shoes. Something else I recall about the Dutch camp sites were the storks and swans.
As my dad was the Aviano base recreation director, one of his jobs was to scout out new ski areas, and make arrangements for special packages for Air Force personnel across Europe. I remember our first ski trip to Switzerland quite well. Dad told us we were in for a surprise. When we arrived we were greeted by the town mayor and a delegation who told us that we were the first Americans they had seen since before World War II. Our money was no good as everything
was "on the house". So much chocolate, so little time.....
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