We had thought of going to Europe for years. We had started to make plans several times over the last couple of years. Finally we started to get much firmer about going. We talked about a time in June. I failed to mention to Patty that it would be after June 10, when someone at work returned from their trip. I finally got around to mentioning it and Patty thought that was too far into the beginning of the tourist season in Europe. I decided we should attempt to set up something for May. This was about the second week of April. We were just able to get a two week discount flight price on Lufthansa departing May 4 and returning May 20. In the two weeks before May 4 we made all of our hotel reservations, car rental reservation, and train reservations. I do not advise this. Besides which, if you do go on Lufthansa, you can get discounts on hotels if you book your flight at least 21 days in advance.

We did all of the reservations through European Travel in San Francisco. The woman with whom we dealt was pretty good. She only messed up a couple of things. She reserved a car with standard transmission instead of an automatic (Patty cannot drive a standard transmission.) and she told me the wrong drop off point for the car in Berlin. All of our hotels were set up properly. I would appreciate it if travel agents or hotels were able to give detailed maps for driving into the city to the hotel. This, I think, was one of our main problems throughout the trip. The European cities we were in were not fun to drive in if you didn't know where you were going. I think we have decided that if we go to the countryside or Alps or similar we'll drive otherwise we will take trains into major cities and just use the local transit system.

Anyway we left the San Francisco airport on May 4 at 3PM. We were to arrive in Frankfurt on Tuesday at 10:30 AM. You may not remember this but there was a strike going on in Germany at that time. When we left San Francisco the Frankfurt airport was still open. In mid flight the Frankfurt airport was closed due to the strike. We landed in Dusseldorf instead. This is north of Frankfurt and we were to pick up a rental car at the Frankfurt airport. Some fun. After a couple of hours trying to figure out what was going on we finally boarded a bus provided by Lufthansa to ferry us to the Frankfurt airport. That ride took several hours. Lufthansa provided free soft drinks, yogurt, fruit, etc. and it wasn't really a bad ride but it sort of screwed up our schedule for the first day. Just in case you're asking, no we couldn't rent a car in Dusseldorf, none available. We had kept our baggage down to two pieces per person but while we were in Dusseldorf it was no fun carrying even that little back and forth trying to figure out where the bus was supposed to arrive that would take us to Frankfurt.

We finally arrived in Frankfurt, found out the unpleasant news that we had a car with a standard transmission instead of an automatic transmission and went on our merry way. Cars with automatic transmissions are the rarity in European rental agencies, not the norm, so there were none available. Fortunately I can drive a standard transmission but it meant that Patty had to put up with my marvelous driving. It was a nice car though, an Opel Vectra, five speed and no problem going 140 to 170 kilometers per hour on the Autobahn.

We had planned to spend several hours in Wurzburg but due to our lateness we went straight to Rothenburg ob der Tauber where we were to spend our first night. We were able to leave the Autobahn and travel some of the smaller roads and see some of the countryside. The area south of Wurzburg through Rothenburg and south to the German alps has a section called the Romantische Strasse, the Romantic Road. This is very nice countryside, hilly, and very green in the spring in Germany.

Onto Rothenburg. We were staying in the old part of Rothenburg. The old part of Rothenburg is contained within medieval walls. The walls and towers surrounding this portion of the city are complete. Basically it is a medieval tourist area. We were staying at the Eisenhut. (I won't linger on the entertaining time we had figuring out how to get to the hotel through the narrow and frequently one way streets.) It was a nice hotel. The hotel had lots of old pictures in the lobby, old chandeliers and junk like that everywhere.

Our room was in the back of the hotel, as we had requested. It had a very nice view of the valley below the walls. The bathroom had a huge bath tub. Most of our hotel bathrooms had a bidet. It was interesting. I never got up the nerve to give it a try. You may say that a bidet is for more feminine sorts of hygiene. In my extensive reading I believe this may not be the case. When a male has spent a tiring, sweaty day walking the streets he may also wish to freshen certain parts of his body.

We only ate at the hotel restaurant in the evening once. Everyone seemed to dress for the evening there. Besides which the hotel was pushing their spargel menu. Uh, spargel is white asparagus. All through the trip we got handed these special spargel menus. I had it the first night. I wasn't impressed. It reminded me of our dogs. If you're really curious ask me how it reminded me of our dogs. We did eat our breakfasts there. European breakfasts are interesting. The hotels where we ate breakfast usually had a buffet which included cheeses and sliced meats, like salami and similar stuff. That was fairly good and I actually ate that. I refused to eat the mueslix. Seemed way too healthy for me. I did have yogurt a number of mornings. I guess we could have ordered eggs but they rarely had it immediately available. Some did serve scrambled eggs but sometimes they were a little strange. Edible but different. I never saw any hash browns. During the day we searched for the perfect wurst und auch the perfect bier in the restaurants of the city.

We did lots of walking. Probably the first thing we saw was a store next to our hotel which sold Christmas stuff all year round, ornaments, cards, decorations, etc. Then there were all the museums and churches in Rothenburg. I particularly liked the Kriminal Museum, which had lots of torture and execution devices, three whole floors of the stuff. Unfortunately they were taking all these school kids through at the same time. If they could just have used them for demonstration purposes . . . The town center has a glockenspiel that reenacts some famous event by some guy drinking a large tankard of beer or wine and in so doing saves the town or something like that. We walked along most of the wall surrounding the inner city. The countryside around there is really quite beautiful, you know, rustic.

We spent two nights there and watched the first of many nights of CNN and some British station. These were the only two that had English broadcasts. Some of the German broadcasts were good. Lots of American reruns. Picture a German speaking Alf. Picture German speaking Smurfs. Maybe you don't want to. Gilligan?

On Thursday we left for Munich. We stopped in Augsburg on the way and had a late lunch at a place I had read about in one of the many tour books that I had bought (not more than a dozen, really). Augsburg is pleasant. It was one of our first encounters with the mad bicyclists of Europe. It seems that they really believe they have the right of way and they do have a special portion marked on the sidewalk. We soon learned which side to stay on. Beware. You can be run over by these mad bicyclists. Also we learned about paying a central parking meter instead of one next to your car. It was interesting. We finally got to our restaurant. We both ordered in our limited German. I thought I had ordered a moderate size lunch. Turns out after waiting 30 minutes or so I had only ordered soup. I only felt a little stupid. We had some good beer nevertheless.

We also stopped for several hours in Dachau. It was interesting. They have a museum set up and they have lots of large pictures of the camp, documents, the German soldiers, the inmates, etc. I guess the dormitories where the prisoners stayed were torn down but several have been rebuilt to attempt to show what the living quarters were like. Very crowded. The crematorium was still there. Several monuments had been set up by international groups and religious organizations. I'm not really sure what else I can say.

We finally found our hotel in Munich, the Spendid. The room was fairly nice but unfortunately it was a room in the front which overlooked the street. It was a little noisy. Most of the rooms at the hotels where we stayed had twin beds shoved together to form doubles. In this hotel that was not possible since the twin beds seemed to be attached to the walls. The covers in most of the hotels with double beds were interesting. Usually (possibly always, I forget) there were two quilts for twin beds. This is pretty good where someone has a tendency to steal the blankets. I think I liked it but the quilt just covered your body. If you were of a much larger or taller build you might have a problem with cold feet or cold something else. Nevertheless the hotel was close to the downtown area.

We visited the Deutsches Museum in Munchen. They had a number of interesting German planes, cars, trains, etc. On one floor there were a lot of electronic things which had Siemens names on them, which was interesting since I was still working for Siemens at that time. In Munich and other German cities there were whole stores devoted to Siemens household goods. It was amazing. We even got some discounts at hotels because I was an employee of Siemens, not bad. I visited the English Garden late one afternoon. I was later told that I should have visited it earlier in the day. Seems nude sunbathing is a common practice there. Oh well. I did visit a nice biergarten, had a Chinese pagoda in the middle of it. Watched security advise people who had fallen asleep, you know, heads on the picnic tables, beer steins still clutched in their hands, to move on. Saw some nice dogs. One nice thing about Germany and Austria. They allow dogs everywhere: hotels, restaurants, businesses, everywhere. Almost as prevalent as people smoking (anti-smokers beware). We went by the Glockenspiel in Munich too. Watched the crowds gather around 11 AM, cameras clicking away. Visited beer halls, had huge steins of beer at the Hofbrau, saw people eating huge knuckles from cows at the Haxnbauer restaurant. I even had something called white wurz soup. Pretty good. Of course there were oompah bands at the Hofbrau in their lederhosen regalia. Blazing tubas with pretzels in hand.

Two nights in Munchen then on to Konstanz. Konstanz is a city on the Bodensee or Lake Constance, same lake, different names. On the way we stopped by the Zeppelin museum in Friedrichsafen. Fairly nice but a little small. We crossed an arm of the Bodensee by ferry to reach Konstanz. The Bodensee is very nice. Many Germans go there for their vacations. Konstanz is right on the German - Swiss border. We stayed at the Steigenberger Insel hotel which used to be a monastery. Our room was again in the back and looked out over the water. This was one of the most pleasant and relaxing places we stayed. They had several restaurants. We ate at their less fancy one. The food was the best of the trip and possibly some of the best I have ever eaten. I know the phrase about food melting in your mouth is a little trite but it did, it did. While we were there we took a boat trip to Mainau Island. It has great quantities of plants and such. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tulips were in bloom. They had orchids and a banana tree in hothouses and peacocks prancing around for tourists. It is quite beautiful there.

Next day onto Fussen and up the road a ways to Schlosss Neuschwanstein, one of Mad Ludwig's castles. I believe Disney's castle is modeled after this castle. Great view, great rooms, elaborate decorations, many tourists. After that we drove south, cut through a part of Austria, then back into Germany to spend the night in Garmisch Partenkirchen. I even tried the McDonalds there. Tasted just the same but they served beer. During the day we went up to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany, via a cable car. It was a little foggy on the side we came up but the view over the Alps on the other side was excellent. In the evening I noticed that Wayne's World was playing at one of the local theaters. Unfortunately Patty wasn't particularly enamored of the idea so I didn't get to see Wayne's World in Europe. Oh well. We weren't particularly impressed by Garmisch Partenkirchen. The mountain was fun but once was enough. Doubt that it will be on our list of places to visit again.

Next day on to Bergtesgaden. It only took us a couple of hours to find our next hotel, the Hotel Geiger, which turned out to be near the outskirts of town. It is a nice hotel but workers started hammering about 7 or 8 AM in the morning. Guess they were getting ready for the main load of tourists yet to come. After checking in we decided to go back to the railroad station, reserve our seats for the train ride on our last day from Berlin to Frankfurt, and find some place to eat. At that point the local weather god decided to bring back memories from our homes in the midwest with a great drenching thundershower and hail. It did let up a bit and we found a very pleasant coffee and pastry shop. After a bit of walking we returned to the hotel and ate an early dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had something called blue trout. It was blue from being boiled I understand. Patty had the baked trout and I think it tasted a little better but I don't think I would have missed the opportunity to eat a blue fish. The eyes always bother me though.

We had a couple of tourist spots we wanted to hit in Bergtesgaden. One of them was Hitler's retreat, the Eagle's Nest. Unfortunately the Eagle's Nest was closed due to snow. We were able to visit a salt mine. Pretty entertaining, sliding down waxed wood slides, riding on boats on underground lakes, dressing up in snazzy supposed coal miner outfits. The guide was an older fellow. He was fairly comical. One might have thought that he had a tendency to imbibe but that could have been part of the tourist shtick. He also mentioned his pleasure with tourists that tipped the guide. We met an older couple from the U.S. on the tour. They did not speak German so it was entertaining trying to translate the limited amount we got from the tour guide's memorized spiel. Fortunately there were boxes with English translation recordings along parts of the tour.

The next day we drove to Salzburg. On the way we stopped at the Schloss Hellbrunn and took a tour through the gardens with the Wasserspiele. There are all kinds of trick fountains and mechanical theaters powered by water. From there we had another entertaining maze ride into the center of a city to our hotel, the Goldener Hirsch. The room and the hotel were very nice. Our room was facing into the center of the block so it was fairly quiet. It had another very nice bathroom and an, um, anteroom cum tv/living room leading to the bedroom. We didn't eat at the restaurant at all in this hotel, plus it was one of the few that didn't also provide breakfast.

The Mozart Museum, his birthplace, was just down the block. We didn't actually enter it but it was an interesting feeling passing by it during the day. Oh yeah, there's Mozart's house again. Yo Moz. (Sorry) We visited a number of cathedrals, cemeteries and also the Hohensalzurg Fortress. The best part was the ride on the funicular.

Next day we drove onto Vienna, one of our favorite places. We stopped at the Schonbrunn Palace on the way into the city. The formal gardens are quite nice but we did not go into the palace. Particularly entertaining was the Schmetterlinghaus, you know, house of butterflies.

Our hotel was again near the center of the city although actually a bit outside of the central old city. It was a walkable distance but we usually just rode on the underground. Again we saw more cathedrals and museums. Just for the sake of seeing if either of us could have a heart attack we climbed the 344 steps of the south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral. I don't think there were more than five or six groups of grade school kids doing the same thing. The spiral stair well is rather narrow. It's a lot of fun if the kids have back packs too. Nice view at the top though. The inside of the church was magnificent, but this doesn't seem too unusual.

We also went to the Prater, a large park which lies between the Danube River and the Danube Canal. A lot of it is like an amusement park but obviously much older than most of America's amusement parks. We rode the Riesenrad, a giant Ferris wheel, which was where Orson Welles was going to murder Joseph Cotten in the Third Man. There were a number of food booths and cafes. We stopped and had a Budweis from Czechoslovakia. It does not taste the same as that which has its name in the United States.

I believe that which we liked most about Vienna was sitting in coffee houses, walking in the evening and listening to the sidewalk musicians, ranging from classical violinists to a rockabilly band. Of course there was also the good food, the beer, etc.

From Vienna we headed north to Czechoslovakia. The border crossing took longer than the ones at the German/Austrian borders but wasn't too bad. Once inside Czechoslovakia there is a definite change. The houses and villages don't look nearly as well maintained. A lot of the houses needed painting. As we progressed further and further into Czechoslovakia the air became more polluted. Cars were older and we did have a little problem finding unleaded gasoline for the car. There were more people hitch hiking also. We picked up two women on the way. They spoke very little German and no English. We had an interesting time figuring out exactly where they wanted to go. We finally dropped them off in Plzen. They attempted to help us find the Pilsener brewery but it still took us a while. Unfortunately we just missed the tour of the brewery but we did stop for a couple of beers at the brewery's bar and souvenir shop. We even picked up a few steins and t-shirts.

Then we headed to Prague and the Hotel Pariz, supposedly where Party members used to stay. The room was okay and the bathroom was near the low end of the scale. I bet you could even sand stuff with the toilet paper. There was also a MacDonalds in Prague. Their napkins were standard stock and were softer than our room's toilet paper.

Although we hadn't realized it, we had come to Prague during their celebration commemorating Prague Spring fourteen years before. There were a lot of musicians playing in the streets during the several days we were there. Again we visited many cathedrals and museums, including Kafka's birthplace. The most spectacular stained glass of the trip was in the St. Vitus Cathedral, a part of the collection of buildings that make up the Prague Castle.

The food and drink in Prague were pretty inexpensive but still good. My knowledge of the Czech language extended to a gigantic repertoire of perhaps 6 to 10 words. My most oft used phrase was "Pivo, prosim." (Beer, please.) Books are also inexpensive there and some of the children's books are quite nice.

Our next to last stop was Berlin, another of our favorite cities on the trip. I dropped off our rental car after we checked into the hotel. Unfortunately the travel agency had told us the wrong drop off location. I was able to get directions to the right place but it added a half hour or so to the process and was a little annoying.

While visiting various parts of the city we noticed a definite difference between West and East Berlin. Things looked a little shabbier in East Berlin. The bus station wasn't quite as nice nor were the signs as informative as were those in West Berlin. However a lot of construction was taking place in East Berlin. I feel certain that the differences between the two portions of the cities will be minimal and possibly non- existent in another couple of years. We only saw one or two sections of the wall still standing between a couple of buildings. It was interesting seeing the video cameras pointing toward the wall. There is nothing left of the wall or fences around the Brandenburger Tor. There was one older security guard watching all the people taking photos but he didn't seem to do too much else. Checkpoint Charlie has a number of street vendors selling Russian military garb, medals, etc. All of the crossing booths have been torn down.

Again we visited a number of churches and museums. Rode the bus by the Reichstag and by the park and statues around there. We even stopped by the recently opened Hard Rock Cafe to pick up a t-shirt for one of Patty's nieces. We did not stay very long there. Visited the Berlin Zoo, took lots of bus rides, checked out a number of stores, and generally had a very good time. We ate at several good restaurants. One was called the Eierschale. It had tables outside and it was a very pleasant day. The Fodor's guide book recommended their Mexican-style spareribs. Having never heard of Mexian-style spareribs but being a fan of ribs Patty decided to give it a try. Now in the United States you'll see people just jump right in, pick up the ribs with their hands and start eating. Patty was a little nervous about proper etiquette in a Berlin restaurant. It was a rather large portion and it took a while to eat with a knife and fork. At another restaurant, the Hardtke, if my memory serves me correctly, the waitress was from New England. Her German was excellent so it was a little odd when she started speaking English with an American accent. Possibly the only questionable fare we had in Berlin was pizza. It didn't seem quite right to us.

Finally we took the train from Berlin to Frankfurt on our next to last day. While waiting for the train we met a retired German couple. They practiced their English and we practiced our German with them which was moderately entertaining. Soon the train which we thought was ours called for all aboard. Unfortunately it wasn't exactly the right train. It did get us to Frankfurt but it was the milk run with frequent stops and not the fast and direct train that we should have taken. Actually I enjoyed the ride but the conductors were concerned because our tickets weren't the right ones. Fortunately it was a Eurailticket. Otherwise we would have had to pay a not inconsiderable amount extra. One mean spirited woman actually seemed a little peeved that we didn't have to pay extra. She was one of the few people that we actually didn't like that we met.

We didn't do anything in Frankfurt other than go to our hotel, order room service and rest our feet (which got quite a work out during the preceding two weeks or so). The plane ride back was moderately uneventful except for one little event. Patty decided that my breath was a little bit below acceptable public standards and pointed out that there was mouth wash in the bathroom on the plane. I decided to accommodate her (I had wondered why the stewardess was standing a bit farther away from me than normal when serving meals and asking if I wanted a drink.). I found the mouth wash and proceeded to use it just like the mouth washes with which I was familiar, you know, put a half inch or so in the bottom of a cup and swish it around a bit. Well, I should have read the instructions on the back. You see it was supposed to be diluted with water, say 10 to 20 % mouth wash and the rest water. My mouth was rather puckered up as I returned to my seat. Patty restrained herself from laughing too loudly. Such an ending. . .

Well, obviously we got home. The dogs were fine, the house didn't burn down, and the dog sitter hadn't destroyed the stereo. Actually I doubt she even turned it on. Patty thought the two or three pages of instructions might have seemed a bit daunting.

Well I know I've left out or forgotten things. My apologies. My apologies also to those who might wish that I had forgotten or left out more. What can I say? We had a good time, maybe too good.

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