Monday, June 7, Tuesday, June 8: "Get out of the driveway"

"Get out of the driveway" was the first entry in Kirstin's narrative description of the trip to Europe that started Monday, June 7, 1999 as all thirteen of us gathered and spent the night at the Super 8 motel in Wentzville. Spending the night there helped us to "get out of the driveway" and find any trip items that we were missing and leave early the subsequent morning to fight the rush hour traffic into St. Louis and arrive at the Northwestern ticket counter two hours in advance of our departure, as desired.

We were checked in by the same friendly Northwestern ticket agent who had done that chore for Celia and me on our flight to Frankfurt two months earlier. By 10:30 a.m. on June 8 Carl, Elaine, Thor, Raven, Bill, Kathy, Kyle, Shannon, Tim, Cindy, Kirstin, Celia and I were in the air, winging our way towards Detroit. We had a very long layover there. The five youngsters, ages 5 - 12, endured the four and a half hour wait very patiently - I have an image of Kathy doing her part by inviting them into a game of old maid and sitting on the floor playing the game with them at the airport for quite a while.

The trip from Detroit to Amsterdam seemed long as usual. Some of us switched seats occasionally. I switched with Thor so he could sit next to Grandma. Then I switched with Carl so he could sit next to Elaine. In the process I ended up sitting next to and talking to a retired civil engineer. He and his wife had done a lot of traveling in recent years so we were comparing notes. We talked about devices used to determine latitude and longitude anywhere on the earth. Grandma was involved for an extended time with Kirstin on one side of her and Shannon on the other.

Wednesday, June 9: The plane, the plane

The leg of our flight from Amsterdam to Oslo was not as pleasant as the previous ones. Luggage that had passed muster as "carry-on" at the two previous airports now had to be checked in. We did arrive at the Oslo airport safe and sound. Several of us tried out our credit cards at a money machine - I got some Norwegian money and Cindy and Tim bought some items in an airport store. We got our Eurail passes validated, waited about an hour for the IC train to take us to the Oslo Sentral train station. After the better part of an hour, we arrived totally bushed and, after checking into Foenix Hotel, decided to take a break/take a nap or whatever until supper at six.

I went back to the rail station for some errands, then walked downtown to the visitor center for some tourist brochures and maps to share with the rest of the group. The entire group surfaced at six p.m. and explored the neighborhood before selecting Pepe's Pizzas for our evening meal. After the meal some of us walked down to the harbor, where tourist boats were docked and saw some "Viking" sailing ships come in. Walking back to the hotel, we had a unique experience: we'd often heard one should not talk on a cell phone while driving a car - we saw a man using a cell phone while riding a bicycle.

We got to our hotel at 10:00 p.m., still broad daylight.

Thursday, June 10: Oslo, Norway

After we had a leisurely breakfast, I went to a nearby Post Office to buy some stamps. Some of us spent the rest of the morning shopping along Karl Johann Street, a pedestrian mall. Thor and Raven each got some souvenirs. Celia found and bought, "Stavkirchen", a book about the stave churches in Norway. Before noon we checked out of our hotel, checked our luggage (to remain until just prior to our train departure), then lunched at Burger King on Karl Johann Street. We saw the first of several groups of youngsters who were obviously on a school field trip, walking along the mall.

After lunch, on our walk to the harbor to catch a boat ride to the Viking Museum, we saw a statue in the plaza and wondered if it was of Karl Johann, so I detoured from our walking group to check the inscription. I happened to notice a large dried chunk of bread on the grass and wondered if I could attract some of the birds flying and walking around the plaza. It was immensely successful. After many minutes we left there, but not until both Kirstin and Raven had had the birds pecking bread crumbs out of their hands and Thor had dozens of birds sitting on him and looking for food.

After a brief visit to the Tourist Information center at the harbor, we caught the boat across the water to the shoreline where a tram was to take us to the museum. However, it broke down along the way and we had to walk the rest of the way. The museum had three Viking ships, each about 1000 years old, discovered and restored by archaeologists. Also there were lots of burial artifacts, showing how foods, cooking utensils and the like were sent along with the deceased.

We walked to the nearby Norwegian Folk Museum that had a number of sections illustrating Norwegian living customs through the years. We explored the section on toys extensively and skimmed a few other sections. We boarded a city bus for the ride back to the main train station where we had supper.

To usefully kill a few hours remaining until we were to get our luggage and board our overnight train to Copenhagen, we decided to look for an ice cream shop in the neighborhood. Being 8:30 p.m. most stores were closed, but we managed to find one, operated by a man who obviously enjoyed his work. He provided us huge servings and had us in stitches as we stood on the street corner trying to decide what to order, then trying to eat the ice cream cones before they melted.

We returned to the train station and were ready to board our sleeper train 20 minutes before its departure time of 10:53 p.m. We managed to find our sleeping compartments successfully and were in bed rolling along the track out of Norway by 11:30 p.m.

Friday, June 11: To Copenhagen

I woke up at 6 a.m. to find the train still on the ferry. Some minutes later the train was rolled off the boat, in sections, and onto dry ground(tracks!). By 7:40 a.m. we rolled into Copenhagen on schedule and walked the three blocks to our Selandia Hotel. We put our luggage in the hotel's storage room and bought tickets to a two and a half hour city and harbor tour (the city by double-decker bus, the harbor by boat). We walked to the pick-up point and saw a lot of the sights of Copenhagen from the bus, with perhaps the most famous being the statue of the mermaid. The bus dropped us off at the point where we boarded the boat and saw a bit more of Copenhagen and its harbor.

It had begun to rain steadily during the tour and we got thoroughly soaked returning to the hotel. We decided to relax with no formal group activities in the afternoon or evening, except for supper, which we shared at a nice restaurant in the train station, not far from our hotel.

Grandma and I actually got to bed before 10 p.m.

Saturday, June 12: "Raven, take your napkin out of your bone!"

Even before getting out of bed this morning, we could tell the weather in Copenhagen was better than yesterday. The rain had stopped and it looked like an ideal day to explore the city. Our different families went in different directions except that Celia and I joined Carl and Elaine and family as they spent time strolling along the famous mile long shopping street Strøget, watching individual performers and even a large band at one of the plazas along the street. Then we entered the famous amusement area Tivoli Gardens, with a combination of well-landscaped grounds, places to eat various kinds of food and amusement rides.

We had lunch at a restaurant called, "Valhalla" with all the features you might expect in a place with that name (we had to climb a very long flight of steps to enter it). During the meal, Elaine had to admonish Raven to "Get your napkin out of your bone" because in our table settings, our cloth napkins had been placed in a napkin ring made from a genuine animal bone, and in handling the "napkin ring" Raven was causing the napkin to contact the food on his plate.

During our visit to the Gardens, Raven tried an "attached" airplane ride and Thor a ride "not for small children".

After leaving the Tivoli Gardens, we walked to the Copenhagen military museum and spent several hours until they closed, looking at two large rooms, each over 150 yards long, one with hundreds of cannons from all over the world from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and the other with many hundreds of swords and small arms, again spanning several centuries.

We had our supper at the Hard Rock Cafe on Vesterbrogade and returned to our hotel, getting ready for an early leave-taking tomorrow morning.

Sunday, June 13: To Westerkappeln

We were all down for breakfast by 7 a.m. or a few minutes thereafter, left the hotel shortly after 7:30 and walked the three blocks to the train station, arriving with 10 minutes to spare for our 7:55 a.m. leavetaking. The train arrived a few minutes early and by the time it left the station, we had all found our seats.

On the way to Hamburg, the train cars were loaded on a ferry and we had to leave the train car we were on and go on the upper deck of the ferry. While there we took the opportunity to buy a take-along lunch to eat later on the train. After a 45 minute ride on the ferry, we landed at Puttgarten, Germany and continued on by train, changing trains at Hamburg, traveled several hours more and arrived at Osnabrück in the middle of the afternoon.

Being Sunday, the information office of the bus lines was closed. Querying a bus driver, I learned his bus was leaving in ten minutes for Westerkappeln. After a quick visit to an ATM machine, we loaded the bus and made the 30 minute trip to Westerkappeln without incident, being dropped off directly across the street from the Rieskamp-Gödeking rooming house, where we are staying for two nights.

Shortly after I called Friedhelm Freese to let him know we had arrived he came with three cars to take us to his place. Günter was there, since Friedhelm had gone to get him from the recuperation center where he had been staying after his operation. They gave the thirteen of us a tour of the house and farmstead, we took lots of pictures and then went on to Fritz and Wilma's for lots of chatting and a tour of the farmstead, including the horses that Fritz is raising. Then we had supper on their back porch, a vegetable pizza with green, yellow and red peppers, along with drinks and conviviality till 10 p.m., at which time we were taken back to the rooming house.

Monday, June 14: The Westerkappeln Visit

Our host at the Rieskamp-Gödeking Gaststätte had breakfast ready for us at the hour of 8 a.m. as we had requested. The breads, ham, cooked eggs and cereal along with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and milk were satisfying. During the meal, Kirstin's loose tooth was bothering her a lot, so Elaine took a look, and a second later the tooth was out.

At 9:30 a.m. Friedhelm came with only two cars - Fritz had had a recurrence of stomach problems last night. Wilma had called the doctor who had come during the night. Friedhelm and Rolf, a neighbor of Friedhelm's, each made two trips to the elementary school from the Gaststätte to transport our whole group. While the mothers and Celia visited the rooms with the youngsters in our group, "us guys" met with the school principal and a reporter from the Westfälische Nachrichten over cups of coffee. After an hour of chatting, the "Reporterin" left to visit a classroom. After the mothers and children returned from the classrooms, we all went outside where the reporter took pictures of our group on the steps of the school.

We walked around the downtown Westerkappeln area visiting a bookstore and what might be called a souvenir shop. Several of us got bottles of soda at a shop along the way. After a half hour or more it was time to go to Fritz and Wilma's for lunch. Fritz was still in ged and did not join the group, but we visited until 2 p.m. when we left for the church where we had an appointment with a pastor of the church to be given a tour. Pastor Ströber spoke excellent English and made extensive comments about the history of the church and its interior. They were expecting to receive today or tomorrow a replacement of some 500-year-old bells in their tower.

After our visit at the church, we traveled to the town of Techlenburg, visiting the site of the open air theater and viewing the surrounding countryside from its elevated location. Finally, back to Friedhelm's place. While supper was being prepared, I called the Esch family in Westerkappeln who had been instrumental in getting us permission to visit the elementary school. He is the owner of the Westerkappeln Web site through which I had contacted him. He and his wife and daughter came over to Friedhelm's briefly so that I could present them the gifts I had brought for them.

After supper at a very long table in Friedhelm's entrance foyer, there was lots of chatting and even an extended game of "drop ball" among the members of the visiting Freese clan until 9 p.m. when we asked to be taken back to our Gaststätte to get the youngsters to bed (and the oldsters) so we could be on our way early tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, June 15: Celebrities in the Westfälische Nachrichten

We had asked for breakfast at 7 a.m., but went down at 6:45 .m. hoping some of it would be ready so we would more easily be able to catch the 7:27 bus that would be necessary if we were to make our train connections out of Osnabrück. Just as we were finishing breakfast, Friedhelm showed up with a copy of today's Westfälische Nachrichten that had a nice article with several pictures of us and the youngsters at the elementary school yesterday. It was headlined, "Kirstin und Kyle waren große Stars" and subtitled, "Grundschule hatte Besuch aus Amerika". The Gaststätte owner gave us the same article from his paper that had also just been delivered. After briefly enjoying looking at the article, we grabbed our luggage and were at the bus stop in time to board it and ride to Osnabrück where Bill and his family caught the train to Cologne and, 30 minutes later, the rest of us caught the train to Amsterdam, arriving in Amsterdam just before noon.

Since our rooms weren't ready, the nine of us left our luggage at the Avenue Hotel and had lunch at a nearby McDonalds. Then back to check in to the hotel, then out for several hours of shopping. Then we did a one hour canal boat ride accompanied by tour commentary in four languages. Then some more shopping with supper at a local restaurant. Celia and I spent a quiet evening watching TV - an American movie with Dutch subtitles.

Wednesday, June 16: To Bingen

After a good breakfast we headed for the Amsterdam railway station and boarded the train for a three hour ride to Cologne where we were to meet Bill and family. As we arrived in Cologne, Carl discovered he had left his money belt with passport and credit cards in their hotel room in Amsterdam. After calling the hotel in Amsterdam to be sure it had been found, we revised our plans. Now Thor, Tim, Cindy, and Kirstin would remain in Cologne and do the tour of the Cologne cathedral as planned, then go to Bingen with Bill and family later in the day. Elaine, Carl, Raven, Celia and I did a brief walk-around of the cathedral, then boarded the train back to Amsterdam. The schedule showed a train returning from Amsterdam to Cologne 25 minutes after our arrival in Amsterdam, which we figured we could make. Unfortunately, the train was 15 minutes late getting into Amsterdam, so we missed the ideal return connection to Cologne. We took the next available train back to Cologne and after the three hour ride, picked up our luggage out of the storage lockers where we had put it. Then we boarded a train to Koblenz where we needed to change trains again for Bingen. We arrived after midnight. Since the Hotel Krone had locked its doors to the public at eleven p.m., some of the rest of our group had gotten our room keys before that time and had waited on the street outside the hotel with those keys, which allowed us entry into the hotel and our rooms.

Thursday, June 17: To Füssen

We left the Krone Hotel in Bingen with barely enough time to catch the boat heading down the Rhine from Bingen to Koblenz, leaving our luggage in storage at the hotel for us to pick up later that afternoon.

The ride on the boat was delightful; not only did we have a chance to see the landscape along the Rhine and the castles and the Lorelei Rock, but had some neat personal experiences as well. A Japanese lady experienced in origami, and traveling with a tour group, would make an item and give it to a young child. Each of our three 5-year-olds was a recipient of such a gift.

After disembarking at Koblenz and shopping at the kiosks there along the river bank, we stopped briefly at the Deutsches Eck, then walked rapidly along the Mosel River to Bahnhofstraße and on to the train station. Here we caught the train that went directly to Bingen. On the train we discovered a German lady who was celebrating her birthday today. So the thirteen of us sang "Happy Birthday" to her. At Bingen, we got our luggage and within an hour were back on the rails again, heading for Worms. After arrival in Worms we changed trains, this time heading for Augsburg. On this three hour leg of the trip, most of us had a chance to try out eating a meal in the dining car. After arriving in Augsburg, we boarded a train to Buchloe (along with a group of school children). After arrival in Buchloe at 9:48 p.m, still daylight, we boarded a train for Füssen, arriving there on time at 10:57 p.m. We walked to our hotel, the Kur-Cafe Hotel, which was less than two blocks from the train station.

Friday, June 18: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles

We woke up in Füssen to find it raining rather hard. After breakfast in the hotel, we decided to wait an hour to see if the rain would die down. During that hour I walked to the train station and got reservations for those sections of the rest of our trip in Europe where the rail line recommends reservations: Buchloe to St. Gallen, St. Gallen to Interlaken, Interlaken to Bern, Bern to Basel and Basel to Paris.

While Carl was getting cash from an ATM machine that Bill had found earlier this morning, I bought a couple of umbrellas. All 13 of us then walked to the bus stop next to the train station and caught the bus from Füssen to the virtually adjacent town of Hohenschwangau to a location near the Neuschwanstein castle. There we all just filled a horse drawn covered (it was still raining) carriage that took us up an extended steep path for several hundred meters to a spot where we walked the last stretch into the castle and a circuitous waiting line that reminded me of Disneyland and Disney World. The tour, given in English, lasted about 35 minutes, after an hour or so waiting in line. After shopping in the gift shop at the castle, we took the carriage back down to where the bus had dropped us off. We had lunch there (except for Bill and family who went on ahead). After extensive shopping there at the tourist shops available at that location(window and otherwise), we walked to the Hohenschwangau castle and took the English-speaking tour. We then walked on back to the pickup point for the bus. We had a lost backpack for a while, but Thor retraced his steps to the Hohenschwangau castle, where he thought it most likely to be left behind, and found it.

At 6:20 p.m. we caught the bus back to the hotel where the 13 of us had supper.

Saturday, June 19: To Interlaken

Since we had reserved seats on some speedy trains from Füssen, Germany to Interlaken, Switzerland, we were able to have a later than usual departure. Some of us spent some time shopping for souvenirs, some of us got lunch food for on the train, some mailed packages home, and did other errands until 10:30 a.m. the check-out time at the KurCafe Hotel, then on to the train station by 11 a.m. to catch our train to Buchloe departing at 11:05. Got to Buchloe shortly after noon, and caught the train to St. Gallen at 12:54, arriving at St. Gallen by 3:18 p.m. as scheduled. On this leg of our trip we travelled briefly through a corner of Austria at Bregenz before entering Switzerland at St. Margrethen and on to St. Gallen.

It was also on this leg of the trip that Celia and I were sitting next to a couple from South Africa who had been traveling on business for several weeks and were just beginning a week of vacation time. The job title on his business card shows him to be Management Advisor to the Governors of the South African Reserve Bank. He presented us with a gift, in a felt pouch, a proof coin minted by the South African National Bank.

The trip from St. Gallen to Interlaken was a three and a half hour trip through Zurich and Bern, arriving at Interlaken Ost at 7:20 p.m. We walked the block and a half to the Carlton Hotel, where I had arranged to have a four course supper waiting for us. They served it to us, on a VERY long table (best estimate 28 feet), tablecloth and all, in a rather formal setting (three forks, two knives, etc.) and perhaps partly because each of us was separated from each other by several feet of space, the very young among conducted themselves with great aplomb. The supper ended at 10 p.m.

Celia and I enjoyed a bit of television in our room before turning in.

Sunday, June 20: The Lauterbrunnen Valley

We had decided to take the 9:30 a.m. train to Lauterbrunnen. The 30 minute ride involved rolling up some rather steep slopes, and through some spectacular scenery. After getting off the train at Lauterbrunnen, we walked through the main street of town and past the Staubbach Falls, with lots of pictures of Celia (Staubach) Freese, with lots of combinations of the rest of us included. After a long walk on pathways through the alpine meadows, bursting with flowers, and ultimately to the Trümmelbach Falls. There Celia and I sat and waited while the rest went through the winding walkways on rock steps in and around the falls. After their visit to those falls, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant where Celia and I enjoyed a cola, vegetable soup and two HUGE pots of french fries (served on a paper towel in flower pots) in the shade of an awning of an outdoor table.

Later some of us caught the local bus back to Lauterbrunnen to take the funicular up to Mürren while others of our group took the bus to Stechelberg to take the cable car up the same mountain, the Schilthorn. At Lauterbrunnen we found the funicular out of order so we had to take the bus to Stechelberg also and take the cable car, in several stretches up to Mürren. This we did, spending quite some time browsing the shops in the mountain town of Mürren. Many of the houses and streets in the town were built into the side of the mountain, with a 45 degree slope of the ground common. After we were through shopping we headed by to the cable car terminus in Mürren only to find that the rest of our group had just come down from the top station of the Schilthorn. We journeyed together in the cable car back down to the valley floor. The cable car was a large one, with people literally packed in body against body, with a capacity of 100 persons (it said on a sign!).

Retracing our steps, taking the bus to Lauterbrunnen, then the train to Interlaken took less than an hour. We arrived at the hotel shortly before 7 p.m. in time for our scheduled supper of SALAD "NICE", CLEAR CONSUME "CANINO", ROASTED LAMB WITH HERBS "PROVENCALE", BAKERS POTATOES, GREEN PEAS ON BUTTER, AND ICE-COUPE DERBY.

During the evening, Cindy fell on the stairs coming down to our floor and suffered a sprained ankle. Elaine administered a stretch bandage, and we got a large bag of ice cubes to tone down the swelling.

Monday, June 21: Bern

It was raining after breakfast, so we had the hotel ferry us the two blocks to the train station. After an hour's ride on the ICE we arrived at Bern. Since we knew our rooms at the Hotel City would not be ready we stored our luggage at the train station, got maps of the downtown area from the tourist information office at the train station and explored the shops in the nearby blocks until we could check in to our hotel at 1 p.m. The families scattered in the afternoon to do their own thing, from shopping to resting to walking the streets to mailing packages home.

We had supper at a sidewalk cafe at the Bärenplatz a few blocks away from our hotel.

Tuesday, June 22: To Paris

To avoid crossing the multi-lane, heavily travelled street and dodging the busses, we took an underground passage from Hotel City to the train station and found the ICE train waiting for us to take us to Basel. We boarded and were well settled in before the train moved out. Had a chat with the conductor who was now living in Bern but had spent his childhood in Interlaken. He said we were on the best train in Europe and that he had had the best possible childhood because in Interlaken he could wake up every morning and see the Jungfrau mountain out his window.

At Basel we had to walk from the Swiss side of the train station to the French side, crossing the border in the process. But there were no border guards no customs officials (some of us were worried whether the groceries we had brought along for the noon meal on the train would be confiscated when we crossed the border). The trip from the Basel to the Paris (East) station was scheduled to take five hours and eleven minutes and was on time (12 noon to 5:11 p.m.). At the Paris (East) station, a VERY crowded one, we spent some time finding and using an ATM machine, and for some of us, cashing travelers checks to get French currency.

We walked several blocks, including what seemed like hundreds of steps to get to our New Hotel, located just across the street from the Paris (North) train station. I went to that station and purchased 2-day passes for everyone in our group, allowing us unlimited travel on the Paris busses, metro, and subways. After supper at a pizza place within a block of our hotel, around 10 p.m., the younger folks left to visit the Eiffel Tower; Celia and I watched a bit of TV before turning in.

Wednesday, June 23: Exploring Paris

Our breakfast was in a small basement room in the hotel that reminded one of a wine cellar, with not enough seating for even our group. However, since we all appeared at different times, the seating was apparently adequate. The breakfast was not much more than continental.

Every family decided to venture out on their own to explore those parts of Paris that interested them. As it turned out, Celia and I arrived at the Notre Dame cathedral just as Carl and Elaine's family were finishing their visit there; they said they had arrived just as Bill and family were leaving there. Celia and I had taken a bus from near our hotel to the cathedral; from the cathedral we walked to the Louvre (formerly a royal palace, now one of the largest museums in the world) by following the city maps we had obtained. The weather was quite warm, so after the visit to the Louvre, we decided to use the public transportation. We then took the Metro to the ARC DE TRIOMPHE (the largest triumphal arch in the world, commissioned by Napoleon in honor of the 128 victories his army had achieved. From there we saw part of the Champs Elysées. We had lunch near the arch at a fast food restaurant called "Quick" a European competitor of McDonalds. Then back on the metro for a while to visit the Eiffel tower - we didn't go up in it but we did get closer to it than the end of the long line of people seeking tickets to go to the top. Then we hopped back on the Metro, changing trains when appropriate (we were getting really good at knowing when to change - each car had a map of the routes on the walls) and got back to our hotel before suppertime.

Thursday, June 24: Heading home

After our modest breakfast, we left our hotel, walked across the street to the Metro station, found the track that was to take us to the airport and made it to the airport with time to spare. Had to wait in a huge line to get our boarding passes. Going through security check, Thor and Carl were the only ones that had any trouble.

Once we got on the plane, our troubles began (not the youngsters in our group, they handled all our delays with great patience. all the way to Detroit). We were delayed on the runway at Paris for over an hour for various reasons, with the result that we missed our flight in Detroit. Tim, Cindy, and Kirstin along with Bill and his family got boarding passes for the next flight, but Celia and I and Carl and family had to wait an additional two hours in Detroit to get a flight to St. Louis. These hours passed and we had an uneventful flight to St. Louis and drive home. This was not the case with Tim and Cindy who had an accident on the way from St. Louis to Columbia in which a piece of tire was thrown up against their windshield, shattering it, with the result that their car was towed to Columbia. Fortunately, no one was injured.

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