In 1977 having finished my Masters Degree courses and my Thesis (or so I thought) I had a free summer before starting work in the fall so I decided to travel to the UK to visit relatives then to Germany to visit my friend George.
George and I had met while in the Air Force at Communications Electronics School at Keesler AFB in Biloxi MS. Like me George was a naturalized citizen who had grown up mostly in the US, he originally being born in Austria and me in the UK. Along with another friend John we ended up sharing a house in Biloxi after we had to move out of our quarters as they were needed for visiting Vietnamese Air Force students. It was a rundown place next to the L&N train tracks where we were woken up by freights every morning, but it was cheap. I went on to serve out my 4 years in New Mexico then getting out and going back to school. George on the other hand stayed in, volunteering for a one year tour in Southeast Asia (Vietnam war was still on although winding down) so he could then get a plum assignment in Europe which he did at Ramstein AFB in Germany.
While in the UK I traveled up to Scotland returning to stay with my aunt and uncle in Orpington a suburb just South of London with great train service into the city, George and I had planned a couple of weeks in Germany which I would travel to by train then return to the US by air from Frankfurt. The evening of August 12 I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant with my aunt and uncle who then dropped me off at the nearby Petts Wood station to take the stopping train, a typical BR Southern Region "slam door" EMU to Victoria where I would catch the Night Ferry. This was another EMU train but set up more for intercity travel and also carrying 2 Wagon Lits sleeping cars that would be shunted aboard the ferry to France. Alas a sleeper was beyond my budget as a student so it was coach for me.
The train was pretty crowded with a lot of younger people including students on holiday. I ended up trying out my high school French on a group of French students heading back home. I don't think they were too impressed by the ancient EMU we were on compared to the trains they had in France. The train ran nonstop down to Dover where we went through passport control and boarded the ferry that would take us to Dunquerque, made famous by the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940 saving the army to fight another day. This evening we had an invading force of mostly British, French and American youth crowding the chilly decks. After an uneventful crossing we landed and went through the French passport control and onto a train. There were cars for Paris and Brussels. I boarded a Brussels car which was dropped off in Lille to be picked up sometime later by another train and taken to Metz where I got off.
I was impressed by the quality of the ride both in France and Germany lots of welded rail, the only slightly rough section was coming out of Dunquerue where it was still jointed track.
In Metz I recall I attempted to buy a bottle of water but ran into the problem frequent in those days before the Euro and availability of ATM's. I had a little British money on me including a Scottish Pound note which I soon found out was not good anywhere outside of the UK, and travelers checks which had to be cashed at a bank, or a Bureau de Change if you didn't mind the exorbitant eschange rate. I think I did eventually manage to scrape together enough money acceptable to the vendor.
On the train I was in a compartment with 5 others, 4 American students and one young Swiss man who didn't speak English. The seat backs didn't recline so sleep was not easy, I might have gotten about an hour total. I got off at Metz and shortly after a Frankfurt bound train arrived which I would ride to Kaiserslautern where George would meet me. This train was also crowded but fortunately I had reserved a window seat so was able to get a good view for my first visit to France and Germany. This was in the days before Schengen so border control officers came through and checked passports which was fairly quick. As I recall I started to doze off and almost missed my Kaiserslautern stop but woke up and got off just in time.
My friend George picked me up and took me to the house he and his wife Joline had which was offbase in the town. It was an interesting experience living in a German house and seeing what life was like. One little detail I remember is you were only allowed 2 small trash bins which were picked up by special trucks that the bins fit into. The American lifestyle tended to generate more trash than the German system allowed for so George would have to smuggle excess trash to the base where he could quietly dispose of it. It was interesting visiting the little restaurants and taverns. Each region had its own beer and good wine was plentiful. One could even get beer in McDonalds along with your "viertel pfunder" (Quarter Pounder).
I took a number of side trips while there including overnight coach trips to Amsterdam and Zurich. One thing I found in Europe was how easy it was to navigate the train and tram systems even when one did not speak the language. I rode the train on day trips to Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. One interesting trip was the Wine Train where we traveled around some scenic areas while consuming excellent wines from the region. Unfortunately I probably overdid things as I don't remember much about the trip especially towards the end. I do recall passing an industry possibly a steel mill where there was a steam locomotive working the sidings there.
All too soon my trip was over and it was time to say good bye to my friend and head to the Frankfurt airport for my flight back to Boston.
George and I had met while in the Air Force at Communications Electronics School at Keesler AFB in Biloxi MS. Like me George was a naturalized citizen who had grown up mostly in the US, he originally being born in Austria and me in the UK. Along with another friend John we ended up sharing a house in Biloxi after we had to move out of our quarters as they were needed for visiting Vietnamese Air Force students. It was a rundown place next to the L&N train tracks where we were woken up by freights every morning, but it was cheap. I went on to serve out my 4 years in New Mexico then getting out and going back to school. George on the other hand stayed in, volunteering for a one year tour in Southeast Asia (Vietnam war was still on although winding down) so he could then get a plum assignment in Europe which he did at Ramstein AFB in Germany.
While in the UK I traveled up to Scotland returning to stay with my aunt and uncle in Orpington a suburb just South of London with great train service into the city, George and I had planned a couple of weeks in Germany which I would travel to by train then return to the US by air from Frankfurt. The evening of August 12 I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant with my aunt and uncle who then dropped me off at the nearby Petts Wood station to take the stopping train, a typical BR Southern Region "slam door" EMU to Victoria where I would catch the Night Ferry. This was another EMU train but set up more for intercity travel and also carrying 2 Wagon Lits sleeping cars that would be shunted aboard the ferry to France. Alas a sleeper was beyond my budget as a student so it was coach for me.
The train was pretty crowded with a lot of younger people including students on holiday. I ended up trying out my high school French on a group of French students heading back home. I don't think they were too impressed by the ancient EMU we were on compared to the trains they had in France. The train ran nonstop down to Dover where we went through passport control and boarded the ferry that would take us to Dunquerque, made famous by the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940 saving the army to fight another day. This evening we had an invading force of mostly British, French and American youth crowding the chilly decks. After an uneventful crossing we landed and went through the French passport control and onto a train. There were cars for Paris and Brussels. I boarded a Brussels car which was dropped off in Lille to be picked up sometime later by another train and taken to Metz where I got off.
I was impressed by the quality of the ride both in France and Germany lots of welded rail, the only slightly rough section was coming out of Dunquerue where it was still jointed track.
In Metz I recall I attempted to buy a bottle of water but ran into the problem frequent in those days before the Euro and availability of ATM's. I had a little British money on me including a Scottish Pound note which I soon found out was not good anywhere outside of the UK, and travelers checks which had to be cashed at a bank, or a Bureau de Change if you didn't mind the exorbitant eschange rate. I think I did eventually manage to scrape together enough money acceptable to the vendor.
On the train I was in a compartment with 5 others, 4 American students and one young Swiss man who didn't speak English. The seat backs didn't recline so sleep was not easy, I might have gotten about an hour total. I got off at Metz and shortly after a Frankfurt bound train arrived which I would ride to Kaiserslautern where George would meet me. This train was also crowded but fortunately I had reserved a window seat so was able to get a good view for my first visit to France and Germany. This was in the days before Schengen so border control officers came through and checked passports which was fairly quick. As I recall I started to doze off and almost missed my Kaiserslautern stop but woke up and got off just in time.
My friend George picked me up and took me to the house he and his wife Joline had which was offbase in the town. It was an interesting experience living in a German house and seeing what life was like. One little detail I remember is you were only allowed 2 small trash bins which were picked up by special trucks that the bins fit into. The American lifestyle tended to generate more trash than the German system allowed for so George would have to smuggle excess trash to the base where he could quietly dispose of it. It was interesting visiting the little restaurants and taverns. Each region had its own beer and good wine was plentiful. One could even get beer in McDonalds along with your "viertel pfunder" (Quarter Pounder).
I took a number of side trips while there including overnight coach trips to Amsterdam and Zurich. One thing I found in Europe was how easy it was to navigate the train and tram systems even when one did not speak the language. I rode the train on day trips to Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. One interesting trip was the Wine Train where we traveled around some scenic areas while consuming excellent wines from the region. Unfortunately I probably overdid things as I don't remember much about the trip especially towards the end. I do recall passing an industry possibly a steel mill where there was a steam locomotive working the sidings there.
All too soon my trip was over and it was time to say good bye to my friend and head to the Frankfurt airport for my flight back to Boston.
