The Griswold’s European Vacation
In March of 1999, My Granddaughter Niki was stationed in Spangdahlem Air force Base in Germany. I was scheduled to go for my very first European trip in May of this year but somehow Niki’s Mother, my oldest Daughter, Ann my youngest Daughter and I decided to fly to Germany and visit Niki. We were to fly into Frankfurt Airport and Niki was to pick us up in a rental car, a Ford Explorer in which we traveled Germany, France, Austria and the Bavarian Alps. Niki had a small car she called her “Whoopte Car.” Which means (I think) piece of junk. It was a little green VW sedan and not for us to travel about in.
To digress a bit here, I will say we must have looked like either a) a bunch of Rednecks just out of the local prison in Georgia or b) Terrorists in disguise because every airport we went through they would inspect our baggage minutely. They zoned in especially on Mary. She must have really looked the terrorist part. She even got patted down in Gatwick (London) Airport. And that was before the days of the tightened security.
So back to the story Niki picks us up in Frankfurt and keep in mind at this time I/we were not at all worldly. On the way to Niki’s apartment on the base I kept seeing this sign telling me if I get off at this exit it will lead me to the town of “Ausgang.” Gee Whiz I am up on my geography pretty good but I never heard of this city called Ausgang. After passing a blue million of these signs I finely said to Niki “Wow this must be the biggest city in Germany because every exit we pass goes to Ausgang and I never heard of it. She laughed uproariously and told me “MEMA” Ausgang is German for Exit. Oh well how the heck was I to know that? The only foreign languages I knew at that time were how to swear in four different languages. So I still laugh about that till this day and delight in relaying this story to any German friends I have and any I meet in my travels. I am really worldly now I can exit in four languages. So we arrive at Niki’s apartment which is on the fourth (correct me if I am wrong on this Mary. It may have been the fifth) floor. Anyway it was a long way up lugging suitcases. Thank you Girls for the help. Niki had a cute little apartment that she shared with her friend (I think her name was Tammy.) The sweetheart gave me her bed cause (I was old.) Good girl Niki! Take care of your Mema. It will come back to you one day huh?
We started our adventures traveling around Germany. We made no reservations the entire trip. We just winged it. All we had was a map, and Fodor’s German guidebook. Who noticed the book was a 1989 copy. We did pretty well with it until we got to Munich and the hotel we were looking for was no longer there. Ah Munich. A few fond memories. One in particular while we were circling around and around and around we kept passing this one particular intersection. We must have been doing something wrong because people kept yelling at us in German (and at this point all I knew was Ausgang) and making a funny and sigh to us. We can only assume it was the German version of the “birdie” but we never found out what they were saying, what they meant with the sign or what in heaven’s name we were doing wrong. After going through this exercise for a few times Niki finely pulled the car up on the sidewalk in front of a man, hurled herself out of the car and said “Help me, I am an American tourist and I am lost.” The man looked at her book, chuckled and said he had been there before himself. The kind man pointed out that the book was 10 years old and the hotel was no longer there but he did recommend a good hotel nearby. The hotel was really nice with only one negative incident. Mary, Ann, and I enjoyed their wonderful complimentary breakfast of German coffee, hard rolls and assorted jams and jellies. Niki on the other hand didn’t drink coffee at that time. She asked the lady for a coke. The lady almost had the “big one.” She started carrying on “No, No, No. No coffee for breakfast" Niki yelled “I’ll pay, I’ll pay.” Well after a bit of huffing and puffing the good lady brought her a coke and Niki was happy. A not so fond memory: The purpose of our visit to Munich was that Mary wanted to visit a concentration camp. We chose Dachau. All I can say about that experience is. NEVER AGAIN.Dachau concentration camp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It was really horrible to see. Once several years later in Thailand on a tour we went into a museum. After I got in I discovered it was a concentration camp. I got out of there faster than I went in. Once in a lifetime is enough for me to see. I can only imagine how it may have been to be incarcerated there.
Before Munich we visited the Hansel and Gretel town of Trier which dated back to 16 BC. Trier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia We visited the Roman baths, the Porta Nigra (Black Wall) the Cathedral where the Holy Shroud is kept. The holy shroud is said to be the garment Jesus wore the day he was crucified. Seamless robe of Jesus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia we enjoyed Street Entertainment, had coffee at a delightful sidewalk café.
After the local sights and Munich we followed the Romantic Road which I though sounded pretty cool but found out in the tour book that the Romantic Road was so named because it was supposedly built by the Romans. I can’t really find anything to back this up But….. The Romantic Road We traveled to Bavaria and Austria visiting two Mad Ludwig’s castles. Along the way (keep in mind we are dealing with one of these “flatland touristers”) we had to go over some mountains. I had not much experience with mountains and these mountains had snow on them. I was convinced we were going to get stranded on “Goatherd Pass” (a mythical place I made up in my mind) and have to resort to eating each other. All I talked about for two days was the perils of “Goatherd Pass.” When we finely got to the mountain passes, guess what? They were very well plowed and we didn’t get stranded. But OMG did we ever see snow. At the Austrian border Mary wanted to get out and get a picture of her by the sign. We found out I was a better Mother than photographer cause when we got the pictures developed I had quit filming when she dropped straight through the snow up to her boobs and floundered around screaming she was being swallowed up by the snow she flailed about a bit and landed on her nose in the middle of the road and also sprained her thumb. Niki and Ann were laughing so hard they almost peed their pants. Me on the other hand, I tended to my kid. What a great mother I am. While Mary was sitting with her swollen thumb in a snow bank she said “Did you get pictures of it?” Sadly I didn’t. We stopped along the way at a city called Ulm where there was a beautiful church which had a steeple with 720 steps. We made it up 450 of them. We traveled through Bavaria visiting two of Mad Ludwig’s Castles. We visited Neuschwanstein & Linderhof and viewed Ludwig’s boyhood home of Hohenschwangau. King Ludwig's Castles Trier was just a short distance from Niki’s apartment so we went over there a couple of times. If my memory serves me correctly Bitzburg was also in the general direction and we went there. Here are a couple of funnies associated with those trips. In Bitzburg Ann was on a mad Beanie Bear hunt. She collected Beanie bears and wanted one from Germany. I was waiting outside for them while they went out of one store and into the next. All of a sudden I get this plop on my head. A Bitzburg bird had pooped on my head. When the kids came out I was pouring a bottle of water over my head. The other funny was along the road there was a sign that said “Frog Crossing.” Well this struck me so funny and I just had to have a picture of said sign. The kids stopped the car for me and I wandered back down the road not really paying attention to my surroundings when I happened to notice an awful lot of barking going on. I looked to my right and about 50 ft from me is a fence probably 6feet high with about 2000 German Sheppard’s jumping straight up in the air. Well maybe it was only about five of them but they were big and they were almost coming out of the fence. I figured I best hightail it back to the car before they made it over the top. As I am running back to the car I noticed all the girls including Niki’s friend hanging out the back window of the SUV laughing their butts off. But no one was coming to my rescue.
Paris the Griswold’s have arrived: After puttering around Germany for almost two weeks we decided to go to Paris. What a culture shock. Germany is the cleanest country I have ever been in then across the border to France. France has got to be one of the dirtiest, but Paris is delightful. Especially at night when you can’t really see all the grime and trash. We came up out of the subway to a band parading around the Arch de Triomphe playing the French National Anthem. Well here is my heritage. I am singing along with them at the top of my lungs. Of course I don’t know the words but I am da de dahing with the best of them. My kids wanted to shove me in a garbage can. We walked around Paris found a hotel room then walked some more well into the night then the next day. Our feet were so sore and we were so tired! We had planned to go to Amsterdam (don’t know what those kids were so set to go to Amsterdam for) but we were just too tired. We went back to Niki’s apartment and crashed for a day lying around watching movies. Then the last thing we did was to go to Hamm, Luxembourg to visit George S. Patton’s grave. George Smith Patton (1885 - 1945) - Find A Grave Memorial Find A Grave: Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memoria... This was the first trip I had with any of my adult children and we had a ball.
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