Friday, September 5, 1975

Europe 1975 London to Verona

 Kathy and I as we leave for a summer in Europe (her apprehensive mom in background). 
 On top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
 St. Giles Cathedral.
 Edinburgh Castle.
 Canterbury Cathedral.
 Marlys.
One of the city wall towers of Lucern, Switzerland.
 An unnamed church in Imst, Austria.
 Dutch friends Emile, Peter, Hans and Walter, in Imst, Austria.
Verona Arena, Italy.

Summer 1975

This was a whirlwind two month trip through Europe. We purchased a Britrail Pass and a Eurrail Pass and tried to see as much as possible in two months. Sadly photography in the day wasn't as easy as today. The photos of course are on film and you couldn't see what you had taken until you got home and had the film developed. The camera we used was a little Vivitar 100 with tiny negatives. As a result the photos are less than spectacular. I have only scanned and included the best and photos that show us in our youth. Obviously, over the last 42 years, I have forgotten some details, but others are etched into my memory forever.

I worked in a pet store for the year and managed to save enough money for Kathy and I to travel to Europe for the summer. We flew to London, where we spent a few days visiting some of the sights before taking a train to Scotland. 

We visited Edinburgh and the castle. Then we took a train further north and camped at Inverness, at the north end of Loch Ness. It was quite cool there and we didn't see any sign of the monster except in the tourist shops.

We stayed in Canterbury, east of London, on our way to the continent. The historic cathedral here is beautiful and the site of  Archbishop Thomas Beckett's murder and the hands of King Henry II's men.

We took the ferry from Dover to Calais and then we used our Eurrail Pass to take the train to Amsterdam. Here we met up with Mike and Gail's friend Maryls, who was gracious enough to put us up for our stay. We loved Amsterdam and spent our time exploring the canals, markets and shops.

From there we visited Paris for a few days, before traveling to Switzerland. We loved the walled city of Lucern and spent a couple of days there. The we traveled east through Leichtenstein on our way to Austria.

We camped in a small town called Imst. Here we met four Dutch guys. We spent time with them drinking and partying. Unfortunately, I got very sick here and while on the way to the washroom had to wash my pants and body in the very cold river than flowed through the campground.

We continued on to Innsbruk, Austria before heading south over the pass into Italy. Our next campground was at Verona, famously the home of Romeo and Julliet.

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