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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Beyond
the Sceptred Isles Tina
Hammond (issue 47, autumn 2002) My memories of my very early childhood holidays are good. When I was 3 - 4 we went to Bournemouth with my mother's brother, and to Cornwall when I was 5. We stayed at Mrs Barber's hotel and I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday, as I was permitted to sound the gong for meals every day! A return visit the following year did not have the same air of excitement or newness... The next 3 - 4 years were spent at holiday camps, each one horrible, and in 1971 we toured Scotland for two weeks in Dad's car. Apart from a return visit a few years later, the next 5 - 6 years were spent at Eastbourne with my Dad's sister and her family, all of which I found extremely tedious. My ambition was to go overseas, something I would have to fund myself, as Dad showed not the slightest inclination to venture any further south than Sussex. Starting work in mid-1978, by the next year I was ready and eager to see as much as possible!! I figured a good way of getting a taste for travel was to do a coach tour of several countries - starting with Europe - for 1 or 2 weeks. Wallace Arnold offered the most attractive package because all their hotels were en suites - a rare thing then - and the tour included 3 meals a day, thus cutting down on the amount of foreign currency needed, credit cards not being common then. So, on Monday 17 September 1979, after a Dover-Calais hovercraft crossing - which I found very pleasant - I set foot on foreign soil for the first time, my Mother travelling with me. Watches forward 1 hour, we spent that night at an Ibis Hotel in Paris. The next day we went on the Metro and saw all the well known Paris sights: the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Place Vendome, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, together with the Champs Elysées and the Place de la Concorde, as well as the lesser known Opera House. Departing Paris after lunch, and stopping at Troyes, we reached Colombey in Chaumont en Marne for our second night. It was here that we saw the Memorial to de Gaulle, and his grave. Day three saw our watches go back an hour when we entered Switzerland via Basle, where we had lunch, and thence along the autobahn and its many tunnels, we reached Lucerne. I could not believe how incredibly beautiful this place was, and even today, would count it in my top ten idyllic places. We spent two nights there, and I did much shopping, as well as being absolutely transfixed by the stillness of the Lion (dedicated to the memory of the heroism of the Swiss Guard of the French King during the storming of the Tuileries in Paris in the summer of 1792), and the carved wooden structure that is the Spreuer Bridge, built in 1408 as part of the city's system of fortification. This gothic style bridge is also known as the Dance of Death or Death Macabre. The Chapel Bridge, also over the River Reuss, with the Water Tower as a backdrop completes this beautiful setting.
That night we took a night boat river trip, featuring a Swiss show, including a demonstration of the Swiss Horn. On Thursday morning, we took the cable train from Engelberg up Mount Titlis, the highest point of the central Alps, and saw many peaks, including the Jungfrau. I walked on both the east and west glacier atop Titlis and visited the Ice Grotto. In the afternoon, we were escorted round the town, and visited the Lucerne Glacier Garden, which features the Pothole Waterfall and Revolving Stone, as well as driving to the Cathedral and Museum. On the fifth day, after a short drive along the banks of Lake Lucerne, we passed through hilly and wooden terrain climbing up to the winter resort of Andermatt, and then over the St Gotthard itself, dropping down into Ticino and Bellinzona in Italy - where we had lunch at the Railway Station - and Lake Maggiore, crossing into Italy to the resort of Stresa. Our watches had to go forward an hour again!! A whole day in Stresa: very boring. The most exciting thing was an item in the news that a manager of the Fiat car company had been shot dead!! In the afternoon, we took a boat ride to one of the nearby islands, Isola Bella, and saw a monument to the lion and the unicorn. Sunday beckoned, and we retraced our steps along Lake Maggiore to the high road that reaches Switzerland, which is the San Bernardino pass (more snow), down toward the River Rhine. Because of our watches going back an hour again, we actually reached Switzerland a whole five minutes earlier than we had left Italy!! A visit to Vaduz in Liechtenstein (where I purchased a calendar signed by Baron von Falz Fein at the Palace), we flitted through Austria - spending a whole 40 minutes there! - at Lake Constance, following the shoreline to Germany. Crossing West Bavaria, we saw the Danube and Black Forest, and reached Offenberg in the Rhine valley for dinner and overnight. I was highly impressed by the brightly coloured fountains in front of Offenberg Railway Station at night - it must surely be more pleasurable to get off a train somewhere and be met by dazzling lights than by a grumpy BR guard! Leaving Offenberg, we travelled to Luxembourg - another 40 minute stop! - and passing through the Ardennes, entered Belgium near Bastogne, stopping only to put our watches forward an hour and to see the tanks in remembrance of the Battle of the Bulge, speeding onward to Brussels for the night. On a quick orientation walk, with other young girls in our group, we discovered the red light district at night, a mere 100 yards from our hotel, and practically in the next street! We then proceeded back to base camp and showed our elders and betters the 'real thing'... Sightseeing in Brussels, including the Atomium, Arch of Independence, Market Place / Grand Place, Mannekin Pis, Stock Exchange and Chinese House, began our final day away from home. After lunch, we travelled back along more autoroutes from Bastogne to Lille, Dunkirk, and Boulogne, but this trip was not without incident, as the coach ran out of diesel just before reaching Boulogne! Fortunately the hovercraft was also delayed an hour... Safely returned to Dover, we changed our timepieces yet again to minus 1 hour, and the waiting coach got us into London just after 10 pm. Although
this sounds like a lot of travelling - and it was! - it was never boring
(save for the day at Stresa, presumably included to placate those tourists
who like a 'seaside' holiday!), it was an excellent taster for somebody
who had never really travelled before, and wished to test the waters before
committing to longer stretches and further places. For me, it was a success:
and the promise of many more holidays to come, bringing with them wonderful
new experiences and some very good friends. David Whiting (issue 51, June 2003) In 1971 I left school. Just before starting work I went to visit a penfriend in Hinzweiler, Germany, a tiny village of around 350 inhabitants. I travelled by ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland on a very windy July day; I was one of the few passengers who was not sick. Then I continued by train. My penfriend, Heidi, lived in a house, half of which served as a battery-hen factory. There was one village shop, nothing else; but there were pleasant walks around the surrounding countryside. Having learnt German for four years I was shocked at first to discover a strong dialect spoken in that part of Germany, but after a while I got used to it. I remember being unable to sleep and one of Heidi's friends challenged me to a dawn walk one day - and I was early and he was late! It's so long ago I remember little else of my time there. Together we visited Heidelberg, with its great ruined castle, and Rüdesheim, to walk though the Drosselgasse and then by cable car over the vineyards up to the Niederwalddenkmal (monument). We also spent a few days at Heidi's boyfriend's house not far from Rüdesheim. Back at Hinzweiler there was an annual fair with live bands, barbecues and beer. I remember taking £5 worth of Deutschmarks with me and bringing a few Pfennige back! The rest is forgotten. I never returned to that part of Germany (although I have been to the country many times) and in fact Heidi stopped writing to me. I wasn't good company! Following this holiday I visited holiday resorts in Spain and the Channel Islands, which did not suit me, until I discovered coach tours in 1976 which gave me a chance to travel and explore much larger areas. A knowledge of languages has helped enormously and I would strongly recommend learning a few phrases of any local language if possible, e.g. “please”, “thank you”, “good morning” etc. Other "first foreign trips": |