You Go Home Make More Money And Come Back: Whirlwind Trips 1969-2004
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You Go Home Make More Money And Come Back: Whirlwind Trips 1969-2004
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780595628186 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | iUniverse, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 01/12/2009 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 296 |
| File size: | 404 KB |
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You Go Home Make More Money And Come Back
Whirlwind Trips 1969-2004By EDWIN M. WOODS
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2008 Edwin M. WoodsAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-595-52765-6
Chapter One
Europe By Train
This was my first trip overseas. The year was 1969 and I was living and working in California. I had been experiencing indecision and was pondering whether or not I should continue with my stressful job. Ever since college, I had been dreaming of seeing the places that I had learned about; but I never had the opportunity to travel. I went to a travel agent and found that I could do Europe by train and we worked out some ideas about solo travel. I checked with my boss about the possibility of taking some leave time and he agreed. I had surgery on my left ear in March. In April I took vacation for a month long whirlwind trip in Europe and east coast USA.
April 15. I arrived on pins and needles at JFK airport in New York with minutes to spare to board the plane to Iceland. I had left Stockton three hours late, because the plane wouldn't start; and had to rearrange the five hour flight to New York from San Francisco on United Airlines. Now, I needed to find a bus at JFK to the overseas terminal. Icelandic Airlines' turbo-prop was scheduled to leave at 9:30 pm. I made it with only 15 minutes to spare, and then sat on the plane for another 1 1/2 hours whilethey worked on a problem. The plane is smaller, less roomy than a jet, and tends to vibrate a lot in the air. The food was good and they served cognac with it. The flight was eight hours to Keflavik, Iceland.
April 16. I arrived at 12:30 pm local time (8 hours ahead of Pacific) and after going through customs, took the 23 mile bus trip to Rekjavik where I checked into the Loftleidir Hotel. I thought I had made reservations but they had no record.
I took a sightseeing trip around Reykjavik. The city has one hundred thousand people, about half of the population of the country, and is the capitol. Most of the people seem to have blond hair and blue eyes and are racially the same. Generally, the buildings are two and three stories high but there are also several taller apartment and downtown buildings. Many of the structures are concrete construction and have corrugated galvanized metal roofs. The city is heated solely by steam from nearby geysers and underground hot springs. The steam is mixed with cooler water and pumped into the buildings. The island nation is 40,000 square miles in area, created by volcanism. Most of it is relatively barren, rocky ground with low-level growing plants and some mountain ranges. The warming effects of the Gulf Stream, coming from Florida and circling the Atlantic, reaches Iceland and they don't get a lot of snow. I stayed here 24 hours.
April 17. My trip continued with departure from the Keflavik airport at 11:00 am and the five hour flight over the Atlantic and northern tip of Scotland to Luxembourg. We had a rough landing due to a cross wind at the Luxembourg airport. The plane bounced three times on the tarmac, and when the captain saw he couldn't make it, he gunned the engines and took the plane up, and circled for a second try. It was successful and the passengers applauded.
It was six o'clock in the evening when we got into Luxembourg City. I had met a Japanese doctor on the plane at Iceland who was on his way to Bern, Switzerland, for a year-long research project. We had walked around for a couple of hours together in Rekjavik and now killed some time in Luxembourg City before going on to Basel on the 1:00 am train. Since I had no particular schedule to meet, I tagged along with him for a while; he seemed to know what he was doing and had given me some valuable tips to get me started. I had my 21 day 'Eurail Pass' validated at the Luxembourg railway station and had to be back here in three weeks to meet my return airplane. The pass allowed me to travel first class (or lower class) for 21 days of unlimited travel without having to make reservations, as long as room was available. The Eurail pass had to be purchased outside Europe.
April 18. The night train to Switzerland went, first, through the northeastern French towns of Metz, Strasbourg, Colmar, and Mulhouse before reaching Basel at 6:00 am. The Swiss town was already awake and we took the trolley to the Rhine River, which flows through the middle of town, and then walked back to the railway station.
At that point, the doctor went off to Bern and I took the train to Zurich. On that train, I met a young British man, about my age, who was in despair about continuing to live in Britain, and was contemplating a move to Switzerland. I don't know what the problem was exactly, other than he didn't like the 'class system' in England, and that good jobs were tough to get.
At Zurich, I was completely alone. This is the German speaking part of the country and I don't speak the language. Fortunately, I found that many Europeans speak English; if not, someone would point out another person who did. I walked around Zurich streets for a while until I became lost in the winding maze; then began to slowly work my way back to the central station on Hauptbahnhofstrasse. The tourist hotel reservation booth at the train station got me a room and I walked through an older section of town until I found it. I had slept pretty well that night since I had had only one night's rest out of three.
April 19. It was chilly and an inch of snow had fallen overnight. I departed from Zurich on the train to Innsbruck, Austria, via the scenic route around Lake Constance and through the Alps. Several skiers got off at a village in Austria, and headed for the slopes. I only stayed about three hours at Innsbruck. I walked a couple of blocks but I wasn't dressed for the cold weather. I had intended to head south into Italy from here, but I heard the Italian trains were on strike, so I caught the next train, north, to Munich, in Germany.
Traveling through part of the Austrian and German Alps, I arrived in Munich at 8:30 pm, so I had to find a hotel and something to eat. I had trouble with German menus all the way through. The long words in German, that they use to describe something, had me fooled for a while. I would point to the menu thinking I was getting a big meal and would find that I had ordered a wiener and French fries or turkey noodle soup.
April 20. I left Munich in the morning, heading for Cologne. I had to figure out how to pronounce the German name 'Koln' to get directions to the train car. From Cologne to Stuttgart is about two hundred miles, and I had to stand all the way because the train was packed with Greek men (apparently guest workers). We crossed the Danube River at Ulm. At Stuttgart, the Greeks got off and I found room to sit. I met a German guy on the train but he couldn't speak much English. I asked what the laughing was about, that we had just heard, from some people in the hallway. He indicated that today was Hitler's birthday; and they had made a comment about it, and laughed. He said there were "ein hunnert fraulein(s)" for every man in Essen, where he is from.
Most of the European travelers carried a large briefcase to use as their luggage. We followed alongside the Rhine River for a few miles. The Rhine is a highway with barges and boats carrying cargo up and down the river. It begins in the Swiss Alps and ends at Rotterdam, in Holland. In the background on the hilltops, I could spot some castles overlooking their dominions. The train passed Koblenz and Bonn and stopped at Cologne, where I got off and found a hotel and something to eat.
April 21. I walked along the streets of Cologne, Germany, and visited the Cologne Cathedral, a dark gray stone church that is impressive in size and gothic architecture. It must have been 700 years old. It had small chapels on the sides, opposite the main room. It missed being destroyed by the heavy bombing of WWII. I snapped a picture but I could not get one of the entire building. I continued walking until it began to rain, and then, headed back to the train station to wait for the night train to Copenhagen.
Most of the train stations in the larger cities in Europe are located in the city centers and seem to be about the same. They have a long roof extending up to one hundred yards over the tracks as you enter. The bigger the station, the more tracks there are at the site. Inside the station building are 'buffets' that include both first and second class restaurants. The fist class ones have table cloths and the second class ones don't-the only difference that I could tell. In addition there are some small snack bars where one can order sandwiches and drinks. Thick coffee is relatively expensive. Plain water is never used; most people drink the bottled water that tastes like alka-seltzer. Cola drinks, without ice, are expensive; the standard beer is comparatively cheap. There are money exchange banks, and information booths, hotel reservation boots, storage lockers for baggage, kiosks selling necessities, and book stores.
April 22. I had been traveling all night from Cologne. At 7:00 am, the train arrived at Puttgarten, Germany, where we had to cross a strait on an arm of the Baltic Sea on a ferry to reach Denmark. The ferry was big enough to load several train cars and carry them 13 miles across the water. It also had a restaurant on the top deck. During the voyage, I met two Americans and a Swede; somebody to talk to. The Swede insisted he did not speak English but he could speak American. He said that in the Swedish schools they differentiate between the British and the American dialects. I took that to mean he had a choice of which course to take. I arrived later in Copenhagen and checked at the travel booth for a hotel room. I walked a few blocks, with my one piece of luggage, to the Savoy Hotel and checked in. Since I always had to show my passport and the information in it was noted on the register, I asked what they did with it. "One copy goes to the police," was my answer.
In the afternoon I took a sightseeing trip around Copenhagen. I found that I could find a local tour company through the hotels or travel desks, and sign on for a city tour that was reasonably priced. We stopped off at the 'Little Mermaid,' and some city water fountains; and the harbor; passed by Frederiksberg Castle and the king's palace grounds; and, saw both the meat market, and the fish market. The city has many stone buildings with the weathered green, copper roofs. Later I strolled past Tivoli Gardens, but it was closed for the season.
April 23. I took the 10:00 am train from Copenhagen to Goteborg, Sweden. On the way we had to take another ferry across the salt water to Halsingborg, Sweden. The train continued up the west coast through smaller towns of Angelholm, Halmstad and Varborg over the green coastal plain to Goteborg (Gothenburg), the second largest city in Sweden. I walked around for a few hours and went past a pedestrian area where there were huge shopping malls that were several blocks in size. At 6:00 pm, I caught the last train going to Copenhagen that day. When I arrived at midnight, everything was closed except the main lobby of the train station. I didn't figure I could get a room at that hour so I caught the next train heading for Rotterdam, Holland. I only had to wait 15 minutes. I had intended to go to Amsterdam, instead, and the two trains left at about the same time. The reason I didn't was this: In Europe, they use a 24 hour time table where 12:00 midnight is written as 0.00 and 3:00 pm is noted as 15.00 hours, etc. Well, I got confused and was off an hour on my figuring. I thought my intended train had left when it actually had not-and I jumped on the nearest train when I heard the announcement to board for Rotterdam, as that was the closest. It didn't make much difference to me anyway, especially at that hour of the night, and with no place to sleep.
April 24. From midnight, I had traveled all night, retracing much of what I had seen during the daytime on the way up. The train went through Hamburg to Osnabruck, Germany, where the car I was riding in changed trains, and headed west to Rotterdam. When the railroad car reaches its cut off point it is pulled off the train and hooked on to another train to the final destination. One train may have several cars, each one going to a different destination. The traveler has to find the right car on the train. On the North German plain, I saw an occasional farmer plowing fields with horses. I crossed into the Netherlands and its farming country. Along the way there were brick houses with thatched roofs and, on the farms, plow horses and tractors; haystacks instead of baled hay; and a lot of dairy cattle. I arrived in Rotterdam early in the afternoon, after 18 hours on the train. It was raining hard and I had caught a cold; and spent only three hours in Rotterdam, without venturing out.
At 4:00 pm, I took the next train to Brussels, Belgium, and arrived at that city four hours later. I found a room above a café near the railway station and slept for twelve hours.
April 25. I left Brussels heading for Ostende on the Belgian coast. At Ostende, I took a ferry for the 75 mile crossing (3 1/2 hours) to Dover, England. At Dover I went by train on British Railways, 80 miles, to London. I had to pay extra for this as British Rail was not partnered with Eurail. I arrived in London's Victoria Station at 7:00 pm and had no trouble finding a hotel, which had concerned me. Two hotel representatives were trying to hustle up customers for rooms; it sounded like a good deal and they gave me a free ride. The cost was only 3 pounds, 10 shillings ($8.40) per night and included an 'English breakfast.' The hotel was located in west London near Lancaster Gate in the Paddington area. The hotel was really old but it had a private bath; and I took the first shower that I had managed to get in ten days (even though the hot water ran out). Most of the hotels I stayed at were really old, but clean, and had the bathrooms down the hall. At least one of them had one bathroom for both sexes.
April 26. In the morning, a Saturday, I took off walking down Bayswater Road past Hyde Park to Oxford Street. Oxford Street is the main shopping district and it was crowded with throngs of people. I continued on, looking at my map and asking questions of passersby, to Berkeley Square and Piccadilly Road.
I found a sightseeing tour and spent the afternoon on a guided bus tour of the city. We went through the Parliament building and passed by Buckingham Palace. I took a snapshot of the guards but we missed the 'changing of the guards.' We entered Saint Paul's Church, site of coronations and royal weddings. We toured the financial district and took in a few of the historic buildings and monuments. I stood on the very spot in where Winston Churchill laid in state on his death. There were modern buildings in the bombed out areas, from WWII, but the town was not full of skyscrapers. We arrived back at the starting point and I had to walk two or three miles, yet, to my hotel. The sky began to cloud up and I got lost again. I walked around in circles until I found a familiar street name and then found my way back. I had asked directions a couple of times but they were lost too. After cleaning up a bit, I went back out that evening to find some night spots and ended up in a pub talking with an Irishman and a German.
April 27. I left London by train, past the cities of Canterbury and Kent, to Dover where I boarded a Belgian ferry to Ostende. The ferry was a large one and reminded me of a miniature ocean liner. It was a beautiful day and I stayed on the outside deck toward the aft and took several pictures of ships crossing this main shipping lane on the English Channel.
At Ostende, I continued by train to Brussels, where I immediately caught a southbound to Paris. I arrived in Paris at 10:00 pm to the sounds of some cheering or yelling as I approached the north side railway station. It was Sunday night, the same day of the French elections, when President De Gaulle resigned the presidency. I had anticipated a little trouble and, apparently, there had been some the day before, but I found none. I secured a room at the Hotel Terminus Nord across the street from the train station.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from You Go Home Make More Money And Come Back by EDWIN M. WOODS Copyright © 2008 by Edwin M. Woods. Excerpted by permission.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Europe By Train....................1Pacific Rim....................19
Around The World....................35
South America....................77
Kenya....................105
Australia....................121
China....................131
Central America....................157
Jalisco....................175
Colonial Cities Of Mexico....................181
The Bahamas and Southern Florida....................209
Alaska by Land....................215
Alaska by Air....................223
Alaska by Sea....................229
USA Railpass....................239
North America Railpass (USA and Canada)....................271