Category Archives: European Tour

May 22 – Wednesday

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Woke up several times during the night attempting to keep the tent up and dry – kept it up but not dry!

It is the end of the day now as I write this. The kids are in bed –finally after causing problems and not going to bed (their usual routine). We are in a campground not on any list, guide or map. We found it by chance. People that are here are all Dutch pleasant but not very friendly. They just seem to tolerate us Americans. Theresa struck up a friendship with a little boy right away that couldn’t speak english. But they go on fine for a couple of hours. Aren’t kids great! The other 3 were not as fortunate, the spent most of the afternoon fighting and playing. An interesting thing happened in this campground. I started up the Volkswagen so we could use the air pump to pump up the air mattress for the tent. It made a lot of noise. Guess what happened, the camp owner came over and asked us to turn it off and to not make so much noise! So we did.

Making friends

two young children looking at the camera

Had dutch pancakes for dinner made from a mix that Marsha had bought in Gouda. They were heavy but eatable. Campground is out of Gouda on Reejeekee lake. It was hard to find, but a nice spot. We camped under a willow tree.

By the time we got to Gouda this morning the market was over. We missed it by 15 minutes. Roozboom told me market was from 9:30 to 10:30 am but it was from 9 to 10 am and we got there at 10 am. The market square was big and empty. Dad did a good job of telling us what was supposed to happen there. Spent most of the day looking around Gouda. There were a couple of farmers still there; they were selling cheese and a street market was going on. These farmers did not sell to individuals but to wholesalers so we couldn’t buy a wheel. The very old scale house (built 1668) was still in use. In fact they still use the old scale. An interesting array of shops at the market but the most interesting part was the fish! There was fried fish, smoked fish, and raw fish for sale. Lots of herring ready to eat, raw or pickled. To eat the herring, it was dipped in a number of flavorings, onions, spices, etc. The herring was then eaten on the spot. Cheese, cookies, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, you name it and you could find it.

I can now understand why the Dutch have so many windmills, the wind blows here constantly. Plus it is chilly in Holland it hasn’t been warm since we arrived. Filled the stove tank with lp gas today – finally! Just one more thing to get working and that is the refrigerator. Will probably have to wait until we get to Germany to get it going. Also got the tent up properly today and it looks twice as big.

Goodnight!

Traveling to Holland, via the Battle of the Bulge and the first of many, many war monuments.

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May 19, Sunday – our first day in the camper traveling

Planned to get up a 6 AM and get on the road, slept till 8 AM, finally left about 9 AM on our way west to Holland. Drove through the Battle of the Bulge area. We stopped at Bastogne, spent a couple of hours climbing on tanks and looking around. Bastogne was a big part of WW II, the Allies drove through here to Germany. It is amazing to see the devastation of war, but the town was rebuilt. Everyone still very tired. The jet lag is more than I had anticipated or remembered.  Apparently tougher on the children and Marsha than me all though I am very tired. Drove all day through Belgium into Holland. Camped at the first campground we could find, “Katjeskeller” in Oosterhout near Bredd. The campground was somewhat crowded as it was a weekend. Lots of weekend campers will lease a spot in the campground and leave their camp set up all the time and come out for weekends. A neat idea! Met an American service man and his family, they have camped all over Europe and they highly recommended it to us. An enjoyable family, we had a nice visit but I was very tired and had a bad headache. So we retired for our first night sleeping in the Camper. It will sleep 6, particularly if 3 of them are small, might even squeeze in one more if necessary. Josh loves the poptop; we can’t keep him out of it when it is up, much like the loft at the cabin on the lake. Everyone asleep by 9:30 PM – up at 6 AM?

Goodnight.

four kids in front of a tank

Arriving in Luxembourg, helpful sales ladies, and picking up Cheddar, at last.

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family with their luggage standing by their orange camper

May 18, Saturday – Arrival Day

Finally arrived in Luxembourg at 8:30 am, Luxembourg time. We did stop in Iceland for 30 minutes. The airport a real tourist trap all though the prices in the tax free shop looked good, did not buy anything. I had set it up with the Volkswagen dealer in Luxembourg to meet us at the plane and take us to the Holiday Inn and then pick up the camper. Since we were many hours late in arriving no one showed up to pick us up? Everyone was very tired-including me! Jet lag affected all of us. The lady at the auto agency booth was into a big argument with a French woman returning a car when we found the agency. We were supposed to check with her about the person from Volkswagen. I did after she and the French woman finished hollering at each other. She told me that the man from Auto, Martin Loesch was expecting us yesterday. She called someone and then I talked to him, he indicated that he would pick us up at the Holiday Inn at 11 am. So we took a taxi to the Holiday Inn. Registered at a typical Holiday Inn, the pool was not functioning. Everyone upset about no pool! Everyone very tired and went to sleep. I showered and shaved and waited for the man from the Volkswagen agency. He arrived at 11 am as promised. He was very nice and helpful. We went to the agency and I picked up the camper. The delivery was uneventful but no international registration papers, which we were supposed to have with us. We made arrangements to have them sent to us in Amsterdam.

What a long day! The first time we ever experienced no night, 24 hours without darkness, a disturbing experience-nobody wanted to sleep, but they did!

I drove back to the Holiday Inn about 2 pm, finally got everyone awake and then we had a lousy lunch at the motel. We then piled into the camper and headed down town to find a camping store to pick up needed equipment. The car man recommended a camping store “Stenbergs”. Couldn’t find it but stumbled onto one after driving around, parking and walking. Purchased cooking equipment and a one-burner stove for extra use until can get ours in the camper hooked up. The sales lady at the store insisted that we get saucers with the cups. Every once in a while she would mention, “having to buy saucers”. Marsha liked the butter dish.  We walked back to the camper and discovered a street carnival. We all had sauerkraut and bratwurst for dinner. Found “Stenbergs”, but it was closed. Then we discovered that we were only parked three blocks away! We turned the wrong way when we left the parking lot.

We returned to the motel, a tired bunch. Palmer and Esther unbelievably overtired and could not get to sleep but they finally did. Paul and Theresa slept well as did everyone else when we finally got to sleep – what a long day!

Good night.

A night in Chicago, Don’t eat the pie!

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In which we camp out in a couple of hotel rooms waiting out the weather and unhappy travelers.

May 17, Friday – Second Departure Day

Everyone slept extremely well; girls in one room, boys in the other. Since we did not have our suit cases had to buy a toothbrush (1) and small tube of Colgate $1.50. I wonder did we all use the same toothbrush that morning? No shave, no change of clothes, everyone showered so we don’t smell yet! Looks like our scheduled stop over in Iceland is out for now, maybe on the return trip. Morning uneventful in a motel, hotel in suburban Chicago; what else can one say? Had a nice breakfast and lunch courtesy of Icelandic Air. Bus took us back to O’Hare at 1:30 pm. The schedule for the plane had been changed so only a short stopover in Iceland and we will arrive in Luxembourg at approximately 6 am on the 18th. The Icelandic people were extremely helpful and nice. Plane was loaded at 3 pm; we spent about 1 hour on the runway and finally took off at 4:10 pm – 19 hours late!

It is amazing the difference a good night’s sleep makes on one’s disposition. Last night while waiting in the plane the crowd was hot, mad, unruly, ornery and tired.  Today everyone is happy and relaxed and they have graciously accepted the delay. Many applauded when the plane finally took off. A case of musical chairs occurred in the row in front of us. The 2 toughies mentioned earlier turned out to be quite nice. They were at the same hotel as we. They had made arrangements to change seats and the flight attendants had also made arrangements to change their seats. That added a little humor to the departure. One lady refused to go back to her seat because she had just had stomach surgery! Never did figure that one out!

A side note: while walking around the hotel, we noted that the staff was setting up for a big luncheon. We all noticed one employee standing next to a large cart full of pieces of pie; he was busy picking small pieces of pie off of all of the pieces of pie set up for the banquet. Glad that we weren’t eating at that luncheon!

Traveling to Iceland, with an unexpected layover in Chicago.

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Apparently, Dad had planned a lay over in Iceland on our way to continental Europe. The weather in Chicago had other ideas though.

two station wagons with a pile of bags on the sidewalk next to them

May 16, Thursday – departure day

We were packed and ready to go! Waiting for Donna Teeter to drive us to the airport. She arrived in her big maroon station wagon. We filled it up, four kids, two adults and baggage for 4 months camping in Europe. This was the only thing that happened on time this day.

10 p.m. O’Hare Airport-sitting in Icelandic DC8 waiting for plane to be repaired, they never did tell us what was wrong with the plane. I thought that maybe Icelandic Airlines would be like dogpatch airlines and so far it has been! Almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. We had arrived at the MPLS-STP airport at 3:30 pm. Our NW flight to Chicago was scheduled to leave at 5:10 pm arriving at O’Hare airport a little after 6 pm giving us about 3 hours before our Icelandic flight to Europe. We didn’t leave MSP until 6:10 pm and then we circled over O’Hare for about an hour. Big thunderstorms were causing flight delays. Thus we lost our three-hour lead time. We had less than 1 hour to get baggage and get it over to Icelandic Airlines terminal. Northwest would not transfer luggage to Icelandic airlines. Fortunately I found a couple of baggage handlers to help me with the luggage. We made it to Icelandic airlines with 10 minutes to spare to boarding time. But it didn’t do much good as we are still sitting in the plane waiting to take off.

The children have been good so far even though we have had considerable delays and it has been hot, over 100 f, and humid all day. The thunderstorm going strong outside of the airplane and it was raining like crazy while they are trying to fix the plane. We have been waiting 1.5 hrs in the plane. At the moment, a real Chicago thunderstorm blowing and raining outside. Glad that we are inside!

A mixed bag of people on the airplane; young and old alike! Two toughies in front of us, like our flight to London in 1972, one quite upset because she wants to smoke in the no-smoking section. The delay a real letdown after all the anticipation.

In a DC-8, which is a disappointment. It’s like expecting butter and getting margarine. Service kitchens and toilets poorly located. Some one just had a bottle of rum spilled over them by one of the flight attendants! People are like sheep; one stands up they all stand up! If two get in line everybody else does too. They just announced 2-hour delay due to mechanical difficulties, everyone standing up waiting to get out of the plane but there is a delay again. There was a promise of cold drinks once we got out of the plane. By the time we got off and into the terminal the cold drinks were all gone? Crowd getting surly and impatient, things are not going well.

The delay was longer than anticipated; it ended up being 19 hours. We were treated graciously by the airline once they realized that the repair was going to take much longer than first anticipated. They found us hotel accommodations, including 3 meals each and they paid for it all. Buses took us to the hotels. We arrived at the Arlington Park Hotel at 12:45 am. They put us in two double rooms. Needless to say everyone slept well that night. Theresa fell asleep standing up in the bus. And to top it all off, the bus driver got lost looking for the hotel. He had to stop at a gas station and ask directions.

Good night!

An Introduction

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My dad was a consummate scientist. He wrote everything down with the idea that information has value. When he traveled, he kept a journal of all the things he did on that trip. 40 some years later, I feel incredibly lucky that dad did this. Our trip, which looms large in my childhood, was recorded for us to remember. A few years ago, he printed out his diary in book form and gave us all a copy for Christmas. Following is the introduction he wrote to us. Thank you Fad, we love you.

(Aside from changing it from all caps, changing my siblings names, and a few spacing issues for readability, I have not changed the text from the original.)

Introduction

This book is nothing more than my diary of our time camping through Europe. I have put it together in the hopes that you will enjoy it while recalling some of the things that we did as a family on this trip. This trip was a long time dream of mine. When I was a child other countries, other parts of the USA, the other states and sights fascinated me. I wondered about my heritage. Where did my father come from? Were my mother’s parents from the same area?

I was born in California in a small town full of ethnic groups, Italians, Portuguese, Mexicans, English, Germans, Orientals and others: a real melting pot. When we moved to Grants Pass I encountered just the opposite, there was not the mix of ethnic groups that we had in Gilroy. For a short time, I felt that the Zottola’s were the only Italians in the town. It was all most an all “WASP”* community. I thought this was strange but soon forgot about it. As I grew up in Southern Oregon, I traveled very little. Family trips consisted of trips in the car to Crescent City to see Uncle Ernie, his family and the cheese factory. For a time we also traveled to Roseburg to visit the small cheese factory located there and operated by a friend of my father. Both of these trips required travel though the mountains surrounding Grants Pass on very curvy roads. As a result the trips were usually associated with carsickness and a couple of stops to throw up. I wondered if all roads were as curvy as these roads and longed for a straight road where carsickness did not occur. I think I was about 12 or 13 years old before I rode in a car on a straight road. I took a trip to Portland with my brother Palmer and one of his girl friends. The straight roads we encounter once we got past Roseburg overwhelmed me. During World War II travel by car was severely restricted because gasoline was rationed and long trips could only be taken if it was an emergency. So for many years, my world consisted of Grants Pass and the mountains that surrounded it.

*WASP stands for “white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant.

This changed dramatically when I left home to go to Oregon State in the fall of 1950. I met a lot of new people from many parts of Oregon, from many other states and from other parts of the world. The opportunity to met people from so many different places increased my interest in traveling out of Oregon. When I graduated from Oregon State in 1954, I felt obligated to return to Grants Pass to work for my Father, which I did. Most of my friends from OSU were in the service and ended up spending a lot of time in Europe as part of the Army in Europe. I envied them and their seeing Europe and enjoying the many sights and pleasure of these countries. I wondered if I would ever have an opportunity to see Europe and visit the birth place of my Father.

About this time I vowed that if I ever got married and had children that they would have the opportunities to do things that I could not do when I was a child. This trip was one of the things that I wanted to do with my family. And we did it!

It didn’t take me long to figure out that working in a family business was not for me. While at Oregon State the life of a college professor intrigued me so I set my objectives to become one. I returned to OSU the fall of 1956 to start graduate studies to begin my quest to become a professor. One of the intriguing things about being a Professor is that I would have opportunities to travel to other places including overseas. I thought that I would be able to finally see Europe and other foreign countries.

It took me 10 years to attain my goal of becoming a Professor at a University. I was hired in 1966 and returned to be a member of the University of Minnesota faculty where I had obtained by Doctorate. Our first trip overseas was in 1969. We spent 4 months in Venezuela. Three years later, fall of 1972, your mother and I went to Europe. Finally I made it! This trip increased my desire to see more of Europe. Several of the things we saw and did on this trip provided the impetus and the purpose to return. Return we did in 1974. The following story is the result of that trip. Enjoy it and remember the good times we had as a family.

Love,

Father, Dad, Fad and hey you!

One further note:

I decided to call this adventure, “Travels with Cheddar”. Camping in Europe is too mundane and does not do justice to what we accomplished. I named the VW camper “Cheddar” because the color is close to the color of Cheddar Cheese. The color is probably closer to that of “Double Gloucester” but travels with double gloucester as a title did not appeal to me. Thus the name!