8 Country Legend August 13 - August 26, 1983 On Saturday Mary and I drove to Chicago where we parked Mary's car at the Howard Johnson's motel close to the airport.  The motel bus took us to the airport where we boarded KLM Flight 612 at 4:00 pm.  The flight left at 5:15 pm and lasted soooooo long.  We arrived in Amsterdam, Holland at 8:05 am ... then SUNDAY, August 13.  We set our watches ahead 7 hours, and ... we were ready for our two weeks of adventure in Europe. The tour guide (ROGER) met our flight, and we were off to the lovely Amsterdam Marriott Hotel for a morning of rearranging our luggage to settle in for two nights in this beautiful city.  The tour group gathered for a lovely noon buffet luncheon at the hotel and an afternoon of sightseeing.  We visited Rijksmuseum - famous for its Dutch Masters, particularly Rembrandt's "Night Watch". Rijksmuseum was built by Napoleon in the 17th century as a palace.  Our local City Tour Guide (Heidi) gave us art lessons when she pointed out the differences in artist's styles (Frans Hals vs. Rembrandt). We visited a diamond cutting/polishing company and saw the demonstrations working with diamonds.  There are 15 such companies in Amsterdam, making it a world center.  We toured the city by glass-covered boat.  The city was built on the Amstel River and a dam was built there - thus the city got its name.  There are 100 canals and 1000 bridges. Canals were built in the 15-17th century to reclaim the land from the North Sea.  Amsterdam uses 16 locks and an intricate canal cleaning system.  Some canals freeze over in wintertime.  We saw the Old Square, the Stock Exchange, beautiful homes along the canals; we saw the Royal Palace, the "skinny bridge" and the smallest house along the canal.  There are 700,000 people living in Amsterdam.  There are 500,000 bikes used in the city of Amsterdam.  Bikes seem to have the right-of-way on any street.  We saw 2 and 3 people on the same bike in the midst of heavy traffic ... looked dangerous to us, but everyone rode this way.  There are 4,000 traffic parking violations each day ... stolen bikes are a routine matter.  One needs only to visit a flea market to pick up another bike.  All bikes appear very old and are painted black.  The city even has turn lanes marked off for bikes.  Gasoline is priced at $3.50/gallon ... cars are small and get 40-50 miles per gallon. Houses along the canals were built first on wooden pilings and thus need constant upkeep.  One must pay 10% of the restoration costs and the government helps to absorb the remainder.  Ancient Dutch people showed wealth by dressing in black and owning a "wide" house on a canal.  There are 7,000 houses along the canals. In addition, there are 3,500 houseboats along the canals because of the housing shortage.  Houseboat dwellers must get registration number and pay taxes to get electricity and running water.  Large hooks are built from front roof lines and used as hoists for household furnishings when moving into a house because the staircases are very narrow.  Gables on roofs of houses are all different ... a way to express individuality. Tulips are everywhere ... they were originally brought to Holland by the Turks in the 15th century.  Religions in Holland - 40% Catholic, 30% Protestant, 20% miscellaneous. For our evening dinner the group was taken to the famous Five Flies Restaurant for an elegant candlelight dinner.  Mary and I were pleasantly surprised to find a lovely snack tray of cheeses delivered to our room before dinner by our AAA travel agent in Appleton.  THE JET LAG finally caught up with us, as we had been up and without sleep for over 28 hours.  ZZZZZZZZZ ... zzzzzzzz ... MONDAY, August 15 We drove to The Hague about 20 miles from Amsterdam.  The Hague houses all the parliament offices, even though Amsterdam is the capital city. The Hague has a population of 500,000 during the year except for the summer months.  The nearby seashore resort of Scheveningen resembled any in the U.S.A.  Instead of beach umbrellas, people erected three-sided portable windbreakers to ward off the strong winds from the North Sea.  Fishing for herring is done commercially here.  Topless swimming at the beach is popular in this area. Houses everywhere in Holland display beautiful lace curtains ... each household had its own style and most of the curtains hung 3/4 length instead of the usual long drapes in the U.S.A.  Windmills were located throughout the land and once were owned by the government.  Now they have been sold to individuals under the stipulation they must maintain the windmill.  Windmills are used for residential dwellings and most have a thatched roof. The group took a side trip to a cheese farm, the fishing village of VOLENDAM, and MARKEN ISLAND, which resembled Mackinac Island in Michigan.  The group took a walking tour of lovely MARKEN ISLAND which provided the opportunity to take interesting photographs. Cows grazing in the fields were not fenced in ... merely kept in fields by small canals around each farmland -and had small gates across roads where the water was shallow. Dinner was served at our hotel - I had elegant poached salmon. TUESDAY, August 16 Breakfast in the hotel.  Left about 8:30 am for AALSMEER, the famed flower auction that resembled the U.S. stock exchange ... all done with flowers.  Nine million cut flowers and 700,000 plants arrive daily handled 50,000 transactions per day by modern computer system.  All business is completed by noon each day and flowers are immediately dispatched all over the world. We traveled on to the city of DELFT and to one of the famous Delft pottery plants.  We saw demonstrations on a pottery wheel by a local employee...and shopped in the showroom of the plant.  On to ROTTERDAM, the port city which was completely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt into a modern version of an industrial city.  Had delicious Dutch Pub Lunch of soup, make-your-own sandwich and fruit. We entered BELGIUM and its capital of BRUSSELS.  City was divided into two sanctions - those speaking Dutch (Flemings) and those speaking French (Wallons).  Country has been ruled by King Bouden since 1951. Brussels is the center of European Common Market ... similar to New York and the United Nations headquarters.  Belgium has different terrain than Holland ... not so flat ... with different trees and flowers.  The City of Brussels is filled with Old World charm ... architecture since 16th century with French influence.  Saw the famous statue Manneken-Pis in Grand Place in the center of the city. OBSERVATIONS: Elevators are called lifts.  Roofs of buildings are nearly all made of red tile or slate.  Lace curtains are everywhere ... hanging in industrial buildings as well as residences. WEDNESDAY, August 17 We left BRUSSELS early (8 am) and found the highway full of detours so we had to travel through backroads which took us through quaint residential areas.  At one point a lady called her husband and children outdoors as the bus paused in front of their house waiting our turn to enter into traffic which had slowed ... and we all waved and shouted to them.  The countryside was filled with greenhouses (called CERES) on farmland ... growing grapes and flowers for sale in markets and probably at AALSMEER.  Midmorning found us at BASTOGNE where during World War II General Patton and General MacAuliff of the U.S. 3rd Army held the Germans from capturing BELGIUM.  Large monuments which resembled any in Washington D.C. were found here.  We traveled through LUXEMBOURG with its many sidewalk cafes ... even found STOP signs printed in English now and then.  Cars seemed a bit bigger and the narrow streets were wider than in HOLLAND. We entered GERMANY, traveling through TRIER.  Vineyards are everywhere along the Moselle River area.  TRIER was founded in 2000 B.C. by the Roman Empire, and PORTA NIGRA was the huge gateway to the city ... still standing - built by slaves from Rome.  Carl Marx was born there in 1819-died in 1883.  City is full of Old World charm.  We traveled to BOPPARD, where we boarded a river boat reserved just for our tour group.  The boat was late arriving which made it nearly 6 pm for our river trip, and thus it was difficult to capture on film all the actual beauty and color we saw.  Scenery with vineyards along the mountainous terrain was exquisite with castles bordering the river here and there.  The Rhine River is the second longest river in Europe ... 1,000 miles long (the Volga River is the longest).  We saw vineyards planted in perfectly straight rows forming patterns of greenery on the mountainsides.  We spent the night at MAINZ in an elegant Hilton International Hotel after a candlelight late dinner overlooking the Rhine River. THURSDAY, August 18 We left MAINZ after breakfast, again overlooking the beautiful Rhine River.  We drove through countryside so beautiful ... flowers and vineyards everywhere.  On the Autobahn there is no speed limit, and traffic really moved.  Midmorning found us at the Carl Ludwig castle after touring the quaint 14th century city of HEIDELBERG.  At the castle we saw the world's largest wine cask ... it made 40,000 gallons at one time.  We had lunch at this "real castle" ... housing now a restaurant among the ruins far above the city of HEIDELBERG.  We toured the castle and then drove to ROTHENBURG - a real fairybook land area.  We found untouched beauty since being built in the 14th and 15th centuries.  Countryside looked like Wisconsin ... very green and lush.  We walked the streets of nearly all the city ... surrounded by a stone wall almost like a fort.  Had a scrumptous dinner in our old museum-like hotel.  Tonight we sleep between a feather tic.  Tomorrow our luggage must be outside our door at 9:30 am and we leave at 10:30.  Shops are open at 8 am so we'll try to find something interesting to purchase.  We have had so very little time to do any shopping thus far.  ROTHENBURG is one of the oldest cities in GERMANY.  It now has 13,000 people living inside the stone wall.  You can walk on the wall in walkways that resemble tunnels high above the ground ... nearly 2 miles around the city.  We walked all through the city at dusk, besides walking parts of the wall. OBSERVATIONS: We're really amused at the different kinds of bathtubs and toilets in the different countries thus far.  Toilets flush from the top of the fixture by a plunger ... some with a lever on the side ... some with water tanks at the ceiling ... some flush by foot pedals.  Bathtubs were very deep in most old hotels ... and very narrow so you bumped your elbows.  One tub even had water entering the tub about 2 inches from the bottom of the tub ... and it wasn't easy to wash hair with no shower. FRIDAY, August 19 We arose early to shop in stores in ROTHENBURG.  We left at 10:30 am to travel down the ROMANTIC ROAD in the central part of GERMANY, heading for AUGSBURG, on the Lech River which runs into the Danube and empties into the Black Sea.  The Romantic Road is the division between rainfall ... to the left of the road flows into the Danube River and to the right of the road flows into the Rhine River.  The city of AUGSBURG, founded by the Roman emperor Augustus, is also surrounded by a stone wall built in the 15th-16th century.  The countryside showed us several houses built in clusters on small farms ... where several members of one family settled together.  The Danube River is the 2nd largest in GERMANY.  AUGSBURG has 250,000 people and was known as the Highway to Italy during the rule of the Roman Empire.  AUGSBURG is one of the oldest cities in GERMANY.  As we entered AUGSBURG, we saw nude sunbathers on beaches ... acceptable practice here.  The main street was known as Maximillianstrasse with buildings dating back to the 15th century.  The ancient amphitheater holds 2,500 seats and is located at the far end of the city.  We ended the day in MUNICH, with a special Bavarian dinner complete with music and wine ... liver dumpling soup, potato dumplings, roast veal, mixed vegetables, and apple fritters with coffee.  Breakfast to be at 7:30 am ... and we leave for a guided city tour of MUNICH at 8:30 am (Mary met her cousin Jim for dinner at the HOFBRAUHAUS). SATURDAY, August 20 A City Guide made our tour through MUNICH really enjoyable, giving us a lesson in the history of the city.  Historic monuments and buildings far too numerous to mention were pointed out to us in our two-hour motorcoach and walking tour of the city.  At 11 am we watched the "Glockenspiel" perform on the Town Hall.  The rooster crowed in German - KICK-AR-RE-KEEEY instead of the cock-a-dodaldoo as we know it in English.  Architecture dating from the Middle Ages included high-gabled houses, the Cathedral, statues, the Market-Place with open-air stalls, etc.  In preparation for the Olympics in 1966-68, Munich built OLYMPIC PARK with a stadium having a seating capacity of 47,000 ... a monumental oval of concrete.  The former Olympic athlete housing complex is now sold as condos and considered a very exclusive area.  Munich is the scene where Mark Spitz won his 7 gold medals for the U.S.A.  MUNICH is the capital of the Bavarian section of GERMANY and is bordered by the Isar River.  Munich is called the GERMAN ROME.  It has 200 churches with 80% Catholics.  It is the seat of Parliament for 11 states.  Munich is noted for its OKTOBERFEST held from the 3rd Saturday of September and lasting 16 days.  6-1/2 million people from across the countries attend this annual festival. Munich has 4 palaces within the city.  Used cars 5-6 years old bring a good price in Munich, as they are sold to Egypt.  Cars are built of 22 gauge metal which is a lighter weight than those from the U.S.A.  Saw the University of Munich with all its Greek architecture ... patterned against the Acropolis in Athens.  Munich has a circus area permanently placed for year-round visiting performers ... always complete sellout. We visited the LINDERHOF PALACE (King Ludgwig II) built in the 1800's ... beautiful fountain, gilded statues, splendidly decorated interior. Then we entered the Bavarian Alps with chalets covered with flowers, lattice work and balconies.  We had lunch in the Passion Play village of OBERAMMERGAU in a beautiful hotel.  Back in the 17-18 century a terrible plague killed thousands of peasants in this area of the country, but it stopped just before their village. As a tribute to the Lord, the village decided to present this Passion Play every ten years.  The play was last presented in 1980, but in 1984 a special presentation will take place as a 350th year celebration.  1700 people take part in this production, and it is presented from May to September.  Beards and long hair are grown in anticipation for this production.  The city reminded me of GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE with all its crafts and nestled in the foothills of the mountains.  I had every intention of shopping for wooden carvings in this charming city and only ate a portion of my lunch so I could hurry into the shopping section about 6 blocks away from the hotel.  To my disappointment, the shops closed from 12 noon until 2 pm ... and our bus pulled away from the hotel at 2 pm.  I dried my tears and told myself that I knew this was not to be a shopping tour but a scenic one. We passed through the winter Olympic village of GARMISCH in the middle of Alpine splendor - and entered the Austrian Tyrolean capital of INNSBRUCK about 6 pm.  We toured the city before dark, and after dinner walked through the older sections of the city. SUNDAY, August 21 We left INNSBRUCK at 7:30 am for an entire day of mountain driving in the majestic Alpine splendor.  Words can't describe its beauty.  Meaningful words and thoughts that came to me as I watched in awe were - vineyards ... scenery ... farmland ... snow ... stone/rocks ... Swiss chalets with flowers filling the balconies ... waterfalls ... rapids ... layers of mountains ... churches everywhere with domes catching the sunshine ... blue sky ... power plants ... neatness ... cemeteries with graves completely covered with flowers ... artistic and scenic paintings on residential buildings ... ski lifts ... the ARLBERG PASS at 4,000 feet, no pollution ... tunnels ... winding roads ... buildings of natural wood ... bright sunshine on mountains which when it went under a cloud would completely change the scenery ... wooden signs with words like PENSION (meaning small house or apartment for rent) and ZIMMER (meaning rooms for rent) ... church bells ... ski lifts ... God's world is truly a wonderland of beauty. We stopped for lunch at FELDKIRCH, AUSTRIA at an old fort-museum.  THE ARLBERG PASS through the Alps brought indescribable beauty.  At St. Anton Mary and I took a few minutes to visit a lovely but tiny village church just before mass started.  The altar was carved of wood as were all of the pews...with colorful stained-glass windows.  All the women and children were seated and singing the first hymn in German, while the men marched in together.  These are some of the precious memories I hope to remember forever.  We stopped at VADUZ in the tiny postage-stamp principality of LIECHTENSTEIN, took pictures and watched rainbow-colored hang gliders sail through the sky near the castle.  20,000 people live here in a 62-square-mile area on the Rhine River.  Later we arrived at SWITZERLAND’s lovely LAKE LUCERNE.  We hurried to get ourselves freshened up in time to attend a performance of the Lucerne Music Festival at 5 pm ... a string quartet plus a clarinet, playing light classical selections for a large group of local people.  We had a late dinner at our elegant old hotel. MONDAY, August 22 The tour group picture was taken at 9:15 am with Thorvaldsen’s Lion of Lucerne as a background.  We took a walking city tour of covered bridges, many churches with marble and wooden interiors, domes, pipe organs larger than I had ever seen, and statues of marble and concrete and iron ... still in excellent condition built and carved hundreds of years ago.  Mary and I walked around the entire City of Lucerne, following a city map to find our way among the medieval architectural beauty.  We walked the city's stone wall and towers, taking many pictures.  The late dinner was a "Swiss Night" party complete with yodeling and Swiss fondue and Hungarian Goulash and yummy desserts and wine.  We all enjoyed the group participation games. TUESDAY, August 23 We left Lucerne at 8:15 am - traveled through the Alsace-Lorraine region ... combination of German, Swiss, and French villages.  We had lunch at a quaint French wine village, RIQUEWIHR, where we walked into the vineyards to take pictures and bought wine to take home.  Grapes are harvested in this country in September. From the city of BASEL we crossed into France to find narrow crooked streets and ancient houses.  The countryside was not the same as the lush greenery found in the Bavarian Alps.  About mid-afternoon we arrived in STRASBOURG, where a City Guide took us on a bus and walking tour of the old French section dating back to the 13th century ... seeing beautiful bridges, houses and the great Gothic Cathedral with an astronomical clock.  STRASBOURG is on the border of France ... founded and ruled by Romans in early days ... then Germans ... then French.  The Cathedral built in 1439 had a very high steeple (460 ft.) to draw early Christians to worship.  Stained-glass windows were preserved during World War II when one of every six buildings here was demolished. STRASBOURG means City of the Stork ... storks live in wild life refuges here to encourage breeding.  The area is called the Route of the Wine ... vineyards everywhere.  Now and then countryside road signs were in English.  We had an elegant dinner and later walked outdoors in the quiet of the evening in the setting of this lovely Hilton Hotel. WEDNESDAY, August 24 We left at 8:30 am for PARIS.  For a few hours we had no sunshine and drove through light drizzle...first time without sunshine since the tour began.  We saw farm country similar to Wisconsin but with mountains in the background.  Saw quaint villages with an abundance of sheep grazing ... lots of orchards ... old stucco buildings, but the countryside did not look prosperous as did AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY.  We stopped in the city of NANCY to see Old World Square surrounded by statues and gates (King Stanislaus Square) ... paved in gray/white with gates of gold covered wrought iron ... built in 16th century.  Had coffee at a cafe (very black in tiny half cup) for 6 Francs or 78¢.  French cars are small and get about 50 miles/gallon.  CITROEN is a popular make of car here. We stopped for lunch in VERDUN - the oldest city in all France ... then called Prussia.  During World War I (1914-18) over one million from both sides were killed here.  Our hotel lunch consisted of French fries, veal braised, salad, noodles, and ice cream.  Along highways were no billboards but instead wooden objects for decoration brightly painted in forms of squares, circles, triangles, posts, etc.  Saw only all-white cows grazing in the fields. We entered PARIS at 5-6 pm rush hour.  Nine and one-half million people live here ... the capital and heart of the country.  We drove past the hundreds of famous landmarks illuminated - PARIS is called the "City of Lights."  At 7:15 pm we were all on our way to a dinner/stage show ($35) resembling Las Vegas style ... steak dinner with wine ... all served in very cramped quarters.  This was a great show of topless costumes on dancing girls ... comedians ... musicals ... we got our money's worth of excellent entertainment.  Our trip by bus back to our hotel showed us much of PARIS by night and its illuminated landmarks ... explained in detail by our Tour Guide, ROGER.  Roger was a native of PARIS ... very proud of his city ... his thick French accent added much glamour throughout our entire trip ... but he really performed here in Paris, since the city was dear to his heart ... and he wanted so much to have everyone love it as much as he did. THURSDAY, August 25 Our City Guide explained Paris history on our am motorcoach tour of landmarks ... THE LOUVRE - museum with Mona Lisa etc ... palaces of kings ... Arch of Triumph, Eiffel Tower, the Opera, Napoleon's tomb, Champs-Elysees, bridges over the Seine ... and on and on.  We explored PARIS in the afternoon via a water tour (Seine River) on a commercial cruiser.  Our late farewell dinner was held at the famous Drousant Restaurant and it was really an enjoyable evening.  Lots of warm friendship was displayed.  Our return trip to the hotel was through the exquisitely illuminated landmarked section of "central" PARIS, complete with huge traffic jam caused by an influx of people into the city to celebrate the liberation of Paris from the German Army in World War II (August 26)...an annual event similar to our July 4th holiday.  Mammouth French flag was flying in the center of the Arch of Triumph built over the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where 12 avenues open into the circle surrounding this monument.  Traffic is always uncontrolled and everyone fends for himself.  Unbelievable ... thousands of people walking around on the streets much like New Year's Eve in Time Square. We packed our suitcase for an early am departure for HOME. FRIDAY, August 26 The tour group met for breakfast and farewells.  Most people flew from PARIS to AMSTERDAM together.  Visited at airport until we all departed ... some for California ... some for New York and New Jersey ... some for Connecticut ... some for Oklahoma, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Texas.  Two couples stayed in PARIS ... two Illinois girls rented a car and drove from AMSTERDAM to SALZBURG to attend a music festival before flying home ...o ne couple flew to England to visit relatives before returning to the States ... two ladies had just returned from a BALTIC SEA cruise (DENMARK, FINLAND, POLAND) ... back-to-back with our tour of mid-Europe and they were returning to Oklahoma after four weeks of travel.  We arrived in Chicago and had no trouble going through Customs.  We checked into the Howard Johnson's motel again and claimed Mary's parked car.  We spent the night unwinding from the long flight. SATURDAY, August 27 Leisurely we drove the four-hour trip to Appleton, discussing happy memories all the way.  We stopped at a Flea Market and a Discount Mall near Milwaukee - I guess just to prove to ourselves that our time was now our own and no longer belonged to the Tour Group.  I wonder if we will ever forget the fourteen glorious days spent touring EUROPE?