THE TRIP STARTS

--In air -aug 19 m plane
My aunt Mikie dropped my brother Jim and i off at the train station where
we took a train from Boston to New York.
Jimmy was going to spend the first two weeks with me and I was going alone
the rest of the way.
On the train we did some more trip planning since very little of the
itininery was set in stone.
The train stopped in Manhattan so we had to work our way over to Jfk
airport via the subway.
On the way we stopped by the Empire state building to see if we could get
Jim a Eurail pass-but there was a line at the travel agency we went to. We
took a special six dollar airport subway.in time for our afternoon flight. It was a chartered Sabena Airlines flight that took us between NYC and Brussels, Belgium. For whatever reason we couldn't
sit together on the plane. So we had to get together on occasion in the
aisles. At one point the full moon was out in the sky-it was lovely.

IN BELGIUM & THE NETHERLANDS AUGUST 1986

Netherlands aug 20w Amsterdam
We arrived at the Brussels Airport , we exchanged a little money ,got
some coffee, I got Eurail pass validated, and decided to take the train to
Amsterdam.
The experiences in our first few minutes in Brussels were exotic. The
train station was right below the air terminal. I remember a travel poster
on the train and townhouses along the route. We arrived Central station
in Amsterdam, we went over to a long line in the tourist office to book a
room. They didn't book any B&B's so we stuck with booking a more
expensive hotel. I wish we had booked ahead. It was cool almost wintry
that day. The hotel was a a reasonably long distance from station- and we
actually walked it ,which was a stupid thing to do on jet lag. I made
some strange decisions some times because I was on a limited budget.It was
a typical smaller euro hotel. The man who ran it was not overly friendly.
Jimmy slept all evening .

Netherlands aug 21 t Amsterdam
Jimmy barely made it the next morning for breakfast-the next day we went
to a bed & breakfast which wasted a lot of the time that we could have
used touristing . We actually had to buy a guidebook, (frommers) cos Jim
had lost my Lets Go.We stayed at A Madam Schimochowa's who we referred to
by a lady named Ursula. Ursula was actually the person listed in the
Frommers guide book. Just figuring out the trams was hard-so I don't
think we did so much that day.
Although I loved Amsterdam -it could be a frustrating place. There were
scarcity of cheap places to buy groceries.Jimmy liked to go to the shops
and restaurants -he could get by without seeing the museums., A place
like Amsterdam was particularly distinctive.

*Netherlands aug 22 f Amsterdam
On Our last day in Amsterdam we went to the zoo. We got there via bikes.
We rented bikes at the railway station. Jimmy got pictures of me getting
mauled by goats
at the petting zoo. We then took independent bike rides. Jimmy's bike did
not work well and so he did not go too far. I attempted to bike to South
Flevoland -but only got as far as Diemen when it started to rain. I had
to turn back anyway,to meet up with Jim.. This was my first time biking in
the Netherlands and it was just a fabulous place to bike..I don't remember
what we did that evening..I do know we had some laundry done and ate
peanut butter and jelly and pickles and onions.

IN FRANCE AUGUST 1986
France aug 23 s Paris
We got into Paris in the middle of the day...We had the not too fun
experience of trying to find accommodations-Jimmy wasn't feeling well. Just
working the phones was troublesome. Paris had a preponderance of credit
card phones and we didn't have the cards for them-so decided to go search
for accommodations by foot.(without our baggage) We still had trouble -but
ended up in hotel on the left bank-Near the Sorbonne and the Pantheon....

France aug 24 s Paris
Sunday morning, I booked us in another cheaper hotel.We stayed three days
in the same fleabag hotel on the left bank.It was located atop a movie
theater, I couldn't afford to break my bare bones budget by staying at
real hotels .It was rainy...That day or the next after we visited the
Louvre, cos it was the day that admission was free. Supposedly we also
went to Rodin Museum one of the better museums we visited.My wallet was
lost or stolen in a pet store. (why were browsing in a pet store in
Paris?)I lost something like 200 dollars in currency (American, French,
and Belgian)
France aug 25 m Paris
On this day we walked over to Notre Dame and the Pompeidiu Center,
something that I would repeat on October 22.
France aug 26 t Paris
We went to the Eiffel Tower in the evening...I think we went there
twice.....

In SWITZERLAND AUGUST 1986

Switz. aug 27 w Geneva
Jim was only going to be in Europe for two weeks, which meant that we
couldn't travel too great a
distance on his leg of the journey, so we decided not to go to Switzerland
instead of Scandinavia.
In a effort to save scarce funds we stayed in a actual youth hostel for
the first time. It was in what appeared to be a old school. Everything was
painted a sickly green. Geneva was a pretty town, though there was not
much to see.

Switz. aug 28 t Geneva
I took a long walk along the river and to the Pont Butin  bridge which was on the Rhone . Coming back I went by  by a field-and by a cemertary (cimitiere de Saint-georges) and it's associated   crematorium along the way. I also visited the Rousseau museum, the guide started to speak French and for some reason I let him till he realized I didn't understand him..

Switz. aug 29 f Zurich
The trip on the train from Geneva to Zurich was pleasantly pleasant-scenically scenic.
In Zurich we stayed at newer hostel slightly on the right side of the
lake.

*Switz. aug 30 s Zurich
Strangely, I went to a pool (trying to justify bringing my bathing
suit).Cool pool design well the locker room at least. Yes, -there wasn't
much to see in Zurich. I went to one end of the city to a overlook-where i
talked with a bird on a ledge.
It was one of those places I saw from a distance and said-"oh hey why don't
I go there". Jim cooked dinner for us in the member kitchen. I Climbed Utelberg a
foothill on the lower end of the city. It was the only mountain path that i have
been on that had streetlights. Somehow I ended up taking a bus to get back to the
hostel.Ultimately, we didn't do anything in the real Alps but we didn't have much
time or money. I Didn't really climb that many hills -the limitations of traveling mainly
in cities.

various aug 31 s Lucerne/night train-
We started the morning in Zurich -We played Chess three foot pieces at
the hostel. Jim took a picture of us. We took something of a day trip to
Lucerne, one of the prettier Swiss cities. Like the other two cities,
Lucerne was built on a river on the corner of a lake. There was a pretty
covered bridge crossing the river.In the afternoon We got separated by
mistake.I spent
much of the afternoon looking for Jim.How we found each other is beyond
me... At one point I sat by Lake Lucerne and wrote a poem..I went to
church in the late afternoon there. We went to dinner at the Massengill
restaurant-and then somehow found our way on the night train to Brussels.
The night train journey was rough. It seemed as if we might have gone
through Luxembourg,but I doubt it.

IN BELGIUM/ HOLLAND/ GERMANY & DENMARK September 1986

Belgium sep 1 mon Brussels
We found our way sleepily to the modern Brussels hostel. It was a 1980's
building attractively situated next to a church.Jimmy was sleepy or sick
during much the trip.
We went to the Grand Place-Jim looked for lace for the Spillanes.
We had dinner at some restaurant. Brussels had some cool fudge
confections.

Netherlands sep 2 t amersfort
THIS WAS THE DAY JIM RETURNED HOME.
Jim and I switched our packs-I took Jim's backpack and he took my red
bag back home. I also had a second blue bag-that I used to drag around
pamphlets and raincoats etc. My packing job left something to be desired. It
isn't easy to tool around Europe for two months without a few things.
We went to Brussels airport-from there Jim went back to NYC. At that point
I was alone-Thousands of miles away from anybody I knew for this first
time in my life. I wanted to go back to Amsterdam to do some more biking,
but when I got there i found that it was hard
to book a spot in a hostel-so I decided to go outside of town. I ended up
spending two days in Amersfoort. Going from place to place can be time
consuming, by the time I was settled in Amersfoort most of the day was
gone. The hostel in Amersfoort was a bit out of the way. The hostel was
overrun by a school group- I spent part of my evening watching the film
they were watching. This was my first experience with a coed hostel dorm.

*Netherlands sep 3 w amersfort
This was the day of my fabulous bike journey from Amersfoort to Alesmere.
Annoyingly ,I didn't rent my bike till the middle of the day. It was a
sunny afternoon.
I biked through Eemes, Baarn and Hilversum. At one point in Eemnes I
stopped at a farm in Eemes and talked with the animals while looking
across a beautiful farm field. Since, Holland is flat there would often be
long long views of the horizon, At one point I tried to bike along a small
stretch of highway-cos that was the only quick way to Flevoland-but that
proved unworkable and so I followed along through the Gooi up past Naarden
to the the northeastern bridge between the mainland and Flevoland. By the
time I had gotten to Flevoland it was getting later in the day, and it was
getting overcast, and i was having problems with one of my peddles and so
decided to turn around . I decided once I got into Bussum to take the
train
the rest of the way back to Amersfoort. This journey and the prior
August 22 bike jaunt around Amsterdam- made a tremendous impact on me. But
for some reason, I went the next day to Scandinavia, and although I
returned to the Netherlands in late September-I did not do any biking in
September. After I got home I had a great desire to return to Holland and
do a independent bike tour, but I did not return for twelve years .

various-sep 4 t night train
On Thursday morning I took the train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, a
train that would ultimately lead to Stockholm. The journey doesn't seem
like it should take that long -but it does...Sept 4 marked the first time
I had visited Germany or Denmark. It takes nearly 24 hours to get from
Amsterdam to Stockholm on the train,I believe I stopped at Hamburg on my
way to Copenhagen....Annoyingly, at one point along the journey I was
stopped by two undercover German custom police who wanted to search my
bags for drugs-perhaps because I came from Amsterdam. I asked them to get
the conductor -since I wanted to confirm they were legit. I have two other
distinctive memories of this leg of the journey. One, was crop burning in
the fields in Denmark, the other was sitting on the train in empty
compartment sort of planning my trip. I only had a limited amount of money.I
only had about 800 to 1000 dollars to cover the remaining 45 days , but I
was due to receive some money from Jim. I got to Copenhagen in the
evening. Strangely the train took a ferry that crossed to the east of the
Danish mainland. With the construction of bridges in the 1990's where
some of ferries used to be- there is no longer the necessity to use
these ferries. On the overnight journey to Stockholm-I was closeted
in a crowded compartment with four woman and strange young bald man. Three
of the woman were light haired Finns. One was middle aged and the other
two were younger-one had a fascinating lappish look about her.
The three ladies I saw later in the Stockholm train station and I saw the
bald guy in town.

IN SWEDEN September 1986

IN GERMANY SEPTEMBER 1986

Germany sep 16 t Koln
I had no great affection for Germany, the people were not friendly and the
scenery was
had no particular appeal to me. But we had not visited there in 1975 and
so it was another new country to see.,a country that happened to be on the
way. On this day I visited Koln's Cathedral and a cool art Museum. The
hostel in Koln was actually located on the other side of the river in
Deutz near a Ford motor plant.
Germany sep 17 w Munich
This day I traveled from Koln to Munich. I took an attractive, newer
German train on a line that parallel the Rhine much of the way.
The Rhine had little castles on hills along the river.At one point I found
somebody's jewelry and was given a reward by the lady who lost it. I
stayed at a student hotel....I visited Olympic Park. At night I swam in
the pool in the basement of the student hotel.