That fellow’s name was Bob Harden, and that bike in the lower right corner was mine. I had about a month between leaving the Burg and flying home from Copenhagen, and Bob was planning to bike down the Rhine, then up to Copenhagen to meet a Danish friend of the family, then down to see a dahlia grower in Holland, and on to Brussels where he would board a ship (if I recall correctly) to get back to the U.S. Biking down the Rhine sounded like an appropriate adventure so I joined him.
My brother-in-law was in the army at the time and stationed in Stuttgart, and he and my sister wanted to drive to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway so we planned to meet in Brussels and go on their trip. They would drop me off at the Copenhagen airport on their way home.
About the biking — how hard could it be? The Rhine had to flow downhill, right? Unfortunately, the land on the sides of the Rhine were not all downhill. They were up and down, up and down, and we could have sworn there were a lot more ups than downs. Especially because when we stopped for the night and asked where the youth hostel was the person would turn towards it, raise their arm, and say, “Straight up.” The hostels were always at the top of a steep hill.
We were out of shape, of course, but we made it all the way to Köln (Cologne) before we decided we could never do Bob’s itinerary if we biked. So we got on a train to Amsterdam, sent our bikes to my sister in Stuttgart, and started hitchhiking.
That’s not the most pleasant way to travel, but I was thrilled to have the chance to do it. One of my favorite teachers in high school was young and vivacious, and she had told us she and a friend had hitchhiked around Europe. That sounded so adventuresome and so unlike the life I was leading that I wanted to do something like that too someday. No doubt that’s one reason I didn’t hesitate to go to Stanford in Germany when offered the chance.
I remember sometimes having to wait a long time while hitchhiking, wondering if we would ever get another ride, but I’m so glad we did it. The people who gave us rides were friendly, even the fellow who spent most of the time ranting about how he hated America and yet stopped at a cafe to buy us lemonades. And the fellow in the picture below saw us getting off the ferry back from Denmark in the middle of the night, trying to figure out where we could find a place to sleep. He took up to his home to meet his family and to sleep in his living room for a couple of nights.
But the people I remember the most were two truck drivers. They sat in the bucket seats in the front of the cab, and Bob and I sat on the bench seat behind them. At one point the driver said we had to stop for a while to sleep, so we all slept sitting up. That still blows me away. Presumably usually one person drove while the other slept on the bench seat, yet they didn’t hesitate to give us that ride. There’s no way I can thank them for that, but I do try to pay it forward… (unfortunately not by picking up hitchhikers).
Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior wrote,
A man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.
That’s what Stanford was trying to do to us, stretch our minds. They succeeded brilliantly.
February 7, 2022
What a wonderful adventure. Made me ache to be young again and to so enthusiastically –and courageously– explore the world’s variety and its very often kind, generous people.
Thank you so much for sharing your memories.
Love, AE
I’m glad you liked them. 🙂
I’ve never wanted to be younger than I was, even now. I would have to give up too much. I’m still an explorer at heart, but now I do it via the internet. I’m a letter writer at heart, so blogging is a blessing for me.
ohmygoodness!
AE has said it beautifully for me too.
and I think hitchhiking used to be a popular way for many youths back then.
and… it always makes me think of one of my all-time favorite movie classics ~
‘It Happened One Night’ with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. it had a great hitchhiking scene it it! 🙂 xoxo
I’m going to have to look that up. 🙂
It seems like your life has been full of wonderful adventures, and wonderful people too.
I’ve been lucky. 🙂
I’m totally fascinated by your adventure. You experienced more while there than most people do in a lifetime.
I was incredibly lucky.
the photo of the young family that allowed you to sleep in their home, is like looking back in time, almost like time travel. that photo speaks to me of times gone by. you were very brave, I have always been to fearful to do anything like this, the big old what iffer stopped me. you have really lived your life to the fullest.
Thank you. My mother was a worrier and overprotective. I was lucky to have a chance to get away from that.
These recollections are so great!
I wonder what my life might have been like, had I even a smidgen of your courage, your joie de vivre. Like Sandra, I’ve always been too fearful of the unknown.
Nevertheless, I’ve always been happy to applaud from the wings — both then and now.
Thank you.
What an adventure! I think this is my favorite episode…but then maybe not. It is all just so much fun to read.
Thanks. 🙂
Nothing to do with this particular post but I need to say thank you for introducing me to wordpuzz and showing me your starter word. I tried “irate” today and got the word “brats” in one turn!!!
We picked up two hitchhikers when we were young. One was a guy near the airport trying to get home from a funeral and the other was a college kid trying to get back to school. Each was about a 2 hour drive but we were on leave for the first one so had plenty of time and the second was when we were out for a Sunday drive anyway.
“arise” is another good one to start with. But “irate” is better is the word was brats. 😀
I’m glad you could help those hitchhikers and that it turned out well.
For a totally different perspective try cloud.
I use “cloud” if I think I need more vowels. Looking for a, e, i is usually enough.
what a wonderful adventure
I rarely did any travel on my own, going with a “camping tour business” and as I found this morning reading some letters I wrote home in the 60/70s – I was planning and organising a trip to Ireland – but I know it didn’t come to be.
Of course I had negotiate the London tube system, along with going back to “home in Herefordshire” – in the time I was there, S & D moved I think twice! So had to take the train home, and then usually a bus out to the outlying place unless someone picked me up.
You had great adventures too!