Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Some More Memories....

Our time at Rhein-Main was to end in 1967 but along with our friends, decided to extend another year. We didn't make anymore major trips but on the weekends, would follow the Special Service Bus to places around the countryside. Taking our lunch, walking in the woods and villages gave us a different slant of country life in a foreign country.

Do you remember when we went to Heidelberg with the Girl Scouts? Another time to the Capital at Bann? One of my memorable trips involved the Catholic Chaplin. If you recall, Joan Wells and I belonged to the Catholic Women of the Chapel. Our Chaplin heard of a conference in Berlin and thought we would like to go. I think six of us made the trip. Dad took me to Frankfurt to catch the train. While in the train station, I saw some GIs and commented to Dad that one of them looked like a guy we knew from home. Dad poo-pooed it but I went over for a closer look and sure enough I was right so we had a mini-get-together catching up. How cool is that seeing someone from home? We finally boarded the train and it was a "sleeper" with four bunks to a tiny room. Of course, we didn't do much sleeping. In the morning, it was crazy trying to get dressed in this rocking train. Just try putting on panty hose and bumping into each other while doing it! Then, we noticed that the train was slowing down and watched it move to a side track. To our surprise (although it shouldn't have been), Russian soldiers came in and checked our passports. It seemed we were in the East German sector and had to pass through there to West Germany. The soldiers were very polite but it was still intimidating. As this is a long story, I'll continue it in the next chapter. LOL!

3 comments:

Kathi said...

Yes, I remember Heidelberg and the "burning" of the castles. We sat out on the bank of the river and watched amazing fireworks. I also remember Bonn (or is it Bohn?) and going to Garmisch as well as to Frankenstein's Castle. King Ludwig's Castle in Bertchesgarten (sp?) was amazing. Remember the table that came up through the floor? I guess I loved all of the castles because I remember them so well. I was afraid when you went to East Germany that they wouldn't let you come back. Someone must have said something about that, and I had these terrible fears the whole time you were gone. I vaguely also remember something about a nudist colony?????

Betty said...

No nudist colony there. I can't remember anything at all about one. Yeah, maybe Jane will know the correct spelling. I was thinking it was "Bonn" but it didn't look right. I saw King Ludwig's castle again in 2000 and it is the same including the table bit. I guess that was the original "dumb waiter". I think I was only in Berlin for 3 days.

Gigi said...

I remember lots of the Girl Scout trips, castles, youth hostels, riding the train to Luxembourg, camping, etc. We had some really fun adventures. I think it's spelled "Bonn." Funny about running into someone you knew so far from home!