In 1965, my dad, age 43, took his dad, Paul, age 79, and me, an eighth grader, age 14 later that summer, on a trip to Norway, as part of a Rotary trip.
Paul had emigrated to America in 1907 and this would be first and only trip back to Norway. Interestingly, my grandfather's physical and mental health was almost exactly on par to that of President Joe Biden's in 2024, though my hunch is that my grandfather would have done better than Biden in "that" debate. LOL.
But I digress.
It was a two-week trip:
- Williston, rail to Minneapolis, after picking up Paul in Newell, SD
- that leg of the trip alone would have been quite a journey for me; overnight in Minneapolis --
- wow, the hotel was incredible! And it was probably a 2-star hotel in downtown Minneapolis but it was the first time I had stayed overnight in a big city;
- Minneapolis to Oslo, Norway, on KLM
- several days in Oslo with our Rotarian host family; wonderful, wonderful stay;
- met the first love of my life; I believe she was a sixth grader;
- then, by train to Trondheim, and the Trondheim area where Paul was born and raised;
- rental car in the Trondheim area
- Trondheim to Bergen by ferry;
- then to Copenhagen, on that same ferry, if I recall correctly;
- to Copenhagen, because the return trip to the US by air departed out of Paris
- then to Braunschweig, Germany, some hours south of Copenhagen;
- our first spur-of-the-moment decision: continue direct to Paris, or a side trip to Berlin,
- I was so excited to see Berlin; my father agreed, and so we went;
- through the Iron Curtain to enter East Germany, and then through another piece of the Iron Curtain to get into West Berlin
- a tourist excursion into East Berlin
- back to the rental car, and back through East Germany
- with no map we headed west; the only thing Dad knew was that Paris was west,
- seriously, he only followed the setting sun each day; I think we saw two setting suns;
- we arrived on the outskirts of Paris on a balmy afternoon;
- he had hotel reservations at the Ronceray Hotel in Paris
- at the outskirts of Paris, he stopped the car and hailed a taxi
- he put me in the taxi and then had the taxi driver lead my grandfather and my dad to the Ronceray Hotel
- Dad called the car rental agency (Hertz) and told them the car would be at the Ronceray.
- the Hertz folks told him he had to bring the car to a Hertz rental site;
- Dad said the car would be at the Ronceray; it was Hertz's choice if they wanted their car back. LOL.
- from Paris back to Minneapolis
Our route:
Copenhagen, Denmark to Braunschweig, we took the ferry from Bergen, Norway, to Copenhagen, Denmark, and then began our journey to Paris where we returned the car:
Berlin to Paris:
a grueling leg; we arrived late evening, Cologne, Germany, but did not
recognize it as Cologne -- we only saw signs for Köln and weren't smart
enough to know it was Cologne, the very famous WWII-bombed site; stayed
overnight in Cologne. Next day, lunch in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and
then to Paris, late afternoon -- all with no maps, just literally
following the sun. I kid you not. We ended up on some small side roads.
Seriously.
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Best Birthday Gift Ever
For my 73rd birthday. From my middle granddaughter.
