Traveling with Jack and Theresa

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Introduction

Letters
and Postcards...

August 3, Wengen

August 4, Wengen

August 6, Grachen

August 7, Matterhorn

August 8, Zermatt

August 11, Mondsee

August 11, Sils-Maria

August 13, Grunau

August 18,  West Berlin

August 18, East Berlin

August 23, London

Stories...

Swiss Rail

Up and Down The Alps

East Berlin & The Wall

The Summer of 1986

Introduction

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In the summer of 1986, we took a pleasure trip to Europe. No lectures, no people to visit, just enjoy continental Europe and England. The trip started on August 1 and ended on August 30. We traveled to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and England.

As all Loughary and Ripley trips, this was planned far in advance, lots of reading, and reservations made by the mode of the day, i.e. snailmail. A long itinerary was developed, which no longer exists, but what does remain are 125 pictures taken on the trip, Theresa’s journal, and letters written back to Theresa’s aunt and uncle, Don and Sally Phillips, in Arizona. Don had just been diagnosed with colon cancer and was in the midst of treatment during this trip. Prior to the trip, the itinerary had been sent to them so they could airchair it with us. In 1995 Don died and the folder with the letters and postcards were given to us by Sally.

For this cyber adventure in 2007, we are counting on these materials to recreate the trip as well as our memory of this trip and others.Visually, this is, hands down, our most beautiful trip, and that’s saying something since we think Kauai, Hawaii, and the Yorkshire Dales are two of the other prettiest spots on earth. It’s hard, though, to beat the Alps in picture-perfect weather.

In 2007, it’s been a pleasant to relive this trip, and to instantly get 21 years younger at a click of a mouse. The pictures for this trip had originally been taken as 35 mm slides, and those have been digitized and we embedded them in the stories below where appropriate. Most of the venues we stayed at 21 years ago still exist, and when appropriate provide links to those places and scenes. That too has been a good way to relive the trip.

When we taught leisure planning, we suggested leisure often had three components: Anticipation, Doing, and Recall. We always take a long time in Anticipation, and this trip was no exception. The Doing only took 30 days, and now 21 years later we are savoring the Recall. Hope you enjoy some of it.

Click below to continue the story which will be told with pictures, quotes from the time, the letters and postcards back home, and recalled memories from us.


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© 2014 Theresa Ripley