1950 Post War Europe - the Beginning of the trip

In 1950, my father's expenses were paid to International conferences in Paris and in Oxford. All he had to do was to find a way to fund us. So he worked at two jobs (commuting by train between Baltimore and Philadelphia) for the winter of 1949-1950

Passport photo

My mother prepared us for the trip by taking us to Berlitz for French lessons. She made the travel arrangements through Cook Travel Agency (who were an American Express Agency). She saved money in any way she could, so we had a joint passport for the three of us. I'm on the left - age 12. My mother is in the center, and my sister is on the right - age 10.

I have recreated the trip from photos - my dad had two 35mm film cameras, a 16mm Bolex movie camera and an early Polaroid (sepia pictures). I had a camera and my mom probably had one too as there are pictures of my dad.

We sailed from New York on the Nieuw Amsterdam- tourist class. There were some storms (perhaps an early hurricane) and we were a day late.

We landed in Le Havre and took the boat train to Paris.

Landing in Le Havre

Since we were a day late it threw off our schedule and we missed Luxembourg, one of the ten countries we planned to visit. My mother was afraid to let us drink the water, and so she let us drink tea or hot chocolate. She was highly incensed that the French did not say that the milk was Pasteurized. Instead they said "stérilisé". She was unaware that the two methods were not identical. This was also our first exposure to the Continental Breakfast - a breakfast without eggs or meat.

My mother's uncle was there on a sabbatical so we visited with him before we picked up with the pre-arranged itinerary. We went to see him at his fifth floor apartment. We didn't know how to operate the elevator, so we walked up the stairs. We found that the lights were on a timer and would go off after a period of time, so my sister and I went up the stairs pushing buttons as we went to keep the lights on. I'm sure that some of the buttons were doorbells, but we didn't know that.

Uncle Earle, Aunt Betty, my sister, me and Cousin Ann

Next we went to Belgium and then to the Netherlands

Then we took the train to Copenhagen. Part of the time the train was on a ferry. They put the whole train cars on the ferry.

Train cars on the ferry

Danish seagull

Wake of the ferry

Denmark ferry - seen from our train at the dock

I remember Copenhagen for the

Little Mermaid

. I also remember the Danish breakfasts. We had a guide in Copenhagen who was very humorless

Guide in Copenhagen - very stern

We stayed at the Terminus Hotel. When it was built in 1918, the Hotel was the most modern in Copenhagen - all the rooms had a telephone and bathroom. The beds were feather beds - you slept under a feather comforter or quilt with no sheets. The feather part was inside a kind of pillowcase which was changed like a sheet would be changed.

Our beds in Copenhagen at Hotel Terminus

It was right next to the railroad station (it still is) and across the street diagonally from Tivoli. It was bought by Wagons-Lits (the railroad people) in 1968 (after we stayed there) and the name was changed to the Plaza Hotel in 1970. It is now the Copenhagen Plaza. We took a little motor boat through the canals of the city.

We shopped at the Kunstindustrimuseet where I bought a charm bracelet with carved ivory animals with the money my grandmother had given me to get something for myself.

weather forecaster

King's Guard

Fredericksburg Castle

I particularly remember going to Tivoli. The Tivoli Gardens were a famous amusement park in the center of town. You could go there and eat, dance or ride a Ferris wheel. I remember a ride where you went into a 'mountain', kind of a pre-Disney Matterhorn ride. We met up with local girl guides/scouts,

Scouts in Copenhagen

and while we were at Tivoli, and airplane dropped flyers which announced the beginning of the 'police action' in Korea. In Danish of course. The English of the Danish guides wasn't up to translating 'police action', so all we knew was that Truman had done something in Korea.

Hamlet's castle Helsinger Denmark

My mother was very into all the literature types of things so of course we had to visit Hamlet's Castle. Her note says "Very interesting - take sturdy shoes"

When we went to see Hamlet's castle in Kronborg in 1950, we discovered that we could almost see Sweden and there was a ferry that went across. We had planned to visit ten countries, but when the ship was a day late, we missed going to Luxembourg. If we took the ferry across, we could pick up an extra country and make a round ten countries for our trip.