Salzburg, Austria is a stroll through time. As you walk along the cobblestones, you imagine Mozart following along the very same path.
Standing out on high ground in the Hohensalzburg Castle, where the Festungsbahn Cable car carries tourists to the top to walk the hallways. The Caravan spent a wonderful evening with meal and entertainment. That evening we had a Tyrolean experience, complete with the Schuhplattler, folk dance, music, and breathtaking yodeling. I most remember the yodeling echo between two ladies. One on stage, and the other behind the curtain, playing off each other’s chorus with an echo repeat, is something I will always remember.
Vienna (Wein) had gone through occupation, the same as Berlin. The occupation ended in 1955 aftera full decade. As the Russians left, they collected anything they could carry with them, including kitchen sinks.
Whenever the Caravan could make arrangements for special events, we did. The Wiener Staatsoper (Opera House) was reconstructed and redecorated after severe war damage. We had tickets and saw the premiere performance of Der Sturm based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
In 1949 a film noir movie hit the screen, The Third Man. The cast was entertaining, with Orson Welles heading the cast as the scoundrel and criminal Harry Lime. The entire film was on location in Vienna. The music, written and played by Anton Karas, introduced the zither to American moviegoers.
One afternoon, my mother and I went to the Café Mozart for strawberries and sour cream, a Viennese delight. There, Karas played magnificently, and the strawberry dish was everything we were told it would be.
Looking back to my many travels as a young man there is a contentment in realizing that by the age 21 I had traveled to Mexico, Central America, Canada, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. I am grateful to Wally Byam, Helen Byam Schwamborn and Airstream for providing the means and time that allowed me to visit lands most individuals will never lay eyes on.
Often, I am asked why I share my stories. Why do you give talks across the Nation about your experiences? Wally Byam, Helen Byam Schwamborn, Airstream and the Wally Byam Caravan Club gave me a lifetime’s worth of memories, and I can only repay my opportunities by sharing them with today’s Airstream World.
As I rumble and ramble through Europe, it isn’t a journal, it isn’t a diary, and it is just memories as experienced by a 17 year old, recently graduated from high school. If you wish a more detailed approach to the 1956 Airstream Wally Byam European Caravan read Home Was Never Like This, by Etta Payne; the June 1957 National Geographic Magazine containing the article Through Europe by Trailer Caravan written by Norma Miller and photographs by Ardean Miller III; and of course Trailer Travel and Home and Abroad by Wally Byam.
So this is not a travel document covering everything that the Caravan experienced. It is definitely not the number of cobblestones that were counted on some remote alley in a medieval town.
It might have been Graz or Klagenfurt where I strolled through a historic cemetery and saw a rather large circular building with rod iron gates. I had to peek in. There, like cord wood, were stacks and stacks of bones. If you can imagine grapefruit stacked neatly so high you can’t look over them, there were skulls neatly packed to the ceiling. This building is the tell-tale limitations in medieval church cemeteries. At some point you need to make room so you move over the older burials into the bone room.
This is Venice with The Doge Palace, St. Mark’s Basilica, canals, gondolas, Italian food, pigeons, pigeons, and more pigeons. Sitting around sipping an aperitif, it is very romantic and Venetians tell you to tell your friends that you were enjoying “La Dolce Vita” at the Piazza de San Marco in Venezia.
One afternoon my mother, Caravanners, and I were enjoying a beautiful afternoon at one of the many sidewalk cafes drinking wine, or expressos. My mother began to lift her wine glass and in plopped a poop from a sure shot pigeon.
This is truly a Venetian memory not soon forgotten.
Part Three: From New York to Zurich
Part Four: An Instant Connection
Part Five: Brimming With Enthusiasm
Part Six: An Early Morning Excursion
