Graham

T minus 133
As a child I wanted to visit every country in the world. As yet this aim has not been achieved. However, I have travelled widely in Europe and can count the following in the list of places visited

• Austria
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Croatia (as part of Yugoslavia)
• Czech Republic (also as Czechoslovakia)
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Hungary
• Italy
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Slovakia (also as Czechoslovakia)
• Slovenia (as part of Yugoslavia)
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Vatican

Many of these countries were ‘ticked off’ in two family holidays as a child. My dad drove for a living as a Food Technologist, so the thought of travelling across Europe with only the Ferry and first night’s accommodation booked was no problem to him. The first trip, in 1980, took us through Belgium, down through Germany following the Rhein, staying in towns along (Boppard) the way – veering across Southern Germany and into Austria. We entered near Salzburg and tracked back towards Switzerland. The small town of Telfs in the Alps comes to memory as does Bregenz on the shores of Lake Constance. We then travelled on through Switzerland and back through France. The last night was memorable. Seeking to find a place in Luxembourg we did not realise that they did not accept French Francs and so ended up in Northern France in a run down town. The hotel was old and the owner somewhat intimidating – we asked for steak and were served horse (Dad, being a Food Technologist and so knew the difference!).

View of St Mark’s Square – Venice

Sunset over the Adriatic

Yugoslavia 1981

Yugoslavia 1981

Our second trip in 1982 began as before but this time we travelled to Southern Austria staying near Klagenfurt before crossing into what was then Yugoslavia. We turned up in one town Opatija in what is now Croatia, liked the hotel so much we stayed a week. We travelled from there into Slovenia and up to Venice in Italy. Leaving Yugoslavia via Italy and Southern Germany where we stayed in the Black Forest before returning home.

These holidays were tremendous experiences in an age when petrol was a lot cheaper and company mileage included holidays! We couldn’t do it today unfortunately.

Other than this my only childhood experience of foreign parts were a German exchange and a day trip to France.

Further afield I have been to

• West Africa visiting The Gambia (with a brief sojourn into Senegal)
• South East Asia visiting Vietnam and Cambodia (with an 8 hour stop over in Thailand and a journey across the city between airports – so it counts – just).
  This page is now updated on the blog