First letter home

Sunday 14^th December 1969

Weiden

Germany

Dear Mum and Dad

I thought I would start a letter now so I can recount our journey so far. We got down to London in record time on Wednesday 10^th Dec- two and a half hours from Coventry to Kensington High St, via Aylesbury. The new Daf certainly makes a difference to travelling. Mr and Mrs Fifield seemed a bit surprised we were leaving before Christmas but did not seem too upset. We went round to see Auntie Kath in the evening and she looks a lot better- she actually has got arms and legs now rather than thin sticks.

On Thursday (11^th) we motored down to Folkestone and saw Uncle Ted (Auntie Tess had got a Christmas job in Canterbury) and Auntie Pat.

Unfortunately the hover craft was not running as our time table was out of date but the clerk at the booking office said they are very noisy and you can’t even hold a conversation during the journey. We took the 3 o’clock boat to Calais instead- a much better journey than to Ostend as it takes only one and a half hours as opposed to four hours. We then drove up the coast to Ostend and then East to Gent. Probably out of our way but worth it to pick up the motorway in Belgium.

On Friday (12^th) we drove along the E5 via Brussels, Aachen, Cologne and Bonn. It is very easy driving and in the summer the journey to Prague could be easily done in a couple of days from Ostend- going via Frankfurt rather than Bonn. It was very misty at first and even snowed a little and the poor Daf got filthy on the autobahn. There was a thin powdering of snow over the countryside which made it very picturesque. After Bonn we detoured down the Rhine valley which is a really beautiful area; the river valley with steep hills either side covered in trees with fairy tale castles at every bend. We stopped at 4.30 and found a hotel in St Goar, a little village on the river- it was a shame the mist spoiled the view.

Saturday (13^th) we drove down the Rhine and Neckar rivers. From Mainz to Heidelberg is not very nice; very flat and not well signposted and we got a bit lost in the motorways (Tony was navigating of course. No-one with my superior navigating talents could possibly get lost). From Heidelberg we went down the Neckar valley which is again very beautiful. We then struck across country towards Nuremburg. Here was some beautiful countryside, snowy hills with pine forests. There was about six inches of snow and all the trees were frozen- the silver birches looked like frozen waterfalls. We stopped at a parking place and walked into the woods a little way and there were deer and wolf tracks in the snow. I am most disappointed I have not seen any deer, wolves or bears yet. In spite of the snow the roads are kept very clear, no ice at all. However we drove slowly as the scenery is so beautiful like driving through a continually changing Christmas card.

Today (14^th Sunday) has continued much the same. We stopped at Nuremburg which seems to have a good shopping centre. Tonight we are staying a few miles from the Czechoslovakian border. So far it has cost the two of us about £3.10s a night for Bed and Breakfast at a 2 star hotel. Meals seem expensive but it probably partly our choice of food and the fact that we just have a biscuit midday and are ravenous by the evening. (We had some very nice German cheesecake yesterday). By expensive I mean over £1 each but we did spend £1.5s for both of us this evening so it does vary.

We are both in a much better temper now we are on the move but poor Tony has the flu. I think he has had a sore throat since last Wednesday. I keep waiting to catch it but I am OK so far. We got really worried about our dirty car as we could find no car washers and if we had washed it ourselves the water would just freeze. However we found the secret. Nearly all German petrol stations have a heated room where they supply hot water, soap, sponges, leathers and hoses. You have to wash your own car but all the facilities are provided and it is good to be able to hose all the salt and grit from the bottom of the car- the little Daf looks like new. It is a lovely warm car- we don’t need our coats on inside.

The first hotel we came to at St Goar in Germany  we thought they had packed up for the winter season as all the bed had on it was a pillow and an eiderdown covered with a sheet casing.

‘No blankets’ said Tony ‘I shall freeze’

We found to our surprise that if you crawl under these great light eiderdowns you soon become boiling hot and very comfy. I am thinking of buying a couple to bring home. Must say goodnight –will continue when we reach Prague.

Tues morning (16^th)

Hotel Alcron

Stepanska

We have arrived safely in Prague although the roads from the border were very bad in places with ridged ice so you could only travel about 20 miles an hour. After we had been in the hotel for a couple of hours we had a phone call from a couple working for I.C.L. asking us to their flat. They are a nice couple with 3 children and were able to tell us a bit about Czechoslovakia. They have put into motion the procedures for finding us a flat. We are seeing our country manager V.C. at dinner time today so we should find out what we are supposed to be doing. I may have to go to Brno for a week before Christmas but it depends on the weather as it has been snowing all night.

Tony’s cold is still bad so I hope he does not have to work too hard before Christmas. At present if you write to the I.C.L. office- the address I gave you the letters will reach us. I will let you know when we have a more permanent address and we know exactly where we will be working. The post is supposed to be very bad here so don’t worry if there are long gaps between letters.

 

Give my love to Paul, David, Nicky, Christopher and Nanny. Have a happy Christmas.

Love Tony and Gillian

I remember that journey, the blueprint for many subsequent journeys across Europe that have patterned our lives. There is something special about driving across continents on an endless motorway. Your life is suspended during the journey with no worries other than to reach the next town or the next toilet stop. We always found it allowed us to talk about a huge range of subjects both practical and philosophical. The feeling was especially powerful at night, the lights of the other cars streaming by and the changing band of sound from the radio as we changed frequencies to pick up a friendly tune or English speaking news channel. We had not yet learned the joys of the BBC World Service, or the need for studded or chained tyres for winter driving. We did not say that when we first slept in a bed with a Duvet at St Goar, we slept inside the Duvet cover!. I remember the last hotel we stayed at in ‘the West’ was at Weiden. It had a huge bathroom en suit with perfumed bubble bath and luxury soap. We washed away the grime from our journey and after walking round the almost deserted town to find a meal we went to bed early.

I am surprised I did not mention crossing the Iron Curtain in my letter as it was a big psychological barrier. At that time there were borders between all the European countries and the Czech one was not much different apart from the time it took to process the paper work. Contrary to expectations, we never had a problem at the border, our British passport and entry exit visas were our talisman. Being friendly and keeping a smile on your face always helped.

The first difference between crossing the ‘Iron Curtain and the border crossings in the West occurred if you stopped in no man’s land. In winter, two or more border guards on skis, dressed in head to toe in white, would suddenly race out of nowhere across the acres of snow and materialise next to your car and get you moving. But in general they were more interested in keeping people in than keeping us out. At the time the Russians invaded in 1968 a considerable number of Czechs skied to freedom in the West. We also did not see any Russians on that first day. They were no longer on the street corners in the centre of cities but did travel in convoys of lorries & huge tanks around the countryside and city outskirts, but we would have many encounters with them later on in our stay.

The first impressions of Czechoslovakia were not good. We had travelled the mid-winter German ‘Autobahns’, so quickly cleared of snow & ice. The contrast as you crossed the border from Germany was incredible. The roads were so bad we did not have chance to look at the scenery. We were suddenly down to a snail pace struggling along long white narrow roads through endless forests, and at first we doubted we would reach the town Pilzen before nightfall, half way to our destination in Prague. The narrow road was packed ice & snow that had huge transverse ripples all the way, created by the lurching along of the heavy Eastern European lorries. It looked like a giant had laid large scale corrugated iron made of ice across the road. Our little ‘Daf’ bumped its way along until the road improved not far before Pilzen.

There were also frequent ‘obeshkas’ (not sure of the spelling) or diversions which took you on long rambling journeys through small villages.  It took forever to reach Prague. The city appeared very drab, despite its magnificent architecture, and uncared for. All the buildings were dirty from the slush of winter with slush splatter marks high up the wall of any house close to the road, and the skies were dark and overcast with unshed snow. Compared to the glitz and glitter of the German cities, the drab shops with little to sell were not appealing.

In Prague we were booked into the Alcron Hotel, a much ‘posher’ hotel than we had ever stayed in before, with a large splendid marble foyer, a car park under the building, an elegant dining room with a three piece band playing, and a truly international menu. Tony’s cold continues and worsened. On arrival we had parked our outside the hotel, being unaware of the underground car park. The next day when Tony went down to put the Daf in the garage, it would not start. The helpful Alcron staff pushed it into the garage and told us the oil was too viscous to allow the motor to turn because it was minus twenty five degrees.