June 30, 1995
Flew from Detroit to Frankfort, Germany.

July 1, 1995
We arrived at the Frankfort airport at 7:30 AM and did not get out of the airport till 10 AM (long wait for customs, luggage and rental car). Our first stop was at a Tower at Naturpark neat Steinau, probably not old. Then we stumbled across brothers, Grim Castle, probably from about 1600. At the castle we saw a girl take her jeans off and hop in a car, also noticed a girl at a bar checking me out as she was drinking a beer. We decided to stop for cokes at a McDonalds near Eisenach, Drew decided to try to place the order at the drive up window (he did his best at speaking in German, it worked but seemed difficult). We stopped at the ruins of an old castle on the side of the road, there were many dates on the sign, my guess was the castle was first constructed in 1120. In the nearby town, it seemed like several people gave us dirty looks. As we continued, we saw 3 more ruins of castles near the side of the road, near the border of East Germany. I wanted to check them out, but Drew was getting worried about where we would camp, so we continued. That night we ended out camping at a campground near Berlin at a town named Potsdam ($23.50 DM).

July 2, 1995
As we were driving into Berlin we stopped at this neat park with all sorts of cool Russian monuments. In Berlin we checked out the ruins of a neat old church (only one wall was up and it was embedded in the middle of the downtown buildings), we took some pictures and ate German food (beef slop). After that, we got on our rollerblades and skated to the Berlin wall. The road had several people on bikes in the right hand lane (we were the only ones with rollerblades) it seemed like we fit in, but several people gave us curious looks. At the wall the road was blocked and there was an old Russian building that was covered with a tarp (I believe that we were their during a festival, when they unveiled the building). There were people selling Russian military metals, souvenirs and suits. One person was giving out pieces of the tarp that was covering the building. We got in line for a piece of tarp, but the person ran out just before we got to him. That night we ended up sleeping in our car at the entrance of a campground near Felch (The actual campground was closed and we did not have to pay for camping).

July 3, 1995
We left the camp ground parking lot at 5:55 AM and drove to Hannover (8 AM). We checked out the local attractions, in the building in middle of town there was an interesting display. The display had models of Hannover a long time before WW 2, right before WW2 and right after the city was bombed during WW 2. From the model it was apparently one of the cities hardest hit by allied bombing during WW 2. When we went back to our car we had what we thought was a parking ticket (we never paid it and nothing ever happened, yet!). Next we drove to Amsterdam and went to a campground that was in the middle of town. There were a lot of stoners at the campground, people with bong that laughed all night. From the campground, we took a bus to the business district. At a bar a man asked me if I wanted to buy some hash, he showed me a menu, boy it was expensive. Two things that are legal in Amsterdam are hash and prostitution. In the red light district, you walk down the road and several prostitutes are seen in their underwear through glass windows. These windows were the front rooms to their little hore houses. When we took the bus back to the campground we did not know where to get off, but luckily, a girl on the bus helped us figure out where the campground was.

July 4, 1995
We slept until 8 AM and then cruised through town one last time before leaving. I do not think Drew liked Amsterdam, but I thought it was somewhat neat. We stopped at a town that has several windmills, Kinderdijh. It a tourist trap in the Netherlands, first we took the ferry ride around the windmills (cost about $2 US). Then we decided to rollerblade on the trails around the windmills. It was like a big loop, at one point we asked a man if we could loop around and get back to where we parked. Drew though it would be shorter going back (I believe he also was afraid of getting lost) and I wanted to do a loop. It ended out that I looped around and made it back to the car before he got back (my way was shorter). Back near the car, we decided to go into one of the windmills (it was a tour for $2US). We stopped in a town, Antwerpen, there was a big church in front of a plaza that had several sidewalk cafes. I had what was called lasagna (actually it was chicken, gravy and meatballs), soup and pancakes, it was a very good meal (355BF == $11US) (parking was 295BF == $9US). In this town, we walked down this back road and saw some prostitutes in glass windows, like in Amsterdam. I was about to take a picture and the woman started screaming at me. Then Drew starting to point his camera at the women and they really cussed us out. Neither us ended out taking pictures. That night we ended out camping a little north of Brussels near a town, Ginberge. The campground was next to a cemetery, one of the gravestones was an interesting sculpture of people buried alive or something. It seemed like a nice campground, but I guess we camped in the wrong place; the campground attendant chewed us out in the morning. That night we drank our fourth of July beers at a pub in town. We ended up paying for our beer with German and US money, because we used up all our Belgium money already. Drew asked the lady at the bar if she would take all his German and Netherlands change in exchange for a phone call home. The lady said, “No!”. The showers at the campground were on timers and when the time ran out you could not restart shower. (total trip car kilometers 1685.6 )

July 5, 1995
I woke up 5:40 AM and went rollerblading and hiking. The cobble stone roads were rough for rollerblading, so I took off blades and put on shoes. I found this park and hiked the trail to an old castle with a mote. In the mote, I saw a hearing and an interesting duck (funny colored, shaped like a mallard). I started to hike to an old building that had a water wheel (foul smelling water in stream) on the side, the trail got better, so I put my blades back on, then the trail got rough again, so I put my shoes back on. When I got back to camp Drew was taking a shower, so I also took a shower and we packed up camp and drove to Brussels. We found free parking near the Justice building that overlooked town. From there we walked into town, we went by a palace that had armed guards out front, must of been the king (or presidents) house. From there we walked to a fortresses town square that had an elaborate market place. Looked like a place where they may have had chariot races or something. There was a balcony that overlooked the square and bleachers. We then drove to Champaign, I tried my money card but it would not work, I also tried charging gas and they would not take my credit card. We ended up spending a lot of time looking for a cheap meal, we finally ended up finding a grocery marked and bought some fruit and bread. Town had a big church and an elaborate castle with fancy garden. To leave town for the campground we had to drive through an arch that was connected to the palace. The campground was next to a golf course.

July 6, 1995
I got up early and went rollerblading and walking around town. When I came back, Drew was gone and he had the keys, so I took my tent down and started pacing back and forth. After a while, I saw Drew coming back from town on his rollerblades. He ended up going to the gardens at the castle in town. Next we went to Paris, we found this old fort that had Napoleons corps, old cannons and other neat stuff. Then we went up the Eifel tower, we were able to go up to the first level immediately, but had to wait in a long line to go up to the next level. I don’t think Drew liked the heights and I did not like the lines. Oh well, I was the one that talked Drew into going to the upper level. As we were leaving Paris, we had to drive around this traffic circle. The circle was 3 or 4 lanes deep and all the traffic was move and stop real fast. Kind of funny traffic. In general, the Traffic in Paris sucked, and the air seemed polluted. Next, we went to Versailles and set up camp at the nearby campground. Ate at pizza shop near campground; had brockett and fries (foret). The campground had push button, re-startable showers and had these toilets that her just holes in the ground (squat and aim). There were also urinals behind a short wall. The campground was hilly. (total trip car kilometers 2196.6 )

July 7, 1995
In the morning, we drove to the castle of Versailles and did the walking tour of section A. It was a very elaborate castle with huge painting, fancy murals on the ceiling and gold trim throughout. We also went on the guided tour (rough English speaking tour guide) of the king’s chamber and opera house. Then we walked around some of the gardens outside the palace. After that, we fought with the traffic and went back into Paris. Parked in the 5th underground level near the Louve. We started walking towards cemetery and decided it was too far, then we headed to Notre Dane. We say a topless sun bather at the Sein river. We then went into the Louve, museum and saw the Monolisa and Venus Del Milo, I took pictures (when I showed my pictures to someone back in Detroit, they told me I was not supposed to take pictures at the Louve). I actually thought there were paintings that were a lot more impressive that the Monilisa at the Louve museum. Then we drove to the cemetery were Jimmy Hendrix was buried. It was closed, but you could tell from looking over the wall, that there were some very impressive gravestones in that cemetery. I think Drew liked Paris a lot more than I liked it. I was glad to get out of Paris. We took the highway south of Paris towards, Lyons and ended up camping near A2 next to the Sean river and a Castle at a campground. (total trip car kilometers 2325.3 )

July 8, 1995
In the morning, I went roller blading with Drew, first we went over this neat old bridge I kept looking back to make sure I did not lose Drew, at one point I looked back and did not see him. I then went back looking for him and could not find him anywhere. I went back to camp and still no Drew. When he came back I found out that he took off his roller blades and explored this old building. After that, we drove quickly through the grape country of France. We found the first full size grocery store, that I had seen in Europe and bought groceries (bread, jelly, bottle of wine, ect.). We stopped in Geneva Switzerland and rollerbladed around town. We split up and each went our own way. Nice city with great trails around the lake shore and a big fountain. That day they had some sort of water skiing competition, people were doing tricks on the water skies in front of judges. We then drove to a campground near Murton, Switzerland. That night we sat by the lake and drank the French wine that we bought. (total trip car kilometers 2966.3 )

July 9, 1995
I rollerbladded to Murton and then went back to camp for a cold shower (it cost money for hot water). Then we drove to the fortified town of Murton and walked around town and on the walls that looked over and out of the town. The town is built in a sort of fort, with walls that you can walk on and hide from people outside the fortress. From there we drove to Arolla and hiked up to the Glacier. I ended up going up one side of the Glacier and Drew went up the other side. I could not see him, so I climbed off the Glacier looking for him, it turned out that he was still on the Glacier. That night we camped at a real nice campground up in the Swiss Alps near the Glacier. We drank beer at the local bar. (total trip car kilometers 3194)

July 10,1995
I went for a 1.5 hour hike on a nice trail in the mountains at 7:45 AM and when I returned Drew woke up and took a shower. I decided to pass on the $2F ($2US) shower. I wanted to go the scenic route over the mountains, but Drew did not like driving through the mountains, so we ended up driving the low altitude route through a tunnel. Before getting to Italy, we tried to find a place to exchange money, but everything was closed. When we arrived in Italy we needed to pay a tolls and all we had was $14US between the two of us and it ended out costing $11US. When we arrived in Verona, Italy, we changed lanes and then this person ended up zooming into us from behind. The guy kept yelling at us in Italian, but we never did anything wrong, after about 3 hours of complaining we finally got a Police officer to write an accident report and then we were able to leave. That night we stayed at the campground that overlooked Verona. We had an excellent Lasagna meal (small portion, expensive)

July 11, 1995
I woke up at 6:55 AM and decided to split up and meet Drew back at camp at 10 AM. From the campsite I walked down the hill and then had to cross an old bridge, that leads to an arched building into Verona. I then checked out the Tourist attractions Romeo and Juliet’s balcony, old coliseum and saw Drew at about 9:11 AM. At that point we decided to meet at camp 10:30 AM, instead of 10 AM. As we were leaving town, I tried to tell Drew which roads to turn on, but he would not listen. Next we went to Venice and Drew lightly sideswiped a car in the parking lot (no damage done). To go from main land to Venice, we decided to go on this guy’s personal smaller boat (rather than normal public Ferry, $7 US), at first it seemed like a good idea, but the guy put too many people on the boat. The private boat stopped at a glass factory and we ended up having to watch people making glass for about 1/2 hour (seemed like a waste of time). Drew called me back to boat way before it took off, then he went to drink water and returned real slowly when the boat was about to take off. When we finally made it to Venice Drew wanted to leave right away, so only stayed for about 5 minutes. After leaving Venice we went, by some neat mountains and I suggested camping in the mountains, but Drew thought it would be too cold, so we continued and ended up camping at a lake resort campground (cost about 284L == $30US). There was a nice rollerblading trail near campground and I went for a long roll. On the trip, I stopped in the woods to take a leak and lost my glasses (I did not realize I lost them until later). I continued and found a town near the trail, I stopped and there was a fiesta or bar with wild people and music. On the way back to camp I suddenly realized that I had lost my glasses. I figured I would never find them, then I recognized a house that I remembered after going to the rest room in the woods. I went under a fence, looked for my glasses, and did not find them at first. I went back in the woods a second time and found my glasses. When I came out of the woods some people saw me and started laughing. (total trip car over kilometers 4000 )

July 12, 1995
I went rollerblading into town in the morning. We did not leave camp until 10 AM. Drew decided if I really wanted to go to the mountains that he would drop me off. We drove to the city of Wein, Austria and tried to find tourist attractions, Drew got frustrated and was not feeling well, so he let me drive and we got out of town (yea!). I drove until we arrived at Berchesgarden on the border of Germany/ Austria in Germany. We found a nice campground near town. It was raining a lot and I walked to town (it ended out being a long walk), went to a train station to look for tourist information. I found out about a nice hike that I could do the next day, then went back to camp and went to sleep at about 11:30 PM. The campground was near Kognessee and named Muhlehun. (total trip car kilometers 4290 )

July 13, 1995
I woke up at 7 AM and it was a nice morning. Drew went to Salzburg, Austria and I went to Berchesgarden for directions to my hike in the Alps. I took a bus for 3:40DM to what I thought was going to be Kehlstien (eagles nest, Hitler’s old summer resort hideout in the mountains), but ended out only going to the place where I would need to catch another 19DM bus to Kehlstien. I decided to walk, the man at the bottom of the mountain said it would take about 2.5 hours to get to the top, I ended up making it to the top in 1.5 hours. I found the trail that followed the ridge to the top of the mountain. The trail had cables along the ridge with hand and foot holes. It was a wild trail were you hung on the cables on the middle of some high cliffs. I got real close to the top and could not find the more cables, also the cliffs were straight up. The weather looked like it might get bad, so I decided to turn back. I was only about one cliff from the top when I turned back and when I went further down I could see someone at the very top, I felt bad about not going all the way, but I was afraid of falling and killing myself. Also I was thirsty and feeling sun burned (I forgot my sun screen). Back at Kehlstien I bought a tee-shirt for 28DM, to cover my sunburned arms, I was wearing a sleeveless shirt. I noticed that the people at the restaurant were eating good food, but I could not afford it. I sat down outside the restaurant and ate soggy cookies and rock hard bread that I needed to water in order to keep from breaking my teeth. I walked back to camp and on the way, back I stopped at a river to soak my feet. I ended up sitting on an anthill, and the ants bite very hard. When Drew returned from Salzburg we drove to Konigsee Lake and that night we stayed in the same spot as the previous night.

July 14, 1995
I woke up at 7:30 AM and walked to Kongeness Lake, it was a nice walk along river. After that, we drove to the concentration camp at Dachau and my camera’s batteries ended up dying in the gas chamber. The concentration camp was a spooky place many dreary pictures and a view of what Germany really was during WW 2. We went to the Rhine river and camped at a campground that was between 2 castles near Bingen. (total trip car kilometers 5611.9 )

July 15, 1995
I woke up at 7:30 AM and packed up camp, took a shower and rollerbladed to the nearby castle. Drew woke took a shower and he went to one of the castles near camp and I went to the other one. I decided not to pay to go into the castle that I visited and Drew paid 5DM to go into the other castle. We drove north along the Rhine River and stopped at the next castle and then continued to Bochrock to look at glass for Drew. I found some batteries for my camera. We continued north to Koberbs and then crossed the Rhine river and went south on other side of river (42). We stopped at Marksburg castle, supposedly the best preserved medieval castle. We stopped at a roadside wine/ grape stand and bought a couple of bottles of Rhine grape wine, very good wine for about $5US/ bottle. Near the town of Raspenien, we found a vacant parking lot with people camping and decided to camp there. After drinking some wine I went rollerblading into town, many people were on the sidewalk waiting to leave on Rhine River tour boats. I started going back to camp and went through a red light, I heard someone yelling at me, I thought they were mad because of the light I ran, but it ended out that, he was trying to point out a tunnel that I could roller blade through in order to avoid the traffic. I went to the top of this hill and then I started going down the hill on the cobble stone road, between the rough road and Rhine wine I ended up falling on my butt. I decided to remove my roller blades. After I took my blades off and put my shoes on, I noticed all the people in the restaurant were looking at me. I figured they probable had an amusing meal watching me falling down the cobble stone road. I then went into a store and bought some cookies with my rollerblades on my shoulder. This person in the store sort of communicated with me. He should me all his cuts and told me he had fallen when he was roller blading while holding onto a car. I went back to camp and it started raining very hard then it stopped and I slept great.

July 16, 1995
In the morning, we went to the airport and returned our rental car. We had a tough time figuring out how to return our rental car. I tried to pay the ticket that we got in Germany, but they did not know what it was. (total trip car kilometers 5782.6 )

Google map of Europe with Drew in 1995	Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tale Road in Germany	Two KM west of Eisenach Germany
Park in Berlin, Germany	Status in Berlin, Germany	Drew rollerblading in Berlin, Germany.
Ted with Christo wrapped building near berlin Wall in Germany.	Garden in Hannover, Germany.	Road in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Windmills at Kinderdijk, Netherlands.	Grimbergen Belgium	Ted with Eiffel tower in Paris, France
Building of Napoleon in Paris France.	View of Paris from inside the Eiffel Tower.	Palace of Versailles in France.
Palace of Versailles in France.	Palace of Versailles in France	Palace of Versailles in France
Palace of Versailles in France	Paris, France.	Venus de Milo at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.
The Mona Lisa at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.	Murten, Switzerland	Waterfall on the way to Arolla, Switzerland.
Glacier near Arolla, Switzerland.	Verona, Italy	Arena in Verona, Italy.
Verona, Italy.	Venice, Italy	Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy	Eagles nest at Berchtesgaden, Germany (Adolf Hitler's retreat)	Ted on trail at Berchtesgaden, Germany
Eagles nest at Berchtesgaden, Germany (Adolf Hitler's retreat).	Trail at Berchtesgaden, Germany.	Trail at Berchtesgaden, Germany.
View from trail at Berchtesgaden, Germany.	Cremation ovens at Dachau concentration camp in Germany.	Fence around Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
Castle on Rhien River in Germany.	Torcher chamber at Marksburg Castle on the Rhine River in Germany.	Bed in Marksburg Castle on the Rhine River in Germany.