The first travel abroad with JE was a week vacation in London with some friends. It was during the Christmas holidays, so the weather was freezing. I think the main purpose of the trip was to watch a Chelsea football match at Stanford Bridge (the hidden agenda), even though us two girls thought we were going on a shopping trip. The budget was however as low as it could get, so this posing in front of the Burlington Arcade was the closest I could afford to get to that shopping street ...
The following summer we went on a 4 week Inter Rail trip through Europe. This was our last chance before JE turned 26.
The first stop on the trip (after a day in Copenhagen) was a visit to my friend Jeanette in Weil. From there we took the train to Venice. On train we met an elderly couple who were going to Vierwaldstättersee, and they asked us if we would come along because it was such a beautiful place. We declined, but have regretted that decision ever since. At the railway station in Luzerne the old man ran all the way to the shop and back to buy us a map, reaching back to our cabin just in time before the train left. It was such a kind gesture!
Venice was extremely expensive and highly overrated. We were rather happy to get on the train again although it was a wonderful experience. The trip from Venice to Thessaloniki was very long. We changed train in Zagreb and had time to take a short trip into town to buy Pepsi and Slivovicz. (Maybe spelled wrong..)
On the train we shared cabin with two nice swedish girls, and when we left the train in Thessaloniki, we said goodbye and they traveled on to Athens. We spent a day on a beach in Thessaloniki without any sun cream of course, and got a terrible sunburn. Afterwards we took the night train to Athens. On the way out of the railway station we met the two swedish girls. What a coincidence!
We spent one or two days in Athens watching Acropolis, Plaka and on JE's birthday we had dinner at Likavitos Hill. It was already starting to get hot in Athens and we were happy to continue to Corfu.
We found a cosy hotel in Corfu town (mostly habituated by gay men, but that didn't bother us). The first day we took a bus to a beach within easy reach, and as we walked along the beach we heard someone calling our names. It was the two swedish girls, sitting at a café. Weird!
After some days at Corfu we took the boat to Italy and train to Naples. There we visited Capri, Pompei and Sorrento. This was a highlight of the trip!
Like most other inter-railers those days, we had to visit Paris. Another beautiful, beautiful town!
The next summer a new trip was planned. This time we wanted to do something different and decided to go on a bicycle trip to Denmark. It was a prearranged trip with rented bikes, a map, description and pre-booked accommodation. There were 5 other people taking the same trip the same day, and we all became great friends on the trip.
Afterwards, we finished off with a few days in Travemünde in our tent.