As I was looking through the pictures I come across three post cards that my mom put in the section for the trip I took to Germany with Omi and Opa in 1977. The first one is of a Lufthansa DC10 which I’m going to assume was the plane I probably flew on to get there. I have some vague memories of the trip and on the flight I remember they showed an in flight movie but I was so short I couldn’t see over the seat in front of me and and they kept trying to prop me up on blankets. I can’t remember what the movie was about but it was in German (go figure) and part of it took place in a midevil castle.

Omi writes,

“We are in Herrenberg, it is snowing, and today is Derek’s birthday. Derek is fine. The first night he slept 15 hours.”

The card is cut around the edges so that it would fit into the spot in the album so it’s hard to follow what’s written. Apparently the plane was very full because British Airways was on strike during that time.

This is the first postcard of three so I figured I would start with the beginning of the trip but it turns out that this 1977 card isn’t the oldest one of the three. When I pulled them out to read the back one of them is dated 1975. It’s a picture of Herrenberg which is a place I visited but was sent by Omi and Opa when they were on a previous trip to Germany.

I’ve never been as far east as PEI but I’ve always wanted to go.  I’ve been a couple of times to Saint John, New Brunswick which is close by but it was always for swim meets and I don’t recall actually seeing much of the area.  I know we did some tourist things but the only real memories I have of the town are walking from the hotel to the pool, from the pool to the mall, from the mall back to the hotel, hotel back to pool…..  They had this entire walkway system that connected a bunch of stuff together so you never actually had to go outside which was nice because one time I was there in the middle of winter and there was lots of freezing rain and cold weather.

Enough sightseeing from Saint John and back to the PEI.  I was saying that I wasn’t really sure who sent it to me and that’s because nothing was actually written on the back.  It was a postcard for lazy people where all you had to do was check the most appropriate box.

The boxes checked haven’t really helped me narrow down the sender which is starting to make me crazy.  You would think that from the address I could tell by the handwriting but whoever sent this was very crafty and typed the address so I’m out of luck.

This post card dates from 1998 and was sent to us by Amanda when she was on her trip to Europe with a couple of her friends.  I can’t remember if it was her senior year of high school or the year before but Jen was just about beside herself when she found out that Amanda was going to be allowed to prance around Europe with a couple of similarly aged friends all by themselves without an adult chaperon.

This postcard is a picture of the Fountains at Montjuïc.  They were built in 1929 for the World’s Fair and according to the Barcelona tourist guide, “The magic fountain is a spectacular display of colour, light, motion, music and water acrobatics – if you mix all these elements together in just the right combinations, you end up with pure magic! The magic fountain is a “must see” when you come to Barcelona and highly recommended.”

Amanda made it through her trip alright but I seem to remember something about her camera being stolen on the train at some point so I don’t think there were too many pictures of the trip.  Jen was able to to breath easier when she finally arrived back home.

When they were in better health they used to travel to Germany ever other year or so to visit with family and travel around the country to see the sites. Depending the on length of the trip and the number of places they visited I would get at least one postcard, sometimes more.

On most of the postcards they usually have some type of verbiage on the back describing the scene on the front but this one just had “8000 Münich”. After doing some research it turns out that I’m just not well traveled and 8000 Munich refers to Marienplatz, the central square in in the city center. When I did an image search I found a picture almost identical to the one in the top right corner of the postcard.

Omi didn’t have a whole lot to say on this card other then it weather was really hot and the hotels they were staying at didn’t have air conditioning. We found the same thing when we were in Edinbourgh in the summer and the hotel didn’t have any air conditioning and it was hot which made sleeping a little difficult.

“We had a fantastic trip down south.” and “spent their time hiking, eating, drinking margaritas, enjoying Mexican Cuisine, visiting CNN, and touring Coca-Cola.”

In fact this post card is from visiting the CNN building. A couple of years after their trip we drove over to Atlanta and met them there and did just about the same things. At the end of the CNN tour they had the obligatory gift shop which had merchandise from all the Turner broadcasting networks including the Cartoon Network.

I never watched an episode of Johnny Bravo but according to wikipedia it was on from 1997-1999, and then again from 2000-2003.

All of of my Switzerland collection were sent to me by Deanna who spent a summer with a family in the town of Appenzell.

She writes

“I live in the country, overlooking the town of Appenzell. It’s so nice here! My room looks out onto the Alps and I can see Austria from the property.”

It sounds like she’s actually describing the pictures on the front of the card, not a real place she could be staying. Maybe she was feeling a little guilty about living in the picturesque Swiss countryside and tried to make me feel better by adding,

“We don’t have a T.V. so I’ve been reading a lot. Please videotape some of the Olympics for me.”

Hah, so it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. While she was living in scenic Appenzellerland I was wasting away in front of the TV watching the Atlanta Olympic games. Come to think of it, I did tape the Olympics but those tapes have been long gone now.

After all these years I never actually known where exactly in Switzerland Appenzell was but Google quickly answered that question for me. However, one link lead to another and I found myself checking out the official Appenzell web site and I have to tell you it they make it seem like their town comes right out of the pages of Heidi.

“This is the home of happy hens, contented cows and placid pigs.”

I don’t think your going to find many towns that describe themselves that way.

About once a week I’ll try post one of the cards I’ve receive which should last me well over a year.

For installment one I thought there was no better way to start out then with the oldest postcard in my collection and as an added bonus it’s from the most prolific post card writers I know, Omi and Opa. In my entire collection they have sent me the most cards which is probably due to the fact that they have done the most traveling which is of course a prime post card writing opportunity.

Not all the cards are dated but this one is from November 30th, 1995 when they took a trip to Niagara Falls. Omi writes,

We are for 3 days and 2 nights to Niagara. It was a “Special” in the paper and we grabbed it! The Falls are like always – full of water

You have to like her sense of humor.