The summer of
'68. I was 16, my buddy David 15. How we talked our folks
into it, I don't know. David and I left our homes in Bermuda for almost
six weeks in Europe. We started out in Surrey, a 'burb of London
where David was born and still had family. David's uncle met us
upon our arrival and took us to a pub for a beer. (It was a
different time!) We immediately set out on a 10-day coach tour of
Alpine Europe with an alcoholic guide who was pretty much out of
commission after a few days into the trip and who had failed to make
reservations for the group along the way. That and the company
failed to do routine maintainance on the bus before we left, so it
almost didn't make it back at the end of the tour. The
middle-aged Brits were not amused. For us, it was a marvelous
adventure.
Most of the pictures here, the only ones to survive the ravages of
time, were taken after the Alpine tour. David and I returned to
London and, after a few days, rented bicycles, which we rode around
England and Wales for the next few weeks. We stayed in a tent or
in youth hostels. Starting from London, we made our way to
Southampton, then by ferry to the Isle of Wight, rode across the island
and caught a ferry to Lyme Regis and thence to northern Wales, then
south along the coast, across to Oxford, and finally back to London.
Most of the pictures are of us in various places: tent, hostel, on our
bikes, walking across a stream... I have no doubt that those who
know us now will be amused by these pictures of us in our youth.
Enjoy!
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