A World Travel Story

 

"We traveled on a budget of $1000 each and our bible was Let’s Go Europe. We had no cell phones, internet, google or Mapquest back then so that book was our guide and we followed its recommendations religiously. We were in Amsterdam and wanted to get to France and decided to go to the piers in Rotterdam ( suggested by Let’s Go) and see if we could hitch a ride on a barge. It was in the seventies and Rotterdam was nowhere you wanted to be. It was also mid October; rainy, gray and chilly. The sky seemed to be right over our heads, oppressive and depressing. We finally found a barge  that had a couple guys working on the deck and in limited English, they agreed to let us come along. The vessel was one of those long, flat, black industrial types. Meant for little else besides work. We couldn’t believe our luck and happily jumped onboard for the week long journey through the locks of Holland and northern France.

Grim, would be a nice to way to describe the ride. Two very strange, socially dysfunctional men (who lived like they were in a cave), us, and two sleeping bags. We kept to ourselves, as did they, (thankfully) and spent most of the time curled up in our sleeping bags trying to stay warm. It was that damp cold that seeps into your bones and there was nothing in the form of heat or the famous Dutch coziness to help make it pleasant. They had a cabin somewhere down below, who knows where because we didn’t explore, and a really tragic head ( or toilet as we call it). Dirty doesn’t begin to describe the conditions of this place and we did the best we could to not look too closely. Food? I don’t recall. I am sure we had the basics and I think they shared some kind of stew like potato dish with us more than once. It wasn’t the highlight. 😅.

I do remember going through all the locks and how fascinating that was; waiting for the lock master, watching the water go up and down, passing through the small villages along the way.

Finally, we were dropped off late in the day somewhere north of Paris, where we proceeded to hitch a ride into the city. Arriving late, we made our way to the famous Shakespeare bookstore, where we had read the owner would let you sleep upstairs for free. He absolutely did, but not before he had us mop the floor and wipe up the water on our hands and knees with newspaper. It was 1:30 am before we lay our heads down on our sleeping bags on the second floor of the bookstore. Amidst a room of other travelers, we were on our way to Europe and beyond." A. Cushman