# European cycling tour - 1964



## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

In the summer of 1964 my dad did a cycling tour of Europe with his school German club. They started in London and cycled through Belgium, Holland, and West Germany, including a day foot trip to East Berlin. I finally convinced him to scan some of his photos, a few of which I thought might be of interest in this forum. I apologize for the small size and poor quality. He scanned them small, and when he shot them he was a 16 year old boy learning how to use a fully manual 35mm Minolta (no SLR, no rangefinder, no light meter!). 

1. This plane carried them across the Atlantic. 

2. In England.

3. Nancy was one of the chaperons. Years later Nancy stood in for my Godparents at my baptism. A respected Minnesota educator, she passed away two weeks ago due to cancer. RIP Nancy  

4-5. Cycling in southern England, I think.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

I'm really not sure where all these photos were taken. Is it just me or does it appear that two of the bicycles in the third picture are sinking into the sidewalk?


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Actually the fact that the scans are crummy makes this an even neater post of times gone by.

Sorry to hear about Nancy she looks fun.


Thems some sweet bikes.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

The group stayed in hostels throughout their journey. In the 4th pic here, my dad is at left writing a letter home.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

In 1964 Berlin was deep inside East Germany, with a corridor providing passage from West Germany to West Berlin.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

The Berlin Wall split the city. In some places the Wall included elaborate no-mans-lands, in others the wall was made by bricked-up buildings.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

They cycled through some mountainous areas as well. Dad seemed to enjoy the climbs and descents. 

The end.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

MB1 said:


> Thems some sweet bikes.


They rode a fleet of Gitanes. Whether purchased or rented, I'm not sure, but they didn't come home with the group. Dad greatly enjoyed riding them though, and it inspired him to buy a matching pair of Gitane TdFs for he and my mom in ~1971. They both still have the bikes languishing in garages, but requests to "pass them along" have so far gone unanswered :idea:


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

undies said:


> They rode a fleet of Gitanes. Whether purchased or rented, I'm not sure, but they didn't come home with the group. Dad greatly enjoyed riding them though, and it inspired him to buy a matching pair of Gitane TdFs for he and my mom in ~1971. They both still have the bikes languishing in garages, but requests to "pass them along" have so far gone unanswered :idea:


Isn't it amazing to see that at one time your parents were totally cool kids....

BTW it would make a great Christmas or Birthday present someday to clean and fix up those old Gitanes for your folks. Don't change any major parts just get them working and safe again.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

MB1 said:


> BTW it would make a great Christmas or Birthday present someday to clean and fix up those old Gitanes for your folks. Don't change any major parts just get them working and safe again.


Actually, my Dad has maintained his in very clean and ridable condition, although he has no interest to ride it anymore and just stores it under a blanket in the garage. He says, "I can't ride it up here," because he lives a couple of miles down a rough dirt road. I try to convince him otherwise because at the end of his dirt road is the route that Ridgetop just posted through Virginia City. 

My mom's bike is also clean but probably needs some work (tires, at least) to be ridable. I can't see her ever actually riding it again.


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## Slim Again Soon (Oct 25, 2005)

*Awesome pics! A great adventure*

These are great photos -- thanks for posting.

It must have been quite the adventure -- and Europe was far less Americanized then than now.

Always a strange and creepy thrill to see the Berlin Wall. What a weird time that was -- the Cold War was crazy, and we only now are coming to recognize the danger it posed to all of us alive at that time.

I love that picture of Nancy -- on her bike, in her shades, with that smile, even a '60s hair band. She's gorgeous. Dreamy chaperone material, for sure.

There was something to be said for cycling before the one-must-wear-a-helmet-at-all-times era. I'm sorry she passed away -- she looks like someone who enjoyed life.


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## JP (Feb 8, 2005)

That is so cool. Makes me want to post a few ride reports from the '70s.


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

My current candidate for Photo Essay of the Year. The soft focus and color saturation lend the pictures a true timeless aura...made even more timeless by the juxtoposition of the surprisingly modern looking bikes and the very Sixties-looking folks. As Slim says, Nancy is dreamy. Grace Kelly on a bike. I'm sure your dad had a helluva time.


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## oarsman (Nov 6, 2005)

*Fabulous essay*

Very interesting. I love old photos, especially of travelling in such an adventurous way. I have a few around of my parents trips when they were young, not on bikes but in 40s era motor cars driving gravel roads through the mountains of BC. That really must have been an amazing adventure.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

Wow, thanks everyone!



Mapei said:


> The soft focus and color saturation lend the pictures a true timeless aura...


He shot slides, and these scans are from those slides which have been stored in carousels for the last ~40 years. The slides probably explain why the colors were so well preserved. 

Once in a while on a Saturday evening my dad would present an evening slide show to the family. He had a few others but the European trip was always my favorite. I'm glad to hear that others enjoy the pics as much as I did!


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## zooog (Mar 18, 2002)

Great pictures and ride report....


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## Dave Hickey (Jan 27, 2002)

Post of the year.......Outstanding


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## wooglin (Feb 22, 2002)

Wonderful post. I'd love to see the whole slide show.


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## Reynolds531 (Nov 8, 2002)

Your wonderful post brought a flood of emotions washing over me. Nancy´s beauty, youthful adventure, time rolling on. It reminds me to embrace every minute of life. It´s my favorite RBR post of all time.


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## tarwheel2 (Jul 7, 2005)

Really cool shots. Thanks for posting. I hope your dad sees them.

How about those red plaid panniers? I'm surprised Rivendell hasn't reprised them.


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## phil. (Aug 3, 2004)

Wow, great post!


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## Antonio_B (Dec 9, 2005)

Awesome pictures. Thanks to you and your pops.


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## ampastoral (Oct 3, 2005)

dood, maybe it's post NNC calm, the weather, or some other such thing, but i literally got chills looking through your report. what an awesome record to have....thanks for sharing, truly helped make my morning....er afternoon i guess


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

Fantastic...THANK YOU for posting that..great, great stuff.

Edit: MY GOD!! THEY'RE RIDING WITHOUT HELMETS!!!


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

chuckice said:


> ....Edit: MY GOD!! THEY'RE RIDING WITHOUT HELMETS!!!



LOL

Or cycling shorts, or gloves, or camelbacks, or cycling shoes, or STI, or indexing...........

And having the time of their lives.

Makes you think doesn't it?


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## deadlegs (Jan 28, 2004)

*Awsome Post, undies!*

I love stuff like this! So many little things you can catch in old photos, if you look close enough.

A few years ago I managed to get my hands on most of my Grandfathers 35mm slides. I ended up buying a scanner and getting them all to digital format; almost 1300 slides. Some are from the same time period as these pics of yours. The one of the airplane. . . I think the same plane is in a couple I have taken in Hawaii back in who-knows-when..

Thanks for posting!


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## wayneanneli (Jul 8, 2004)

An absolutely fantastic thread undies. Filled with emotion, memories, feeling. Really sorry to hear about Nancy, she must have had positive effect on your dad. Again, terrific post.


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

tarwheel2 said:


> How about those red plaid panniers?


Cool, aren't they? I need to find a pair of those.


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## Bertrand (Feb 1, 2005)

Wonderful stuff. I agree that this is the best photo essay of the year.


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## buck-50 (Sep 20, 2005)

That's a really great post. My wife and I are about to have our first child, and it's good to know that maybe she'll be able to look back some day and see some of the cool things mom and dad did before they became boring old mom and dad.

Thanks- I don't know why, but some of those pictures brought a tear to my eye.

-B-


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## SteveCnj (Oct 6, 2003)

Reynolds531 said:


> Your wonderful post brought a flood of emotions washing over me. Nancy´s beauty, youthful adventure, time rolling on. It reminds me to embrace every minute of life. It´s my favorite RBR post of all time.


Yes, this is exactly how I felt reviewing Undies post. Thanks for the right words of expression.

Steve


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## lot8con8 (May 17, 2006)

You are lucky to have such a great piece of your father's past. The pics were great. Thanks for that post.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

The shot of the airplane and the Berlin Wall is like stepping into a time warp Hard to imagine there was a time not that long ago when people would get shot for trying to make it to this side of the wall. 

Great pics. Thanks for posting them.


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## Jeff in Texas (Mar 17, 2006)

Undies, thanks for sharing. Wonderful photo's! Tell your dad thanks also.


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## Guest (Sep 1, 2007)

Wonderful stuff,

Thank you.


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## JP (Feb 8, 2005)

MB1 said:


> LOL
> 
> Or cycling shorts, or gloves, or camelbacks, or cycling shoes, or STI, or indexing...........
> And having the time of their lives.
> Makes you think doesn't it?


How true. Often beginners will ask me what kind of bike they "need." I often preface my remarks by saying, "you know, you could go down to Value Village or a garage sale and buy a perfectly good bike for $25 that you could easily ride across the country." Nobody believes me when I say this.

As Fritz said many times, "you don't NEED it." 

Everything else is just nice to have if you like it.


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## zeytin (May 15, 2004)

What a wonderful post. Thank you for posting it and thanks to your Dad for scanning the photos. It's really a time trip to see the hair and the clothes and the bikes and the wall.

Thank you so much.


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## Velo Vol (Mar 9, 2005)

Great post--I believe this is the oldest one I've ever seen here.

Nor heart rate monitors or Garmin GPS units? How did they ever survive?


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## oarsman (Nov 6, 2005)

*Such a great post*

I posted a reply earlier, but looking through the threads again got me to finally pull out the DVD my brother made of my Dad's slides from as far back as the forties. My Dad (who I sparred with for my entire life) died in the late nineties, and my mum, who I was really close to, just a couple of months ago. 

Because of your post, I spent hours looking through pictures of their wedding, of my brothers and sister growing up, of family vacations through the [then] wilderness of the BC interior. I haven't stopped crying, both in joy and sadness, for hours. I just wanted to thank you for posting all those photos of a different age; they allowed me to look back on my parents' [and my siblings'] lives (and my own, I suppose) in a way I don't think I have been able to since my mum died.

So again, thank you. I am sure you didn't intend it, but your post has permitted me to face the death of my mum in a way that I have been unable to for too many months.


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## Howzitbroke (Jun 1, 2005)

These photos are great I love the reactions they have gotten from all. Beautiful post. Cycling is a constant for me in life. The act of riding never changes as evidenced in these photos. There is a common joy among all of us regardless of eqipment or time. This is what cycling is all about. The ability to push ourselves through the air and see life from a different point of view. Its as if we can free ourselves and fly under our own might. Today at 35 years old when I went out to ride it felt exactly the same as the first day I ever pedaled fast enough to stay aloft on two wheels. That was 31 years ago, and today I am the same person. I hope to live to be 100 and remember what it felt like to be 4.


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## DrRoebuck (May 10, 2004)

Great post, Undies!


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## undies (Oct 13, 2005)

Howzitbroke said:


> I hope to live to be 100 and remember what it felt like to be 4.


May we all!

I am quite speechless at all of the kind responses everyone has given. Thank you everyone! I am glad to know that the pictures have inspired so many good thoughts and memories for folks.


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## Len J (Jan 28, 2004)

I was in West Berlin in the late 70's........your Dad's pictures were a flashback.

Great post....thanks.

Len


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## jd3 (Oct 8, 2004)

This is a wonderful post. I'd love to relive my days of riding with no helment in the 70's. But, I've busted two helments in the last year. I guess I'm glad I wear one now.


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## Reynolds531 (Nov 8, 2002)

I'm bumping this because it's great.


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## matfam (Jul 13, 2012)

Great pics, I am glad it got bumped....repped


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