Have Camera, Did Travel, 1950s

[Music] but when Ken showed me that snapshot taken in Paris with those show girls don't you worry I took that picture myself well believe you me when Tom and I go to Europe I'm going to make sure he takes me there but seriously though Mary you and Ken must have had a wonderful trip Lou I can't tell you how exciting it was and remember what a hard time I had talking Ken to it at all oh yeah one day it was off the next it was on oh I certainly do yes I admit I wasn't very hot about it in the beginning seven countries 28 days all the arrangements foreign languages I was worn out just thinking about it by a no fishing trip with a boys you're right Tom this year I was bound and determine we were going to do something together oh movies tonight oh ken you dog and with a captive audience and listen I don't want to hear you say pardon me for a moment if I if I have to suffer through it you do too oh okay I'll suffer oh look at his expression don't look so hurt we're dying to see your movies why what do you think we came over here for for tonight I wouldn't have missed them for the world hurry up hurry up okay okay I'm hurrying say I didn't know you were a camera bug Ken or I'm really not just before the trip I bought a simple movie camera with a built-in meter aimed it push the button Lou will you get the lights please my that's a pretty picture oh quiet Louise at Daybreak approaching England our captain invited us by twos and threes into the Pilot's compartment to view the sunrise and the Featherbed of clouds below us we were at 23,000 ft many of our group didn't appreciate this early morning invitation but it certainly was worth the effort I asked the pilot to slow down so I could get a good shot of the propellers and he did how could he do that oh you're [Laughter] kidding our first Port of Call was London here officials of the English Auto clubs and the AAA introduced us to our tour escorts who guided us through the entire trip our buses took us immediately to the grovenor house one of the better hotels in London Sunday we took a tour of London this is St James Palace padilly circus a Christopher Ren Church the famous Ching cross station Charles Dickens old curiosity shop and where our women curious as well as Furious because Charlie's shop was closed it being Sunday this shot of London Bridge is slightly Tipsy no doubt no doubt Nelson's monument at Trafalga Square Hampton Court with its beautiful gardens and fountains what is Hampton Court another Palace well in the olden days this is where the kings and queens entertained royalty but today it's a park and Museum thousands of English people come every Sunday to relive their history and enjoy the gardens after 3 days in London we flew via Sabina landing at the Brussels national airport it's a very modern and up-to-date terminal here we heard our first foreign tongue which is of course no barrier to folks on an AAA tour because the escorts are multil linguists by this time we had become quite accustomed to moving around without a thought of our personal luggage the tour escorts also took care of this the famous Gill Square in the center of Brussels each building represents a specific trade and the front of each building is trimmed with 14 karat gold leaf oh that's a beautiful shot in in the middle of the square we saw this flower market the vendor presented Mary with a little bouquet of violets down the street we saw our first Outdoor Cafe and remember in Europe Cafe means restaurant where are we now oh this is the lake in the center of the French Gardens the lake serves as a catch Basin for the rain water from the upper streets of the residential area they funnel it through filters and pipes to that pile of rocks in the center and it makes a fountain effect well where's the fountain oh that only FS when it rains notice the lines of the building in the background and these lines aren't bad either oh ken kids are kids the world over and so is AAA our escort explained that if we were touring Europe by car we would be entitled to the same emergency service anywhere on the continent as we are at home this was a service vehicle of the Auto Club of Belgium speaking of fountains oh the mannequin Prince you know on a couple of festive days each year the mannequin Prince dispenses beer in the same manner as you see here through the courtesy of the local Brewery and the citizens queue up with their beer mugs to receive their portions For Heaven's Sake oh this is the view of Brussels from our room at the metropo hotel looking down the plast Lon oh our party was picked up in front of the Metropole by Tropa buses see the trailers that's where our luggage is carried and the same drivers and buses stayed with us for the following 12 days our next country was Holland the first stop was at braa for leg stretching and a drink of their famous hot chocolate oh isn't this roer Dam yes this was on the way to the hag here's the peace Palace at the ha didn't Andrew melon build this no he put up the first million to start it and member nations contributed additional money materials and art Treasures to complete it oh aren't those windows breathtaking and the chandeliers were just gorgeous the beach at scaven or however you say it the smart seaside resort of Holland the North Sea on one side of the street hotels and cafes on the other notice the wind brakes yeah the tour included a 2-hour boat trip through the canals of Amsterdam see him changing the flag that's done as a courtesy to their foreign visitors the canals alternate with streets in this part of the city look at the cars parked on the streets in front of those narrow houses are these just summer house boats no people live on them all year if you don't like your neighbor you just move to another Canal it's like United States trailer Living Water traffic is very heavy everything uses the canals even ducks the canals are flushed clean by tidal water every 48 hours through a series of locks such as this one there's another Excursion boat they cost $90,000 each wow an oldfashioned Cal Bridge operated by the shifting of Weights by one man we're waiting our turn to go through every tourist buys Sabo wooden shoes to you we had lunch at the C hotel in Elton 270 ft above sea level the highest point in Holland beyond that River in the distance is Germany we are now at the German border the officers were most helpful banks are at all the borders to change your money into the local speci we lost no time at any border crossings the AAA escorts took all the passports into the officials and had them examined and stamped for us in route to dorf we passed through farmland and small country towns some of us took advantage of the comfortable reclining seats in dorf one of the things we saw was this old opera house on the Square the next morning we visited the famed Cathedral at cologne you know this Cathedral stood throughout the war without a hit even though a block away the rail head was completely demolished imagine that from coand we took a steamer up the r the castle in the background is the Aaron breitstein Fortress built when the Franks occupied Germany in 1500 this little town is fendorf on the East Bank cluster bhen how do you like my German pretty good Barn hofen is at the kilometer Mark 567 every kilometer from Switzerland to Holland is painted on the Rocks so you always know where you are the rine is an international River and the traffic is heavy I took these shots from the Pilot House deck St Gore was very quaint it's where the cats and mouse castles are what that's right k a TZ and M us oh For Heaven's Sake here's the old college at heidleberg beyond the trees you can see the new American Medical College the Upper Floor of the old College houses the student cell block where each student had to serve at least 10 days out of his 4-year training period to better understand uh restricted privileges the Cog railroad runs up to the old heidleberg castle built in the 13th century we headed Southward through Germany to the Swiss border entering at Schoff Housen it was pouring I'll say it was but it didn't make any difference the countryside and the little hamlets were very pretty notice the lack of traffic see the little stucco houses aren't they quaint they certainly are I took this view after 6:00 p.m. from the balcony of our room at the palace hotel overlooking Lake luzer everybody takes a boat ride on this lake so did we there's our hotel in the background the man manager of the Carlton tiv and one of the AAA officials chased us in a speedboat to invite us to a rooftop party naturally we accepted they flew the United States flag in our honor everybody had a good time the Alps are every bit as breathtaking as you've heard this is 7,000 ft above luzern Mount Pilatus the green areas are forests with trees 60 to 80 ft tall the Swiss Mountaineers signal to one another from Mountaintop to village with these horns are all the horns that long no this was one for distant signaling it has a very soft tone we came down from patus on a cog railroad these cars are specially designed so everyone can see out of the big windows on all sides boy was it steep here's a mountain sided cow from luzern we took the G it railroad to Venice we went through at least 17 tels in the Alps one was 9 miles long Ken was so busy trying to get shots of all the beautiful scenery that he was going from one side of the train to the other I sure was busy we had to stop at bellan Zona near the border for Customs inspection some of us got out and stretched our legs the conductor waved us on goodbye to the Alps we were Venice bound some of us stayed in the new excelsia danelli but we stayed at the old Royal danielli from the rooftop looking down the Grand Canal we saw the Church of Santa Maria the finest Baroque Church in Venice and hundreds of gondolas these fellows were busy making a new moing for their gondola the clock tower in St Mark's Square is in the very heart of Venice beyond all those pigeons is the does Palace the entire party took to the gondolas up the Grand Canal traffic was thick and fast gandering is a profession handed down from father to son only a descendant of a Gondolier may join the union and there's no women gonders here's a pair of hot roders [Music] what ever happened to you oh please I heard that every night until 400 a.m. you did we sure did the venetians live and do business on both sides of the canal well that's a wedding barge H how deep are the canals Ken oh 5 to 50 ft or more seagoing vessels come in the main canals here's the French legation the Rialto Bridge it has open air shops all across it next we went to Florence Italy this was taken from Michelangelo Park the Ponte beo bridge is to the left the building with a dome on it is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del fiori the Santa cocha Church Michelangelo is buried here a monument to dantey only pedestrians are allowed on the ponovo bridge you can buy all kinds of things here laces precious stones jewelry twool leather articles and so forth we met a native wedding Party in the Park oh her dress was so pretty I was looking at her face oh you a father and son team make these walking dolls and ship them all over the world we brought one home with us Louise we sure did I dragged it all over with us oh I'd love to see it I'll show it to you later then we went to Rome Mary remember how we felt when we saw all this it kind of made chills run up and down your spine oh this is where Anthony eulogized Caesar with his friends Romans Countryman speech that's Saturn's Temple here's the old Coliseum where the Emperors enjoyed the Gladiators games and many modders were Torn to Pieces by the wild beasts when was that built in 72 ad and it seated 50,000 people and believe it or not at one time it had an awning over it I never knew there was a pyramid in but here it is built in 12 BC as a tomb for cestus and the St Angelo Castle was also built as a tomb for the emperor hadrien musolini had this Stadium built for international sporting events by the night Blue Train we went on to nice on the French Riviera what no bikini now just my luck my camera flipped its shutter as we arrived at the beach this plaque points to EZ a medieval village on a Crag near Monte Carlo and there's Monte Carlo with a Rainer Palace in the background here's its entrance hi 2 3 4 finally Paris and guess where I took this shot from the Eiffel Tower naturally the famous book stalls along the east Bank of the saan across the river the Lou once the residence of kings and now the most famous art museum in the world and is it ever big there's miles of it believe me someday we're going back because there's so much more to see oh that is terrific a wonderful show count can Tom and I make the same trip next year you know I've always wanted to go to Spain do they have one of these tours that includes Spain oh of course Tom all the countries this side of the Iron Curtain are included in one or more of the tours uh Mary would you get me the travel bag with the brochures in it please where till I show you every member of the party received one of these tour bags for personal articles this meant we did not have to go into our luggage while traveling here look at these brochures that they give us before we even start on the trip in order that we can plan that's where we wish to go this saves a lot of time when you get over there for instance England Paris that's nice Italy Germany and the Ry River now don't worry Louise about getting wet because the river flows this way well I'm sure glad it does we could have rented a car through the AAA if we wanted to stay longer than the regular tour or if we had gone over independently as it was we bought our small car through them and had it shipped home after we left Europe the AAA has thought of everything for the convenience of its touring friends and members and the high type of men they employ as Club escorts are outstanding their solution of every situation is marvelous you can't help but have a wonderful time oh Tom what do you say let's go next year if you folks are serious is I'll make an appointment for you with the local AAA foreign travel agent well but we're not members K well that makes no difference Tom these tours are for non-members as well as members well what do all this cost well they told us that these tours are designed for every pocketbook and taste and they begin at about $900 well that's not bad at all wonderful darling Oh look oh the doll oh isn't she adorable [Music]