Europe 1984

It’s not easy to decide which of my vacations is most memorable. Often, vacations are what I most remember about a particular year. They’re all memorable in their own ways. I suppose the most interesting one was the summer of 1984 when I bought an inter-rail ticket and toured Europe for a month. That whole summer is very memorable.

I wasn’t fluent in Irish, so I was slightly dreading it. However, when I got there, though we had Irish classes, we didn’t just speak Irish all the time. I made lots of great friends, and the weather was fabulous. Perhaps, learning Irish in such surroundings motivated us to start liking the language. I could easily class that as my most memorable holiday. I took nothing but slides that summer, which I now regret because they don’t age or scan very well but here are a few from Cape Clear:

Then, in early July, I went on a Baptist Youth Evangelism (BYE) team to Waterford Baptist Church. I saw this as an act of service rather than a holiday. However, again, I made lots of friends, and it was great fun. We had some rough lads come into our coffee bar, which we held most nights. I remember playing Do Nothing by the Specials on the church harmonium for them. They were very impressed 😀. I went on lots of BYE teams in the following years and even led a few of them. Again, I could see that as a memorable holiday. I would always recommend such teams to young people.

In late July, I got a ferry from Ringaskiddy, in Cork, to Le Havre in France. The journey took about 24 hours. I spent my first night in Rouen. It was a little lonely because I travelled on my own, but I did meet lots of people in the various Youth Hostels. Here’s where I went:

• Ringaskiddy Cork, where I caught the 24-hour ferry to Le Havre.
• Roeun where I spent my first night. I remember seeing a monument to Joan of Arc there.
• Paris. I visited all the usual spots – Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg Gardens, Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre & Sacré-Cœur Basilica and so on. It was a bit of a challenge trying to buy a metro pass. I couldn’t speak French, and they couldn’t or wouldn’t speak English 😀. I had no trouble anywhere else in Europe. Everyone was happy to speak English to me.
• Versailles. I went to the palace grounds. And I spoke French! I got lost and asked someone where the station was in French 😀 – “Où est la gare?
• Rheims. I took a double-decker train from Paris. I went to the cathedral and on a tour of a champagne cellar. I remember meeting an American who was impressed with my Dexy’s Midnight Runners T-shirt.
• Amsterdam. I liked the architecture, the canals and the yellow trams, buses and trains and the fact that it was so compact. I remember visiting the Heineken Brewery, Vondelpark, a diamond museum, and going to an organ concert in a cathedral in Dam Square. I also went on trips to Harlem and Utrecht before leaving for Munich. It was an overnight train. When we crossed the border, in a railway station in the early hours of the morning, they were making a film or TV show based in Nazi Germany. I never discovered what it was. I did take a pic of it.
  

• Munich. I stayed in a giant circus tent. I had very little money, and that was the cheapest accommodation. I remember being surprised that they served beer in McDonalds. I visited the Deutsches Museum, Marienplatz & New Town Hall, the English Garden and the Olympic stadium. I was impressed to hear some street preachers in the city centre. I also went to Dachau concentration camp.
• Heidelberg: For some reason, I thought that I was going to see Neuschwanstein Castle there, but I was wrong 😀. But it was a lovely town just the same. And it had a historic castle, not as pretty as Neuschwanstein but much older.
• Cologne: I remember the huge cathedral and a giant chess board in a park across the river. I took a little trip into Dusseldorf too. And the train to the next destination went along the Rhine.
• Innsbruck: An amazingly beautiful place. I frequently fly around it in Microsoft Simulator 2020 these days. I remember The Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl), the winter Olympic area and my tram ride, which went through the woods.
• Salzburg: This is where they made The Sound of Music film. I took a trip from there to Berchtesgaden, where Hitler’s Eagle’s nest is. On Sunday, I found an English speaking Baptist church. I had missed going to church. I hadn’t gone for a few weeks. I met a girl in the church whose parents attended the church where Silent Night was written. Like myself, she was from a Catholic background.
• Vienna: I went on the famous big wheel. I headed for the night train to Venice, but went to the wrong station. I had to walk across the city to the other station. A kind guard allowed me to sleep in the station overnight. I frequently got lost on my trip 😀 – another reason for not travelling alone – especially if you’re as dopey as I am.
• Venice: Well – it was Venice. I don’t remember much else about it.
• Rome: I went to all the usual sights. I was particularly pleased to see the catacombs and visit what’s reputed to have been the prison cell of the Apostle Paul. I remember meeting a lovely English couple near the railway station on my last night. I was trying to figure out why the area was full of armed policemen. I don’t think I ever did. That was a year before I visited Northern Ireland, so it was my first time seeing armed police.
• Pompei: This is the furthest I’ve ever travelled from Ireland. It was amazing to visit the ruins. This is also where Pink Floyd performed their famous concert in the early seventies. I visited Naples on the way. And thankfully, Vesuvius didn’t erupt while I was there.
• Nice: I travelled along the Riverra on an overnight train. I remember getting into a silly argument about a left-luggage locker swallowing my money and not opening. I went to the station police to complain, and they just laughed at me. And rightly so 😀. I don’t remember much else about Nice apart from it being a hot and sunny seaside resort.
• Geneva: I went to John Calvin’s cathedral. He’s a famous theologian from the Reformation era. Some Japanese girls asked me to take a picture for them at the Reformation monument, and they, in turn, took my picture (see the slides below).
• Lucerne: I remember the pretty bridge and visiting a museum, where they had a 360 film of a train journey. It was also a beautiful town. I’m sorry that I didn’t explore Switzerland more. I briefly went to Zurich to get my train to Brussels.
• Brussels: I visited the sites in the city centre and the Atomium. I also went to a silent movie in an old theatre and saw a film called The Boyfriend in a park. I went on a few trips from there to Luxembourg and Bruges. Then, I went to Ostend and across to England, landing in Folkstone. I spent a couple of weeks in London. I visited some of my old London City Mission friends. I had spent a year there from September 82 to September 83 as a voluntary evangelist in Bermondsey and Covent Garden Christian Centre. One night, I was outside the Royal Festival Hall and someone sold me a ticket to a benefit concert for the Yorkshire miner’s strike. Wham played, and I saw my favourite group that year, The Style Council. I saw Paul Weller (lead singer) the following year at Live Aid, and I saw him again last year in King’s John’s castle in Limerick. They released three excellent singles that year. They weren’t a Christian group. I wish they were – or that Christian groups were as good as them. For me, they were very much the sound of 1984.

Other songs that I remember from the summer of 84 include the following:

It was quite tough living cheaply and sleeping on trains and in youth hostels, but it was very memorable. If I had my time over, maybe I wouldn’t have gone on my own. It was a little lonely at times. I had intended to return later in life, but all our family holidays have been here in Ireland or the UK. Nowadays, I only visit continental Europe on YouTube or GoogleEarth 😀.

Here are a few of my badly scanned slides from my memorable holiday: