Camping 1981

These are a couple of photos I found recently of a lovely camping trip through Europe in 1981.  Mum, Dad and my brother and I set off from Southampton in Dad's trusty old rover and we made the journey to Dover, before crossing to Zebrugge in Belgium.  From Belgium we travelled to Luxembourg, Bavaria and finally Austria, where we stayed for about a week.  We camped en route, having a couple of nights at each stop.

Here is our tent, a frame tent, very old fashioned by today's standards!

And this is the view when we got to Austria, a beautiful lake, surrounded by snow capped mountains.  It really took your breath away.

I loved this holiday - I love camping and we had a great time exploring Europe.  I remember swimming with some other children I had made friends with in the camp site lake in the Black Forest on the day Diana married Charles (to escape it) whilst my mum was trying to watch on our little black and white portable in the tent.  Some Germans took pity on her and invited her into their caravan to watch the wedding on their colour set, so mum was happy!  We also visited Switzerland, went up mountains in cable cars, saw a glacier in Austria, and the castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria which has appeared in many movies.  We explored Satzburg (home of Mozart) taking in some music concerts whilst strolling around (as I think it was Saltzburg Festival while we were there).  Saltzburg, I remember, was really beautiful and spectacular.  The mountains and flower meadows and little wooden buildings took your breath away.  Mum of course made me run around the mountain meadows pretending to be Julie Andrews and I am sure my dad has this preserved on cine film haha! A great holiday and definitely a highlight of my childhood.