29. A Second Visit to Milan 1970

The Duomo of Milan

 I left Interlaken early and this time had no problem making it to Milan by evening.  There was room in the hostel and it was time to relax for a little while. All I did was walk around, usually down by the Doumo and sit in front of one of the neighboring cafes drinking a coffee or eating a gelato while watching the world stroll by, or take some time to walk to the railroad station, where there were always some street performers to watch.

Inside The Galleria Vittorio Manuele ii

The Duomo of Milan is located in Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo) the main piazza of Milan.  It is one of the worlds largest "Gothic" cathedrals.  In fact it is the world's third largest christian church.  On one side of the square you have the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ii.  It is an impressive five story arcade covered with a glass and iron roof in the shape of a cross now full of high end shops and cafes.  The structure is decorated with patriotic mosaics and statues.  It is one of the worlds first shopping malls.


The other end of this Gallery opens into another square that contains the famous La Scalla Opera House.

La Scalla Opera House

Also located in the Piazza del Duomo across from the gallery is the Royal Palace of Milan.

Royal Palace of Milan

As I was writing earlier, that is what was there in that one location to visit as a tourist.  What I enjoyed was watching the street life.  I sat off to the side of the square in front of one of the cafes with a good view of the street.  What I saw was amazing.  During the daytime, (late morning and early afternoon) you would see all the tourist hurrying here and there in their groups following a tour guide so they wouldn't miss anything!  During the siesta time (I do not know the Italian word for it) you would see many women standing along the sides of the streets usually near the intersections hopping into cars that would stop by and pick them up.  A few minutes later the same woman would be left of at the same intersection and then the woman would get into another car.  This was repeated at various intersections up to a certain time and then they all disappeared.  The area reverted back to a more traditional neighborhood.  This is the time that the young families came walking about, or taking an evening stroll with their children and grandparents before the evening dinner.  After that the night slipped into a world for the young dancing from one club to another.

McDonald's

Prada

Another thing of note.  When I was there in 1970 there was no McDonald's in Milan.  While I was looking for photos for this post I noticed that there was a McDonald's in the Gallery from 1982 until 2012.  McDonald's was kicked out of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ii presumably because it was not upscale enough.


It has since been replaced by an expansion of the Prada Store in 2012.  Prada is, for those not in the know, an Italian Luxury fashion house specializing in ready-to-wear leather and fashion accessories, shoes, luggage, perfumes, watches, etc.,  I believe McDonald's is suing.

28. Austria Part 2 and Another Quick Taste of Switzerland, 1970

Actual Tram in Vienna 1970

The next thing I seem to remember is the transit system in Vienna?  You could ride the tram anywhere in the city.  Many of us thought it was for free but later on discovered it was not.  How it worked was on the honor system.  There was a set fare for everyone.  There was also a less expensive fare for children, students and seniors.  There was a drop box near the front and rear exits to the tram.  There was no one there to collect or make change or pass out the transfer tickets.  It was all by exact change and everyone had change if you needed it.  The only control I saw was, if you put nothing in the drop box, people stared at you, pointed and mumbled until you either figured it out and put change in the drop box or got off the tram.  If you stayed and put money in the drop box they would all cheer and then be able to speak your language and try to help and tell you which transfer ticket you needed and how to get where you were headed and what trams you needed to ride.

After a day or so, I headed south west to the lake district that is south of Salzberg.  I was looking for the American student that gave me his address.  I was riding with a man named Carl Erik Rosen.  He worked for The IRO Distribution Corp that I think was headquartered in Sweden.  He did his best to help me locate the students address.  We did find the address but the landlady told us that the American student was attending some lectures in Vienna.  I decided to continue on my journey and headed for Switzerland and Italy again.  As I was moving on, Carl Rosen handed me a twenty dollar bill and told me that when I was in a similar situation to pass it on and help someone else.  That I have done Carl Erik Rosen, That I have done.

Interlaken Corn Field

I eventually ended up with a ride into Switzerland and found myself heading for Interlaken again.  I was riding with a bunch of road weary travelers and while we were still outside of Interlaken, we were passing fields of corn.  Naturally there was no one around, so we helped ourselves to a couple of ears apiece to boil for our supper that night.  The corn was a little to early and I think it was actually silage corn, but it was still sweet and tasty.

Interlaken

I spent two nights at the youth hostel in Interlaken again.  While there, I remember walking through a few neighborhoods looking at and smelling all the fresh flowers that were growing in everyone's yard, fences and windows.  There was also a walk to the center of town to try some chocolate and fresh baked pastries and cakes!

Chocolate Shop in Interlaken

At the youth hostel I met the girl I had traveled with from Milan to Rome.  She was now heading north while I was heading south again.   She had left Rome and headed for Naples and spent some time there and then worked her way back north through Italy.  She told me she wished that she had accompanied me through Greece and Turkey rather than going to Milan and staying in Italy.  Anyway, the next morning found her heading north while I headed south.  She told me the Professor who gave us a riding tour of the Milan to Rome route was correct, and to be sure to see Michelangelo's David in Florance!  But first, you have to go through Milan, Italy!

27. Austria, Part 1. 1970

After spending the night at the youth hostel in Salzberg,,,,,,,  I have no recollection of specifics in Austria.  I can remember different items but not where it was or with whom.  I do remember one persons name, but am not ready to tell you who it was until later.  What I do remember is that I broke off from the group in the Volkswagen van.  They were still headed north and I was not ready to go in that direction.

My first night in Austria, it started raining.  I remember going to a restaurant that some in the hostel knew about.  They served real schnitzel, sausages, and saurbraten.  I think it was the Austrian equivalent of a good English pub.  I met a few people, some students and some travelers.  One was an American student that lived near a lake southeast of there.  He gave me his address in case I was "ever in the neighborhood".  I also met a girl that traveled with me for a couple of days after.  We hitched to, I think, Vienna but am not sure.  What I am sure of was the fact that one of our rides was with a young couple on their honeymoon.  We rode with them for a few hours in what seemed like a rural area.  When they stopped we were at an exclusive resort.  We were met by a doorman, a parking attendant and a group of porters to attend to their luggage.  They invited us to stay and share a meal with them, but we could tell that they were being nice and wanted nothing but to be alone!

We were back on the road getting small scattered rides that got us closer to our goal but not by much.  That evening we were still in farm country.  We were under an overpass, it was pouring rain and there was no traffic.  We saw a farmhouse almost a half mile away across a field with a barn that was a short walk from the road we were on.  We had intentions of asking the owners if we could spend the night in the barn but by the time we reached the barn the rain had changed to a heavy downpour and it was thundering and lightening.  We could tell the owners would not be back in the barn this evening.  The animals had already been fed.  There were two cows, a few chickens and an old workhorse.   When we looked around, we felt we were in a barn from the movie "Heidi".  On the walls were hanging a couple of old scythes and other old implements scattered about.  Also hanging on rails and posts were old harnesses, yokes and other tack supplies.  In a couple of stalls were an old plow with the yoke hooked up and ready to harness and two old horse drawn sleighs that had seen better days.  It felt like we were in a museum, but this was real.


We had ourselves a little supper with what we had, probably some bread and cheese and maybe some jelly and a piece of fruit before it got completely dark.  There was a kerosene lantern there but we were leery of trying to light it in a barn with fresh hay all over the place.  After we ate we moved our bags up into the hayloft and settled in for the night.  After laying our wet clothes out to dry we buried ourselves in the hay and watched the storm continue outside while we dried off and slept the night.

We had overslept the next morning.  When we woke up, the sun was shining and we could hear the animals lowing below as they were being fed by their owners.  We laid there quietly while we listened to a man and woman talking and laughing while the animals were being fed.  The people seemed like they were in a good mood and we did not want that mood to change by knowing we were there, so we remained hidden.

After they had left, we got out of our sleeping bags and quickly dressed.  When we got to the loft ladder and started back down we discovered a small table or stool next to the ladder with a tray of food.  Some boiled eggs, cheese bread and even two cups of milk left for us.  We had been caught!

26. Greece through Yugoslavia into Austria! 1970

We decided to push on to Thessaloniki, arriving at dusk.  I had told the people that were traveling with me about selling blood there a few weeks ago and two of the people decided to do that before they traveled on to Southern Greece.  The rest of us were heading north to Austria through Yugoslavia.  We spent the night at the youth hostel and were joined by two more people the next morning on our journey.  We headed north towards the Yugoslavia border.  We picked this way because the owner wanted to head directly to The Netherlands and also for my comfort.  If we went the straightest way we would have driven through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Hungary.  I had just completed a military tour of duty at an intelligence gathering site in Turkey that March.  Because of the security clearance I held, I was supposed to avoid all communist bloc countries for, I think, five years.  Although I was partly rebelling, I felt I could not completely ignore those rules, so we picked a route avoiding all those countries except Yugoslavia, which we felt we could argue was independent from the Soviet Union because Tito was their President and he maintained  his country was independent from the soviet bloc!  This way it was also only one border crossing from Greece into and one border crossing out of Yugoslavia into Austria.  Today in 2013, our route would take us from Greece into Macedonia, then through Serbia.  Then after crossing into Croatia we would have skirted the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina alongside Croatia and finally into Slovenia before crossing into Austria. This took us two days.

I drew the short straw and had to sit in the front seat being pounded by the hot air from the broken heater.  Because we picked up two new riders and were not sure if they carried drugs, we all went through customs separately again. We crossed the border at Evznoi Greece to Gevgelija, Yugoslavia, now Gevgelija, Macedonia. There was not too much I remember from this portion of my trip.  The roads were usually paved but not all.  It seemed that we spent the first half of the day climbing over or through mountains and with the little Volkswagen engine it was hot and slow going.  I do remember after going through one pass we stopped at a petrol station and one of our company traded a tie dyed shirt along with a Janis Joplin and a Jimi Hendrix tee shirt for a tank of gas.

We knew we would be camping that night and after passing Belgrade we came across a farmers market in a small village and decided to shop for our supper.  We saw some vegetables we liked and went over to the farmer.  After traveling as long as we have, we always seemed to end up with a small handful of coins from all the countries we have visited.  Their language was completely "foreign" to us and no one spoke English.  I reached into my pocket and pulled out some small Turkish coins called kuruş and pointed to some potatoes.  The lady looked in my hand and picked out a coin, maybe a 25 kuruş coin, and started putting potatoes in my net bag.  There must have been close to three kilos.  I could not believe how many she gave me!  One of the girls with us was doing the same thing with tomatoes.  I remember nodding my head in thanks and starting to turn around and the woman grabbing my arm, reaching into her apron and giving me two other coins back!  I could have lived like a king there!!!

We got back on the road and about four or five miles from Zagreb on a side road, we stopped for the night and off to the side built a small cooking/bonfire.  We gorged ourselves on fresh tomatoes and fire baked potatoes.  The only downer to our trip through Yugoslavia was to come that night as we were trying to sleep.  It seemed to us that this part of the country was home to the worlds biggest and meanest mosquitoes.  We slept completely enclosed in our sleeping bags and yet they were still able to get to us by biting through the bags.  Needless to say, we got an early start the next day and circled around Zagreb into Austria.

What we had done was gradually climb up through the plateaus in Yugoslavia  and as we were crossing into Austria the mountain scenery was beautiful.  We actually got to see a lot of scenery that day because we spent a great deal of time walking.  The  Volkswagen van that we were riding in was completing its fourth  round trip circuit on the hippie trail and the engine was wearing out.  As we were crossing some of the alps, we actually got out twice going up the passes and walked next to the van with our backpacks chanting "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" encouraging the little engine that could as the Volkswagen engine labored along.  As time passed we actually beat the van to the top of the pass once we were sure we would not have to push it.  The van made it up to the top of the pass to cheers of other people waiting to see if we would actually make it.  After that, it seemed almost all downhill to Salzberg Austria and the next youth hostel.