And road trips continued through Europe

 

Shortly after getting to Denmark, I bought this totally reliable 1960 Volvo PV544.  After buying it, my co-workers at the boat building facility told me that car model was generally known as the "Hurtigst Traktor i verden".  Translation please..."the fastest tractor in the world".  Well, I guess that was good and bad.  In their eyes, it was mostly bad...

I used it as a dependable work car every day for 6 or 7 months, including a winter break to go downhill skiing in Norway.  I had met up with Jacquee before starting work, and she actually had a job offer in Denmark, but alas, she had no visa.  So she went home to wait out a long winter before rejoining me for some road tripping in Denmark in the above set-up!  

We travelled down to Austria, across the border of Italy and through the Alps, then up through Luxemburg and on home via several other countries.  We only broke down twice that I recall .  Once a weld broke loose on the clutch mechanism and we were stalled in the German evening traffic just outside the border to Holland.  A kind local resident had watched from his house, and came over to offer help, as well as a place to stay!  He took us to a shop he knew of (sound familiar) and they fixed it on the spot.  Then, later in the trip, after doing the Alps, we pulled into a campground in Luxemburg and the car simply quit and would not restart.  (Sound familiar...)  We contacted a local shop who found that our timing gear had broken and they would have to get one delivered from Sweden.  Oh, yeah, well no internet overnight shopping here.  It came via slow moving truck down the autobahn.  But then we didn't have enough money for the repair anyway, so why hurry?  Remember "money transfers"?  Well, children, before there were credit cards, AAA and/or cell phones you had to wire transfer money from bank to bank.  Sometimes it took days.  Sometimes a week, like in our case.  But you know what?  The repair shop gave us the car back to use while we waited for the money to arrive!  So we enjoyed some local trips (sound familiar?) like to the site of The Battle of the Bulge, where Jac's uncle had fought during WWII.  

So much trust and friendship was extended to us during these hic-ups, how could I look on any future break downs any other way except as part of the adventure?  

I want to thank everyone for joining me on this trip!  A blog makes a very nice journal and scrapbook for the record.  But there was so much more than what I could include in a daily blog!  Of course, the parts I have left out will be subject to embellishment over the coming years!

John