Coach holiday

I went on the school coach trip in 1961.  It felt as though we had an endless number of after-school meetings in the weeks leading up to the trip!

On the day of our departure we travelled by coach to Dover, crossed the Channel by ferry and on to Bruges, where we spent our first night.  The sound of church bells was quite prominent the following morning so there was no fear of us oversleeping.  After breakfast we continued our journey on the coach travelling via Brussels and Maastricht to Bad Honnef, on the west of the River Rhine.  This was to be our base during the German part of the trip.

We visited a few towns and cities in the vicinity.  I particularly remember a wet day in Cologne when I bought my mum a bottle of 4711 eau de cologne.  She was thrilled but somewhat surprised that I had even given her a thought!

Bonn, the capital of West Germany prior to unification, was another day trip I recall.  We were shown around the Bundesdag, the parliament building at that time.  I had no interest in politics then and found the guided tour very boring.

It seemed that everywhere we went during our time on the Rhine we could hear Elvis Presley's "Wooden Heart" being played.  The reasons for this were probably that Elvis had served in the US army in Germany until 1960 and some of the lyrics were in German.  Wooden Heart was at number 1 for six weeks in the UK during March/April 1961.

Other activities I remember were a boat trip along the Rhine and a ride in a chair lift, possibly at Koblenz.

On our final day in Germany we departed from Bad Honnef when the coach returned us to Belgium.  I remember visiting a sand museum towards the end of our holiday.  It may have been the museum at Blankenberg, but can't be certain.

Our final night's stay in Bruges was in the same hotel as at the beginning of our trip.

All in all it was a very pleasant holiday and finished my time at Chandos on a high note.

Barry Stevens 57-61