Remembering when travelling abroad was so much simpler... (2 Viewers)

[scotjimland]

Do you remember the 'good ol' days' of traveling abroad, using Travellers Cheques, a phone box to call home using a phone card.. no internet .

You left Blighty and were out of touch for weeks .. wandering and getting lost, no sat nav, just Michelin maps to navigate, life was so much simpler.. and the roads do much quieter..

I recall being short of cash and couldn't cash a traveler's cheque over a four day French bank holiday weekend, four days with no cash .. and shops wouldn't accept or cash a cheque

My very first trip was in 1972.. MG Midget with a two man tent, with my GF, and future wife, we drove to St Tropez and came back via Switzerland. they say the your first road trip abroad s the best.. can't argue with that..

What do you remember about your early days of travelling abroad .. when was your first trip and where did you go ?

 

[Jim]

I actually miss crossing borders and really noticing the differences. It's not the same today, it's all the same.

The Euro is easy, but the different currencies were fun, paying 10 Belgian francs for a big beer, or one million lire for some toothpaste. Of course, things are easier now, but are they as much fun?

 

[Bobby-gg]

Mine was around 1990 in a A35 van, went over to Holland for the international rally, then dropped into Germany, but didn't keep any records and can't remember where we went!

Fast forward to now, first time driving overseas since then, yes, it's easier with contactless cards offering the best exchange rate, Google maps, WhatsApp, acsi cards, but then we've also got clean air zones, fast toll roads etc, making it all a bit less of an adventure.

Down in Stobreč at the moment and loving the sunshine

 

[Gingernuts]

Went to the former Yugoslavia from Scotland on a Honda CX500 and a tent with my then girlfriend (who was to become my wife) and she had never been on a motorbike before!!!!

 

[trophychap]

Back in 1968, 6 of us 5 lads and my future wife travelled as far as Rimini in a Mini car and a Mini van with all the camping gear in. The fifty pounds sterling limit was on then so we couldn't take a lot of cash with us (it didn't matter that much we didn't have a lot of that anyway). Petrol coupons for Italy from the RAC as petrol was twice the price in Italy then so was subsidised somehow? Had a great time as only 6 teenagers could LOL. It was a Three Thousand mile road trip.

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[dash300]

And reverse charge calls through the operator from a phone box if you had no money!

 

[chaser]

Do you remember the 'good ol' days' of traveling abroad, using Travellers Cheques, a phone box to call home using a phone card.. no internet .

You left Blighty and were out of touch for weeks .. wandering and getting lost, no sat nav, just Michelin maps to navigate, life was so much simpler.. and the roads do much quieter..

I recall being short of cash and couldn't cash a traveler's cheque over a four day French bank holiday weekend, four days with no cash .. and shops wouldn't accept or cash a cheque

My very first trip was in 1972.. MG Midget with a two man tent, with my GF, and future wife, we drove to St Tropez and came back via Switzerland. they say the your first road trip abroad s the best.. can't argue with that..

What do you remember about your early days of travelling abroad .. when was your first trip and where did you go ?

I don't think It was simpler just more fun.

 

[Roger S]

Myself and my now wife and her her brother in our late teens went touring france for a week in an Austin Maxi, we had a cooking stove but no tent we slept in the car, still look back with fond memories.

 

[Abacist]

My first was as a 7 year old with parents and Dad drove us in his MG Magnette to Riccione in Italy for a summer holiday. You got your route from the AA like rally pace notes and I used to read out the instructions for him. Stopping for picnic lunch with a baguette, ham butter & mustard and a little primus to make tea.

Coming home, the red wine he bought exploded in his suitcase staining all his clothes when coming back over the Alps.

 

[Roby2008]

1980, flew to Australia for 6 months, I had never been out of the UK before, had a great time, my parents pressured me into taking my sister along, not a problem but she hasn't spoken to me since for some reason.
Europe was a strange place until the 2000's (apart from diving in Mala), I worked in Egypt, met and married a German, now based in Germany where we can reach a lot of Europe easily, only discovered Europe in my late 40s, so still much to see and enjoy....

The border free travel and Euro are a blessing, get up, leave, be one or two countries away by early afternoon....travel is easier now than ever in my mind and just as big an adventure as it was....

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[sueandjohn]

Crossing the borders was fun. Checking the border clock to set the time on your watch and hopping out to change currency from some random franc to another franc . Weird but fun

 

[Abacist]

After leaving school 3 of us drove to Frejus in an MG 1100, camping. Met some French kids our age and had a great time ending up grape picking to earn enough money to get home again.

 

[Jim]

Crossing the borders was fun.

Driving to Berlin is boring now. Back in the day, it was like you were on the set of a bond movie

 

[Abacist]

I remember being so thirsty one night staying in a Hotel on our Italy trip on the way home and was under strict instructions not to drink the tap water but in the end gave in and of course suffered the consequences the next day!

 

[EuroTrotters]

We were discussing this the other day.

I had never had a holiday until I was 15. A family I worked with offered to take me away (I worked in a greengrocers after school and Saturday).

Europe for 5 weeks including a Month in St. Tropez. Loved every minute.

Everything was ad-hoc
No Phones
Sent Postcards
10 Francs went a long way

Did the same with my wife and family for many years. Maps upside down, wrong turns, lost travellers cheques, debit cards stuck in machines. But we got by.

Things are easier these days, maybe not so enjoyable. Like air travel. I should do a separate post on that.

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[Littlewheels]

Anyone going to the EU on Tour l am happy to sponser.

 

[MichelleRyall]

I will set the scene. 1986, old Commer. 9 of us plus one tent drove to a motocross GP in France. 3 girls, 6 lads…all good friends and still are. We had 2 of the lads as drivers. So poorly organised really but such a laugh. Had one hairy moment when our driver couldn’t decide how high the van was and had to make a last minute swerve to avoid a low tunnel type thing. On the return journey we had literally thrown everything in the back as it had tipped it down on the last night so everything was soaking wet. It looked like a skip in the back. We got to customs and they asked to open the van up…it stank so much of rain and mud they just closed them and waved us on our way. Good times. And to this day I have no idea what I am laughing at in this picture.

 

[Spriddler]

Do you remember the 'good ol' days' of traveling abroad, using Travellers Cheques, a phone box to call home using a phone card.. no internet .

You left Blighty and were out of touch for weeks .. wandering and getting lost, no sat nav, just Michelin maps to navigate, life was so much simpler.. and the roads do much quieter..

I've been doing exactly that for the past 30+ years, apart from I use debit cards instead of travellers cheques.
Sadly, with so much being internet focused/driven I now feel forced to have some form of internet access so for the past couple of days I've been struggling to get my tablet to comply. Hopefully I'll resolve/understand the issues of SIMS, data allowance, contracts, PAYG, roaming, apps etc. etc. before losing the will to live (or just stay at home).

 

[scotjimland]

I actually miss crossing borders

oh yes..forgot about that fun..

at the French/ Swiss border they kept asking if we had cognac or tobacco .. non I said, non.. but they made me empty the boot of the Midget to check... took me ages to repack ..

 

[StillGoing]

I remember the early 60’s when my dad drove my mum, sister and I in a Mini to the south of France. We had a roof rack with the tent and stuff on top. No autoroutes. Other GB cars would flash their headlights as they drove past you as it wasn’t common to see other Brits. Happy days.

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[Chrisvh]

Driving to Berlin is boring now. Back in the day, it was like you were on the set of a bond movie

The British Military train was an interesting way to arrive in Berlin.

We used to do a “sweep” drive in the evening from Helmstedt to Berlin to check on breakdowns or accidents. The VOPO’s were unpleasant to deal with, but ignored. Always found the Russians polite, very correct and insistent on sharing their vodka ration.

 

[Bailey58]

Apart from day trips to Calais as a kid, where I remember we were pestered by street traders selling watches, my first time abroad was with Wallace Arnold on a coach trip to Interlaken in 1966 with two mates from work. Two weeks in a smart hotel in the centre of town which cost us £33 and we took our £30 months wages to spend. The couple of weeks after we returned until next pay day was pretty hard with no money for beer and other necessities.

 

[PP Bear]

Toc H in Berlin, it felt like the East West divide, but comfy accommodation for just a few pence and cooked English breakfast

Going home on leave across all the boarders and the tricks we’d have to employ to get the booze home and past the various boarder checks. Soaking full bottle of Grolsch beer in the swimming pool, so that the tags would come off, drink the beer and fill with spirits, then stick the labels back on so it looked like it was unopened. Remember my parents coming over with a roof rack full of Brit beans, teabags and instant coffee and all on top of their old Viva. Think they had to give the boarder guard some of their stash before they let them go, only to be pulled in at the next boarder check.

And, as mentioned before, the many currencies we used to carry

 

[The Old Man]

Not my first trip by any means but late 70's, early 80's. We had sent a rep on a sales trip to northern Germany and he phoned in to let us know that he had left an essential component behind.

I was 'volunteered' to fly out with the needed bits for the next day's show.

So I drove to Heathrow with said bits which were 6' x 1' and fragile.

Parked in the Short Term Parking, walked into the terminal with just the parcel as my hand baggage. Walked up to the Lufthansa desk, was told that the next flight to Hanover was in 20 minutes, bought a last minute, stand by ticket, walked through Customs and Immigration to the departure lounge, with me, a passport, a visa card and a large, fragile package. Almost straight on to the plane with plane crew falling over trying to get my fragile package stowed, eventually positioned in a loo that was locked and marked as out of order.

No issues in Hanover, walked out of the terminal, handed over the parcel, walked back in, checked in and got back on the same plane to fly back to London.

I can't imagine a trip like that being possible with modern travel rules.

 

[PP Bear]

Remember that we used to throw all ammo, pyro, weapons etc, into the back of the car and move from training site to site. Never really gave it a thought until at one boarder, with the boot empty except my burgan, the boarder patrol asked if I had any explosives in the car. Nope said I, but the dog said otherwise and the sniffer equipment they used then picked up residue and that was it. Explained the situation while they removed the seats, rear panels and searched my SAAB 95 Estate car for anything and were finally happy with their results. Had to put the car back together myself.

Dems were the days and of course, a lot tighter control in today’s military.

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[tacr2man]

1968 first trip by car to Europe in a 1963 LWB Diesel Landrover self converted camper as far as Bavaria 45mph on hand throttle (cruise control) on the Autobahns . Due to longrange tanks nearly all the way there and back on cherry . 1969 Bavaria , Austria , and Switzerland but not on the ferry but from Pegwell bay on the new Hovercraft 25minutes to cross . 6 envelopes with different currencies , no boring euros . Hardly ever see another GB car .

 

[steve69]

Well the roads are certainly a heck of a lot better than they were 50 years ago. The non-motorway roads back then were really bad.

 

[maison]

Do you remember the 'good ol' days' of traveling abroad, using Travellers Cheques, a phone box to call home using a phone card.. no internet .

You left Blighty and were out of touch for weeks .. wandering and getting lost, no sat nav, just Michelin maps to navigate, life was so much simpler.. and the roads do much quieter..

I recall being short of cash and couldn't cash a traveler's cheque over a four day French bank holiday weekend, four days with no cash .. and shops wouldn't accept or cash a cheque

My very first trip was in 1972.. MG Midget with a two man tent, with my GF, and future wife, we drove to St Tropez and came back via Switzerland. they say the your first road trip abroad s the best.. can't argue with that..

What do you remember about your early days of travelling abroad .. when was your first trip and where did you go ?

So you went on holiday with your girlfriend AND your future wife. Brave man! How did they get on?

 

[Themselves]

Went to TT in Isle of Man back in 1975. In the worlds most leaky tent with my Girlfriend and my sister and sisters boyfriend with his Kawasaki 750. He managed to ruin his rear tyre showing off the acceleration. We spent all our food money on a new tyre and lived on rice and Hp sauce for the next three days. Luckily we had a bottle of champagne for GFs birthday . Happy days.

 

[carolyn]

You don’t even have to go back very far . The Euro had arrived but not mobile phones or satnavs(or not in our price range perhaps). It must have been 2000/2001 as we were off to Disneyland Paris with a paper map in our Montego countryman Estate. Racing Green plus 3 very excited children.

I was driving, Nick navigating (haha) , basically I had given him a list of road numbers which worked fine until we got to Paris, Peripherique. Fortunately it was a Sunday. We went wrong. Obviously Nick’s fault and we headed deeper into Paris, narrower roads so no “toutes directions” signs. The air was blue. Eventually I spotted a garage open. My schoolgirl French was enough to get us heading back out again with 3 miserable children!

Good trip in the end.

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