Vintage Traveler: My Father's Europe

One of my father's favorite stops and the place where he thought we should begin our travel blog, was his visit to Heidelberg, Germany in 1973. Our family and his grandfather was originally from Koblenz Germany which is not far from there. One of the remarkable novelties of this castle is the huge wine barrel which sits in the newer section of the castle. It holds somewhere around 30-50,000 gallons of wine. When my father was there there was a dance floor on top of it. All the growers and vineyard owners in the area had to contribute to the ruler's stash kept in the huge wine barrel. During his visit he was actually served wine from the barrel. After learning of the wine barrel, my father was even more enamored of his German heritage, "I love my people. Now this is real German ingenuity!."

Heidelberg Castle; The Most recent architecture: Heidelberg, Germany: Digital Art Created from 1973 photo

This is a detailed view of the architecture of the newer section of Heidelberg castle, which is one of the few areas not currently in ruins. The castle was added to and destroyed many times over the centuries. This image began as a snapshot taken in 1973 by an instamatic camera by my father; scanned from a 35mm slide at high resolution I created this piece of digital art with it. Reddish sandy tones accentuate the architecture and a digitally storming sky gives this piece a unique feel.

Below the Castle lies the town, which is also home to Heidelberg University. According to my father, legend says dueling scars became fashionable for awhile at this old University. Apparently during a duel, one participant would attempt to strike the cheek of the other with their swords in order to leave a scar from the duel. we see scenes like this in movies . Legend has it that that practice began here.

Heidelberg Germany; View of downtown, 1973

This is a view of Heidelberg Germany in the town near the home of Heidelberg University, taken with an instamatic camera in 1973 by my father and digitally enhanced.

The Castle itself is half ruins. The castle sits on a bluff overlooking the town and records indicate it began construction around 1400, by Palsegrave Rupert III. However, it was destroyed more than once and different owners added things during later periods and rebuilt sections. Different parts of the castle architecture include both Gothic and Renaissance elements.

Heidelberg Castle: View Through The Trees, Heidelberg Germany: Digital Art Created from 1973 photo

This is a view from just outside the castle of Heidelberg. This image began as a snapshot taken in 1973 by an instamatic camera by my father; scanned from a 35mm slide at high resolution I created this piece of digital art with it. Black tree and foliage silhouettes frame the image, digitally embossed. The is sky filled with gray clouds and the castle is done in a smooth sandy tone to illuminate the stone shapes of what is left of the ruins.

In 1764 Lightning struck the castle and much of it burned. This served as inspiration for the dark storm cloud piece of digital art I created using My father's photograph.

Heidelberg Castle: Heidelberg Germany: Digital Art Created from 1973 photo

In 1689 it was destroyed by the French. Here are some of the ruins my father captured back on his trip in 1973.

Inside Heidelberg Castle Ruins, 1973

One of the interesting facts about this castle is there is a stone gate that used to be an entrance to a garden. This gate was built overnight as a surprise birthday present for Elizabeth Stuart, a princess and daughter of James I King of England, and wife of Frederick the V, who later became King of Bohemia. Elizabeth was 19 in 1615 when the archway gate was built.

Elizabeth Gate: Heidelberg Castle, Germany: 1973

The Castle overlooks the small town of Heidelberg, which lies in the Neckar Valley along the banks of the Neckar river.

View of Heidelberg, Germany From the Castle 1973

Heidelberg, Germany: From Neckar River, 1973

Nearby my father took a cruise nearby on the Rhine river, as the Rhine and Neckar join not too far away. This was a half a day trip from Bopart Germany. This is a chronicle of my father's 1973 trip to Europe. Some of the things and facilities mentioned on this trip may no longer exist.

Sources and Further Reading

About.com Germany travel

Gernany Insider Facts

Heidelberg Germany

heidelberg castle, Wikipedia

Elizabeth of Bohemia

The first two trips I will begin writing about with the help of my father, travel logs and slides I scan and restore lasted nearly a month each. The first in 1968 went all over Europe including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Edinborough. My grandparents visited Morocco and actually found a cafe called Ricks, just like in Casablanca, which was created for tourists after the movie became popular. I look forward to writing about these adventures and showing what travel used to be like for middle class Americans in the 60-s and 70's. Travel has gotten far more expensive. I am not sure what the current Frommer's guides are up to, but my father visited on a trip planned entirely by my grandfather on 5$ a day and stayed for over a month. It was an amazing time to see the world.

My father was a huge influence in my life. I grew up with a house full of history books and pbs specials, later, as we got cable, the travel channel was always on. He Wsa luck enough to travel to Europe, partly as a graduation present from his parents in the 1960's. I recently came across three full moving boxes of slides. I am a graphic designer, and photographer. I spent three years as a history major as well. I have begun the project of scanning and restoring these slides in order to use them in product designs on other websites. My father is now retired and has expressed interest in writing about his trips. he often tells me how he used to guide people on the tours because he knew more than the tour guides. This experience of creating art and recreating my father and grandparents trips will be something my family will enjoy for ages. It occored to me that there just may be some people out there who might want to know what Europe looked like in the sixties and seventies. Before modern architecture crept too far in. My family visited towns small and large. In this blog you will read of experiences first hand from my father, and I shall try to post excerpts from my grandparent's travel logs as well. My grandparents are no longer with us, but this project is something I believe they left behind for me to do.... And so we begin a journey back through time; a journey before cell phones, the internet and personal computers. A journey in which you were served meals on airlines and you could travel to Europe on $5 per day. This is their story.

This blog will attempt to chronicle and recreate my grandparent's European travels in the 1960's and 1970's. My grandmother kept travel journals on all of their trips, and I recently found three full moving boxes of sorted slide trays chronicling their adventures. I am a graphic designer and photographer and was astonished at the detail from 35 mm film slides. I began scanning and restoring them in order to create art from them on my other websites. I Thought people interested in the street scenes and vintage photography may be interested in the trips.

A little bit about me and my grandparents: My Grandmother's name was Shirley. My Grandfather's Raymond. They married shortly after he returned home from the airforce after the end of World War II. They had one son, my father, born shortly thereafter. Both of my grandparents were born in Chicago in the 1920's. My grandmother worked at a bank downtown for awhile, then raised her family and took up painting. My grandfather became a salesman. During the 1960's and 1970's they went on several trips all over the world. Some to Europe, Africa, Mexico and they took some really magnificent photographs. The slides have been in a basement for about 30 years and I am saving them and restoring them, and in addition, running photoshop filters on them to create images I deem worthy of artprints. This is a long process and I will be using their travel logs, context clues, and my father, who has also been to Europe several times, to identify places. If you see anything you recognized or know something that I have mislabeld, please feel free to email me at bloomingvinedesign@yahoo.com. I will be typing out excerpts from my grandmother's journal entries and adding my own text. Enjoy!

Horn Netherlands 1970 slide2