Most of us go home to SoCal, bidding "auf Wiedersehen" to Europe

1991-07-09, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

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Today was the last day of our "official", college-sponsored trip to Europe. We checked out of the Heidelberg hostel and made the short drive north to the Frankfurt airport. Actually, I should say that only most of us did, because some of our group had made arrangements to stay in Europe, continuing on with their own itineraries and "doing their own thing", which included a minor traffic accident the next day!

Bill and Wendie accompanied us to the airport to make sure the vans were turned in, the luggage, instruments and other band equipment was loaded and those who were leaving took off as planned. Bill and Wendie themselves, however, stayed in Europe and took their own vacation, just the two of them, going to Paris and elsewhere. Otherwise, I'm not sure who came home and who stayed behind, beyond who I can identify in the photos taken this day.

The following are some words of thanks to Bill and Wendie:
This was not some prepackaged tour from a travel agency. Bill and Wendie worked tirelessly for a long time to do the work themselves. This was before the Internet, so bookings were often via international snail mail, international faxes and phone calls. They did not have a chance to enjoy the trip as much as the rest of us, because they were responsible for the students, and frankly, the rest of us, too. Thank goodness they we able to continue on by themselves and have a REAL vacation.

Anyway-- we landed in Atlanta, had some sort of layover and then took off for southern California, landing sometime in the evening.

In retrospect, I regret not having done any real planning of my own for the trip and not having the "gumption" to stay on in Europe and see more of it, alone.
It would be 16 years before I would return, but that's another journal of mine you can read on this website!