German Student Tour Bus

German High School Students

Austrian Soldier with Israeli Uzi Machine Gun

The Botel Hotel on the Danube

Leaving the Octoberfest in Munich, Germany, I was physically and mentally exhausted as the train pulled to a stop on the Czechoslovakia/German border. Like everyone on the train, I was peering through the dark to see, when night became day in a second. Spotlights as bright as the sun blasted all shadows aside. Armed Russian troops leaped on the train and strutted down the aisle, frowns on their faces, topped off with their wool hats and a big red star on front. The soldier stopped and hovered over each passenger while people in civilian clothes demanded to exchange the equivalent of $8.00 for each day your visa said you were visiting. I was going to stay for seven days and they demanded $56.00 from me. I had 14.00 dollars’ worth of German Marks. They were quite upset that I had so little western currency on me. I offered travelers checks but was rejected. They exchanged my Marks for Czech money and moved on to the next victim. Troops with dogs were prowling outside and under the train. Fences were topped with barbed wire and the lights were blinding.
I was freshly discharged from the U. S. Army two weeks ago and now was face to face with the Russian Bear. This was 1974 and the Iron Curtain was still intact. Czechoslovakia was a satellite country of the Soviet Union. Russian troops maned the borders. After about two hours we were ordered off the train into a squat concrete building with our luggage or backpack. We passengers passed through the building and then boarded a different train because the gage of the track was different than the previous track. Finally, on our way, I checked my map and realized I would pass through Czechoslovakia to the capital Prague at night, and miss what the countryside looked like. The next town of any size was Plzen known worldwide for their excellent beer. When the train stopped at Plzen, I stepped off into the dark. Not only were there no people, there were no lights of any kind. The town was a half a mile down the road and lucky me, it started to rain. It was close to midnight when I stumbled into a small hotel looking like a half-drowned dog. The bar in the hotel was roaring to a Rolling Stone’s song as I stumbled up to the gal behind the check in counter. Thank God she spoke very good English and checked me in to a warm room that was the equivalent to $8.00/night and included a ham and eggs breakfast juice and coffee.
The next morning was a glorious sunny day. With a good night’s rest and a full belly, I made the half mile trek to the railroad and boarded the train to Prague at 10:00 A. M. I was so happy that I had waited until the next day because the countryside was beautiful. Through the gummy filthy windows, I peered until I could no longer tolerate the dirty windows. I left and stood between the cars to clearly see Czechoslovakia under Communist Russian rule. There were pheasants hanging around the tracks like pigeons do in America. The fields were full of people harvesting the bounty. Each town we stopped at had a similar layout. All the signs were in Cyrillic, no English. Few people spoke English, soldiers were common, and more than a few drunks stumbled around. The second language was Deutsch or German. The train stops were generous in that there was no hurry, no colors, and no smiles.
We pulled into Prague train station in the afternoon. The first thing I noticed was the massive bronze relief reflecting the Hammer and Sickle, heroic solders, and workers. It was a very busy place, lots of trains, people, soldiers, police, and lots of drunks staggering around. I was very hungry and there was a huge cafeteria with steam filling the place above the many large kettles. I had to explain in sign language that I wanted to eat but had no idea what to ask for. One smart gal had an idea. She dipped the ladle into each pot and pulled up what I thought looked good. After about a dozen dipped ladles I had a heaping plate of I don’t know what. I also got a liter of the excellent Czech beer. I sat down to eat and next to me was an English speaker. I discovered my scrumptious meal was sliced dumplings, rutabagas, potatoes, beets, and a duck, plus the beer. The total cost was $1.
I had a book with me called “Let’s Go Europe”. It listed hotels, restaurants, and places of interest. I picked the Metropol Hotel, downtown Prague. Nightly charge was $7 and I booked five nights. The hotel accepted my travelers checks so I was flush with Czech Korun ‘s, the currency used at the time. If I would have had cash, the black-market exchange would have been 50% more. Everyone played the black market.
My first night I was trying to order in the hotel dining room and again an English speaker saved the day. He was a German tour guide with a bus load of students. We talked and he suggested I join the tour and at no expense, so the students could practice their English.
The next morning, I had breakfast with the students and was introduced. We boarded a new Mercedes Benz tour bus and were off. We toured Karlstein castle, founded by Charles IV in 1348, and the museum for the town of Lidice, which was destroyed by the Nazi’s in retaliation for the assassination of General Heinrich Heydrich. Lidice was a town of 500. The males, 173 of them from 15 to 84, were executed the morning of June 10, 1942 in the town square. Woman and children were shipped to Germany to concentration camps and as slave labor. The town was leveled. The state of Illinois in remembrance named a town Lidice.
Terezin concentration camp was next. This was a holding camp for Jews and was notorious for its brutality. We saw the preserved barracks and the execution corner with many bullet holes left as evidence.
We were at a bar one night and the waitress, about 75 years old heard I was American. She spoke German, so we were able to talk through the students. There was a hockey game on TV between Russia and Canada. She said she wanted the U.S. to win. I said we were not playing. She said she didn’t care and that the Czech people want America to win everything. She said the Nazi’s killed all her family and after a while she had to stop talking to me because the police were in the back of the room and she didn’t want to get in trouble.
The Metropole hotel was clean and comfortable but the room radiator was cold as ice and at night the room temperature dropped to about 50 degrees. I complained about the cold and they said they would get the heat on that day. The maids brought up a thick warm comforter that kept me from freezing but for the whole time there was no heat. At check out I said I was not going to pay the full price. The clerk smiled, reached for the phone and said, “Police? “I paid up and left for Bratislava in the south of Czechoslovakia, next to the border with Austria. The train was about the same as the last one, but with cleaner windows so I could see the countryside better. Most of the large buildings were the soviet style, concrete monstrosities with no character or color. The countryside was beautiful and some of the farms were nice looking, but most of the labor was done by hand, no machinery. My visa was good for one more night and my travel book mentioned a nice Boatel, a hotel on a boat for a good price. I was rather late to arrive and I was bone tired. The train station was a few blocks from the river Danube. I checked in, paid the $6.00 for the night and then walked a short distance from the Boatel. With fresh bread, and a bottle of wine, I returned to my little compartment on the Danube. I ate most and drank all and then fell asleep to awake to the Boatel rocking. A barge was passing in the night and made the waves to rock the boat.
The next morning was time to cross the Iron Curtain again, but back to the real world the other way. The train left the station and for about five miles crawled as slow as the train could go. This is a no man’s land that was full of land mines. The train went slow so as not to set off land mines with the vibrations from the train. An Austrian soldier was in each car with an Israeli Uzi machine gun. Because of Russian Jews crossing here, the guards were necessary. Some people shot up the train because this was a prime route for Jews escaping Russia. I passed back into the Western world and gave a big sigh of relief.
Next: Austria and Switzerland.
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