Sun, sea and sangria!
Every issue, Yours writer Marion Clarke will be reliving the best bits of our lives. This fortnight she shares more of your travellers’ tales
‘A jug was passed round and we had to drink from the spout without spilling any, an impossible feat for me’
For many readers their first holiday abroad was their honeymoon. Wendy Chappell and her new husband went to Majorca where their dream of a romantic getaway became a little tarnished: “Our hotel was disappointingly basic and there was another hotel being constructed next door. The builders worked at odd times, arriving in the evening and banging away for several hours. “However, we were able to go on lots of trips including a a jolly evening barbecue where the sangria flowed freely. A jug was passed round and we had to drink from the spout without spilling any – an impossible feat for me!” For their honeymoon in 1957, Irene Philp and her husband chose a tour to Innsbruck. After meeting their travel rep in London, they proceeded to Folkestone: “We boarded the steamer and it was one of the worst Channel crossings ever. It took three hours to reach Calais. The boat tossed and turned and I was petrified. The view was of the sky one moment and the sea the next. All that could be heard was the crashing of crockery and glass in the bar.” Thankfully, things improved after that: “We made our way to the special train that was waiting for us. Dinner in the dining car was magic. The tables were beautifully set with little lamps on each one, almost like the Orient Express.” Rosemary Medland didn’t fare too well on her first Spanish holiday: “After a coach ride on a narrow mountain road in pouring rain, we arrived at our hotel to find that the roof leaked and there were buckets in the bar to catch the drips. The bar staff made us mugs of hot chocolate to warm us up, but we were frozen all week and asked for extra blankets on our bed. We were disappointed when we returned home to find that there had been a heatwave!” For Freda Ellen Minns, her first holiday abroad in 1954 was truly romantic. “I was 19 and my boyfriend, Tommy, asked my parents if he could take me to Switzerland. They said yes! When we reached Lucerne, he took me to a jeweller’s shop to buy an engagement ring and I chose an amber topaz. The staff gave us Champagne and wished us happiness. That evening, Tommy took me to a nice restaurant and put the ring on my finger. As we walked up the path to our hotel it was lit by glow-worms and all the stars were out. We were married for 51 years.” Mrs G Raper also has idyllic memories of her first time abroad to celebrate her tenth wedding anniversary in 1972: “Our hotel in Lloret de Mar was fantastic. We had a huge room with a lovely balcony and meals served by a friendly waiter. During the day we paddled in the warm sea, stopping for coffee and liqueurs outside a bodega. In the evening we sat around the
pool listening to a guitarist. My favourite cocktail was a Lumumba which cost a mere 50 pesetas (there were 168 pesetas to a pound at that time)!”
Aged 19, Linda Mills was apprehensive at the prospect of going on a cruise with her friend: “We flew to Genoa (my first time on a plane) and my nerves did not improve when the pilot announced that we had to get off again due to engine trouble! We boarded the same plane an hour later and boy, was I scared.”
Once on their cruise liner in Naples, Linda got into the swing of things. “We went to Athens and climbed the Acropolis; the view from the top was breathtaking. The weather was so hot that my friend passed out. I remember sipping iced tea in Egypt with the pyramids behind me and the sphinx Freda Ellen Minns (left) got engaged on her first trip abroad and Irene Philp (below) spent her honeymoon in Austria in front and feeling like someone in an Agatha Christie mystery.” Travel can broaden the mind in unexpected ways, as Eileen Bowman learned when she first went to Menorca aged 60 and hired a car: “We came to traffic lights showing red. Looking in the mirror, I saw that the driver of the car behind was making hand gestures telling me to move forward slightly to activate the lights. I did so and, lo and behold, they turned to green and off we went.” It was the bedding that puzzled Sally Ketley when she went to the picturesque village of Arzl in the Tyrol: “It was our first encounter with a duvet and we thought we had to unbutton it and climb inside. The chambermaid saw our dilemma and gave us a demonstration, including how to air it over the balcony rail in the morning.” When Marie Claire Orton came to England to stay with a penfriend, it was our eating habits that surprised her: “I felt embarrassed when I didn’t like the food, or drinking tea. My penfriend’s schoolmates were amazed when I told them that we drank table wine with our school meals in France!”