Fun VW trips

“Smiles to Go in a VW Bus,” by Kari Howard [March 18], brought back memories. In 1963, we bought a Volkswagen bus and did lots of camping in the United States. In January 1965, with a year of sabbatical for my teacher husband, we embarked with Michael, our 4-year-old son, on a journey across the country, put the VW on a ship and began an 11-month tour of Europe.

Anyone who wants to travel should take a young child; Europeans love children. Michael read his first words based on what he saw most often: “Bar! Bar! Bar!” (We drank coffee there, and he had a nice glass of milk every morning.)

We probably stayed at only six hotels in the whole year, although we did sometimes stay with friends (or park in the driveways of their homes, where we could access their bathrooms). Mostly, though, we stayed at campgrounds, which were unlike any we’d ever seen at home.

In Paris, London and Lisbon, the campgrounds were large and had shops, banks, laundries and showers. Those in the countryside could also be pretty small, but we befriended many families whom we met in other campgrounds in other countries.

We returned home on a Dutch ship that dropped us in Montreal on Michael’s fifth birthday, and I discovered I was pregnant.

All four of us still travel all over the world, and although none of us goes camping anymore, we think a VW is one of the best ways to travel.

Ella Kaumeyer Los Angeles