Part 1:The outward journey

On Wednesday, August 27th, 1958, a party of 12 boys and two members of staff, named below, assembled together at Oswestry School, buzzing with excitement preparatory to spending ten days by the Konigsee ( the King's Lake ) in Upper Bavaria.

The School party outside our hotel.

Standing, Left to Right: D Berry, M Charles, M Walton, RA Hughes, K Scorer, R Prestwich, J Sharples, JB Greves, D Pickup, A Burton.

 Squatting, Left to Right: Beddows, GSR Jones,hotel rep, and staff members, JF Tilley (party leader), and "Mitch" Mitchell.

For most of us it would be the first time we had set foot on the European continent, and I was pumped up with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of spending time with my friends, classmates and the rest of the boys in the group, most of whom I knew very well.

In those days there was no channel tunnel, and as the ferry departed from our shores I looked back and, for the first time in my life saw the White Cliffs of Dover.

The outward journey would take us from Dover to Ostend where we would catch the night train to Munich, passing en route through Brussels, Cologne, and Stuttgart, where I was almost left behind much to the irritation of John F Tilley, the leader of our party.

The inside of a carriage on a night sleeper train.

I had never spent the night on a train before, and looking forward to this new experience I opted for one of the top bunk beds from where I could take photographs through the window with my Brownie 127. It was early evening before we set off on our continental adventure, and lying on my bunk amidst all the lively chatter and laughter of my excited companions I reflected that it felt like I was back in the Junior dormitory just after lights-out, except that I was not expected to entertain everyone with a five minute story before falling asleep. We were soon approaching Brussels which, at the time, was playing host to the World Fair, the biggest exhibition of its kind ever to be held, and as the train slowed down through the city, the Atomium of the Fair could clearly be seen from my window in all its magnificence.

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Atomium, Brussels

Speeding up again we were soon passing over the border into Germany on our way to our final destination of the small village of Konigsee, nestling in Upper Bavaria close to the Austrian border.

Travelling on into the inky blackness of the German countryside to the accompaniment of the metronomic clackety clack of metal wheels on metal as the train ran over the joints in the track, I was struck by the stark contrast of the dark countryside with that of the towns and cities which were ablaze with lights of one description or another. It seemed to me as though every German factory was lit up as the industrious population toiled through night and day to rebuild the German economy, shattered by the devastation inflicted on the country by allied bombing towards the end of the 1939 - 1945 war, which had ended in Europe a mere 13 years previously.

Dresden - after the allied bombing during World War II in 1945.

As our sleeper train slowly came to a halt in Stuttgart, a voice on the tannoy system announced there would be a short stop so I climbed down onto the platform to stretch my legs and buy an ice cream. On coming out of the shop I noticed the guard was about to wave a green flag so I sprinted back towards my carriage only to find John Tilley imploring me loudly to get back on board. He was red in the face and incandescant with anger, and as I clambered aboard he railed at me for leaving the train without permission. Pointing out the obvious he said that I had almost missed the departing train and.warned me about my future compliance with his authority. My tongue - in - cheek peace offering of a lick of my ice cream went down like a lead balloon, doing  little to calm him down, and it was obvious that my sense of humour had backfired on me as the tirade of vitriol continued. 

Eventually the atmosphere cooled down and I decided to pass the time away by writing a postcard home to my parents back in Lancashire, and as I did so I was approached by a boy called Franz whom I assumed to be German from his guttural accent. He enquired where I was going and told me that he was returning home to Vienna, his Austrian birthplace, after a student exchange with a French family. Peeking over my shoulder Franz spotted that I had described him as German and he objected most vehemently to being classed  as of German origin, protesting that he was a patriotic Austrian who did not wish to be mistaken for a German.

He went on to explain that he was Jewish by faith and that many of his extended Jewish family members had been deported to concentration camps across Europe, never to be seen again, following the annnexation of his beloved Austria by that dreadful German, Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazis in 1938.

It was tactless of me, and I immediately regretted taking the wind out of his sails, but I just could not resist pointing out to him that Hitler was in fact Austrian by birth, and a fellow countryman, spending most of his youth and early years in Austria before moving to Germany where he rose to power in the Nazi Party, only gaining German citizenship in 1932. At this point the atmosphere between us became distinctly chilly and, apologising profusely for my thoughtless "faux pas", I tried to make amends with him. 

I sensed that we were nearing Munich, and not wishing to leave Franz on a sour note I complimented him on his command of the English language, which seemed to please him, and suggested that we should keep in touch and exchange addresses. As we disembarked from the night sleeper he waved me farewell with a smile on his face, saying that he would write to me. Sadly that was the last I heard from him.

It was getting light as we caught a train for the last leg of our journey from Munich to Berchtesgaden, just a few miles from Konigsee, and I took the opportunity to take some photographs of the Bavarian countryside. I was enthralled and captivated by the scenic beauty of Upper Bavaria with its backdrop of majestic mountains some of which can be seen in the photo below.

Picturesque Bavaria

More of Bavaria

Departing from the train in Berchtesgaden our party caught a bus to take us the final few miles to the picturesque village of Konigsee which would be our base for the rest of the holiday. On arrival at the newly constructed hotel, seen below, we were shown to our rooms by the hotel representative, pictured in the opening photograph of this article, and I took a photograph of the village from the window of my room..

The Hotel 

View of Konigsee village from my room window.

Lake Konigsee was just a short walk from the hotel, and in glorious sunshine we would spend the next eight or nine days sunbathing, boating on the lake, and taking excursions over the border into Austria. Some of these I will describe in Part 2.

 Beautiful Lake Konigsee, then...

Lake Konigsee now

The END.