Created 22-Mar-19
Modified 22-Mar-19
This 6th Gallery of our 1966 European Road Trip is filled with interesting elements that span many topics and much history. It begins in Athens, Greece where we tour the Acropolis and surrounding destinations. On the Acropolis we spent time appreciating the Parthenon which was one of the central topics of our Bates College Cultch class. We could see up close and personal the precision and attention to detail that was characteristic of the Greek architecture of the time. The pillars, for example use triple centered fluting and are slightly bowed to compensate for how our eyes tend to make vertical pillars look concave.
After leaving Athens we followed the north east coast to the border of what was then the communist country of Yugoslavia (Disintegrated in 1992 and divided up to be part of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
We managed to get through customs, work ourselves up to Zagreb and then go west cutting through the middle of the country (later we found out this was forbidden) to the Yugoslavian Riviera. It was quite an education as we encountered people living as they have since medieval times. At one point we encountered a road crew supervised by the military. It was a little tense as they sized us up as we drove by.
The Riviera was beautiful, more like the West but soon we were reminded that the people had experienced the horrors of war when the Axis powers invaded them in WWII.
From there we went to Vienna, Austria where we had an unexpected encounter with a couple from Czechoslovakia, a country behind the Iron Curtain. They were on a working visa which was about to expire. They asked to talk to us in the shadows of a restaurant and indicated that they were trying to defect to the west. They wanted to know if we knew anyone in Canada who could sponsor them. We put them in touch with a former Bates faculty member who had taken a job in Canada. I think they eventually made it to Canada but I lost touch with them along the way.
The gallery ends with a visit to Salzburg, a magical place to visit at night.
© Robert Peek Photography