Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Travel Tuesday: Mom's 1953 Europe Road Trip - A Long Day

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "PLACES VISITED" section: 
October 7, Wednesday – Road between Luchon, France, and San Sebastián, Spain
Got up early because we had a longer way to go.  After going over five mountain passes and stopping for lunch on roadside, we reached the French - Spanish border around 5:30.  Practically had to sign my life away at Spanish border -- we had to declare all currencies we had with us. (I didn't declare all French in case they talked to them.)  After several false starts we got on road to San Sebastian and found a very nice hotel* to spend a few nights.  Had to open trunk of car at Sp[anish] border.

* According to the "HOTELS STOPPED AT" section of the trip diary, my mother and her friends stayed at the Hotel des Londres in San Sebastián, Spain, pictured below.
EXTERIOR [Hotel Londres, San Sebastian, Spain, 14 June 2012] / Hotel Londres / CC BY-SA 2.0

Luchon (which has the proper name of  Bagnères-de-Luchon) is known as a spa town due to its thermal springs.  The Thermes Chambert, pictured below, is one such spa.  It was built in 1848 on the site of the ancient Roman thermal baths.
Bagnères-de-Luchon, Thermes [Chambert, 4 June 2010] / Père Igor (Own work) / GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0



Here is the map for this day's travel.  I imagine it took more than 7 hours in 1953:



This is the 61st in a series of posts transcribing entries in my mother's 1953 Europe Trip journal.


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

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