Why I love Europe: The first time I set foot on the continent.

It's been more than four decades since that first trip across the pond but my memories are still vidid. It was a college graduation present to myself and an adventure with my best friend Mo that would set me on a lifetime of travel adventures to Europe. Mo had been to Europe a couple of times by now and had told me tales of his explorations, the food, the people he met, the sites he saw, they were all fascinating for a young man who had hardly left his home in Alabama.

So off we went with a rough agenda, a few hundred bucks and our framed backpacks that held all of our gear for six weeks of adventure.

How many modes of transportation does it take to get from Birmingham Alabama to Antwerp Belgium? In our case the answer was seven, my dad dropped us in his gas station pick up at the Birmingham Trailways bus depot for a ride to Atlanta, then a City Bus to the airport, a Delta L 1011 to London followed by a train to Dover, a ferry boat to the Belgium coast and finally another train ride to Antwerp. Don't worry I wouldn't advise this route to any of those of you who seek my advice but it was quite the start to the first time I set foot on the Continent.

Night life in Venice 1978

After 26 hours of travel and a good nights sleep the adventure had begun and it was everything i had hoped for and much, much more. From the charms of Amsterdam and Copenhagen through beer halls of Germany to the Italian Peninsula via the beauty of the Alpine landscape we saw it all. We not only saw but we experienced it, trying new foods, meeting new people and even being held captive in a Roman nightclub that demanded a large portion of our meager savings. I couldn't believe how great travel could be, it was intensified living and I was hooked and to this day I still am.

#thetravelinbear #whyiloveeurope