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From The Dubois County Daily Herald
Monday, November 15, 1954

HARK THE HERALD

Let’s Take A Trip To Europe
By A. T. Rumbach

Ever since the Great Adventure of 1950, an extended trip through Europe, which I had the pleasure of sharing with the readers of this column, I had been wondering whether there would ever be a repeat performance of that experience.

That many of the readers were thinking of the same thing, I was convinced by frequent inquiries throughout the intervening years until I considered it a mandate on their part to risk an encore. When I divulged my intentions to my brother, Fred, who was my traveling companion on the previous trip, he also succumbed to the urge to relive those pleasant days.   We started negotiations at once with our travel agent, Howard Yenowine, representative of the American Express Co.

In the meantime, that veteran globe-trotter, Virgil Gramelspacher, who had planned a trip earlier in the year, but had cancelled his arrangement due to unforeseen circumstances, decided to cast his lot with us to make it a threesome, just the right number for a cabin on the good ship Nieuw Amsterdam of the Holland-American line on which we had decided to make the journey.   When the rumor of the proposed jaunt reached the ears of Alphonse A. Sermersheim, he too was fired with a desire, long suppressed, to make a voyage to the home of our ancestors, in Baden, Germany; so we made it a foursome when a single cabin just next to ours was found available on the September 7, 1954 (Tuesday) sailing of the Nieuw Amsterdam.

Since we had a common purpose, to visit the homes of our ancestors and that of a large portion of Dubois County citizens, we decided to make our own itinerary, rather than to go in a standard conducted tour.   Many spare hours during the intervening months were spent in poring over old records and over maps, and interviews with many local people who requested us to look up the home towns of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers, and in laying out a convenient and economical route to enable us to visit as many places as possible.

The reader may get some idea about how heavy the transatlantic travel was during the past summer from the fact that we applied early in June (1954) for accommodations, and had to accept the September (1954) sailing date as the first one available on an eastbound ship.   The earliest westbound opening was on the same ship scheduled to leave Rotterdam, Holland on October 29, 1954, (Friday) with a November 6, 1954 (Saturday) landing dated in New York harbor.   I would therefore, advise anyone intending to go on a trip to Europe, to make arrangements at least four months in advance of the contemplated sail date.

Since our return, we have been frequently asked about conditions in Europe.   I speak for myself, and I dare to say for my companions, that we do not make any pretense to be experts on the European situation as the result of our brief sojourn there.   We frequently discussed the things we saw and heard.   It will be my earnest endeavor during the next days, perhaps weeks, to give you a true picture of our experience in the lands beyond the sea and the peoples whose future, hopes and aspirations are so intimately connected with our own.  

I hope it will afford you as much pleasure reading as it gives me in writing about our adventure.   We shall begin our journey tomorrow.   You are invited to join us on the first leg of our trip – Washington, Indiana via B & O to New York.