My 1987 European summer is described across 72 separate posts. All the “previous” and “next” links have been added (please let me know if any of these are broken), and the narrative can be followed in chronological order, from one to the next.
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BENELUX, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA AND ITALY (8)
A tentative toe in the water for Euro ’87.
30 years ago, April 16: The 1987 European crusade begins in Brussels and Brugge.
30 years ago, April 20: Amsterdam amid the Heineken.
30 years ago today: Springtime in Switzerland. First, a weekend in Lausanne.
30 years ago today: (April) Swiss day trips to Geneva and Montreux.
30 years ago today: An April interlude in Interlaken and the Swiss road to Vienna.
30 years ago today: (April 30) A return to Vienna.
30 years ago today: May Day in Vienna, 1987.
ITALY (4)
30 years ago today: (May) Florence, La Botteghina Rossa, The Decameron and some quality time in Italy.
30 years ago today: (May) Vivid views in Siena.
30 years ago today: (May) The unique towers of San Gimignano.
30 years ago today: (May) Hillsides in Perugia, Gubbio, Assisi — and the end of Italy ’87.
YUGOSLAVIA (9)
ON THE AVENUES: Welcome to wherever you are, and come to think of it, Ljubljana will do nicely.
30 years ago today: (May) An introduction to Yugoslavia in Ljubljana, then Zagreb and the way to Sarajevo.
THE BEER BEAT: Praljak, Yugoslavia’s civil war, the brewery in Sarajevo and the bridge in Mostar.
ON THE AVENUES: My Franz Ferdinand heritage trail, 30 years ago in Sarajevo.
30 years ago today: (May 1987) Sarajevo, Mostar and what came after.
30 years ago today: (May 1987) Dubrovnik long before those trendy thrones and games.
Tjentište War Memorial, Yugoslavia, then and now.
1987 European Summer: “Skopje, capital city of Macedonia, is a dream world for lovers of cosmic concrete communist-era architecture.”
30 years ago today (May, 1987): Five days in Skopje with the greatest seismologist of them all.
BULGARIA AND HUNGARY (11)
30 years ago today, sightseeing in Sofia (photos).
30 years ago today, sightseeing in Sofia with the ghost of Leonid Brezhnev.
On June 3, 1987, from Sofia to Belgrade (and Budapest) by rail.
30 years ago today … experiencing Sopron, Hungary.
30 years ago today: Four days in Kőszeg, a small Hungarian town.
30 years ago today: Genesis live in Budapest on June 18, 1987.
THE BEER BEAT: 30 years ago today, labels from beer hunting in Red Hungary … and töltött káposzta at Czarnok Vendéglő.
30 years ago today: Thought and reflection in Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest.
30 years ago today: The time when the ghost of Yuri Andropov tried to punch me out, up in the Buda Hills.
30 years ago today: Saying goodbye to Budapest, and an era now long gone.
ON THE AVENUES: Train Whistle Reds, or my journey from Budapest to Moscow by rail in June, 1987.
BACK IN THE USSR: MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD (9)
30 years ago today: Good morning, Moscow.
ON THE AVENUES: Back in the USSR, with my old friend Barr.
30 years ago today: A taste of Moscow, with occasional beers for sustenance.
30 years ago today: A fine meal at the Hotel Moskva.
30 years ago today: The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, a renowned monastery in what was then Zagorsk.
30 years ago today: Beer, vodka and Leningrad.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Changing an empty keg the Soviet way.
30 years ago today: Can someone please explain how the stars and stripes got up THERE?
30 years ago today: Queuing for kvass (an aside).
THE CAPTIVE BALTICS & POLAND (5)
30 years ago today: The drinking lamp is lit in Riga and Vilnius.
30 years ago today: From Vilnius to Warsaw with the Greimans.
30 years ago today: The mysterious case of the phantom Warsaw pub.
30 years ago today: Our dinner with Andrej on a surreal evening in Krakow.
30 years ago today: Both Auschwitz and Lanzmann’s Shoah.
PRAGUE & PLZEŇ (CZECHOSLOVAKIA) (5)
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: The finest restorative Pilsner Urquell ever, upon arrival in Prague.
30 years ago today: Our sports club beds, glorious Prague and beers at U Fleků.
30 years ago today: Prague’s Old Town Square, and why we didn’t see it in 1987.
30 years today on THE BEER BEAT: The Automat Koruna, one of my favorite pubs (?) in the world.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Worshipful pilgrimage to the Pilsner Urquell birthplace shrine.
MUNICH & THE RETURN TO WESTERN EUROPE (3)
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Meeting the gang at the legendary Imbiss by Gleis 16 at the Hauptbahnhof in Munich.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Munich’s incredible Mathäser Bierstadt, symbol of a lost era.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Friday nights and Saturday mornings, Munich-style.
PARIS & THE D-DAY BEACHES (7)
30 years ago today: From Munich to Paris by Rhine and train.
30 years ago today: Paris, and some time (and wine) with Mr. Mojo Risin’.
30 years ago today: Chartres by day, couscous by night.
30 years ago today: Exterior memories of the Palace and Park of Versailles.
30 years ago today: Bayeux and the fabled day on the Mulberry beach at Arromanches.
30 years ago today: Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and a chance meeting with Leon Bourse.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: A ferry ride from France to Ireland, with the help of Super Valstar and Guinness.
IRELAND (6)
ON THE AVENUES: Irish history with a musical chaser.
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Stouts galore in Cork, Kinsale and the Hibernian Bar, but in Ballinspittle, not so much.
30 years ago today: Wonderful countryside and birthday pints while in Kenmare.
30 years ago today: Skibbereen, Baltimore and our last days in the Irish countryside.
30 years ago today: It was about Cork, the Irish experience and U2 — and the craic was lovely.
30 years ago today: We say goodbye to Ireland with hurling and Guinness on a Sunday afternoon in Rosslare.
GRAND FINALE IN COPENHAGEN, AND HOME (5)