Ilse’S Worldwide Travel Adventures

By Ilse C. Wagner

This book was written by me to share my travels with my grandchildren, and to help them know me better.

There are adventures galore to be had and many great people to meet, and opportunities to admire their fascinating and wonderful traditions in every land. I realized again that we are all Gods children in this beautiful and sometimes tumultuous world.

I dedicate this book to my children and their families, and thanks again to Kathryn Holt for her editing, and encouraging me in this endeavor.

In gratitude,

Ilse C. Wagner

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483675398

Ilse C. Wagner

Born in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia of German descent, Ilse Wanger relocated to eastern Germany (now Poland) to live with her sister following their mother’s death. At age fourteen, she attended a girl’s school (previously a monastery) studying to become a teacher. After a year and a half, she fled to western Germany as World War II was coming to an end. She worked at an American air base near Munich where she met her future husband, an American soldier. She is a very proud mother, grandmother and great- grandmother. She has traveled extensively including the Kremlin, China, Africa, Turkey, the Middle East and numerous European countries. She has been a citizen of the United States. for fifty years. To quote her: “It has been most interesting!”

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Copyright © 2013 by Ilse C. Wagner.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013913468

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 08/09/2013

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Contents

Foreword

Traveling Home With Eva

Russia

China! The Globetrotter!

Hawaii

How I Spent "Turkey Day’ In Turkey, 1998

Pilgrimage, 2010

Five Weeks In Europe With Nikki

FOREWORD

This book was written by me to share my travels with my grandchildren, and to help them know me better.

There are adventures galore to be had and many great people to meet, and opportunities to admire their fascinating and wonderful traditions in every land. I realized again that we are all God’s children in this beautiful and sometimes tumultuous world.

I dedicate this book to my children and their families, and thanks again to Kathryn Holt for her editing, and encouraging me in this endeavor.

In gratitude,

Ilse C. Wagner

TRAVELING HOME WITH EVA

Looking out of the window of the airplane at the sea of clouds, I imagined them to be a never-ending field of cotton tuffs. I dreamt of jumping in a happy ballet dance on the cotton field from cloud to cloud with total exuberance and abandonment, because my happiness knew no bounds for the plane was heading to Europe, Germany. From there we planned to join a group of refugees on the tour bus to go to Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, my original place of birth and home until the age of nine, a year after the death of my mother. After that, I crossed the border to East Germany to live with my sister who was eighteen years older than I was. I went to Poland at the age of fourteen to enter a girl’s school, a one-time monastery for Polish monks to acquire teachers’ training.

It was now the early summer of 1988. It had been the first time I had been able to go home in almost fifty years since the country was closed to the Germans. Sudetenland had been inhabited by Germans for over 1000 years, but was given to Czechoslovakia after WWI. At the present time it was occupied by the Russian military, and had been since WWII. I had fled from the advancing Russian army and the monastery in Poland. I then joined my sisters to flee by foot, truck, and sometimes train cattle-cars, with millions of others to live in West Germany; there to await General Patton’s advancing army and the capture of our new place of dwelling.

After a marriage to an American for twenty-eight years, I lived in Montana since 1947. I have often referred to that marriage with sarcasm as World War III since, unfortunately, that’s how it ended. After two years of total heartbreak, I started to travel. I found it lifted and cured my depression in a matter of weeks, and I have been a happy camper ever since, sometimes literally. I travel once a year to some exotic and interesting destination. There are of course some occasions in ordinary life that travel cannot cure, like the loss of loved ones.

My dear friend Eva, who was widowed, was at my side on the present trip. She was sixteen or seventeen years my senior. Eva had traveled the world and was an adventurous travel companion. Our trip of five weeks included Germany, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia to be preceded by an exciting trip to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, Africa. After our arrival in Germany and a short visit with relatives for some rest to overcome our jet lag, we embarked on our trip to Spain by way of France. Preparing ourselves for all kinds of weather we had packed sun dresses, walking shorts, dress clothes, fancy dresses, and of course an umbrella and a raincoat. My raincoat was red and very modern, with a fashionable cape attached to it to give me double protection. I felt elegant as I wore it in the evening on the train to keep the chill away and as a cover during the night.

As we watched the scenery of Spain fly by on this high-speed train on the way to Madrid, a couple of young Spaniards kept watching us. Finally, one of the young men approached me and said in halting English, Excuse me, but I have a message from my uncle here on the train. He would like to have the honor of your acquaintance.

Wow! I was flattered! After all, we were riding first class on this train. May I be so bold and ask you if you are a matador? gesturing to my red raincoat with the attached cape. I was really flattered then that the young man thought I was brave enough to fight a bull! As a matter of fact, I have never heard of a lady bullfighter. I was even terrified of milk cows! Wow, did I ever feel so special! My chest circumference probably grew a couple of inches.

About dusk after suppertime, the door of our compartment flew open, and a young man hurried in and pointed to my watch to indicate he wanted to know what time it was. I don’t speak Spanish, so I let him read the time on my watch. He hurried out of the compartment. The train stopped soon at the next train station and I saw him outside running along the train toward an older couple, possibly his parents, I thought. The train went on again, and after a few minutes I noticed a big flash like a ball of fire outside my window.

The train immediately came to an abrupt halt. I watched as several trainmen walked up and down the track with lanterns. We learned later that a bomb had been placed on the tracks ahead of us, supposedly by the hostile group called the Basque. They came from the north of Spain and tried to disrupt the traffic in the south of Spain.

After a while, the train continued on, maybe on a sidetrack. It remained a mystery to me. I had the eerie feeling that perhaps the young man who had looked at my watch might have had something to do with it. Why was he in such a hurry to get off the train?

I thanked God and my guardian angel that we had survived the intended bomb attack. For a few years I sang in the choir at my church with a nun named Kathleen, and before our departure from Montana, I had asked her to pray for us during our trip. I decided she obviously said a prayer for our protection.

After our arrival in Madrid and meeting our fellow travelers (usually about fifty from everywhere in the world traveled in a group), I decided to go to a bullfight with two Americans. One American was a professor from Pennsylvania and the other was his friend, a very handsome young man. The six bulls involved in the fight had been raised and pampered for just that purpose. After the fight to their death, the meat is distributed to the poor in Madrid.

The matadors waving their