‘These are my parents sometime in the late 1950s, probably on the Brenner Pass, on their way to a holiday destination in Austria. The roads were not like they are now with beautiful asphalt and gas stations to take a rest. This motorcycle, a Jawa Sport, could best be described as a souped-up moped with a lot of noise and little speed. It must have been a trip around the world. I sometimes think about that when I drive seven hours to yet another winter sports holiday, while it must have taken them about four days. In all weather conditions, without navigation and with a trunk on the back. Mother in a short windbreaker, behind father in his heavy leather motorcycle jacket, with enormous gloves and a full-face helmet.
During the war my father lived in Hilversum. To escape the Arbeitseinsatz, he had to go into hiding with his older brothers. That’s how he got through the hunger winter. My mother survived the war in the then predominantly agricultural Apeldoorn, with her family who actively participated in the resistance and provided shelter to Jewish families and British pilots. My parents had a happy marriage: the fact that my mother never knew hunger and my father did was the only source of disagreement in the harmonious family.
We don’t know who took the photo. But for my sister and me it brings back beautiful memories, and we cherish the thought that prosperity always takes us one step further, but that some holiday destinations remain more or less the same: we are also going to Austria.’
#Austria #trip #world