In the Summer of 1965 I was 16 years old and had just purchased a motorcycle. That year, my parents had allowed me to join a 10-day school trip to Innsbruck In Austria with Chadderton Grammar School For Boys’ “Geographical and Historical Society”. This was as big a thrill as the bike. The trip was to be led by the head of the Geography department – Mr. Brown (of course he was nicknamed “Joe”). There was another teacher there whose name I have forgotten, but it was likely to have been a history master. I’m sure that it was not the department head who was Dr. Chivers at that time. I think that his predecessor Mr. “Len” Carney had been promoted to headmaster by then.
I have no idea why Innsbruck was chosen other than the teachers might have fancied a free holiday there or perhaps it was so that we could experience the Alps – a lot different from our Lancashire hills. Certainly my motivation was to go on a good holiday without my parents after my GCE “O” level exams.
The package tour was organised by a Liverpool company called “Gentours”. They don’t seem to exist in Liverpool anymore, but there is still a Canadian company with that name; it might be related. Some of my friends at school said that they were not very good, but what did we care? They were probably cheap and I believe that they had some specialist experience in school trips like ours. The school had chosen them so they must be OK.
It was to be surface travel all the way. Cheap airfares in Europe were a long way off in 1965, so buses, ferry and trains were needed. Also required was some sort of passport. I’m not sure what I had – almost certainly not a full passport, maybe one of those travel ID cards that were popular at the time.
The excursion started with a bus ride to the ferry from England to France. This was on a “Yelloway” bus, I can remember as much as that. It was a big disappointment because the dramatic way to get there would have been on the “Golden Arrow” train from London which involved sleeper cars and a change of wheels to go from the British to the Continental gauge railways. Anyway it was fun I think. Somehow I believe that we took the night ferry from Folkestone to Boulogne. The next stage was a night train to Basel just over the border from France in Switzerland; we might have had couchettes, but I cannot recall much other than occasionally being able to see the French countryside as we passed. There we took a train to Innsbruck. My mother had a theory that European trains has wooden seats and were slow and uncomfortable. Definitely true in this case, but this was a daytime journey with plenty to see out of the window.
We stayed at the Hotel Goldener Adler “Golden Eagle” in the city centre. It’s still there with the same exterior appearance. Now it’s a Best Western and has been spruced up a lot. From the pictures of the rooms, the internal character has been altered out of all recognition with en suite rooms and contemporary furniture. In 1965 it was a bit foreboding and dark . There was a huge cross outside the room that I assumed reflected what I thought was a Catholic culture in the area. There was a bar and the staff were very relaxed in their.willingness to sell alcoholic drinks to us underage schoolboys. At the time I believed that there were few restrictions on alcohol sales because my mother thought (wrongfully) that anywhere outside the UK had few standards like that. However, we boys made the most of the bar even though Mr. Brown had warned us to stay away from the cheap wine found in that part of the world. One or two of the staff left a big impression on us. I can remember that there was a woman called Carmen, but I have forgotten the names of the others. I shared the room with at least one other boy who I think was Steven Groom. None of my closer friends were on the trip.
The Hotel is close to the city centre and so we were able to explore nearby. There were some organised trips too. Places I remember from the city are the “Golden Roof”, a tower that we climbed for a good view, a church (catholic I think) with an ornate interior and a house which I seem to remember had been occupied by Mozart at some point in his life.
The River Inn runs through the city and very close to the hotel. On one day we crossed over and as I was an overgrown plane spotter, we walked to the airport. I remember some Austrian Air Force fighters parked there; I think that they were Mirages. Since the location is at the bottom of a steep valley, then air travel to and from Innsbruck is limited so it’s a fairly small airport, but there is a very impressive railway station.
There was a day when the group went to the Patscherkofel, a nearby ski maountain that had hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964. I had always been brought up to be careful with money and so I did not take the option of using the cable-car to ascend to the summit, Instead a group of us started to hike up. We did not get there, but we were able to wave at our colleagues as they passed overhead.
On another day we were able to see the The Europe Bridge and the Brenner Pass into Italy. Then the bridge was a notable engineering achievement. The pass is a major route between North and South Europe and has been used since prehistoric times.
On another day we took a chair lift. These were single person chairs and quite slow, not like the fast 4-seaters that we see now. Mr. Brown thought that this was a good experience because (rightly) it was an opportunity to be completely alone to study the surroundings. This might have been the day when I saw a thermometer with 100ºF, I could have been wrong because of course Austria used the centigrade scale, but I know that it was very hot for the whole trip.
Finally, towards the end of the trip I remember that we had some schnapps. Very strong as I recall. The next day we set off for home. I vaguely remember the Innsbruck railway station and that’s all; back to Lancashire after a memorable trip for a bunch of irresponsible 16-year olds.
