Have you retraced you're footsteps?

First trip to Europe was in 1994. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. It was a lot to cover in about 3 weeks, but we discovered places we loved and some not so much. I have been back to these countries many times. I find myself returning to places I love (small villages, not big cities) over and over again. Usually add one or two "new" places.

May want to add a few more variations next year on my next trip.

What a wonderful idea!!! I think it would be a lovely time, you'll just move a bit slower.

I've never done it, but I do really enjoy visiting places I have visited previously and enjoyed.

Go for it!

We are again on a nostalgia trip. On our first trip to Europe in 1982 we started at a conference in Milan but then headed straight to Germany to visit a friend in the north (Bielefeld) and do a second talk at the technical university in Berlin passing through East Germany. We stopped for two nights in Goslar before heading across the border for the East.

Over the years we have been back over this route many times (8-9) seeing the changes, and being nearby for 6 months in 1990 right after The Wall came down.

We have done 3 week home exchanges, in first Quedlinburg in 2012 and today in Wernigerode. At the end of our exchange we will go to Berlin, again, to visit friends and check on one of our favorite cities. We will share a 30th Einheitstag party with all of them on October 3 at one of their homes. We were in Bielefeld for the first Einheitstag celebration.

I’d say go for all of the nostalgia you can. This particular sequence of adventures always leaves me satisfied but very nostalgic at the same time.

I’d say go for it sooner rather than later.

Joy, Nigel, and Mona, Thanks for your input. I'm thinking this would be good for the nostalgia, and the "Look how my life turned out!" bit as well as maybe learning to like Venice and Rome. I, of course, liked the art and the history, of both, but Venice was the coldest place I've ever been...January...and Rome on a later short visit didn't win me over. And if I became disenchanted, there are always day trips or changes in plans. I think I will put this only slightly down on my bucket list. Visiting the parts of the cities that I loved at the time, should warm it up a bit... However, I'm skipping Mona Lisa...there were no crowds the first time.

My old journals are interesting reading for recalling the trip. I don't think you can "go back" without disappointment. That's due in some part to places changing, generally growing and becoming more crowded and more expensive. It's also due to the lack of that thrill you had of visiting a place for the first time.

I grew up in San Diego and am at least a little disappointed each time I visit. Places aren't what they were and never will be again.

I fight disappointment by planning trips to places I haven't been before. I also try to wander further from the major sites and population centers.

Architeuthis: True. I could add spots or just continue on a bucket list with fewer repeats.
Brad: I'm thinking the difference between being 21 and 71, I might find things that peaked my interest before, less interesting, and then vice versa. Certainly, I can afford to eat better and upgrade my hotels now! On the other hand, I'd met two other young women and we had a great time traveling together...I' don't even know where they are now.

It's all an interesting premise I need to study.

It's also due to the lack of that thrill you had of visiting a place for the first time.

Brad, this is so true. Good thought. I was thrilled the moment we started landing and I looked down on a walled in city or castle... That being said, there is pride in a life well lived as I glimpse my 21 year old self. Sigh.

Just a couple of weeks ago I "went back" without disappointment and in fact had an even better experience.

I was in Padua for 9 days and since I love late medieval and early Renaissance art of course I had to visit the Scrovegni Chapel. I was last there almost exactly 50 years ago at age 15, and at that time my friend and I just hopped off the tour bus and went in --- we both had studied art history and so we actually did appreciate what we were seeing.

But now at 65 and after much reading and many visits to many churches, chapels, and art galleries in Italy, and taking a month-long course in art history, I could REALLY appreciate the frescoes. Plus, they had been restored in the meantime and the colors were wonderfully bright. There is no casually strolling in there these days --- you have to book tickets for a particular time, attend a 15 minute film while the air in the room stabilizes, and only then enter the chapel and only for 15 minutes. So I went back a few days later for a double "Giotto Under the Stars" visit. I am SOOOO glad I did all this!

I have retraced my steps several other times on trips, mostly enjoyably, and my theory is that if you don't go expecting a first-time thrill or for anything to be the same (including yourself), you may be surprised by a deeper and more interesting feeling. It also helps to go with someone else who is new to the experience, if you can. Go for it!

I have retraced my steps several other times on trips, mostly
enjoyably, and my theory is that if you don't go expecting a
first-time thrill or for anything to be the same (including yourself),
you may be surprised by a deeper and more interesting feeling. It also
helps to go with someone else who is new to the experience, if you
can. Go for it!

So true Nancy!

We did this on our last trip, revisiting places that we had been to before and enjoyed. We did add one new locale ( the Loire Valley) for variety. And we had a wonderful time. We went to places that we had seen before and really enjoyed (especially the museums in London), and also took in new sights that we hadn't had time for on our earlier, much shorter visits, especially in Venice and Florence. I think we may have enjoyed this latest trip most of all- we went at a slower pace and could take the time to savour the moments. Perhaps there's a certain comfort (or at least a lack of stress) that comes with being in a place you are at least somewhat familiar with. Even going to sites we had been to several times, we noticed things we'd overlooked before.

While we love going to new places, I like the idea of mixing at least one or 2 favorites into the mix.

Fun thread!

Well, on my first trip to London in 1973 my roommate and I went to Madame Tussaud's...so no...NEVER revisiting that, lol! I'm not sure why we thought it was so important to see but even then we thought it was not a good use of time.

We did an American Express trip that was somewhat like Rick's My Way tours. Ours was Madrid, Paris and London for $600 which included airfare and all hotels. We chose that one because the Rome, Paris and London was $50 more, lol! While I've been back to Paris and London multiple times I've never had the urge to revisit Madrid.

Enjoy mulling this over. In any event, I'd do it sooner rather than later...but I've become very carpe diem over the last few years.

Pam, funny about Madame Tussards. I have never had an interest in the place until recently when I read figures of the younger royals--Harry, William, Kate, etc have been added. Now I may want to go. Saw some at Warwick Castle that were really well done.

Wray, I’ve been fortunate to return often to the sites of my first European backpacking trip in 1971, so I have a few reactions. First, I’m so thankful that I was able to go long ago at my own pace and absorb what was offered. It changed my life,

For example, back then my dear friend from college and I were able to pop into the Accademia for a free look at David every time we passed by. The place was empty, as was Anne Frank house, Coliseum, Acropolis in Athens, Dubrovnick... you get the picture. I took my French MIL to the Van Gogh museum when it opened in the 1970s and drove out to Giverny after Sunday lunch the weekend it opened around 1981, never dreaming it would become a must-visit. However, today, I strategize how to revisit these places, if my husband has not been to them, to avoid having to shuffle through packed like a sardine. It’s actually disagreeable. So that’s one side of it.

Another side is being able to apply the knowledge acquired over fifty years to the old places, as well as the new. Sometimes that means the old place looses some of the unique character I experienced because I’ve come to see how the monument is representative of its period rather than unique. Or, I appreciate the quality and uniqueness more. A lot has been restored in fifty years.

But it’s your experiment to try. I hope you share your results. As for myself, if I return, it’s to see very specific exhibitions or objects, not to soak up the atmosphere, as I did long ago. Todsy, I want to go new places.

A positive and a negative. The positive was being able to revisit a place but this time with my spouse and showing her places I had been to in the distant past. The negative was finding some things were better in my memories than in the present (like that chip shop I had been to 35 years ago.)

Not a European example but my wife and I got back last night from a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway in California from San Francisco to Laguna Beach. We had done this previously in the early 90's when we were newly married. Part of the fun was reminiscing on how we scrimped and saved to go, stayed at a $20 hotel in Cambria, ate at MacDonalds and Pizza Hut and still thought we were living the life. There were no $20 hotels this time and we didn't stop at Pizza Hut but the trip down memory lane was half the fun.

On my first post-retirement trip in 2009, I did some serious foot step retracing, going down memory lane of my first trip in 1971 and the two subsequent trips in the 1970s, that of 1973 and 1977. As a college backpacker on this first trip in 1971, I didn't have a camera with me , not even the Kodak Instamatic. That foot step retracing was part of the itinerary as the trip was planned for 67 days.

I went back to my first two cities in Germany, Lübeck which I had not seen in years and Lüneburg, also Sigmaringen an der Donau not since 1971, and then Kiel, Wien ( for both the last time was in 1977), and obviously, ( a must) Paris to the Place de Nation and the Metro station "Nation" which was the nearest station to the hostel I stayed at this first time in Paris in July of 1973, didn't literally go back to hostel itself though. In 1973 I did have the Kodak Instamatic

Very enlightening, sobering too historically and culturally seeing places after 45 years and recounting where you were then and what you saw, how you felt, and so on.

Thanks everyone. Your stories are great.

Fred: As you say:

Very enlightening, sobering too historically and culturally seeing places after 45 years and recounting where you were then and what you saw, how you felt, and so on.

I think this is it in a nutshell.

I'd also like to know if I would see Venice in a different light, as I really didn't like it due to cold, fog, garbage and such. As far as knowing more about the art, I was an art history major then, almost graduated, so I'm sure I have forgotten much of what I knew, except for the feelings about the art, so a revisit matching up with my journal might remind me about the history of the art and why I chose to see it. I like themes to my solo travels, generally, so this idea would work well for that.

Wray, I hope you get to revisit Venice in better weather -- but not at the height of summer when the crowds must be worst. I'd never had much interest in the place till I visited last fall and unexpectedly fell in love. That said, I doubt if I'll return because it's so crowded and there are so many other places to go in the time remaining (I'm a little older than you).

My first European travels were over 50 years ago, hitchhiking in England and by moped in France. I'm glad I don't have to travel that way any more but I have revisited most of the cities and sights in recent years -- along with new ones. "Retracing" for me would involve standing on certain corners with my thumb out, or relearning moped travel -- not appealing at all. I'd suggest a trip that takes you back to some of the places you enjoyed way back then but also includes some new ones.

"I don't think you can "go back" without disappointment"

Yes, with some places but not all. I'm on the Mosel now. In the last few days I've visited Echternach, which I recently recommended on this forum, and found it unattractive to say the least. The same with Trier, which is just one big shopping zone in the old town. I visited both as a very young man and remember enjoying them both. It may have had something to do with my age, and the beer and wine. Vianden was still nice, made better by the castle visit which was not available when I first went. There are more examples but none as disappointing.

Very funny about Trier, Gunderson. We were stymied trying to retrace footsteps there from my husband’s youth.

The French had had a base in Trier where my husband was stationed for a year. We went back a few years ago but found no clues to where he’d spent a year of his life. The hotel employees were so young that they didn’t know their town had been occupied by the French. He tried to retrace his steps but they’d gone poof.

Luckily, along came our hero —Nigel! Nigel, who goes to Trier yearly got the information to track it down from his innkeeper host who remembered the base. Today, it’s part of the local university. Nigel drove over, snapped pixs and sent them to us. My husband recognized a doorway or two. Anyway, thanks Nigel, again.

@ Wray...A note counting on the number of years passed. In 2009 it was 38 years for those places visited, explored on this first trip in 1971. I went back to Sigmaringen an der Donau, literally had not been back since 1971 when I spent 2 nights there in the hostel, looked up the hostel only to see the entire area had changed, got a good walk from the Zentrum

In 1971 it was much more rustic, rural. The Zentrum of the town had obviously changed, inquired about that at the small hotel. Getting to Sigmaringen solo from Stuttgart on that train in Aug 1971 is another part of the first trip you don't forget.

I guess it would not occur to me to repeat a trip exactly. However I am a big fan of including at least one place you have been on a trip. You get to relax, maybe spend more time doing offbeat things rather than fighting crowds at the big sights, go back to small restaurants you found before.

As for nostalgia, I guess I accept things will change. In fact, when we return, we anticipate and enjoy seeing what changed, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. A number of places have cleaned up, revitalized areas, others are as we left them. Probably the most annoying thing we have noticed is that nearly everywhere seems to be more crowded. Our first trip to the Cinque Terre was wonderful; the next trip, Good, but crowds noticeable, the last (third) time was probably the "last" time, the crowds were just too much.

I guess in my life I have experienced the "You can't go home again" syndrome many times in non-travel situations as well as travel that I do not dwell on what was.

Thanks for your interesting experiences! They are fun to read.

Considering these are mostly major cities, I don't think I'll be bored, even the ones I've already revisited. I do remember when I was in Chartre, all we visited was the cathedral and I was drooling over seeing the town, but others were in a hurry. I would enjoy going back to see the rose window again, and the town this time.

This trip is probably number 4 on my bucket list now, so I have some time to think about it. Inshallah.

When we revisit a place years later, I try to recreate the original photos (I or my wife were in) in the new visit, then place them side by side, as then and now.

Jaimee..., I'm thinking that would be fun. Now it is time to pull out my photo album from that time! I'm also thinking about tracking my 2 friends down from that trip...which would be easier if women didn't change their names when they married. However, maybe they are one of those who didn't or through their college...

To make a long story short, I met someone in US who was relocating to Istanbul, and was planning to stay at his place, and was using miles for the ticket, so looked like a great deal. Things didn't work out well after a couple days, so I went to the RS hotel I had stayed at on my Turkey tour, and enjoyed the rest of my time there.

Hi Wray,

My first trip to Europe was a very educational trip in 1975, after high school through a 4-H Ambassador program. We visited 11 countries in 40 days, including Russia.

Returning to nostalgic locations -

My husband and I stayed with the family I stayed with in The Netherlands for our 25th anniversary. And their daughter has stayed with our family twice. It was very special to see the family again and see the home which hadn’t changed over the years.

During my RS 1-week Paris trip, we walked right by the hotel I stayed at in the Sacre Coeur neighborhood! I didn’t know where we stayed exactly until we walked by, and I remembered railing details, the shortcut path, etc. I took a moment to just pause and realize how much has happened in my life since the time I first walked those paths!

I’ve returned to several other cities and castles, etc. we visited, but I haven’t tried to recreate or even revisit the 1975 moments. I like to remember things as the snapshot in time of how they were at that moment, so personally, I guess I would be disappointed if I was seeking out a repeat trip.

Have a picture of my grandfather along with his parents and 2 brothers taken in 1910 when he was about 15 at our old family home in CH. My wife took a picture of me in the same exact spot last year. I'm an old man of 63,and I'm still tickled about doing it!!

I went on a five-week student tour of Europe in 1968. At most stops we stayed in fleabag hotels, but in Bavaria they put us up in private homes in the quiet village of Dießen am Ammersee. I fell in love with the place. I finally returned 45 years later to find it very much as I remembered it. It is still off the international tourist grid, though it is a popular destination for German weekenders. I've gone back a couple of times since, and hope to return next summer.

1968: https://i.postimg.cc/QCxmcP60/PICT0555.jpg

2015: https://i.postimg.cc/sx6cmcqy/SAM-1281-HDR.jpg

The sailboat rental business is still in the same family; even the phone number (last 3 digits) is the same.

15 trips to London
5 trips to Rome
2 to Florence
2 to Paris (2nd was for 3 wks)
Retrace.....never...LOL

Travel safe

One Fast Bob

ofastrob,
Haha. I know just the thought that i'm saying retrace when I've returned to some of the cities several times. I've been back to Paris so many times I can't count, Florence at least twice, Rome at least twice, but not to the other cities. I guess by retracing, I mean I'd be checking out my old 'haunts' to see what they look like now, versus seeing new items or places or just enjoying the ambiance. I'd actually be stringing the cities in the first trip together and approaching it with my old journal rather than something new. And by doing that, I suspect I'd see somethings that are new or changed or see how I've changed, which is greatly in 50 years.

Or I'll just give Venice one more try, and go to Nice to escape a New England January.