All around the Mediterranean - solo 1964
Total distance approximately 15,000 km (9,000 miles)
Original map (= without itinerary): O H 237 / Wikimedia Commons
While planning my trip around the Mediterranean, I was offered a lift - from the Netherlands all the way to Morocco - for a bit of cash. Once in Morocco, the 5,000-kilometre road to Cairo, Egypt stretched out before me - and the real adventure was about to begin.
Above: Tunesia, Libya, Egypt
Hitchhiking through North Africa turned out to be easier than expected. More than once, a driver grew tired and handed me the wheel. In Libya, I got a ride from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, sitting on top of the high pile of cargo on a moving truck. Finding a place to sleep was usually easy. Only once did I have to spend the night out in the open. More than once, locals invited me to stay in their homes. In Libya, you could even go to the police - they often had a few beds available in the yard.
But this journey offered more than just the logistics of transport and shelter. For instance: across North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, you could find the enduring witnesses of Antiquity. Impressive structures like the Roman amphitheatre of El Djem in Tunesia, or the Greek - later Roman - city of Cyrene in Libya, where you could wander for hours without encountering another soul. The more recent history of World War II is associated with locations such as Tobruk, Libya, and El Alamein, Egypt. After visiting Cairo and the pyramids, I boarded a Mediterranean liner in Alexandria, which took me from Egypt - via Cyprus - to Beirut, Lebanon.
By sheer coincidence, I ran into my former hitchhiking partner Ruud (see 'How it all began' below) in Damascus, Syria. We decided to hitchhike together to Jordan. There, we experienced the warm hospitality of the Bani Sakher Bedouin tribe in the desert. We spent the day in a tent similar to the one shown on the left, and after attending an evening celebration - where men and women sang and danced in separate groups - we spent the night there as well. Ruud, who was studying Arabic at the time (and later became a renowned professor of islamic law), had the opportunity to practice his language skills - although the younger generation Bedouins also spoke English.
One elderly tribesman recalled meeting Lawrence of Arabia during negotiations over support for the Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War I. Most Europeans traveling in the Middle East in 1964 were still under the spell of the legendary British colonel, inspired by the epic film Lawrence of Arabia, which had been released two years earlier.
Heading east 1961-1963
Three times I hitchhiked with my buddy Rob, from the Netherlands through the Balkans, heading east. We made it to Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1961 (see picture). In 1962 we reached Istanbul, Turkey, and in 1963 we made it as far as Damascus, Syria.
I still have a vivid memory of the last long ride we took in Germany on our way home that year. We were standing on the shoulder of the Autobahn near Augsburg, in the south, when a red Ford Falcon pulled over and the driver offered us a lift. He was a U.S. Army sergeant, heading all the way to Bremerhaven in the north - about 750 kilometres - where he planned to ship his car back to the States.
The radio, tuned to the American Forces Network (AFN), blasted "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash roughly every thirty minutes - it was clearly a smash hit at the time. Most of the conversation was small talk, but I distinctly remember our host sharing his view on the geopolitical situation: "First we're gonna fight Russia, and then we're gonna fight China."
And last but not least, that day I had my very first hamburger - courtesy of the sergeant, who treated us at one of the U.S. Army diners along the Autobahn. Just before reaching Bremen, he dropped us off. We pitched our tent in the wild, and the next day we completed the final leg of our journey.
The following year, I continued solo - Rob had been drafted into the military.
How it all began
My hitchhiking career began in 1958, when my classmate Ruud and I - both fifteen years old - set off on a bicycle tour through Belgium and Germany. Halfway through the trip, our bikes broke down, and we decided to switch to hitchhiking for the final leg. We picked it up again in 1959, traveling through Denmark and Sweden. In the years that followed, we each went our separate ways, but by coincidence, a brief reunion took place in 1964, as mentioned above.
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