July 14, 1971

Dear Mom, and Dad

Here are some more of the pictures that I took while I was on leave.  I want to try and get the rest of these sent within the next few days, so I can concentrate on writing you a good long letter to catch you up on my news on this side of the Atlantic.

In these pictures you will see Cannes France, where I went after Monte Carlo.  I stayed there for about a day and a half.

This is a shot taken along the waterfront.  notice the French flags.  The beach at Cannes has a reputation of being one of the best in Europe, but as you can see for yourself it doesn't look as attractive as most of the ones on the West Coast.  Anyway 99% of it is all private beaches belonging to the hotels in the background.

This is just another picture of the beach at Cannes, taken in the opposite direction of the first shot.

A picture taken along the boardwalk by the beach.  I took this one to show you a real French Poodle, in his native land!

This is not exactly the most classy hotel in Cannes, but it is where I stayed and it wasn't too bad.  Two meals a day plus a room for about $10 a day.

In France you can "read the writing on the wall", so to speak.  This bit of Communist expression was right next to my hotel.

In Cannes, this is one of the most popular buildings.  The "Movie house".  The film festival was in progress while I was there and this is where all the films are shown.  It is also a good place to look for International stars if you are so inclined.

This picture gives a good idea of the many different countries represented down at the Cannes dock.  From front to back: Monaco, USA , England,Panama, and England again.  I spent a lot of time down at the waterfront.  I found it very interesting.

Again, down at the dock I came across this VW bus, waiting for a ship  to Africa!  It says on the side:  "From Berlin to Cape Town, via East Africa"

Here's a closer look at one of the big private boats from panama.

This is a group of men playing Bocce ball.   it is played by throwing little steel balls.  I don't know much about it, but it must be interesting, because it seems like the men around here spend 80% of their time playing it.

My last shot of this group is a close up of a boat from New York, USA!    

More to come.....

June 27, 1971

Dear Mom and Dad,

In the last envelope of pictures I left off at Monte-Carlo.  These next 12 pictures are all from Monte-Carlo.

Just as  the race was about to begin, this ship came off shore and let all it's cargo of tourists out to add to the already jammed streets.

Here is a shot of a group of Monte-Carlo cops, about ready to clear the streets of people.

I took this one to show you how many people were crammed into every available spot.  This picture was taken fairly early in the morning.

 This is just another view of the city, taken from along the route of the race.

To tell you the truth, this is about the closest view of one of the race cars that I got during the whole day.  They were taking this one to the pits about two hours before the race began.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took during my leave.  This is what I call determination!  this guy was going to get a good view of the race no matter what.  I have no idea how he got up there in the first place, but it took three men to get him down.

A shot of the Ferrari service truck.

A shot of the Lotus service truck.

This is a picture of the front of the Monte-Carlo Casino.

This is a statue that is on the dock at Monte-Carlo.  Notice the Helicopter behind it.

This is a picture of the palace where the prince and princess of Monaco live.

My final shot of Monte Carlo is just another view of the harbor with part of the city in the background.

June 23, 1971

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well here are the first of the pictures that I took while I was on leave.  I've got 4 rolls developed now and two more that haven't been developed yet, but you will be getting them in the near future.  I had a good time taking them and a real good time at the places at which they were taken.  I think you will find some of them interesting.  I'm going to start at the beginning of my trip and work on from there.

These first two were taken on my first day out.  They were both taken from the same location, but in different directions.  This was down on the German-Austrian border, S.E. of Munich, in the area called the Bavarian Alps. The Austrian border is just a few miles from where I took these pictures.

 This was taken in Innsbruck, during my first stop, and first night lay-over.  This is a picture of the bed in my hotel.  You might think it strange to take a picture of a bed in a hotel, but in this case I thought it worthwhile.  This was my first experience with European beds.  Please notice the big white thing on the bed that looks like a giant pillow.  That was the problem, I didn't know whether to sleep on it, under it, or in it.  It was very soft and comfortable on it, but nothing left for covers.  It was a little small to get in, so I finally took the last choice of under, which I believe was correct.  It's like sleeping under a mountain of feathers, but very comfortable.  In fact I grew to like this type of bed so much by the time I came back, that I think I will buy one of these very comfortable comforters before I come back to the states.

This is the only picture I took of Innsbruck, because I didn't stay very long but I should have because it is a very beautiful city.  I took this picture out of my hotel window early in the morning.  The clouds were covering up the mountains.

The above two photos were taken not too far out of Innsbruck, on my second day.  I took these pictures along the autobahn that goes through the Brenner Pass.  This is only about 35 miles from the Italian border.  As soon as I hit Italy this excellent autobahn ended and turned into a 2 lane winding, miserable road, but the scenery on both sides of the border was beautiful.

Well I made it to Monte Carlo OK, and this is a picture of the entrance to the small bay there.  All the pictures of Monte Carlo were taken on the morning of the race.

This one was taken from the same position as the one above but in the direction of the city.  As you can see there were quite a few very large boats docked in the bay. 

Monte Carlo is a big hang out for the world's "jet set".  This is a picture of one of the many Ferrari's I saw parked on the streets.  This is about a $20,000 automobile!

Monte Carlo is built on the side of some very steep cliffs from which I took this picture overlooking part of the city and the blue Mediterranean.

A little closer view of the city.

This is a picture of the backside of the famous Monte Carlo Casino.  I didn't go inside, but from the outside it looks like quite a plush building.

That's all for this envelope.  I still have more to mail.

June 7, 1971

Dear Mom and Dad.  Well, in this envelope you will mostly find pictures of the Bamberg O'Club.

Starting with picture #1 you will see what the front of the club looks like.

This is a shot of one side of it.  Those tall windows look into the main ball room.

Here is another picture of the front of the club from another angle.  That's the club truck parked out front.

Moving out into the back yard, you can see part of the patio.

Another shot from the back yard.  We are lucky to have a very pretty back yard.  There's a Barbecue pit just outside of this picture.  As you can see this club is much bigger than the one at Illishiem, although it is older.  the top floor, except for our own offices, are taken up by transient officer quarters.

this one was taken looking down a side street next to the club.  (the club is not in this pic.)  Note the APC going down the street.

 Very close to the officers club, we have this beautiful building.  Notice the graceful lines, and advanced design of this structure.  This is the BOQ where I live!

Inside my room now.  This is my "music center"  (the bookcase came with my room)

Lastly, we have a picture of a saber that I got when I left Illishiem.. It's engraved on the side and says:  2Lt Martin L Burrows

Dec 70- Apr 71

1st Bde 4th Armd Div

"First In Deed"

Everyone who was in the Bde. gets one when you leave, as long as you pay your dues to the "Flower and Cup" fund.

Well that's all for now.   Still waiting for my leave pictures to be developed.  

PS:  Took the opportunity while on leave to let my mustache start growing again.  Nobody's said anything, yet.

June 6, 1971

Dear Mom & Dad,

It will be another week or two before the pictures which I took on leave are developed, but until then here are some pictures I took before I went on Leave.  The pictures in this envelope were almost all taken at a place called Coburg Castle.  The Castle is in a fairly small town called Coburg, which is about 35 miles from Bamburg and only about 10 miles from the East German Border.

This first picture gives you somewhat of an idea of what the castle looks like from a distance although it makes it seem smaller than it really is.

This is the main entrance to the castle.  The walls and the main buildings inside are all in very good condition.

This is a shot of the same tower that was in the picture above except it was taken from the inside.

Also inside the walls, I took this picture of the largest cannon I have ever seen.  Although you can't see them in this picture, the top of the cannon is covered with many very elaborate carvings.

Up against one of the inside walls of the castle I saw this German war memorial.  From the dates on the top of it, it seems like it is probably for the First World War.

I believe this part of the castle is called the ramparts.  As you can see they still have the old cannons in their positions.

This is just a closer look at one of the cannons above and also a little view of the countryside around the castle.

I was lucky enough to be there just as they were starting a tour of the inside of one of the buildings, so I got in on it.  The commentary was all in German, so I really don't know the details about the things I saw inside, but it was very interesting just looking around.  Unfortunately I only had one flash bulb with me so I used it on this suit of armor.  There were many things inside that were just as interesting though.

After I left the Coburg Castle I drove on out to the border, just to see what it looked like.  I had thought I would be able to get pictures of fences and guard towers, Russian patrols, etc., but as it turned out this sign was the only thing I saw that gave me any idea I was on the East German Border.  There probably were fences and everything else further down the road, but I thought it best to do what the sign said.  One thing I can't figure out though, and that is that they put that sign on a part of the road where there was absolutely no place to turn around!  I was forced to keep going till about where the road curves in the picture until I found a place to turn around.  I was glad to leave the area, because it gave ma a very uneasy feeling being that close!

This last picture is the last possible view of my car that I can get, unless I crawl under it and take one looking up.  As you can see the engine is not as big as you might think by looking at the outside of the car.  Also although you might think this is a rear engine car, technically it is a mid-engine car, mainly because it is in front of the rear axle.

More later...