I have this huge pile of paper photos I took while stationed in the Netherlands with the US Army. I’m scanning the ones that matter to me most. Of course, Win10 comes with a great scanning application, but you have to make sure you have the full driver package installed for any multi-function printer in order for it work. The drivers Win10 installs just barely allow you to print only.
So I have, I believe, a couple hundred rolls of these photos and some are already degraded some from age and I’m using Gimp to restore them. Also, I scan them in batches and clip out the parts I want and create individual image files from them.
The first image is a selfie I took with my pocket camera I took hiking in Europe. My primary hobby was volksmarching, taking these beautiful guided hikes in the Benelux and Germany. Most of them were the 42-50 km variety. The second is a more organized form of volksmarching. There is a series of annual international military friendship marches every year, and I was part of the AFCENT team in the early 1990s.
I actually rode my bike with this group and carried water bottles and some first aid stuff. It was my own pike specially fitted with a rack to carry a half-dozen 2-liter bottles. The second image was taken in Luxembourg 1991, showing my group coming out a tunnel. In this shot, we have another cyclist who is a medic with the first aid bag.
We went lots of places, to include Bern, Switzerland. The third image a street scene in the Old City. But I went off on my own most weekends during my time in Europe. The fourth image is a view toward Dinant, Belgium from under the N97 highway in the spring of 1991. This was part of a 50 km march from Dinant to Givet, France and back long the high bluffs on the banks of the Meuse River. The fifth image is Givet with the old citadel above in the background.
Another favorite destination was Namur, Belgium, just a ways north upriver on the Meuse. I recall marching around that city about a dozen times. This sixth image is an old “kasteel” (castle) near Namur with a picturesque moat.
Over the next few weeks, provided nothing distracts me from the task, I should have some more of these to share. The image quality isn’t that good because my little film camera was pretty cheap and the photo processing was cut-rate, too.
I remember those DARE shirts. I would always see a bunch of those at the local punk rock shows.
That photo with the citadel way in the distance looks unreal, like a painting, almost. Amazing how vintage engineers had to make their calculations. It looks like it’s ready to slide down the hill.
The flyer I got advertising that particular volksmarch called it the Two Forts March (in other languages) because both Dinant and Givet have old citadels of varying vintage. I didn’t get that close to the one in Givet, but the walk took us right past the one in Dinant. The pattern throughout Europe is to put the forts in the most craggy and challenging locations, just like that.
Wow, Ed! I can’t wait for more. Although my family travelled extensively, I was quite young. The last of them ended when I was almost 11. All the slides were lost unfortunately with the exception of photos of our life on Saipan. You are wise to save what you can. Thank you for sharing!