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To give us an opportunity to be as certain as possible that we were likely to be compatible in marriage, we decided on a two-week holiday in Seefeld in the Austrian Tirol.
An Army pay clerk had told me I was entitled to two more weeks leave that year. I’d previously thought hazily that I might have had my full allowance but wasn’t inclined to mention that to him.
However, as the Seefeld trip approached my Captain told me angrily that our Public Relations superiors at Rheindahlen HQ had accused me of trying to claim leave to which I wasn’t entitled.
I explained to him the circumstances and requested a meeting with the colonel in charge of PR at Rheindahlen. I was of course appalled at the thought of Karina’s dismay if we had to cancel the holiday, suspecting me, no doubt, of losing interest in her.
When I arrived at Rheindahlen, a PR officer and Alan told me that I was wasting my time because the colonel was furious at what he considered my deception. In fact, they said, I had been extremely lucky to have been granted the meeting.
Leave granted
However, I told the colonel that it was the fault of the pay clerk in Lübecke and explained why the Seefeld trip was so important to me and my fiancé. If a key attribute of a public relations man is persuasiveness, I was clearly in the right job, for after hearing me out the colonel smiled and granted me one week of the leave to which I wasn’t entitled and wished me luck in my relationship.
In Seefeld the mores of the time required the unwed to have separate rooms in the hotel. In England we could have signed in as, say, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but in Austria the reception desk required our passports. I made sure of rooms close by in the same corridor and spent the nights in Karina’s room.
There I experienced what I called a Sturm und Drang moment. We argued about something while in bed together and she got out angrily and sat simmering at the bottom end with her back to me.
After some time resisting my entreaties – “Oh come on, this is ridiculous…Come on, you’ll get cold.,” she returned to bed.
Importance of Seefield
I experienced occasional foot-stamping and had for a time a blurred photograph of her in mid stamp down a street after striding away from me tempestuously. But neither of us took such outbursts seriously and they were quickly replaced by smiles and hugs and kisses.
I also have a photo of her striding, self-consciously beautiful, down a hillside.
Her youthful beauty at that time so impressed one middle-aged man in a Kneipe that he said, when he and I happened to be in the toilet at the same time, something like: “Excuse me saying so, but my friend and I have noticed that your lady friend is exceptionally beautiful.”
Seefeld joined Winterberg in being a place that brought us closer together and confirmed our view that marriage offered the best means for us to stay together when my national service ended.
