Page 25 - Transporter Talk

modest selection of VW merchandise, once again nowhere as near the variety we have today. Of course, 35 years later, an awful lot more vehicles have been produced by Volkswagen.
I purchased a couple of German made modern water-cooled model cars and asked if they had any Beetle models, but they didn’t. Volkswagen at this time was looking to the future and was trying to get farther away from its past.
After returning to our hotel to freshen up. we were taken to a really quaint beer keller in Hannover where we were wined and dined - the date was 26th May 1982 a very significant date if you happen to be an Aston Villa fan. In the European Cup Final Aston Villa defeated West German league winners Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam Netherlands. At the time I wasn’t really a huge football fan so didn’t realise there was a match on until at the end of the match the owner came out with a tray of schnapps for everyone to congratulate us in beating the German
Team. My brother and I were even given a glass of course this gesture was met with much enthusiasm by the elder members of our party. I wonder if roles had been reversed and a German party was eating in England and the Germans had just beaten us, would we have been so gracious especially in 1982.
The following day we were taken to the Hannover plant which was now producing the T3 (T25) vans. Once again Fred showed us around the factory watching production of the T3 with avid interest although this factory was not so appealing to me as I preferred the cars and had no interest in vans - how things have changed I love my T2 Bay window!
After the factory tour, we were taken into Hannover and Frank gave us a guided tour of the city. One memorable part of our trip to the city centre was a visit to The Herrenhausen Gardens, a main tourist attraction. The Great Garden has always been one of the most distinguished baroque formal gardens of Europe.
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