In 1950, a young couple (both WWII veterans--a WAVE and an airman--and both with GI Bill journalism degrees) quit their jobs on a South Texas weekly newspaper and embarked upon a 1200-mile bicycle tour through Europe.
"Such a trip made no sense at all in 1950," writes Alsmeyer, "but it was a gloriously crazy, senseless thing to do." Based on notes, diaries, and letters, the book is more than a mere travelogue. It chronicles the people and places of postwar western Europe-including the citizens of Vimoutiers, France, a town accidentally bombed by Americans.
"One family with twelve...