1936 On the Continent

medieval city. Bayreuth also is quite near, and from there it is only two hours to Munich. I must certainly not miss the Alps round Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I know the Scotch mountains, but the Alps must be far grander, and even in summer snow lies on them. So far, I have only seen mountains in the rain.
Beer
    One of my friends goes every year to Bavaria solely on account of the beer. The German beer has made him an expert on the subject, he talked to me for hours about it and tried to illustrate his knowledge by demonstration. He gave it up, however, and said that the best bottled beer gives only a faint inkling of what it is like to drink it with its wonderful creamy froth fresh drawn from the cask in a brewery at Munich, Nuremberg, Dortmund or Würzburg. His enthusiasm sometimes almost pained me, as he definitely affirmed that he could no longer enjoy our bitter ale. I am, in principle, against the worship of foreign specialities, but I must say that I am exceedinglycurious to try German beer in its original form. There are distinctions here which are quite unknown to us but which sound most enlightening. “Dortmunder Union,” “Münchener Löwen,” “Spaten,” “Franziskaner” and the world-renowned product of the original Munich court brewery, “Würzburger Hofbräu,” “Siechen” in Nuremberg, “Reif” in Erlangen, “Schultheiss Patzenhofer” and “Berliner Kindl” are some of the more important names that I must remember. In addition there are special beers, if one is lucky and arrives at the right time for “Salvator” at Munich or experiences the rush of joy which is released by new bock beer. In Munich I shall order beer in quart pots and “stone” pots, according to my note-book, if I am to enjoy it properly. Radishes, white sausage and salted rolls are the best accompaniment to the genuine enjoyment of beer.
    I am giving much too much space to this question, but it is the fault of my friend, who, apparently, sees Germany only through a beer glass.
Further towns to be visited
    I must, however, fill out my travel programme. I shall give at least a week to Berlin and Potsdam. Hamburg and the other Hanseatic towns, Lübeck and Bremen, will have to have some days. As an Englishman I shall be specially interested in Hamburg and Bremen. With our
Queen Mary
we have certainly carried off the prize, and I think that no other nation will easily surpass our wonderful boat in tonnage and speed, but the German shipping service, the headquarters of which are the two big concerns, the “Hapag” in Hamburg and the “Norddeutscher Lloyd” in Bremen, on the North Sea coast, will, in the future, be a very dangerous competitor. Through my connection with insurance I know the amazing development of the German shipbuilding industry, and have seen at Southampton the two giants,
Bremen
and
Europa
, which captured from us the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic for the first time after the World War.
    Dresden, the city of art, gardens and cigarettes must also have a place in my programme, and likewise Leipzig, with its two great fairs, in the spring and autumn. These are unequalled in their general usefulness and in their internationalcharacter. In these great industrial towns of the one-time Kingdom of Saxony, German literature has its home—here are publishing houses which have become universally known, such as that of Baedeker who gave his name to the guide-books, Tauchnitz, who has done so much to bring English literature on to the Continent, Brockhaus and Meyer who produce worthy rivals to our
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, Reklam, whose yellow booklets bring the whole field of literature within the reach of everyone for a few pence; these firms are as much an integral part of Leipzig as are the great music publishers whose names I used to see on music books when my daughter’s practising nearly drove me mad.
Youth Hostels
    My son, with the superior knowledge of youth, examined my programme most critically and said that I should have no notion at all of Germany even when I had seen all these places! The smaller German towns are the ones that should be seen, the well-cared-for estates of Thuringia, the fine medieval towns in the Harz Mountains, the countless German thermal baths, established on a scale at Baden-Baden for instance, Wiesbaden, Kissingen or Bad Ems such as is hardly to be found the world over. My son had a very good time—for three months he cycled about Germany and got the impression that Germany