1936 On the Continent

class and by the kilometre. The charge is 5.8 pfennigs second class and 4 pfennigs third class. It should be noted for the benefit of the well-to-do that the first class costs something less than 9 pfennigs per kilometre, but I personally never felt obliged to pay this rate. For the D trains a supplementis payable of 5 marks in the first and second classes for every kilometre over 300 and 2.50 marks in the third class. For the FD trains there is yet another 3 to 6 marks to pay. In spite of this small extra charge, I realised at the start of my journey that for long distances these trains are the only ones to use, as the “passenger” trains are very slow, owing to their many stops.
    Germany, especially the parts I had decided to see, is everywhere very rich in small and medium-sized towns, so that the “passenger” trains, stopping at every small station, take twice the time of the D trains. The German trains generally are among the quickest in the world, and an hourly average of 50 to 60 miles is not out of the way. The record is held by the four-year-old “Flying Hamburger,” which covers the 180 miles between Berlin and Hamburg in 1 hour and 38 minutes, nearly as fast as an aeroplane, i.e., 78 miles an hour. I must admit that we have nothing as quick as that so far.
    As I had seen in Cologne a train composed of sleeping cars of the International Wagon-Lit Company, I thought my travelling companion had given me wrong information. There are, however, some express trains circulating in Germany belonging to this foreign company. They are all luxury trains like the Orient Express, the Ostend-Vienna Express, the Paris-Karlsbad-Prague Express, the Nord Express and the Berlin-Riviera Express.
German Greetings
    We arrived at Cologne to the minute—the German trains are the most punctual in Europe—and my travelling companions were so excited that they hardly stopped to take leave of me in spite of the friendliness they had shown me. I wondered whether there was any special reason for their nervous condition, but I soon realised that it is only a temperamental difference between ourselves and foreigners. The latter often get excited without any reason whatsoever, we on the other hand remain calm when there
is
some reason for excitement.
    But my new friend the jeweller came back to give me his address and to ask me to visit him without fail if I ever went to Pforzheim. He then held his right hand high and said: “Heil, Hitler”! Naturally I had heard of thisgreeting, which in the Third Reich is called the German Greeting, but for a moment I did not know what to do. As a foreigner I could not return the greeting in the same manner, but this was the only time I received it, as most Germans are tactful in this respect and never force their German greeting on foreigners.
Porters
    “Träger!”
    From many of the carriage windows issued this cry, which I must certainly make a note of if I want a porter. Although most German travellers carry their heaviest baggage themselves, there are many more porters at the German stations than at our own. It seemed to me they are rather more obliging than ours and try to help travellers and advise them without expecting any extra payment. There is a luggage tariff but it is rather a matter of form. I did not take any notice of it as I soon learnt that on an average if one has two or three pieces of luggage, a mark is quite gratefully received.
    The word “Träger” I soon learnt, but some of the impossibly long words I always had to read first if I wanted to use them. “Gepäckaufbewahrungsstelle” means “Cloak Room” in our more compact English. In spite of its complicated name, this institution is most useful—it is cheap and convenient if one wants to go round unburdened looking for a hotel in a strange town. When the accommodation is found the hotel porter fetches the luggage from the station. In Cologne I saw motor-buses bearing the names of hotels. These wait at the station and take their guests without charge to the further parts of the town. On the station there is a crowd of servants from the different hotels, with the names of the latter on their caps. I did not take any notice of them because I had not made up my mind which hotel to go to, but when one has decided beforehand to go to a certain hotel it is very convenient to have the time and money-saving help of these men.
Railway Stations
    The size and splendour of the Cologne main station made a great impression