1936 On the Continent

extensive.
    However, I am sure that we have nothing to compare with the huge bathing-place on lake Wannsee. It is reached in twenty minutes from the Zoo station by fast electric trains, and the Berliners here enjoy for a few pence the luxury and the varied amusements of a large lake-side bathing-place. When we came back we got out a few stations before the terminus in order to take the lift up the Radio Tower, half-way up which there is a restaurant with a unique view over Berlin. In the course of a short walk afterwards Tom showed me the great exhibition halls on the Heerstrasse, and the enormous grounds of the Berlin Stadium, which have been made with a speed and perfection rarely equalled, especially for this year’s Olympic games. Somewhat nearer the town lies the one-time Reichskanzlerplatz, now the Adolf Hitlerplatz, which is the centre of an ultra-modern residential district, hardly a decade old.
    When Tom had to leave I industriously and conscientiously visited the museums, and on his advice went to Aschinger’s. This is a vast undertaking which has countless branches in Berlin, and where you can eat very well either standing or sitting. The sandwiches only cost 10 pfennigs, but the most famous specialities are the small sausages and the pea soup with ham, than which there is nothing better to be had.
    I became acquainted with the merits of the best Berlin cooking at the fine Horcher restaurant in the Lutherstrasse. I stayed longer than I meant to at Rosenhayns in the Kurfürstendamm, where on the advice of my friends I chose presents for my family. As a result I was nearly too late for the Parade of the Guard which takes place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon in very festive circumstances with music. The Guard marches from the Rathenow Strasse through the Siegesallee, Brandenburger Tor and the Linden to the Kaiser Franz Josef Platz where the Guard is relieved. This relief of the Guard, which used before the War to be one of the sights of Berlin, was a short time ago reintroduced in its old form.
    I ate very well in one of the Linden cafés, and then strolled with my map in my hand to the Spree, where I found some romantic but busy corners of Old Berlin hidden away from the modern town.
Hamburg: Hotels
    So I am in Hamburg. I came, of course, by the Flying Hamburger which brought me with amazing speed to the great harbour town. Although this interesting train travels at a greater rate than I have ever before experienced, one sits even more comfortably than in other trains, and hardly notices the terrific speed. The train flashes through the many stations that crowd on this level bit of line, but it is impossible to read their names as one dashes by. The chief railway station in Hamburg is worthy of the importance of the town, though perhaps a bit dark. But the shops which are established in the station itself look all the brighter and more friendly in consequence.
    Tom, who could not come to the station, met me later in the hall of the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, which is quitedifferent from my Berlin lodging, but none the less a further proof of Tom’s good taste. The best hotels in Hamburg are not in the neighbourhood of the station, which is scarcely very beautiful, but on the banks of the Alster which, near its mouth, widens out into a lake, and they fit well into the scheme of the town. Hamburg’s main characteristic is its solidity, and this is shared by the hotels. As this great harbour town has the largest foreign traffic in Germany after Berlin and Munich, and is also a gathering place of wealthy people from abroad, it is especially rich in luxury hotels. In the most representative street in Hamburg, the Jungfernstieg, is the recently rebuilt Streit’s Hotel, and further on in the Neuen Jungfernstieg, our splendid hotel, the Vier Jahreszeiten, rather dearer than the ones I had usually stayed at on my journey. But these are the last few days of my trip, so I feel I am justified in being a bit extravagant, especially when I can enjoy staying in a hotel with a great past. The Russian Czar, a member of the German Imperial family, once stayed here, and to-day, even if there are no princely visitors, the Vier Jahreszeiten has a better clientele than is usual even in luxury hotels. Quite near to it on the so-called Aussenalster, is the smaller but hardly less important Palast-Hotel, somewhat cheaper, and the beautiful Baroque building of the Hotel Esplanade. I was sorry that I could not stay at