1936 On the Continent

really not so sorry it was now time for me to return. I was tired of hotel life and began to long for my fireside and easy chair.
Bremen
    All the same I am glad that in Bremen, before my boat sailed for Southampton, I had the opportunity of glancing at this second largest harbour town of Germany. Bremen, like the third of the Hanseatic towns on the Ostsee, Lübeck, has retained much more of its original characterthan Hamburg. Round the fine market-place are old streets of great beauty, with patrician houses which witness to the dignity, the immense wealth and the highly developed taste of old Bremen. Bremen, the oldest of Germany’s ports, has played her part in world trade for over a thousand years, though she has now lost a good deal to Hamburg. Opposite the medieval Rathaus, in front of which Bremen’s landmark, the Roland Denkmal, has kept watch for centuries, I enjoyed a parting bottle of shimmering gold Moselle wine in the Bremer Ratskeller, where some of the best and oldest wine in Germany is stored. Here I so far forgot myself that I nearly missed my train to Bremen harbour.
    I had to spend just a moment in the Böttcherstrasse, which was built and presented to the town by the industrial magnate Roselius, the proprietor of the Hag coffee works. Unique houses, some of them built in an ancient German style, shoulder each other in the Böttcherstrasse. I was not able to see the many art collections which are here assembled.
    ...
    On the deck of the
Bremen
I said good-bye to Tom and to Germany. Both very difficult. I know I have employed my time quite well, I have seen and experienced a great deal, but at the same time recognised how very short has been this my first visit to Germany. What I have managed to see I want to see again, what I have not seen I must see some other time. I have learnt to love travelling—and Germany yet more. I must go back there.

HOLLAND
by
FLORIS CANTÉ
    TABLE OF CONTENTS

HOLLAND
    W HEN one is faced with the difficult task of describing the charms; characteristics, etc., of a country one loves and knows intimately, one is apt to pause in bewilderment at the vastness of the subject. For it is not so simple as Karel Capek, the Czechoslovak author and dramatist, once put it when he described Holland and the Dutch: “You take a bit of sea, fence it in and pump it out and at the bottom is left a deposit to which a respectable slice of Europe, by means of its rivers, has supplied its best swampy soil and the sea its finest sand. The Dutchman drains it and sows grass there, the cows feed on the grass, the Dutchman milks the cows and makes cheese which, at Gouda or Alkmaar, is sold to England.…”
Not All Windmills
    It has been justly remarked that chief among the many reasons that prompt the foreign tourist to visit Holland is the fact that he knows he can find here numerous relics of the past—old architecture, old paintings, old-fashioned costumes. But, really and truly, Holland is not an open-air museum. One cannot “do” Holland in a couple of days. Volendam and Marken, the baggy trousers and the wooden shoes are very nice; the women and girls of the small island of Marken, in picturesque costumes and with glossy curls, are very sweet indeed. But neither Volendam, the famous fishing village, nor Marken, symbolises the Netherlands, nor does every Dutchman wear wooden clogs. Gin is not the national beverage, nor is Schiedam the capital of Holland. The windmills have not been built merely to provide touristic stage-scenery, and the canal barge is not the most popular means of transport in the country.
    No, the foreign visitor will do well to realise that the wooden clogs and the baggy trousers with picturesque patches do not exhaust the worth-while sights in Holland. This beautiful country, progressive in every respect, has far more interesting and beautiful things to offer. It has excellent roads, modern railways, fine motor-bus servicesall over the country, and modern airports. The people are friendly and courteous, especially towards Englishmen and Americans. And although one might agree with Mr. Shaw, who refuses to feel at home when he is travelling abroad, it is very convenient to know that English is very widely spoken in Holland, so that you can make your wishes known practically everywhere without the slightest inconvenience.
No Visa Required
    Now for some general information. British and American subjects must have passports, but no visa is required. Luggage registered