Over Electric Railways In Rejuvenated Germany, Published 30 April 1956 BONN
Here we are just past Nurnberg on our way to Frankfort and Bonn. Next
came Wurzburg. I wonder if there are any sixtyish readers of this
column who remember way back in 1904 singing: "Oh the wine may be fine,
but cold stein for Mine! Down where the Murzburger flows". Anyway, this
was Wurzburg, renowned for beer and other things. Somewhere along here
we switched from electricity to coal.Let me pause here to remind our
readers that already I had travelled along more electrified railway
than we have in Canada and this Germany is supposed to be a beaten
country while we won the war; remember? Work Most Important So on through this fair land where prosperity is only next to cleanliness, and where orderliness is more important than either, and where the most important of all is work. I often wonder where the lazy Germans are. At Frankfort, I was met by my old friend Ludwig Mueller-Hitler, who used to be the agent in Montreal for North German Lloyd, and with whom I had a sentimental visit in Ottawa only three years ago. He showed me. Frankfort and its once famous environs. But before we took to the suburbs, he took me to Frankfort's rejuvenated downtown, with a main street reminiscent of Chicago. It is easily the most American city I have seen. Then he added a sentimental touch when he showed me the old city hall. Inside, at the time a German king was to be crowned, the fountain in front gushed red and white wine. I guess I got here too late. Out then to Kronburg Castle, Here Queen Victoria's daughter Vickie came with her husband. who was Kaiser only for a hundred days. The place was truly Victorian, since Queen Victoria had added her personal touch in a hundred different ways in a hundred different places Here too, the Kaiser, son of Vickie and grandson of Queen Victoria, all but kept his mother prisoner in her old age. Now on to Bonn. |