The Henson Journals

[282]

Saturday, August 26th, 1911. Travelling from Amsterdam to Hamburg.

We left Amsterdam by the 8 a.m.: and reached Hamburg at 5.4 p.m. but when we crossed the frontier we deleted an hour. We had the Mittag–essen on the train comfortably enough: and for most of the journey a carriage to ourselves. There was no difficulty at the custom house, but we had to unlock all our luggage.

The thatch–covered ricks of corn have a picturesque appearance, & form a characteristic feature of the scenery in Holland. Add the canals & windmills, & the sails of the boats in the canals, which have a surprising effect as they rise irrelevantly from the meadows, and you have the essentials of a typical Dutch landscape.

Arriving in Hamburgh [sic] we recovered our baggage, and went to the Kron Prinz Hotel, which adjoins the Haupt–bahnhof conveniently enough, though not itself on a palatial scale. We took a walk in the town before dinner, but were speedily overtaken by the rain. It was but a passing storm, yet it gave assurance that the settled weather had reached its term; & that for the future we must make our count with the normal chances of travellers.

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