TRIP ON THE RHINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17151, 3 May 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

TRIP ON THE RHINE.

A NEW ZEALAND EXCURSION.

BY LrWIWANT C. UEKT.

Three weeks had elapsed since the New Zealand Division first appeared in Germany as p".rt of the Army of Occupation, and the absorb)! g interest of our surroundings Ii! to far worn off that it gave mo great pleasure when I received an official note stating that I was to command a shipload of troops on a sightseeing trip up the Rhine. The first part of the journey was by electric car to Mulheim, the point of embarkation, and on my way to this town I noticed groups of our troops who were to form the river-party occupying various tram compartment.'. Special cars had been arranged for, but most of the New Zealand diggers" preferred to tiftve' by ordinary car amongst the civilians, as the privilege of a free ride is appreciated more when one is surrounded by passengers who pay. One of the distinctions achieved by the New Zealander abroad is the complacent majesty with which he bears himself as a free passenger in a tram, and his disinterested air of abstraction, which suggests that his family for generations past never dreamt of tendering ticket or coin impresses the fierce-looking Hun conductors more than any swaggering arrogance would do.

Towards Cologne. The Rheingold, a twin-decked paddlesteamer, was waiting at the wharf when we arrived, and Hie übiquitous paternal Y.M.C.A. was busily installing cooking fittings on board to give the men lunch during the trip. Seven hundred men marched aboard, and the vessel cast off and commenced to laboriously breast the swift current towards Cologne. An interesting operation was passing through the Bridge oi Boats, which is a solidlybuilt wooden plank bridge carried on heavy barges, strongly anchored in the powerful flow. In the centre of the stream a group of four of these craft, flanked by two tugboats always under sttdam, is detachable, and pulls away when a vessel demands a passage, steaming back into place when the river is clear. Cologne was ft splendid sight in the early morning sunlight. The twin spires of the cathedral towered into the clear sky. First we passed under the magnificent steel HohenzoUern Bridge, with its great breadth and massive stone pillars, and then the lighter and smaller suspension bridge, which, finished during the war, replaced the famous old Bridge of Boats. The stone wharves and landings on either bank then gave way to eloping cobbled breastworks as we passed the* business localities and came into the suburban and newer portion* of the city.

Ashore at Bonn. Beyond Cologne the scenery on either hand became monotonous in the extreme, low, level banks, with neither tree nor building to relieve the drabness of winter pasture and fallow, and we could but look back to the distant spires of the cathedral showing above the river haze. Round a sweeping bend, and we approached Bonn, the famous old university town, and a fine steel bridge,.similar in pattern to the Hohenzollern at Bologne, spanned the broad stream ahead. There is a grotesque stone figure on this bridge, called the " Brucken-Mannchen" (" Bridge-Boy "), and its history is significant of German mentality. The township across the river Beueler, failed to pay its promised share of the cost of the bridge and this statue of a boy, stooping with his back to the defaulting community, expresses a snub for their meanness. The town of Bonn presented a picture. Clean looking, well-built houses amongst pretty plantations of shrubs and trees, set on rolling hills with spires and towers rising at frequent intervals made a delightful scene. A short stop was made and the men strolled ashore for a few minutes until the ship's bell rang as a warning to come aboard. Many of those on the wharf displayed those tactic*, so accursed by officers who have conducted train drafts, of loitering casually around with a languid interest in their surroundings and a profound belief that they will not be left behind, but as a lesson for the remainder of the trip, the steamer pulled out without further warning. The majority of the stragglers had ' been slyly keeping an eye on the gangway and managed to scramble aboard, but two were left, forbrnly watching from the edge of the wharf.

Up Stream Again. We headed up-stream again through the prettiest of countrysides rising towards the east in the wooded hill-sides of "Seven Mountains." Numerous islands, tree-cov-ered and beautiful, and sometimes a graceful bridge thrown over to the mainland made a pretty picture, and occasionally the grey roof of a stately mansion or castle would peep through the trees.

After a few miloi of this scenery we apwoached Konigswinter, a small town prettily situated at the foot of the famous hill where

The castled crag of Dnchenfels frowns o'er the wide and winding Slime.

Here we tied up for a time to enable a short inspection of the town to bo made, and when the bell rang as a boarding summons everyone obeyed with noticeable promptness. The next and last call was at Remagan in the zone occupied by the American \rmy, and their companies drilling on the water-fronj were critically appraised by our troops as Ave passed.

The Homeward Trip. The scenery ahead promised to bo more interesting and beautiful than any we had previously seen, but the cold winter's day was drawing to a close and we derided to turn homewards. As we cast off the from Remain a pompous-looking German in naval uniform hurried to the ship's side and began excitedly jabbering and gesticulating to the men standing by the gangway until a heftv and kind-hearted corporal, fudging him" to be member of the ships crew being left behind, stepped out on to the paddle-wheel cage, grabbed the man and pulled him aboard. His terrific excitement and distress when this happened was explained when an interpreter discovered he was the wharf-attendant and his desire was not to come aboard but to bargain for the tobacco the men were smoking. So we backed water and repatriated him. . ~ Speeding down stream with the switt current the landmarks raced by and the wooded hank* and noble ruins took on a new beauty in the half light of evening. If in the tranquility of a by-gone age the poet has sen-ed a brooding anger in the. stern annul of the Drachenfels nun, what then would he have felt in the spirit of the old sentinel that evening when, in the fathering shadows of dusk, a careless throng of enemv soldier-tourists steamed swiftly down the great Herman Rhino which he had faithfully guarded for a thousand years. Soonthe dark shadows of the Cologne bridges pased overhead, the grouped lights of the boat-bridge declared a free passage and soon we swung round to the berth I from which we had started.