CYCLE AND CANOE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19700, 4 August 1938, Page 11

CYCLE AND CANOE

ACROSS-EUROPE TRIP YOUNG CHRISTCHURCH MAN AUSTRO-G HR MAN FEELING FRIENDLY TO BRITAIN (Pur Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Mr. F. J. Bain, a young Christchurch business man, who returned by the Wanganella to-day front a tour abroad, says that after spending 10 months in England, he left for the Continent with a friend, Mr. Douglas Wilson, whose father resides in Wellington. They cycled through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Aachen. There, Mr. Wilson became ill and returned to England. Mr. Bain cycled down the Rhine and across to Ulm and there exchanged his cycle for a canoe, making about 30s on the deal. He started down the Danube for Vienna, stopping at youth hostels and canoe stations cn route. BoLh in Germany and Austria, he found the people wanted to be friendly with the British, because they felt a blood relationship existed between them. From Vienna he went to Budapest. The German coup had taken place about a week before, and he was told the customs officials were holding everybody up. It was raining very hard, and the rain must have had something to do with the relaxing of vigilance for he got through without being stopped. lie spent eight or 10 clays in Budapest, making one of the famous rowing clubs on St. Margaret’s Island his headquarters. He was made very welcome. He travelled on to Belgrade. thence to Ruschuck in Bulgaria. and across to Bucharest where he was allowed to stay only three days because he only had transit through Rumania. He met considerable difficulty and once was arrested as a spy and held for a fortnight. He eventually got through to Greece, where he spent two and a half weeks, lie shipped for Australia from Port Said.