ON THE CONTINENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7016, 7 February 1949, Page 5

ON THE CONTINENT

A NEW ZEALANDER ON TOUR FRANCE, SWITZERLAND AND ITALY To his relatives in Cambridge, Mr Alan Carter has written a 13,000word news letter telling of a tour he made on the Continent during the term holidays. The correspondent is a brother of Mr Athol Carter, of Goodfellow Street, Te Awamutu. Mr Carter is in his third and final year at Cambridge University, England, and hopes to pas. sout as a Doctor of Philosophy. H,e expects to return to New Zealand in September to take up a position as statistician at the Ruakura Animal Research Station.

A trip to Ireland preceded Mr Carter’s visit to the Continent and he tells of the hospitality received in Eire. He made special mention of the good food which could be obtained unrationed at a price. “The poor in Ireland must indeed live poorly,” he commented. • Shattered Dunkirk

The writer’s first impression of France on this trip (he had been there previously) was at Dunkirk. He found bomb damage was all too apparent in that part of France. The villages were not at all prepossessing, the houses, invariably of drab, red brick, fronting abruptly, on to dirty cobbled streets. The people seemed pervaded by an air of frustration and decay.

The following day Mr Carter and his party, which comprised Lady Walton and her daughter on holiday from South Africa, and a University friend travelled eastwards, passing Donai, Cambrai and Laon —famous war-time names. The villages were still drab and dilapidated, with sewerage facilities and domestic water supplies seemingly non-existent. In the country, the absence of monotonous telegraph poles (which in France follow the railway lines rather than the roads) and the complete lack of fences beside the roads enhanced the beauty of the rustic scene. For miles the road would be bordered by fine avenues of trees—poplars, elms, sycamores—.and later, cherries. The poppies one always associated with Flanders, were very much in evidence, forming bright red splashes of colour in the gold of the wheat. More poignant reminders of the Great Wars were the numerous cemeteries, with their ordered rows of plain whitewashed wooden crosses. Into Switzerland

After two days’ journey by road, the party was in Basle, Switzerland, having had little trouble in passing the customs barriers. The. first stop was to buy some strawberries at Is 2d a lb. and cigarettes Is Id for 20, compared with 3s 6d in England. The journey continued along the south bank of the Rhine and towards evening they stopped to enjoy the strawberries in full view of Germany on the opposite bank. Shortly afterward they hit the German border and were granted permission to drive across a neck of German territory jutting over the Swiss border—thus saving a detour of many miles.

“The Swiss let us through without demur, but at the German border we were accosted by a German and a French guard (French zone). The latter gave the orders, the former, in his uniform looking the typical German from a war film, dutifully obeyed.” Many interesting places were visited in Switzerland including Lake Constance and Lake Zurich and the town of Lucerne, where five days were spent. Several one-day trips were made, including a visit to Berne, the Swiss capital. The St. Gotthard Pass The next stage was across the Alps and down the famous St. Gotthard Pass, which is 7000 feet high. In the south side of it was comparatively different country. Though still in Switzerland, it was the Italian part—the people and language were very much Italian. A stop was made at Lugano, which seemed to combine Swiss cleanliness with the Italian atmosphere and “joie de vive.” From there it was only a short 1 journey to the Italian border, where it took two hours to clear the customs. As in France, the houses and buildings in Italy looked very dilapidated by comparison with the tidy Swiss dwellings. A short stop was made at Como, where everything was pleasant except the hotel bill. This, Mr Carter considered, was due largely to the opulent car in which they were travelling. “This was one of the less pleasant features of Italy, of which we were soon to become painfully aware. As soon as a hotel or restaurant proprietor saw the car, the bill skyrocketed—the true communistic spirit!’ Price of Petrol Leaving the hotel on Lake Como, the party continued round the shore, passing Boulaggio and then Lecco. Italian petrol was poor in quality and cost 6s a gallon. At one stage they were nearly stranded as the result of a petrol strike, but managed to make Venice. Cars and vehicles generally are strictly taboo in Venice itself. There are not even horses or cycles. The car was left in a multiple-storeyed park, and travel was continued in the city by gondola. ‘On the way to Florence it was noticeable the decrease in the number of Communistic signs and slogans, which, more to the north, tvere in evidence on almost every second building, chalked or painted on the walls. These were superseded to an increasing extent, by the Christian Democrat posters, in the form of a shield and cross. It was an encouraging sign. The surprising* thing was that it became more and more the case in those areas most heavily damaged by the war, and liberated by British and United States armies. Continuing south-east, they were soon amid the foothills of the Appenines and in one day completed the 230-mile journey to Rome, where several days were spent visiting the many historic places of interest and varied attractions.

From Rome, the journey north was made the Aurelean way, through Leghorn and Pisa. Other interesting places en route were Spezia, the big Naval base, Rapallo, Genoa, and on to Mentone in France. Then came Monte Carlo and further small, popular resorts skirting the Riviera coast-line, the last being Cannes. And so they continued inland until

eventually Paris was reached once more. Some days were spent in the French capital and then finally the Channel trip from Dunkirk back to England.