OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue XXVII, 31 December 1904, Page 20

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

SUNNY COBLENZ. Coblenx. of nil the towns and villages in the Rhine valley, is the best adapted for a prolonged stay. Less formal than Bonn, it is more fortunate in its surroundings. Charmingly placed at the meeting of t)>e Rhine and the Moselle, it is within easy reach of the finest points in both valleys; and being a town of some 40,000 inhabitants, is less likely to pall ou the stranger than the more rustic spots up-stream. Accommodation should not be difficult to obtain in Coblenz, which probably boasts more hotels than auy other town in Europe of the same size. Yet sueh is the influx of visitors during the season that, unless a room is bespoken beforehand, the newly-arrived traveller may count upon a long tramp and a diligent search before he secures quarters for the night. As to pensions, good board and lodging is to be bad from 28/ a week and upwards. One soon becomes very fond of this Rhenish town. The old part, with its narrow, erooked streets (not always very sweetly-smelling) pleasantly contrasts with the new quarter, with its spacious white platza, broad tree-lined, boulevards, and streets of sham marble villas. What charming flower-gardens, too, are these surrounding the residences; and what an air of ease and elegance pervades this, as all the west German cities! welcome is the shade of these gardens in summers like

the present, when the squares glare anil burn like miniature Saharas, and <h>. turns eagerly to the cool st nets of th. old town. One is tempted to envy the soMiers in their corvee uniform of white drill; and stops now and then to quaff long draughts of cooling beverages, dispensed in litilekio'iks at street corners, by homely faced damsels. I have noticed how kindly the perspiring Briton takes to hirabeersaft, a refreshing drink ratliex despised by the adult German, for whom beer is the ideal drink in all weathers. Btit the sojourner in sunny Coblena lias not far to seek for a retreat from the ardours of a July day. Nowhere else will you find a more beautiful promenade. than the Kbeiuanlagcn, which extends for upwards of three miles along the riverside, almost to the “castle crag - ’ of Holzenfels. With its tall, farspreading limes, its bushes and flowering hedgerows, its pay parterres here ami there, and the waters of the broad green Rhine laving its marge, it is a walk which it would be bard to beat in all Europe. I have speut many an afternoon and evening here, watching the steamers and barges passing swiftly up and down stream, and strolling up to Holzenfels castle, which well deserves its name. It dates from 1250, and is a superb specimen of the baronial stronghold. Here, by the by, Queen Victoria was entertained in the early forties by the King of I’russia. There is an imposing monument to the never-tb-be forgotten and eternally-ilhistrious Wilhelm I. in one of bis squares, but a more interesting memorial is that erected in

1812 during the French occupation. On the one side it bears an inscription commemorating the invasion of Prussia, on the other the significant and comical device, “t'n et approuve par nons commandant russc de la ville de Coblence, 1814,” “so much the leaded dice of war doth make or mar of monuments.” The old electoral palace where the Kaiscrin Augusta passed her last years is worth looking over, and some people find amusement in gazing at a rudely sculpt cred goggle-eyed figure over the Kaufhaus, in the old town, where is also to be found the thousand year old church of St. Castor. More entertainment is, perhaps, to be derived from the animated spectacle presented by the quay, where steamers are constantly arriving and departing, disgorging tourists of all nationalities, and attracting swarms of hotel porters, touts, guides, and commfesiomiaires. The bridge of boats which spans the Rhine is another focus of local life, re-echoing as it does to the tramp of endless columns of white trousered, blue-coated infantry ever passing and repassing between the town and the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. Here, too, come bronzed peasants smoking yard-aud-a-half long pipes, urging on little dog-drawn carts, and bringing the produce of the rich Rhineland to the markets of Coblenz. Ever and anon the note of the bugle or the roll of the drum is wafted down from the fortress; music in strict harmony with the gallant, martial scene around. One recalls Edwin Arnold’s sweetly-turned verses on “The Marriage of the Rhine and the Moselle”: “As a mailed and sceptred King sweeps onwards triumphing. With waves of helmets flashing in his line; Like a drinker past control, with the red wine on his soul. So flashes thro’ his vintages, the Rhine.” From Coblenz the windings of the shy, beautiful Moselle can be easily explored, by steamer, on foot, or by the winged wheel. It is but 19 miles by river to Moselkern, the landing stage for the castle of Elz, one’s ideal of the enchanted castle of romance. South of Coblenz is the magnificent pageant of the Rheing.iu. extending to the broadening of the valley at Rmlesheim.

DIPLOMA FOR THE NEW PLYMOUTH EXHIBITION. Tn response to their application for designs for a diploma the committee of the New Plymouth Exhibition received some very find work indeed. One of the handsomest designs is the one of which we give a reproduction this week. It is the work of Mr Alfred Lee, of New Plymouth.