- An Eccentric Train. - Outrage on an Englishman. -
Alone in Europe. - Difficulty of Making German Waiters Understand
Scandinavian. - Danger of Knowing Too Many Languages. - A Wearisome
Journey. - Cologne, Ahoy!
There was a very well-informed Belgian in the carriage, and he told
us something interesting about nearly every town through which we
passed. I felt that if I could have kept awake, and have listened
to that man, and remembered what he said, and not mixed things up, I
should have learnt a good deal about the country between Ostend and
Cologne.
He had relations in nearly every town, had this man. I suppose
there have been, and are, families as large and as extensive as his;
but I never heard of any other family that made such a show. They
seemed to have been planted out with great judgment, and were now
all over the country. Every time I awoke, I caught some such
scattered remark as:
"Bruges - you can see the belfry from this side - plays a polka by
Haydn every hour. My aunt lives here." "Ghent - Hotel de Ville,
some say finest specimen of Gothic architecture in Europe - where my
mother lives. You could see the house if that church wasn't there."
"Just passed Alost - great hop centre. My grandfather used to live
there; he's dead now." "There's the Royal chateau - here, just on
this side. My sister is married to a man who lives there - not in
the palace, I don't mean, but in Laeken." "That's the dome of the
Palais de Justice - they call Brussels 'Paris in little' - I like it
better than Paris, myself - not so crowded.
