St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-08-23
LETTER FROM ABROAD
DR.. E. H. Ross Writes Again
The German Cities Clean and
Attractive.
Munich, Germany,
July rs. +.

Munich, Germany,
July Is. !.
To The Caledonian:
A week ago tonight we left Lon
don and have since travelled 1900
miles and visited four cities, Berlin,
Dresden, Nuremberg and Munich.
The German cities are all very
clean and well cared for. The pave
ments, which are almost as smooth
as glass, are cleaned by running a
sprinkling cart along. This cart mas
a scraper attached which, with the
water, washes everything into the
sewers. therefore there is almost
no dust, and there is no smoke.
We had tine clinic at Nurem-
burg, the best one we have seen so
far. The operator was very fast and
accurate in his work and it was
pleasure to watch him. At Ores
den we also had good clinic and
a fine one at Munich. Ali these
places are very interesting in their
churches, statues, etc.
Nuremburg is the auaintest old
city. we have seen. It is walled
town, most of the wall still stand
ing. The houses have very high
steep roofs, many of them show
ing four stories in the roof alone.
Most of it's churches are of Gothic
architecture. mere are many
fountains in the public squares.
The picture gallery at Dresden is
full of beautiful paintings, chief
among them being the original Sis
tine Madonna and the Holy Night.
We run across Americans daily
but almost every one speaks Ger
man and German only.
/ have picked up a few German
words and can make some of my
wants known. 1t is really much
easier than you would imagine. In
the hospitals they usually find some
one who can speak either English
or French. DR.. Aldrich says that
my German is first rate but l. run
out of it too quickly.
On leaving Munich our next stop
was at Innsbrucke in the Austrian
Tyrol. Munich lies in a sterile plain
of so square miles and on leaving
it we began to see the Alps. They
were the first real mountains we
had seen since leaving home and
they certainly looked good to us.
AS the train climbed the grade up
came closer and closer, great, rag
ged peaks, with evergreen forests
about half way up them, bare rocks
with patches of grass and as we
advanced still farther great patches
of snow. The mountains rise much
more sharply than with us, peak
on peak, with deep winding valleys /
with little streams made from the
melting SHOWS.
Innsbruck is 1900 feet above the
sea and is surrounded with noun
tains 5000 to 5000 feet high which
fairly over-top its streets. The
scenery is grand and impressive. The
hotel at which we stopped had an
open air court or terrace, where we
ate, from which we could see the
mountains with the great snow
fields scattered here and there.
Nothing 1 have ever seen compares
with it. It was cooler here. In the
morning we attended a good clinic
and in the afternoon left for Verona.
Talk about heat, you don't know
what heat is in New England.
The ride over the Bremen Pass
is beautiful. Words can not des-
cribe the grandeur of the scenery.
The top of the pass is 1888 feet |
above the sea and the railroad is
cut out of the mountain side, with |
here and there tunnel. The train
had two engines in front and one
behind and even then was just able
to crawl.
On reaching Verona in the eve
ming we found there was circus
in the Arena to which we went. The
Arena is an old Roman amphithea-
tire most of the outer walls of which
have been torn down. The inner
part is circular and built of solid
with 5 tiers of seats,
which will accommodate rs, 900 peo-
pie. When complete it seated 95,
900. The admission was IA cents
and a chair to sit on cents more.
There was a fine band, trained
horses, acrobats, clowns, bicycle
trick riding, etc. Here we cooled
off as the arena is not covered. The
next day we saw the sights, includ-
ing Juliet's tomb as well as the
portico on which she received her
Romeo. This was our first Italian
city.
Hoping for a cool sea breeze we
pushed on here to Venice. On
leaving the train we at once en-
parked in a gondola and started
along the Grand Canal for our !
hotel, which is just off the piazza
San Marco, the heart of Venice.
After dinner we went out and walk {
ed around the square looking into |
Brilliantly lighted shop windows /
filled with jewelry, lace, glass ware, |
leather goods, etc., etc. Meantime
q magnificent band was playing and :
hundreds of people of nearly all
were wandering about i
Or sitting at tables, drinking cool
drinks, smoking and talking. 1t s
was very different from any scene
elsewhere. Last evening we took
gondoIa and were rowed out to
singing boats in the lagoon and :