SKELETON TOURS FOR AMERICA AND EUROPE.
It is well to have your route laid out beforehand when you start on a
pleasure tour, at least in a general way, so that you can approximate
the necessary time and money for the journey. To facilitate the
traveler's plans a few skeleton routes will be given, together with an
estimate of the time necessary for a rapid journey to cover them. It
should not be understood that the routes given embrace a tenth or a
twentieth of those that exist; any railway or steamship agent can give
you dozens or perhaps hundreds of routes of travel, and after you
think the subject is exhausted you can easily find a rival agent who
can give you a selection from many more. The lines of travel that are
here laid out are intended to embrace the chief cities of Europe and
America, together with the principal pleasure-resorts. The traveler
will pay his money and take his choice, or rather he will take his
choice and then pay his money.
The American tours take New York as a starting and also as a returning
point, for the obvious reason that it is the largest city of America.
For the European tours London or Liverpool will be taken as the
terminal points, since nine-tenths of the Americans who visit Europe
land at Liverpool and proceed thence to London with more or less
directness.
Any one of the American routes can be covered in from one to two
months, with a sufficient amount of time for seeing enough to satisfy
an ordinary tourist. This does not allow for a stay of a week or more
at each of two or three points, but only for a visit of sufficient
length for doing the necessary sight-seeing, and a very little more.
As there are no antiquities in American cities, and comparatively few
stock sights, a tour of a given number of miles or places will take
less time than a similar tour in Europe. A few hundred years hence we
may be able to point to ancient buildings and ruins around which
cluster many historical associations, but at present, to use a
Hibernianism, all our antiquities are modern.
Without further preliminary the following routes are presented:--
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Lynchburg, Charlotte,
Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans. The Mississippi River,
passing Baton Rouge, Port Hudson, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, and
Cairo to St Louis; rail via Springfield to Chicago and back to New
York by Detroit and Niagara Falls.
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Lynchburg, Danville,
Charlotte, Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans. The Mississippi
River, passing Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, and Cairo; thence on the
Ohio River, passing Evansville and Louisville to Cincinnati, and back
to New York, by Pittsburg and Altoona.
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk, day steamer on
the James River to Richmond, Gordonsville, Goshen (for Natural
Bridge), White Sulphur Springs, Kanawha Falls, Huntington, steamer on
the Ohio River to Cincinnati, St. Louis, Springfield, Chicago, through
the Lakes to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Toronto, the Thousand Islands and
Rapids of the St. Lawrence to Montreal, Lake Champlain, Lake George,
Saratoga, Rutland, Boston, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, and New
York.
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, St. Louis,
Springfield, Chicago, rail or steamer through the Lakes to Buffalo,
Niagara Falls, Toronto, the Thousand Islands and Rapids of the St.
Lawrence to Montreal, rail or boat to Quebec, Gorham, stage to Glen
House, Summit of Mount Washington, Crawford House, Fabyan House,
Bethlehem, Profile House, rail to Concord, Nashua, and Boston, and
Sound steamboat to New York.
None of the routes thus given will carry the traveler farther west
than St. Louis. The tourist who wishes to extend his journey to the
Rocky Mountains, to Utah, or to the Pacific Coast will be pretty
certain to make either St. Louis or Chicago his point of departure,
and therefore we will make up our routes from those cities. From St.
Louis we can go as follows:--
St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Cheyenne, Ogden, Salt Lake City,
Virginia City, Sacramento, and San Francisco, where we pause to
consider the sights of California. These include the wonderful
Yosemite Valley, the North Pacific Coast Railway through the Redwood
forests, the Geysers, and the wine-growing regions of Sonoma, and
other valleys north of San Francisco Bay.
From San Francisco we can go to Oregon, either overland or by
steamship; in either case we arrive at Portland, whence a journey may
be made up the Columbia River and back again. As this book goes to
press there is no satisfactory route for reaching the East except by
returning to San Francisco, but in a few years it will be possible to
ride in railway carriages from the head of navigation on the Columbia
to St. Paul, in Minnesota, and thence through the states of the
Northwest to Chicago.
Suppose we go back from Oregon to San Francisco and are ready to
return to the East. We may go as we came as far as Cheyenne, and
thence to Omaha, where we have the choice of four routes to Chicago.
Or we may turn to the southward, over the Southern Pacific Railway,
which will carry us to Los Angeles, and thence to Yuma, by way of the
Desert, where at one point we are 266 feet below the level of the sea.
From Yuma the route is eastward over the dry plains of Arizona, and
among the mountains to the Rio Grande, and thence through New Mexico
and along the valley of the Arkansas to Kansas City. From the latter
point there is a bewildering choice of railways to St. Louis or
Chicago.
The majority of tourists would doubtless prefer going by one route and
returning over the other. In case you take the northern route for the
westward journey Chicago would be the best point of departure, while
if the southern route is chosen the start should be made from St.
Louis. In either instance Denver and the mining and grazing regions of
Colorado may be visited by a detour--by the northern route from
Cheyenne, and by the southern from Pueblo.
Let us turn now to Europe. The voyage over the Atlantic will occupy
about ten days each way, and therefore three weeks should be added to
all the estimates of time in the following tours. And as before stated
the time allowed for the tour itself is only what would give a hurried
view of each place, and the objects of interest along the route. If
the tourist wishes to go leisurely he should double the figures, and
he will not be far out of the way. Or he may add 50 per cent. with the
knowledge that he is just avoiding a "rush" through the country.
A tour of twenty days may be made, embracing the following cities:--
Liverpool, Glasgow or London, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague,
Amsterdam, Utrecht, Cologne, The Rhine, Wiesbaden, Brussels, Paris,
Rouen, Dieppe, Brighton, London, Glasgow, Liverpool or London.
One of forty days will include most of the foregoing, and also
Strasburg, Basle, Luzerne, Brunig Pass, Interlaken, Berne, Lausanne,
Villeneuve, Martigny, Chamouny, Geneva, Macon, Dijon, Paris, and back
to point of departure in England.
One of sixty-five days, embracing England, France, Italy, Austria,
Germany, and Belgium, will include Liverpool, Glasgow or London,
Dover, Calais, Paris, Macon, Mt. Cenis Tunnel, Turin, Genoa, Leghorn,
Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Verona, the Austrian Tyrol, Innspruck,
Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne,
Brussels, Antwerp, London or Liverpool.
One of about the same time, and embracing England, Belgium, the Rhine,
Germany, Bavaria, Italy, Switzerland, and France, will take the
tourist through Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, the Rhine, Mayence,
Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, Lake Constance, Coire, the Splugen
Pass, Colico, Lake Como, Bergamo, Verona, Venice, Florence, Rome,
Leghorn, Pisa, Genoa, Turin, Milan, Arona, the Simplon Pass, Brieg,
Martigny, Chamouny, Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Thun, Interlaken, the
Brunig Pass, Lucerne, Basle, Paris, and thence to Great Britain for
the return to America.
One of sixty days will embrace England, France, Italy, and
Switzerland, and will include, London, Paris, Dijon, Macon, the Mt.
Cenis Tunnel, Turin, Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice,
Verona, Milan, Como, Lugano, St. Gothard Pass, Andermatt, Lucerne,
Interlaken, Berne, Neuchatel, Pontarlier, Paris, London or Liverpool.
Leaving out Italy the tour can be made in thirty days, as
follows:--London, Paris, Troyes, Mulhausen, Basle, Lucerne, the
Bernese Oberland, Interlaken, Berne, Freiburg, Lausanne, Geneva,
Macon, Dijon, Paris, London, Glasgow or Liverpool.
The list may be extended indefinitely; enough has been given to show
the possibilities of travel, so as to visit the most of the countries
of Central and Southern Europe. For the probable cost the reader is
referred to preceding pages of this volume, where the expense of
travel is set down as nearly as it can be estimated. But, as before
stated, no general rule can be made, and the cost of a journey will
depend very largely upon the tastes of the traveler, and his financial
ability to gratify them.
The American who visits Europe for the first time is apt to be in a
hurry, and to endeavor to see too much. He will very likely return
with a confused notion of his experiences, and will be obliged to
refer to his note-book to know what he has done. Instances have
occurred of tourists who could not tell whether St. Paul's Cathedral
was in London or Rome, and who had a vague impression that the tomb of
Napoleon was beneath the Arc de Triomphe. They told of the wonderful
wood-carving to be seen at Venice, and thought that Michael Angelo,
John Titian, and Sir Christopher Wren were among the most famous
painters Switzerland had ever produced. They ascended the Volcano of
Mount Blanc from Vienna, and had a delightful view of the eternal
snows of Vesuvius from their hotel windows at Berlin; where they also
visited Trajan's column, and the Falls of Schaffhausen. In short they
came back with things decidedly mixed, and all from making their
journey too quickly.
Moral--Don't be in a hurry.