[Transcriber's Note: Underscores are used as delimiters for _italics_]
[Illustration: FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, NEW YORK.--_Page 18._]
TO
NUREMBERG AND BACK
A Girl's Holiday
BY
AMY NEALLY
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
1892
Copyright, 1892
BY E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE 11
II. NEW YORK FOR THE FIRST TIME 19
III. LIFE ON A STEAMER 25
IV. A FIRST GLIMPSE OF ENGLAND 32
V. A WEEK IN LONDON 36
VI. OFF FOR THE CONTINENT 44
VII. UP THE RHINE 50
VIII. THE LEGEND OF THE LORELY 58
IX. MAYENCE TO NUREMBERG 66
X. NUREMBERG 70
XI. NUREMBERG.--_Continued_ 82
XII. STRASBOURG 91
XIII. HOMEWARD BOUND 101
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, NEW YORK _Frontispiece_
THE GREAT STEAMER BACKED OUT INTO THE RIVER 22
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT 29
NELSON COLUMN 36
TOWER OF LONDON 41
HAMPTON COURT 42
BRUSSELS BOURSE 47
COLOGNE CATHEDRAL 51
LAHNECK CASTLE 55
MOUSE TOWER 62
MAYENCE--GENERAL VIEW 67
NUREMBERG WALLS 71
ALBRECHT DÜRER'S HOUSE 73
NUREMBERG CASTLE 75
NUREMBERG 82
STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL--SIDE VIEW 91
STRASBOURG STORKS 95
STRASBOURG-CATHEDRAL CLOCK 97
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE 102
PETIT TRIANON 109
THAMES EMBANKMENT 112
TO NUREMBERG AND BACK.
A GIRL'S HOLIDAY.
CHAPTER I.
AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE.
One day in the early spring, Alice Winter came home from school,
and, after the usual question at the door, "Is mamma at home?" rushed
upstairs, and found to her great surprise that her papa was at home,
talking very earnestly to Mrs. Winter.
When Alice came into the room, Mr. Winter stopped talking, and she
wondered very much what they could have been talking about so earnestly,
as all she heard was her papa asking, "Do you think we had better take
her with us?"
"Why, papa! What is the matter? Are you going away? Are you sick?
What made you come home so early?" were the questions which Alice gave
rapidly, without waiting for an answer.
Mr. Winter said, "Yes, dear, I am obliged to go to Nuremberg, Germany,
on business immediately, and mamma is trying to make up her mind whether
it is best for her to go with me. She does not like to leave you for so
long a time, and we do not think it wise to take you with us, when you
are getting on at school so nicely."
"O papa, please take me with you. I shall learn just as much on such
a lovely trip as at school, and you know I can take care of mamma, and
keep her from being lonely when you are busy. O papa, please ask mamma
to let me go. I should be so unhappy to stay without you, even with dear
Aunt Edith, and I know there is where you would send me."
"Alice, dear, go to your room and get ready for dinner, and leave us to
talk it over," said Mr. Winter. "My dear little daughter knows that no
matter which way we decide, it will be as we think is best for all of
us. You know it is as hard for us to leave you as it will be for you to
let us go."
Alice left the room without another word, with her heart beating very
fast from the excitement of it all.
The thought of going to Europe across the great ocean was a very happy
one to a bright girl of fifteen who was studying all the time about the
places she would visit and the objects of interest she would see, if her
papa would only decide to take her.
Alice sat down by the window of her pretty room, and looked out on the
village street, far away in the northern part of the State of New York.
She wondered how the ocean looked, as she had never seen any larger body
of water than that of Lake Erie, when she went with her mother to make a
visit in Cleveland.
She also wondered if her state-room on the steamer would be as large as
the room she was in; also, would she be sick, and how would all those
wonderful cities look; if they could be as beautiful as the pictures she
had seen of them.
Then she remembered that only last week she had been studying about the
quaint old city of Nuremberg, and wishing she could go there and see all
its curiosities.
Alice was startled by the dinner-bell, and could not even wait to brush
her hair, she was so anxious to know what her papa had decided.
As Alice went into the dining-room with a very wistful look in her
deep-brown eyes, Mr. Winter said, "Well, dear, we have decided to take
you with us, and as it is now Wednesday, and we sail Saturday from New
York on the 'Etruria,' you will be very busy getting ready, and you must
help your mamma all you can."
Alice threw her arms around Mr. Winter's neck, crying with joy, saying
at the same time, "Oh, you dear, darling papa, how kind and good you
are, and how I do love you!"
After kissing him again and again, she went to her mamma and nearly
smothered her with kisses.
Mr. Winter had never been abroad, though he had large business interests
there, which had been attended to by a clerk in whom he had the utmost
confidence. This clerk had been taken very suddenly and dangerously ill,
Mr. Winter had no one else he could send, and found he must go himself
and at once.
He telegraphed to the Cunard office for state-rooms, and went home
to tell his wife, hardly thinking she would go with him at such short
notice, or leave Alice.
Mrs. Winter was not willing he should go without her, and soon decided
not only to go, but to take Alice with them.
Alice could hardly eat any dinner, she was so happy and full of
excitement.
The next morning Alice went to school to get her books and tell the
wonderful news to her teacher and school-mates.
They were nearly as interested as she, for it was quite an event for any
one to go to Europe from that quiet village.
It was decided then and there that all would be at the station to see
her off on Friday.
When Alice went to her room she found there a new steamer-trunk marked
"A. W." in large letters, and then she was busy indeed getting it packed
and deciding what to take with her.
Mrs. Winter came in while Alice was almost in despair and said, "This
is to be such a hurried trip you will need only a couple of dresses, but
you must take all your warm wraps."
Alice laughed and said, "I do not think I shall need them in the
spring;" but mamma said, "It is always cold at sea, and you will need
your winter clothes."
Friday afternoon our little party started for New York, with the best
wishes of their friends, who came to the station for the very last
"good-byes." Alice even shed a few tears, but they were soon wiped away,
and a happy face looked from the car window, which fortunately was on
the side overlooking the Hudson River.
Alice had never seen that lovely river before, and naturally was
delighted.
When they passed the Catskill Mountains it was so clear she could see
the famous old Mountain House, and, beyond, the immense Kauterskill
Hotel, which seemed almost in the clouds, it looked so high.
West Point was the next object of interest, and Alice did hope she could
go there sometime and see the cadets do some of their drills.
When they were opposite the Palisades, which stood up in their grandeur,
with the softened tints of the setting sun settling upon them, Alice
said, "I know I shall see nothing in Europe any finer than that."
Very soon the tall spires and smoke in the distance showed that they
were drawing near New York, and after leaving the Hudson they followed
the pretty Harlem River, which makes an island of New York City.
Alice was much interested in the bridges, there seemed to be so many
of them, and papa told her that the one then in sight was the new
Washington bridge, just completed. The next was High bridge, which
carries the water over the river into the city. When it was finished it
was said to be the finest engineering in the country.
The next bridge was the continuation of the elevated railroad, and then
came Macomb's Dam bridge, the oldest of them all, and used simply for
driving and walking across, and looked, Alice thought, quite unsafe.
The pretty Madison Avenue bridge was the last they saw as they crossed
their own bridge, and were soon in a tunnel which Alice thought would
never end.
When they came out of the tunnel the train was nearly at the station,
where the noise and bustle were very confusing, and they were glad to
get into a carriage to be driven to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
As it was quite dark, Alice thought it was like a glimpse of fairyland
when they reached Madison Square, with its electric lights shining on
the trees, and all the bright lights around the hotel.