Excerpt from Rambles in Catholic LandsIt was my good fortune to be invited to accompany a friend through South Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Tyrol into Italy. Many of our halting-places were somewhat out of the beaten track, and for that reason the record of them may prove of interest to others.Our first resting stage - not a thoroughly Catholic one, yet - was Hamburg. It cannot be reached from our northern shores (unfortunately) without the crossing of the German Ocean - a sea of a somewhat turbulent nature; let the narrative, therefore, of that woful passage be buried in oblivion.Many persons may possibly regard Hamburg (as I confess to have done myself) as a large and important commercial center, indeed, but one without much pretension to beauty as a city. The idea is quite erroneous.To begin with, the sail up the Elbe, which takes some three or four hours, is full of interest, and forms a very pretty approach. The green banks, dotted with villages, houses, and numer ous wind-mills, are a relief to the eye after two days at sea.

Then, as the steamer glides slowly on, the stream narrows and first Altona, then Hamburg, comes in sight.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.