From Lucerne onward the way was relatively easy; there was no more bouncing over rough and steep roads, no more climbing mountains on muleback. The travelling was now all by train or, for a stretch, by steamer up the Rhine. In his article "Vivekananda in Germany and Holland, 1896" Swami Vidyatmananda has provided us with the details of this trip, some of which had not theretofore been recounted in the Life. We need not here go over the ground that has been so thoroughly and interestingly covered by him; rather, let us just quickly follow the trail to Kiel in broad leaps and bounds.
Lucerne to Schaffhausen on the Rhine in the northernmost corner of Switzerland was a half day's train trip from Lucerne, the most effortless journey since the party had left Geneva to plunge into the Alps almost exactly five weeks earlier. In Schaffhausen-a medieval city containing an ancient monastery (once Benedictine) and a thick-walled castle-the Alps were left behind. But here nature was still prodigally spectacular: the Falls of the Rhine, the grandest waterfall in Central Europe, roared over a sixty-foot limestone cliff about two miles downstream from the city. They were, to be sure, nothing in height and width compared with the falls of Niagara, which Swamiji had also seen, but they were far more beautiful in Switzerland's romantic style.
From Schaffhausen, where the party spent a full day, they crossed into Germany and thence north (via Stuttgart) to Heidelberg, a theatrically beautiful town in its own right and world-famed for its 600-year-old university. Rich with old¬world, aristocratic glamour and ebullient with youthful joie de vivre, the university had, withal, an extremely high academic standard, which impressed Swamiji. During their day in Heidelberg, he and the Seviers not only visited the university, but also climbed up to the partly ruined castle that rose stalwart and imposing high above the river. They must also have walked through the streets of the old town, marveling at its strata of architectural styles-Gothic, renaissance, baroque.
Then on to the walled city of Coblenz on the Rhine, and from there (on September 1) by steamer to Cologne, sailing down the "lordly, lovely Rhine itself, passing vineyards and orchards, medieval towns and fairy-tale castles on high bluffs. It was a trip of sixty miles and, say, five hours.
Cologne (or Koln), an ancient city dating from Roman times, was more beautiful From afar for its many towers and spires than from within its gates. Of this city, from which the sweet-smelling eau de cologne gets its name, Coleridge wrote in 1828 (and no reason to think things had changed by 1896): "In Koln, a town of monks and bones,/And pavement fang'd with murderous stones,/And rags and hags, and hideous wenches,/I counted two-and-seventy stenches. But making up for any number of murderous stones and stenches, was the famed Gothic cathedral, with its two towers and five naves, its high altar, dating from 1320, its even older bejeweled shrine of the Magi, its .fourteenth-century stained-glass windows, its profusely carved Gothic choir stalls, and its rich art treasures. Here in this vast church, said to be the most magnificent of its kind in the world, Swamiji and the Seviers attended Mass.
According to Swami Vidyatmananda's reckoning, it was now September 3. The original plan had been to go directly from Cologne to Kiel, some 450 miles north, but Swamiji's engagement with Dr. Deussen was not until September 10. Thus there remained almost a full week in which to see more of Germany. The Seviers, always eager to serve Swamiji in every possible way, were ready to take him wherever he wanted to go. To travel with him anywhere and everywhere was a joy for them. "Every phase of human activity, and every department of knowledge had interest for Swamiji," Mrs. Sevier was later to write in connection with this European trip, "and his mental attitude of cheerfulness and kindness, combined with his fine intelligence and personal charm, made him the most delightful of travelling companions. They decided now to see Berlin and Dresden, and although both these cities would take them far out of their way, there might be just enough time, cutting it very thin, for this "detour."
On September 4 the party set out for Berlin, 360 miles and twelve hours by train east of Cologne. It was on this journey that Swamiji saw the prosperous, ambitious Germany of the north, which was beginning to flex its industrial and military muscles, in contrast to the devout, gracious, and home-loving Germany of the south. He was much impressed with Berlin. "Its wide streets, fine monuments and beautiful parks made him compare it favourably with Paris itself, says the Life, and from a practical point of view he may have done so, but not from an esthetic one. Several years later he was to write in his Memoirs of European Travel, "After Paris there is no other city in the Western world; everywhere it is an imitation of Paris-or at least an attempt at it. . . . The Germans are con¬structing after the French fashion big houses and mansions, and placing big statues, equestrian figures, etc. on top of them. But on seeing a double-storeyed German building one is tempted to ask-is it a dwelling-house for men, or a stable for elephants and camels, while one mistakes a five-storeyed French stable for elephants and horses as a habitation for fairies:
But there was a great deal to see in the modern city of Berlin, the dynamic center of the great, stirring energy of the country. Thus they stayed through September 6, the Seviers taking him to "every place of historic and intellectual importance. But, now, if they went to Dresden, which was not en route to Kiel, but about a hundred miles in the opposite direction, and if they spent any time there at all, they would be late for the meeting with Deussen. "Professor Deussen will be expecting us," the Life quotes Swamiji as having said. "We must not defer our visit longer. So from Berlin the party proceeded directly to Kiel, ago miles north on the Baltic Sea. They arrived on September 8, and took rooms at the Hotel Germania.