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30 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
of delight that one rises from the breakfast table the next
morning to enter the car once more. This is how we felt on
the 17th of September, a fine and pleasant day, though heavy
clouds raced across the sky. But we could not start at once,
we had first to go to a garage to get petrol and then to an
Immohiles Kraftwagen Depot, where absolutely everything
that may be wanted for repairing war cars is to be had. Here
we took five spare tyres, which we lashed to the right side
and to the back of our car. Of course, we do not pay a
single pfennig—for we are travelling on Government service.
At last we are off again and follow the long streets of Frank-
furt, leaving the city by the western outskirts with their large
working-class population. Perhaps it might be thought that
these workmen are opposed to the war which Germany is now
conducting for the sake of her future ? It certainly does not look
like it . The social democratic workmen have equipped their little
sons with helmets and wooden swords to fight out real battles
in the backyards, and you hear them call each other Kluck
and Hindenburg.
Once more we get out into the open country, and follow the
great road which runs in a direct line to Wiesbaden. The
avenue skirting it consists chiefly of apple and pear trees,
weighed down with fruit. Farther on we meet with poplars,
standing like sentries along the roadside. We do not stop at
all in the graceful and elegant Wiesbaden, but fly past its
parks and gardens, which are quieter and emptier than usual.
Soon we begin to ascend the Taunus heights via the Eiserne
Hand. The rise is gradual and the curves numerous. A trim
and straight-stemmed pine wood skirts the road on both sides.
One seldom meets a vehicle or a pedestrian. From an eminence
a vast panorama is suddenly spread out before us, but the
weather has got foggy again and one cannot see far. At
Langen Schwalbach the elegant hotels form a striking contrast
to the solemn Red Cross flags and the wounded soldiers, now
convalescent, who are sitting on balconies and in gardens,
taking the air. The road now winds upwards once more, and
we breathe a crisper atmosphere, but the view across to
smiling dells and wooded hills is limited through fog. Up we
go and down again over the gentle undulations of the country,
where the ploughed fields merge together in a colour scheme
of green, yellow and brown.
Next the road descends steeply to Nassau on the River
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