Helen’s Diary

Another beautiful day. We had to get up at 6:00 this morning. Had the usual breakfast of bread, jam, and milk. I had quite a time trying to send Helen W’s camera, went first to the post office, then to the bannhof where I was directed to another bannhoof. I was all by myself and decided my German is very bad and very limited. I hastened back to the hostel just in time to start off with the group. All of us rode the first 10 kilometers easily. Our next stop Frank and Phoebe (our official spokesman) purchased some food, which turned out to be bread, cheese, and meat again, — and pastries,– no fruit in the whole village. We stopped by the side of the road to eat it. My mouth was so dry that I can’t say that I enjoyed it too much, but I recovered somewhat when we stopped a little later and all had glasses of nice cold milk. From there it was all straight riding through Bonn to Bad Godesburg. We had to climb a very high hill to reach the hostel, which was once an old castle. This is the country of ancient castles, and the surrounding countryside contains beautiful scenery and picturesque scenes,–hills, mountains with castles or ruins of castles on every peak. After we had a shower we felt loads better and started for town, but got sidetracked and went to look at the old castle Godsberg. We paid 10 pfennigs to climb up the tower, and it was certainly worth it, a beautiful view on all sides. When we came down, it was pouring, so we took shelter under a tree. We decided it would be nice to sip a drink and listen to the orchestra. Two gentlemen invited us to sit at a table with them which had a tablecloth on it. Ruth and I ordered beer and Harold mineral water. Were we surprised when the waiters appeared with mineral water for three. There were many Hitler Youth at the hostel tonight. The little girls played some cute singing games upon their arrival, while we looked on. Then a group of Hitler boys marched up the road singing their marching song. After supper of beer, bouillon, one egg, potatoes, lettuce, bread, and apple sauce. Harold and I went down town to buy some chocolate bars with which to fill in the cracks. Ruth, Florence, and the boys took care of the dishes. We were not allowed to go up stairs in our shoes here. Sandals were allowed and I had my sandals on, so when I got back to the hostel I was rushed upstairs to our room by the house father, as the others couldn’t understand his directions. He grabbed my arm and took us to the room. There was a beautiful view from our window.