Harwich

We arrived in Harwich in very good time. It was a strangely deserted scene, obviously one expectant of few travellers. At first there appeared to be no porters about, so we loaded our gear out ourselves; after some minutes however, one appeared in the distance, vaguely floating towards us. A very amiable chap who said he would convey our goods to the boat in due course.

We had yet some time to spare, there appeared to be no one about. We did not, at first, have to show our passports. On the quay were piles of imported goods, timber, young evergreens and so on. The only sign of life appeared to be a small brown man with a wrinkled face, and a snub nose plumped in the middle of it, who was busily doing the last bit of polishing on board (rather late in the day we thought, but - Dutch casuality).

We walked up and down and sat in the sun; it was really a beautiful day, with bright sunshine in a blue sky. At last a few signs of life; we went to the enquiry office, it was shut, but there was someone inside anyhow, so we asked about trains from Wissingen (Flushing) to be sure that we knew where to change. The man was Dutch but spoke English. He came out onto the platform and sat down on the seat with us, and produced a timetable, long out of date. It was not much help, so we asked him what he did with himself and had quite an interesting conversation, until someone else came and told us we could show our passports.

That over, we went on deck to watch things. The whole place had suddenly sprung to life; there were porters everywhere, goods were being loaded and unloaded. A few straggling passengers appeared, just off a London train. There were indeed only a few passengers altogether. Black smoke was pouring from the funnels, ropes being loosened, a slight movement, and a good pull and swing round, and we were off - actually moving at last.

We had a wonderful crossing; sunny, calm and comparitively warm for February. Land gradually faded out of sight, till all was sea and sky. We settled down to read.