December 1932 - Southgate County School

Southgate County School Magazine 23
dry canteens both did a record trade. It was estimated that a
dozen gross of bottles of lemonade and ginger beer were sold
daily.
The next morning" we woke early and found ourselves well
in Stockholm Fjord. Cameras were immediately brought out and
were in constant use for the rest of the day. We were received
at the magnificent Town Hall, and after that we split up into
parties, and roamed about the town. During a violent rain
storm our party took shelter in a cafd where we had what seemed
to us the best meal we had had for years. After this we went
round the vegetable market, met an Englishman, ate enormous
quantities of "Eskimo Pie," and the uninitiated among us scattered
the paper impartially all over Stockholm. We learnt afterwards
that this was an offence almost as terrible as walking on
the grass, and by doing it we had let the British Nation down.
Stockholm is undoubtedly a wonderfully clean city, and its public
gardens, lakes and innumerable bridges give it a very pleasant
aspect.
Our departure was triumphal. Eskimo Pie vendors once more
did a roaring trade, and while we waited nearly two hours for two
or three people who had lost themselves, we treated the inhabitants
to some community singing, while they intoned responses
in no .uncertain manner. We left about 7.30, and all the way down
the Fjord we whistled and sang and shouted to the hundreds of
rowing and motor-boats which passed us. There are cafes on
several of the islands in the Fjord, and the many coloured lights
in these and on the small boats produced a delightfully fairy-like
effect. We went to bed that night feeling that life was not so bad
really.
After this day we all began to take a new interest in affairs;
deck sports, a concert, and talented nocturnal entertainments by
one of our party all combining to blot out the memory of those
first days, so that when we reached Copenhagen, with the eyes
of Denmark upon us, we thoroughly enjoyed a three-hour trip
round the town in chars-a-banc. This occupied all the morning,
and after dinner on the boat we marched in fours along the main
streets to the Town Hall, where we were officially welcomed and
supplied with light refreshments. There were more speeches, and
then we were let loose in the Tivoli Gardens, where we rode on
switchbacks and made ourselves merry generally. We then
marched back to the boat, singing occasionally, and accompanied
by thousands of the inhabitants, most of whom had bicycles.
Arrived on the boat we once more sang to about five or six thousand
people on the quay who, however, did not reply. And so we
left Copenhagen at nightfall.
Gothenburg was our next port of call, and we were in the
Fjord by the time we woke up. Gothenburg is Sweden's second
town, and its shipbuilding activity is plainly seen (and heard) from
the yards, which abound for miles along the Fjord. The town
did not impress us greatly; it had no splendid buildings like those
of Stockholm, and the only attraction was the pleasure park,