December 1956 School Magazine

'Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

De cember, 1956

December, 1956

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

behind . T he animals prepare for the ir wi nter ' s sleep, but sti ll there is a lways something happening. In winter , especiall y when it snows , the country lanes look beautiful. It is a pretty sight to see t iny footprints of little animal s and birds traced in the snow, making pattern s everywhere. Later in thi s season, usually when the gro und is st ill blanketed in snow, the snowdrops raise their heads above the ground . So a ll the year there is plenty of activity in a country lane. I think that if You really look far eno ugh, you always find some reward. - JEANETTE FOSSEY. IVa. THE LANDS OF THE RHINE As a first introduction to Germany there could not conceiv- :abl y be a more un attract ive one th an th at of spending the after- noon driving through wretched bomb scarred vill ages and be- coming lost in a maze of cobbled streets in gr imy Duisberg and Dusseldorf with their inevitabl e smoke pall. We crossed the Rhine at nightfa ll to enter Cologne , and as we wa lked through the town after dinner we realized that almost the onl y building which was left standing after the war was the magnificent cathedral domin at ing the remnants of old Cologne. The main centre has been rebuilt to suit modern trend s of pl ate glass and bright light s, and everywhere there has begun more reconstruction work . T he district between Cologne and Bonn consists of flat leve l wheat fi e lds , criss-crossed by narrow roads, and it comes as a pleasant shock to emerge suddenl y at the river's edge opposite the new capita l, Bonn . From here, on e ither side steep hill :slopes rise covered with terraced vine yards, while between flows the broad river , a lways teeming with the barge traff ic of many nation s. This is the Rhine which has inspired poets, music ians, and arti sts, and even tod ay it is still inspiring to see the "castled -crags of Drachenfels" and the other ruin s of castles which over- look the river. Soon, however, it was time to leave the Rhine, for we wanted to visit H eidelberg, the ancient town of "T he Student Prince" fame. Above the city stands the ruins of the old red sandstone schloss or castle which can onlY be reached by means of a narrow winding lane , leading pas t the old uni versity. I have never seen any pl ace quite as awe-inspiring and lonely, despite the hordes of touri sts, as the Mountains of the Black Forest. Peak upon peak of d ark pine-clad mountains rose above as we left behind us the little town of Baden and tiny c hequered farms. Some time late r we followed a little mountai n

stream down into a lush green valley strewn with those Alpine hou ses whi ch are rather reminiscent of cuckoo clocks. The next day , for the third and las t time we were lost. The r ai n poured down in torrents as we left o ur forest vill age and steered along a track whi ch was barely wide enough for our car, and which we failed to fi nd on the maps. Our next encounter with the Rhine was near Mu lho use in A Isace where my fa ther wished to inspect the hydro-electr icity stati on. H ere the French have di verted the Rh ine water into France where eno ugh e lectric ity is ge nerated to send to many parts of France and to se ll to Germany and Switzerland. When the water has been used it is generou s ly emptied back into the Rhine and Germany loses nothing from it. There is al so a vast cana l scheme in progress, which is not yet com pleted. Being by this time quite well acquainted with the R hine , we we re very sad to say farewell, which we did at Rheinfa ll in the north of Switzer land . After near ly e ight hundred miles of it s placid fl owi ng the ri ver is seen near its source where the water rushes over in a high thunderin~ waterfall. From the Lake of Constance to the North Sea the Rhine flows through four coun- tri es whil e it bears the cargoes of many. - CLAC E BIRKBECK. I V a.

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RACING THE WIND.

- ROBYN I NFIELD, IVA.

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