Travel
[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who have visited the plans described. We shall be glad to answer questions arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed:to thew Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR; 99 Gower Street, W.C. 1.1
Spring Cruises
By MTS. STEUART ERSKINE.
IT is a truism to say that Spring is the time to travel, but it is nevertheless a fact. After a peculiarly disagreeable winter
many people who can spare the time are planning a train ,journey or a sea cruise in search of sun and a change of scene ; for those who are run down and who want rest as well as amusement, sea cruises have an undeniable attraction.
The International Rupert Brooke Memorial Committee are to unveil the monument to the poet on the isle of Skyros on Easter Sunday. The English Committee, organized by the P.E.N. Club, has engaged a steamer which will leave Marseilles on March 28th, returning there on April 15th. Besides being able to be present at a most interesting ceremony, Greece and Constantinople can be visited.
The S.S. 'Patris' of the National Steam Navigation Company of Greece, organizes sporting and study cruises to the Grecian Archipelago every three weeks.
The great steamship lines are now issuing their booklets describing the spring cruises, and very attractive most of them are, adapted as they are both to the traveller who wants to spend Easter abroad and to the globe-trotter who wants to span the world. Taking the former first, the Cunard Company announces that the S.S. Laconia' leaves Southampton on March 7th, for a cruise of twenty-one days to the Atlantic Isles, returning through the Mediterranean ; on March 31st a Mediterranean cruise of sixteen days is arranged. S.S. Samaria ' leaves Southampton on March 17th for Venice and the Dalmatian Coast, a most attractive cruise lasting twenty-two days, including visits to Corfu, Ragusa and Spoleto (now called by the ugly name of Split) with its wonderful castle. The Royal Mail line is organizing many cruises to Spain and points on the coast of Northern Africa, which should attract those who want to see much in a short time.
For those who desire a longer cruise the Canadian Pacific Company, which is celebrating its jubilee this month, offers a fascinating tour across the Atlantic to Quebec and Montreal, and across Canada through the Rockies and from Vancouver, by the White Empress route, steamer and - train service, together with hotel accommodation ; on to Japan, China, Hawaii, Korea, Manchuria and the Philippines, with an alter- native voyage to Australia and New Zealand.
The Blue Star Line has three spring cruises that offer much of interest to the traveller, combined with the last thing in comfort, in their S.S. Arandora Star.' On March 20th a cruise to Morocco, Balearic Islands, Egypt, Cyprus, Syria and Algeria has the great advantage of spending Easter in the Holy Land. There is no place in the world that gives quite the sense of that season more completely than Jerusalem. The wonderful old city with its associations and the surround- ing country, scarlet with anemones, combine to give the traveller an unforgettable impression.
In these days when our attention is turned to South America, the cruises to the great sub-continent must interest many • travellers. The Royal Mail and Pacific lines offer tours round South America, but the tour that seems to offer the most novel and delightful experience is that of the Booth Line with the Amazon cruise. A thousand miles up the' Amazon . . . what an amazing adventure when one comes to think about it dispassionately ! The spring cruises start from Liverpool on March 17th and May 12th, returning to Liverpool on May 1st and June 26th.
The Amazon river, which rises in Peru and crosses Brazil to pour its water into the Atlantic Ocean, possesses the largest river network in the world. Av the ship approaches Pars city, situated on the banks of the Para river, one of the mouths of the Amazon, the wonder begins. The estuary is 335 kilometres broad, and the vegetation is tropical and luxuriant. A hundred and fifty miles up stream we come to
the " Narrows " and sail along through the Equatorial forest, where parrots and macaws and brilliant butterflies flit in the sunshine, and the sun makes the curious yellow waters Wm to gold, and the moon to silver. There are 6,000 islands in this great river, and natural canals that cut across the -bends, and thousands of lakes. The cruise ends at Mantos, where submerged forests and lily-haunted lakes are to be seen.
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