At a recent flea market I stumbled upon an old scrapbook filled with the travel photographs of a young woman named Alice who journeyed to Europe right before the breakout of World War II.

Making a tour around Europe is and was a classic adventure. And for this women, it appears she took the trip solo.

Cherbourg, Southampton, the Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.

The photographs are benign and pleasant, Alice lands in Southampton, England and makes her way through France, Switzerland and Germany.
Attached to one of the postcards was a post-it note from a niece that read :
‘She said that her father was anxious for her to get home as war was coming.’

A quiet walk in a Swiss forest…and a young Nazi solder (right)

However, although most of photographs are typical of a tourist (during the 1930s) there are a few that foreshadow what was to soon follow in 1939.
The photograph on the right shows a young man with the familiar swastika on his armband.
Below, the ship SS Europa flies the flag of Nazi Germany.

There’s another photo of Europa’s sister ship, The SS Bremen, in the scrapbook. Both were built for transatlantic crossing and were some of the fastest steam turbine vessels at the time.

Although there are photos of the two German ships in the scrapbook, I believe Alice took The Queen Mary to England.

The Queen Mary at Southampton, and on board.

I’m not sure who is taking all the photos in the book, I don’t see another traveler with her in any photos. There are a few images of her with other folk, but they appear to be innkeepers or families she met while touring. She did include a number of photographs of the hotels she stayed at, along with the postcards from their front desk.

A brochure that pulls out into a five image horizontal map. But the most interesting part is the rates also printed. See below.

Note that there are separate rates for servants.
Why is lunch more expensive than dinner? I guess it was the larger meal there, at that time?

Windsor Castle…there were crowds then too.

A stop in Stratford-upon-Avon and a visit to Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare - I’m sure you knew that.

Malmaison, home to Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte

Lots of historical and architectural visits. After Anne Hathway’s home, off to Malmaison, the lovely estate of Napoleon and Josephine in France.
Malmaison is where Josephine had her beautiful and extensive rose garden.

As you can see, people today take the same photographs that tourists did back in the 1930s.

I told you I came upon this scrapbook at a flea market.
I have to say, every time I open it, a little wave of melancholy comes over me. There’s something a little sad about a person’s memories of a treasured trip ending up in a stack for the public to leaf through and purchase.

Certainly, Alice never thought these carefree photos taken so long ago would be looked at by strangers. But here we are. And if you were born when film photographs were still being taken for the majority of your life, you might find yourself represented between pages in a ‘for sale’ book too. Just a fact.

The melancholy comes not just because this is someone’s memories cast aside. It’s also from a time and place, now long gone. The monuments are still here, but the people in the photographs are not.

I include this photograph because of the whimsical name. Who wouldn’t want to stay at The Golden Pretzel?

Many of the hotels have a quaint appeal and look like the romanticized version of what we think they should look like. Although, I guess it isn’t romanticized if they actually do look like that.

I looked up Angulus Schuhe (store on the left side) and I think they’re still in business. Not this particular store, but it says the company was started in the early 1900s.

When in Switzerland, go to the Alps. The Jungfrau is the third highest Alp.

So, an album full of memories of a trip right before WWII. I’m sure it was sad for her to see all the places she had just visited consumed by chaos in a few short months after returning.
I guess it shows how quickly things can change.
Food for thought.

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