I taste it, and reply—
“You have brought me sugar-water; I asked for wine. Take it away.” Astonishment of head waiter, who retires with wine, and presently returns with same sweet mixture in an old labelled and capsuled bottle. I taste, and point out that the label says “très sec,” and the wine is sweet, in fact, the same as before. He then tells me that the “pore waitre” has made a mistake, and will have to pay for the wine if I return it. I retort “that that won’t injure him, as it can’t cost much, and that it would injure us to drink it.” This to the intense delight of some German officers.
The waiter then tells me that he finds that they are out of the wine I want, but he recommends ⸺. I decline to drink it, saying, “I don’t care for ‘Schloss weis nicht wo,’” as I feared getting a second succedaneum. After a sitting at the lengthy table d’hôte of one hour and a half, we leave for more sleep. The table was plentiful, but common, and required a youthful appetite. This we did not possess, and we were both decidedly seedy for the rest of our stay in Berlin. We merely had our morning coffee at the hotel, and dined and breakfasted at “Dressel’s,” a restaurant of European celebrity. The cost was the same, but the wines and cook were undeniable, the attendance good, and the place select and quiet, and only some three hundred yards from our hotel in the Unter den Linden. This evening my neck was cricked, and gave me great pain. We still could not sleep, missing the jarring of the train. A⸺ and Charlie quite knocked up. We all are feeling the cold.
May 15th.—All of us quite knocked up: headaches and sleeplessness, and want of appetite; in fact, we are getting ill. I went to see the National Gallery and Altes and Neues Museums. Much pleased with what I saw, but my cricked neck annoyed me. A⸺ too ill to go out. Our eldest boy, Charlie, still quite done up.
May 16th.—Saw the Galleries again, and the wax-works (to which I took Charlie, who seems nearly himself again)—far better than Tussaud’s.
In the evening we went to the Friedrich Wilhelm’s Theatre, and saw the ‘Piper of Hammelin,’ a so-called comic opera. The singing and acting were good, but serious in the extreme. The orchestra stalls cost only three marks (three shillings). Began at half-past seven, over at half-past ten. The players very respectable, and the audience very quiet and appreciative; dresses good, mise-en-scène fair, acting equal to that of English provincials.
May 17th.—A⸺ much better. Went for drive in morning. Had a good deal of business to do to get money, and start luggage, etc. At five went to Zoological Gardens, a fine collection and magnificent gardens, a concert; fairly good dinner there, price very moderate: lots of guests. Much pleased. These gardens are open till ten P.M. We returned home by eight.
May 18th.—Had coffee. Started at ten. Breakfasted at the station. Again no charge for the children. Secured a coupé, with washing-place, etc., to ourselves, after some wrangle with the guard, having to appeal to the station-master, who decided in my favour against another claimant, I having placed my hat in the carriage, and so retained it by travellers’ law, but the guard had removed it and put other people in. Started at twelve noon for Calais. Speed, forty miles, including stoppages. Lovely country till we got to the iron region, Essen (Krupp’s?). Minden particularly pretty.
May 19th, one P.M.—Arrive at Calais. Half-past one leave by the Calais Douvres. Fair sea on, no pitching, but considerable roll. None of our party sick; only some dozen ill in all on board. A great improvement on the little boats as to motion. Time, one hundred minutes. Half-past three leave Dover. Half-past five arrive at Charing Cross Station.
Home! “Alhamdulillah!” (“Thank God!”)