Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

part of town, then had dinner at the mensa and returned to the hostel to wash clothes and write and read, before bedtime.

This morning we awoke to gray overcast skies, and by 11 AM we were having the first real rain of our trip [which is pretty lucky for this early in the year!]. We spent the morning wandering again - watched a couple of ships going through the river locks (where a spillway changes the height of the Neckar about 6 feet), went back to the old university to see the student prison. This was really an interesting experience indeed - it consists of about 6 or 7 small rooms in the main old university building, set off by a barred door and windows, simply furnished with a wood table, 2 wood chairs, 2 beds. The prison was used from about 1720-1914 to hold for a few days each, students who were drunk, rowdy, fighting, etc; the most interesting feature is the collection of verses sayings, signatures and self portraits which were painted on the walls (layer over layer) by the "residents" over the 200 years. They were often quite witty, and their general tone suggested that being in the prison was more of a lark than a real disaster!

After lunch at the Mensa again, we went back to the hostel to pack up and put on raincoats to begin the journey up the Neckar. We didn't know what sort of country to expect, since the river is smaller and more winding than the Rhine. But it turned out that the road was flat and smooth, follows right along the river, so we made the 33 km to [Eberbach]] before 5pm. And with raincoats, the rain was no great bother either, thank goodness. The Neckar is, from the standpoint of natural beauty, even better than the Rhine valley. The thick fir and pine forests come right down the hillside to the river's edge; occassionally there are small orchards, and with green grass growing between the trees, they look like well-manicured parks in the forest. It's really beautiful countryside, and we have a whole day of it tomorrow on the way to Heilbronn.

Right now it's bedtime again, so I have to close. I'll probably write again when we get back to "good old Beutelsbach."

Love, George

Mom - if you have an extra copy of all my vacation travel letters how about including the Kleins? 250 Holtby Road. Thanks!