My Vacation: An Introduction
Part one in a series on my journey through Europe to retrace my Great-Grandmother’s 1914 travel diary on the centennial of its writing
In the summer of 1914 my great-grandmother Daisy Congdon embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. She planned to visit Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and several other countries, but history intervened. Only three days into her trip, on June 28, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated and a month later The Great War broke out, leaving her group stranded in Switzerland without credit or passage home as all the trains were requisitioned to move soldiers to the front.
Eventually Daisy made her way back home to Kansas, married my great-grandfather, and spoke little of the trip again. It wasn’t until 1984 — long after Daisy died — that my Mother and her brothers learned about the journey when they found her travel diary buried in the basement of her old house. Along with it they found dozens of photos, postcards and newspaper clippings that all catalog the journey.
This month, I’ll travel through Europe to retrace the diary on the centennial of her trip and see what remains of the places she wrote about, and over the course of this year I’ll organize the records we have left along with my research in Europe to compile a historical and social analysis of Daisy’s diary.
As I write this, I’m sitting in a cafe outside Liverpool Street Station waiting for a train to Harwich. From there I’ll take an overnight ferry to Hoek van Holland and then hop on a morning train to Hamburg, the first city Daisy visited in Europe. In subsequent posts I’ll include excerpts of her diary that correspond to the city I’m visiting along with photos of what she describes.
I’m doing this for my family above all so I owe them a great deal of thanks for helping me prepare for this trip. My Uncle Kendall Bert in particular has been incredible — he organized and cataloged all the original documents. I also need to thank the Plan II Honors program at the University of Texas for helping me fund this trip. Plane tickets aren’t cheap after all!
As a teaser of what’s to come I’ve included Daisy’s first entry in her diary below. If you see three consecutive pound signs (#), it represents a word I’m still trying to decipher and a single pound sign next to a word means I’m uncertain about my transcription — I always struggled with cursive in grade school and time has only exacerbated that weakness. So if there’s something that you think I transcribed wrong or that you’re confused about click the plus button in the top right corner of whatever paragraph you’re reading and leave a comment. The format for these entries will likely change drastically as I go, but for now I’ll have a typewritten entry followed by a photocopy of the corresponding page from the diary. I hope you enjoy!
June 11, 1914
Marjorie brought My Vacation to me as I was paying my last settlement at the Y.W.C.A. and I resolved then to begin there to tell of my vacation.
Ira Blon, Miss Keriver and Mrs. Reynolds went with me to the Penn. Station and started me on my homeward way. Of all my planning and air castle building for the things “to happen” while visiting home in Kansas and during my trip abroad how many are to come true I wonder!
If my plans come true this will be a very ideal vacation.
