Letter home from school exchange
Title
Letter home from school exchange
Description
From Reg to his mum describing climbing hills close to where Hitler was in residence, a boat trip on the Rhine, visit to a farm, sightseeing, being homesick and not enjoying the food.
Creator
Date
1937-04-13
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Four had written sheets
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EMuirRWLMuirPE370413-0001, EMuirRWLMuirPE370413-0002, EMuirRWLMuirPE370413-0003, EMuirRWLMuirPE370413-0004, EMuirRWLMuirPE370413-0005
Transcription
[postage stamps] [postmark]
[inserted] WEDNESDAY [/inserted]
Reginald Muir
Oberrealschule
Soest I. Westfalen
Burghofster.
GERMANY
[page break]
SOEST.
TUESDAY APRIL 13TH, 1937.
Dear Mum,
We have arrived at SOEST safely. We arrived 10.45. a.m. Two hrs. journey. On Monday we climbed the DRACHENFELS, a mountain 600-1,000 ft high. It took us 1 1/2 hrs to climb it.
We had a very beautiful view from its summit. We went back to Cologne by boat. along the Rhine. A Few Hundred yards South from the Drachenfels Hitler was in residence.
A tremendous lot of flags were up. When you are by the Rhine you think that you are at the sea-side. It is a very fast-flowing river. I went to SCHAEFER’S grandfather’s house today. It is a farm.
[page break]
Well, the stink, goats, pigs (“abominable”) & young pigs. (not so abominable) Up in the loft among the hay was a cat with its young babies who had just been born. How it got up there I do not know. Mum.
I am very very homesick. [deleted] The [/deleted] Some of the food is terrible. Much to [sic] fatty.
I have written to Mrs. Cox, You, (2). Tommy Hawkes, Auntie Mag, F. J. Verrier, & I am going to write to Auntie Lil. I have bought some German tooth-paste. It was all right staying at the Youth’s Hostel. I am very tired. We were up on Monday at 6. Bed at 10.30 p.m. Up at 6. today. Two hours journey to SOEST.
Every body drives on the right hand side which makes it so awkward. Then the trains run in the street, mind
[page break]
you. These trains could not got go more than 15 m.p.h. at their fastest.
We went round SOEST this evening (SCHAEFER and I). Some rude girls kept on following us shouting at us & pushing small kids at us. Yes I am very homesick I am going to bed soon cause I have to be up at 6. SCHAEFER’S father is dead. He died a year ago.
His two uncles work on the SOEST railway. One is a booking clerk & the other an engine driver. I am staying at a village called AMPEN, a couple of miles outside SOEST. SOEST is 1,200 years old, & it has a church nearly as old. I have bought a roll of films for my camera. They cost One mark. Cheap I don’t think. 1/8. It is
[page break]
very strange to me. Yesterday evening we went sight-seeing in Cologne. There was a Woolworth’s there. The engines of the trains are very old. 40 years or more.
Well
Au Revoir
Reg
P.S.
Give my love to Dad & the kids.
X X X X.
[drawings]
[inserted] WEDNESDAY [/inserted]
Reginald Muir
Oberrealschule
Soest I. Westfalen
Burghofster.
GERMANY
[page break]
SOEST.
TUESDAY APRIL 13TH, 1937.
Dear Mum,
We have arrived at SOEST safely. We arrived 10.45. a.m. Two hrs. journey. On Monday we climbed the DRACHENFELS, a mountain 600-1,000 ft high. It took us 1 1/2 hrs to climb it.
We had a very beautiful view from its summit. We went back to Cologne by boat. along the Rhine. A Few Hundred yards South from the Drachenfels Hitler was in residence.
A tremendous lot of flags were up. When you are by the Rhine you think that you are at the sea-side. It is a very fast-flowing river. I went to SCHAEFER’S grandfather’s house today. It is a farm.
[page break]
Well, the stink, goats, pigs (“abominable”) & young pigs. (not so abominable) Up in the loft among the hay was a cat with its young babies who had just been born. How it got up there I do not know. Mum.
I am very very homesick. [deleted] The [/deleted] Some of the food is terrible. Much to [sic] fatty.
I have written to Mrs. Cox, You, (2). Tommy Hawkes, Auntie Mag, F. J. Verrier, & I am going to write to Auntie Lil. I have bought some German tooth-paste. It was all right staying at the Youth’s Hostel. I am very tired. We were up on Monday at 6. Bed at 10.30 p.m. Up at 6. today. Two hours journey to SOEST.
Every body drives on the right hand side which makes it so awkward. Then the trains run in the street, mind
[page break]
you. These trains could not got go more than 15 m.p.h. at their fastest.
We went round SOEST this evening (SCHAEFER and I). Some rude girls kept on following us shouting at us & pushing small kids at us. Yes I am very homesick I am going to bed soon cause I have to be up at 6. SCHAEFER’S father is dead. He died a year ago.
His two uncles work on the SOEST railway. One is a booking clerk & the other an engine driver. I am staying at a village called AMPEN, a couple of miles outside SOEST. SOEST is 1,200 years old, & it has a church nearly as old. I have bought a roll of films for my camera. They cost One mark. Cheap I don’t think. 1/8. It is
[page break]
very strange to me. Yesterday evening we went sight-seeing in Cologne. There was a Woolworth’s there. The engines of the trains are very old. 40 years or more.
Well
Au Revoir
Reg
P.S.
Give my love to Dad & the kids.
X X X X.
[drawings]
Collection
Citation
Reginald William Lingfield Muir, “Letter home from school exchange,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 10, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/42561.