Peter Haycraft Dibdin
born 26th Feb 1913 

Holiday Log from 1936

A holiday report by Peter found in a notebook used for notes regarding his work 1934 on.

Holiday 1936

 All set and ready to start on our journey at 12.50 am on 29^th August.

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We, Peter HD and David M, straight away set out in Singer Sports Nine BMK519 for Dover. Only saw 3 cars before Westerham round about which town we ran into a thick patch of mist and it was lying in patches on most of the road down to
2.25

Sat 2.45 am Camped off the road near Maidstone until 6.40;. 6.70 Sun breaks through heavy mist. David at the wheel.

Dover 8.00am  2080

Boat left at 10.30 – Bright sunshine mist in the distance and fog horn sounding off.

South Goodwin Lightship. Fairly strong breeze while sitting up on high deck of Autocarrier. Car stowed below. Loading car on vessel in done very efficiently – see photo.

Gulls followed ship for several miles, numbers gradually dwindling as we progressed probably as nobody fed them. Met two young chaps with an M.G. who were going touring in Germany and Switzerland.

Left Ostend with a full tank – 7 gallons. On clock 20481 miles.

Then at the Duane ( customs) in Ostend it took about an hour to get through all the customs formalities and it was about 3.30 - 4.00 when we left Ostend.

First impressions – terrible roads made up of uneven cobblestones.

Continued to Brussels via Ghent – stopped for photos – and had to go very slowly in parts owing to bad state of the roads.

The cars in the country seem to disregard the bad roads and go past us at high speed.- Their springs are probably designed for the roads.

Arrived Brussels 7.30 or there about – cheap accommodation for the night – went to see one of the cheap hotels recommended – fr30 double bed . Madame the proprietor knew no English. Offered us accommodation for fr40 afterwards coming down to
fr 30 for db. We were not at all keen on the appearance of the place and after climbing about 7 storeys to see the room decided it was dear at any price. We took our leave as fast as we could, although it was difficult to explain why we did not want to take the room. Finally we fixed up at the Hotel Royal du Nord opposite Nord Station at fr55 db fr5 each for petit dejeuner. After a wash and brush up we went out to one of the cafes and had a 4 course meal – almost more than we required at that hour – 9.30. However it was quite good fairly reasonable. Afterwards we walked along the main street to the Grand Place. All these are well lit at night and the illuminated signs contrive to make a very cheerful atmosphere when combined with the cafes open at the front, some tables on the pavement and a band or comic act going on inside. The city seemed to be waking up at about 11 o’clock at night.

In the morning after petit dejeuner , left the hotel about 10.15 fetched car from garage and went tot look out for the King’s Palace. We missed, however, but saw a rather fine arch along one of the boulevards (see photo). We continued to Louvain where we halted to look round and have chocolate. While sitting outside at the café dinking the chocolate we listened to a carillon playing some piece which we would consider to be very intricate and difficult for such an instrument. The roads are much better this side of Brussels in most places although still cobbled almost everywhere. We stopped at a roadside shop to see if we could obtain any bread and cheese for lunch but they only sold drinks. We had a lemonade. Peter, the shop keeper was very nice and brought his wife out to play the piano to us. She played Strauss Waltz, at least it had the resemblance to that in parts. I don’t think she had ever heard of a sharp though......