Lasting friendships and even romances have resulted, before
now, from the exchange of greetings and gossip between packet-passengers
and people on the canal bank waiting for papers, packages, or messages,
or merely interested in seeing the Swiftsure boat go by.
The last of the Swiftsure boats went by, long, long ago, and the later
generations of New Netherlander know not the joys of journeying on the
canal. Fortunately in the old Netherlands the water-highways are still
ways for travel as well as for traffic. The easygoing people of the Low
Countries, never in a hurry, are content to move at a moderate pace,
without fretting about speed, taking their comfort as they go. The
American, in their country, can find a diversion well worth considering
by setting aside a few days from the usual routine, and entering the
life of these good folk, far enough to take a trip or two in a
treckschuyt on the canals that form such an important factor of their
transportation system. Landing at Antwerp, for example, one could not do
better than to take a treckschuyt excursion at once, before the bloom of
anticipation has been rubbed off by the friction of much sight-seeing.
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