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Daily Alta California, April 9, 1867
New York, March 2d, 1867.
GRAND EUROPEAN PLEASURE TRIP
PROMINENT Brooklynites are getting up a great European pleasure excursion for the coming summer, which promises a vast amount of enjoyment for a very reasonable outlay. The passenger list is filling up pretty fast.
The steamer to be used will be fitted up comfortably and supplied with a library, musical instruments and a printing-press—for a small daily paper is to be printed on board. The ship is to have ample accommodations for 150 cabin passengers, but in order that there may be no crowding, she will only carry 110. The steamer fare is fixed at $1,250, currency. The vessel will stop every day or two, to let the passengers visit places of interest in the interior of the various countries, and this will involve an additional expense of about $500 in gold. The voyage will begin the 1st of June and end near the beginning of November—five months—but may be extended by unanimous vote of the passengers.
Outward bound, a day or two will be spent at Gibraltar, and about ten days at Marseilles, which latter will give an opportunity of looking in at the Paris fair. If desired, passengers may tarry longer at Paris, and then pass down through Switzerland and rejoin the ship at Genoa, where she will remain ten days. From Genoa, excursions will be made to Milan, the Lakes of Como and Maggiore, and to Verona, Padua and Venice. Also, the party may visit Parma, Bologna and Florence, and rejoin the vessel at Leghorn. Pisa and Lucca can likewise be added to the programme. From Leghorn to Naples the route will be along the coast of Italy, close by Caprera, Elba and Corsica, and arrangements have been made to pay Garibaldi a visit. Eight days will be spent at Naples, and visits will be made to Herculaneum, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Virgil's tomb, and the ruins of ancient Paestum. A day will next be spent at Palermo, in Sicily. Thence through the group of Aeolian Isles, in sight of the volcanoes of Stromboli and Vulcania, through the Straits of Messina, with Scylla on the one hand and Charybdis on the other, along the east coast of Sicily, and in sight of Mount Etna—along the south coast of Italy, the west and south coast of Greece, in sight of ancient Crete, up Athens Gulf into the Piraeus, Athens will be reached. A day will be given to Corinth, and then the voyage will be extended through the Grecian Archipelago, the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmora, to Constantinople. After a day or two at the latter place, a sail through the Bosphorus and across the Black Sea will bring the party to Sebastopol and Balaklava—thence back again and along the coasts of ancient Troy and Lydia in Asia, to Smyrna, from which point Ephesus will be visited. The steamer will stop at Beirout and time allowed to visit Damascus, and then proceed to Joppa and remain there ten or twelve days, so that the passengers can go to Jericho—I mean to Jerusalem—and to the other side of Jordan, the Sea of Tiberias, Nazareth, Bethany, Bethlehem, and other points of interest in the Holy Land.
A stop of four or five days will be made at Alexandria, in Egypt, and the ruins of Caesar's Palace, Pompey's Pillar, Cleopatra's Needle, the Catacombs, the site of ancient Memphis, Joseph's Granaries, and the Pyramids. They don't go to Cairo, but I do not mind that, because I have been to Cairo once (in Illinois), and that was enough for the subscriber.
In the remainder of the programme I find mention of such points as Malta, Cagliari (in Sardinia), Palma (in Majorca), Valencia (in Spain), Alicant, Carthagena, Palos, Malaga, Madeira, the Peak of Teneriffe, the Bermudas, and so forth and so on, to the crack of doom.
A man may stay aboard the ship all the time if he wants to. It is essentially a pleasure excursion, and so private caprices will be allowed full scope. Isn't it a most attractive scheme? Five months of utter freedom from care and anxiety of every kind, and in company with a set of people who will go only to enjoy themselves, and will never mention a word about business during the whole voyage. It is very pleasant to contemplate.
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