WINGS TO ENGLAND AND BELGIUM

[Music] [Music] at the sound of a flying clippers pan american world airways presents [Music] i suppose we're what you'd call typical americans love hamburgers chocolate sodas and travel most of all travel so we decided to investigate the different kinds of planes flying to europe because that's where we wanted to go now then here we have a model of the double deck clipper the last word in luxury flying as you can see the passenger compartments are on two levels which makes it possible to move about a bit stretch your legs you can go downstairs to the lounge or you can go upstairs to your seat or sleeper the top deck here is the regular seating space which is more than enough room for 61 people these cabins over here are the dressing rooms and down here we have the lounge and bar where you can have a friendly chat with your fellow passengers that convinced us so a month later we took the double decked clipper the upper deck was comfortable but to stretch our legs we went downstairs where we met some interesting people among them irving hartley a film producer well after those instructions irving out he's able to win an academy award listen darling i'll be perfectly satisfied if you get two or three shots in focus well we'll run into each other in london and if you need any help you just sing out oh thank you hey you know we ought to be landing about this time by golly there's england down there now isn't that amazing yes it's true what they say it's quicker by clipper yes there were the green turf fields of england the gentle hills where men had flourished for over 2 000 years we had the feeling that we were not strangers that in a way we were coming home because every town and valley is packed with history that's our common legacy the houses of parliament westminster abbey the stem the victoria embankment saint paul all are names as familiar to us as times square of the golden gate on that first morning as we walked out onto the balcony of our west end hotel we were a little overcome by the fact that we were in london at all yesterday new york's east side today london's west end it's a magic world and the panorama that spread before us was magic too we decided to let the day take care of itself and travel about with no special aim we wanted first to see piccadilly circus said to be the center of the world but even the center of london is difficult to find without a map so we consulted the one given us on the pan american clippers [Music] it always amuses me that in the heart of london there should be a statue to the god of love the last place on earth i'd expect to find it but there he is iraq looking down on swirling traffic concrete and lots of plate glass the flower girl is still there but the old houses are gone and unless you remember that scotch and byron and johnson lived in piccadilly you might miss feeling the surge of history under the modern current of life [Music] i said east and she said when well anyhow this was a good chance to see if the london bobby's lived up to their reputation for politeness you seem to be a bit confused can i help you well i'm sure you can officer officer we want to go to st paul's cathedral and my husband says it that way and i'm sure it's that way isn't that right and we want to go to the lower courts and the bank of england buckingham palace and westminster abbey and the car of london no madam you haven't got a helicopter have you cross the road take the third turning on the right hand side it will bring you to the travel association they'll be able to help you thank you very much trafalgar square was our first stop we left the national gallery till later and then to saint paul it's still standing even though everything around it was demolished somehow surrounded by emptiness it breathes the greatness of england even more than before nothing left now but a ground pattern of rectangles with a wall jetting up here and there [Music] and then down the mill to buckingham palace for everyone wants to see the changing of the guards at least once [Music] england is one of the few countries in the world where soldiers still wear elaborate dress uniforms i've heard that if you search for it you can find born as a regular dress some costume of nearly every period from the reign of henry vii to that of queen victoria whoever designed these fur hats and never heard the word functional but the originator of this stomping of the feet called square bashing must have had a practical motive and a foot walk [Music] westminster abbey is england's valhalla the enmities of 20 generations lie buried here elizabeth beside mary and she beheaded remember beaumont's poem think how many royal bones sleep within the heap of stone here they lie had realms and lands who now want strength to stir their hands the houses of parliament are near the abbey and architecturally they harmonize perfectly even though they weren't built until 1834. of course you recognize tower bridge and on the other side of the king the tower of london fortress royal palace state prison and now a barracks and museum imagine it's been in continuous occupation for over eight and a half centuries a long catalogue of people have died here anne boleyn catherine howard sir walter raleigh lady jane gray at this very gate traitor's gate it's called anne boleyn fell on her knees and cried to god for help this is the very spot where many of the great were beheaded i suppose if any place on earth is haunted this is it the yeoman warders of the tower still wear their famous livery including the symbols of the tudor rose the scotch thistle and the welsh leaf we cornered one of them and learned a little more about the history of the tower who was it who actually built this tower well there are some would have you think that it was julius caesar who broke the car but it was william the conqueror who built it and he used part of the old roman wall which was built by julius fever had a fascinating history hasn't it yes they say the storms were put together with lime mixed with blood well there has been enough blood filled here for that what else has it been used for besides the children it has been a palace and even a dream in one of these powers we kept while lying yes and some poor human souls have been caged up in there until they chopped their heads off in the block or broke their bones in the wheel they beheaded the elevating the welcome rally lady jane gray and queen anne police [Music] i've seen anne berlin carrying her head underneath her arm and poor king henry vi who was stabbed while he was at prayer they come at night they do their names are here on the wall i understood it was here in this room they say that the little princes were mothers smaller they were right here at the land bay if you're tired of stone and history there are the perfect trees in green velvet london's many parks st james this is the most beautiful park in london and therefore one of the great sites of the world while an english park is something special neither artificial like a french park nor completely natural but a compromise between the two to a londoner it's his paradise lost in town if st james's is the most beautiful hyde park is the most many sided the corner near the marble arch is london's forum from a dozen little rostrums tolerance of words are hurled at an audience which seems to gather for the sole purpose of baiting the speaker it's an impressive spectacle this tolerance of the crowd for any opinion exclusively and typically english we ran into irving hartley again in hyde park we'd seen him once before and he'd found london a very difficult place to photograph because it looked its best in a low soft light he wanted to capture some of the misty beauty whistler saw there but unfortunately color film isn't up to it yet we went with him to see drooping the color the annual ceremony on the king's birthday king george in a fur hat rode in an open carriage with princess elizabeth beside him on horseback after a good deal of parading at fast tempo the men go into a slow march that's unusually impressive [Music] we were beginning to understand that no one ever can know london thoroughly or it means something different to everyone it's full of unbelievable variety absolutely modern absolutely medieval absolutely 18th century or absolutely middle-class victorian according to your point of view and so the days passed and the time had come when we must leave london and go to see the countryside irving came along to get a shot of our departure that donnie wanted for her film record we smiled for the camera's sake but we weren't as happy as we looked because london grows on you and we hated to leave many people begin by disliking it but no one can really know london without loving it as dr johnson declared when a man is tired of london he is tired of life for there is in london all that life can afford we got another view of big ben and westminster palace better known as the houses of parliament rising in their grand a short and pleasant boat ride takes you to hampton court william iii wanted to make hampton court his versailles but fortunately he failed and the beautiful cuter buildings with their fantastic chimneys were left intact if you bone up a bit on history you'll enjoy england a lot more imagine henry viii greedy ears perk up as woolsey explains that this clock records not only the time of day but the phases of the moon the tide the seasons and perhaps even the progress of the solar system through space we reach back even farther into the past at windsor for it is said that it was in a castle on this hill that king arthur established his round table today the modern knights who play in the river are likely to be from eaton for that famous public school is just across the thames as we in america understand the term eaton is not public at all but thoroughly private for the sons of gentlemen the buildings are old and beautiful and so venerable that their eaten jackets and silk hats seem most appropriate it was this playing field of which the duke of wellington spoke when he said the battle of waterloo was won here oxford university is on the charlevo river and putting on the char is a delightful way to absorb the atmosphere teaching began here a thousand years ago think of that the scholars of that day would be astonished at such things as films and airplanes but they might be even more astonished to know that their inspiration has lived on unchanged [Music] rudeness is rare in england almost everyone's polite and obliging one of the students knowing we were strangers volunteered to take us about how do you like planting on the show well well it was certainly a new experience for us but it was marvelous i just loved it you've certainly chosen a lovely day for it it's been beautiful we enjoyed our stay at the board hill hotel which was typical of the many charming inns throughout england after a delicious lunch david took us about in his mg everyone talks about the beauty of oxford but he hates put it best when he said so beautiful one expects the people to sing instead of speaking we shivered a bit at the thought of the great number of famous men who had walked through devil's passage roger bacon matthew arnold john henry newman shelly moore addison gibbon this is new college it's still called that that was built about 1380. we have another endowment here some time ago one of your road scholars from the southern states left the fun for mint julie who's in kentucky once every year they're served to everyone in the college hall but uh i can't say that i like them myself perhaps that's because we just don't really know how to make them probably i wish i had more time i'd make you a real kentucky men julian i know you'd like that but i think we'd better push on you see we're going up to strasbourg we said goodbye to our student friend and not without qualms took to our bike england is the perfect country for cycling no form of travel can compare with it in a place where something interesting is to be found on every side lane and where glamour inns and t lawns are common wayside viewers anyone who visits a foreign country after having become familiar with its painters is struck with astonishment at seeing how much the land resembles the pictures of it the whole country looks like a great park extremely civilized and man-made there are no high mountains and no extensive planes just hills of varying heights the light and weather are forever changing and nature is human and hospitable great two english names are a delight for two reasons they're quaint and they're familiar like an old song well the most ardent foe of quaintness would soften if he saw this costumed village the cottages roots with thatch are built about a green which is the center of communal life age has touched the houses with a gentle caress which adds a great deal to their charm we learned later that one writer had called great pew the most beautiful village of the world and i'm inclined to agree with him in olden times the green was the place for festivals and for carrying out justice donnie spied the stocks and decided it was time to put me in my place [Music] apart from the bird which sang lustily the whole place seemed half asleep but in a wayside inn you always get a cheerful greeting we'd always dreamed of going to stratford so we saved that to last stratford was just an old market town of no consequence until the alderman's son set the world on fire the roof sagged with the use of centuries and the shutters on its oldest house looked like a drop leaf table we were surprised to learn that shakespeare was born in such an elegant house he went to school in this guild hall no doubt it was here that he first saw the scrolling players who fired his imagination not far away is anne hathaway's cottage a cottage of 14 rooms no less it probably hasn't changed much since shakespeare came courting up this very path he hardly 18 and anne 26 they were married for more than 30 years when shakespeare died in 1660. [Music] he was laid to rest here in holy trinity the even flows on down to the memorial theater where an excellent cast performs its place next trip we'll arrange it differently but now we had to head back to piccadilly and the pan american office to pick up our mail you're right dear one does meet interesting people in the pan am offices hello lee how are you i know you and donnie how are you say since i last saw you two i've been all over belgium build your irving tell us all about it we may be going there ourselves is it true what they say about brussels i don't know what they say about it but i say it's one of my favorite places then you're the man we've been looking for give us a blow-by-blow description well i like everything about both luxembourg and belgium my schedule took me first to luxembourg the pearl of all europe for beauty actually at first glance it looks like a miniature and then you realize that this is real luxembourg is a tiny country very hilly very picturesque it has been patiently coddled coaxed trimmed manicured barbed and upholstered until from end to end it looks like somebody's private estate or else like a made to order composition for a painter the grand duchy of luxembourg has its share of ruined castles and i confess a weakness for ruins not so much because they're photogenic it's because they stimulate me to try to reconstruct the past the castle of the anden dates from the 13th century think what prayers and scandal what sorrow and laughter those walls have heard of course ruins are wonderful to photograph too the architectural details of the enzyme were of several periods showing how it had grown through the centuries yes sir i repeat with emphasis luxembourg is one of the most pictorial countries i've ever seen i urge you not to miss it [Music] you ask about brussels well brussels is to me one of the most delightful capitals in all europe it has a mood of optimism that acts like a topic the ground cross the center of old brussels is dominated by the town hall or hotel detail as they call it it was begun in 1410 and it's in a rich gothic architecture that makes it the pride of the low countries in the square they held splendid tournaments in the 15th century age is so dark in the buildings that it's impossible to get a good light reading for color photography but i found the sculpture and architectural details irresistible [Music] ancient guild houses around the square there's the hall of archers the grease makers the coopers the skippers and so on and of course there's always the people the people of brussels and of all belgiums of that matter are energetic progressive optimistic this was one of the most pleasant surprises to me i've never known any belgians before sand painting is an art font in belgium that i've never seen before the artist works with colored sand for the sip stop between his thumb and forefinger with the most remarkable skill the sketch he did for me took about 30 minutes but when they're working on something more ambitious that they want to preserve they spend five or six weeks the sand can be fixed with some sort of blue size [Music] the fiesta resistance of all belgium for me was brew from the top of a belfry you look down at what is practically a medieval city it's sometimes called bruges la morte the dead city because it was once a thriving commercial center that was before columbus discovered america today everything is still and peaceful and bruges no longer of commercial importance is the picturesque capital of west flattens it's also called the venice of the north because of its network of canals at every turn there's something to remind you of the blight which fell on the city when its trade was lost due to the silting up of the river's wind its waterway to the sea the faded colors the time worn brickwork the indescribable look of the cave it's all very sad and pathetic yet strangely beautiful today artists come to wander about the narrow streets with their curious step-gabled houses and old buildings which bear such eloquent testimony to the ruin that overtook what was once a powerful and opulent city [Music] [Music] art flourished as the town grew richer and of van ike memeling and many other great painters were attracted by its splendor there's an excellent membering museum where many of the master's finest works are preserved it's interesting to see that even though most of the subjects are biblical gambling used costumes and backgrounds contemporary to his time everyone has heard of bruges lace the lace makers are to me more interesting than their product they are usually sweet little old ladies with faces like a portrait by holbein [Music] [Music] it's remarkable that their withered hand can still travel so fast [Music] if bruise is the highlight of belgium the procession of the holy blood is the highlight of bruges it's held each year in may and it's worth going out of your way for it every window every inch of pavement is packed by the devout and furious men and women in strange costumes begin to appear in the streets about nine in the morning and look at though they might have stepped from a child's picture pious visitors from all parts of europe are there first you see adam and eve driven from the garden of eden first hour of the procession shows key scenes from the old and new testament some are tap locals some are actively acted out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] each year the monk who takes the part of christ does it as a form of penance this cross is solid wood and so heavy that the monk fainted 17 times in the two hours of the procession that which impressed me most was the vivid force of the whole atmosphere i thought it wasn't a pageant a spectacle that i was watching but an act of worship in which the actors and the spectators were as one [Music] the second half of the procession is historical and shows the return of the count of flanders from the holy land after the second crusade while in jerusalem he was given a few drops of the holy blood to reward him for his valor and when he returned was of course a triumphal procession flanders spared no expense for his reception and ever since the 12th century this procession has been held in memory of that event the climax of the whole ceremony is the passing of the shrine of the holy blood borne by two bishops at the end the participants and the people assemble before the chapel of the holy blood for they are blessed at the world famous carrion place it was all very moving a fitting tribe actually well that sounds too good to miss taking this life from here to brussels by clifford well of course how about that why surely it's only an hour away you can fly from london to brussels and then go down to paris from there there's a wonderful trip you can take down through the chateau country end up at nice on the riviera spend some time there and then go home the southern route marseille barcelona lisbon santa maria home that way how would you like that i need you ask serving you certainly sold us on belgium good well i must be running along we'll tell you how we like you when we see you at home goodbye for now goodbye happy flying it always is so long bye you