Havre-de-Grâce – Stay there – Mr. Eyriès and his country home – Dealers in natural history objects – Large amount of foreign curiosities – Cabinets – The harbor and trade – Stores – the Bavarian consul Mr. Meinel – Trip to Harfleur – Pack voyage on the steamboat Le Rouannais to Rouen – Stay there – The cathedral – Dealers in natural history objects – Departure from Rouen to Abbeville – Stay there – The cabinets of Messrs. Baillon and Delamotte – Rüppel’s stranded natural history objects at the mouth of the Somme – Journey via Montreuil – Boulogne – Calais to Dunkerque – Stay there – Embarkation on the steamboat Graaf Cancrin for Rotterdam – Stay at Rotterdam – Embarkation on the steamboat Zeuw (or Nederlander) and voyage to Cologne – Journey overland via Bonn to Forch – Walk via Hammerstein, and arrival at Monrepos.
August 23, 1834
Early departure. Nice weather. Mostly Englishmen, among them Major Mitchell of the 75th British Regiment from Edinburgh, all returned [to the boat]. About ten o’clock we reached Emmerich, the Prussian border. We handed in our passports but were not checked and got away after one hour without much trouble. A few hours later, we reached Rees, then Xanten on the right left, which is located a little away from the riverbank.
After lunch we were at Wesel, where we did not stop. [We] then sailed through the floating bridge and ran into the whirlpool, or rapids, located here. That delayed the boat so much that we could not move and had to take several dangerous turns. Finally we succeeded at getting into the better shipping channel and continued to sail. We spent a night that passed rather quickly in the crowded cabin without beds; we sailed by Düsseldorf.