ABSTRACT
After a stormy two-week crossing, complete with seasickness and colds for everyone, the Clemens party landed at Hamburg to rest before going on to spend two months in Heidelberg via Hanover and Frankfurt. The beauty of Hamburg surprised Livy, since, of the friends she had consulted before her journey, only George Warner had praised the city. She also found the accommodations “charming” and the food “palatable.” Livy wrote her mother that “my greatest anxiety just at the present is the fear that the children will be utterly spoiled by admiration that they receive.” Livy never let Susie or Clara go out in less than perfect ruffled dresses in matching colors and shiny high-top shoes with manners to match. Few remarked about them in Nook Farm because everyone knew them, but on board ship and on the streets they stood out. Livy informed Rosa not to let people make such a fuss over the two girls. Even though people said, “Oh, what pretty children” in German, Livy knew when they learned the language the attention would not only turn but swell their heads.
