Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide

The 1913 edition makes for fascinating reading, even in the Kindle version. First of all, it comes as a surprise to come across mentions of such places as Abbeville and Arras without the slightest reference   to the battlefields of World War 1, but of course they lay a year or two in the future.

Secondly, it was a shock to read of the prevalence of electric tramways all those years ago, as for example between Antibes and Nice. Most interesting, to me, was the wealth of detail showered on Germany, in particular the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest, compared to the other countries in Europe. I don't know whether this was an idiosyncracy on the part of Bradshaw or whether it reflected the close ties between the two countries on the eve of war, but he obviously felt it worth his while to devote far more space to Cologne than, say, Bordeaux. Something to do with the plumbing probably.