13 h 24 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 24 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the best part of a journey is everything that refuses to go to plan?
Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and his friends set out through Germany and Switzerland, where travel plans meet the pleasures of misadventure. In Bernardus Gewin’s comic Dutch novel, friendship sits at the heart of the journey. The company matters as much as the destination, and small mishaps give the wandering its light, human charm.
Gewin brings a warm eye to human weakness and the everyday business of travelling abroad. River steamers, mountain inns, crowded coaches and odd fellow guests form the world of this nineteenth-century tale. The pace leaves room for small scenes, asides and a chatty narrator, inviting you to linger rather than hurry toward the next event.
What you’ll discover
- Friends on the road Follow Joachim and his companions through a journey that puts their shared adventures first.
- Plans meet small mishaps Enjoy the gentle comedy of travellers whose careful plans cannot quite contain the journey.
- Germany and Switzerland beckon Wander through a travel world of river steamers, mountain inns and crowded coaches.
- Humour with a warm heart Meet human weakness through an observant comic eye that favours kindness over sharpness.
- Room to linger Settle into small scenes and chatty asides, with time to enjoy the passing company.
Who will love it
Readers who love gentle comedy, affectionate satire and eccentric travelers will enjoy its sharp portraits. Fans of nineteenth-century Dutch humor and armchair journeys along the Rhine and through the Alps will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A calm man gathers four very different friends
- A steamboat voyage brings new faces and small disasters
- Poems, a duel and an old story fill the first stops
- Along the Rhine the friends meet strange company
- Frankfurt, a lost passport and a helpful stranger
- Swiss hills bring blisters, mishaps and a birthday
- A mock trial and the high Alps test the friends
- Each friend is a type, and the journey tests them
- Travel is a performance, and home is the prize
- A teasing narrator shapes the whole journey
Who’s who
- Joachim PolsbroekerwoudCalled Pols, a kindly, short, well-prepared Rotterdam bachelor of thirty-four who wants comfort, quiet and good inns, and watches over his friends like a mother.
- Eduard van TorteltakA handsome young man of twenty-three, vain and warm-hearted, who wants to see how foreign girls react to him and falls in love at every stop.
- August HolstaffA moonlit dreamer who loves ruins and sorrow and goes looking for unhappy people to weep with.
- Jan VeervlugAn excitable young doctor of law, quick with puns and verses, who admires everything at once and keeps little of it.
- Dionysius de MorderA cross-eyed, kind grumbler who is sure every journey will end in disaster and counts it a personal wrong when it does not.
- Van AartheimA clear-eyed, helpful young Dutchman who joins the party after a lost passport and seems to carry a private worry.
- Mr. KorenaarAn elderly Rotterdam merchant who loves to tell tales of his youth, and whose daughter Ambrosine catches Torteltak's eye.
- MijntjePols's loyal old housemaid, who packs his trunk and ties his boots to his knapsack before the friends leave on their journey.
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Rencontres de voyage de Joachim Polsbroekerwoud et de ses amis
Five Dutch friends set off for Switzerland with safety ropes, a pipe, and very different expectations of the journey.
Challenging5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Can five Dutch gentlemen cross Germany and Switzerland without a single serious mishap? One of them packs safety ropes, Spijkerbalsem and drops for fright, just in case.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A calm man gathers four very different friends
The story begins in a tall house on the Oppert in Rotterdam. Joachim Polsbroekerwoud, called Pols, is thirty-four, not five feet tall, and happiest in a comfortable chair. His old servant Mijntje, who once carried him as a baby, still runs his home.
Four friends arrive to join his summer trip. Eduard van Torteltak is handsome and sure that every foreign girl will fall for him. August Holstaff loves ruins, moonlight and sorrow. Jan Veervlug is quick and spends his wit on puns. Dionysius de Morder squints and expects every misfortune.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
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- français
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Gewin, Bernardus. Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and His Friends. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/travel-encounters-of-joachim-polsbroekerwoud-and-his-friends.
Gewin, B. (2026). Travel encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and his friends. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/travel-encounters-of-joachim-polsbroekerwoud-and-his-friends
Gewin, Bernardus. Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and His Friends. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/travel-encounters-of-joachim-polsbroekerwoud-and-his-friends.
@book{gewin2026travel,
author = {Gewin, Bernardus},
title = {Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and His Friends},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/travel-encounters-of-joachim-polsbroekerwoud-and-his-friends}
}
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What is Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud about?
It follows five Dutch friends on a summer trip through Germany and Switzerland to Milan and back. Along the way they meet odd strangers, suffer small disasters and gently spoil one another's plans, while the author pokes fun at tourists and poets.
Who is Polsbroekerwoud and who are his friends?
Joachim Polsbroekerwoud, called Pols, is a kind Rotterdam bachelor. His friends are the vain Torteltak, the gloomy Holstaff, the quick-witted Veervlug and the grumbling De Morder. Later a helpful young man named Van Aartheim joins them.
Is Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud a true story?
It is a comic novel, not a record of a real trip. It is set in the summer of 1837 and draws on the real towns, inns, guidebooks and tourist habits of that time, which gives it a lively sense of place.
The author
Bernardus Gewin
1812–1873 · Dutch writer
Bernardus Gewin was a Dutch writer and minister who lived from 1812 to 1873. He wrote under the name Vlerk. His works include Travel Encounters of Joachim Polsbroekerwoud and His Friends. He lived and worked in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century.
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