I saw quite a number of "hikers" during the Whitsuntide holidays, but the only ones among them who carried it off with the proper air were the Boy Scouts. I certainly hope that we shall be spared some of the sights that I saw last year in Germany, where walking tours have become a sort of national craze and the land is dotted with hostels catering specially for the trampers. The worst vision appeared before me, as I stood on the steps at the entrance to Munich Station, in the shape of two middle-aged and extremely stout women, dressed from head to foot in what appeared to be one-piece masculine overalls of a dingy dust-colour, with bulging knapsacks on their backs, and the perspiration pouring down their plain, but determined, features. Even the polite Municheners turned to look at them with a mixture of amusement and surprise. Youth in khaki shorts striding the roads was to be tolerated, if not admired, but these two middle-aged women in the heart of the city jarred one's sense of the fitness of things.
By the way, I noticed a happy couple of holiday-makers on a tandem bicycle in Dublin on Whit Monday. Both were equipped with knapsacks. The sight suggested that the tandem bicycle ought to have had a longer day than it enjoyed.
The Irish Times, May 28th, 1931.