By the Way: Travel Letters Written During Several Journeys Abroad

by Agness Greene Foster

AUSTRIA

All places that the eye of heaven visits

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.

Shakspere, Richard II.,

Act I, Scene 3, Line 275.

VIENNA:

We arrived in Vienna with the Emperor. In fact, we acted as his advance guard for some time, his train following ours. The Emperor himself was but a small part of the show, for the officers of his suite outshone all else, and were swagger to a degree. German and Austrian army officers are imposing anywhere, but especially so on horseback.

Vienna is a city within a city, for the fortifications which surrounded the old town have been torn down and replaced by a broad boulevard which separates the ancient from the modern portion. Within this Ring-Strasse the streets are narrow and the houses mediæval; without, you will find one of the most inviting cities of Europe.

Vienna is gay, sparkling and fascinating. Its opera and its shops are world renowned, and it is a close rival of Paris in setting the modes.

Nowhere in all Europe can so much beauty and grandeur of mountain, forest and stream be crowded into one day as during a sail on the Danube from Linz to Vienna.