Twenty years around the world

by John Guy Vassar

From Pesth I returned to Vienna, and made my way up the Danube to Linz, a sail of twenty-four hours, which would be lessened did they not lie by at night for the Strudel, where the river, breaking through its rocky barriers, divides into three parts. The most navigable portion is through the whirlpool, on approaching which a cannon is fired, as only one vessel at a time can pass this narrow point, which is from thirty to forty feet, where the fall is three feet in the distance of five hundred feet. Up to the last century, vessels and crews were frequently lost, but by the blasting of rocks, it is no longer hazardous, and bears no comparison to the running of the rapids of the St. Lawrence.

From Nussdorf, the starting-point on the main branch of the Danube, one hour’s ride from Vienna, as the steamer advances, leaving the already beautiful environs for which the latter city is noted, the scenery becomes bolder, the stream is divided by islands, and, as the Germans estimate, one quarter of an hour across. As we proceed, an old fort presents itself, with its associations in the thirty years’ war; the hill sides are covered with green leaves of the grape vines. Then we land at Tulm, one of the oldest cities on the Danube. Here Rudolph of Hapsburg figured in 1278; and the plain in the environs contained the sixty thousand men, in 1683, who rescued Vienna from the Turks. Further on at Gottweih, is a Benedictine Convent, founded in 1072, standing seven hundred feet high. Still advancing, new objects of interest are coming forward, comparing favorably with the Rhine travel. We landed the prelate of the Benedictine Abbey at Melk, a market town at the foot of the mountain. This immense edifice, looking more like a huge palace than a cloister, built between 1702 and 1736, stands one hundred and eighty feet high, on a precipice hanging upon the river bank. It has been frequently besieged, but is defended with bastions and arms which Napoleon, after the battle of Asperne, established in it from its important position, lying on the highway of the army to Vienna. He levied heavy contributions upon the monks’ wine cellars for the use of the troops.

As we mount the stream, we see scores of boats, containing from fifty to eighty persons, with flags flying, and singing lustily, on their pilgrimage tour to Maria Tafel, which upwards of one hundred thousand visit annually.

At one of those small villages we landed a certain Baron B. and his family. He is a Minister in Vienna for one of the German States, and was taking his family for the summer to his chateau, with parks and grounds of four thousand acres attached.

His family consisted of the lady, two daughters, and three sons, with a French governess and male preceptor, and an equal number of servants. I had made their acquaintance through a friend, and found them an excellent specimen of the nobility of the land. The young ladies were nearly as familiar with the French and English languages as with their mother tongue. As we were detained for coaling the steamer, I was invited to visit the chateau, on shore. Cannons were fired at their arrival, and the peasantry flocked down to salute the return of the party. It was annoying and mortifying, as the weak-sighted old women and children kissed my hands, mistaking a simple American for an Austrian Baron, as I escorted the ladies to the house.

The general tourist, of course, comes in contact with all classes of society, and necessarily has an opportunity of studying character. It was my fate this trip to fall in mostly with the upper classes. No sooner had we left the party named, than a quiet young gentleman, a Russian, approached me, and made some inquiries about my route, and I found he was disposed to join me in my excursions. When cards were exchanged, the following day, at Linz, I found that another Baron was announced, which did not prevent the Republican and the Autocrat going along harmoniously together, particularly as the former had circulated more generally than the latter. He is still with me, and disposed to continue to Munich.

Linz is the last town of importance on the Danube belonging to Austria. It was there that I abandoned the river in order to make the most interesting tour through this portion of the Empire. Linz has thirty thousand inhabitants; the suburbs are very pretty; the laying over of passengers, and exchange of steamers, with its internal trade, give it some advantages. A festival day was occupied here in surveying the town and its environs, and in looking at the interesting groups of peasantry, in peculiar costume, in and about the churches.

The second Eisenbahn on the continent, with a flat rail, is here; it was moved by horse power, until this spring. A small locomotive was put on and run from Gmunden Lake, via Wells and Lambach, where a tiny little steamer makes the trip in an hour, through most romantic and enchanting scenery.

It was a reminiscence of the early days of railway travel; the venerable coach cars with small, low wheels; the narrow bed and strap rails; the snail pace movement, avoiding the danger of what we formerly called snake heads, from the breaking of the thin rail, and its flying through the body of the carriage.

Omnibuses run from the head of the Lake to Ischel, a celebrated Austrian watering-place of two thousand inhabitants, the bathing resort of the Emperor, who is now erecting a new summer residence.