The gates are closed at night, and toll must be paid by every person passing, according to the lateness of the hour. The currency of the city is its peculiar kind—shilling, and mark Banco; the former worth two cents, and sixteen for mark. The traveller in Germany, in passing from one frontier to another, must dispose of the small coin of the country, which may be of no value after a few hours’ ride by the railway. A gentleman bound for Russia, whom I lately met in the cars, wished to purchase some fruit for his wife. He was on his way from Paris, did not speak German, and pulled out a handful of coin which he had received in change along the road, none of which would pass. The train was almost moving, and he was giving up in despair, when I came to the rescue. Mecklenberg, Denmark, and even Bremen change, is of little value here, although only separated by the frontier. A story is told of a Frenchman, who, starting on a tour through Germany and Italy, as an experiment put a twenty-franc gold piece in his vest pocket, changing the same into the currency of each country as he passed, and on his return found the entire sum had gone into the hands of the money-changers.
CXLIX.
Hanover, Germany, Nov. 29, 1858.
I thought I had quite finished up my peregrinations in the north of Germany, but I found I had left unvisited parts of Schleswig Holstein, which, since the war of 1848, has occupied so much of the attention of German and Danish diplomats.
This country is populated mostly by Germans, and that language is generally spoken, but it is governed by Danish officers and the military, in as mild a form as possible; the ill-will and hatred of the inhabitants, however, is so great, that little social intercourse is kept up between them. The currency is Danish, but German coin passes for nearly its value, as the trade with Hamburg, and the direct communication by railroad with Kiel and Schleswig, keeps up the German influence, to the detriment of Copenhagen. After long delay, and bitter recriminations and threats, the Danish king has granted many concessions, and a constitution for self-representation. The people hope, and, with Germany, desire its union with the Vaterland; but the balance of power is such a delicate question in Europe, and the jealousy of governments towards each other so great, that the matter may be put off until, perhaps, a revolution brings a change. The quickest and easiest communication with Copenhagen is, via Kiel, by rail, a distance of seventy miles from Hamburg, where steamers are found in readiness for embarkation.
Every stranger that visits Hamburg, if time permits, should make an excursion in Holstein, if only to get a passing view of nature’s beauties, of picturesque lakes, meadows, and fields, with their hedges.
Were it not for the three gates, one would scarcely know he had left Hamburg in driving through the city of Altona, in Danish territory, to take the railroad for Kiel, as the two cities are nearly grown together.
Kiel has some fifteen thousand inhabitants. Its environs may be called beautiful. The forests of beech and other trees along the water’s edge, with bathing places, and some elevated points of view, make it a desirable summer residence. It evidently has much improved of late. The country mansions and gardens bear testimony of the fact. The fish market is abundantly supplied, and what is better, there is no duty, as is the case the moment the German frontier is crossed in the interior. Among the delicacies, in smoked articles, are the “Schnebel,” and large sized eels, which are exported in great quantities to the interior. The oysters used in Germany are mostly from the North Sea. They are much smaller than ours, and have not unfrequently a coppery flavor. Salmon and lobsters come mostly from Norway. Hamburg is celebrated for its basement rooms, or Kellers, where are found all the dainties that land and water furnish.
Kiel has its monuments, public buildings, and attractions, but nothing very striking to the general traveller. Its harbor is fine and deep, and here lay at anchor, near the shore, the entire fleet, at one period during the war with Russia.
The terminus of the railroad which leads to this city is at Harburg, the new rival of Hamburg, upon the Elbe, and only eight miles from the last-named place. When I was last there, in 1855, the inundation of the river had flooded the island of Wilhelmsburg, carrying away houses, cattle, and crops, and destroying millions of property in the lower part of the metropolis. Hundreds of persons were shelterless. We were aroused at midnight in the midst of a terrific rain storm, by the alarm guns warning the occupants of basements and one story dwellings, to save themselves from drowning. When we took the steamer for Harburg, in passing the island we saw only the tops of trees where now I pass in an omnibus, over a well cultivated country, with dusty roads, and the people complaining for want of rain.