Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. IIGleig, G. R. (George Robert)
History
Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II
Gleig, G. R. (George Robert)
Austria -- Description and travel; Bohemia (Czech Republic) -- Description and travel; Germany -- Description and travel
There is constant communication, as everybody knows, between Vienna,
and Pesth, and Constantinople, by steamboats which touch, as they
proceed, at almost all the most important places that lie along the
banks of the Danube. Our original intention was to have availed
ourselves of one of these; but we found on inquiry, that the navigation
was intricate, and the channel of the river so low, that hardly any
view was to be obtained from the ship's deck. We determined, therefore,
to proceed by land as far as Presburg, and to regulate our future
movements according to the aspect of things there, and the information
which by its inhabitants might be communicated to us. About seven
o'clock, on a bright July morning, we accordingly took our seats in a
hired carriage, and were swept along through what are called the Marxer
lines, beyond the outermost suburbs of the capital. The country round
was, for a while, uninteresting enough. A huge plain was before us,
which the heat of the weather had scorched into the semblance of a
desert; and there were few objects upon it, of which I can say that
they much relieved its monotony. Several villages came, indeed, in our
way, and near one of them, called Semmering, a large turreted building
attracted our attention. It had once been a summer residence of the
Emperor; it is now a powder-magazine, and stands, as our postilion
informed us, on the same spot which, during the siege of Vienna in
1529, was covered by the tent of the Sultan Solyman. But we had passed
this some time, ere the scenery began to improve. When such improvement
did commence, however, it was very complete. The road wound inwards so
as to bring us parallel with the river, and to open out a fine view of
its waters, which being split up into numerous branches, poured
themselves over the plain, and enclosed a countless number of islands
within their eddies. Among these, our postilion pointed out that on
which Napoleon, by the breaking down of his bridge, was, during the
progress of the battle of Asperne, reduced to the utmost extremity,--an
extremity out of which nothing but the misplaced confidence of his
opponents enabled him to escape. It is an extensive flat, covered along
its edges by groves of giant willows; while just beyond it, on the
continent, the village spires of Asperne and Essling peer forth from
amid screens of thick foliage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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