Foreign Parts
Vienna & Trieste

Foreign Parts.

On Tour from New South Wales.

[By H. and F. Rieck.]

Vienna, 29th April, 1899.

We live now in one of the very numerous and extensive suburbs of this Austrian metropolis. The City of Vienna, which was in times of old surrounded by fortification walls, towers, and passes, is now an open town, the walls having been pulled down and trenches filled up, and instead of these grim old witnesses of the hard struggles of the Middle Ages, there is now the famous Ringstrasse, a promenade a quarter of a mile wide, fringed by most magnificent gardens, palaces, hotels, coffee-terraces, museums, etc. We went by tram to the Kärntner Thor for 6 kreuzer (1d) each, and started from this point of the Ringstrasse; saw the museum—which has one of the richest collections of old arms (inherited, presents, and booty out of the Hun and Turkish wars of the Austrian and Hungarian Emperors and Kings), wonderful ivory carvings, glass, majolica, silver, gold, precious stones, and other articles of enormous value—the Rathhaus-Keller, and the Votiv-Kirche, and then we undertook to walk all around the pleasant promenades of this magnificent Ringstrasse.

[Reconstructed from German parallel — see note 1] [We set off at] about 1 o’clock, and arrived at our [starting point, the Kärntnerstrasse,] late in the evening. All through [the] day we had clear, warm and sunny [wea]ther. The bushes and trees in the [carefully]-kept public gardens were beautifully [in their first fresh green, and] the ice [having completely disappeared,] the [pond]s [were lively with white swans and droll little diving du]cks, etc., swimming about. In the basins—where [stone figures spray] high [sho]ts of sparkling water—swam [fat gold]fish, begging with open mouths [for bread] crumbs [from the watching] onlookers.

[Reconstructed from German parallel — see note 1] [The s]urb (or Vorstadt) Margarethen, where [we have t]aken quarters [and which, at the time of my presence here 33 years ago in Anno ’66, was still a village with green meadows and farmhouses,] is so very extensive—like [all the oth]ers around the City of Vienna—that [when we wanted to return from our visit to the] garden of Schönbrunnen[, we almost got lost.] [This famous] garden [covers a wide landscape and now] contains [a menagerie and an enormous tall glass palace, in which a rich collection of tropical and semi-tropical plants is carefully tended, from the giant palm to the smallest] fe[r]n [and orchid. Bananas were also there—our special production article in New South Wales—but, as expected, in a sorry state. Yet these plants give the south European youth some idea of how it looks outside] in the [wide world.] [Returning homeward through the] [s]uburbs of Vienna, we steered by the sun [as our guide,] and although we were in Margarethen, [had to tr]avel at least 5 miles before we reached [our lodging].

[Reconstructed from German parallel — see note 1] [The] City of Vienna is at present a town of [mod]ern style, and consists of splendidly-built [and] very broad streets and squares, with the [exception] of some very ancient, rich and venerable [buildings], such as the Imperial Castle (Hofburg), [St. Stephen’]s dome, etc. But some of the suburbs [includin]g Margarethen Vorstadt—remind us of [the] old homely burgher-houses of the 18th [begin]ning of the present century. The sani[tary instit]utions throughout the city are perfect, [as are] the waterworks. The beautifully fresh, [alp]ine water is by means of enormous [and e]xpensive aqueducts brought down from [the h]eights of the Styrian Alps and the [Semme]r Mountain, over whose heights in zig[zag lines] through long tunnels we were brought [from] Gratz, the principal town of the lovely [Styrian A]lps.

[Reconstructed from German parallel — see note 1] [S]o arrived at Vienna by rail at the Süd[bahnhof. It] was raining, and we went hurriedly [to a ho]tel close by. As we had a room of great [luxur]y—velvet easy chairs, plush carpets, [por]ts, eiderdown bedding, silk curtains, [ha]d to pay for night quarters alone 2½ fl. [each]. As this was far out of our range, [we left] the following morning to look for a [cheaper lodg]ing, and found one to our entire satis[faction, and] have decided to stay here for a month [and] study this interesting, enormous, and [importan]t town of Southern Europe, where the German language is spoken throughout.

[In se]arch of a private lodging, we inquired at a butchers shop for advice in this matter, and were kindly recommended to the premises of a milk-woman. This old lady, of very simple but extremely clean appearance, was throned behind a marble counter in the midst of milk-cans and egg-baskets, and looked critically upon us two rain-bespattered wanderers. After hearing to her great surprise that we came via Gratz and Triest, Rome and Ceylon, from Australia, where we had been cow proprietors, and had now been on the journey since 20th December, 1898, we secured such a room as we required for 9 fl. per month, can cook our meals morning and evening and go the whole day sightseeing. We have now time to relate the history of this house and this part of Vienna, which is not older than Grafton or Adelaide. The suburb of Margarethen was not very long ago a village with farm-houses, pasture grounds for cows, and agriculture. The forefathers of our milk frau were farmers, landowners, and owners of cows. When Vienna spread her arms towards the wide green fields of Margarethen, the owners of these fields—where now are crowded streets and tramcars packed with passengers follow each other in rapid succession—sold parts of their land with profit and built palaces, but kept on the lucrative business of dairymen; and although this suburb has—as before described—grown to such large proportions, our milk frau keeps about 30 superior cows in a convenient locality, and sells the milk herself, and in spite of the noise and bustle of the street near by, we hear the contented lowing of cows and the cackling and crowing of a splendid selection of fowls down in our spacious court.

We have now time to relate our journey from Venice to here. After taking a parting glance all over lovely Venice from the high tower of St. Marcus Church, where we could see high towards the north above a streak of clouds the top of the ice-clad Alps, illuminated by the setting sun, we took passage in the s.s. Archduchesse Carlotta for Trieste. By gondola we got ourselves and our luggage on board shortly before sundown, and after supper and a parting look over the grand canal and the brilliantly lighted town, we wrapped ourselves in our Australian furs on the broad seats of the cabin, and awoke at 6 o’clock in the morning in the Austrian seaport Trieste. We took lodgings in an English house in the Via Belvidere.

Trieste is situated at the foot of the Karst Mountain and stretches along the Bay of the Adriatic Sea, on whose quiet waters, protected by a long breakwater, a great number of steamers and sailing crafts of all nations lay at anchor. The town had not—like the Italian places—many sight-seeing visitors, but there is a considerable amount of trade and industrial bustle. The town is very neatly and elegantly laid out and built, and decorated by many splendid gardens and monuments. One of the latter Italian conspirators attempted to blow up with dynamite, but failed. At this place the Teutonic, the Romani, and the Slavonian population are living in close proximity, the rabble often get into conflict. The town extends for about 10 miles along the bay, west from Barkola to St. Andrea in the east, while many parts of the town reach up the different valleys of the Mountain chain into the Karst, whose slopes towards the beach are covered with villas, chapels, vegetable, vine and fruit gardens. We visited a renowned public garden and restaurant called the Jäger and Villa Revoltella on the highest part of the range close to the sea, where a magnificent view over lands and sea can be obtained.

On the following day we went along the beach westwards in the direction of the splendid castle Miramare, which is built close into the rock on a wide headland projecting into the sea, and was inhabited by the unfortunate Archduke and “Emperor”—by the grace of Louis Napoleon—of Mexico, Maximilian.

On the third day we went far out eastwards, where, along the coast, is a lovely public garden, and further on, at St. Andrea, a great number of industrial establishments, including a dry dock, shipbuilding yard, iron foundry, linoleum manufactory, and many others.

Hitherto we had been favoured with agreeable sunny weather, but when leaving Trieste, and while carrying our handbags to the conveniently-situated railway station, a sprinkling of rain began to fall; but on our journey over the horrid and barren Karst Mountain, through a country where the population speak a kind of Slavonian language, we saw some unpleasant sights, till we came to Styria, where all the heights are covered by a forest of straight and healthy looking pines and the valleys with the verdure of agriculture. More and more the Italian and Slavonian language disappeared, and the jolly, friendly Austrian-German dialect sounded around us. Mountaineers, male and female, with feathers or flowers on the back of their hats and with laughing faces appeared, and we bought of them two large bunches of Edelweiss flowers, which are gathered from the highest and steepest snow-covered crags in the Alps.

Gratz is situated south-east of the Alps mountains, whose snowy tops are visible in the distance, and [w]est of the big Hungarian plain, w[h]ich, in the vicinity of the town, is ri[ch]ly cultivated. We saw here some fine draught and saddle horses. Life is here very pleasant, food cheap and good, and the people are very friendly, sociable and honest. The tormentation of street begging (prevalent all through Italy) is not met with here. Gratz is built on pretty level ground, and in the middle of the town, on the left bank of the very fast flowing Murr River, rises a high, steep mountain cone, the Schloss Berg (castle mountain), which can be ascended and descended by means of wire-rope railway, on which the cars are pulled up on an almost perpendicular connection; but there are also zig-zag walks and drives gently up through a forest of green, budding or sprouting trees and bushes, where sparrows, bullfinches, and throssels squeak, sing and twitter. These birds are so tame that they actually pick crumbs of bread, etc., out of your hand. On the flat top of this very large hill are the remains of a castle, on the ramparts of which, by strokes and descriptions on the stone walls, the situations, distances, and elevations of the surrounding mountains, castles, manufactories, monasteries, towns, villages, and even such great distances as the St. Bernard, Constantinople, Rome, Trieste, Berlin, Paris, etc., are described. There is also here an elegant restaurant, where during fine weather a brass band plays, which sounds far over town and country.

To see the surrounding country, agriculture, etc., we undertook by special coach a trip to Castle Pöls, a very homely country seat, where, besides many agricultural and horticultural industries, a fish breeding establishment is at work.

The lands here must be excellent for shooting and fishing, as the high Alpine mountains are close by, and fish and game abound. During our journey by train we saw in the green cornfields groups of half-dozen hares playing in a very funny way, and one of them raced our slow-going omnibus train for some distance.

We had in Gratz, in the Hotel zur Ungarischen Krone, close to the railway station, such a friendly, jolly, good and cheap quarter that we will long remember this place and people.

The journey over the Semmering mountain from Gratz to Vienna is of the greatest interest. The craggy, majestic and highly-picturesque scenery appears again and again before the eyes of the traveller from different heights and from different sides as the train winds in zig-zags and curves up to an enormous height above the clouds, through long tunnels, and on the northern side through the many succeeding ranges down again. This trip reminded us of the trip through Ceylon from Colombo to Kandy and back; but here, of course, are no cocoanut palms, rice-fields, etc., but sombre pines and grim craggy ice and snow covered mountain gorges and tops high above the clouds. At an enormous height in the sunshine eagles sail, while deep underneath, towards warmer and greener slopes, where men reside in snug sheltered valleys, our train tugs along in the dark shade towards lively and lovely Vienna, on the far plains of the blue Danube.