In Vain You May Intreat Them To Take The Wiener Waehrung At Any
Rate They Please; No!
You must go elsewhere and buy from the first person
you can meet with as much gold and silver as is required for the franking
of the letters; so bigotted are they in the Austrian dominions to the
letter of the law!
This happened to me: I wanted to frank three letters for
England and I went to the post office with Wiener Waehrung paper, not
being aware of this regulation, and I was obliged to return to my Hotel, to
lay hold of a Jew, and to buy from him as much gold and silver as was
requisite for the franking of the letters.
At the Wechselbank or Bank of Exchange I have before mentioned, the crowd
that attends daily is immense; but the business is carried on without hurry
or confusion. You hand in your paper or your gold and silver coin, the
clerk who receives it gives you an order on paper for the amount specified,
which paper you take into another room and therein receive the amount. This
establishment, however, remains open only two hours every day, between
eleven and one I believe; so if you are too late for this interval of time,
you must apply to the brokers, Christian or Israelite.
VIENNA, August 11th.
We left the old town by the Burg-thor, and crossing the Esplanade,
directed our course to the Rennweg, one of the suburbs, in order to view
the majestic edifice of St Charles, which is equal in the beauty of its
architecture to many of the finest churches in Rome. Its facade and cupola
render it one of the most striking buildings belonging to Vienna. We next
visited the Manege and the Palace called the palace of the Hungarian
Noble Guard. They are both beautiful edifices. The faubourgs of Vienna are
built in the modern style and their buildings, both public and private,
excellent in their way and in the best state. The streets of the faubourgs
are broad but not paved. The most celebrated of these faubourgs are Maria
Huelf, Leopold-stadt, Landstrasse, the Rennweg, the Wuehringer
Gasse; and I am persuaded that if the old town were united to the faubourg
by means of streets and squares and the esplanade filled up with buildings,
Vienna would perhaps be the handsomest city in Europe and the fourth in
size, for the best buildings and palaces are in the faubourgs, viz., the
Military College, the Polytechnic School, St Charles' Church, the Porcelain
fabric, the Palaces of Esterhazy, Kaunitz, Stahremberg, Schwarzenberg,
Palfy, and the beautiful Palace and ground of Belvedere in which last is a
noble collection of pictures open to the public. At the Polytechnic school
one of the principal professors is a friend of Mr F - - - 's, and he
explained to us the nature of the establishment and the course of studies
pursued. The apparatus for every branch of science is on the grandest
scale. After dinner we repaired to the Prater, crossing a branch of the
Danube which here forms several islands. The Prater requires and deserves
particular mention. Part of it is something in the style of the Champs
Elysees at Paris, and it is fully equal to it in the variety of amusements
and enjoyments to be met with there; but it is far larger and more
beautiful on account of its landscape and the diversified manner in which
the grounds are laid out. The Prater, then, is an immense park, laid out
on an island of considerable extent on the Danube. The nearest faubourg to
it is the Leopoldstadt, which is also the most fashionable one, and a
bridge conducts you from that faubourg direct into the Prater. The
Prater presents a mixture of garden, meadow, upland and forest; the lofty
trees arranged in avenues or in clumps give a delightful protecting shade.
On the road destined for the carriages there is every afternoon a most
brilliant display of carriages. Another avenue is destined for equestrians,
and two avenues, one on each side of these two, for pedestrians. There are
besides winding footpaths, that conduct you all over this vast extent of
ground, and circular grass plots surrounded by trees where the pedestrian
may repose and eat and drink if he will. Here are restaurants in plenty,
cafes, Panoramas, exhibitions of wild beasts, swings, tennis courts,
places for running at the ring, do for burlesque dramatic performances,
farceurs, jugglers, De Bach's Equestrian Amphitheatre in the style of
Franconi, Salles de Danse, baths, billiard rooms, gaming tables, and even
houses appropriated to gallantry. In fact, the Prater is quite the
Paradise of the bourgeoisie of Vienna, who are fond of the pleasures of the
table and take every opportunity of making dinner and supper parties. The
bourgeois of Vienna are far more sensual than spiritual and not at all
disposed to self-denial.
Excellent hams and sausages are to be had here; and the Viennese who dines
and sups heartily at his own house never fails, during his evening
promenade, to take a tolerable good portion of ham or sausage, with a
proportion of Offen wine or Maylander Beer, by way of staying his stomach
during the tedious interval between dinner and supper. I need scarce add
that smoking is universal, as indeed it is all over Germany, for I scarcely
ever see a German without a pipe either in his mouth or fastened to his
coat and a bag or pouch of tobacco either in his pocket or attached to his
button hole. In the Prater dances often take place in the open air
between the grisettes of Vienna, who are in general handsome and well made,
and who dress well, and their lovers and admirers. The Prater was first
opened to the public by the Emperor Joseph II. The Au-garten is another
place of recreation and amusement, but on a smaller and much more tranquil
and sober scale, than the Prater.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 132 of 149
Words from 133989 to 134993
of 151859
