For years when I contemplated my retirement, I planned a river cruise down the Danube River in Germany. Later I decided to stay in the States and went on a three-week driving trip through Florida to New Orleans then to Texas and finally home to Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A. (See this blog, June 6 through 26, 2013).
So now, I'll find out part of what I missed. Author, Melville Chater, will take us on "The Danube, Highway of Races: From the Black Forest to the Black Sea, Europe's Most Important River Has Borne the Traffic of Centuries." This is the first article in the December, 1929, issue of National Geographic Magazine.
Mr. Chater began his adventure at the western end of the Danube at Turnu-Severin (on the Black Sea) with a crisis. He missed his boat and had to catch a Hungarian tug boat through the Iron Gate, "a wild swirl of waters, before whose terrific face our progress more and more resembled the freak feat of trying to mount a descending escalator" (p. 643). "This mighty river's navigable length is nearly 1,600 miles and it serves seven nations on its course" (p. 644).
Finally Mr. Chater decided to stay with the tug boat, the Patria, after getting official permission from the international river police. After leaving Belgrade (now named Serbia and Montenegro), the Patria was towing sixteen "enormously large barges" (p. 650).
FYI: "For five centuries the Roman eagles ruled over the entire Danube - a unifying achievement that has not been repeated in 2,000 years" (p. 647).
The Patria docked at Budapest, Hungary, "one of the loveliest of European cities," in Mr. Chater's words (p. 654). The city is actually Buda, on one bank of the river, and Pest on the other bank. What a surprise to read that there were long-horned cattle round-ups "that could have hardly been equaled by our West at its wildest, in Hungary (p. 659).
It's been very difficult for me to follow the course Mr. Chater took on my 2005 Map of Europe (from National Geographic) because the "Map of Europe and the Near East, special supplement with this number of National Geographic Magazine" (p. 645) has long been missing - 40 years? 50 years? On the 2005 map, I see "Mouths of the Danube" listed but no origin city of "Turnu-Severin."
The Patria chugged on to Pressburg, which fortunately is the subtitle of Bratislava. It looks on the map to be located in Slovakia, Austria or the Czech Republic. I googled it to be in Slovakia.
FYI: Concerning Pressburg and the history of the Danube: "And there you are - one river port variously named by three nationalities each name bearing for each nationality a peculiar cultural significance (Here is a striking sidelight on that timeless shift of peoples and powers which is so largely the story of the Danube.
Not all the conquests of Trajan, Attila, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon have altered the Danube's enduring characteristic of ethnographic ununiformity. With the Orient at its mouth and the Occident at its source, the passage of 2,000 years has not modified its striking contrasts in cultural levels. The rise and fall of empires on its banks have but brought the reshuffling of ever-diverse peoples. And some of those reshufflings have been colossal. As a result of the World War 58,000,000 Austro-Hungarian subjects regrouped themselves in the succession States and elsewhere" (p. 668).
In Vienna, Austria, the Patria's captain stopped to show his apartment toMr. Chater; "he would like to show us something of postwar Vienna" (p. 668). The housing complex impressed Mr. Chater very favorably. I cannot help but wonder what happened to this part of Vienna in the Second World War.
To see the photos of traditional dress which were still worn in Hungary, Austria, and surrounding countries was very pleasant. In 1929, they were obviously very proud of their rich heritage. From the photo caption under Color Plate VIII: "Regard of class and love of the soil characterize the peasants of Grigl, near Salzburg (Austria). In keeping with time-honored custom, when the eldest son marries he becomes head of the house and his parents move to the smaller dowerhouse. Preservation of traditions of both dress and of labor is a matter of pride with these people."
Now I must contemplate which traditions of my German ancestry I would like to continue with my family. . .
The magnificent Schobrunn Palace of Vienna was also toured by Mr. Chater. Again I had to google it to see if it still existed: Yes! Mr. Chater also enjoyed Vienna's cafes, "Incidentally, one frequents those haunts of social sobriety to sip coffee, quaff beer, or consume snacks; but in reality one is there to read newspapers, play cards, write letters, or interchange language lessons" (p. 682). And how much fun are our own U.S.A. "coffee houses!" I think they should give out stamps like the Federal Parks so we can prove how many Starbucks we've driven through in various states! Here in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A., however, we cannot in numbers rival the 1,100 coffee houses in Vienna in 1929!
In Hungary, Mr. Chater photographed a "Blessing of the Crops" ceremony and reported, "Religion plays an important role in the life of the peasantry" (p. 679).
Mr. Chater particularly was looking forward to seeing castles in the Wachau district of the Danube. The Patria's captain thought they were boring and he would prefer to see skyscrapers. Mr. Chater surmised, "But why not regard the Danube castle as having been in its day the busy skyscraper of medievalism?" (p. 688). There was Castle Aggstein (a stronghold of river pirates) and Castle Durnstein (captured England's King Richard I, the Lion-Hearted) in Austria.
Next, captain and passenger proceeded on the tug boat to Bavaria, in Germany. They passed Walhalla, a monument conceived by Bavaria's King Ludwig I in 1807 and completed in 1842. It is a German "Hall of Fame." The name, "King Ludwig", brought back distant memories of my visit to one of King Ludwig's Castles, Linderhof. I remember an expansive, shallow reflecting pool with a beautiful fountain in front of the castle. Another memory is that of the king's 'disappearing table.' He didn't like servants bustling about and had a huge dining room table fully loaded in the lower level then elevated to the dining room level. Isn't it amazing what a pre-schooler will remember!
The Danube passage continued in Germany under the 800-year-old bridge in Regensburg, past the great Gothic cathedral begun in 1275 and completed six centuries later. The bridge marks the limits of commercial navigation on the Danube River.
Mr. Chater continued his trip by bus. He spent a day at the medieval city of Ingolstadt. For three days he walked alongside the river to its source "close to Donaueschingen, where the Fursenberg spring joins the brook Brigad, to form the Danube" (p. 697). He concluded that the Danube blended and united peoples "in his ageless course from the Black Forest to the Black Sea" (p. 697).
And, of course, now I must take a cruise on the Danube River!
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