From St Petersberg to Vienna
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St. Petersburg can be reached by direct steamer from London during summer in five days, or by rail in thirty-one hours from Berlin, or steamer in two days from Stockholm. The last named is the usual tourist route in connection with a Scandinavian tour. The steamer by this route stops at Hango and Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. St. Petersburg, the modern capital of the Russian empire, is a city of palaces, among which are the Winter Palace, and the Summer Palace at Peterhof. It is a brilliant- looking and autocratic city, but certainly not an ideal place for residence, either in winter or summer. Snow lies on the streets for nearly half the year, and the compulsory seclusion of the emperor and his court makes life at the Russian capital a dreadfully dreary one. |
6th day |
Moscow (thirteen hours by train from St. Petersburg). The holy city of the Russian empire. From Poklonnaya Gora, near the $> Sparrow Hills, Napoleon's legions viewed the Tartar's Rome. From the Tower of Ivan Veliky, near the Palace of the Kremlin, Napoleon and his marshals viewed the burning city. Of the more than four hundred churches and chapels within the city, but outside the Kremlin, the most magnificent is the Temple of the Saviour, built at a cost of ten million dollars to commemorate the deliverance of Russia from the French invasion. Of course the chief object of interest with all visitors to Moscow is the Kremlin. Entrance to this " city within a city " should be made at the Spaski Vorota, or Gate of the Redeemer. And here we must leave our traveler to the guide and guide-book. Many more pages of this volume than can be spared would be needed to refer to the wonders of the Kremlin. Great fires have destroyed much of the old Moscow, but by no means all, and there is much worth seeing of the new. Moscow is, in fact, a municipal epitome of the Russian empire of the seventeenth century, as of the twentieth. An interesting excursion is made to the great fair at Nijni-Novgorod, which is open from about the beginning of August to the middle of September. |
| 11th day 12th |
Warsaw (twenty-nine hours from Moscow), the capital of the kingdom of Poland. From the terminus of the St. Petersburg Railway a good view of the city can be had. The principal objects of interest are the Cathedral of St. John, the Square, the Royal Castle and the Saxony Gardens. |
| 13th day 14th |
Cracow (twelve hours from Warsaw) . The ancient capital of Poland, and now (since 1846) incorporated, with its territory, in the Austrian dominions. The Royal Castle of Casimir the Great, now a barrack and a hospital, is worth a visit, as also is the Cathedral, although its exterior is not attractive. Visit the Salt Mines of Wieliczka. |
| 15th | Vienna in eight hours. |
