Comforts on the Koppe -- Samples of Germany -- Provincial
Peculiarities -- Hilarity -- A Couplet worth remembering --
Four-bedded Rooms -- View from the Summit -- Contrast of
Scenery -- The Summit itself -- Guides in Costume --
Moderate Charges -- Unlucky Farmer -- The Descent --
Schwarzkoppe -- Grenzbäuden -- Hungarian Wine -- The Way to
Adersbach -- Forty Years' Experience.
Here, on the top of _Schneekoppe_, you find the appliances of luxury
and elegance as well as of comfort. Many kinds of provisions, good
wine, and beer of the best. A bazaar of crystals, carvings,
_Rübezahl's_ heads, and mountain-staves. Beds for fifty guests, and
_Strohlager_ (straw-lairs) for fifty more, besides music and other
amusements, make up a total which satisfies most visitors. Do not,
however, expect a room to yourself, for each chamber contains four
beds, in one of which you will have to sleep or accept the alternative
of straw. I heard no demur to these arrangements: in fact, most of the
guests seemed to like throwing off conventionalities of the nether
world while up among the clouds. For water--that is, to drink--you pay
the price of beer, and with a disadvantage; seeing that, from being
kept in beer-casks, its flavour is beery.
The company, though German, is very mixed: specimens of the men and
women-kind from many parts of Germany. Here are Breslauers, who will
say _cha_ for _ja_: Berliners, who--cockneys of another sort, give to
all their _g_'s the sound of _y_--converting _green_ into _yreen_,
_goose_ into _yoose_: _gobble_ into _yobble_: Bremeners, whose Low
Dutch has a twang of the Northumbrian burr; besides Saxons,
Hanoverians, Mecklenburgers, and a happy couple, who told me they came
from Gera--a principality about the size of Rutlandshire. Flat faces
and round faces are the most numerous. The Silesians betray themselves
by an angular visage and prominent chin. "Every province in Prussia,"
says Schulze to Müller, "has its peculiarity, or property, as they
call it. Thus, for example, Pomerania is renowned for stubbornness;
East Prussia for wit; the Rhineland for uprightness; Posen for mixed
humour; the Saxon for softness; the Westphalian for hams and
_Pumpernickel_; and Silesia--for good-nature." And here, on the
highest ground in all North Germany, you may any day between Midsummer
and Michaelmas bring the humourous philosopher's observations to the
test.
Hilarity prevailed: the songstresses sang their best and twanged their
strings with nimble fingers, and--came round with a sheet of music.
Then a few of the guests migrated into the little chambers which on
two sides open from the principal room; then a few more; and I noticed
that some stopped to read a label affixed to the wall. I did the same.
It bore a couplet:
_Wisse nur des Narren Hand
Malt und schreibt auf Tisch und Wand._[H]
Three hairy faces lay fast asleep on their pillows in the room to
which I was shown. The bodies to which they belonged were covered with
coats and wrappers, as well as blanket, for the night was very cold,
and the wind blew around the house with an intermittent snarl.
I did not rise with the next morning's sun, but two hours later. By
that time the mists had cleared off, or become so thin as not to
conceal the landscape, and, on going out among the shivering groups, I
saw an open view all round the horizon. The Silesian portion is by far
the most attractive. To the south-west the _Jeschken_ catches your
eye, and, far beyond, the swelling outline of the _Erzgebirge_; to the
south you see towns and villages in the valley of the Elbe, and in a
favourable atmosphere the White Hill of Prague: in like circumstances
Breslau can be seen, though forty-five miles distant to the
north-east, and Görlitz with its hill--_Landskrone_--almost as far to
the north-west, and on rare occasions, it is said, you can see the
foremost of the Carpathians.
Not one of the remotest points was visible. I took pleasure in tracing
my yesterday's route, in which the _Schneegruben_ is all but hidden by
an intervening ridge, and in surveying that which I had now to follow.
There, in the direction towards Breslau, lay Schatzlar, and the lonely
peak of the _Zobten_--the navel of Silesia, as old writers call it;
and miles away easterly the _Heuscheuer_, a big hill on the Moravian
frontier, which looks down on Adersbach, where we shall sleep
to-night, if all go well. You can see a long stretch of the
_Isergebirge_--mountains of the Iser which form part of the range--and
deep gulfs, and grim rocky slopes, and pleasant valleys. But it is not
the mountain scenery of Switzerland or Tyrol: you miss the awful
precipices, the gloomy gorges thundering ever with the roar of
waterfalls, the leagues on leagues of crowding hills, cliffs and
forests, rushing higher and higher, till they front the storm zone
with great white slopes and towering peaks that dazzle your eye when
the sun looks at them. Here no snow remains save one "lazy streak" in
a hollow of the crags on the heights above the _Riesengrund_. Imagine
Dartmoor heaved up to twice its present elevation, and your idea of
the view from _Schneekoppe_ will come but little short of the reality.
The summit itself is a stony level, half covered by the inn, with its
appurtenances and the chapel, leaving free space all round for
visitors. Its height is 4965 Prussian feet above the sea. The boundary
line between Bohemia and Silesia, which follows an irregular course
along the range, crosses it. A chapel, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was
first erected here by Count Leopold von Schaffgotsch, in 1668-81; but
only since 1824 have Koppe-climbers found a house on the top to yield
them shelter and entertainment. While walking about to get the view
from every side you will not fail to be struck by the numerous guides
in peaked hats, with broad band and feather, velveteen jackets heavy
with buttons and braid; and not less by their coarse rustic dialect
than by their costume. Extremes meet, and you will notice much in
common, in sound at least, between this very High Dutch and the Low
Dutch from Bremen and Hamburg.
The afternoon is the best time for the view. The shadows then fall to
the east, as when I saw it yesterday from the _Schneegruben_; the sun
is behind you, looking aslant into the Silesian vales, searching out
whatever they possess of beautiful, and bringing out the lights on
towns and villages for leagues around.
I had been told more than once while on the way that the charges on
_Schneekoppe_ were "monstrous;" but my supper, bed, and early cup of
coffee with rusks, cost not more than one florin fifty kreutzers,
service included; a sum by no means unreasonable, especially when you
remember that all the provant has to be carried up on men's shoulders.
I have always been favoured with fine weather when among mountains,
and here was no exception. The _Riesengebirge_, are, however, as much
visited by fog, rain, and mist, as the mountains of Wales. Tourists
come at times even from the shores of the Baltic, and go back
disappointed, through prevalence of clouds and stormy weather. I heard
of a farmer living not farther off than Schmiedeberg, who had climbed
the _Koppe_ thirteen times to look down on his native land, and every
time he saw nothing but rain. There came one summer a few weeks of
drought; the ground was parched, and fears were entertained for the
crops. Thereupon the neighbouring farmers assembled, waited on the
persevering mountain-climber, and besought him to go once more up
_Schneekoppe_.
"Up _Schneekoppe_! for what?"
"If you do but go, look ye, it will be sure to rain, and we shall be
so thankful."
Soon after six I started for the descent into Silesia, in company with
two young wool-merchants from Breslau. On this side the slope is easy;
but, as on the other side, after falling for awhile, the path makes a
rise to pass over _Schwarzkoppe_ (Black Head), a hill rough with
heather. To this succeeded pleasant fir-woods, then birch and beech,
and before eight we came to _Grenzbäuden_ (frontier-buildings), a
place renowned for its hospitality wherever lives a German who has
seen the mountains. Three houses offer entertainment; but Hübner's is
the most resorted to. There you find spacious rooms, a billiard-table,
a piano, maps on the walls, and a colonnade for those who prefer the
open air; and sundry appliances by which weather-bound guests may kill
time. But, by common consent, Hübner's chief claim to consideration
is, that Hungarian wine never fails in his cellar.
"Did you taste the Hungarian wine?" is the question asked of all who
wander to the Giant Mountains.
The two Breslauers were not less ready for breakfast than myself. We
each had a half-bottle of the famous wine, and truly its reputation is
not unmerited. If you can imagine liquid amber suffused with sunshine,
you will know what its colour is. It looks syrupy, and has the flavour
of a sweet Madeira, not, as it appeared to me, provocative of a desire
for more. Neither of the Breslauers inclined to try a second
half-bottle, notwithstanding their exuberant praises; but one of them,
sitting down to the piano, broke out with a
"Vivat vinum Hungaricum"
that made the room echo again. Its price is about twenty pence a
bottle; but once across the boundary line, and you must pay three
shillings. In winter, when snow lies deep, sledge-parties glide hither
from Schmideberg to drink Hungarian, have a frolic, and then skim
homewards down-hill swift as the wind.
I had a talk with _Meinherr_ Hübner about the shortest way to
Schatzlar. To think of going to Adersbach through Schatzlar was, he
assured me, a grand mistake. The road was very hilly, hard to find,
and, under the most favourable circumstances, I need not look to walk
the distance in less than eighteen hours. My Frankfort map, with all
its imperfections, had not yet misled me: it showed the route by
Schatzlar to be the shortest, and on that I insisted.
"Take my advice," rejoined Hübner; "it has forty years' experience to
back it. Go down to Hermsdorf, and from thence through Liebau and
Schömberg. That is the only way possible for you. The other will take
you eighteen hours."
The route suggested was that I hoped to follow on leaving Adersbach,
and to travel twice over the same ground did not suit my inclination,
and it was the longest. Moreover, I wished to keep within the
_Schmiedeberger Kamm_; and forty years' experience to the contrary
notwithstanding, I refused to be advised.
I may as well mention at once that by five in the afternoon of the
same day I was in Adersbach.
FOOTNOTE:
[H] Which, changing one word, may rhyme in English--
Know ye, only hand of fool
Paints and writes on wall and stool.