At half past 7 o’clock we were awakened in Manihari Ghat at the terminal of the narrow gauge railway, crossed the Ganges on a steamboat and continued our journey at Sakrigali Ghat station with the East Indian Railway on to Mughal Sarai, a familiar journey to us. The landscape we were rushing through can not be compared to the luxurious delta areas. It is nevertheless very fertile, densely populated and intensively cultivated. The shores of the Ganges, being part of alluvial sediments, copiously supplying trade plants, bread and garden fruits, carry with them, like all „bread baskets“ of the earth, a character of monotony. The monotony of the Ganges plain, its fertile plains and green fields is only broken up by numerous mango groves and small hills which are peculiarly only sparsely covered with vegetation but are filled with rocks one on top of the other without a rule.

Towards 8 o’clock in the evening we arrived in Mughal Sarai, continued our journey on the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway, passing casually over a 1200 m long iron bridge over the Ganges and arrived after 8 o’clock in station Benares Cantonment. We were received in the station — in absence of the Commissioner — by Mr. Brereton, a communal councilor, and went to our quarters, Nandeshwar Kothi palace owned by the Maharaja of Benares, escorted by mounted police. Like all modern Indian palaces, it is built very airy, decorated without taste  so that only a few old pictures of earlier Maharajas catch the attention. We sat around the open fire which comfortingly warmed us as India is said to never have experienced such a harsh winter which might be related to the exceptional cold in Europe of 1892/93. In a Raja double bed of enormous dimensions, surrounded by Raja ancestors looking down astonished at me, I soon entered into the sleep of the just.

Links

• Location: Benares, India
• ANNO – on 09.02.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. Empress Elisabeth is still sightseeing in Barcelona. A visit to the monastery of Montserrat is on the agenda. Her ship was to set out to Marseille, France. Given the current outbreak of cholera there, her route might change. There was a heavy earthquake on Zakynthos with over 600 houses destroyed, an island Franz Ferdinand passed by on his route from Trieste.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater plays a comedy “Der Präsident”, while the k.u.k. Hof-Opermtheater shows Richard Wagner’s “Rheingold”.