October 14, 2008 BLOG

October 14, 2008

And then there was Wien. I’ve been waiting to visit Vienna since I was a junior taking college German. It lived up to 95% of what I expected, everything except the graffiti. It is truly a grand city rich in architecture, culture and history.

On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Lentz to see the Danube River. It was a great river and ideal for skipping flat river rocks, but as it is today, I’m not sure it would have been much of an inspiration to Strauss. Our B & B was comfortable and I’m glad we had a server who knew Americans well enough to suggest we might want to select another entrée instead of black (blood) sausage.

Along the way we passed through many small villages. We did a double take when on the side of the road we saw a herd of deer. Thinking they seemed to be too close to the road, we turned around for a look – wild deer, right. Personally, I don’t want to think of their future . . . The countryside is mainly agricultural and since it was close to Halloween, we weren’t surprised to see fields of pumpkins, lots of them! At some roadside stands you could buy gourds, pumpkins, etc. “on your honor” since no-one is there to man the stands. Just put the money in a box provided! That would work in the States, wouldn’t it? An unusual sight was a large shopping mall, “Plus City”, with a McDonalds, one of the few we saw in Austria.

Before heading to Vienna, we did a little pre-planning and decided to stay in the little town of Klosterneuburg just 30 minutes NW of Vienna. We were lucky to find a nice apartment, “Hotel Andrea”, with a congenial hostess and only a few blocks from the train station. As we did in Salzburg, we bought a 72-hour Vienna card that covered all of the train and bus transportation with some discounts for restaurants and attractions. It paid for itself but wasn’t as good a deal as it was in Salzburg.

Our first day in Vienna we had to stop by the performing arts center to pick up our pre-ordered tickets for the season’s last performance of the “Vienna Boys Choir”. While we were at the ticket office, we noticed there was a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra the next evening. We didn’t want to miss their performance so we bought tickets and in looking over the program notice the featured violinist was Midori! What a surprise and a treat.

I learned a “Path Finding” lesson in Vienna that I should have learned in Munich. “To get to Point B, you have to know exactly where it is relative to Point A.” In going to Vienna to pick up our tickets, we took the train and then without coming above ground took the metro to the area of the performing arts center. When we came up from the metro, it was raining, the sun was obscured – nothing to use for directional orientation, and there were roads everywhere. We were at a major piazza with roads converging from 8 different directions and no street signs. Over here, road and street names are engraved in the side of buildings about 12’ above the ground. You have to be within 25’ of the building to read the name. O.k., based on what I think are similar landmarks, we head to the nearest building about 400’ away. When we get there, we find the street name is the one we want so we head down the block to get the next name and fix our position. In the big cities, the blocks are big and in this case it was about 1,200’ (almost ¼ mile). When we reached the end, we found the street that should have been there was in the opposite direction. Finally, getting to the arts center after an hour of traipsing around in the rain, we found it was a short 10 minute walk from the metro, mostly underground and sheltered from the rain. On the plus side, we did find a “T.G.I. Friday’s” and celebrated with an American hamburger. What a great break from bratwurst and weinerschnitzel! Later we found “Sparky’s” a fun restaurant all decorated for Halloween, one of the few places that seemed to celebrate this day. Very large beers were on tap!

The next day, the “Vienna Boys Choir“performance was scheduled for 3:00 p.m so we had time in the morning to explore the area around the Austrian Palace. Here to our surprise, we found an advertisement for the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If it can be done in Vienna then it certainly is ok for it to be done in Punta Gorda at the “Isles Yacht Club.” (For those non-IYC readers, Ed and I hosted our own showing of Rocky Horror a while back at the IYC. Though we were somewhat apprehensive, to our amazement and that of many members, it was a ball!) Also while we were in the area, we stopped by the Spanish Riding School and picked up tickets to see the Sunday performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions and to tour the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Boy’s Choir performance was terrific. A young, 10 or 11 year old, oriental boy was the lead singer and his soprano singing was flawless. Sopranos have amazing voices and all of the little guys were talented and produced sounds that were crystal clear and sharp.

Another amazing oriental performer we had the pleasure of seeing was Midori. No longer a child prodigy, she has matured into an unbelievable violinist. Performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Midori was absolutely terrific and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was fabulous.
On Sunday morning, it was off to see the Lippizaner’s being put through their paces. The riders were absolute professional horsemen and the stallions were magnificent. Some of the moves they make those animals do have to be seen in persons. There were guards all over the arena stopping people from taking photos during the performance so I all I got was the part of the horse that goes over the fence last and a shot of the unsung hero who takes care of the parts that doesn’t make it over the fence.

That afternoon, we toured the Hofburg Imperial Palace and picked out the new flatware, place settings and center pieces for the Isles Yacht Club – mostly gold. If the common folks who paid all of those taxes saw the collection, they would have revolted. What a treasure trove! The tour through the “Sissi Museum” told the story of a beautiful, young, free-spirited Austrian Queen Elizabeth who married Franz Joseph at 18 and lived a life regretting being a spectacle. She hated the royal court protocol and traveled extensively to get away from being put on exhibition. While visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was assassinated. It was a moving story, made into a movie, about someone who had it all but yet was as unhappy as anyone could get.
The Hapsburg’s had a long standing monarchy and many palaces. In addition to the Hofburg palace, we toured their summer residence, the Schönbrunn Palace. Here the story of Franz Joseph and Sissi continued.

The stop in Vienna was wonderful and provided many memories. We’re sad to leave, but the wine country south of Vienna eases the sorrow and the call of Italy is strong.

Ed and Dorothea