Austria 2

Vienna

Vienna, a short but sweet (more on the pastries later) stop on our culture tour of Europe. As the center of the Hapsburg Austrian Empire, the focused wealth created a city rich in architecture and arts. Everywhere you go you see traces of the composers who made the city their home...Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Strauss (of the Vienna Waltz fame). In 18th and 19th centuries Vienna was the cultural center of Europe and the museum collections and buildings attest to this fact. But alas...by the time we reached Vienna we had seen far too many museums and churches. We limited our visits to the big sights while savoring our walks through the city center.

Upon arriving in the city we happened to park next to the Naschmarkt, an outdoor food market extraordinaire...one which we would return to frequently throughout our stay. It was just the best market that we had seen since Asia...picture perfect fresh fruit and vegetables, antipastos, oils, cheeses, olives and prepared food. We like sharp cheeses and have been disappointed in our search throughout Europe for cheddar. But we found one that was heavenly...Walserstatz. Another treat was the Gyros...beef sliced off a 3 foot long cylinder rotating over a grill; piled onto large hunks of foccacia bread and stuffed with tomatoes, lettuce and sauce. We had to repeat that experience more than once!

From the market we walked into the city center and discovered the Opera House. An English language tour was just beginning, so we joined the tour. The Vienna Opera stages 411 different productions a year...and they are on hiatus during July and August! They are changing shows almost nightly. The interior is stunning, but we imagine that it really comes alive during a production. The people, the musicians and singers all combine to make events that are sold out every night. But they keep 500 standing room only seats at 5 Euro that are available 1 hour before the production...making it available to all. Fran was impressed with the small piano that Mahler used when traveling…soon to be pictured on the website.

Walking further down the street, we stopped at one of the many street cafes and had coffee and one of those famous Vienna pastries. Coffee houses are a traditional favorite meeting place for the Viennese much like the beer gardens are for Munichers. We just had to follow the crowd and sample coffee and chocolate... ah, what a treat.

Vienna is very architecturally interesting. The Hapsburgs, remember them? Well, as they had lots of money, power and influence, the city they built is very impressive. I've included a link to a picture gallery that you can check out: http://www.vienna.cc/english/index.htm .

What is it that many people who have been traveling for some time miss the most? Books. In your own language. We have talked to fellow travelers that were so excited about the next hostel they would visit because there was a book exchange. Well, we hadn't seen a book exchange since Thailand, nor seen a used bookstore with English language books. What is all this build up about? While we were walking the shopping area we found an English language bookstore and entered its hallowed reaches. There we remained for many an hour, not escaping without a few new books tucked under our arms.

After the bookstore, we visited the Schloss Schoenbrunn, a mere 1400-room castle where many generations of Hapsburgs lived. We found it quite cozy and considered taking up residence there. We found it interesting that once again in Europe the wealthy found it necessary to copy something that they saw elsewhere. In the palace gardens is a duplicate of the Trevi Fountain in Rome with Poseidon grandly leading his legions. (Elsewhere in Germany Mad Ludwig tried to duplicate the Palace of Versailles! But that's another story).

In the evening we enjoyed an outdoor classical music concert at the Rathaus (city hall). It was actually a film of a performance, but we thoroughly enjoyed it any way. If you didn't know, you could mistake the Rathaus for a church. It is a neo-gothic affair with spires and an ornate ginger work facade.

Food, music, culture and books...what more worthy things are memories made of?