Midterms and Spring Break in Vienna
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2007
1
17
31
Trip End
May 11, 2007
Vienna,
Austria
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Meredith and I spent a little over a week exploring the city. After a delightful but expensive outing to an Indian restaurant on her first night, we decided to focus on cooking our own meals. Meredith both expanded my awareness of the options available to me and did a good job of cooking. We enjoyed Schoko-Müsli with yogurt on several mornings; it's a great duo. I had intended to go to several record stores with Meredith, but after we spent hours in the first one we found, we didn't bother seeking more. She got several albums, but I merely picked up a copy of Ultravox's "Vienna". I figured it was fitting. And it's a fantastic album. While I was in class, Meredith did several things, including going to the Naschmarkt and trying to tour the UN. (I say "trying" because the first time she went, some men were protesting something and they closed the gates.) Together, we went to a few museums (Moderner Kunst (modern art), Leopold (Austrian modern art), and Esparanto) and the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt). I wanted to see the crypt because it's alternate title (Kapuzinergruft) was the name of a book I'd just read in German. While exploring the town we happened to stop in Cafe Demel, which turns out to be the competitor of Hotel Sacher for claiming the invention of the Sachertorte.
A Park in Bratislava
We also got to see John Cale live at a former slaughterhouse. That was really cool, but maybe I shouldn't bore everyone with the details. He was the original bassist/violist of the Velvet Underground. Meredith noted that I was the youngest member of the audience.We also took a day trip down to Bratislava. That was pretty cool, because this time I knew my way around. We mostly just walked all over town, but that was really fun. We crossed the Danube and wondered through a park for a while and then crossed a different bridge back. While climbing around the castle, we found a few hobo residences, including a cave that must have been a cellar of the castle. Meredith was very excited about the castle cave. We stopped at the same Schoko Cafe I'd been to last time, and let me tell you, their hot chocolates are like soups, and that's awesome.
The day after that we decided to climb around Leopoldsberg, and that was fun. We bussed up to the top, hiked around a bit, and then started taking the "path less travelled" down the mountain. At one point, a man and his son came running by much faster, despite the steep grade. The son actually tripped, fell, rolled, got up, and kept going without hardly blinking. When we got to a landing, Meredith began climbing a tree there, and the son followed suit. We offered to take pictures and email them, and soon we got to talking. The father, Clemens, is a forest park ranger with quite a passion for nature. We mostly talked in German, but later some English slipped in before we returned to German.
Ancient Tree in the Palmenhaus
Clemens asked if we would continue on down with him and his son, Bernhard, so we did, and then he took us to a Heuriger (traditional wine tavern) in the small town at the bottom, Kahlenbergerdorf. Since Meredith sneakily paid for a good part of the bill, Clemens offered us a ride back to town, and ended up showing us around a cool part of town I hadn't yet seen called Spittelberg. It's a very old part of town with lots of little stores and beisls (pubs, more or less). It also includes the smallest house in Vienna, commemorated by a sign. He kindly treated us to a cool microbrewery in the area.Eventually the rest of my family came in, so we met at a cafe by their hotel (Cafe Prückel, a great place). We managed to fit a lot in just a few days. The first night the family was in town, they all went to bed early due to jet lag, so Meredith and I went to see "Über Wasser" (Over or About Water), and it ended up being an interesting documentary about water deficits and floodings. Despite being in German, it was subtitled since it took place in Africa and Asia, so it wasn't hard to understand. The whole family was around for one complete day, during which we went through all the Hundertwasser stuff I've spoke of before, then wandered through the first district for quite some time. We went up to the top of Stephansdom, which was quite cool. Big bell and a good view. We wandered through several of the major squares in the area - Hoher Markt, Judenplatz, and Am Hof. I found several things unintentionally - the old Rathaus (city hall) among them.
Donauturm Reflected
We were amused that the plaque for the Kirche am Hof describes the original gothic design later being "barokifiert" (baroque-ified).I accompanied Meredith to the airport the next day and then met the others back at the Museum Moderner Kunst. This time, a big exhibit of Yves Klein had opened up, and that was pretty interesting, although arguably inane at times (due to repetitively painting things blue). Anyway, I enjoyed it. I showed the family around several areas, including the Naschmarkt, my dorm, my university, and a lot of the first district. We enjoyed ourselves at many a cafe, as the tortes, strudels, hot chocolate, teas, and coffees (apparently, as far as the last item goes) are quite good. We went to a bunch of restaurants, and outside of one isolated weird incident, they were all really good. The Viennese found some great ways of making vegetarian dishes - baked cheeses, vegetable strudels, soups, spinach and potatoes, seitan (the stuff tofurky is made of), and so on. I'm quite appreciative of having so many opportunities to try stuff with my family. Oddly, my family never got döners and falafels. A strange decision.
One night we went to the Kursalon in the Stadtpark (city park) to see a small classical ensemble perform several works, including Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and Strauss's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube". That was pretty cool. We also went to the Schmetterling Haus (Butterfly House) behind the Hofburg, and those are always great. Lots of butterflies, naturally.
One day we made a trip out to the Schönbrunn Palace, a huge place in some ways superior to the Hofburg.
Dr. Falafel
However, instead of actually entering the palace, we went behind it and walked through the massive gardens. To the disappointment of Brian (my brother), the hedge maze was closed, but several other things were quite open: we explored the Palmenhaus, Wüstenhaus (desert house), and the Zoo. All were great. The Palmenhaus was a big greenhouse with plants from over the world (but dominated by some massive ferns). They also had a "living fossil", a particular tree that is thousands of years old, from a species that is far, far older. The Wüstenhaus had some massive beatles, stalactite-esque upside-down cacti, and lizards just wandering the place. The Zoo was huge and ended up being really cool. We didn't even see quite everything, but we were there for a long time. Part of that was because we ate at the restaurant there, which, unlike the average American zoo restaurant, was actually really good. Aparently the place was the imperial breakfast house at one point. The zoo itself had all sorts of stuff. A red panda, giant pandas devouring bamboo, and a lion tearing away at a lamb were probably the highlights.Another day we toured the UN as a group, and that was cool. Later we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum), which is really impressive. I remember my highschool art history book continually listing everything famous as being there. There were some seriously good pieces there. We spent a long time there too, because after thoroughly exploring the main floor of Rennaisance and so on art, there was another whole floor of Roman and other ancient art pieces.
Esparanto Museum
The whole place is just really cool.Perhaps my favorite museum so far is the last place we went: the Oberes (upper) half of the Belvedere. The Belvedere is yet another massive palace in the city with great gardens too. We thoroughly explored the Oberes, which is filled with 18th-20th art, but mostly sort of turn-of-the century Austrian artists (Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoshka, etc.). It's great stuff. They've got Klimt's "The Kiss", which is pretty great. I remember not knowing the piece and then realizing that one of the rooms back at Webster-St. Louis is filled with a half-dozen Klimt prints, including that one. We also explored the University of Vienna-owned botanical gardens and then the Unteres (lower) Belvedere, filled with older, Rennaisance works.
Other things I forgot were going up the Donauturm (Danube Tower) in the Donaupark and going to the Haus der Musik (House of Music), a fairly large museum which reached its high point in a side room in which you can synthesize several effects, classical pieces, and your own voice. You can burn your compositions to CD, but we had enough fun just messing around. And I shouldn't forget our morning runs to the local bakery for delicious pastries. Today, after seeing everyone off, I've just sat around, catching up and organizing the hundreds of photos I've taken over the past two weeks. I've got some work to do before school starts back up Monday evening. (If anyone in my family can remind me of something I forgot about, I'd appreciate it.)
Comments
the truth is spoken
patrick is a fantastic tour guide/leader. he showed us an amazing number of things during our visit. so much to do and see in vienna. we had a great time.