It's been a couple months, but whatever was going on with posting pix, it seems to have resolved itself, so here we go. Must say that I'm feeling rusty and have procrastinated sitting down for a couple days. Am starting to write this a few hours after the huge Seahawk comeback against the Packers. I had already gone through the 5 stages of grief and then they were brought back from the dead. At one point in the 4th quarter, I looked up how many days it was till pitchers and catchers report (34 at the time). As good an ending as any fan could possibly want...it's hard to be impartial of course, but as good an ending as there ever was.
Have a lot built up, but must write up our super fabulous trip to Central Europe. Our trip started with a flight to Vienna on Air Emirates with a 3 hour layover in Dubai. We did see the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) out the window.
Air Emirates was a very nice airline, but the transit was pleasantly uneventful. They post the flight plan on the monitors in the seats, and seeing that we were going away from a direct path and through Iran and Turkey, and not over Iraq and Syria, made me feel more at ease.
We hit Vienna midday and were picked up by our hotel (Pension Neuer Markt). Located 50 yards from St Stephen's Church, could not imagine a better location. Small, family owned, and unassuming. Perfect spot for us and highly recommend.
In college in 1986, I went on a Semester abroad to Buenos Aires. Some of my dearest friends to this day were in our group or we met there...and even met a girl named Betty Pien that I still hang around with. We all stayed with families, and mine was arguably the best of our group of 30...the Guitarts. Pepe and Elsa and their three kids, Gato, Maria Jose and Enrique. Enrique and I were the same age and he was the one that convinced his parents to take in a student after seeing it on the bulletin board at the Universidad Catolica. Loving and fun people and I consider them all family members to this day. Will make a note to reminisce on those days in a future post, but the reason I mention it now is that Enrique now lives in Vienna and I was so excited to see him as I haven't for 28 years.
We made plans for Enrique to come by the hotel the day we arrived...this is the moment when he did.
Inez was lamenting the education system in Austria...not for its quality, but rather that many of the universities are full of German's. Austrian schooling is free, not only for Austrians, but for anyone in the EU, and the German application process is very stringent and exclusive, so a large number come to Austria to get their secondary education. I was somehow expecting Austrians to be exactly like Germans, probably as they speak the same language, and in some ways, they are very similar, but it was obvious from day one that while there is not outright hostility towards them, they view them as a very annoying big brother. Hard for me to compare as I've never been to Germany, but the Austrians we met present themselves as more relaxed and less mass murder-y. My overall impression was that they were certainly not the cuddliest of people we've met, but were clean and efficient and perfectly nice when engaged.
Anyway, I had a great dinner that night...I think, we were pretty spent and jet lagged and I only took that one picture above. Oh yeah, and this one...
Has read about the historic coffee houses and how they were the center of Viennese social life. Renowned for their presentation of coffee and the churlish waiters, cafes were dotted all over the city. Some of the more famous ones had histories of being places where politicians or musicians or thinkers would hang and discuss ideas...Freud probably being the most famous of these intellectuals. The first place we went with Enrique was to one of these so we could get some caffeine in us. It was his personal favorite as they had a torte that he highly recommended. As we wanted to make this first visit a quicky, he tried to get the waiters attention by saying "We know what we want to order.". The waiters reply..."Everyone knows what they want to order." and walked away.
While the girls went to see Sissi, I took my kids to the café that I most wanted to see...Cafe Central. Many famous patrons enjoyed a coffee here, and it is said that in 1913 alone, Freud, Tito, Trotsky, Lenin and Hitler all visited here. Described as the most opulent, it did not disappoint.
Can do it in two words...bow-ring. The soups we had at the Café and other places were fine, but bland. Enough to warm you up and provide some nutrients, but that's as far as I'd go in raving about them. I love weiner schnitzel...my first one was in Australia in high school. During lunch, we would go over to the local Hotel (which are bars in Australia) for a pint and counter tea (lunch), and I would always get the weiner schnitzel. I loved that dish...it probably wasn't very good, but as it was my first and have always compared future schnitzels to that. Prior to this trip, the best one I ever tasted was the Chicken Schnitzel in the Jewish Ghetto in Rome on Christmas day 2012. I knew that Vienna was supposed to be ground zero for the worlds best. Researched on-line...schnitzel was brought back by the Hapsburgs from Italy (natch), but they are tout theirs as the best. Asked my Viennese friends and previous travelers where to get the best stuff as I planned to eat my weight in it. And I definitely ttried...my notes say we had it 4 different places. The best? I would have gladly taken that crappy Australian version over any we tried in Vienna. I won't name names (but will off line if you ever go), but all the ones we had were dry and tasteless. The only redeeming factor if you can call it that, was probably their size, always larger than the large plate they were served on. And did they ever offer little Carolyn a 1/2 order? Nope. And the schnitzel was always served with a side of mayonnaise laced boiled potatoes. Sometime with garlic, but still...just another heavy starch. Can I substitute a salad for those? That was the first and only time I saw an Austrian laugh. And this is what they seemed to serve in every "Austrian" restaurant. Variations on fried meat and potatoes. We were starved one night, so Paul and I decided to get a side of sausage with our schnitzel...this is what we got.
That said, I did find one thing that flipped my switch, and that was curry wurst.
To be fair, the pastries in Austria were pretty damned great, but think I will save that recap for the Salzburg entry.
A thing they do in a lot of European cities in December are Christmas Markets. We saw a bunch and they were all great. Had read that Vienna and Salzburg were in the top 10 best in Europe and we found them great. Went to a couple in Vienna...at the Shonnbrun Palace and in front of the Rathaus. Christmas Markets are a combination of stalls selling gift items, food and hot alcoholoic beverages. The gifts are supposed to all be local handicrafts and over the course of our trip, would say that is true (did not see a Made in China sticker anywhere) While there were a lot of similar items (like ornaments and candles), rarely saw the same thing twice.
In addition to the Christmas Markets, there were other pop up fun things to do for the locals around town. In the open spaces amongst the Museum quarter, they has set up a curling court (field, lane?). Loads of laughs.
And across the way, they had set up a race/obstacle course for kids to play with remote control cars. As we were watching, we kept seeing one car going the wrong direction, crashing into walls/other cars, just creating mayhem. So cliché that it was the Asian kind that was controlling it with his dad laughing maniacally behind him.
I am the map guy...and am damn good at it, Rarely don't know where I am and even rarer that I get us lost. As we had to cross town to get to the rink, and only had a general idea where it was, it was a bit tricky to find but felt confident we were heading in the right direction as we were walking. I figured it out much later, but Betty and Ann-Marie would take turns questioning where we were going. At every crucial juncture for two weeks, as I pointed in one direction, they would point in the other and say "Isn't it that way?" or "Are you sure you know where you are going?". I initially thought they might know something so would double check (triple really as I plan ahead.), but came to realize that they never looked at a map, have shitty senses of direction and were far too happy to see me lose my mind every time so concluded they were doing it to get even at me for the (admittedly) annoying things that I do. I started to hang back at some junctures and let them walk ahead to see what they would do, and more often than not, they would go about 50 yards in the wrong direction without a care in the world, and then look back to see me waiting for them. Ha.
Of course, we turned a corner in a desolated corner of town and there was the rink. Never learned to skate,and bad wheels prevented me from considering going out there, but they all seemed to have a good time and it was a great scene in general.
We had a few hours one afternoon, so decided to pop into the large art museum in the Ringstrasse, the Albertina (also connected to the Hofburg complex). One of those that reportedly holds 60,000 pieces. We scared the kids with that fact, but were most interested in seeing their temporary exhibitions. They had a Miro retrospective and another tracing Expressionism from Monet to Picasso. I like Miro and surrealism, and what they had collected was a fantastic representation of his work, but I came away most impressed by the eras he lived and worked, he was 100 when he died, but created work from 1914 and into the 1980's, all the while living in and around all the worst parts of what the world had to offer.
Was much happier in the Monet to Picasso exhibit as I love that style best and there were a small, but great selection of the masters. No pictures allowed naturally, but across the hall was another pop art exhibit, featuring some Warhols and others from that "school". Probably no pictures allowed there either, but still
Vienna is also a city of music and all the 'greats' came there to show off their wares. Vivaldi, Schubert, Strauss, etc...but you can't swing a dead cat without hitting something that isn't Mozart related. Over the next few posts, you'll get the gist, but his spirit, image and music are omnipresent. In every store, they sell Mozartkugel, which is pistachio marzipan, surrounded by nougat and dipped in dark chocolate. Sounds delicious but we were not bowled over. As we were in the city, took tours of the Vienna Opera House and Burg Theatre. Both took a licking in WWII, experiencing major damage due to fires created by lone bombs, but they tried to reconstruct them to their Hapsburgian glory and were majestic.
Would have loved to sit in the Royal Box at the Opera House
The Burg Theatre was billed in the guidebook as the "most prestigious stage in the German speaking world". How do they come up with things like that? The guides on the tour were at a loss for explaining that quote.
The theatres in Europe are all so cool. Great sight lines and acoustics, and takes you back in time. Wish I liked classical, opera, theatre more just so I could go to them, but my venue of choice is the beer stained, overflowing toilet, rock and roll clubs.
The Burg Theatre tour was dominated by our fascination with the Harajuku girl on it. Traveling along with her frumpy mom, she had long 3D painted nails, eyelashes at least a centimeter long, those big cartoon eye contact lenses, and a pink hoop skirt dress with all the trimmings. Totally smitten.
The things to see there were all well maintained, historically interesting and totally convenient. I can see why it is always in the top 3 cities of best places to live. Other that the total disappointment in the food, I would have liked a more cuddlier spirit from the natives, but they were certainly not rude, just on the chillier end of the spectrum. Thumbnail review...thumbs up with reservations noted.
Our train to Salzburg was on Monday morning. The Seahawk game was in the middle of the night on Sunday/Monday, so watched the first half live on the computer. As we had some time and free wifi at the train station, took the opportunity to watch the condensed version of the second half...a 35-6 drubbing of the Cardinals.
Go Hawks...
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