January 27th, 2015

Starting this post right in the middle of Super Bowl week.  I listen to a lot of football talk podcasts and this week has been all about deflated footballs.  My take is that many teams do it, and those that don't have in the past or figure they will in the future, so no one calls each other out on it.  I equate it with the use of pine tar on a pitchers cap in order to get a better grip on the ball. The Patriots pulled that 4 man line stunt on the Ravens, and while that was not illegal, it went against the spirit of good sportsmanship and to line-up and play ball without subterfuge.  The Ravens got pissed and tipped the Colts off to call bullshit on the Pats during the Championship game just to stick it to those guys. 

Did the Pats do it?  Duh.  You'd have to be like the mother whose son opened fire at a high school denying that her precious angel was capable of such a heinous act to believe otherwise...or your typical Pats fan. 

Does it make a difference?  Totally...easier to grip and catch and hold onto while running as 5 huge dudes try to rip it off your body.  And Tom Brady has a history of shoulder trouble, so you think that throwing a ball that's 10-20% lighter would help with that?

I pray the NFL buries them after this week is done.  Their proven history of cheating and obvious contempt for anything other than their way demands it.  I'd accept a year suspension for Belichek and/or Brady, or stripping them of their entire 2015 draft.  And I am a Seahawks honk, and their is still a lot of bitterness inside me from the Tuck Rule game, but say that as a football fan first.  Am a big believer in karma and believe that all will be decided by said karma in Arizona on February 1st.

Go Hawks...

We broke our stay up in Vienna with a two night/three day jaunt to Salzburg.  Betty put this on the agenda as she had to see the town where the Sound of Music was filmed.  For all our transits from city to city, we pre-purchased train tickets.  The to and fro from Salzburg and Vienna was 3 hours each way, and the trains were not crowded...allowing us to spread out and read, nap, snack while watching the lovely countryside pass by.

Do you know my friend Walter?  He was from Fraggle Rock...a girl in our dorm in college had him, and my friend Matt and I fell in love with first the girl, and then the muppet.  We ultimately obtained him and shared/competed to keep him...Matt's grandma knitted him that poncho to match his turquoise hair..  I won and he has been my traveling companion ever since.  He was in Argentina with us in '86, which is why Enrique was so happy to see him when we hit Vienna.

While Vienna was a big city that felt small, Salzburg felt like a picture postcard.  Small streets immaculately maintained, compact with everything you could want within a ten minute walk, and framed by the pointiest Alps you could possibly imagine.  The hills were definitely alive.  Rolled in midday and spent that afternoon strolling.  Their Christmas market was a total delight with some of the most awesome looking/tasting pastries on the planet.

For as much as I was disappointed in the Austrian food, they made up for it in the sweet department (still can't figure out how they stay in shape).  I will say that their second most famous treat (after Mozartkugel), is the Sachertorte.  Another one that sounds better on paper than what we tasted as it was always dry. 

We took the funicular up to the medieval Hohensalzburg Castle.  You can't spell funicular without F-U-N.

Hard to capture in pictures how commanding it is over the town.  It basically allowed Salzburg to remain independent throughout history.  Stunning views of the city on one side and the Alps on the other.  Again, amateur snaps cannot do it justice.

Our hotel here was just perfect.  5 minute walk from everything, in an old (1353) building, great little sitting area for decompressing with a glass of something and fast wifi to update Facebook.  Both reasonably priced and serving a fantastic morning breakfast, the Hotel Stadtkrug is highly recommended.

 

We departed from the schnitzel march and had a nice Italian dinner that night...let's stop here and thank the Lord for giving us Italians. 

The next day, our only full one in Salzburg, was dedicated to the Sound of Music.  Had booked the 1/2 day SoM tour with Panorama and we met our guide Peter in front of Mirabel Palace.  I like to talk about super powers, and one of Betty's is to be the first in line.  Like a battering ram, got on the bus first so we had the primo seats.  Not sure if it is a super power rather than a Chinese thing cause I see that pushy thing in a lot of the women here.  Perhaps it is a collective super power, like bees.

Peter had his rap down...at one point, he lost track of what he was saying, said "where was I", then launched into repeating two minutes of what he just said note for note, including the jokes.  And he told us a lot of corny jokes.  The ones we remember...

What does a fish say when he runs into a wall?  Damn
What do you say to a man with no left side?  You're all right
What is yellow and smells like bananas?  Monkey vomit.

He told Carolyn that if a guy was bothering her, she should say, "is that your face, or did your neck throw up?

Pure gold.  He had a running gag with the driver, Boban.  Boban is an alcoholic maniac that hasn't killed anyone in weeks.  It did keep the tour moving for us.  We asked how many of these he gave a week and he said twice a day, 5 times a week.  No wonder he had it memorized just so.

It was really well done...we saw the lake where they fell in, the mountain where she twirled, the Gazebo...

 

Interspersed between sights, he would give us trivia and snippets about the movie.  As the husband of a superfan, one who has the 30th anniversary VHS, the 35th anniversary DVD and the 40 anniversary blu-ray, and who has watched all of the special extras and have even been to Sing-a-Long Sound of Music, it was hard to stump me.  It was interesting to hear how mystified the Austrians are at the Americans fascination with it, and how Salzburgers like to call out all the logistical imperfections.  It would be better if they simply said thank you for keeping our economy strong and provide bigger seats for the American sized ass.

 

Overall, it was a nice day (as you can see, with splendid weather), and the bus took us through some lovely lake country so we got to see a little of the countryside.  Quaint villages nestled into rolling hills around crystal clear lakes with the Alps framing the whole scene, as pretty as you could imagine.  I could tell that Betty enjoyed it.

 

 

 

That is me with a brown paper package tied up with strings hat.  One of the other screwball SoM aficionados had it, so had to give it a spin.

 

The last stop on the tour was at St, Michaels church (the one where the Captain and Maria got married, in Mondsee. 

As you can see, for December 22nd in Central Europe, was a glorious day,,,dry, low 60's, just yummy.  Hit the autobahn back to town, where they dropped us off at the Mirabel Gardens, another place where the Von Trapps sang and danced.

I think it was at this point that I launched into my Sound of Music rant.  Seriously, I think it is an amazing movie...tells an historical story, is full of laughs and snark and while I will not admit to crying, will admit to getting choked up with Captain von Trapp as he realized that his Austria was never going to be the same during Edelweiss.  But there is one part, really one line that always knocks me out of the moment.  During Do-Re-Mi,  as Rodgers and Hammerstein are using simile to help the kids remember the notes, they go....

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew

screeeeeeeeeeech....

La, a note that follows Sew?  How effing lazy is that line?  They are pitching a perfect game...Maria, Edelweiss, My Favorite Things, Climb Every Mountain, The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell, 16 Going on 17...every one of them etched into every brain.  And deservedly so...great music and exquisite lyrics...except for that La.  Like the pitcher with the perfect game...two outs, bottom of the ninth, no runs, no hits, no errors, and the batter taps the ball back to the pitcher...and the pitcher keels over with explosive diarrhea.  It is just like that.  

 

The one sight we didn't see on the tour was the theatre where the SalzburgMusic Festival in the movie took place (when the Von Trapps escaped).  Hadn't really thought about it before, but that was a very bizarre looking stage.  Peter said to us that they give tours of that stage at 2PM and pointed us in that direction.  It was 1:45, so we hoofed it over and saw the tour group going inside.  We jumped in and were taken right into some other theatre.  Apparently, this tour was to showcase the venues where the Salzburg Festival's music shows are currently held.  We all started looking at each other as we were taken through several (very nice) concert halls, with detailed descriptions of each, but wondered if we had hopped into the wrong tour.  This snap was taken about an hour in and you can see the look of horror on Sophie's face when the guy said that we had two more venues to see.

 

The dude giving the tour did it both in German and English, the German portion usually was few minute monologue with the English being 80% shorter.  He was a total Longhair and was very serious about these venues.  At one point, he prefaced a story saying this is one that the kids (pointing at ours) will like.  Oh boy...finally.  It was something about having a show with a real tank and a mishap having to do with it being too big or something.  We couldn't figure out the interesting part in our post tour recap, but we still gave him a chuckle out of courtesy. 

 

At the end, our patience was rewarded as we walked into the Sound of Music theatre, the Felsenreitschule.   Cut into the hillside, it looked exactly as it did in the movie except they put a retractable roof over it for shows in any weather.   Was kind of a spooky place in the movie, probably as they had Nazi's stationed in all the alcoves, and it felt that way in person.  Beautiful, but in a cold and forbidding way. 

We had a couple hours to recharge before our Mozart dinner that we had booked for the night.  As if you didn't know, Mozart was born in Salzburg so we thought it would be a good place to subject the kids to some music.  We felt that as it came with food, that should keep them entertained.  We got a late start (still pissed at Betty for being the slow one that night) and hit the place a few minutes before showtime, and got the table in the corner behind the performers.  Damn it...when I say 6:30 out the door, it's 6:30 out the door.  Not 6:40-efffin-five!.

 

A pretty room, the venue was in the old Church. 

The food was typically Austrian, edible but bland.  The show was a Mozart greatest hits performed by a string quartet with a male tenor and female soprano.  Did you know that a string quartet consists of a cello, two violins and a viola?  Do you know the difference between a violin and a viola?  Did you know there was a difference between a violin and a viola?  I didn't, but do now.  

 

Even though I was miffed about our seating location, and underwhelmed by the food, we had a lot of laughs that night. Started out when I had the realization that Mozart rhymes with fart, and if you can control the pitch and duration of them, you can create Mozfarts.  And with our vantage point behind the performers, we got a little insight into the interpersonal dynamics of the ensemble.  The soprano was a pregnant Korean who was supposed to have some sexual tension with the tenor, but that guy had the total hots for the first violin.  Every time he would come out, he would check out the stringstress, giving her the old up and down, and the second violin would give her the raised eyebrow, he is totally into you look.  The girls were a little creeped out, even the kids.  Suppose it is a good sign that they can recognize a lothario in their early/pre-teens.

 

And the two violinists were such bitches to the viola.  There was a lot of interplay, smiles and nods between the violinists, but the poor viola player was getting the cold shoulder from the other two.  I hate mean girl stuff, especially in my classical music quartets. 

 

Our train outta town the next day was 3pm, and since it is compact, felt we had done the city center to death, so we took the bus to the Untersbergbahn.. 

 

That is a mountain peak about 25 minutes outside of town and there is a cable car from base to summit.  Had been a long time since I've been on one of those...think the last was as a little boy when we visited Palm Springs.  Wonder if they still have that thing?

Yet another gorgeous day.  This peak is on the edge of the Alps, so you look in one direction and you see the rolling valleys and lakes and Salzburg in the distance. 

 

 

 Turn to another and you can see the Foothill towns leading into the mountains.

 

 

  And then you look another way and the peaks of the Alps stretch out as far as the eye can see.  You can pick out the one where Hitler's Eagle's Nest is situated (wanted to tour that but was closed for the season)

I looked up synonyms for spectacular in hopes of finding one that could accurately describe it, and one cannot do it justice.  It was equal parts stunning, dramatic, breath taking and dazzling. 

 

The locals were all commenting/lamenting at the lack of snow so deep into the season, but we felt lucky as we wouldn't have been able to do this if it had been snowed out.  There was still a layer of ice and snow at the summit, and with my balky knees, was very treacherous in hiking up to the peak.  The kids stayed with me saying they would help out, but as soon as they saw a trail with loose snow for snowballs, they vanished.  Going up isn't bad, but coming down any incline is a struggle, and combine that with a  sheet of ice and it's just a matter of time before I wipe out.  Without my aids, was going slow and did go down on my butt a couple times.  A lovely elderly Russian couple that were also having a hard time came up and we all grabbed onto each other to make it down.  Had to yell at the kids, and the adults, later at how pissed I was that not only did my own friends and family desert me, but I had to be helped out by gawdamn Russians! Horrible horrible Russians.  Later found out that they were Ukrainians, so life made a lot more sense afterwards.

 

Before we leave Austria, have to mention beverages.  First, learned that lemony soda drinks are super trendy in Austria these days, and the most popular is the Almdudler.

It was OK, and those two canoodling on the can are precious, but the name is what we loved.  A few days later, poor Sophie stepped into a fresh pile of dog crap with her deep treaded snow boots.  Nasty...we decided that the German name for dog crap on the street was probably Almdudler, so for the rest of the trip, whenever someone spotted some on the street, the cry of Almdudler was heard warning the others.

 

Secondly, the Austrians are extremely proud of the fact that Red Bull is an Austrian creation.  Their headquarters is just outside Salzburg (Peter pointed it out on our tour) and it seemed that every person we spoke to worked in how great Red Bull is.  They own sports teams, is the biggest export, etc.  Caffinaeted chemicals and total shit if you ask me, but I guess you got to support your own (like Pats fans defending Tom Shady and Belicheat).  So at the end of our Austrian stay, in ranking the most famous things Austrian, the top 5 in no particular order are:  Red Bull, Mozart, Sissi, The Sound of Music, and Hitler.   

 

Am feeling a little better about these posts.  It was hard to get started and was procrastinating a lot, but am feeling like I'm on a roll...and just in time, cause our next stop was Budapest and that place was my favorite on this trip, and is arguably (with myself) the best city I've ever seen.  Looking forward to reliving that next time.

 

 

 

January 26th, 2015

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.

 

I so love that guy.  As genuine a person as they make.  As I was leaving Argentina, he accepted a job as a gofer on a cruise ship, which started his journey in the world.  He ended up in Vienna 25 years ago, not knowing any German and started digging ditches.  He now has an Austrian wife (Inez) and 13 year old daughter (Zoe) and works for a company that arranges art exhibitions.  We went to his charming apartment just outside of the historical zone for dinner and a game of "Do You Remember?".  His wife is a journalist, and while we only were with her a few hours, could tell she was a genius...they had a 12 foot high wall crammed full of books and could tell that she has read them all.  They told us that their daughter goes to a high school that teaches hotel management.  We were very curious about that...they have high schools there that teach practical knowledge, and she lobbied to attend this one.  It is not part of the regular school program, and is considered private school, but they only pay US$1200 per year for it.  They learn the regular stuff, but in ways that are practical in the hospitality industry.  Accounting, English, etc.  She has recently been working in kitchens to learn how those work.  Such an amazing way to view education and at such an early age. 

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...

Luckily, Enrique and Inez planned on coming out with us the next day to walk around Vienna.  Before they came, our hotel had a deal where they would take us by car out to the horse stables where the horse drawn carriages are kept overnight and then give us a ride into town.  Very zen. 



  

Won't do a minute by minute timeline and will group the highlights.  As far as buildings, Vienna (the old part within the Ringstrasse) is compact and extremely clean.  The architechture is mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the Hapsburgs ruled much of Europe and had money to burn.  The heart of Vienna centers around St Stephen's Church...very old and an amalgam of various styles as it was constructed over many centuries.

Should mention at this point that along with us on the trip was our friend Ann-Marie and her daughter Sophie.  Avid readers of this space will recognize them from our trip to Italy over the 2012-2013 winter break.  And that redhead on the left is Enrique's wife Inez...here is a better snap of her.

We visited and enjoyed both the Hapsburg Winter Palace and Upper Belvedere (a part of their Summer Palace).  The Summer Palace is an art museum and houses a bunch of Gustav's Klimt's finest.  Was not a huge fan of what I knew of his (like his most famous work, The Kiss), but over the course of our stay in Vienna, saw a lot of his work around town and became impressed with his range and skill. 

The Hofburg Palace and grounds dominates the center of Vienna and was the center of the Hapsburg Empire, but is now a series of museums. 

Hitler gave his famous Anschluss speech, announcing the "unification" of Germany and Austria in 1938 from there.  We decided to all visit the Treasuries Museum, which houses the relics of the empire.  A lot of crowns and jewelry and such...very interesting.  I gravitated towards the unusual.  Here is a nail that is said to have been one used to crucify Christ.

And this artifact contains pieces of the cross.

The girls then wanted to see the Sissi Museum.  Sissi, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, seems to be the best Austrian ever.  Will let you read her history, but everywhere we went, in Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic, the people all spoke reverently of her benevolence.  The kids and I predicted that the museum was going to be a bunch of dresses, so we took a break to relax in the Cafe Society.

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. 

I had a gritty Turkish coffee and the kids got soup.  A lovely respite from touring around. 

Since I mentioned food, think it is time to review Austrian cuisine.

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.

And it wasn't even as tasty as it looked.  They did have all the Asian and European cuisines in town, but as we were here, we kept trying the local stuff, and banging our heads against the schnitzel wall.   By the end of our 6 days there, we were all craving anything green. 

That said, I did find one thing that flipped my switch, and that was curry wurst. 

Basically, a chopped up hot dog with curry powder on it.  Not haute cuisine, and the sausage wasn't even that good, but this thing was magical.

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.

The food was the Austrian take on festival fare, and as you would guess from the above, not exceptional.  What was omnipresent at the Markets, and on the streets everywhere, was the Gluhwine .  Known as mulled wine in English speaking countries, the markets were a draw for everyone to come out and get loaded on the stuff.  Not American binge and barf style, but European respectful alcoholism that has the potential to turn into soccer riot mob rule with proper motivation. 

These markets are really pretty, especially at night, and are great places to get warmed up and kill some time...and with the crowd lubed up, a lot of fun.

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.

As we were walking around with Enrique, he told us of a public ice rink that was behind a building we were near.  It is important to make sure to budget in time for things that the kids like to do so it is not all museums and opera houses, so we decided to take them there one afternoon before dinner. 

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

Think this was my favorite snap of the trip.  Didn't really notice how awesome it was till I saw it large on the computer so did not get the name of the piece.  It is a glass rectangle, but in the picture you can see me/the gallery in the reflection.

I'm so ugly, I could be a modern art masterpiece.

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.

Overall, really liked Vienna.  Clean as advertised.  The pride that they have in their water, its taste and cleanliness, was palpable.  We were told to always ask for tap water at meals and it was suggested that we could drink out of the toilet, which became a running joke...tap or toilet?  Extremely efficient public transportation with nodes for subway, trams and buses everywhere.  The population was attractive...amazed with the heavy and starchy food that they weren't all enormous, and their attire was conservative but very hip.  I did not get a feel that they had a certain look, and other than the trendiness of the clothes, thought that in looking at the people, that we could be at any lily-white private school PTA meeting in the States. 

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...