Decorative wine barrels with portraits of Franz-Joseph and Sisi
Heuriger for local wine
Rachel and Sarah at Heuriger
So- it has been a while and I need to catch up. It is Sunday night, May 16 and Rachel and Sarah were visiting here for most of the last week and just returned to the States today. They were lucky to get out for several reasons. One is that today we woke up today to “Ice Days.” This consists of the most horrendous winds I have yet seen in Vienna (and there have been some very windy days) and very cold weather- feels like early March again (low 50s F) . People say they always have a few days like this mid-May and afterwards it warms up for good, but we couldn’t believe it! Up to now, it has been getting pretty nice, except for the expected rains off and on, but today the trees were blowing like it was a hurricane! And the other reason is that the Icelandic volcano is erupting again! We are supposed to come home on Wednesday for Rebecca’s graduation and I hope we make it. Originally we were concerned about the British Air strike that is supposed to start tomorrow. That already made us change our Wednesday flight to London to Tuesday night. Now, it is uncertain if we will be able to get out of London even if we get there. Depends on the winds and the rate of stuff spewing from the volcano. Tomorrow we spend on the phone and web with British Air!
But before this, we had a lovely visit with Rachel and Sarah. They arrived last Monday and they stayed pretty busy all the time. It was so nice to have people to show the city to! We walked all around the city, took a day trip to Klosterneuberg where we toured the winery, the castle and cathedral and the royal apartments. That was a lovely day (the weather) so we really enjoyed being out of the city and in some beautiful country. I had been to this abbey in the winter but it was so much nicer to be able to enjoy the outside of it too, this time. We went to see the art museum, of course, and they toured the Hofburg, and the Jewish Museum. We went to the Naschmarkt and to a symphony concert and to see the Lipizzaner horses practice. But the best was that last Thursday was a holiday and so Rich came with us and we went to Baden and went to the mineral baths there. It is a cute little town outside of Vienna and we basically went swimming at a complex of swimming pools filled with warm mineral waters. There is a whole series of pools, some with whirlpools, some with different jets coming out, and some of various temperatures! But all very nice and relaxing and fun! I had been trying to get Rich to go with me, but it took other people here to make him do it! And then he was sorry we had waited so long! But I am sure we will go back- it was too nice! The other fun thing we did with them was to visit a Heuriger. This is a small wine tavern that serves local wines. They are mostly located in the northwest part of the city near the Vienna Woods. This was a rustic place where they serve very drinkable wine by the pitcher. They have simple food too- you go to the counter and point at what you want and how much and then carry it back to your table in the garden! Of course we had to take them to our favorite cafes too!
This afternoon, after they left, we visited with some Viennese folks we had met at the Seder last March. They invited us to their home in the 21st District, which is near the outskirts of the city. They live in a pretty modern townhouse, with four bedrooms- all very lovely, but small by American standards. They have four kids, with two boys still at home. She teaches English at a private school and he works for Hewlitt-Packard. Both speak English very well and it was quite interesting to be able to hear about their take on local politics as well as the school system and other interesting subjects. They said the recent election had a very small turnout, mostly because people thought the result was a foregone conclusion. More important local elections will be held in September that will determine whether Vienna stays with its leftist government. They also don’t think much of the public schools here, and send their sons to a private school. We have heard this same criticism from other people, and it seems to relate to the general lack of ambition that many people here seem to have. Because so many things are taken care of for them, people don’t seem to have a lot of reason to work really hard at things. They work at their jobs, but go home at the end of the day and don’t seem to work at nights or weekends at all. Work is work and leisure is leisure and never the twain shall meet. So this is the trade-off for this interesting city where people seem to have the time to enjoy life and think about and savor ideas in a way that we don’t often have in the US.
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