Goodbye Vienna

Local music group from a small town near Salzburg
performing in Vienna for Wind Music festival


Leah and Rich


Haus der Meers in old Flak tower


View from the car of the ferris wheel

In the ferris wheel car

I am sitting at an outdoor café on a lovely Vienna morning, lingering over my mélange and thinking about how fast 4 months can go! Tomorrow we leave for New Jersey and life returns to normal. This has been an incredible experience and we are truly grateful for the opportunity to be here and experience all that we have. While we will be sad to leave this extraordinary city, we do realize this has been a unique respite, and not reality. So I trade my Wiener mélange for drip coffee and the efficient Wiener Linien transit system for New Jersey Transit and get on with life. I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me!

So today I will just mention a few more things that we did recently, just to be sure to get in some mention of the experiences. One afternoon Rebecca, Rich and I visited the Haus der Meers, a small aquarium that is located in one of the former flak towers in the city. I am not sure if I have mentioned these before, but they are huge, concrete structures, put up by the Nazis during the war as places to shoot from as well as for defense. There are 8 of them around the city, in pairs, and they are so large and heavy that it has been determined that it would not be worth it to try to destroy them. (Actually the Russians tried, shortly after the war, but did not get too far. The amount of dynamite needed would have also destroyed all the surrounding area! The one they worked on now has loose concrete at the top, held together with wires.) The towers were also used to house troops and in each pair, one had lights while the other had the guns. They really provide a shocking reminder when you come upon them suddenly. Anyway, the city has been trying for years to figure out what to do with them- most are empty and sit in parks. But this one has been adapted for use as an aquarium and while it is small, it is quite effective.
Near another one of these pairs of towers, in the Augarten Park, a concrete bunker was discovered. It now houses a very trendy bar where we also went one night, raising the median age considerably!

Another place we have gone where we were among the oldest folks present, was the Donaufest, a huge music festival on the narrow island in the Danube River. It is a whole weekend of various types of music on a number of different stages, all provided for free and a big draw. We went on a Saturday night, when most of the music was of the loud rock variety. We didn’t stay long for the music, but it was fun seeing it and being there anyway!

The summer is absolutely full of festivals, both of locals and tourists. One of the early ones was the Festival of Wind Music that brought in local, traditional bands from all over Austria in a sort of combination of concerts and competition. The Saturday morning of that weekend, various bands played at different local markets around the city, so went to the Rochusmarkt near our apartment to hear one of them. Pictures included here.

Another of our major occupations recently has been watching World Cup matches. It has been really fun being here for it, where people are really into soccer. Every bar, restaurant or little corner café has tvs set up, especially for this, with live coverage every evening. So most night we have been going out to find groups to watch it with, including one evening at the beach bar on the Danube canal. In several spots along the canal, enterprising people have imported sand and set up beach chairs to create a “beach” atmosphere (it is along the water after all)! We went here the night Mexico played its final game and unbeknownst to us, this was the Mexican hangout in town, so the fans were quite enthusiastic, even though they lost! But it is much more fun that sitting in our living room alone watching the games!

One of my favorite activities here, and one I have been looking forward to for the whole time was a trip on the giant ferris wheel. We see it from the window of our apartment and it has been a constant landmark for our stay in Vienna. It was erected for a world’s exposition in the 19th century and has been in use ever since. It was pretty much destroyed during the war, but reconstructed afterward, only with fewer of the big cars. It is a major symbol of the city and appears in many films about or in Vienna, including The Third Man and Before Sunrise. Those of you who know me, know that amusement park rides are not really something I like, but this is different. You sit in a large, enclosed car and it turns very slowly so that you get incredible views over the city. It does go quite high and I had a few minutes of nervousness at the top, but I knew I could not leave without having done this and I am very glad we did!

We also had a couple more trips to heurigens, or local wine taverns. One night we went with Leah to the town of Grinzing, which is very picturesque, near the Vienna woods, and full of heurigens. The one we went to is quite old, and displays a collection of wine bottle corks dating from the 17th century! They also had wandering musicians who went to different tables and sang traditional old Austrian songs. Luckily they seemed to know this was not for us! Also the final Fulbright gathering was at another heuriger, this time in Nusdorf, which is another of these cute old villages that have been incorporated into the city. This was a large group- of current Fulbright students as well as professors and it was quite a nice evening.

And of course, one of my prime activities during this trip has been looking at architecture. I have been slow getting it organized, but I plan on posting a number of albums of the various buildings we have viewed, including Red Vienna housing projects, Jungenstil buildings in Vienna and those from our various trips. So even though I may not write any more, those of you interested in the architectural component will still have some new material.

If anyone is still reading this blog, thanks for keeping up your interest. I did it for others to know what we were up to, but also so that we would have a record of all our wonderful experiences to look back on in the future. If you haven’t been here, maybe it will inspire you. This is definitely a city worth the trip.

See you soon back in the US of A!

Picnic in the Prater

We had a wonderful final Sunday in the Prater. We invited the folks with whom we spent Seder, Dave and Eva and Karl and Ina and their kids to join us for a picnic in “our” park. Turned out to be a wonderful day- beautiful weather and lovely people and a really great way to finish our stay in this most-livable city.
Dave and Eva have two little kids- Samuel who is 6 and extremely reasonable and easy to talk to and Olivia who is 3 and an amazing child. She is totally independent and often just wanders off to see something of interest. First thing at the park, she started climbing a tree- all by herself and all the way to the top where she stayed, swaying in the breeze! She did this numerous times during our outing, while her parents looked on and shrugged! Ina and Karl brought one of their sons- 8 year old Sebastian. They have two boys who mostly play American football, but today it was all soccer, probably in honor of the World Cup which is everyone’s main topic of conversation here these days.

We made some food and took it to the park, as did Ina, so we had a great picnic while the men (big and little) played soccer nearby. We also got to ride on the “Lilliput-bahn,” a small-gauge railroad that runs pretty fast, on coal, through a large part of the Prater. It is so cute and I have been wanting to ride on it, but needed small children to come with me, so today was my day! It was actually quite fun for everyone and even Olivia sat still through the ride! The best part of it is being able to say I rode on the Lilliput-bahn! While we were waiting for it to start Olivia decided she wanted to ride up in the engine, “where Thomas is,” and before anyone quite realized it, she had climbed into the driver’s seat and was about to move the throttle! Luckily Rich noticed it in time and grabbed her out before she could do anything. Later, Rich and the guys took the boys to ride on the bumper cars at the amusement park and they also had a good time there.

It was so lovely to be able to sit and talk with these interesting, warm people and I hope we can continue the friendship across the ocean. Getting to know such hospitable, friendly people has definitely added to our enjoyment of Vienna.

Oberstocktall and other locations along the Danube

Town of Durnstein

Ruins overlooking Durnstein


Gut Oberstockstall, courtyard

Gut Oberstockstall, church and courtyard

On the way to Oberstockstall- Leah and Ginny with Paul and Sandra

Last Sunday, Paul Brunner and his wife Sandra took us on another incredible outing! This time Leah was still here and able to enjoy it also (Rebecca had gone to Sarajevo to visit a friend from school).

We first drove in their car (a Prius, of course) through beautiful Austrian country to a small town about an hour north of Vienna called Oberstockstall, and went to an extraordinary restaurant for lunch called Gut Oberstockstall! It is on a farm owned by Sandra’s cousins for the last 5 generations! The property includes a small stone church from about 1500 and the monastery buildings that used to be part of the church, where they now live and run a restaurant! They have also started an award-winning organic winery on their land. Unbelievably picturesque and all the food and wine comes from their property. Needless to say, this was one of the best meals we have had on our trip! All delicious and fresh and amazing! Rich and Leah had cream of nettle soup! And chanterelles are in season so next to my chicken were raviolis filled with chanterelles! The whole thing was so yummy! And the wines were truly wonderful. Sandra’s cousin Fritz, who is now retired in favor of his son, sat with us the whole meal and carried on a fascinating conversation (translated from the German by Sandra and Paul). So you can be sure that we received extra special service too!

After several hours, we were too contented to move much, but we then drove to a couple of small towns on the Danube, Krems and Durnstein. Both are Medieval originally, and have retained some of the cute winding streets of the old town, along with castles and monasteries up on the hills overlooking the river. Since the Danube used to be the main way to transport trade goods and people, the rulers of these places grew quite wealthy by placing barriers across the Danube, forcing traders and travelers to pay taxes so they could go ahead! Also, Durnstein was the place where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned until he was ransomed by the English crown. (We heard lots of stories about how this money helped finance a major expansion of the town of Vienna!)

All in all, a day full of beautiful scenery, interesting towns and wonderful food- what could be better!

Visit to Salzburg

Rich in his new Salzburg hat at an old cemetery

By the fortress, overlooking the town and river


Salzburg Festival hall- carved out of the mountain


Slazburg with the fortress in the background


Mirabell Gardens


Last week the four of us (including Leah and Rebecca) went to Salzburg for a couple of days. We stopped briefly at Linz on the way up so Rich could visit a building he wanted to see, and the rest of us walked around a bit and had a nice lunch. Salzburg is really a picture book town nestled in the mountains, with the Salzburg river (very green and fast) running through the middle and tall, steep cliffs on two sides. The old town is quite picturesque, with a tall clock tower and lots of winding streets, all full of tourists at the moment. There is an immense fortress built on one of the cliffs, overlooking the old town. Apparently it has never been breached, which is understandable! We took a funicular to the top, supposedly the world’s steepest. There are interesting historical displays of the fortress there, and it also served as a palace so there are some “royal” rooms going back to the Medieval period, others Renaissance and later.

We did all the requisite tourist activities, visited Mozart’s birthplace, and toured several places that were photographed in “The Sound of Music.” This included the Mirabell Gardens (as mentioned last time) and the Festival House, home of the Salzburg Festival and the site of the final scene where they are performing in the movie. Then Leah and Rebecca went home and found clips from the movie on the computer and we all ended up singing the songs for days!

We saw some impressive churches, of course, and a really interesting old cemetery. We also toured the palace of the Archbishop who was both the religious and secular leader of the town, and obviously grew quite wealthy on taxes he collected. We also heard a short harpsichord concert at this palace. Mostly, however, we enjoyed just walking around (when it wasn’t raining) and had lots of good food. One of the best lunches was at a beer garden part way up the fortress hill, overlooking the city and home of local Steiger beer. Those who drank it (everyone but me) said it was really good.

Leah and Rebecca at the baths at Baden


Rose Festival at Baden




Large interior pool at Baden baths

Exterior pool at Baden

We have begun to realize how fast our trip is coming to its close and there is still so much we haven’t done. Even four months is not enough for this city and its environs! And then we have daughters here to show it to, as well as trying to finish what we haven’t seen.

It is rose season here and the Austrians love roses! There is a huge, beautiful rose garden in the center of the city, on the Ring, at the Volksgarten. We went there with Rebecca on one of her first, rainy days here. Then we went to the Rose festival at Baden, on the first day Leah was here. That day was sunny and very hot, and the roses were almost past their prime, but really beautiful anyway. Again, so many and spread out in a huge rose garden. There were tons more at Schonbrunn when we went there, and in Salzburg, we went to the Mirabell Gardens (the place where the Von Trapp kids sang Do Re Mi in the movie) and there were tons of roses there too! Plus there are lots of little traffic islands throughout the city that are full of roses!

But I am getting ahead of myself! We spent another wonderful day in Baden with Leah and Rebecca (had been there with Rachel and Sarah so it was only right). Had to take them to the baths of course! Even tho the baths are better in the cool and rainy weather, they were quite nice in the summer too! There are indoor and outdoor sections, and it was much less crowded than when we had been before. Lots of areas for whirlpools and bubbly waters, all that lovely mineral odor! But you do feel great when you are done!

Meanwhile, Rich came out with us to Baden but instead of the baths, chose to go to a little local museum there dedicated to Joseph Gall, founder of phrenology. Lots of skulls to examine apparently! (the cross street near our apartment is Joseph Gall Gasse!)

Karl-Marx-Hof

More reporting on our recent activities in Vienna. Leah told me my posts are too long, so I will try to make them more user friendly! I will try to write one or two things at a time with more in different posts.

Rich and I have been very interested in the architecture of Red Vienna, the period after World War I when the city of Vienna was governed by socialists who were trying to create a viable alternative to Bolshevism in Russia. They wanted to show that you could create the new man and new society without eliminating liberal democracy. After the war, the city was in desperate shape-lack of housing and food for people, the end of the monarchy that had ruled forever, and ready for drastic change. The socialists came in wanting to create a country of more equality, but did so in a very paternalistic manner. One of the main ways they decided to improve life for most Viennese was to create a large amount of new housing for the huge homeless population of the city. They tried various different schemes, but ended up building huge numbers of apartments, often in large superblocks, located near the outskirts of the city (where land was cheaper). Through the design of these apartments and the type of life that would be lived there, the goal was to change certain basic qualities of people’s lives. The apartment blocks were designed with communal laundries and kitchens, meeting rooms, kindergartens and play areas, etc. to try to encourage people living there to interact in a positive way. Additionally, they provided medical and dental care, as well as advice for new mothers and other educational opportunities. The elitism and paternalism comes through in several ways. Workers were never asked what they needed or wanted in the design of new housing – how could these illiteratre and uneducated masses, raised under the propaganda of the empire, know what they needed to create a new and better society? Similarly, government workers told them when and how to wash clothes, raise their children, cook their meals, etc.

Rich and I have been going around the city to view some of the many developments from this period. There were large numbers built in the late 1920s, until the socialists lost power in 1934. After WWII, the city continued to build them, although these tended to be less architecturally interesting. One of the most well-known of the early ones is the Karl-Marx-Hof. During the “civil war” of 1934, when the socialists were ousted, many of them held out in this development, and cannon and other heavy artillery were used on it. It is a huge complex, built to house over 1,000 people and it extends for many city blocks, with a series of courtyards surrounded by several styles of buildings, none more than 5 stories high. It is still a very desirable place to live, and as we were walking around the area, we happened on an exhibition of the architecture of this period, sponsored by the current Socialist Party. I am posting several pictures of this building, including an example of how people personalize their balconies. (That shot was courtesy of Rich!) The early developments are pretty interesting, from an architectural point of view, all done by different architects and giving a very different visual effect.

It has been a long time

1
Ginny and Rebecca at the Heuriger, after a long hike.


Interior of Steinhoff church.


At the Volksgarten- notice the stork on the fountain!


Some of the crowds at the concert at the Schonbrunn Palace.



Stables at the Prater, getting ready for the harness racing.



Otto Wagner church at Steinhoff sanitarium.



Rich and Rebecca at the beautiful rose garden at the Volksgarten, in the rain.


Yes, I am still here! Just a hiatus while we returned to New Jersey and Massachusetts for Rebecca’s graduation from Mt. Holyoke College. It was a lovely spring weekend in the Berkshires and great to be with family for such a happy occasion. All our women were there, as well as Richard and Nena. The graduation was in a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater on the beautiful campus. And of course we are very proud of Rebecca! All kinds of interesting things in store for her, I am sure! For those who don’t already know, she is doing an Americorps program next year in D.C.- working for an organization that aids Hispanic immigrants, through Avodah, and living in a group house in that city. So if you are close by, look her up after the end of August.

Meanwhile, back to our travels. Rich and I made it home in spite of renewed volcanic activity in Iceland and a British Air strike. We were home for about 2 weeks- quite weird since we were not there long enough to really feel like we were there, but we were! Mostly we hid out, pretending not to be there! So if you did not hear from us, that is why. We had to return earlier than expected because of the strike, but did get back to Vienna on June 1, with Rebecca to keep us company this time.

When we left Vienna in mid-May it was still pretty chilly, and apparently continued to be so while we were gone, even tho it was so hot in New Jersey that it was hard to conceive of it being anything else anywhere else! So we were pretty surprised to find it still cool and rainy for a few days when we got back here, but that did not last long. When summer arrives, it really arrives- hot and sticky! So much so that you start to yearn for cool and rainy again! Oh well, this city has much to recommend it, but not the weather!

We have had fun showing Rebecca all our favorite sites, and our favorite local café, Café Zartel, that has been there since 1885. We went together to several things, including the big art history museum (Kunst Historiches Museum, where I could go every day of the week) and the Naschmarkt, as well as some sites we had put off seeing such as the Hofburg (the royal apartments), and numerous churches around town. Then she started exploring on her own, to the Freud museum and Karl’s Kirche, where you can ascend to the top of the high dome and get up close and personal with the frescoes. We all spent a lovely day going out to Otto Wagner’s church at Steinhoff which is a psychiatric sanitarium on the western side of town. It was built early in the 20th century as a (then) exemplary place to treat mental illness- a large campus with numerous individual buildings spread out on a low hillside, just on the edge of the Vienna Woods. (And still in use, although I presume the methods of treatment have changed!) Wagner laid out the plan which ascends the hillside , and he and his students designed the buildings. But the real jewel of the place is the large church on the summit- topped by a large round dome covered in golden panels and shining in the sun! (Picture attached) It is cruciform in plan and decorated with lots of beautiful Secession style ornament. Quite beautiful and impressive. There was a wedding there when we arrived, and I can’t think of a more lovely setting for that.

Note: In Vienna, no place, and I mean no place, is lacking for a small restaurant or café! While we were waiting for the tour to start, it was coffee time, and Rebecca and I found a small outdoor café in one of the sanitarium buildings- I guess you need a place to have coffee while you are visiting someone there!
After the tour (only in German) we hiked in the Vienna Woods for a while, then ended up at a nearby heuriger, which is a local wine tavern. This one was set up beautifully, with an outdoor area overlooking a small vineyard. In addition to serving local wine, these places also provide an interesting buffet where you can choose. These consist of small plates of food such as salads and sliced meats, usually a much more interesting and varied selection that the usual stuff available at every Austrian restaurant in the city.

We also took Rebecca to see the Wien Museum, as an introduction to the city. We had gone there when we first arrived and found it useful as a place to start to understand the history and layout of the city. They had a new exhibition of clips from films that feature this city. There are really a lot of them! I think a Vienna film festival is in our future when we get back home- Netflics here we come!
Last Sunday Rich and I went to the horse races, which are located in the Prater, not far from our apartment. They have harness racing every Sunday afternoon, and while we did not bet, it was quite fun to see. There is a café on one side, right next to the track. So people order their food or drink and then walk over to the track to watch each race, and then return to their tables in between! The track is a lovely old one and you can actually go right up to the stables and see them setting up for the next race. People bring their horses in from the surrounding area for the day, and the stables seem to be operated by various trainers. In the same area are also the stables for the carriage horses that drive tourists around the city. All the stables look quite old (at least are built in an old, picturesque style) since they have always had horses in the Prater, and of course in the city. You can see the carriages coming out in the morning and going home in the evening when you are walking thru the park. Also, sometimes the harness drivers practice on the long straight paths in the Prater and you can watch these beautiful horses running by (obviously something I love to see).

Last Tuesday we had a long day at the Schonbrunn Palace. This was Maria Teresa’s favorite summer palace and was rather far outside the city when it was built. Now it is a stop on the underground train line! It is often compared to Versailles in size and grandeur. So we went on the grand tour through the rooms and were suitably impressed, and then walked through some of the extensive gardens, which are now an open public park. There was a free, public concert of the Vienna Philharmonic scheduled for that evening so we thought we would hang around and go to that. There were a large number of seats set up, some for VIPs with tickets, but also some for the general public. The concert was supposed to start at 9 PM and by 6:00 people were already starting to sit down. We decided we did not want to sit there for 3 hours just to get a good seat, so we started meandering through the grounds, and then through the nearby neighborhood where there are a large number of interesting Secession style houses. We thought we could get a picnic for the concert and take it back to sit on the large hill that rose behind where the orchestra was set up. But we started wandering and got involved in that, and it got late and we were tired and hungry, so we ended up at a cute restaurant on the town square of that lovely village (called Hietzing) assuming we would forego the concert! As we sat there, we kept seeing more and more people heading over to the concert, so when we finished with dinner, we decided to check it out. As we walked into the grounds, there were hundreds of people streaming in with us, even though the concert had already started. There were also many people streaming out, and we could not understand what was going on! But we kept walking and found that when we got up to the actual palace area, the entire grounds were filled with people standing (not sitting)- and eating ice cream, drinking beer and generally having a fine time, except hardly listening to the concert! There were large speakers and screens set up, but we were so far back that you could hardly see or hear it anyway! And by 9:45, there were still hundreds of people streaming in- from all directions! We have been to pops concerts in Central Park where there are a lot of people, but I have never seen so many people at a classical concert. You would have thought the Beetles were back! Since we could not hear the music anyway, we decided to leave, but the subway was filled with people still coming! People in this city do love their classical music! (Or else it is a major scene!)

Much more to report, but I will close for today so you don’t have too much to read at one time!