Taking It Easy in Vienna

After soaking in lovely France for 10 days, we were now off via overnight train to the heart of Old Europe: Wien, Austria, or as we know it, Vienna. For most Americans, Vienna doesn't really register on the same level as Paris, Rome and some other big cities, but for centuries Vienna was the cultural and political center of much of Europe. Crucially, Austria's struggle against the Turks is a watershed moment in Western history. It is safe to say that if the 150,000-man Turkish army had not been repelled at the walls of Vienna in 1683, the world would be a very different place.

Night Train

So that's what we were off to, when my recent illness started to kick in along with a cold bug, preventing us from fully exploring this charming city. On the bright side, the hotel was the nicest of the trip and offered a cozy place to rest and relax.

Once again, our temporary residence was just outside of the city center which is of course designated by the Stephansdom, or St. Stevens Church. After poking around the church, I headed up to the roof for a nice look at the city while Allison's acrophobia kept her grounded. Just down from the church sits a house-turned-museum once lived in by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which Allison took the occasion to tour. Also just around the corner lay the ruins of an ancient Roman encampment where Emperor Marcus Aurelius died (but not at the hands of this man).

Mozart

Mozart Haus

St. Stevens Church

Stephanplatz

Church Roof

Vienna is also home to some excellent art museums, two of which we visited. The Albertina, located along the old imperial palace, is world class. At the time the main draw was a large collection of cartoons, or preparatory drawings for paintings, by Michelangelo, including some used for the Sistine Chapel. There's certainly no shortage of books on Michelangelo, but if you want to learn just how great of a genius he was, the historical novel The Agony and The Ecstasy offers great insight into just how high he towered over his peers. The Albertina also offered a nice Picasso collection, but he's not really either of our thing.

Outside the Albertina

Stately Vienna at night

Museum number two was the Secession Building, named for the secessionists movement whose focus was the synthesis of sculpture, architecture, painting and music. In addition to modern exhibits of varying interest, one section that really stood out was from a photographer from Maryland who uses telescope lenses to take long-range photos of secret US bases, satellites and military equipment. It's some pretty novel work and definitely hints at some of things that will forever be off limit to us regular folks. But the real reason one visits the Secession is the large, three walled Beethoven Frieze created by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt. Most known for his painting The Kiss, Klimt used signature golden style to create his magnificent monument to Ludwig von Beethoven. You can see some of the imagery at these links, but they really don't come close to doing it justice.

Secession Building

Learning more about Klimt (along with the impressionists in Paris) and experiencing their art prompted me to have an unfounded revelation regarding modern art: "With people having created such unique and beautiful work around 100 years ago, it doesn't leave as much room for equally unique and beautiful new works, therefore people had to just start doing weird things and calling it 'modern art.'" I don't know, I could be way off base here. Just a thought.

"modern art"

Mediocre sketch of California beaches stretching across 100 foot roll of paper

The food in Austria was excellent, though quite different from France. We had authentic weinerschnitzel, which I had always assumed was sausage. It is in fact a very thin slice of fried veal. Allison was a big fan and on more than one occasion took out some weinerschnitzel that was bigger than the plate it came on. Vienna is also the original home of cafes. Interestingly, Europe owes its coffee loving ways to the Viennese victory over Turkish forces. As the Turks retreated, they left behind a large supply of brown beans which some enterprising citizen eventually turned into coffee, and the rest is delicious, perky history. The many cafes here strike a good balance between cozy and formal and were always staffed by the nicest, most helpful folks.  We also had occasion to enjoy a slice of authentic Sacher-Torte - a uniquely Viennese chocolate cake recommended by our Maltese friend/international tour guide, Omar.

At the Sacher hotel

Sacher torte

With our relaxed schedule, we didn't really get to capture too many interesting photographs. Next time though, we'll have a short video of Allison and I exploring the snowier side of Austria!

Streets of Wein

Bundled in front of the imperial palace