Last Post for the Trip :(

Today we are flying home.  The last 2 days in Vienna were wonderful.  Monday night we went to the opera, which was just amazing.  It is a beautiful opera house that was originally built in the 1860s, but was pretty much destroyed during the war.  It was rebuilt in the 1950s to be the way or originally was.  We had a really memorable time.

 

Yesterday we went to another museum, another coffee house, and also spent a couple hours touring more of the Hofburg, the Emperor´s winter palace.  it is quite a place!

 

Now we´re just waiting for our flight home. 

 

It was a great trip, and we´re ready to go home.  We can´t wait to see the dogs!

Monday Morning

Yesterday we took a boat trip down the Danube.  Even though it was raining and foggy, it was really beautiful.  There is 35 (or so) mile stretch where the river cuts through the mountains, and it was very beautiful, with all the leaves changing, and houses (and a few castles) along the way.  There were a lot of families out for a Sunday outing since this is the last boat trip of the season until the spring, and not that many of them spoke English.  Everyone in Vienna seems to speak at least some English, but as soon as you get out of the city that number decreases dramatically.  And my German is limited to about 10 words, none of which could be put into a single sentence.

 

The town we went to was called Melk.  It has an Benedictine Abbey founded in the 1100s, but it was refurbished over the last 30 years and is really amazing - large rooms and halls, 14 incredible libraries with over 100,000 books, painted ceilings, ornate sculptures and floors, old artifacts, etc.  

 

How convenient that the return bus to the city dropped us off in front of Cafe Sacher.  What could we do?  Back we went for coffee and pastries.  Mitch tried their world famous Sacher-torte invented in 1832.  They are the only place in the world that can call it ``original`` The recipe is locked away in a safe and only a few people know what it is.  I had a small bite and it was wonderful, especially served with whipped cream.  I ordered an apple strudel (with whipped cream of course) and it was heavenly.

 

Last night we went out for an Italian dinner.  It was one of the best Italian dinners we´ve ever had.  Mitch claims the risotto with seafood was the best ever, and my spaghetti with pesto probably was too.

 

Today we´re going to take it easy.  Mitch wants to go to a couple of department stores and I want to go to the main post office.  We may see another museum, but the opera starts at 6 so we really don´t have that much time.

More Vienna

Saturday we went to another fabulous museum (and had lunch there too at a very chic place where all the ladies who lunch lunch).  Then went to the OLD church where all the Hapsburg royalty are buried.  It was really interesting, a little creepy, but very interesting.  Their tombs are these incredibly ornate copper things.  All very gloomy.  It would be a great place for a Halloween party!

 

Then we did some shopping, and then at night went to a Strauss and Mozart concert in an old Gothic concert hall.  It included opera arias and duets, ballet, and orchestral music.  It was beautiful, all very familiar music.  You could choose from several musical events every night here and never do the same thing twice.  It is my kind of place!

 

Afterwards, the only place we could find for dinner that was open so late was a Mexican restaurant.  It actually was very good.  Wonderful strawberry margaritas - the best I´ve ever had in Vienna!!! :)  Plus the usual American Mexican food, which was really good too.  Kind of funny to be eating that here.  On the menu, it was the Mexican descriptions of the food that we understood, since they were in Spanish, and German.  The Spanish descriptions were the same as in the US!!

 

We also went to another wonderful coffee house for coffee and pastries  (yawn!).

Another Day in Vienna, Another Pastry (or 2)

Today was another great day in Vienna.  We began with going to another art museum (early 20th century stuff), with some very interesting and beautiful art by artists I never heard of.  Then we went to Starbucks, which was a total ripoff.  A grande (medium) coffee was the equivalent of about $6!

 

Then we took a bus tour of the city.  It has really beautiful buildings - stately, ornate, imposing.  We also took a tour of the emperors´ summer palace, which was a pretty amazing place.  They had over 1,000 servants there, so you can imagine what it was like!  But it must have really smelled awful because the servants were only entitled to ``bathe`` once a month, with a single bucket of water each!  (It probably wasn´t a much different story for the nobility actually.) Everyday everyone put flour in their hair because white hair was all the rage.  Needless to say it was heaven for lice and fleas.  There was a painting of people paying to get their turn to have a monkey pick the lice out of their hair and eat them.  Disgusting!  And of course, no bathrooms or running water.  So, while they all lived in these incredibly ornate rooms, with amazing paintings, sculptures, and all kinds of art, and inlaid wood floors, and decorated ceilings, they had to drown themselves in perfume to put up with the smell. 

 

We had dinner at a basic Austrian restaurant which was very good (more sausages and wiener schnitzel), and went for coffee and pastries after.  Actually we also went to a different coffee house in the late afternoon for coffee and pastries as well.  We came to the conclusion that what beer is to the British, and pizza is to Americans, pastries are to the Viennese.  Everywhere you go there are all kinds of ``coffee houses``, some very simple, some very ornate, but all have an incredible variety of delicious and beautiful pastries, and a wonderful selection of different kinds of coffee drinks, and they all seem crowded all the time.  And, there are no overweight people.  I just don´t understand how that can be, but it seems to be the case.

 

The Viennese seem to be very polite, reserved people.  I like that.  They don´t appear to be all that warm to strangers, but definitely are not cold, just polite and somewhat formal.  And they certainly are not loud, which I really like.  They have a pretty nice life here.  The government takes good care of them - pays them something like $160 per child per year until age 26, health care is free, you only have to pay for the first semester of college and the rest is free if you decide to continue, and your pension (at age 60 for women and age 65 for men) is 80% of the average of your 5 highest earning years.  Income tax is from 30% to 50%, and the VAT is 20% on everything, but it all seems to work out pretty well.

 

Tomorrow we are gong to another museum, do some more walking around and maybe some shopping.  All the stores were closed today since it it a national holiday to celebrate the last Allied soldier leaving Austria in 1955 and leaving the Republic to run itself.  There is a HUGE pedestrian ``mall`` (really a series of streets) where there are 100´s of shops.

 

It was pretty cold today, with some rain.  It is supposed to be sunnier tomorrow.

If I Lived in Vienna.........

....I´d weigh 300 pounds!  The pastries here are amazing!  I had 3 today: nut, poppy seed, and apple, all served with several scoops of totally decadent whipped cream.

 

We spent the majority of the day at the main art museum.  It was an imcrediby beautiful building, with a great collection.

 

We did some walking around the city.  It is very beautiful - wide boulevards, big imposing buildings, very crowded and bustling, etc.  The weather is pretty cool with intermittant rain.  Actually it kind of makes the place very pretty.  We stopped for coffee and pastries at the Sacher Cafe, which is very famous, and very beautiful.

 

Tonight we heard the Vienna Symphony at the Musikverein, the wonderful, old, ornate concert hall in Vienna.  They played Dvorak´s Cello Concerto, and Beethoven´s 5th Symphony.  The hall is really beautiful, and acoustically it´s one of the best concert halls in the world.  It was really a memorable experience!  The audience was so appreciative of the musicians, they kept clapping (but no instant standing ovation like in America), and there were 2 encores, one by the cellist after her piece, and one by the orchestra after the symphony.  Wow!

 

Tomorrow we´ll go to another museum, and I´m sure eat some more pastries.

Goodbye Prague, Hello Vienna

Today we arrived in Vienna.  The trip by train was about 5 hours from Prague.  When we arrived at our hotel I felt an immediate sense of relief.....at the corner there is a Starbucks AND a McDonalds.   We did eat at McDonalds in Prague, for about $17, and to add insult to injury they charged about 15 cents to use the bathroom, unless you could show them the receipt, which I never got.

 

Anyway, time for bed.  Our hotel is very nice.

Last Day in Prague

Today was our last day in Prague. It was cold and rainy, but still
very beautiful. We'll miss this place. I feel like we really go to
know it and would love to come back.

We went shopping today; the crystal here is amazingly beautiful, and
not that expensive. We bought a very beautiful blue crystal vase. I
also purchased a small Czech crystal doxie. Very cute! Looks like
Max.

We had dinner in a very old restaurant that is an underground cave.
Supposedly King somebody or other ate there like 500 years ago. How
in the world do they really know if that's true? It's been updated
slightly since then; for example I don't think they stereo system was
around then. Probably a few other things have changed as well.

Tomorrow it's on to Vienna. Really looking forward to the pastries!

Prague......

Today was very special. We took an afternoon walking tour of the
Jewish Quarter. Prague has an amazimg Jewish tradition. The cemetary
dates from the 14th century and is just incredible - big old
gravestones all crowded together, leaning into each other, etc. There
are also 5 synagogues, some very simple, one absolutely amazing in how
ornate it is. That was the Spanish Synagogue.

There are several Jewish museums, and they document in detail the
history of the Prague Jewish commnity. Out of over 100,000 Jews
before the war, only a few thousand survived. The names of all the
murdered ones are inscribed on the walls of one of the synagogues,
with their communities, and birth and death dates. It is very moving.
There was also an exhibit of childrens' art from the Terezin
concentration camp. Almost all of them were killed.

Anyway, the tour was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, but
there have been so many it is is hard to choose!

Tomorrow we are going to take a tour of the oldest synagogues -
actually the oldest one in Europe - from the 12th century! We are
also going to go an art museum.

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river
and the Charles Bridge. Not only was the food and service fabulous,
but the view was just incredible.

Time is flying!!!!

Prague, Continued

Today we took a bus trip to Cesny Krumlow, a medieval city about 2
hours from Prague. It was really beautiful, with a big old castle,
winding cobblestone streets, and not a Starbucks to be found.
Sometimes that's nice....but I wouldn't want to make a habit out of
it.

We had dinner at a very elegant Prague restaurant, built underground
in a cave. Trust me, it works!

Tomorrow we're taking a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter.

The weather has turned COLD, but it's really very beautiful here,
especially at night when the Prague Castle and other buildings are all
lit up.

Prague - Continued

Today was another nice day in Prague. We spent a lot of time walking
around the Old (and I do mean OLD) City. It was very beautiful. We
also went to the Czech Cubism Museum. Who knew there even was such a
thing?!

We had dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant. I had an appetizer
of sweetbreads, and then a lamb roast. Both delicious. Mitch had a
venison raout, and pheasant. Not my cup of tea - - of course if I
really thing about what sweatbreads really are I probably wouldn't
like them either!

Tomorrow we have to get up early for a 3-hour bus trip to some town
whose name I can't pronounce, but it is supposed to be beautiful.

Prague - Day 2

We are finishing up our first full day in Prague. It is a beautiful
city! We took a city tour and saw the Prague Castle and Cathedral,
which are amazing! We also saw a bunch of other historic sites, town
squares, etc. The place is very old, but very well kept up. The river
and bridges are beautiful as well.

There are a lot of people here, even at this time of year. And lots of traffic.

This evening we went to see a wonderful concert: it was a concert of
Mozart opera arias, and orchestral pieces, with 2 singers, and a 3
piece orchestra. And, the best part, it was held in the Estates
Theater. This is the place where 2 of Mozart\s operas premiered, and
he spend a lot of time here. It is a very beautiful theater, small,
and very ornate. It was thrilling to be sitting in the same place
where Mozart worked! And the concert was just delightful.

We had dinner at a very nice restaurant overlooking the (famous)
Charles Bridge, which was very good as well. The local wine here is
very good. I had veal schnitzel, and Mitch had duck (of course). For
dessert we had a traditional Czech dessert, which consistes of 2 fired
(of course) pancakes, with maple ice cream, whipped cream, and a berry
sauce. The xchnitzel came with the same berry sauce; I guess they had
some left over.

Our hotel is very nice; we have a very comfortable room overlooking the river.

Tomorrow we are just going to explore the city on our own; Sunday
we're taking a day-long trip to some nearby city, which is supposed to
be very beautiful. It has a castle (of course).

The weather is very unstable: sunny, cloudy, rainy, and cool.

So far we're having a great time!

Oct 18, 2007 - Warsaw

Well, here we are in Warsaw, in the business class lounge (again, yawn!).  The flight was fine.  They had the coolest seats in b-class - like something out of the Jetsons, with all the push-button controls for moving the seat back and forth, extending the foot rests, etc.  We also got hand-held personal video players!  I expected Mr. Spacely to come on at any time and yell at me for goofing off on the job!

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep a wink; probably a sub-conscious things about the pilot needing me to be awake in order to fly the plane properly.  It worked, because it was an uneventful flight.

 

Anyway, we have a couple of hours here before we leave for Prague. 

 

And get this: in the lounge here they have unlimited Coke in little glass BOTTLES!!!  I haven't seen that since 1965.  The Coke tastes so much better this way; I'm going to OD on it.  And it brings back so many memories of my youth - young, free, uninhibited...........sigh.

 

Other than that - and the fact that everyone is speaking Polish and all the newspapers are in Polish, and the TV is blaring some Polish billiards contest - I could be anywhere.  Everyone looks the same, 2 eyes, 2 lips, a nose, etc.

 

Well, time for another Coke - I've been 5 minutes without and it's either another one or go join Brittany in rehab!

 

Business Class

The rich ARE different than you and me! The B-class lounge is
heavenly: deserted, quiet, munchies galore, and an open bar. Plus
there is couple here traveling with a Doxie! She is 2 years old,
long-haired, and adorable. She has a crate, but they are letting her
run around since no one is here. I hope she sits next to me. Well,
time to leave this caccoon and board.

--
--- Andy

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--- Andy