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Travel Blog of the Gaps
Hello again, Blogonauts! Having left Istanbul behind we flew easily to Vienna, the capital of the (similarly defunct) Austro-Hungarian Empire. Both the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs ceded power after defeat in World War I. Until now I had not realized we are presently touring a series of countries whose fortunes in that conflict were decidedly gloomy. This was not my intention, but the timing, a century later, is oddly appropriate. The Pope's recent comments and the reactions of today's Turkish government show that heated disagreements about that era remain. But recounting Europe's long history demonstrates that anywhere you're standing is territory that has been serially lost and won over centuries of warfare. Peace, it seems, is the anomaly. OK. Shake off the images of trenches and doughboys. We're in modern Vienna. And it, too, is as delightful as Istanbul. Our accommodations here were a bit experimental. Hotels in Vienna were the most costly of our trip, so I looked into alternatives. For about half the price of 2 hotel rooms, we used AirBnB to secure a large, airy 2-bedroom apartment, complete with a laundry facility and a kitchen, and near the Rathaus (city hall) and the Ringstrasse (a broad boulevard that encircles the city center). The landlord was also willing to let me practice using German in our correspondence, so he got extra points. Our first pedestrian turn through the city took us by the Parliament building, which is eye-poppingly temple-like. Everything about it bespeaks grandeur; it is festooned with marble sculptures. And lording over the building's entrance stands an enormous, gold-spangled statue of the Greek goddess, Athena. We also ambled past the Opera House (a performance of Parsifal was underway), the court houses, the old Hapsburg palace, and onto the pedestrian Kaerntner Strasse. Walking down the gentle slope of Kaerntner Strasse, you turn a corner and are confronted with the outsized St. Stephen's Cathedral, or in German, Stephansdom. Stephansdom is both predictably gothic and yet in many ways unique. The interior contains dozens upon dozens of statues, as well as the chapel where Mozart was married. The cathedral's chevroned green, yellow, black and gray tiles make its roof recognizable even through narrow alley viewings. The roof over the altar area also shows the Hapsburg double-headed eagle on the south side, but on the north side are depicted 2 eagles, one for Austria, and one for Vienna itself. The enormous South Tower takes 342 spiral steps (and 4.50 euros) to reach the highest observation deck. And yes, while Gary took the elevator to the top of the shorter North Tower, I climbed all the way to the top of the South Tower. The passage was so narrow that those descending had to stand with their backs to the wall to allow those climbing to pass. (If only ALL those descending understood that convention, it would have made the lack of a handrail less bothersome.) On the way down, I dutifully stood aside to let a man pass as he cradled an infant, perhaps 2-3 months old, in his arms. I only hope he was a surefooted as he believed himself to be. Extending from Stephansplatz is another pedestrian thoroughfare known as the Graben, or the Ditch. It used to be a part of a moat, but today hosts high-end retail shops. And about a hundred meters down the Graben was St. Peter's Church (Peterskirche), which is administered not by the diocese of Vienna, but instead by Opus Dei. Readers of The DaVinci Code may recall that group's reactionary stance to any liberalization from Rome. We ate dinner our first night in the Reinthaler's Beisl. A Beisl (pronounced BUY-zuhl) offers good old-fashioned home cookin', Vienna style, for not a lot of dough. The evening was chilly, so we each ordered goulash with potatoes, which the waiter said was not good, but was great! It was, indeed, ausgezeichnet, i.e., excellent. Over the next several days we visited a number of sites, but one deserves special mention here. Vienna was once again on the losing side as World War II wound to a close. It was divided in a way similar to Berlin, between British, French, US, and Russian troops. These events are the background to Orson Welles' dramatic film "The Third Man." In that film a compartmented Ferris wheel plays a significant role, and lo and behold, the Ferris wheel or Riesenrad still exists within the Prater amusement park, near to the banks of the Danube. For a few kicks we took a ride, and watched a couple sharing a candle-light dinner in the next compartment. There's more to share about Vienna, but I'll leave that to tomorrow. Just a one-word tease: Fleamarket. Blog to you later! Larry
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T You look very fetching in the Austrian hat. Glad you are enjoying that wonderful city.