Barb and I traveled to Vienna and Salzburg in Austria. This post covers our return to Vienna.
Austria Part 1 | Austria Part 2
Day 8 Thursday 5/17/18 – Salzburg to Vienna
The morning sky was a little clearer and we could have made the effort to scoot up to the Salzburg Fortress, but our breakfast buffet and general lethargy got the better of us. We preferred to get to the train station and caught the 10:30ish train to Vienna. Our plan was to drop bags at Frances’s apartment, catch the 3pm tour of the Opera House, then head to the Vienna International Centre to meet Frances and tour her offices before dinner at her favorite rib place. It seemed like a busy enough day.
We discovered that the Westbahn train at 10:30 is heading to the other main train station in Vienna, Hauptbanhoff, but that was not a big deal. I felt I finally figured out how to navigate the Austrian trains now that we were about done with them. The train ride was again easy and pleasant. We accomplished the very minor feat of navigating from the train station to Frances’s apartment going through a new stop all on our own. We’re practically Viennese.
We headed over to the State Opera House in time for the 3pm tour. Simply waiting in the lobby was a cultural experience as we located the area for English tours. There were concurrent tours in German, Italian, Spanish French and Japanese. No Chinese…yet. There were hundreds of people waiting for these hourly tours, and the business of the Opera House continued as the staff prepared for an evening performance. It’s impressive to see the intense use of the building as a public facility, even more so when we learn they stage different operas nearly every day. Our guide explained that it has become the Vienna tradition for shows to change nearly daily, mainly so visitors can see a greater variety of performances. This seems very different from opera and dance troupes in the US and most other places that run the same shows for the length of a production run.
The Opera House was bombed extensively in WWII and rebuilt to include more extensive public areas and lounges. In the Mahler lounge the guide gave us the basics of the rebuilt room and some Gustav Mahler history including how he shaped and expanded the opera experience. Barb asked about a number of large banners with names on them which the guide had not mentioned. The guide reluctantly explained these were names of Jewish musicians and opera employees lost during the Holocaust. The guide said something like it was an episode “we Austrians don’t like to talk about.” I can’t say we spoke to many actual Austrians, but neither did we see a whole lot of acknowledgement of Austria’s role in WWII and the Holocaust. We saw a rather bleak Holocaust memorial on a corner near the Opera House and Frances pointed out little brass plaques on the sidewalks in front of buildings where specific victims lived. But through our trip it was not a topic easily broached or highlighted. It furthered the sense that Austrians would just as soon skip over the 20th century, thank you very much.
The culmination of our tour was a few minutes in the orchestra seating area while staging crews rehearsed for a show that is not even tonight’s performance. Our guide mentions there are multiple rehearsal facilities in the building and all over town to accommodate various performers, and storage for all the sets, costumes and so forth. The mind boggles at the logistics needed to maintain this schedule, but it speaks to the continuing importance of opera, dance and fine arts in Vienna and Austria. The high points of 19th century culture are celebrated and venerated, echoing the continuing celebration of the same era as the peak of Austrian historical and cultural dominance.
After the tour, we hopped on the subway a few stops to the Vienna International Centre and Frances’ United Nations office. The UN building is impressive though showing some wear from its 1970s design. Frances had a 24th floor office with a great view of the Danube and countryside, and there was an even better view out the other side of the building toward downtown Vienna. She gave us a full tour of the buildings and tells us more about what she does and how she navigates the UN bureaucracy. It’s a fascinating exercise in multinational getting along. I’m reminded of the 1960s Star Trek show with the UN as the Federation and all cultures working together, mostly. I spotted a potential t-shirt for Allie but the shop was closed. Frances promised to bring it next time she comes to Washington, the next month as it turns out.
Frances and Barb in courtyard of UN buildings 
T-shirt destined for Allie
Kayak water polo
We took one more short subway ride then walked partly around a lake to get to Frances’ choice of restaurant, The Strandcafe. On the lake, folks were playing a game I’d never seen before: water polo using kayaks. It looked nearly as strenuous as regular water polo and the lake had to be very chilly. I admired their determination.
We got to the restaurant which was large and busy. Their specialty was barbeque, or at least an Austrian variant. Their ribs were massive, a double rack of babybacks served with a dry rub sitting on top of potatoes that straddled the line between fries and chips. Frances and I each got an order when we could have easily shared just one; we both did some damage and ended up with doggy bags. Barb decided on fish but selected carp which turned out to be a poor choice. The waiter described it as prepared like schnitzel but that was being generous. A woman at the table next to us had much better looking fried fish, the pike, and Barb wished she asked for that. We’d already forgotten the lesson from the Asians at Hallstatt: just take a picture of what you want and point.
After dinner we tubed back to the apartment. We settled in for a little BBC Entertainment but it was some of the same shows over again. New Tricks, anyone? How about Prince Harry’s expedition to the North Pole?
Day 9 Friday 5/18/18 – Vienna
Frances went to work in the morning with a plan to meet us for lunch. Barb and I headed to Naschtmarket to do some shopping. We got cheese, sausage, and olives as snacks (mostly for me) for the Royal Wedding watch tomorrow. Also chocolate and scarves for Barb’s work folks and Allie.
We met Frances at Figlmuller, famous for its schnitzel. They claim to have invented schnitzel preparation in 1905, and have a pork schnitzel that flops over the plate. We didn’t get that, but should have. Barb and Frances opted for veal schnitzel in order to properly compare it with others from the trip. The determined it was good but second-best in their opinion compared to Plachutta Wollzeile. Lesson: go with the dish the place claims to be famous for. [Later reinforcement, a BBC article about the place.]
I wasn’t feeling schnitzely, so I got pork medallions in a pepper sauce with noodles. They were excellent but in retrospect I also wish I’d ordered their famous schnitzel. I also had a Radler, a beer-and-lemonade mixture that Frances recommended. It was quite good and refreshing. Can we get it in the states? Wikipedia says it’s a variant of a shandy, and it turns out there’s quite a variety, some in the states. Will keep an eye out.
At the Belvedere Palace
We stopped by the apartment for Frances to change out of her work clothes then headed over to Belvedere Palace to see its art museum and gardens. This museum was very impressive, featuring Klimt and others of the Secession period (secession from what? from the Munich Artists’ Association, obviously), and others before and after. We spent about three hours there, extended a little so Barb could see the exhibits she missed. Frances and I found her sitting in a lobby wondering why we were taking so long: we had been looking at a whole floor she missed.
The Kiss
The claim to fame of the Belvedere is the world’s largest collection of Gustav Klimt works, including “The Kiss”. I did not know much about his life or work but many of his paintings are familiar through osmosis of our culture, including “The Woman in Gold” from the movie that Frances had recommended as a precursor to our visit (but she’s in New York). Plus, Klimt holds a preeminent place in the Vienna Secession movement in art and architecture and which coincides with the peak of Vienna culture around the turn of the 20th century. Seeing a range of his work was impressive; he’s one quasi-modern artist whose work I actually find appealing, though admittedly especially his women. Now, in the age of Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette”, that’s not a politically sensitive attitude. Klimt’s lifestyle and 14 children from various women would also run afoul of current mores, as it did then. Still, there’s more to Klimt’s story that is probably worth delving into, given more time. Is there a definitive biography? He seems like a fascinating, possibly creepy creature; a prototypical “artiste”.
One of the other works at the Belvedere that came as a surprise was the iconic “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Jacques-Louis David. Why is it here? Though not well-explained at the museum, it’s one of five versions produced by David. The original is in Versailles and another in Berlin. I love the back story that it was commissioned by Napoleon primarily as propaganda. He refused to sit for it and suggested the theme and pose. David used his son faking the pose on a ladder as his model. In actual fact, Napoleon crossed the Alps guided on a mule in fine weather a few days after his troops (see Delarouche’s version to set the record straight). Still, as propaganda it worked, arguably the most successful portrait of Napoleon.
The gardens at the Belvedere are also particularly lovely with a view of the city, and they’re free! We didn’t spend much time wandering, but I can imagine they are a very fine place to while away a sunny day in Vienna. I’m glad we made time for the Belvedere overall.
We wanted to have a proper Vienna cafe experience so Frances took us on the tram a few stops to the Cafe Schwarzenburg. I had a (funny skinny) wurst and frites and a nice hot chocolate with Cointreau. Barb and Frances had soups and coffee. Very pleasant. Then we walked a few blocks to the Opera House to get two small Sacher Tortes for tomorrow’s Royal Wedding watch.
The free opera screening
Outside the Opera House we stopped to watch a bit of the live simulcast of the opera Samson and Delilah being performed inside. Every performance is shown on the large screen outside the Opera, making the art commendably more available. I can’t say that it immediately converted us into opera-lovers, though. Culture maybe less than achieved, we headed back to apartment for a bit of evening TV. Sorry, Vienna.
Day 10 Saturday 5/19/18 – Vienna
We took a morning stroll around the corner with Frances to tour Karlskirche, a lovely small church dominating the Karlsplatz plaza. A few years before, in order to work on the frescoes in the dome, they built an elevator with metal scaffolding. Since then, it’s become a tourist attraction to (pay to) take the vertigo-inducing elevator up for a close-up look at frescoes and have a view out the windows in the dome, notwithstanding the fact that the elevator scaffolding itself is an ugly intrusion on the interior of the church. We rode up the shaky structure and really did have a hard time looking down from the wobbly height. Barb was especially nervous. The views out the window weren’t all that great, but it was fun to see the tricks of cross-hatching and shadowing in the frescoes to give them a three-dimensional appearance from the floor.
Karlskirche 
Rickety lift to the top 
Frescoes up close
After an hour or so at the church, Frances and I did a little grocery shopping, then we spent the rest of the day watching the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. We did our best to help them celebrate, and we were glad to have the BBC coverage in all its glory. We appreciated the fact that it was a 1pm wedding in the Vienna time zone; if we’d been at home it would have been 7am, not to mention the two hours of pre-game analysis.
For our final meal in Vienna, we encouraged Frances to choose a place she wanted, so we headed to an Argentine steak place, el Gaucho. We all gladly dug into our steaks and had a very pleasant evening. No more weinerschnitzel, thank you.
Day 11 Sunday 5/20/18 – Vienna – DC – Home
In order to catch our 7:10am flight, we reserved a car to pick us up at 4:30am. Frances very kindly saw us out at that ungodly hour. It was an easy trip to the airport and a short prop-jet flight to Geneva where we caught a blessedly uneventful United flight back to Dulles. Our business class seats were much appreciated and we more or less had the hang of adjusting the seats and navigating the entertainment options. We landed at Dulles more or less on time around 3pm, caught a cab to Mary’s to retrieve our car and were home by 6pm.
This was, in all, a very nice trip and we owe a great debt of gratitude to Frances for housing us and being our tour guide and companion. We know there was a lot more we could have seen, both in Vienna and Salzburg, not to mention more of Austria. But this was a nice, leisurely vacation and it was especially great to have a friend for Barb to talk to and relax with. It’s finally dawning on me that one of the legitimate objectives of a vacation is to build in some downtime for rest and relaxation, especially for a working girl like Barb. With luck, we may make it back to see Frances before too long and maybe take in some other European destinations with her.
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