Sunday, 27 December 2015

The grocery store is still closed for the third day in a row.  We’re starting to get desperate since we didn’t know this lengthy closing was going to happen.  I came into the kitchen this morning and found Holden standing in his underwear eating a raw carrot; that’s how low on food we’ve gotten.  It’s raw carrot bad.

On the bright side, the mall this Sunday morning was filled with an antiques flea market.  People set up tables in the mall aisles (the stores were closed) and offered all kinds of treasures.  It was by far the highest-end flea market we’ve ever encountered.  Hermes scarves, antique alligator suitcases, a brass telescope from 1850, paintings, and lots of jewelry and china.  We spent a good deal of time browsing — Isabella fell in love with an old Zeiss brass microscope from the 19th century.  Adam bought it for her as a Christmas/straight A’s gift since we didn’t really do presents this year, and she had fantastic grades this semester — straight A’s in all AP classes.

I bought a pair of antique oil portrait studies: two old men.  I liked them because, in addition to being well done, the one with the white beard reminded me a bit of my Uncle Leon.

We wanted to eat lunch today in another locally famous cafe, Cafe Mozart – serving coffee and cakes since 1794. Around the corner from the cafe we discovered the coolest street in the world… roughly translated as “Mayse Alley”.

Waiting for a table in the Mozart Cafe.  They make you stand by the tantalizing dessert case.

The interior of the cafe is quite nice.  We had a good meal (albeit on the expensive side).

We got there at the right time, too.  By the time we left, the line was out the door.

On the walk to the Belvedere Museum (our main destination for the day), we passed the French Embassy.  The little fence outside is adorned with displays like this one.  It felt real and immediate, especially considering that Vienna itself is under a terror watch right now.  Most of these signs were touching and sober; but one said “Fuck ISIS” and is probably the sign that came closest to saying what everyone is actually thinking.

French Embassy.

We spent most of the afternoon in the Belvedere Palace. The Baroque palace complex was built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy, staring in 1712.

They have a large collection of Klimt paintings, including The Kiss, which is impressive in person. Klimt used real gold leaf on a lot of the surface, so the painting glows and sparkles. It’s the best example of a painting I’ve ever seen that deserves the quote “you have to see it in person.”  They didn’t allow photography inside the museum, so we don’t have any pictures.  We got a couple shots of the exterior.

We went home for wine time and our afternoon entertainment — National Lampoons European Vacation (1985).  We’ve inadvertently stumbled into a tradition on this trip of watching a movie from the 1980s in the late afternoon as a way to rest for awhile before going back out for the evening.

The kids haven’t seen a lot of these movies and for the most part Adam and I have been surprised at how good they still are.  They kids are enjoying them, mostly.  The evening we tried to watch Back to the Future II (1989) was a dismal failure.  That was so  bad we all gave up on it after about 20 minutes.

Later this evening, we walked to #18 Elizabethstrasse [photo below]- the actual home of the family Bloch-Bauer, the original owners of the Klimt painting Woman in Gold. Adele Bloch-Bauer and her husband (owned several sugar factories) lived on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  This is the very house the Nazis looted.

We enjoy trying to give the kids multiple exposures to a story (movie, museum, house) and hope that some of it sticks.

Tonight the stalls began to sell New Year’s celebration junk. In Vienna, pigs are a sign of good luck for the upcoming New Year – as such we find many stalls filled with all things pig related. This has put Josie in heaven. She’s coming home with a bag full of pig trinkets.

A misty photo of St Stephen’s Cathedral.  I’m beginning to understand why Monet painted so many versions of the Rouen Cathedral in France.  The mood changes dramatically depending the weather and light.  You never see quite the same scene twice.

Monday, 28 December 2015

Holden dubbed today our day of “Oh … never mind.”  We had a long list of things we wanted to do, but as events unfolded we ended up saying, “Oh … never mind” about almost all of them.

Our first stop today was the Kunst Supermarkt (art market), which was finally open.  Visitors are greeted with a sign that our friend Randy would adore:  “Enjoy your fucking sushi, Love the fucking art.”

The market has all these bins, each filled with the work of a different artist.  You could spend a very long time in here sifting through it all.  Some of the work was impressive and some of it was crap and most of it was just meh.  The prices were too high, in my opinion, so  … “Oh, never mind.”

We next visited Austrian hatmaker Mühlbauer (in business since 1873) to find just the right hat for Arge to wear on the golf course. We’ve already sent him a photo of what we picked out and he seems pleased.  This, at least, was a stroke of good fortune.

Adam:  You’re all aware of my dad’s involvement in Vienna regulator clocks – clocks made [in Vienna] from roughly 1790 to 1910.   Long before we planned our trip here, we talked about the exotic name and address listed above – the clockmaker F. Prihoda and his shop’s address at 63 Stumpergasse in Vienna.  

Once it was set that we were coming to Vienna for Christmas, we knew we had to track down the old address… #63 is the door above on the left – allowing entry into the building in yellow-ish stone.  The old clockworks from 1900-ish is now the “Lowcarb Shop & Bistro”.

31 Stumpergasse, Hitler’s residence when he was still a hopeful starving artist in Vienna in 1908.

Last night, we passed in front of the Academy of Fine Arts (below) – where Hitler was rejected for enrollment in 1907.

Vienna is thick with Hitler history – although you won’t find any sign of him here.  His name and influence has been erased from history. It only takes some research on the internet, however, to find that his time here (1908-1913) was significant. Most of his remaining art depicts Vienna architecture and daily scenes – very recognizable to us now.

Hitler ultimately left Vienna dejected and moved on to Munich – joining the military, fighting in WWI and then moving into political life. Our kids rightly observed that the world would be very different today if that academy had only accepted his application to paint under their tutelage.

Waiting for the train.  Isabella is sharing her favorite band with Josie:  Panic at the Disco. Isabella feels it is her duty as an older sister to expose Josie to the world of “good” music.

Outside the train station these two guys were playing theme songs from various movies as a violin/flute duet.  They performed the Harry Potter theme song, Star Wars, and a couple of others.  The kids liked it so much they made us stand there long enough we felt obligated to put money in the little box.  Isabella videoed the whole thing on her phone.

Schönbrunn Palace.  The line just to get tickets was so long it scared us away.  Combat viewing is no fun.  Yet another location today was “Oh … never mind.”

They did still have a Christmas market open in their courtyard.  The prices were slightly higher than what we’d been in the other markets and we left with nothing.

Our plan was to visit the zoo after the castle, but it started getting really cold and we were all getting tired of standing.  We unanimously decided to try the zoo on a different day.  “Let’s go to the zoo!  Oh … never mind.”

We headed back to the apartment to rest a little before heading back out for the late afternoon.  I needed to get some laundry done and the kids wanted to just relax a bit.  Adam did a little work and then headed back out by himself to the Leica store around the corner to see their exhibit of Elliott Erwitt prints.

Adam:  This afternoon, I went alone to the Vienna Leica store to see a special exhibit of signed prints by photographer Elliott Erwitt – one of my two favorite (still) living photographers. They had about 25 prints available for purchase running from €4400 to €9500 each. Another return empty handed.

Our goal this afternoon was to visit a grocery store that has earned the reputation as the prettiest grocery store in the world, and get a hot chocolate at a cafe that is reputed to have the best hot chocolate in Vienna.

Below:  The police presence is much greater now than it has been previously due to the terrorist threat.  They are checking every single vehicle that comes into the pedestrian squares. We are also now seeing 2-man teams of Polizei walking around the crowded areas, most carrying Steyr AUG assault rifles and wearing bullet-proof vests.  The good news is that the officers seem very relaxed.  They have smiles and friendly head-nods for everyone.

Pretty architecture and building decoration.

More kiosks selling the Viennese lucky pigs.  Josie can’t get enough of these.  (That’s Josie, me and Isabella in the photo below, checking out all the pig offerings.)  Isabella and I each bought a little glass pig figurine and Josie bought four more to give out to her friends as gifts.

She had a hard time choosing.  They were all so cute!

This is the front of the world’s prettiest grocery store, Julius Meinl am Graben.

Interior shot.

The people shopping here were fancy, too.  It’s hard to see in the photo below, but there is a dog with a very intricate dreadlock hairdo at the feet of the black-haired lady wearing the white fur coat.  Yes … people brings their dogs into the grocery stores here.  They bring dogs everywhere here, including restaurants.  I love that about Europe.

I looked up the dog breed when we got back to the apartment.  It’s a Komondor.  Wikipedia:  The Komondor breed has been declared one of Hungary’s national treasures, to be preserved and protected from modification.  I’ve never seen one in person before, and they are quite striking.

The fruit section [below].  This grocery store was deceptively large and so crowded we ended up abandoning our plan to buy stuff for dinner here.  We took one look at the checkout line and said, “Oh … never mind.”  It opens early in the morning so we intend to come back on another day before the afternoon crowds make it no fun.  The smaller grocery store near our apartment is finally open again so we’ll go there for tonight’s dinner instead.

And then in the crowning failure of the entire day, as far as Holden was concerned, we couldn’t find the place selling the best hot chocolate in Vienna.  We looked and looked and looked, until we finally gave up:  it was another “never mind.”

Our 1980s Wine Time movie selection for today was Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989).  We chose it because Bill & Ted travel to Vienna to collect Sigmund Freud: “the Frood Dude.”  (Our plans for tomorrow include the Freud Museum.)  The kids kept hitting pause to talk about the plausibility of the story line and pick apart the time travel plot holes, but they really enjoyed the film.  That movie was the one bright spot in Holden’s otherwise disappointing day.

Adam and I had fun today, but Holden did not.  He’s hoping that tomorrow will be more successful.  He was so defeated that he didn’t even want to come out for the evening stroll.  Isabella and Josie wanted to go and found yet another booth selling pig stuff.  Josie bought a little ceramic piggy bank.

After pig shopping, Adam and I dropped the girls off at the apartment and went back out by ourselves for a while.  We noticed that the Hotel Sacher (directly across the intersection in front of our building and the hotel featured in Woman in Gold) didn’t have enormous out-the-door lines to get into the cafe like it usually does, so we decided on the spur of the moment to duck in for an evening espresso and tea.

It was a lot fancier than I expected, though … the maitre’d showed us to the cloak room where we were supposed to check our coats and hats.  I hadn’t planned on going somewhere elegant (we initially were going to stand in line at Starbucks to get something to go) and I was basically wearing pajamas under my coat.  I just couldn’t take my coat off and go sit in an upscale, lavish dining room in my ratty old t-shirt and jeans.  My hair was a fright, too, from being smashed under a hat all day.  When the maitre’d wasn’t looking, we snuck out and went to stand in line at Starbucks with the rest of the hoi polloi, where I could keep my coat on and preserve my dignity.

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

We started our day visiting Demel – an 1888 salon serving specialties such as cream cakes, scones and strudels. It is also a confectionary/bakery where you can watch the chefs making their treats. This was recommended to us by a couple of people so we had to make a special stop to let the kids try out their version of the hot chocolate drink.

Bar downstairs. When we arrived (around 11:00am) we only had to wait about 5 minutes to get a table. By the time we finished, the building was so full we couldn’t leave without pushing and shoving. The line to get in went out the door into the cold.

Crowd gathered in front of Demel.

Vienna has turned cold on us – the low is now 20 and the high 30. The locals have broken out the covered carriages, along with the New Year festival flag decorations.

After fueling up at Demel’s, we made a long walk over to visit Sigmund Freud’s original office and living quarters. This is where Freud spent his most prolific years and developed his groundbreaking theories; moving here with his family in 1891 and staying until he was forced into exile (he went to London) by the Nazis in 1938.  He died in London about one year later.

The original front door to Freud’s private apartments.  His professional offices were just to left.

Staircase patients would have walked up to get to Freud’s second-floor apartments.

Adam:   On the way back from Freud’s, we ran into a small military supply store. The kids wanted to stop and look over the old excess army gear. Isabella purchased a small denim/canvas jacket similar to the one she bought in Japan. She paid all of €3 for a new (never used) coat and now has a Japanese military jacket and an Austrian one. 

(Brenda: The proprietor said the jackets were so cheap because the army changed the design earlier this year.  He ended up with the surplus jackets in the discontinued style for next to nothing, which is why he was selling them for only €3.  Isabella wants to find this store again and buy a couple more for her friends.  The only problem was that all the big ones — that would fit a teenage boy — were gone and all he had left were extra-small.  Isabella has two guy friends she REALLY wanted to get jackets for, but they would never fit into the little ones.  She has a couple girl friends who would like them, though.)

Adam:  They had two coats that I very much wanted to buy – two authentic WWII leather coats – the long leather trench coats issued to Gestapo Criminal Inspectors. These were the real deal and were reasonably affordable, too. In the end, I passed because I just couldn’t come up with an occasion or situation where I could actually be out in the public wearing it without attracting attention – and none of it the good kind.

After this, we returned home for a late lunch and some grocery shopping. We all needed to get ready for the big night’s event – the Opera!

Before coming here I bought tickets online for us to attend Rossini’s opera “La Cenerentola” – first performed in 1817. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra provided the tunes.

This was the first opera for all of us and it exceeded expectations (although Holden might pass on the next offer, if ever made.) We all got dressed up in shirt and tie, dresses & the lot and headed across the street to the Staatsoper in style.

I couldn’t bring my good camera to the event, but snuck a few crappy iPhone photos to capture the evening.  [Photo below] Part of the foyer and stairs leading up to the several levels.

Seats for the 3 of us – top balcony, 1st row, hanging out over everyone else. They didn’t have 5 tickets all together so Holden, Josie and I sat in one area and we gave the better 2 tickets to Brenda and Isabella.

There are Brenda and Isabella – opposite us in one of the balcony boxes. 3 rows up, second over from the left. Brenda is the white figure in the middle of 3.

La Cenerentola is performed in Italian. Outdoors, they broadcast the opera with German subtitles. Fortunately, each seat had a little screen like the one above that also printed the text in English. This helped A LOT to keep up on what was a 3 hour performance.

Vienna Philharmonic in the pit, lights dimming curtain about to go up…

Holden and Josie during the intermission.  Holden’s face sums up his attitude about discovering the show wasn’t over yet and was going to resume after a break.

Adam took this photo of me [below] during the intermission with the zoom on his phone.  I had the box all to myself for about 10 minutes as everyone else in our area headed out for the bathrooms.  Isabella and I shared this box with three other people; one single guy and a couple.  The couple left after the intermission so we had even more space.  Each box has it’s own private coat room in the back with a long upholstered bench and mirrors so people can check their outfits.

The guy sitting next to us knew this opera by heart.  If fact, he knew it so well that I have a feeling he may have been an understudy for the performer that played the Prince Charming character.  I’ve never seen a person watch a performance quite the way this guy did … if he wasn’t a professional performer himself, he was a hard-core aficionado.

There were no fat ladies in this performance, so the two little ones kept asking me when the show would be over (especially after the 2+ hour mark) but they were good troopers.

Isabella loved the show and Brenda couldn’t hardly drag her away at the end.. there was one standing ovation after the other that went on for more than 10 minutes.  

It was fun to see the Opera, grab our coats from the check girl and then just walk across the street to our apartment.