From Northern CZ, I headed down to Vienna, or Wien, as the locals call it. Pronounced "Veen". So, now reread the title of this section. I am so darned funny.
I was so proud of myself. I stubbornly did not want to backtrack to Prague to get to Vienna.. so I managed to leave from the little town I was in for hiking, transferred 3 times and ended up on a spiffy fast train (below).. got to Vienna in 6.5 hours, less than if I went through Prague.
I snapped this shot to the left a second too late - these ladies were sitting on a bench in rural CZ. Gives you a bit of an idea of how the locals look. Like my grandma, minus the black dress.
On the fast train, I was in a 6 seater cabin. They came to you with coffee and beer - gotta love that.
In Vienna for 4 nights, three days. So much of travelling is about eating.. you gotta eat this, you gotta eat that. I was still listening to that nonsense in Vienna, when I went to a high end recommended cake shop for cake and coffee. I felt overcharged.. George liked it anyways.
I like that they bring you an itty bitty glass of water with your coffee in Vienna.
Nice architecture in Vienna. I didn't know till I got there that Austria was under Communist rule from 1945 to about 1955. Even more reason to revel in the fun pre-communist architecture. Lots of Baroque fancy-pants buildings around town. Here are the stairs to the top of the tower of St Stephens (I think.. there has been a bunch of them). I try to climb all the towers I can to get a great 360 degree view of the towns. This stairway is typical... narrow, stone, don't go if you fear tight spaces.
Here is a shot of the same cathedral and some nearby buildings reflected in a modern glass building. I liked the juxtiposition. Had to wait 2 days for this shot since it rained and was cold the first two days I was there. Nice colorfully tiled roof - reminds me of Beaune , France and the trip I took with the Pughs, Munshis and Jean.
I must admit that I was not a big fan of Vienna. It took me awhile to figure out why... and besides being at a lowpoint homesickness-wise, I think I realized why. Its all about rich people. Currently, lots of focus on shopping for high end jewelry and clothing. Historically, lots of info about the gigantic palaces and treasures of the Hapsburgs, who ruled over the Austrio-Hungarian for 500 years or so. But I didn't pick up on the history of this family beyond how well they lived and how well Maria Theresa was a procreating for the benefit of the dynasty (she had 16 kids, 11 survived to adulthood, Marie Antoinette was one of them, sold off to Louis of France).
Shot of the edge of one of the caskets in the royal burial crypt. All the biggies were there.. Maria Teresa and her hubby, and Franz Joseph and his Lady Diana precursor, Empress Elizabeth (aka Sissy).
I stayed at a pension about 20 minutes walking from the old town center. It was adorable. Had a private room with shared bath and showers down the hall. The main hallway was lined with hundreds of plants - very charming. Here is my host and gardener, Mr. Gebrial.
Okay, so I did like a few things in Vienna. Like the classic coffee houses (not Starbucks, who are all over the place testing the water in central and eastern europe right now). Here is a pic inside Cafe Hawelka. Rick Steves had described it as Trotsky-esque - and he was right. Filled with people on a rainy afternoon. You sit on couches reading papers that are strapped to wooden frames so that you can't steal them. I went two days in a row to read the International Herald Tribune (the international English paper that the NY Times publishes). I love that in this pic you can actually see the smoke in the air!! With a cup of coffee, the paper, sitting on a couch, all I was missing was my jammies and Atticus curled up on my feet to make it like my normal Sunday routine at home.
In front of my pension - I mean there is the door on the left , I saw a woman walking a Golden. When I asked if I could pet him, she answered with American English. Maureen and Paul Kruger are ex-pats working in Vienna. The pup is Hudson. After chatting for awhile, Maureen said that they were having a friend over to dinner and would I like to join them. Oh man would I , I was very homesick in Vienna. So I went to the opera that night but still made it over to dinner. The Vienna State Opera was good - Don Carlos by Verdi. But I had bought standing room tickets for 3.5 euro - so cheap! But the opera was very slow paced and was tracking to 4 hours, so I bailed at halftime and went to the Krugers for dinner - much more lively !!
A quick pic after dinner at the Krugers. My camera is new and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working - until the next day when I remembered I had it set for internal shots at the opera before I came over to dinner. Maureen is on the right, and Magdalena, a friend of the Krugers from Poland, is on the left. She was charming.... we had a bi-lingual (german and english) conversation about why bad American music from the 7ös is so hot in Poland. Favorite Magdelena quote..." Bee Gees - Super!!". Please note that both George Clooney AND ATTICUS DJANGO are represented here Maureen is holding a pic of Atty that I am travelling with. Pathetic, ain't it?
This is a picture from that dinner party - whew, it was fun! Actually, this is from the Dutch section of the Kuntz art museum - I just liked how the painting showed folks just having a good time. Except the dog on the bottom - he looks cranky. I love Dutch art = it took me a trip to Amsterdam to visit with the Pughs to realize that all of that "boring" art like fruits, and flowers and people partying was actually a little slice of life from the 1600's. Much of this art was funded by the newly wealthy trading class that was Protestant - whereas in the past, before the Reformation, the Catholic church had all the big bucks (can you say Indulgences, Martin Luther?) so art was about religious themes.
And speaking of painting, maybe to reinforce the love of color, little kids were painting up a storm under the overpass of that bridge. Very cute.
These windows in a crusty old building were all painted with Van Gogh images - dunno why but I liked it.
Walking back to the train station, I came upon a few hundred kids dressed up in various Slavic ethnic outfits. They were playing instruments and singing - this pick shows a group right in front of the Slovakian White House - where the president lives. Very charming.
Here is a shot of the same cathedral and some nearby buildings reflected in a modern glass building. I liked the juxtiposition. Had to wait 2 days for this shot since it rained and was cold the first two days I was there. Nice colorfully tiled roof - reminds me of Beaune , France and the trip I took with the Pughs, Munshis and Jean.
I must admit that I was not a big fan of Vienna. It took me awhile to figure out why... and besides being at a lowpoint homesickness-wise, I think I realized why. Its all about rich people. Currently, lots of focus on shopping for high end jewelry and clothing. Historically, lots of info about the gigantic palaces and treasures of the Hapsburgs, who ruled over the Austrio-Hungarian for 500 years or so. But I didn't pick up on the history of this family beyond how well they lived and how well Maria Theresa was a procreating for the benefit of the dynasty (she had 16 kids, 11 survived to adulthood, Marie Antoinette was one of them, sold off to Louis of France).
Shot of the edge of one of the caskets in the royal burial crypt. All the biggies were there.. Maria Teresa and her hubby, and Franz Joseph and his Lady Diana precursor, Empress Elizabeth (aka Sissy). At some point,
it struck me that visiting Vienna, for me, would be like making a trip to visit Beverly Hills. Which I would have and did do in my 20's, but not now.
Shot from inside one of the courtyards of the Hofburg Palace. I had just been through the Royal Treasury and it was very cool . Its got crowns and religious icons and clothing and loads of stuff going back to 1100. Some of the crowns had sapphires and rubies as big as my knuckle on them.. and not all prettified, kinda raw still. Some of the clothing from bishops and investments into religious societies were embroidered with gold and silver threading. Really beautiful stuff.
it struck me that visiting Vienna, for me, would be like making a trip to visit Beverly Hills. Which I would have and did do in my 20's, but not now.Shot from inside one of the courtyards of the Hofburg Palace. I had just been through the Royal Treasury and it was very cool . Its got crowns and religious icons and clothing and loads of stuff going back to 1100. Some of the crowns had sapphires and rubies as big as my knuckle on them.. and not all prettified, kinda raw still. Some of the clothing from bishops and investments into religious societies were embroidered with gold and silver threading. Really beautiful stuff.
I stayed at a pension about 20 minutes walking from the old town center. It was adorable. Had a private room with shared bath and showers down the hall. The main hallway was lined with hundreds of plants - very charming. Here is my host and gardener, Mr. Gebrial.
Okay, so I did like a few things in Vienna. Like the classic coffee houses (not Starbucks, who are all over the place testing the water in central and eastern europe right now). Here is a pic inside Cafe Hawelka. Rick Steves had described it as Trotsky-esque - and he was right. Filled with people on a rainy afternoon. You sit on couches reading papers that are strapped to wooden frames so that you can't steal them. I went two days in a row to read the International Herald Tribune (the international English paper that the NY Times publishes). I love that in this pic you can actually see the smoke in the air!! With a cup of coffee, the paper, sitting on a couch, all I was missing was my jammies and Atticus curled up on my feet to make it like my normal Sunday routine at home.
In front of my pension - I mean there is the door on the left , I saw a woman walking a Golden. When I asked if I could pet him, she answered with American English. Maureen and Paul Kruger are ex-pats working in Vienna. The pup is Hudson. After chatting for awhile, Maureen said that they were having a friend over to dinner and would I like to join them. Oh man would I , I was very homesick in Vienna. So I went to the opera that night but still made it over to dinner. The Vienna State Opera was good - Don Carlos by Verdi. But I had bought standing room tickets for 3.5 euro - so cheap! But the opera was very slow paced and was tracking to 4 hours, so I bailed at halftime and went to the Krugers for dinner - much more lively !!
A quick pic after dinner at the Krugers. My camera is new and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working - until the next day when I remembered I had it set for internal shots at the opera before I came over to dinner. Maureen is on the right, and Magdalena, a friend of the Krugers from Poland, is on the left. She was charming.... we had a bi-lingual (german and english) conversation about why bad American music from the 7ös is so hot in Poland. Favorite Magdelena quote..." Bee Gees - Super!!". Please note that both George Clooney AND ATTICUS DJANGO are represented here Maureen is holding a pic of Atty that I am travelling with. Pathetic, ain't it?
This is a picture from that dinner party - whew, it was fun! Actually, this is from the Dutch section of the Kuntz art museum - I just liked how the painting showed folks just having a good time. Except the dog on the bottom - he looks cranky. I love Dutch art = it took me a trip to Amsterdam to visit with the Pughs to realize that all of that "boring" art like fruits, and flowers and people partying was actually a little slice of life from the 1600's. Much of this art was funded by the newly wealthy trading class that was Protestant - whereas in the past, before the Reformation, the Catholic church had all the big bucks (can you say Indulgences, Martin Luther?) so art was about religious themes.
And then - SLOVAKIA! Vienna is 4 hours from Budapest - but only an hour from Bratislova, Slovakia. So, I decided to get off the train in for a half day to see what the other half of the former Czechoslovakia looked like. I expected to find more of the Communist footprint - Slovakia hasn't had as mad a rush to Westernization as the Czech Republic has.
On the hour train ride, I had a great chat with Peter and Silvika (Silvia). Silvia was pretty good with English and translated for Peter when he didn't know a word. They were a great help in getting me off the train, to the office to check my luggage while I strolled the town, changing my money to Slovakian currency and getting me on the right bus to the old town center. As you can see, Peter also carried my big bag up and down the many stairs in the Bratislava train station. It was very cute - just before we hit a stairway, his aunt would say something and you just know it was "carry her bag". Peter made a point of saying that Hungarian men are known to be gentlemen (he is from the area near Eger in NE Hungary). He also mentioned that he's quite the Casanova. Silvia described her nephew as "Talk Talk Non-stop! They were charming!
Here is one of the older streets in Bratislava - the town is now about 300,000, I think, and the capital of Slovakia. Most tourists hang out in the old old part of town. You know you are there when you see the big Michael's gate, which was originally on the wall surrounding the original city, shown in this picture.
I only saw a few things to remind me of the Soviets. One was this pretty bridge - apparently , they tore down a big section of the old town, and built this monstrosity right next to the cathedral where the Hungarian Kings were coronated for centuries. Also saw some large apartment buildings from the train. Many here and in Poland and the CZ are painted bright orange and yellow hues. I bet its because the locals couldn't paint them fast enough from the concrete gray they had before the Communists left.
On the hour train ride, I had a great chat with Peter and Silvika (Silvia). Silvia was pretty good with English and translated for Peter when he didn't know a word. They were a great help in getting me off the train, to the office to check my luggage while I strolled the town, changing my money to Slovakian currency and getting me on the right bus to the old town center. As you can see, Peter also carried my big bag up and down the many stairs in the Bratislava train station. It was very cute - just before we hit a stairway, his aunt would say something and you just know it was "carry her bag". Peter made a point of saying that Hungarian men are known to be gentlemen (he is from the area near Eger in NE Hungary). He also mentioned that he's quite the Casanova. Silvia described her nephew as "Talk Talk Non-stop! They were charming!
Here is one of the older streets in Bratislava - the town is now about 300,000, I think, and the capital of Slovakia. Most tourists hang out in the old old part of town. You know you are there when you see the big Michael's gate, which was originally on the wall surrounding the original city, shown in this picture.
I only saw a few things to remind me of the Soviets. One was this pretty bridge - apparently , they tore down a big section of the old town, and built this monstrosity right next to the cathedral where the Hungarian Kings were coronated for centuries. Also saw some large apartment buildings from the train. Many here and in Poland and the CZ are painted bright orange and yellow hues. I bet its because the locals couldn't paint them fast enough from the concrete gray they had before the Communists left.
And speaking of painting, maybe to reinforce the love of color, little kids were painting up a storm under the overpass of that bridge. Very cute.
These windows in a crusty old building were all painted with Van Gogh images - dunno why but I liked it.Walking back to the train station, I came upon a few hundred kids dressed up in various Slavic ethnic outfits. They were playing instruments and singing - this pick shows a group right in front of the Slovakian White House - where the president lives. Very charming.
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