Vienna, Part 1

Vienna, Part 1

“Gently flows the Danube”

We woke to a mist covered Danube, which quickly cleared to a view of the beginnings of fall foliage.  After a studel making demonstration and a German lesson (I knew a lot of the vocabulary because of my grandparents’ German & Yiddush), I walked a mile to Vienna.  Actually I walked 7 laps on the track on the top deck of the boat, which equals 1 mile and we WERE on our way to Vienna.

‘Low bridge, everybody down,” was a reality as we passed under 4 bridges outside of Vienna, bridges so low that the captain’s wheel house had to be lowered.  I had to sit down on the track so as not to be decapitated.

In the afternoon we went on a driving tour of Vienna, which is absolutely a beautiful city filled with many, many museums and music venues.  In the 1990’s Dan and I spent a number of days in Vienna and were able to see a lot, but there were many new places for us to see.  Vienna is considered one of the greenest, cleanest cities in the world, and it lives up to its reputation. 

We got off the bus and walked to the National Library.  I was wondering why they would take us to a library, but it was well worth the trip.  The architecture was magnificent with thousands of volumes of books (now all digitized) on the shelves.  Glass showcases highlighted special exhibits:  a map of Roman roads, ancient Arabic writing, medieval Hebrew writing, etc.  Our guide took us past historic buildings, down a closed pedestrian  street with very high end stores, through the famous Lippizaner (sp?) stables, where the horses poked their heads out from their doors to stare at the the tourists.  (When we visited Vienna before, we went to a performance.)  She pointed out the famous coffee houses and told us we could absolutely NOT go into Starbucks in the heart of the tourist area.  I had no problem with that as I think Starbucks is the most overrated product ever!

In the evening we went to the outskirts of Vienna to what is called a Heurigen, a wine establishment going back at least one hundred years, that serves “young wine,” that is no more than a year old.  We all sat in a beer garden type setting in a long narrow room with vines and brick walls.  We tasted 4 wines, 3 white and one red.  I liked the first 2 because they were light and dry.   The meal consisted of rolls with 3 different spreads, marinated canned string beans, carrots, German potato salad, and cabbage, followed by a good soup broth, a less than mediocre weiner schnitzel, ice cream with berry sauce, and a small pastry.

 An accordionist and soprano entertained us the entire night.  The music was actually quite good with traditional Austrian songs like “Bicycle Built for Two,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and “Havnagilah!”   At one point all the women lined up on one side with all the men on the other in a very narrow area between the 2 tables.  The accordionist led us in the hokey pokey, the chicken, Zorba the Greek, the can can, and the Russian kezatski (sp), which Dan last danced at our wedding.  You have to understand that Dan and I were probably the youngest people there.  I must admit that the AK’s (loosely translated as old people) were good sports.  While we were doing a dance arm in arm, the lady next to me lost her footing.  It was only the strength of my left arm that saved her from total collapse.

Today, Sunday, was one of those magical travel days from beginning to end, but more of that in my next blog.