Saturday, July 1, 2006
OK, if you have read yesterday´s post you have realized that we had a technical problem and it is posted twice. I´ll delete the extras when I can get to a keyboard that´s laid out in the format I understand. Until then, you´ll just have to deal with it.
Last night we went to an Organ Recital -- it wasn´t in the cathedral like I thought, but was in the Royal Chapel in the Palace. The performer was a young lady from South Korea, and she was incredible. She did two pieces on the Choir Organ, and then one on the Grand Organ, which had 4 registers and a gazillion stops. We also learned that if anything caused the protestant reformation, it was the hard pews. After walking all day (12 3/4 miles yesterday), both of us were feeling the pain from the pew.
We did dinner afterward at the Landtmann Cafe, which has been there since about 1822 -- it predates Coca Cola (1836) by some 14 zears. The meal was OK, but nothing special. We paid a lot for the ambiance and to eat in a historic Viennese landmark. It was raining when we left, and we learned that umbrellas from the Dollar store are worth just that, and not much more.
Saturdaz morning we were up a bit later again and went with 2 of the people from our tour group by subway to the Summer Palace, or Shornburg Castle.
The opulance of the Hapsburg dynastz is incredible. It makes the Biltmores look like upstarts -- and it endured for over 800 years! From the tour we learned how many of the royal families interconnected through marriage -- don´t expect a recitation now, I gotta do more research first.
We´re now castled and churched out for a while. A day with no tours and mostly on the train tomorrow will be a welcome respite.
We had lunch at the Cafe Schottingen (?), again another landmark. Apparently, most every building that survived WWII in any semblance of what it was before instantly becomes a venerated landmark, with associated pricing. Eddie had a club sandwich, which was pretty good. I decided to opt for something more daring and unusual -- and I´ve learned that my high school german is not going to get me much further than Where is the toilet and How much does this cost. Even with an English menu, though, I ended up with 2 footlongs on a plate of canned Hormel Hotdog sauce. Coulda got the same thing at Dairy Queen at home, but it wouldn´t have cost 9 euro.
It´s the experience of european travel that broadens our horizons.
We did decide to splurge for desert, so we went to a famous Vienna coffee & pastry shop called Demel. Sorry, we ain´t bringin´nuthin back for nobody. I am not paying 19 Euro for 4 pieces of candy. Anyhow, the 4 of us each had coffee and a pastry at a place where Sigmund Freud had eaten (among other notables). I doubt that makes it eligible for reimbursement from our health insurance, though, even though we all know about the remedial effects of chocolate.
The afternoon was spent watching a parade. It started about an hour late, and we were more or less ready to give up, but we were pretty well toured out. You can only hold those little recorders up to your ear for so long before it starts to give you cauliflour ear.
The Parade was a parade. Lots of people. People on floats wave. Loud music from the floats, people throwing candy and stuff.
The amazing thing to me about all that, though, was that the last thing in the parade was the cleanup people. They were immediately following with people sweeping up trash, trucks hosing down the sidewalks and street, etc. By the time we had walked back to the hotel and then back to the street fair, you couldn´t tell there´d been an event there.
Tomorrow´s a travel daz, so I don´t know if there´ll be a post. We´re going by train to Prague, in the Czech Republic, and will be on the train much of the day. A release from walking and tours for a day will be a welcome respite -- we´ve been running in the 12 mile a day range much of the time.
Larry & Eddie
Last night we went to an Organ Recital -- it wasn´t in the cathedral like I thought, but was in the Royal Chapel in the Palace. The performer was a young lady from South Korea, and she was incredible. She did two pieces on the Choir Organ, and then one on the Grand Organ, which had 4 registers and a gazillion stops. We also learned that if anything caused the protestant reformation, it was the hard pews. After walking all day (12 3/4 miles yesterday), both of us were feeling the pain from the pew.
We did dinner afterward at the Landtmann Cafe, which has been there since about 1822 -- it predates Coca Cola (1836) by some 14 zears. The meal was OK, but nothing special. We paid a lot for the ambiance and to eat in a historic Viennese landmark. It was raining when we left, and we learned that umbrellas from the Dollar store are worth just that, and not much more.
Saturdaz morning we were up a bit later again and went with 2 of the people from our tour group by subway to the Summer Palace, or Shornburg Castle.
The opulance of the Hapsburg dynastz is incredible. It makes the Biltmores look like upstarts -- and it endured for over 800 years! From the tour we learned how many of the royal families interconnected through marriage -- don´t expect a recitation now, I gotta do more research first.
We´re now castled and churched out for a while. A day with no tours and mostly on the train tomorrow will be a welcome respite.
We had lunch at the Cafe Schottingen (?), again another landmark. Apparently, most every building that survived WWII in any semblance of what it was before instantly becomes a venerated landmark, with associated pricing. Eddie had a club sandwich, which was pretty good. I decided to opt for something more daring and unusual -- and I´ve learned that my high school german is not going to get me much further than Where is the toilet and How much does this cost. Even with an English menu, though, I ended up with 2 footlongs on a plate of canned Hormel Hotdog sauce. Coulda got the same thing at Dairy Queen at home, but it wouldn´t have cost 9 euro.
It´s the experience of european travel that broadens our horizons.
We did decide to splurge for desert, so we went to a famous Vienna coffee & pastry shop called Demel. Sorry, we ain´t bringin´nuthin back for nobody. I am not paying 19 Euro for 4 pieces of candy. Anyhow, the 4 of us each had coffee and a pastry at a place where Sigmund Freud had eaten (among other notables). I doubt that makes it eligible for reimbursement from our health insurance, though, even though we all know about the remedial effects of chocolate.
The afternoon was spent watching a parade. It started about an hour late, and we were more or less ready to give up, but we were pretty well toured out. You can only hold those little recorders up to your ear for so long before it starts to give you cauliflour ear.
The Parade was a parade. Lots of people. People on floats wave. Loud music from the floats, people throwing candy and stuff.
The amazing thing to me about all that, though, was that the last thing in the parade was the cleanup people. They were immediately following with people sweeping up trash, trucks hosing down the sidewalks and street, etc. By the time we had walked back to the hotel and then back to the street fair, you couldn´t tell there´d been an event there.
Tomorrow´s a travel daz, so I don´t know if there´ll be a post. We´re going by train to Prague, in the Czech Republic, and will be on the train much of the day. A release from walking and tours for a day will be a welcome respite -- we´ve been running in the 12 mile a day range much of the time.
Larry & Eddie
posted by me | 10:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home