VIENNA 2015

Wednesday

Up at 0300.
Drive to Heathrow.
Cleverly park in long term car park D40, bus stop 1.
Go to terminal 3 and commence considerable messing about, with non-functioning printed boarding cards, going up and down stairs fifteen times, consuming picnic of oranges, etc. (All no problem really.)

Eventually go through security and notice that our gate closes in ten minutes. So, brisk walk to gate. Then, more or less straight onto plane.

Exciting flight through mostly clear, bright blue skies. Fly over south London, Kent, Dover harbour, Calais, Belgium.

See the gigantic sprawl of Frankfurt and the mighty beast which is the Rhine. Even from 30,000 feet it is an ocean of a river: tiny specks of white wash as the cruise ships and working boats crawl along.

Decline mouldy croissant breakfast on grounds of gluten intolerance.
Do without.
When mouldy croissant eaters all around are left unsatisfied and empty, we are presented with slap-up repast of ham, eggs, cheese, tomatoes, mayonnaise. Yum yum. It pays to be awkward.
As we come into Austria, see the completely snow covered Tyrolean (sp?) Alps on the horizon. Huge. Massive. Unending. Magnificent. (Difficult to photograph.)

Descend towards Vienna.
Encounter the Danube, from vantage point of 15,000 feet. Two mighty rivers in less than an hour.
Try to imagine just how many zillions of gallons of water pass along each day.
Get lower and lower in the aeroplane, and notice beautifully manicured river banks through the Wachau.

Circle around the Neusiedlersee / Lake Fertod. Lovely, smooth landing at Schwechat.

Catch new, whizzy train into town, and then U-Bahn to Volkstheater.
Walk round corner to Lindengasse and find our top quality accommodation, Hotel Savoy.

Dad impresses staff with his perfect german.
Brief settle in. Then out for adventures.
Explore Mariahilferstrasse, incl. nice church.

Have cheeky lunch in outdoor café in pedestrianised area. Yum yum.

Wander purposefully to the Burggarten and see the Mozart statue and treble clef. (When does the bass clef ever get a garden?)

Onto the Staatsoper, wondering why we have not seen any Mozart-costumed concert ticket vendors.
At the Staatsoper be accosted by several Mozart-costumed concert ticket vendors.

Walk behind opera to admire the Hotel Sacher.

Past the old Schnell Imbiß, climb/escalate up to the Albertina to check opening times, prices. Always has been too expensive to visit on previous visits, with or without offspring. This time things look more promising. Perhaps tomorrow.
Onwards.
Visit Stephansdom. No queue. Straight in. Good jumble of different architectural/decorative styles. Remember that Haydn was chorister here in his formative years.

Exit.
Walk round square. Visit Mozart's house in Domgasse, now transformed into visitors' centre and café.
Of course we all remember when Wolfgang was a lad and his house was less touristy.

Look forward to seeing Le Nozze di Figaro later.
Visit Peterskirche. Excellent name. Beautiful, stunning interior.
Be amazed by completely flat ceiling looking like full blown, decorated dome.

Round corner to Uhrenmuseum. Excellent name. Ace collection of clocks and associated clock items. Do not go in.

Park selves in boiling sunshine on bench in Michaelerplatz and enjoy watching the Viennese world go by. Very restful and pleasant.

Finish resting. Visit Armenian church on Mich-platz.

Stroll through Hofburg. See statue where mum wrote her dissertation one afternoon. Be impressed. Pay reverend respect.

Purchase picnic tea in the Spar.
Go home to hotel. Smuggle tea past reception, and consume.
Quick wash and brush up.
Descend hill to Theater an der Wien for fine performance of Le Nozze di Figaro.

Full house. 25+ strong orchestra. Sublime music. Excellent singers. Very exciting.
A major patron to the Theater an der Wien is Wien Zucker, the sugar company. See violin and seating plan made of sugar cubes.

After performance go to super trendy wine bar. Sit on wooden perches and look cool with all the cool people.
After few minutes of looking cool, leave without buying anything.
Walk home.
And so to bed.

Thursday

Massive lie-in.
Downstairs for copius breakfast in hotel. Eat far too much, so as to keep going all day.

Commence adventures by walking to Belvedere. Sit outside in sunshine for a bit, listening to French dad reading to family members from guide book. Fine, educating dad.

Buy tickets. Go inside.
See all the nice paintings and things in the nice building. Good Messerschmidt funny face heads. Good medieaval section. Lots of ace paintimgs by Schiele, Kokoshka, Jawslesky (sp?). Excellent room full of Klimts, incl. The Kiss.10 or 15 others besides. Manage to take one or two photos when guards not looking. One painting by Macke. One by Kirchner. Good exhibition on inter-war artists, mostly portraits. Good.

Stroll through Belvedere gardens. See man mowing fiddly lawn bits on sit-on mower.

Commence trek through Vienna suburbs to Hundertwasser Haus off Marxergasse. Enjoy looking at house from outside, and going into the Hundertwasser Willage on the other side of the small square (souvenir shops & loo).

Walk few blocks to Hundertwasser museum. Enjoy looking carefully at postcards in museum shop, souvenir books, posters, pencils, rubbers, coasters, etc. Enjoy equally whacky columns, uneven floors, and other Hundertwasser-y features in entrance hall.
Decide that all essentials of visit are already achieved. Save £20. Do not go in.
Trek further up into town.
Stop in Schwedenplatz for delicious ice creams. Yum yum. Mum - Lampona. Dad - Moulin Rouge.
Warm selves in boiling sunshine in front of the Eissalon.
Purchase 72-hour transport cards.
Undertake walking tour of discovery around old Vienna.

Visit Santa Maria am Gestrade, with all its twisty naves and everything. Learn that the chuch was deconsecrated in 17-something and used as stables for Napoleon's grande armée, before being cobbled together into its present state.
Visit Ruprecht's church, oldest church in Christendom, or Vienna, or Austria, or something. Musical ensemble practising for tonight. Learn that Probe is german for practice.
Be in two minds as to whether "Probe" is more positive than "practice" because it implies a reach for perfection each time. Or less positive, because it implies a grasping (and unsuccessful) grab at perfection, rather than a relaxed and certain journey towards perfection guaranteed through practice. Hmmm!

Continue walking tour through town.
Find one of Beethoven's many, many houses - this one where he finished his ninth symphony.

Discover selves next to Volksgarten, so take places in scorching sunshine alongside other Viennese.
Boiling hot. Nice.
As so much of day spent sun bathing, most museums shutting within an hour. Decide on Leopoldsmuseum - late night opening on Thursdays until 9pm. Cleverly check directly on their website to be sure.
Advance across the Ring to Museums Quarter.

Buy tickets in welcome centre/shop at entrance to complex.
Walk across courtyard to museum in far corner.
Be cool, to fit in with all the other cool people.
See sign announcing imminent closure, in 32 minutes, due to some function.
Back to ticket office. All relax on news that tickets may be used any time in the next year. Ticket-selling man equally put out that he had not been told.
Change minds. Decide to go for out-of-town adventure to Kahlenberg instead.
Get on exciting, old-style tram and journey through suburbs to Heiligenstadt. Do not see Beethoven. But do change onto a bus.
Weather now changed from boiling hot to really quite cold and windy. Rain forecast. Strolling around on a mountain top now starting to lose its appeal.
Continue anyway.
Go through Grinzing. From warmth of bus see many pubs and restaurants and Heurigen and vineyards.
Carry on out through other side.
Suddenly bus comes to abrupt stop. Endstation. For continuing to Kahlenbrg need to get out, stand in cold wind, and wait for next bus.
Decide to stay on board and retrace route back down into Grinzing.
Find nice gemütlich Heuriger (technically: einen gemütlichen Heurigen) with violin and accordion players. Drink lots of Weiß gespritzt and consume hearty repast of roasted vegetables, mixed grill, fried potatoes, salad, and varied cheese board.

Place fills up quite nicely. Lots of singing and laughing. Joke telling. All good fun.
Bus and U-Bahn combination back to hotel.
And so to bed.

Friday

Double massive lie-in.
Copious and delicious breakfast despite still being stuffed from last night.
First adventure stop of the day: Leopoldsmuseum in the MuseumsQuartier. Do you remember all the comings and goings-on yesterday. No such palaver (sp?) today. Straight in.
What a splendid place. Full of Klimts and Schieles and Kokoschkas, including Klimt's actual skellington (not really).

Lots of good explanations, photos, books, letters, etc. Good permanent exhibition on Schiele and his girlfriend Wally Neuzil. Schiele seems to spend most of his time drawing pictures of ladies' and gentlemen's under-parts, including his own. All visitors nod understandingly, instead of giggling.
Good rooms with lots of Austrian colourists. All good.

Go outside and lie down for half an hour on big blue bed-seat-things in baking sunshine.

Walk to and catch U-Bahn to Schönbrunn for relatively short visit.
Enjoy walking around in the gardens having a nice time. Go behind the Neptunenbrunnen, and go up to the Glorietta.

Catch U-Bahn back into town.
Visit Albertina for the first time ever. (Used to be a bit rubbish. Now completely done up, with whole new collections.)
Wonderful building - a bit like a cross between a cool National Trust place and a palace. Long marble corridors, red carpets, ballroom, posh loos.

Vaguely interesting exhibition on mountain scenes.
And then onto the real event - the Batliner collection.
Wow! Like a mini version of the Thyssen Museum (see adventures in Madrid, under separate cover) it is jam-packed full of only the very best paintings you can get. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Macke, Kandinsky, Soutine, Signac, Delaunay, Cézanne, Chagall. Couple of good ones of Chatou by Vlaminck (local lad). Miro, Braque, Picasso. What an absolutely fantastic collection.
Not allowed to take photos (ha ha).

See Dürer's rabbit.

Also a temporary (large) exhibition of paintings and drawings borrowed from the musée d'Orsay. Bit rushed at this stage, so not really time to examine it in customary detail.
Now on tight schedule to get to Waltraud and Manfred's.
Purchase quick emergency picnic from shop. Consume picnic on wall outside Opera.
Hop on tram to friends' house.
Spend nice evening with friends on eve of their wedding. Hear lots of stories. Drink wine. Eat ham and cheese. Very nice.
Do not stay too late.
Catch tram home.
And so to bed.

Saturday

Massive lie-in. Breakfast. (As days go by, getting harder and harder to stuff selves full of sustenance.)
Big wedding day ahead. This is it. This is the day.
Have two or three hours before the call of duty, so go for nice wander through town.
Start with nice visit to the Naschmarkt.
Now, in amongst that mile long collection of antiques and jumble were some real gems at a fair price with unempeachable (sp?) provenance. But we did not find them. Instead enjoyed looking at table upon table of jumble and junk. Is this the world's grandest car boot sale? Nice setting, nice weather, nice time.
Saw Jacquie's hairdryer.

Continue wanderings to Karlsplatz.
Decline opportunity (as on previous occasions) to pay €16,00 to enter church. Resolve to re-visit Peterskirche a little later which is: a) in the same baroque style, b) beautiful, and c) freeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Elect to bathe in magnificent sunshine in Karlsplatz itself.
Remember all the friendship bears arrayed here on last visit, all in strict alphabetical order. "You vill stend here, und you vill be friends mit zis bear." Now all gone.

Listen to nutty russian shouty nutter busker on other side of square. Is the world only populated by nutters? Or does Jane have some special magnetism which unfailingly draws nutters (excl. husbands) to her wherever she goes?
Enjoy selves.
Visit lobby of Vienna History Museum. Peter looks at books, pencils and souvenir rubbers in shop area, which provides cover for Jane to visit the facilities. Museum looks good. Definitely visit another time.
Stroll up into town.
Pay reverential visit to Hegelgasse, site of Jane's mission to Vienna's uneducated youth in times gone by.

Pop into the Haus der Musik. Fail to get really what it is.
Buy Harry Potter book in bookshop.
Visit Kärtnergasse, Stephansplatz, Graben, and indeed Peterskirche, as promised earlier. Really very nice.
See Chopin's house in the Kohlmarkt.

Back to hotel and change into wedding costumes.

Make way to the Leopoldskirche.

Be excited by meeting lots of guests in Austrian dress. Get a bit nervous about the whole Fürbitte thing.
Go in. Reserve tactically appropriate seats allowing access to pulpit later.
Sun shining. Everyone looking good. Close on 100 people. All is well.
Waltraud and Manfred arrive in an open-top, horse-drawn fiaker carriage. Slightly early, so decide to go for a ten-minute ride round block. (Turns out later that they had fiaker-ed all the way through town from Waltraud's flat in Geschwandnergasse, best part of an hour away by fiaker.) No superstitious nonsense about not seeing each other ahead of time.
Lots of photos outside.

Manfred sings.
Many guests in either full or half Tracht. Good fun to dress up. Girls look pretty. Boys look smart. Others dressed as/in Sergeant Pepper, cowboys, kimonos, fun British costumes.

Guests go in.

Witnesses go in, presumably leaving bridal pair alone on pavement outside.
Priest and assistant priest descend aisle and fetch groom. Install groom.
Priest and assistant priest re-descend aisle and fetch bride. Install bride.
Various prayers.
Bride and groom sit on posh stools front and centre.
No audience-participation hymns. Music fore and aft on organ. Couple of solo songs from soloist in organ loft.
A fun reading. Usual marriage at Cana spiel from priest, and then fairly lengthy sermon.
Entertaining main bit of service where vows barked out by priest standing behind altar to bridal pair fifteen feet away standing just in front of their posh stools. No gentle coaxing of vows out of nervous participants.
(shouts:) Vill you, Manfred, take zis voman to be, etc.
To which Manfred barks, JA!
Then another, similar quvestion.
JA!
(shouts:) Vill you, Waltraud, take zis man, etc.
JA!
JA!
Another reading.
Then priest becomes slightly more human and descends to bride and groom to bless and fit wedding rings (on right hands, as used to be the case in England). Wraps his special catholic stoll/scarf around their hands and pronounces them man and wife.

Extended session of prayers uttered by priest.
Jane/Peter anxious not to cause hold-up in affairs by being late to the front. Also anxious not to cause disruption in prayers by wandering around at front of church at inappropriate moment. Has he finished? Let's go. No. Let's stay. Finished now? Let's go. No, he is about to start another one. Let's stay. Go. Stay. Go. Stay.
Sh#;@?*%! He has now finished.
Silence.
More silence.
Priest calls the Fürbitte readers to the front.
Manage to get there without a) fainting, b) falling over, c) any other calamity.
Wait for both other readers to arrive from back of church.
Jane goes first.
Flawless. Audience is attentive and appreciative. Waltraud and Manfred look happy.
Peter's turn.
Switch to automatic. (Like playing in a concert, or playing a solo. I can do this. I have practised this. I am good at this.)
Look Waltraud and Manfred straight in the eyes and go for it.
Don't really need notes, but make sure finger follows them anyway. (We all know what happens when you wing it and get a mental block.)
Out-of-body ears report back that all is well. However, unlike music, simply sounding right does not mean it is right.
Think it was all right. (There may be a video to follow. Then we will know.)
Waltraud and Manfred seemed happy enough.
Final solo from organ loft.
Final blessing.
All applaud as married couple process out of church.
Big backlog of guests in doorway of church. Married couple standing just outside receiving hugs, congratulations and wedding presents.
Shuffle forwards.
Eventually perform congratulating ritual.

Large mass of people, 100 ish, now gathered in front of church. All encouraged to proceed to Pfarrenhaus next door.
Wait little while. Glad we do because we see Waltraud and Manfred eat the ritual slice of bread with salt and water, then toss the glass over her shoulder to its inevitable smashing.
(Quickly dustpan and brushed up by super Angela, Manfred's sister.)
All to Pfarrenhaus for Agape.
(An Agape is clearly a wedding reception. No other word for it. But reception in the sense of a cocktail party, not a big sit-down meal.)

Talk to other guests, incl. Grete.
Drink Sekt. Listen to songs, music, and poems.

Very nice time in sunshine.
Nice people.

Waltraud throws bouquet over shoulder to be caught by someone in huddle of eagar girls.
After an hour or so, people start to drift away, leaving the core invitees free to go next door to the restaurant/pub.
Around 30 people attend the sit-down meal. All quite informal.
Master/mistress of ceremonies is definitely Angela, Manfred's sister.

Lots of games, dancing, and messing around.
Endless talk of penguins and monkeys.

Good game with Manfred dressed in baby-grow with Waltraud's arms.

Narrowly, very, very narrowly, avoid having to remove Waltraud's garter.
Take opportunity to talk to as many people as possible.
Time flies. Suddenly arrive at later end of evening.
Take ages going around saying goodbye to everyone.
Leave. Catch U-Bahn home.
And so to bed.

Sunday

Massive lie-in.
Massive breakfast. Really getting the hang of this breakfast business now.

Pack. Leave excellent Hotel Savoy.

Select MuseumsQuartier courtyard for half an hour's repose in the sunshine.
Nice stroll around the Ringstrasse seeing all the nice buildings.

Eventually advance to Schottentor, where catch tram to newlyweds' flat in Geschwandnergasse.

Both Waltraud and Manfred dressed in Austrian garb again.

Take deep breath, climb into Waltraud's car, and commence frightening race through city centre. Cyclists and fiaker drivers nearly join us in car on numerous occasions.

Drive past pub from yesterday, and, as it turns out, Manfred's flat 50 yards away overlooking the Augarten. Nice place for a flat.
Come to rest next to the Donaupark.
All go into Sichuan Garden chinese restaurant. Yes, it is easily 90 minutes since we finished our last copius meal. Just ready for the next. Consume humungous chinese lunch. Delicious.

Barely able to walk, go for nice stroll around Donaupark. Go up Donauturm in their glass-ceilinged lift, seeing selves hurtling upwards within the great concrete cylinder. Good.

Look at ace views from top. Sun is shining and visibility is excellent. See all the Wienerwald round about, and the hills of Slovakia in the distance. See sun glistening on all the cool buildings in Vienna.
Be especially impressed with terrific views of various bits of Donau, Alte Donau, etc. Many sailing boats making pretty sight on glistening water. Occasional power boat on main river.

Take seats in revolving café. Order and eat ice creams until full to bursting.

Observe people preparing for and doing actual bungee jumps.
Exciting and dangerous passtimes - yes; same activities in the hands of some unemployed hippies - no.
Fortunately no-one is killed on this occasion.

Descend in cool lift. Walk back to Waltraud's car.
Begin nerve-racking journey through town centre once more to airport. Adopt differing techniques to avoid dwelling on imminent danger.

Be relieved to arrive in one piece.
Thank hosts muchly for lift, wedding invitation, and generally entertaining us.
Big hugs all round.
Easy passage through airport and onto plane.
Nice flight.
Nice holiday.

Leute

	Angela . Thomas (Manfred's sister + new man)
	Alex(ander) . Stefanie (Angela's son / Manfred's nephew)
	Markus . Rafi (Rafaela) (Manfred's son + girlfriend)
	Grete (Mariane/Mini/medicine . Julius/facilities management)
	Ernst . Almuth (Manfred's old school chum and band member)
	Peter . Christa (Green suit Beatles, wedding video)
	?Nina ?Anna (Wedding witness / Manfred's drama pupil)