Last Blog Post

Nothing really to write about today:  final fruhstuck (breakfast) in Munich, then a 12 noon checkout and a cab ride to the airport.  We have a short flight to Frankfurt (Lufthansa), then a long flight to San Francisco (United).  Apex Limousine will pick us up and bring us home to Napa.

Final Full Day in Munich and Europe

Our European vacation is coming to a close, but we still have one more day for sightseeing.  Our plan is to take it easy today and visit the Lenbachhaus museum.  The Lenbachhaus Museum was established in 1929 in the former home of the artist Franz von Lenbach.  It is dedicated primarily to modern art, but in a broad definition.  A large portion of the museum is alloted to 19th century paintings, which, I suppose, was considered modern in 1929!  The museum had been closed in 2009 and just reopened in 2013 with a modern new addition.

After breakfast (which features the best tasting coffee I've had in all of Central Europe), we stroll to the Marienplatz -- we have some chores to do before we head to the museum!  Our first stop (and the only stop, it turns out) is the store called Kaiser.  Munich sells flat, painted pewter ornaments at Christmastime in its market, but I believe they could be found year-round.  When we inquired at the front desk, we were greeted with blank looks and told to go to the large department store called Kaufhof.  On our way there, I have an epiphany from fifteen years ago: suddenly I knew exactly where the store in which we shopped fifteen years ago is located.  I am right!  It is called Kaiser -- so we go in.  We find a gift for our housekeeper who has been watering our plants while we have been gone and also a few gifts for ourselves.  I also find an ornament showing a bride and groom, which I buy for my nephew Eric and his fiance Erin.  The selection here is incredible.  Rob buys an ornament for his Aunt Phyllis that features butterflies.  When we depart the store, we arrive at the Marienplatz just in time to watch the clock ring 11am and see the moving figures on the rathaus tower.

We strolled up the main pedestrian walkway and stop in to see the Theatinerkirche, which is covered up in scaffolding, but open to visitors inside.  It is a Baroque style, but all white inside, quite lovely.

Across the street is the Feldherrnhalle, a monumental loggia built in the 1800's for Bavarian King, Ludwig I, as a symbol of the honor of the Bavarian Army.  It has a certain notoriety as it was the site of the Nazi Party's "Beer Hall Putzch."  This occurred in 1923 as the police confronted members of the Nazi Party engaged in an illegal march.  Many people were killed, and Adolph Hitler was arrested and jailed.  As a result, the Feldherrnhalle became a symbol of the Nazi Party.

We continue on to the museum.  The first permanent exhibit we enjoyed was called 19th Century Art, featuring landscapes.  I took note of one by Henri-Joseph Harpignies, called "View of Saint-Prive."  Upstairs the exhibit continued more with portraits, although there was one landscape by Hans Thoma, called "Der Verlorene Sohn (Der Schweinhirt)," which translates to the prodigal son with a herd of pigs.  I like this because I have never seen or even heard of anyone herding pigs!  Is that a thing?  Don't pigs just hang out in a sty?  Unfortunately, I am unable to find any images of these paintings on the internet. The museum also has some super modern installations that I must confess are of no interest to me.

The star of the museum is a permanent exhibit called "The Blue Rider."  The Blue Rider group consisted of Russian and German painters in the Munich area who rejected the prominent art authority at the time (1911 to 1914) and established their own exhibitions.  Two of the more prominent members were Vasily Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter, who were also a couple for many years.  The art in here is unbelievable.  For a while they lived in a town called Murnau, and if you google images for Kandinsky and Murnau, you will see incredible works of art.  Here is one:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/clairity/2861924449/in/photostream/lightbox/

This is a large exhibit and also has a lot of paintings by other artists such as the fabulous Paul Klee.  This is really a treat!

Lunch is in the museum restaurant, called Ella -- very nice.  Rob has a petite tuna salad sandwich with a green salad and sweet potato fries.  I have a large green salad with radishes and pomegranite seeds (granatappel in German). 

After our museum visit, we return to the town center for some additional shoe shopping (unsuccessful yet again) and a visit to one of Munich's most famous landmarks, the Frauenkirche.  The exterior here is also largely under scaffolding, but the interior is just fine!  Here is my photo:

Now, we returned to the hotel to work on our suitcases and relax.  Dinner tonight is at our hotel's restaurant, which, as it turns out, is the number one recommendation by Yelp.  It is kind of a fancy restaurant called Pfistermuhle, which I have no idea what that means.  I start with an appetizer of white spargle (asparagus) and Rob has a plate of very thinly sliced smoked salmon.  For mains, I have Bavarian ox, which I'm assured is really beef, served with potato croquettes and broccoli.  Rob has a boneless veal chop with potatoes and stuffed zuchini.  Both were very tasty.  The restaurant itself is a bit unusual in that there isn't a main dinning room  Instead there are small, intimate rooms each with perhaps three or four tables.  We were seated in a room with three tables.

Following dinner, we retire to our room and settle in for a good, long night sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day of travel including a nine hour time zone change.

Nassig and Wertheim, Germany (Happy Pfingsten!)

Today is the day that we will visit the place where my great-great-great-great-great grandfather was born in 1730, the town/village of Nassig, Germany.  His name was Johan Martin Dostmann.  In 1752, he left the town of Nassig to travel down the Main River and then the Rhine River, to Rotterdam where he would board a ship to take him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was, most likely, to become an indentured servant.  He traveled with his sister, Anna Barbara, and at least six cousins from this area.

We rose early, and when we went to breakfast here at the hotel, we learned that today is Pfingsten, a national holiday, so the shops will also be closed again today, just like on Sunday (great).  What is Pfingsten?  Turns out that it is the German word for the Christian celebration of Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after Easter.  I guess they are a little more religious here to get a day off from work to celebrate Pentecost (although when I asked the young waitresses to explain what Pfingsten was, they all looked at each other with blank looks.  Only the older waitress seemed to have any knowledge of what is the significance of Pfingsten/Pentecost -- no criticism here ... how many Americans could explain Pentecost themselves?  But in our defense, we don't have a day off from work to celebrate this).

We arrived at Munich's central train station at 9am to rent our car.  The drive to Nassig, which is to the northwest, will take anywhere from three to three and one half hours, so there is no time to lose.  We are on the road by 9:30am, make a few wrong turns in Munich, but eventually find the highway A9 heading north.  Driving in unfamiliar cities is much improved from the old days with GPS to help you.  The GPS in this car speaks in a very classy English accent and never once said the word, "recalculating."

The drive is almost all on the Autobahn, first on A9, then on A3.  Driving on the Autobahn is very tense.  I drove at about 90-100 miles per hour, but many cars were passing me anywhere from 120-160 miles per hour I believe.  You go into the left lane at your peril, and you better not stay in it for long.  A car that seems far away in your rear view mirror can be up on you in a matter of seconds, and you had better not be in the way!  A car going 160 MPH does not slow down very quickly.  Fortunately, for most of our drive, the freeway has three lanes, so you can get past slow moving trucks or RV's without going into the far left hand lane.  Needless to say, the driver has to pay strict attention to what is going on in front and behind at all times -- no distractions.  Anyway, we get there with no incidents.  The weather seems promising; the clouds seem to be lifting and there are breaks of sun.  That will change, sadly.

When we first exit the freeway, we drive a little along the Main River towards the town of Wertheim.  Wertheim is the largest town in the area with about 24,000 inhabitants (Nassig is about three miles to the west/southwest of Wertheim).  Here are two lovely pictures of the Main River as it flows towards Wertheim (I actually took this picture at the end of our visit as we were leaving town):

 

Note that the weather has turned overcast again, there will be no sunshine for the rest of the day.  We are back to the pattern of overcast and drizzly.

We use our GPS to find parking in the cramped old town and walk towards the town center where we had earlier seen a sign for tourist information.  Just as we get there, though, the rain begins in earnest, so we need to pop in somewhere for lunch.  There is a restaurant just at the entrance to the old town pedestrian area, so we go in.  It must be a good choice, since it seems fairly full.  Of course, it is a traditional German restaurant.  It is called "Golderner Adler."  We are in luck as the waitresses inside speak pretty good English.  Our waitress is able to help us with the menu (no English language menu here), so ordering is fairly painless.  I have a Frankische bratwurst, which is apparently a local specialty that comes with sauerkraut and fried potatoes.  Rob has Fleischekukle (literally "flesh cake"), which the waitress has translated as meatballs.  They are actually like mini-veal hamburger patties, pretty tasty.  It also came with fried potatoes and a vegetable like creamed spinach, but actually translates to savoy cabagge.  We both start with fairly nice salads, too.  A good, but filling lunch, but honestly, I don't know how the German people could eat such rich food day after day.

After lunch, we found our way to the tourist information center.  I asked the woman inside if she spoke English, and said "a little."  It became obvious that I was not able to explain to her why we were visiting.  She began by trying to point out the highlights for tourists in Wertheim, but I responded by saying I wanted to go to nearby Nassig, which she did not understand, because I was later to discover, there is really nothing to see in Nassig.  I wished I could have explained my interest in Nassig, but I was not able to.  I did write out the surname Dostmann, which (I think) suggested to her that I was interested in history, so she handed a brochure to me for a local restored monastery in a nearby town of Bronnbach that she must have thought we would be interested in.  In the end, however, I could not communicate to her, and therefore she was unable to help me beyond basic tourist assistance, which was not really my objective.  Oh well, it was a shame not to find an English speaking person on duty, but perhaps that wouldn't have made any difference anyway.  We did come away with a really good map of the area with all of the nearby towns, including Nassig.

So we drove out of Wertheim to find Nassig, which was not difficult (the map helped quite a bit).  It is only a three mile drive.  Right at the entry to the town (which I will more accurately call a village from here on), was a welcome sign, which is always a photo op:

The sign translates to "2013, 800 years, Nassig greets its guests."  Inside the village, there is surprisingly little to see.  Most of the structures are houses that look fairly modern, although they could be older and remodeled; certainly nothing from 1752.  The oldest structures look like converted barns that have been kept up to some degree.  Here is a picture of one that looked particularly old to me:

The church in the town was not old, but I photographed it anyway, from the side and the front:

There is no one walking about the town.  As noted above, the weather is cold and drizzly and everything is closed due to the holiday.  The only other amenities in the town are a restaurant, "Zum Rose," closed, a chain grocery store, and an Allianz ATM; no gas station.  As I said, the village is only three miles from Wertheim, so residents don't have really have far to drive to shop.

There is only one other place I can think of to look for, and that is the cemetery.  We find it, also thanks to the map, and it is fairly small.  We walk around and immediately notice something odd:  where are the older graves.  Almost every grave is from the year 2000 or later.  I look around some more, and the oldest one I can find is a death from 1985.  What is going on here?  Is this a new cemetery?  Where is the old one?  Interestingly, there is a monument to the soldiers who died in World War I -- well that has been here for a while.  We don't get our answer to this question until later in the day, when we are able to research German burial practices on the internet.  It turns out Germans are unable to buy burial plots, but can only lease them for a period of fifteen years or so.  When the time is up, the family can pay to renew.  However, most often, the body is just dug up and relocated to a (presumably) shared and unmarked grave in the cemetery, so the the plot can be reused.  So, I guess there will be no searching through old cemeteries to find buried ancestors.  As we leave the village, I spot a young woman walking her dog.  Her English is not perfect, either, but she is able to confirm to me that there is no other cemetery in the town.  One interesting thing about the names of the (fairly recently) buried:  there are many graves with the names Dosch, Sheurich, and Adelmann.  These are all people related to the Dostmanns.  Johan Martin Dostmann's mother's maiden name was Scheurich, and his grandmothers' maiden names were Dosch and Adelmann.  Here is a photo of some of the graves in the cemetery.  It is nice to see how all of the grave plots are planted with pretty flowers:

There is really nothing else to see here.  Perhaps nothing has changed since 1752; there was no reason for Johan Martin to stay, and no reason for me either.  I am a little disappointed, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  I am glad I came here.  Now I know what is here.  Before we drive back to Wertheim, we drive around the country roads and check out the next town of Sonderriet.  Sonderriet is significant in that the old church book that records Johan Martin's birth was for the combined communities of Nassig and Sonderriet.  Maybe there will be an old church there?  No, there is no old church and not even any cemetery.  Here are two photos I took to document what this area looks like: the first is just of the fields -- each of these villages sits entirely surrounded by farm land and the second is a view of Nassig from the highway from Sonderriet.

Anyone familiar with Pennsylvania and Ohio can see why the Germans were happy to settle there.  Their new home would not have been all that different from the one they left behind with one big difference:  in the new world they could buy and own their own farms, an opportunity that would not have been available in Germany.

Driving back to Wertheim, we stop for a few more photo opportunities.  Given better weather and more time, this would be a nice town to visit, including climbing up the ruins of the castle (burg).  Here are a few photos.  The river in the third photo is the River Tauber.  Wertheim is located where the River Tauber joins the River Main.  The town itself is at the bottom of the River Main valley.  When you leave Wertheim, you climb in altitude as all the surrounding communities, including Nassig, are at a higher elevation.

We did make one more stop in Wertheim before we leave:  the cemetery there, just to satisfy my curiousity.  As in Nassig, there are no old graves, but I do make one discovery:  a grave with the surname, Dostmann -- so there are still people named Dostmann in this area -- my cousins!

Now it is time to return to the Autobahn for three more hours of white knuckled driving; this time in the rain, no less.  Fortunately, the Germans do slow down for rainy weather.  A few times on this drive, we had to endure some pretty good downpours.  Our GPS leads us straight to the Munich Hauptbahnhof to return our car with no trouble.  It is after 7pm, so we headed back to our hotel and then dinner.  We had a simple but nice dinner near the hotel at a casual Italian place calle La Valle:  arugula salads and spaghetti bolognese.

Return to Germany / FC Bayern / Glockenbach

We were up early today to catch our 9am train from Salzburg to Munich.  This is another nice comfortable train with wifi that usually doesn't work, but that is okay.  I had been looking forward to this train ride as we will be traveling near the Bavarian Alps, but the weather is still overcast and drizzly, so our views are not as spectacular as we had hoped.  I can say this:  this area is one of the greenest places I have ever seen (that is code for: it never stops raining!).

When we arrived in Munich, we took a taxi to our hotel, the Platzl, centrally located.  It is, of course, too early to check in, so we drop our bags.  The person who checked us in had a warning for us, though.  The Marienplatz (central) square would be the location for the FC Bayern (football club Bavaria) team's championship celebration starting at 1pm with the team arriving at 2pm.  This is a big deal, almost like winning the super bowl, I would guess.  So we decide to avoid the hubbub and walk to Munich's Englischer Garten, kind of like their Central Park.  The rain has stopped for the most part, but I don't think we will be seeing any sunshine.  It is a pleasant walk through the park; here is a photo I took:

We are starting to get hungry for lunch, and I hear music in the distance (a good old German oom-pah band!).  Where there is music, there will be food!  I was right; we stumble upon a bier garten.  Germans love these:  tons of tables set outside for communal eating.  A place to buy liter sized beers in giant glass mugs, plus food.  We check out the food (pork knuckle seems popular), and get a half chicken, roasted, plus pickled cabbage salad (not cole slaw), and potato salad -- plus beers, or course, but only 1/2 liters.  The food is great, and it is a treat to be among the Germans on a typical Sunday afternoon.  Rob has a pretzel, too:

After lunch, we return to the city center, just in time to see the team bus arrive:

It is going to be a zoo.  The police have so many streets blocked off that I am not even sure we will be able to get back to our hotel, but somehow we manage to dodge the barracades and make it.  Later I learn that this the teams 25th German championship; they have won 7 of the past 11 years.  Maybe it is not such a big deal after all.

Back at the hotel, we take a rest, then decide to go for a walk to the south.  A New York Times article that I had saved described a neighborhood called Glockenbach that would have trendy restaurants and shops.  Since it is Sunday, though, all the shops will be closed.  No matter, we can still stroll by and look in the windows.  We walk through the Viktualienmarkt (open air food market, also closed on Sunday) to get to this neighborhood.  It is really charming, and there is a traffic circle with a fountain in the middle that seem really pretty.  Even though we are only a few blocks from the touristic area, we seem to be the only tourists walking about the area.  As noted above, all the shops are closed, but a few cafes are open today.  We continue exploring the area and find ourselves at a bridge crossing the River Isar.  Looking down from the bridge, we see all kinds of people walking along the riverbank below and biking along trails.  We decide to join them.  It is a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon out with the locals.  After reaching the next bridge up the river (which is flowing very fast, by the way), we decide to make our way back.  One final observation:  it seems almost everyone is walking a dog, and the dogs are very well behaved off their leashes (and they even understand the German language).

When we return to the traffic circle, we decide to stop at a nice outdoor cafe for a glass of wine.  I have to say, this cafe's clientele are some of the best looking people I have ever seen.  Rob and I are the oldest people here.  Apparently, this is the place to be.  We just sit and enjoy the ambience.  A young lady sits down at the next table with her dog, who we learn is named Frida, because she has the unibrow of the artist Frida Kahlo.  Soup is very popular here, as almost everyone seems to be ordering it.

We walk back to the hotel to drop our bags / camera and head out to dinner.  We have decided to eat dinner at the traditional German restaurant near the cathedral where we ate on our first night in Europe (which seems like a long time ago).  We order a large salad to share then each have pork and potatoes with blauekraut (braised red cabbage).  It is very good, again, then time to turn in.

Salzburg in the Rain

Well, our decision to take the "Sound of Music" tour yesterday is looking like a good one, given that the weather seems worse today.  Today, we will see the sights in Salzburg not related to the Sound of Music for the most part.  Our hotel is located on the main walking/pedestrian shopping street, and the first thing we notice when we leave is the fancy, old fashioned signs that all of the shops and restaurants have on this street, even the McDonalds!

We walk to the main square where we admire the Old Residenz building and the Neue Residenz.  Salzburg for most of its history was part of no country, but a city-state.  Its ruler was actually the Roman Catholic archbishop, known as a prince-archbishop.  These two residences were two of the palaces where the prince-archbishops lived.  Here is my photo of the Neue Residenz -- note the glockenspiel on top; it plays a concert at 8am, 11am, and 6pm.  We heard the 11am concert, very short.

We walked into the next square to admire the Salzburg Cathedral.  We could go in, but some type of service  was underway for a youth conference that is taking place this weekend.  I did take a picture of the interior that had special red lighting for the conference, kind of a nice effect.

Our next objective was "Sound of Music" related: finding the abbey where the nuns live.  It is up on a hill and requires a lot of step climbing to get there. The red onion dome is quite distinctive, otherwise there is not much to see with one exception: the gate where the children pleaded to see Fraulein Maria after she had fled the house.  Here is Rob reenacting that scene:

We then walked into the St. Peter's Cemetery that the guidebook recommended; it is quite unusual.  This was not used in the film (as noted before that was a set in Hollywood), but was the inspirition for the set, as you can see in the picture:

We continue walking through the town, admiring a few more churches.  Since it is Saturday, there is a lively food market at the University Platz that we stroll through.  For lunch we eat at a place called Carpe Diem.  It is kind of expensive, but the old town is a zoo -- it is Saturday, so there are lots of people and tour groups tramping around, in spite of the weather.  We each have a green salad and an entree of sea bass.  The food is inventive and delicious, and we are treated to two amuse bouches:  a mini ice cream cone with mashed potatoes and beef tartar and a grilled prawn with goat cheese in some type of sauce.  The service is also very good, as is the Gruner Veltliner wine.  When we left, they actually gave us a box of five chocolate truffles to take with us -- nice!

After lunch, our next objective is to go up to the Salzburg fortress,  We take an elevator up to the top of the Monchberg mountain that is by the modern art museum (which we skip), then walk across the top of the mountain towards the fortress.  This morning's drizzle has turned into full on steady rain.  Even with the elevator ride, there is still a VERY steep climb.  There is really not much to comment on about the interior of the fortress, except the views, which would be nice on a nice day, but at least we can still see a little:

We ride the funicular down to the city center and head straight to our hotel to get out of the rain.  It is about 3pm.  I am sure we have missed a few things here in Salzburg, but I think we hit the highlights.  It was the best we could do in this weather.

Dinner tonight is back in our hotel restaurant, which is very good.  Neither of us has the energy to march through the rain to find anyplace else, and why should we?  We both order the flank steak with asparagus (that's "spargel" in German).  It is so nice to be traveling at this time of year, since nearly every restaurant has some type of special asparagus (including white asparagus) dish on the menu, which is always delicious.  Now it is time to retire to our room for the Eurovision finale -- who will win?????

The Hills are Alive!

Goodbye, Vienna, but not yet goodbye to Austria -- we are taking the train west to Salzburg, former home of the Von Trapp family of musical fame!  We take a cab to Vienna's West Bahnhof and take our seats on the most modern train of this vacation so far.  It is called a RailJet and even has the wifi we have been hoping for -- with only one problem:  it is not very reliable, oh well!  The train ride would be very pleasant were it not for some American blowhards who maintain a loud and very boring conversation for the entire two and one half hour length of the ride -- why?

The weather today is not so good, cool and drizzly, but the forecast for tomorrow (Saturday) is no better, maybe worse, so we make the decision to try to take our "Sound of Music" tour today.  Although people from other countries do not understand the lure of "Sound of Music" for us Americans, every American who comes to Salzburg wants to see the sights used in filming this movie. The tours are offered by different operators, but we decide to go with the recommendation in our Rick Steves guide book and take the tour offered by Bob's.  When we check into our hotel shortly after 1pm, the front desk clerk immediately tells us the Panorama is the only tour that is any good, but we recall more advice from Rick Steves:  ignore the advice from hotel personnel because they are only offering advice that gets them a kickback (or compensation) from the tour operators.  So we ignore his advice.  We walk to Bob's office on the river, and the tour is ready to go by 2pm.  One advantage of Bob's is that the tours are very small, no more than eight people can fit in the small bus, whereas Panorama runs a greyhounds bus.

Here are the highlights of the sights we saw:

(1) The abbey from a distance -- probably no closer because the nuns don't want to be disturbed.  Here was filmed "How do you solve a problem like Maria," the gate to the convent when the children unsuccessfully went to see Fraulein Maria after she had fled the family, and (3) when the family boards the getaway car at the end of the movie.  There is no cemetery at the abbey, so that scene was filmed in Hollywood.  A funny story about the filming of the movie at the abbey, told to us by our tour guide:  when they were filming at the abbey it was a very hot day.  The actresses when on break would sit in the garden with their robes lifted all the way up and smoke.  Visitors to the abbey were scandalized -- the nuns spent more than a few years trying to live that down -- even though it wasn't the actual nuns!

(2) The Salzburg festival halls where the singing contest occurred (outside only).

(3) The mansion on the lake that served as the exterior of the Von Trapp house (back side only -- the front of the fictional Von Trapp mansion was an entirely different house).  This is where the Von Trapp children fell into the water with Maria.  Not too far from here is the mountain used for filming the final scene where the family hikes to freedom in Switzerland.  One small problem:  if you actually climbed this mountain, you would end up in Germany -- oops!  The real Von Trapps actually hiked from their house a short distance to the train station and took the next train to Italy.

(4) The gazebo where Liezl sings, "I am sixteen going on seventeen ..."  This is not located in its original location, but at Schloss Hellbrunn.  It is also locked -- an elderly gentleman attempted to jump from bench to bench as in the film several years ago and fell and broke a hip.  Now no one can go in.  Nearby to here is the country lane where Julie Andrews skipped along and sang, "I have confidence," on her way to the Von Trapp house for the first time.  We were all given the opportunity to skip along.

(5) A stop to admire the view of Wolfgangsee (beautiful lake, not part of the movie, just beautiful)..

(6) The church in Mondesee (Moon Lake) where the interior was used for the marriage of Maria and Captain Von Trapp (that's Georg to you!).  Much smaller that you would expect.  In the filming of the movie, Julie Andrews had to walk down the aisle four times to simulate a larger church.  The townspeople were used as wedding guests, and if you look closely you can see Julie walking past the same people over and over.  This part of the tour also included a stop for coffee and apple strudel!

(7) The gardens at Schloss Mirabell (back in Salzburg).  This is where many of the "Doe a deer" scenes were filmed.

Our guide was very good.  She really made an effort to try and find out inside information.  For example, on the occasion of the re-opening of the (real) Von Trapp house as a hotel, Maria Von Trapp (not the stepmother played by Julie Andrews, but a daughter also named Maria) came as a 93 year old woman (she flew on the Red Bull private jet -- Red Bull's world headquarters is in the Salzburg area, we drove by it actually).  Our tour guide was her driver and had breakfast with her as well.  Our tour guide told us that she was a very nice woman who did not even need a cane for walking (she passed away at age 99).  

One more comment on the real Von Trapp story:  Maria was hired not to be the governess for all seven Von Trapp children; she was hired to be the governess for only one child who had been ill with rheumatism.  That child was also named Maria and is the 93 year old woman from the previous paragraph.

The weather today was not good, but for the most part we did not have to deal with rain, but the clouds were hanging low and the mountains around the town of Mondesee would have been much more beautiful on a nice day.  The tour ended a little after six, so we walked back to our hotel.  We were not feeling very adventurous regarding dinner, so we eat at the hotel restaurant called the Blaue Gans (Blue Goose).  It is actually very good.  Rob had boiled beef (Tafelspitz), and I have wienersnitzel.

Final Day in Vienna

We have enjoyed a lovely streak of weather here in central Europe, but that changed today.  While it drizzled a little when we went out for dinner last night, today is downright blustery, overcast all day and in the fifties, temperature-wise.  For the most part, though, no rain, so that was a blessing.

Our agenda today begins with a walk south to the Belvedere Palace, built by Prince Eugene of Savoy.  He was a French aristocrat who pursued and was rejected for a career in the French Military.  Consequently, he moved to Austria and declared his allegiance to the Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire.  He was a great military leader and defeated the French to the west as well as the Ottomans to the east.  His successful military career lasted over six decades.  He built the palace for himself and intended it to rival the Hapsburg's Schonbrunn Palace.  Today, the Belvedere Palace remains in very good condition and is home to a lovely art museum.  It retains the love of art that Prince Eugene had (he was also a great collector of books -- 15,000 volumes of his reside in the Austrian National Library -- which we visited yesterday).  The visit to the museum is a great success.  There are older paintings, but most of them are landscapes, which I prefer to portraits of people I don't know or ecclesiastic art.  They are very nice.  There is one room that contains some nice impressionist art, including a Manet, a Monet, a Renoir, and others.  This is a treat.  Another room had a gorgeous Van Gogh landscape that we love.  Here is the best photo I found on the internet, although it did not quite capture the color tones exactly -- it was way more green and aqua than this photo displays:

The star(s) of the museum, however, are the paintings by Austrian Gustav Klimt.  I knew about his portraits of women, but his landscapes were unbelievable!  My words won't do the art justice, so I'll just share some images (again only as good as what I could find on the internet) of what we saw:

Truly amazing -- you cannot go to Vienna without seeing this museum in my humble opinion!

The gardens of the Belvedere are really nice for strolling as well, but today's weather is not ideal -- still no rain for which we are thankful!  Here are nice shots of the garden and lower palace from a window of the upper palace and a view of the upper palace from the garden:

We next walk back to the Ringstrasse to see if we can buy our tickets to the Vienna State Opera tour this afternoon.  We learn that the ticket window only opens up one half hour before the tours, or at 1:30pm.  We go to the mall next door and find a nice grocery where we can buy baguette sandwiches for lunch (we're going cheap today).  Then it is back to the opera to wait for it to open; there are already several people waiting here.

We enter the building, and everyone segregates by language desired.  Good news for us:  the English tour goes first!  We see the grand entryway, the side rooms where people go for intermission, and the tea salon room that was built for the royalty, but now can be rented by anyone.  Then, of course, the grand hall itself.  We have to say, it was a little underwhelming after seeing the State Opera House in Budapest.  While the overall building in Vienna is much larger, the interior is much less grand.  As it turns out, about three quarters of the Vienna Opera House, including the main theater, was destroyed by a bomb in World War II (in 1944).  When deciding to rebuild, they made the decision not to try to recreate exactly what had been destroyed, but to create an interior that was of the style of the time, essentially the 1950's.  I'm sure the building is an outstanding venue for appreciating the performances, but I have to say it is a little Kennedy-Center-esque, kind of dated almost.  To sum up, perfectly nice, but the history of the place (pre-World War II) seems kind of lost.  Having completed the tour here, I am really glad we saw the Opera House in Budapest, which has lost none of its old world charm (but has also been thoroughly renovated).  The Budapest Opera House was almost certainly also the victim of damage in World War II, but perhaps not as much as in Vienna.  Here is the interior of the main hall:

Well, that is it for our sightseeing in Vienna -- there was so much to see, and we certainly didn't see all of it, but we did our best.  We made another unsuccessful attempt to shop for new shoes for Rob, then back to the hotel.

Before dinner, we enjoy a glass of wine in the Executive Lounge and meet Robin and Simon, who are attending the Eurovision semifinals tonight.  They tell us that they have attended for the past five years and are going with people who have gone for the past fifteen years.  It is a very exciting time here in Vienna with the song contest going on -- we learn that the teams from Sweden, Australia, and Azerbaijan are staying here at the Hilton.  Robin is pulling for Sweden himself.  I take a picture of this ticket:

Dinner tonight is at a restaurant called Plachutta, known for serving an Austrian specialty called boiled beef, really not the more appetizing name for a dish, but that is what they like around here apparently.  We, of course, have to try it.  In German, the name of the dish is Tagelspitz.  The dish is served to you in a giant copper pot with vegetables.  Initially the broth and vegetables is serve to us in soup bowls that have delicate noodles in the bottom.  This creates a delicious beef noodle soup of a sort.  This is very good, and not too salty.  After the soup, the waiter fishes out the beef; they are steaks that look like sirloin.  Two sauces are brought to accompany the beef:  horseradish and a kind of herbed mayonnaise.  The beef is served onto the plates, and side dishes of potatoes (kind of like hash browns) and pureed spinach with peas are also served.  We had thought to order a red wine with this, but our waiter tells us that the tradition is to eat this with the white wine, Gruner Veltliner, so that is what we do (although many other tables seem to be drinking red wine).  To be honest, boiled beef is pretty much what you would expect; I think grilling it would be tastier, but when in Austria ...

Lipizzaners and More!

Today begins with a walk back to the Hofburg Royal Palace in central Vienna to see the world famous Lipizanner Stallions, the performing horses at the Spanish Riding School that is celebrating its 450th anniversary this year.  As noted before, the stallions only perform on weekends, and we will not be here on a weekend.  But you can buy a ticket to their morning practice sessions each day (except Monday).  We arrive early, about 9:30am, and there is already a long line to get in.  No worries, they sell plenty of tickets.  Soon we are in and find a seat on the second level.  I initially thought it would be okay to stand on the first level.  An American woman next to where I was standing (she was seated) overheard me say that Rob and I could stand.  When I commented that it was unlikely that we would stay the entire two hours, she told me, "I am!"  My reply to her was, "You must be a big fan!"  I said it nicely, though.

When the practice begins, we learn that there is to be no photography, which disappoints me greatly, since I really wanted a picture.  However, the horses might be spooked if everyone's flashes were going off.  I did take a picture of the arena before the practice started.  This is what it looked like:

As it turns out, the practice is not a rehearsal for the show, but just horses (four or five at a time) trotting around in circles (with music, though).  The music is actually the best part, because watching the horses is a little bit boring.  We leave after one half hour (others do, too).  It seems that taking money for these practice session is kind of taking advantage of us tourists.

Our next activity is to go to the grand art museum of Vienna, the Kuntshistorisches Museum.  We had walked past on a previous day to admire the outside, now we can admire the inside.  It is truly beautiful!  Here are a few pictures:

For the most part, the art is okay, not really to my taste.  A lot of old Italian paintings like Caravaggio that all start to look alike to me.  I do like a few Velasquez portraits of little Spanish princesses, though. The real highlight is in the Flemish paintings, particularly one room, which displayed a rather large collection of paintings by Peter Bruegel the Elder, truly beautiful, including his masterpiece, "The Tower of Babel."  Here is an image of the painting that I found online:

The museum is also known for having one of the world's best coin collections, but we passed on that.

We had thought we might try to tour Vienna's State Opera House today, so we walked to the Opera House to check on the schedule.  Unfortunately, there are no tours offered today, but tomorrow's schedule had tours offered in English at 2 and 3pm.  We will come back tomorrow.  Across the street, however, is another treat that is available.  We decide to have lunch at the Cafe Sacher (in the Hotel Sacher), which is the home of the Sacher Torte!  It is an old style Viennese cafe that is very charming.  We are seated, and we each start with a toasted ham and cheese sandwich that is very good and surprisingly not outrageously expensive.  Then for dessert, Viennese coffee and the famous torte, first created in 1832.  It is essentially a dense, chocolate layer cake with apricot jam between the rich layers (but not too much apricot, just enough to give a hint of flavor).  We share one, but really, I could have eaten a whole piece on my own -- really, really, really good!  We each had a Viennese coffee which was filled with whipped cream (of course Rob needed to take most of the cream out given his lactose issues).  Here is what it looked like:

After our late lunch, we strolled to the Austrian National Library, which is home to a grand room called the Prunksaal.  This library room is the largest Baroque library in Europe and features walls of bookshelves holding thousands of old books, plus statuary, and a globe collection.  It is spectular.  Here is a photo:

We spend a fair amount of time here just looking around.  There is also an exhibit about the history of the city of Vienna that is very interesting.  We are surprised to see information about the Palais Epstein in one display case.  It turns out that it was one of the impressive palaces built along the Ringstrasse.  The Epstein family was well known for their appreciation of the art.  Here are two photos I took:

This was a very pleasant surprise.  It is now later in the afternoon, and we have completed our touring for the day.  We do a little shopping to try to find Rob a new pair of shoes, but were unsuccessful.

Dinner tonight will be a return to the seafood restaurant, Merlo, where we'll eat the mixed grilled seafood plate that we had also eaten on Monday.  It was that good!

Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace

Today, we are in for a treat:  Schonbrunn Palace.  This is Europe's most lavish royal palace after Versailles in France.  Fortunately, it is not too far away and can be reached via a short subway ("U Bahn") ride, so that is what we do.  Having been warned that the crowds can be massive here, we had purchased our tickets in advance to avoid the ticket line.  However, when we arrive at about 9:30am, the line is not too bad (this would change later, Rob observed).  Our ticket entitles us to enter the royal palace for a tour of the royal apartments between 11 and 11:30am.  This leaves us plenty of time to explore the enormous gardens first.  Here is the sight that greeted us at the front of the palace:

We walk to the right side of the palace to begin exploring.  The first garden is a formal garden with fragrant roses and wisteria.  This is the Empress Elizabeth's garden (yes, we are referring yet again to "Sisi" -- yuk).  It is lovely, but we don't tarry; we make our way to the other side of the palace where we can admire the expansive gardens.  Here is this spectular view:

That is the Neptune Fountain straight ahead with a building called the "Glorette" on top of the hill.  The Gloriette is what the British would call a whimsy.  An attractive structure with no real purpose except to look good.  What a place to be!  We walk ahead for a better view of the Neptune Fountain:

From here we have a little time to burn so we wander around a bit, admiring the Obelisk fountain as well, then we return to the palace and enter another formal garden on the other side called the Orangery, probably because it is full of citris trees.  Here is a view of the side of the palace with the Orangery garden.  We are a little too far away to make out the citris in this picture, but they are there.

Now, it is nearly 11am, so we make our way to the tour.  There is not much of a line outside, but once inside it is slow going.  It takes everyone a while to get their audioguide devices and then up the staircase to begin the visit.  Boy, is it crowded inside!  We are shoulder to shoulder, and this is not even the busy season.  The information in the audioguide is somewhat informative, but it is really just the basic facts ... "This is where the emporer worked, this is where he slept, and so on."  All of the rooms have gold baroque styling and some are even more decorated, crossing into the rococo, heavily ornate style.  We are not permitted to take any pictures, which is a good thing.  If photos were permitted, the tour would slow down so much that we would never get through this!  The main hall is interesting in that Kennedy and Kruschev met here once, in June 1961.  Another room was were Mozart first performed for the royalty at age six; it"s said that once he finished he ran into the open arms of Empress Maria Teresa.  The room that impressed us the most was the one in which giant paintings depicting the wedding of Empress Maria Teresa's son, Joseph II are displayed.  They are very factual and were painted to document all of the attendees of the wedding.  The only item that played with the truth was in the inclusion of Mozart at the wedding.  In real life, he was too young to attend the wedding (only four).

After the tour inside, we stop at the cafe for lunch.  We each order a vegetable burger.  It was not what we expected.  It was a layer of sweet cole slaw (with kind of an orange flavor in the dressing), topped by a grilled slice of eggplant, kind of strange, but okay, we guess.  Then we walk through the gardens in another direction (past a rose garden that hasn't bloomed yet) and up the length of the gardens behind the palace to the Gloriette to admire the view of the palace.  The following photo shows this view:

We also pass a maze, which we photograph, but do not enter:

Then, we have seen pretty much all that there is to see, so we walk back to the U Bahn to return to central Vienna.  We get off the train at Karlsplatz to visit a few sights there that we have not yet seen.

First, we return to the Secession Building to see the famous Gustav Klimt mural/frieze for Beethoven.  It is quite lovely in describing visually what Klimt thought Beethoven was trying to convey musically in his ninth symphony.  No pictures were permitted here either.  Then we crossed the street to walk throught the Naschmarkt (open air food market).  It is actually more restaurants than I had imagined, though it is not someplace where I would necessarily choose to eat.

Finally, we walk to the nearby Karlskirche.  It is huge and features two large columns in front.  Very unusual for a Christian church, we think:

Inside is a little unusual as well.  It is a beautiful Baroque interior in pretty good shape  What is different is that a platform has been erected in the middle of the church that allows visitors to ride an elevator into the middle of the dome -- seeing the paintings up close that would normally only be visible from below.  Then you can walk up several flights of stair back and forth to get all the up into the tip top of the dome and look out the windows.  I got a little nervous being up so high on what kind of looks to be a temporary platform, although it seems to be permanent.  I kept thinking the whole thing was going to collapse in a pile in the middle of the church.  As soon as I get to the top, I am ready to come down.  

Our touring for today is now complete, so we walk along the Ringstrasse to our hotel, passing the City Park which is nice but a little small for a city park in my opinion.

Dinner tonight is back to Pfudl's near to our hotel.  This is where we had lunch on our first day here -- traditional Austrian food.  We each have the veal goulash with spaetzel with side salads, which turn out to be pickled cabbage, sweet potato salad and some greens.  It is good paired with an Austrian cabernet sauvignon (the most expensive wine on the menu).

The day ends with the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest on TV.  Of course, the show starts with last year's winner, Conchita Wurst, singing last year's winning song, "Rise Like a Phoenix."  She is fabulous!  The contestants in this year's contest, no so much.  All the songs are the same: power ballads, some better than others, but none that memorable (except maybe Greece).  Neither of us stays up to watch the entire show, however.