Monday, September 19, 2011

Erratum, i.e. I made a mistake

Oops! I got Strauss and Brahms confused in my post. Brahms is who I meant. Strauss was the guy whose statute was being repaired in Vienna. Thanks to my wonderful husband, Rick, for finding the error!

September 19, 2011

Day 12 - Altaussee

The forecast was correct, it rained all day. No wind just a steady, chilly rain. After breakfast we came back to the room and I did what I hoped I would do, took out the watercolors I brought with me and painted a picture! The view out our window was so dreary that I instead chose a photograph from the trip to use as my model. As some of you know, I have no confidence in my artistic abilities but I try every once in a while.

After my heartfelt experience with Hundertwasser, I was intent upon having a creative experience with no judgment. I somewhat enjoyed myself playing with the paint. There are parts of my painting I like. I'm going to post it here in an effort to get over myself. It is my intention to keep at the painting until I can enjoy the whole experience instead of just parts of it.

This afternoon we decided to venture out to do our salt mine tour. Hey, it's underground. A little rain can't mess it up. There are two tours in the vicinity, one in Altaussee and the other in Hallstatt. We checked out the one near here but the brochures informed us that the Hallstatt one is more extensive. It was a 30 minute drive to Hallstatt and the rain turned to slush as we went up over the mountain. Then it turned to snow! Not knowing what to expect, I encouraged Rick to turn around but he wouldn't, saying he knows how to drive in snow. I also was feeling a bit anxious about the tour since the pictures in the brochure showed people sliding down a big slide to get to the mine. I don't like heights and I don't like speed. Why would I think this could be fun?

The snow didn't accumulate where we were but by the time we got to Hallstatt, the last tour had left. Now I get to be anxious until tomorrow! I've been telling myself that if it were that dangerous, they wouldn't let people do it. I'm mostly concerned about how you stop, like in do you go flying off into the mine?

When we got back to our room, I detected snow on the mountains across the lake. Wow, a week ago I was whining about being too hot in Zurich and now it's cold enough to snow! You notice I'm not whining though. I prefer this to the heat.

After our now habitual afternoon nap, we went down to dinner. They seat us a the same table each meal. The dining room is very quiet and feels kind of formal. People smile here when you make eye contact but don't seem to welcome conversation.

The hotel we are staying in used to be a villa called Villa Wagner. A friend of Herr Wagner (not the composer) was Johannes Brahms. He apparently spent time here and composed a couple of his pieces in this villa. They have a Brahms Room which is set up to feel like a Viennese coffee house. They serve cake and coffee in the afternoon. There is a baby grand piano in it. Usually they have a life sized dummy to depict Brahms sitting at it. At 8:00pm tonight they had a live pianist playing Brahms, among other pieces. We went in after dinner to enjoy the concert. The only thing disconcerting to me was that they had placed Johannes at the bar and he starred at me the whole time!



Sunday, September 18, 2011

September 18, 2011

Day 12 - Vienna to Altaussee, Austria

We had our last breakfast in Vienna, packed up the car and got on the road to Altausee. It was about a three hour drive through some beautiful scenery. About halfway we entered the mountains. Lots of tunnels plus lots of impressive peaks.

We arrived at the Seevilla around 3pm. It was pretty cloudy when we got here. About 20 minutes after we got here it started pouring. I'm going to post some photos we took from our balcony before and during the rain. The rain brought cooler temps and before we settled in, we settled down for a nap. Ah, this is what vacation is about.

When we woke up we went down to dinner in the hotel. It was in an inviting dining room with windows on three sides. Had it been light we would have had the same view as our room.

They had a pretty extensive salad bar with all kinds of marinated veggies and salads along with the ingredients to make a green salad. There were three entrees. Thank goodness for a vegetarian option since the other two dishes were veal and fish.

We started with a cream of caraway soup which was like drinking delicious rye bread. My meal was breaded cauliflower, roasted red pepper rings, and chopped hard boiled eggs. It could have fed a family of four. It was wonderful. Rick had the fish which was perch from a neighboring lake on a bed of noodles and chopped spinach. For dessert they served poppyseed mousse with sour cherries. I have mine in my room, not hungry enough to try it yet.

We're here for three nights. There is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. At some point we are going to take a tour of salt mine. The other thing Werner suggested we do is take a walk around the lake. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

September 17, 2011

Day 11 - Vienna

Another lovely day. After an earlier breakfast we started walking through Vienna to find Gustav Klimt. But first we thought we would stop off at Mozart's house which happened to be next door to our hotel! His house is the white one and our hotel is yellow. We decided not to go in since none of his original stuff is in it.

Rather than try to figure out the public transportation system we decided to walk to the
Belevedere Palace, former home of Prince Eugene of Savoy, a Frenchman who conquered the Ottomans. There are several more famous palaces in Vienna but we chose Prince Eugene's because it contains one of our favorite paintings of Klimt's, The Kiss.

It was quite a walk but of course enjoyable as we saw more of Vienna. We went through a lovely park that had a statute of Johannes Strauss that was fenced off because it was under repair. We got a kick out of the barrier they had up.

The palace is actually made up of two huge buildings, the upper and lower. We only toured the upper on the advice of Rick S. It definitely was just the right amount of palace for us. All the rooms had artwork from the different art movements in Vienna through the years. They also had drawings of how each room was used and how it looked when it was used as a palace. It took a few hours to do our tour of the palace and grounds. Here is a photo of the outside since we couldn't take pictures inside. The flowers in this garden looked much like a Klimt painting.

We walked back to our hotel realizing we were pretty much done with Vienna. Unfortunately, we wandered into the touristy area. My idea of hell. Millions of people, a McDonald's on every corner, and the whole place smelled like horse pee since this also was where the horse and buggy tours originated. We were accosted by one two many guys dressed up like Louis XIV trying to sell us tickets to the opera. We hadn't eaten since breakfast so we grabbed a slice of pizza to go and headed back to our hotel.

We're now in our hotel room and after taking naps we are watching reruns of The Daily Show on Rick's computer, too lazy to go out to dinner. Tomorrow we're outa here to a hotel on a lake three hours away from Vienna. I'm looking forward to some peace and to rest my blistered tootsies!


September 16, 2011

Day 10 - Vienna

I don't know why I wasn't that excited about coming to Vienna. I really like it here! It reminds me very much of Paris but feels more approachable. There seems to be a sophistication yet it's not intimidating.

We slept in today. Our hotel is quite civilized about breakfast. It lasts until 11:30 and we showed up at 11:15. So far all of our hotels have included breakfast with the price of the room. The ones we have been to are not like the US breakfast buffets. Here they have had few hot items but mostly cheese, cold cuts, fruit, yogurt, cereal, lots of dried fruits and nuts, jams and jellies, and a wide assortment of different breads, croissant, and rolls. Some have had different kinds of pickles, a few sliced veggies, and some sweets. One thing different for me here is that I have coffee with hot milk every morning. At home I'm a Diet Pepsi woman but here the diet drinks suck and the coffee is fabulous!

Rick was in charge of the day. We left Rick Steves in the room. My Rick had mapped out four destinations for us but we only made it to two. We did try to go to the Jewish museum but silly us, we showed up late Friday afternoon and go figure, they were closed!

This impressive building housed the Austrian Dept. of Children and Families
While Vienna has the usual incredibly great city transportation system, we chose to walk. Actually, Rick suggested walking and I had no idea how far away we were going, so I agreed. On our way we walked along the Danube canal, saw some pretty impressive government buildings, and lots and lots of stone buildings that looked like they could be office buildings or apartments.

We were on our way to the Museum Hundertwasser (Kunst Haus Wein) Am I the only one who has never heard of Friedensreich Hundertwasser? He is one of Rick's favorite artists. I've known Rick for 15 years and he never introduced me to him.

There are many things about his artwork that struck a chord with me; the colors, the movement, the intricate simplicity. His philosophy about art and architecture got me though. The museum contained four floors that demonstrated who he was, his evolution, politics, and vision for a world where people and nature would co-exist. We couldn't take pictures inside the museum so go to the website and take a look.

He hated the architecture of his time and designed the museum as a studio and living space. The  photos I'm posting show you the outside and a section of the floor in the entry way with an explanation of what he viewed floors should be like. As you can tell, he really resonated with me. I didn't want to shlep around some of his posters and books but I plan to buy some and even use his writings in my work with clients.

I dragged Rick away from Kunst Haus Wein after about 2 1/2 hours because we still had places to go. We walked along the canal some more and found the Jewish Museum but it was closed as I mentioned before and then after another 20-30 minutes of walking we found our way to Freud's house.

Officially described as the Sigmund Freud Museum, it was the building he lived and worked in for 47 years before he had to take his family to England to escape the Nazis. Just prior to their having to leave Austria, a famous photographer and taken pictures of all aspects of his consultation room and office. In the museum each room had the photos going around the room up the wall about 3 feet and then above them were display cases with photos, personal papers and objects. The entrance to his office was separate from the entrance to his family's apartment. His waiting room contained the original furniture donated to the museum by Anna Freud.While psychoanalysis is very much different than the way I practice and some of his theories are not what I believe, I was very moved to be in the presence of the spirit and energy of this amazing man.

When we finished our exploration, my back and feet were shot. It was a gorgeous walk back to our hotel. We stopped by St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was pretty impressive dating back to 1300. We were able to go into the entryway of the nave (more than a football field long and nine stories tall). They were having a mass so we couldn't go any further. There was an organist playing which really was cool!

The cathedral was just a few blocks from our hotel, hallelujah! We got back at dusk. Rick promptly took a nap and I did some laundry (much needed) in the bathroom sink. I had a Luna bar for dinner and Rick went out later, got a bratwurst for himself and some gelato for both of us. We sure ate better when we traveled with Susan and Werner! Between us, we're too lazy to search for a good restaurant and then make up our mind which one to choose!

Friday, September 16, 2011

September 15, 2011

Day 9 - Salzburg to Vienna

Note: Rick was able to set up a way I could send you this blog directly to your e-mail rather than your having to remember to check it. I don't want to be presumptuous
though, so if you get this and you don't want it in your e-mail box, just let me know and I will remove your name. I promise it won't hurt my feelings.

We left Salzburg around 11 this morning. I think Salzburg was a little too crowded and touristy for either of our liking. We didn't see much of it but what we saw was enough!

We drove about 30 minutes south of Salzburg into Germany again to a lake we had originally planned to visit, Konigssee. We missed a turn the "lady" told us to make and ended up taking the scenic route through the mountains. Because of this, we passed the Eagles Nest, a headquarters/vacation spot for Hitler during the war. For me it was creepy to be so close to a place Hitler actually visited and brought back the uncomfortable feeling of the day before.

Actually, I'm kind of upset with myself for generally feeling uncomfortable in Germany. I keep looking at the elderly people and wondering if they were Nazis. I know that people my age or younger had nothing to do with the Holocaust but I still am triggered by just the thought of what happened here.

This the hotel we were going to stay in had our plans not changed.
Konigsee is a gorgeous Alpine lake and tourist attraction. They have boats that take you around the lake because there are hardly any places to land as the mountains come right down to the water. Our boat was filled with a tour group of elderly German tourists and the man who did the commentary only spoke German. He must have been pretty funny because he kept everyone laughing. It was weird being with about 100 people, not understanding a word anyone was saying and wondering if they were talking about us. Okay, now I'm getting a little paranoid here, right? Well that explains the mood I was in on the boat, trying to enjoy the scenery and not feel too weird.

The big lake and St. Bartholoma
We got off the boat at the end of the lake and hiked about 20 minutes to another lake. The whole area is a national park and really is quite beautiful. The hike and the scenery changed my mood and I totally enjoyed and appreciated the rest of the day! I've put in a few photos to give you an idea of the beauty. The little lake was like being in an impressionist painting.





The small lake Salet Obersee









Had to have a KROG pic! I do hiking and like it.


After we left Konigssee we drove to Vienna. It was supposed to take three hours but we didn't get here until 10pm because of a major traffic tie up on the highway. Our hotel seems to be in a pretty hip neighborhood and is really beautiful. I'm looking forward to exploring tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 14,2011

Day 8 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Salzburg, Austria

Today was another travel day for us. We started out on what's called "The Romantic Road" which is Germany's way to attract tourists to some of its lesser known medieval towns. We saw a couple from the road but decided that Rothenburg was enough for us.

A spur of the moment thing we chose to do was try to find the Displaced Persons Camp my first husband, Max, was born in and lived until his family was able to move to the US in 1950. We did a Google search and saw that the location of the town was just an hour out of our way. There was no information about the location of the camp but a few things we read indicated that that Allies moved people into the barracks of a German Air Force base. All the holocaust survivors were moved to other locations by 1950 when the American Army occupied it until 1955 when it was given back to the Germans.

We found the German Air Force base and of course we couldn't just walk in. We pushed the intercom by the locked gate and explained what we were looking for. The person speaking to us indicated that he didn't know whether it was the location of the camp, he didn't know where we could find that out, that we couldn't come in for a look around, and that we couldn't take pictures. Go figure?

We spent a little bit of time driving around the town taking some pictures and also sneaking some of the base. I've included some for you to see.

This last one was a deserted field next to the base and where Rick thinks the camp was.

Being there was very emotional for me. I've seen Max's baby pictures and his birth certificate and it felt amazing to be in the vicinity of where he was born. Then I started imagining what it was like for all the traumatized people who lived in the camp, each suffered so much during the war and then each spent years in limbo not knowing what was going to happen to them. The social worker in me wanted to know if they were offered any counseling or help in dealing with their losses, memories, and experiences. I think I have some studying to do when I get home.

We were considering going to visit Dachau but this was enough for right now.

After we left Lagerlechfeld, we got on the Autobahn and while Rick drove a speed I don't even want to know, I slept on the three hour drive to Salzburg.

After a few tries we found our hotel, which incidentally is right around the corner from Mozart's house, and then headed out to explore and find some dinner. We happened on a little restaurant with some English speakers sitting outside eating an amazing wooden slab of food. It was the nightly special and they said it was good so we ordered it.

I thought it was veal so I didn't want to eat it but the veggies, rice, and fries were good. Then Rick informed me that it was actually pork shnitzel, so I ate it and it was good. I guess I don't feel as sorry for pigs as I do baby cows!

Tomorrow we'll explore a little more of Salzburg before making our way to Vienna.