From Vienna With Love

                        FROM VIENNA WITH LOVE: KULTURE, KAFFEE, AND KUCHEN

                                                          HE SAYS:

Vienna is party central, notwithstanding its seemingly conservative and traditional image.  My enthusiasm for Vienna grows. It is my type of town!  I am more than impressed by the level of culture and civic mindedness, as well as pubic civility.   

Last night we went to the weekly Vienna  summer food festival, and found to our delight that it was right next store to the Vienna Film Festival. Both were free and sponsored by the City of Vienna. Listening to a number of guides and other people, it is clear that culture is intended for the masses and people of all backgrounds; it is supported accordingly. A ticket for the State Opera (Stationer) starts at $5 !

And as an aside, education at all levels is free. Culture and education are viewed as a collective good and an investment in human capital, to use the economic jargon. It was embarrassing listening to an American woman on our earlier tour trying to argue the contrary.

The food festival was held in the Rathaus Park, that is, the large park adjacent to the massive and ornate city hall. There were about 5-10, 000 people. It was a warm evening and the people were milling around eating, drinking and laughing. The place was packed and there was barely enough room to walk. There was food and spirits of every type. The mood was jovial. People were dressed casually, but well; no tuxes, but no slobs in t-shirts and undershirts.   

I was struck by a number of things. In the first instance, there is a very real sense of proper public conduct and not violating other people’s space.  In other words, there is a reciprocal sense of propriety. No loud, abusive or aggressive behaviour; no one shouting “Fuck you” or pushing. Here in Europe (excluding UK  football hooligans)  public space is viewed as a collective good to be shared by all, not as an extension of oneself or one’s individuality . Thus, civil conduct promotes the broader collective good.   

At this large and crowded public event there was absolutely no visible police presence.

Of related interest is the fact that people were drinking – beer and wine - from real glasses, not plastic or paper cups; and some food vendors served up their delights on real ceramic plates. Everyone brought their glasses and plates back. There was no trash littered about, and no broken glass.

We didn’t stay for the film festival which had seating for about 1-2, 000 people, and opted for dinner in a nearby restaurant instead. We sat for a while at the film site drinking our dark (dunkel)  beer from tall glasses. The film was to be projected up on a gigantic screen on the wall of city hall. People didn’t push or jostle others to get good seats. Again I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of loud and aggressive behaviour, compared to what I have seen among the young people  in Ottawa movie theatres.

The food portions here in Vienna are  humongous! The other night we each had a schnitzel that was so large that it literally was bigger than the plate and could have fed 4 people. And people here like their food ! Food  prices, depending on where one eats are not unreasonable, $15 pp with spirits. Unless, of course, you want to eat in a big hotel.

One of our real discoveries is Austrian RED wine, which is absolutely fantastic !!! Their white whites are well known, but I have  never heard of Austrian RED wines. Super- distinctive, full bodied, with a strong finish, and just a whiff of bullshit (just checking to see whether you are still awake). A good bottle of Austrian red costs $6-7. Unfortunately, the LCBO only carries two brands, both of which are terrible plonk and taste like cool aid.

The serious sport in Vienna, right up there with sex, is the coffee and pastries. Eleanor seems happy with her Vienna Melange (really a cap), while I take a double espresso with whipped cream called a Neumann (a single shot is an einspanner); there is the mandatory shot of water on the side. The other day we had a Mozart torte: chocolate cake with marzipan, and today a Mozart Bombe, very similar but with marzipan-laced whipped cream and a pale green marzipan crust. And of course a sachertorte is classic Viennese and , of course, had to be sampled for the experience. J

This morning we went to visit the State Art Museum (Kunsthistorische Museum) which houses the largest art collection in the world. This museum, the V&A in London and the New Prado in Madrid are my favorites. The Habsburgs, the Vatican and Versailles sponsored, bought and collected the largest art holdings in the world. The building itself is so massive, large and ornate it is difficult to describe. The interior literally took my breathe away. Fortunately, I had already made my “Must see list” of 8 halls with their paintings to see. The social realism of Breughel and his pithy peasant , and the sensitive Rembrandts were certainly the high point for me. Thrilling.  Yet, I found that there were scores of minor Italian and Northern German Renaissance painters that I had never heard of. One could spend a life time in this museum. Eleanor, being the good sport she is suffered almost silently….

I fantasize about staying in Vienna for a few months to absorb the atmosphere. Eleanor says to send her a postcard.           

The massive and ornate architecture that characterizes Vienna that goes on for block after block, and mile after mile, has served as a monument to the Habsburgs’ 600 year conservative Reich. But after a while its beauty becomes imposing or oppressive; some might say, even boring.  These buildings are indeed a monument to Emperor Franz Joseph’s  edifice complex.

Tonight we went off to a Mozart and Strauss concert recital with the Royal Vienna Orchestra at Beethoven Platz. In reality it was held at a warm music conservatory , not some imperial concert hall. Nevertheless the concert was lively and well done and was good fun.

Tomorrow we slow down and do fun things like going on the giant Ferris wheel, similar to the London Eye, and go to Herr Dr. Freud’s office. And we may possibly go on a Third Man film walking tour.

Saturday:

We have returned from the Freud office apartment –museum which was really interesting and nicely curated. One had a sense of his new status as a solidly upper middle class liberal professional. He certainly was an egocentric, grumpy old fart. Personally, I think Adler and Reich have more to offer in terms of an analytical framework since they tried to situate individual problems in a broader social context. Freud was anti-socialist, while Adler was a socialist and Reich a communist.

Before coming home we stopped off at the Café Landtsman. It was home to Freud , Trotsky and Lenin. Trotsky is known for having skipped out on his last four bills.  Never trust a Trot ! Eleanor had a round grapefruit sized chocolate and marzipan pastry called a “marzipan potato” with an einspanner coffee, while I had an apple strudel with 3 “ of whipped cream and a double espresso with whipped cream and laced with a  liqueur.  To DIE for !

This is our last installment from Vienna for a while ….We are really tired, our legs and feet hurt from walking everywhere; but having walked this city, it is ours. Vegging sounds good….

More later….

                                                           SHE SAYS:

Now that our holiday is almost over, I’m starting to feel as if I’ve almost completely recovered from my Near Death Experience and wish we had time to go back and see Prague again.  It’s a beautiful city with so much to see and do, but it seems to me that we didn’t really do it justice.  I blame much of that on the way I felt, but I think part of the problem was where we stayed.  It was a huge Hilton hotel with all the Hilton amenities, about a ½ hour walk from the old town, but there wasn’t much in the general area that was interesting, and by the time I’d coughed my way into the town, I just didn’t have much energy for anything else.  We find that the best way to really get to know a city is to take a tour at the beginning to get an overview of what we want to see and then to wander and discover the interesting parts for ourselves, and we missed the wandering in Prague.  What a shame; we’ll just have to go back and try again, I guess.

Here in Vienna, we’re staying in a nice little European hotel, with a nice mix of tourists from all over the world, but most are German or Austrian.  There’s no big American-style breakfast included in the room price, and we’ve balked at paying 16 euros (about $20 pp !) for their breakfast buffet, which consists mostly of fabulous-looking cakes and pastries, so we’ve enjoyed searching the side streets nearby for cafes that serve what they call the Viennese small breakfast: boiled eggs, warm rolls, unsalted butter, jam, and that fabulous coffee we’re becoming addicted to. Cost: about $12 for two people.

We’re near a subway stop and I guess we’ll have to start using it soon, but everything we’ve been to so far has been within walking distance.  We have our routine down pat now: breakfast, sightseeing, café break, sightseeing, back to the hotel for a break, and then out again for dinner and to explore further.  To be honest, we’re just about castled and cathedralled out, (Why is Spellcheck telling me that isn’t a word?  If it isn’t, it should be!)

I did let him drag me to another art museum.  I’m a saint, I am!  To his credit, he had done his research and knew which rooms held the paintings he most wanted to see, so we didn’t have to spend the whole day there.  To my credit, I knew it was air conditioned, there were comfortable couches in most rooms where I could people-watch while he examined yet another bleeding Jesus or ten, and the museum café is mentioned in the guide book as one of the best places to go for Viennese desserts, so St. Eleanor got her chocolate and coffee rewards at the end.

Back when Franz Josef designed Vienna in the 1880’s or so, he must have decided that the place would be about the buildings and not the people.  He built street after street of massive brick and marble buildings, all fabulously adorned with plaster statues and gold trim: impressive, but overwhelming and very repetitive after a while.  The poor man really did have an edifice complex!  Wherever we walk, everything looks massive and square and orderly, and until you have a chance to see them on the inside, you start to feel that everything about them is cold and sterile.  But even in what look like the poorest restaurants and shops, we’ve found there are soaring, beautifully decorated ceilings and interior courtyard gardens -proof, I guess, that you can’t judge a building by its bricks. J

A couple of nights ago, Richard came up with a brilliant idea: let’s move to Vienna for a few months every year.  There’s so much art and music and theatre that there’d always be a lot to do.  No, thank you.  It’s lovely, and I’d be happy to come back again, but we’d find just as much being offered in any large city, and I’d hate to live in a large city.  I’d much rather find a nice little country town (any country!) on the water and spend my winters there. (He says: The Wicked Witch of The North Pole)

In the past few days, we’ve covered many, many miles in this city.  We’ve seen the palaces and the churches, the cafés and the restaurants, the museums and the street festivals.  We’ve been to visit Mozart and Freud.  Neither was home at the time, but we still got to walk through their apartments and see their personal photo albums, which is more than they’d be able to do at our house if we weren’t at home. 

We thought Freud might be at his favourite café, and we went there to find him, but no luck, so we drowned our sorrows in more coffee and pastries.  I think this coffee tradition is one we should continue at home.  My coffee came in an insulated glass: a shot of espresso topped with a mountain of whipped unsweetened cream (although there’s a tiny hole in the centre of the cream where you can pour a tube of sugar without messing up the cream topping.  You sip the coffee through the cream, resulting in fabulous flavour and a whipped cream moustache.  Richard felt the need for a little vitamin C, so his coffee had a double shot of espresso and a shot of orange liqueur, and had orange zest sprinkled over the cream on top.  Yum.  I’m thinking it would be a great way to start every morning when we get home!