Where Is Joey Today?

Grüss Gött and happy Wiensday

I decided to make today, like yesterday a Vienna day and skip Bratislava all together. I think this will allow me to have a more relaxing final day here, get caught up on my laundry etc. so I can have an early day tomorrow (Vienna->Salzburg->Dublin).

I was walking around the town, specifically toward the Leopold museum in the Museum's quarter to pick up the U4 line to the Schönbrunn palace. Along the way I passed 3-4 shell games with a couple of unsuspecting looking people taking a peek. If you come to Europe, don't even acknowledge they exist. 9 out of 10 times you will lose your wallet etc.

Livin' La Vida Rococo

It was a good day in Vienna. I took Dad's advice and checked out the Schönbrunn royal palace. The name may ring a bell as the meeting place of Kennedy and Khruschev in the early sixties.

The palace tour is well done and gives you some interesting facts of the Austrian monarchy that lived there up until it was dissolved in 1918. If you go, get the Imperial tour, the Classic tour, gets you no benefit other than two to three other rooms in the palace (if you have seen 30 you have seen 33) and a strudel making show and sample, which can be purchased apart from the package.

The gardens are pretty spectacular, and there is even an on premise zoo if you are so inclined. Since it was hot, I decide to test my theory that a Radler may be more refreshing than beer. I think my hunch was right. After a little more touring I decided to go to a local restaurant that the hostel recommends. Mozart Strube is an old Vienna restaurant, and if you are at there between 18:00 and 06:00 and are staying at the Wombat, you can get a five euro Wienerschnitzel with french fries. What a deal!

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

So around 7:30 I headed back out. Where? Why Schönbrunn of course, to the nightly concert. Best euros ever spent! Only last night was extra special, usually the concert is held in a palace wing. Monthly or semiannually (I forgot what the guy said) they hold it in the Grand Hall. A grandiose setting for a concert of Austria's favorite sons, Strauß and Mozart. Since most of what we associate with Mozart are symphonies, I was not familiar with any (well maybe one) of the pieces selected. They ended the night with Wiener Blut, The Blue Danube Walz and another song that is well known, and unfortunately I can't recall the name (had a certain Sousa-ish quality to it) which led the audience to start clapping along. The maestro then turned around and started conducting the crowd. A night of rousing classical music without even the slightest pretension, the way that music should be enjoyed. All of which is not bad for a kid for whom a night of music usually consists of 8 or more people named "dawg", a drug addicted hasbeen and a curmudgeonly brit just bugged by the whole thing.

This was quite a night. When I went back to the hostel, I saw Marilyn, one of my roommates, waiting for the elevator. She asked what I did today, and I told her about the tour and the concert. Apparently she was there was well and got the word when someone dressed as Mozart approached her on the street. Weird huh?

Anyway, lest you think that all of this means I have become a mature dapper continental sophisticate, the earlier automated tourguide described the purpose of the Grand Hall as existing, "primarily to hold the Emperor's Balls" to which I responded by keeling over with laughter.

A view out the Grand Hall balcony...



--Joey