Vienna is ridiculous. Every corner you come around reveals monolithic palaces. Everyone had a palace. Families with lots of siblings had palaces for each sibling. Why does one person need so much space? Two brothers from the same family have 50-room "homes" on the same block right next to each other. In some ways I guess it's good that people lived in such excess because now each one of the 600 palaces that line downtown Vienna has a purpose and is occupied by lots of people, businesses, residences, shops, theatres, museums, and schools.
In every city we visit, we take advantage of the day trips included in the trip. Our tour guides are fabulous. They know so much history! And there is so much to learn. The only extra tour we added to our trip was to watch an ensemble perform music by Mozart, Hayden, Bach, and Brahms in a room in palace where Mozart played his first piece at age 6 before an audience with the queen. The lead violinist played a violin from 1726. Think about that....this violin is 30 years older than Mozart himself and sounds exquisite. no other word for it. Exquisite.
We visited the Saint Stephen Cathedral, lit some candles for some loved ones who have passed. Which was quite an emotional experience heightened by the observance of All Saints Day. Most people here have had last Friday off and will continue their holiday through Tuesday.
And we had a coffee and treats at Aida, one of the famed coffee houses in Vienna. By chance, another couple from the ship stopped in and we had the loveliest conversation! We have met so many people and heard such rich stories of their histories. It is an interesting intersection: learning the history of how our world came to be and the histories of Eastern Europe while also learning the histories of the people on board.
The couple from the coffee shop....a husband and wife who have been married for 15 years. Second marriages for them both. Both had very happy first marriages of 40 years each before their spouses passed away. The husband was born and raised in the same town as Matt's grandpa Charlie. The wife was born to German-Jewish parents who fled Germany after their siblings were sent to camps. She grew up in Johannesburg until 1961 when apartheid drove her family to Nebraska. Eventually she studied German, got married and had kids in Germany, moved to Paris before finishing her PhD (and she read me the riot act about her biggest regret in life being ABD), then moved back to the states. Her children still live overseas. We laughed and shared and ate and basked in each other's presence and the series of events that led us all to be in that moment, in the same space and time. At the risk of sounding overly sentimental or quixotic, it was a beautiful experience that lasted all of 30 minutes.
Later, after the coffee and day tours, but before Mozart, we took the subway to the museum quarter and the pictures here will not, can not, do justice to the treasures behind those walls.
Matt posted quite a few pics online. Here are a few more.
In every city we visit, we take advantage of the day trips included in the trip. Our tour guides are fabulous. They know so much history! And there is so much to learn. The only extra tour we added to our trip was to watch an ensemble perform music by Mozart, Hayden, Bach, and Brahms in a room in palace where Mozart played his first piece at age 6 before an audience with the queen. The lead violinist played a violin from 1726. Think about that....this violin is 30 years older than Mozart himself and sounds exquisite. no other word for it. Exquisite.
We visited the Saint Stephen Cathedral, lit some candles for some loved ones who have passed. Which was quite an emotional experience heightened by the observance of All Saints Day. Most people here have had last Friday off and will continue their holiday through Tuesday.
And we had a coffee and treats at Aida, one of the famed coffee houses in Vienna. By chance, another couple from the ship stopped in and we had the loveliest conversation! We have met so many people and heard such rich stories of their histories. It is an interesting intersection: learning the history of how our world came to be and the histories of Eastern Europe while also learning the histories of the people on board.
The couple from the coffee shop....a husband and wife who have been married for 15 years. Second marriages for them both. Both had very happy first marriages of 40 years each before their spouses passed away. The husband was born and raised in the same town as Matt's grandpa Charlie. The wife was born to German-Jewish parents who fled Germany after their siblings were sent to camps. She grew up in Johannesburg until 1961 when apartheid drove her family to Nebraska. Eventually she studied German, got married and had kids in Germany, moved to Paris before finishing her PhD (and she read me the riot act about her biggest regret in life being ABD), then moved back to the states. Her children still live overseas. We laughed and shared and ate and basked in each other's presence and the series of events that led us all to be in that moment, in the same space and time. At the risk of sounding overly sentimental or quixotic, it was a beautiful experience that lasted all of 30 minutes.
Later, after the coffee and day tours, but before Mozart, we took the subway to the museum quarter and the pictures here will not, can not, do justice to the treasures behind those walls.
Matt posted quite a few pics online. Here are a few more.
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