Clear and Warm. The apartment was surprisingly quiet – in fact silent. We slept very well and were up early for a meeting with Claudia Prieler – our Idyll representative and the two other couples staying at our apartment house (Pension). We are right in the center of the action – about 3 blocks from St. Stephan's and 2 blocks from an underground station. All around us one sees evidence of a royal era. Before our meeting we ventured down a street of very exclusive shops (Cartier, etc.) and stood in front of the Hofburg complex – the summer home of the royals. This is the 100th anniversary of “Sissy” – Elizabeth – she had an unhappy marriage to Franz Joseph, the last king and is being compared to Princess Diana. She often stayed in the summer castle while the king was in the winter home.

The meeting was very productive with lots of ideas and now a week does not seem long enough. Claudia Prieler is a young lady with “red” hair (we hate the red Europeans dye their hair – but on her it is very attractive).

We then went shopping for breakfasts and snacks and wine. Bought some sandwiches and after leaving our groceries in the apartment we went to the Stadtpark and ate lunch – very pleasant. After lunch we bought tickets for the Opera on Friday night – finding the ticket office was a trick and Margaret with her nose in the map missed a curb and landed on the ground. No problems except a skinned ankle.

We took one of the trams for a ride around the inner ring – sort of getting our bearings in this new city. Vienna is divided into three rings – the inner one (where we are staying) having the most historical sights because it is the “old” city. We got off at the fountain for the celebration of pure mountain water. Strange but a beautiful fountain with a lovely spray that cooled us on what is turning into a very hot day. The fountain stands in front of a World War II Soviet Memorial in commemoration of the Russian liberation of Vienna at the end of the war.

Home for a rest – then off to a Schubert concert at Schubert’s birthplace. This was our first use of the underground and trolley system and we found that we could figure it out after all. But we did have trouble finding a place to eat and finally located one 3-4 blocks from our concert and enjoyed a meal outside with a nice breeze.

Back at the Schubert house we took a tour of the home and then settled onto bench seats in the terrace. The concert was 2 brothers – Edward and Johannes Kutrowatz playing at 1 piano (four-hand). They played Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and of course a delightful Strauss waltz. We sat in the terrace since the inside hall was sold out weeks ago. Really quite fortunate, since it was so hot. Claudia had told us about this concert series and said just to get there when the doors opened and you could sit in the terrace and enjoy the concert for a fraction of the regular ticket cost. She was right. The piano they played was a special Dussendorfer – made in Vienna (it does not have as grand a sound as the Steinway). The brothers played two encores and even came out to bow to the people on the terrace. It was really a grand evening. Another Idyll couple joined us for the concert and we returned to the apartment with them. It was a full day!

Cloudy, humid, and cool. Pete went off to the Anker bakery early for some apple strudel – that is a good way to charge your batteries in the morning! And a cold shower will do it too! Maggie had one – Pete got a warm one late in the day. We could not figure out what was happening to the hot water! Went to the subway and took a train to the Opera House where we got the grand tour – including back stage. Before the tour started we sat with a New York couple that winters in Florida – she kept us laughing “I don’t do winters! I don’t do hiking! So why did you have to go to Switzerland to find mountains, haven’t you got enough in Idaho already!” If you want to see the opera during the season then be ready to fork over some big dollars – about $200 – but you can get standing room tickets the day of the Opera for only 20AS and Claudia said that if the reserved seats are not sold or used that you can sit in them for the same price – she had done it often while a student at the university where she studied journalism and theater. Most of the Opera House was destroyed towards the end of W.W.II and so what people are seeing is a reconstruction done in the original style. The king had a wonderful tea room behind the royal boxes – he really hated the opera and would go there and smoke cigars and drink during the performances. After another wonderful picnic lunch in Stadtpark we went shopping and finally found the vegetable “cutters” that we had been looking for in Luzern – and much much more – cutters in all kinds of shapes that our friends will be getting for Christmas. We took a quick look through St. Stephan's – we will come back another day for the English language tour. Everything is convenient to our apartment, but you need to shop three different stores to buy the groceries and supplies that you would buy in a supermarket in the USA. But just now we need to rest up for our night at the Opera. We ate at the Purstner Restaurant next door to the apartment and it was an excellent meal. Two subway changes and we arrived at Schonbrunn station. But it was a long walk to the Opera stage which is near the fake Roman ruins that the king had built on the Palace grounds. We had wonderful seats (again, we were advised by Claudia to get seats on the side at the cheaper prices 180AS) for the outdoor production of Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio (palace).” The production was excellent. The break was shortened because of the threatening weather (thunder could be heard) and sure enough soon the rain drops came – just a scattering at first and then during the last half hour of the opera a steady rain. The cast kept on with the Opera and we put on the rain gear Pete had carried in his backpack and we covered our legs with our umbrella. Most of the audience did the same and when the curtain call came we all stamped our feet on the wooden flooring to show our approval of their talent and tenacity. Pete did manage to find the longest way back to the subway station – but the train quickly arrived and soon we were warm and dry and eating chocolates in our apartment. Another long and very enjoyable day in Vienna

Partly cloudy and warm – changing to sunny and hot Our morning started with the Idyll supplied hair dryer shorting out and cutting the electricity to our living room. We found the maid and she told us not to worry. Sure enough, when we came back later in the day everything was working and the dryer replaced. We took the subway to the Danube River – the old one – there is also a new one – and walked to the bridge to see if it was really blue – but alas it was brown! We walked down to the waterfront and then decided to take a cruise on the Danube. The lady that sold us the tickets came down to the dock to make sure that we got on the right boat! We cruised the river for awhile and then turned into a lock that eventually lowered us to the level of the Danube canal which serves the inner part of Vienna. The boat went past the famous Hundertwasser Apartment house – a sight to see from the water. We then took the subway to the St. Stephens area where we enjoyed a Sacher Torte and apple strudel with Melange, which is one-half coffee and one-half milk and of course the whipped cream is piled high on everything. Wow – what a treat! After a little nap we went to supper at the Guttenberg Café. Then we finished the evening with a music film presented on a very large screen at the Rathaus. This was a part of the Rathuasplatz Film Festival, which is held all during the month of August, since, there is no opera or concerts downtown, they thought they would present music on film each evening at dusk. We saw Mozart’s “Requiem” as done by the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Opera stars conducted by Herbert von Karajan. It was really very enjoyable on a warm evening in Vienna.

Sunny and Hot! The days are very hot – but our apartment stays relatively cool. This was our day to do the Fine Arts Museum – Kunsthistoriches Museum. We arrived in time to catch the English speaking tour. It was excellent. Our guide was very knowledgeable about art history and she took us to many of the old masters, concentrating on a painting that would illustrate a particular school or group of paintings. The Hapsburgs started this collection and so it reflects their tastes – many Dutch, German, Italian and Flemish paintings from the 15th through the 18th centuries. We started with Titian, then Tintorello, Rubens, Rembrandt, Michaelangelo and ended with Bruenghel. Peter Bruenghel was not a prolific painter and this museum has 13 or one-third of all his paintings. He did “The Tower of Babel” and a wonderful series of paintings based on the seasons of the year. He also did paintings about peasant life, which was unusual in those days. We took a quick tour through the Greek and Roman art but soon grew weary as it had already been three hours of walking and looking. We enjoyed a sandwich at a sidewalk café near the Stephanplatz and ended by sharing a wonderful ice cream confection with berries, vanilla, lemon and strawberry ice cream and of course a pile of whipped cream. Yum! It was beastly hot today and very humid – reminding us more of Kansas than Europe! We went back to the apartment for some cool air and rest and then out to a recommended restaurant – Resenberger-Market. It was really a cafeteria – very cheap but made the mistake of having hot food! Maggie had some wonderful chicken and Pete the Veal.

We then went to the Stadtpark to hear the end of the Strauss concert – we sat at the edge and did not have to pay. We heard several marches and the lovely Blue Danube danced by a professional couple in formal wear and ballet slippers. They looked like the couple that you often see on music boxes. Back at the apartment we watched a Paul Newman movie on TV and then fell asleep. We have now been away from home for three weeks.

Sunny and hot! Hundertwasser-haus was our goal today. What an interesting artist and architect. He believes straight lines are uninteresting and out of harmony with nature. The floors of his museum building undulate but one does not seem to have to worry about tripping. The housing development that he designed in Vienna is very controversial – and the buildings are multi-colored – the windows drawn in at odd angles and plantings on the roof-tops and next to the windows. He is an ecologist and his philosophy can be seen in his writings, in the museum and of course in his art and architecture. He wrote one whole paper on the benefits of trees. Colored stones are embedded everywhere and there are many fountains. Sometimes three big planters tied together with water dripping into the first planter and then dripping on into the next and so on to the bottom where it is recycled back to the top again.

On the top two floors of the museum was a special exhibit of Picasso’s pencil drawings and crayon drawings that he had left to his caretakers – they had never until this exhibit been seen in a public viewing. They were mostly “erotic” art.

We had probably our best meal in Vienna at the Garden restaurant at the Hundertwasser Museum. Pete’s steak had a wonderful mushroom sauce and Maggie had chicken salad with a lite yogurt dressing.

We decided that we should “do” at least one palace (not our favorite activity). We went to the imperial palace to see the crown jewels. We both got in on the senior discount – but they always look twice at Maggie cause they don’t believe that she could qualify. They have a very nice interpretive system – a computer device that you carry and point at the display and an English language explanation appears on your little screen to tell you about the exhibit – some run 8 pages in length.

Pete enjoyed the history but Maggie was bored! Probably too hot and tired to enjoy anything at this point – so she let Pete tell her the interesting facts – just the facts please! But it was room after room of jewels, robes, crowns, royal garb and church or coronation vestments. Also lots of interesting relics of the church – like pieces on the true cross, a tooth from John the Baptist, fabric from the last supper table cloth – we doubted much of it but the royals all loved to think that they had the real thing! Maggie perked up when we got to a room of robes and altar cloths that had what anyone would consider the finest embroidery in history. Couching with silk threads, painting with silk threads so that the religious figures were as clear as if done with paint – it was truly amazing hand work that must have taken decades to do. This was all work from the 16th century and they were fantastic to look at.

It was very hot and humid, so with Magnum bars in hand we went home for an afternoon nap. The hotter the weather has gotten the colder our water in the apartment. Pete has been taking sponge baths and Maggie braving a cold shower – there is also a bidet!

Took the subway, tram and bus to Kahlenberg, which is high above the city. A wonderful view of Vienna and it sits among the vineyards – so of course we had to have a mug of rot wine. It was much cooler and the view good and the wine so so. (Last summer in France spoiled us on wine forever) Instead of taking the recommended walk down to town through the vineyards we opted for the bus and subway and stopped for a pizza at Stephanplatz.

Sunny and hot! In the morning we met with Claudia and the other two Idyll couples for breakfast. We compared notes on what we had seen and liked and from that information planned our day. Said our good-byes – Claudia was such a nice host. She is now free-lancing – doing event programs and advertising. She says that it is very hard to live on one salary in Vienna – people think that Vienna is inexpensive – but for the people who live in the city it is a different story – so she likes the work with Idyll very much.

Went back to the apartment and left a tip for the maids who made the beds, changed the linen and washed the dishes and finally solved the hot water problem -–the pilot light on the heater was going out.

First stop on today’s tour was the Erica Cinema – the oldest cinema in the world – in terms of continuously showing motion pictures – it has been showing them since 1900. Maggie took Pete’s picture in front of the theater. We then went to the Sperl Coffee House – which has been named one of the top ten in Europe – to have lunch sitting outside. We also read a newspaper and Time magazine which they provided. It was very relaxed and you are encouraged to stay as long as you want. Then on to the Karlskirche, which was built as soon as the city had been “delivered” from the plague and dedicated to St. Charles. The high altar was beautiful with a stucco relief showing St. Charles rising to heaven. Back to the Stephanplatz where we changed AS backs to dollars and had a cool drink. Then on to St. Stephan's for the English speaking tour. Anton Pilgram crafted the pulpit and organ corbel and left portraits (sculptures of head) of himself looking out of windows at the public. The Pulpit has frogs heading up the banister. Frogs carry evil – so half-way up lizards try to stop them and at the top is the “never afraid” dog that will always stop evil. The bell in the main tower is made from melted down cannons and fell at the end of World War II and was remade again. There were so many interesting stories about the church.

We decided to try the other restaurant next to our apartment – the Dalmatia- and sure enough the other two Idyll couples showed up to dinner too! Two glasses of wine and a fine meal for only $40 US. To end our stay in Vienna a terrific thunder storm came and lightning and thunder roared over our heads for some time. It was a real show.

The darn telephone rings at odd times – just one or two rings – and no one ever on the line! It did it twice last night – the last time at 4 a.m.! We got up at 4:30 and finished putting ourselves and stuff together for the trip home. Packed everything into that wonderful elevator at 5:15 and left our apartment. Our cab was waiting and the driver spoke good English, telling us about his family. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to get rid of the rest of our shillings and catch the plane to Zurich.