In Vienna, as I said, we stayed at the 25 Hours hotel (they keep different time over there) which was pretty good. The concept is to put fun into hotel stays. The service and services are as good as any that you'd expect but the staff are friendly and informal. They must be selected for their memories as they all seemed to know our names wherever we went.
(Maybe they were told to keep an eye on us)
I know that it offends old jokers like Richard (of RBB) but 25 Hours hotel has signs at the entrance to the restaurant like " Fuck it, eat pizza".
and all the other little hotel bits and pieces like door hangers are a bit different.
It's all a bit of fun.
Vienna is without doubt the most beautiful city I've seen.
It is scrupulously clean, grand and magnificent. The buildings are gold-embossed and on a scale that takes your breath away. It's a pity that the place is full of Austrians though.
Austria didn't recognise the end of WW2 in 1945 like all other countries. Austria didn't celebrate until 1955 which was when the Allied occupation ended. Austria still made it difficult for returning Jews to reclaim property and fill administrative and academic positions. Austria unashamedly appointed ex- Nazis to positions of power and authority all while pretending to have been above it all. They claim that Austria was the first country 'invaded' by Hitler's Germany.
Invaded?
More like welcomed.
We toured the city as much as time allowed (3 days) and one of the best visits was to the Jewish Museum in the Jewish Quarter. There is a Simon Wiesenthal exhibition there which is very informative. In other exhibitions it is clear that all is not forgiven by the Jewish community and rightly so.
Seeing the ferris wheel that featured in that great film The Third Man was special.
On our travels we found Mozart's grave which will please Richard and Robert.
It was in a park by the cemetery of St Marx. Now some people will have it that Mozart's resting place was discovered in 1855 (he was buried in 1791 in a pauper's mass grave).
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| What they say is his grave |
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| What I found and believe as young Wolfgang had a sense of humour |
We spent a bit of time at The Belvedere.
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| Upper Belvedere |
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| Lower Belvedere |
This magnificent building (Upper and Lower ) houses great works of art including the incomparable Klimt.
We've always loved Klimt's paintings and seeing them in the flesh (we stayed in our clothes) as it were was a treat. It's always great to be delighted and Klimt's paintings, with all the gold leaf are bigger and better than I had expected.
Food seems to be high on the agenda in Vienna so we indulged in a bit of good stuff. The wine offerings are a bit naff though with mostly Austrian and Italian wines on offer with the odd German wine. Nothing too flash.
I had the ubiquitous Wiener Schnitzel and Apfel Strudel which were delicious and we tried out a couple of the grand coffee houses that Vienna is famous for.
The pastries and cakes on offer were superb but frankly we get better coffee at home.
We were expecting colder weather and to be frank (Ha, Cyclone frank was back in the UK devastating York) we chose Vienna for Christmas because we were looking forward to a white Christmas. It didn't snow however and we had blue skies, sunshine and (although cool down to 2 degrees) fine weather.
The Christmas markets were impressive with great use of lights and lots of gingerbread men about.
After 3 days we had to head off to Prague,
We went by train as rail travel is always our preference. It is more leisurely, you can turn up to the station minutes before departure and you can see the sights on the way.
1 comment:
Good that you found Mozart's grave and showed up a few Nazis. I hope you didn't mention the war.
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