Hostess with the mostess

Since I was in Vienna for a relatively long period of time, I stayed in an apartment. This was especialy nice beause I had access to a kitchen, laundry, and a lot more privacy than in hostels. Ms. Edith, the woman who owns the apartment where I stayed, is actually Hungarian, but has lived in Vienna for a long time. She has a beautiful Old World apartment near the Boerse (old Viennese stock exchange), which is right in the center of town.

Anyway, Edith was nice enough to take me to several great out-of-the-way spots in Vienna. My favorite was the Piaristenkeller, a traditional cellar restaurant that opened in 1698. It's located in the cloisters of the Piaristenkirch, a Baroque church where Haydn, Mozart, and many other famous musicians have performed. A waiter there gave us lessons in napkin origami. I had Fasancremsuppe (cream of pheasant soup). Yum!

Also adding to the charm of Edith's place was the fact that she makes good coffee, has a big shelf of books in English, has a good sense of humor, and played a recording of Tschaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet during breakfast. Danke, Edith!

At the Piaristenkellar

The Boerse, next to Edith's place

Mom and Dad always liked you best

Here's an interesting story.
Once upon a time in the 1700s, the empress Maria Theresa ruled the Hapsburg Empire. M.T. was quite an impressive, powerful lady, not least because she was the mother of 16 children. Of all her children, M.T. had a favorite daughter named Maria Christina, and she was the only one allowed to marry for love. Christina chose a guy from Saxony named Albert, and they lived happily ever after. Christina's sisters were strategically married into other important European families. Of course, arranged marriages were pretty common in royal families. In fact, one of Christina's sisters scored an especially adventageous marriage to the French king! Ah yes, unfortunately, it was the best of times and the worst of times in France. It was definitely the worst of times to be French royalty. Although this poor sister's story unhappily ended with the words, "Off with her head!" she did end up to be more famous than the happily-married Christina. Her name, of course, was Marie Antoinette.

Maria Christina's memorial in the Augustinerkirche

The Augustinerkirche (Augustinian Church) is where the Hapsburgs held Royal weddings, and also where they buried their hearts. Seriously. Their hearts are physically kept in the vault here. Their bodies are in a nearby imperial crypt, and their entrails are in the crypt of the Stephansdom. You know how the saying goes: don't put all your eggs in one basket, people.






above: looking toward the front altar of the Augustinerkirche
left: looking back toward the rear of the church; open door





















Since we're kind of on the subject of churches, this is the Karlskirche (Charles Church). I especially like visiting this church because, well, it's quite pretty, but also because they are in the middle of a big restoration project in the dome. There's a big service elevator right in the middle of the sanctuary! That doesn't sound very nice, I know, but it's actually really cool because you can take the elevator up to some scaffolding at the top of the dome and be right up next to the painted ceiling. Plus, the elevator is glass, so on the way up, you can pretend that you're flyyyyying!



top: Karlskirche, view from under a tree.
bottom: A smiley Jesus, a row of angel heads, and a jolly old God The Father
...clearly, this must be heaven!

Staatsoper

Behold: the Staatsoper

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Grand staircase






















One of my favorite places in Vienna is the Staatsoper. Vienna has one of the most famous opera houses in the world, and the put on a different performance almost every night. Going to the opera in Vienna is a big social event. If you want to see what's new in fur and diamonds this season in Europe, check out the lounge at the Staatsoper during an intermission. Luckily, the opera house sells a few hundred standing room tickets for each perfomance so that students and vacationing nurses can afford to go. You can get a good view on the main floor for 3 Euros. That's the price of a Starbucks coffee, people!

Balconies in the grand staircase

On stage after Falstaff

Whilst in Vienna, I went to four operas and two ballets at the Staatsoper. The famous Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel was performing with the opera company in February and I got to see him twice! Therefore, I am now officially an opera snob.

I also discovered that I have an insatiable love for the ballet. After one especially charming performance, I had a wierd headache that I couldn't figure out. Then I realized: I had been grinning like an idiot for three straight hours and had pulled every muscle in my face.

Still Going

For all of you who are wondering, yes, I did fall off the face of the earth. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. Among other things, I discovered that the world is, in fact, flat. All of the Faithful Departed are sitting in the shade underneath it eating peanut butter and waffles and watching The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance.


Please note: if the above attempt at a joke causes you to question my mental health, rest assured that during my travels I have neither gained any sanity nor lost any sarcasm.



OK, so I'm not in Paris anymore. After several days in the City of Lights, I took a night train to Vienna. One of my non-negotiable goals for this trip has always been to spend several weeks in Vienna. Why? Because I love, love, Love Vienna, that's why.



There are actually about a million reasons why I like Vienna, but if I listed all of them here, this blog would become too long and tedious for even my parents to read (although, yes, I know you would give it a try, Mom and Dad).



As it is, I seemed to have already typed 12 lines of virtually worthless nonsense, so let's get on with it.



I'm a little stressed by how behind I am with the blog, and I'm not really sure where I should begin describing Vienna. So I'm just going to start by putting up some pictures of what comes to mind when I think of the city.
As far as old world powers go, Vienna used to be the heart of a very big deal. It was the capital city of the Austrian Empire, run by the Hapsburg dynasty. For over 600 years, the empire of the Hapsburg family was large and in charge. They were Holy Roman Emperors, they married into French, Spanish, and German royal families; they married Napoleon. They helped defend Western Europe against invasions by the Ottoman Turks. Finally, the Hapsburgs and their empire ran into a little snag also known as World War I.

There are posters all over Vienna advertising tours of the Royal Treasury. They say, "We don't have Emperors, just their jewels." I think this could be a slogan for the entire city of Vienna. The Royal Family is gone, but the buildings, artwork, waltzing, music, and coffeeshops are still there.





Parliment Building

Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral)





Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House) 




Crown Jewels

One last look at Paris

View of the conciergerie (the farthest tower) from across the River Seine. This is where Marie-Antoinette and many others were imprisoned before going to the guillotine.

Sainte-Chapelle church, ground floor. Built in the mid 1200s as a home for the Crown of Thorns. The Chapelle Haute upstairs is a chaimber of blue-ish stained glass window, depicting stories from the Bible.
The "David" window

Street artists on Montmartre

One last look at the Sacre Couer

Eye full. (sorry, bad pun...but I'm not changing it)

Four views of the tower:

All the sights of Paris

Pale inside your iris

Tip the Eiffel Tower with one glance

Stained glass cathedrals with one glint

-Rufus Wainwright

In a storm? Find an arc.

The day that I went to the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel tower, it was heinously windy. After I almost got blown off the sidewalk a couple of times I thought, "this can't be normal." When I got back to the hostel, I turned on the news and learned that there was a huge storm moving across Northern Europe with hurricane force winds. Twelve people had died, and Northern Germany was considering shutting down its trains.

Oh.

Place de la Concorde: looking Southwest. Lamppost, Obelisk, Eiffel. Cloudy. Bird.

Walk out the pyramid doors of the Louvre, go Northwest through Tuileries garden, and you come to the Place de la Concorde. This is the place where King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette had an encounter with the guillotine. Now the Place is kind of a grand entry point to the Champs-Elysees, the shopping street in Paris. Walk a mile down to the end of the Champs, and you get to the Arc de Triomphe. It's the biggest triumphal arch in the world, apparently, and was built by Napoleon (big surprise).

Arc de Triomphe

I look.




Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc. Napoleon had his funeral here but, of course, he wasn't "unknown." This tomb was set up after WWI.

Louvre

Here are some highlights from my day at the Louvre. And I do mean day. Luckily for you all, they don't allow photos in the painting galleries. Loved it. Especially, surprisingly, the Mona Lisa. Walking back and forth in front of Mona is kind of a trip. Stand a few feet away from her and stroll slowly from side to side. Maintain eye contact with the painting. Aaack! She's aliiiiive! Wait, don't worry - she looks friendly.

A good day to be indoors; Louvre and pyramid.




Venus de Milo (Greek, 100 B.C.) I believe that's my signature posture.


Victory of Samothrace (220 to 190 BC). When I was growing up, we had a picture in the house of Victory taken from the front perspective, just like this one. To me, it looked like a small, headless, armless angel. In fact, Victory is quite large,...

...quite dramatic, and is standing, wings extended, on the prow of a ship. Well that was a surprise.

Our Lady

You just have to love the Notre Dame. Just look at the rose window. Each transept of the church has one. Gorgeous.
It was a foggy day when I walked down to visit the Notre Dame, but when I was about 15 mintues away from it, I started to see it's two towers and I thought "Paris! I'm in Paris!"


Front door(s) and Christmas tree























Side aisle
























Southern transept: light and rose window
























I hate to interrupt the holiness, gentlemen, but there is some cra-zy stuff going on overhead...

View from the Left Bank (doesn't the church look like it could fly?)

Paris, first day

Welcome to my first day in Paris. I took the night train from Barcelona. As much as I like to watch scenery during train rides, taking the night train has several advantages. It allows you to combine the cost of accommodations and transportation in to one blow, plus, you don't "waste" an entire day on the train.

When you take the night train and have a Railpass, you have a few options. You can get a "bed" in a sleeping compartment for more money than I like to spend, you can get a seat for beans, or you can get a couchette for about $20. Getting any amount of quality sleep in a train seat is difficult without heavy chemical assistance. And if you're not going to sleep on the night train, that defeats half the purpose. Ergo, we come to the couchette. There are six couchettes in a closet-sized compartment. They fold down from the walls like shelves, three high on each side. There is room for six adults in a couchette compartment...if they are all lying down on their couchettes. Yes, if you are traveling alone you will probably be sleeping very close to five strangers. That's Europe, friend, so climb onto your shelf and behave yourself.

The first time I went to Paris was in 1998 with my mom, my sister, and our friends from Stuttgart (see earlier post). It was a big, impressive whirlwind (we were there for I think two days). We took the night train (more couchettes). Mom, Amy, and I went up to Sacre Couer in the evening. It's such a beatiful church, especially lit up. There are steps and terraces in front of the church that took out over the city. I remember when we were there, there were crowds of people sitting on the steps and enjoying the view. It's a very romantic place.

View of the city (it was a bit foggy this day, but you get the idea)

Friends

Sacre Couer

Gaudy, Gody, Gaudi

Oh my, I'm so clever with the word play today.
One of the really interesting, unique things to see in Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia Church. It was designed by Gaudi (a modernist artist from Barcelona), who worked on it from 1883 until 1926...when he died. And they're still working on it. It's about half done.
It's difficult (for me) to show what this cathedral really looks like with pictures because 1. it's huge, 2. there is scaffolding everywhere, and 3. it has a very unique look.
I spent a lot of time looking at this church. Sometimes I would think, "melting wax," and other times I would think, "Dr. Seuss." Inside the church, the pillars are tree-shaped; there are flowers on the ceiling.
I guess I can see how the design of the church might not appeal to everybody (especially in 1883), but I like it. Pretty isn't really a word I would use to describe it, but beautiful is definitely applicable.

Trees in the nave

The east side of the cathedral, the dark brown facade and spires are the oldest part of the church

Classical statues among the Seussiness

Barcelona Continued

At the top of Las Ramblas is Placa de Catalunya. Plac. de Cat. is a huge public square/traffic intersection that kind of divides the old part of the city from the new. OK, describing it as a traffic intersection makes it sound kind of souless and gritty, but actually it's quite grand. It's full of people, surrounded by stores and cafes, and has approximately umpteen streets branching off from it.

Placa de Catalunya, the "sometimes I miss my mom" statue.

The Barcelona cathedral sits just about in the middle of the Gothic part of town. Construction of the cathedral began in 1298 (and lasted 600 years). Yes, the church is old. Be impressed. But not too impressed because it's sitting on top of 2000-year-old Roman ruins. If you go to the nearby City History museum, you can take an elavator underground and walk around parts of Roman Barcelona that have been excavated. Pretty cool. Anyway, back to the cathedral. Supposedly the Native Americans that Columbus brought over from the "New World" were baptised in this church. Also in the cathedral are the remains of St. Eulalia. She's the patron saint of Barcelona, a 13-year-old who was crucified on an X-shaped cross. Gruesome, I know. But trust me, when there's a saint involved, it's usually not a pretty story, people.

Cathedral: front altar and faces next to Eulalia's tomb.

Barcelona Las Ramblas

OK. After Nice, I decided I should make use of the "Spain" designation on my Eurail Pass and go to Spain. So I went to Barcelona. Honestly, I was/am pretty ignorant about Spanish history and culture in general. Before I looked at the Barcelona section in my guidebook I tried to think of any famous Barcelona sights or novelties that I knew about. Nothing. Plus, the only train from Nice put me in Barcelona at 10:30 pm. Let me share something that I've discovered on this trip: Arriving in a strange city at bedtime? Not my favorite thing to do. It wasn't such a trial in Barcelona, though, because people don't start eating dinner until around 9:00, so the city was still plenty awake at 10:30.

Anyway, I thought Barcelona was a beautiful city. There's a long, wide pedestrian street called Las Ramblas that runs through the old part of town all the way down to the harbor. I like it when there is a central place in a city where I can just walk for a while and see what's what. That's my favorite way to start a visit.

Las Ramblas

There's a little section of Las Ramblas where people sell small pets. There are several dozen stands selling mostly birds (parakeets, canaries, finches, chickens, ducks), but also other, non-airborne animals (rabbits, hamsters, turtles, lizards, frogs). At any time of day you can walk by and see a scene that knows no cultural boundries: a little kid gives his parents puppy dog eyes and promises to be the epitome of responsible animal husbandry, while some unsuspecting hamster accidentally strikes a cute pose in his cage.

"Fresh" seafood stand in the market hall.

A Farewell to Amy

above: chocolatey pastry, Amy, Galleries Lafayette loot, quiche

patisserie counter: behold the choices

Since our hotel in Nice just down the street from a Galleries Lafayette (big French department store), Amy and I hauled over there on December 26th to see what kind of after-Christmas bargains we could get. What did we find? Nothing! Maybe two items were on sale in the whole store! Very disorienting.
The day that Amy left in early January, we decided to hit the Galleries one last time just for fun. What greeted us when we walked in? Sales, Sales, Sales, my friends, as far as the eye could see! It seems that the French start their post-holiday sales a little later than the Americans. Go figure. They eat dinner later, too. It's madness over there, I tell you.
Anyway, we dutifully contributed to the Galleries Lafayette shopping insanity, and then made a mad dash for one last favorite French indulgence: the patisserie.
Somehow we managed to buy clothes and pastries and still get Amy to the airport on time, which I found very impressive considering that I was involved.
I found Nice without my sister somehow lacking. I went to the grocery store. The deli there was still selling roasted duck, but I didn't feel like buying any.
Adieu, Am! The duck legs just aren't as tastey without you, so I'm going to Spain.