Vienna. It's pretty cool.

Synopsis of days: Vienna. Barely scratched the surface.

Highlight of the days: A string quartet which played Mozart, Brahms, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Bach and Schubert at the St Peters church crypt. I selected this concert because it played ‘Lachrymosa’ but the Schubert was a great performance. I was close enough to read the music sheets – such a great experience.    

Lowlight of the days: The city was very foggy so there was no chance to see many sights or to get an understanding of how immense the city was. Our hotel was very close to the Prater (ferris wheel) but there was no point at all going on it because you could barely even see it through the mist.  

Favourite photo: 

Walking into the city in the morning beside a canal.

Derek’s selfie of choice:

Derek chilled with some penguins he found in the Stadt park.

Shameless selfie:

Spending time with the rear end of Kaiser Franz Josef's horse 

(outside the Albertina) 

Walking by the canals with my favourite jacket.

Historical Fact of the Day: Vienna’s Jewish population was the third largest in Europe. There was a collection of artefacts in the Jewish Museum from the thirty plus synagogues and other prayer rooms destroyed during Kristallnacht, which brought home to me the impact of this night far more than reading about it has ever done. Only one synagogue was not razed to the ground, but it was also looted.  There was an exhibition on Jewish access to universities in medieval-modern times and it was quite disturbing to see how much injustice was shown through outright violence or through exclusionary policies.    

Also hearing about the origins of WWI from an Austrian perspective was interesting.

Cultural-shock moment: Another good one – I enjoyed touring the Albertina Art Gallery and seeing much of the German/Austrian art works. While numerous artists were known to me it was a reminder that art galleries around the world really do have their own cultural take on things. I especially liked the exhibition on German Romanticism – there was an awful lot of Caspar David Friedrich.   

New food consumed: Sachertorte from the Café Sacher. 

It was fairly dry.

I’d googled it to check the ingredients and the version I found on the internet looked more appealing. As we’d been walking for some time it was a pleasure to sit down, even if we did have to queue to enter. Also, it’s not a new experience per se but I got to have hot eggnog which I haven’t had since I was in the States.

Best purchase of the day: I’ve been a little disappointed by the lack of portable beautiful things in the markets for sale. There have been some stunning ornaments made from glass but obviously wouldn’t travel well, and thus it’s been quite easy to save my money. I did however finally find some pretty decorations in the marketplace near Stephansplatz so I have a memento of the Christmas markets now!   

Random act of crazy: Note to self – don’t drink more than one Glühwein. I could barely see straight for almost an hour at dinner (The recipes are different at every store – think I scored a hectic recipe in Vienna).  

Emma and I with the hectic Glühwein.

Something I want to remember:  I took the opportunity to walk into the city instead of catching the Metro and followed the line of the river and a canal. I walked by so many historic buildings and parks and it was just a peaceful time in the city. I found my way to the Jewish Museum which was informative, especially about the difficulties with identifying the provenance of many artefacts since the Shoah obliterated much personal memory or records. Finishing the experience with a concert was a great end to this taster of the city. I know there were many things I should have gone to see here but I also knew I just didn’t have time to cover it in any sort of depth. But Budapest awaits.