Retired school librarian Margueritte Kirkpatrick and a small group of her friends periodically go to faraway places on tour. She then writes travelogues of their ventures. The following is the first recount of this summer's European excursion.
Arriving in Vienna on July 1, we meet Marisa, our tour guide, who accompanies us to the Hilton Vienna Danube; a lovely view from our room is the famous Danube River that flows through ten European countries and about which Johann Strauss composed his famous waltz in 1866. An afternoon walk takes us to the recommended cafe in the Sacher Hotel, famous for a chocolate torte created in 1832. More than 360,000 tortes are produced by hand each year, made from a secret recipe that has been seen by only a few people. Of course, we must indulge in this delicacy of dark chocolate with icing infused with apricot preserves. Heavenly!!
Returning to our hotel, we board the Trafalgar bus for a drive about the city which takes us past ornate architecture and sculptures, beautiful cathedrals, the magnificent Hofburg Palace, homes of many composers including Strauss and Mozart, the two most famous composers claimed by this amazing city. Though Beethoven was born in Germany, he lived much of his life in Vienna. Our guide tells us he was a “restless person” who lived in 67 different homes here! Our welcome dinner is in a local restaurant where we are introduced to a starter that is ubiquitous in Eastern Europe: anchovies, cheese, and prosciutto.
July 2. We meet our local specialist, Peter, for a city tour. St. Stephen's Cathedral, built in 1433, is the most well-known Gothic Cathedral in Europe and home of the archbishop of Austria; its steeple is the highest in Europe. We walk the grounds of the Hofburg Palace, home of the Habsburgs who ruled more than 600 years and whose empire spread throughout Europe. The immense palace, built in the 13th century, has 17 wings added by different emperors, most of which are now museums. Part of the palace forms the official residence and workplace of the President of Austria. We walk through the Imperial Horse Stables that house the famous Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School. We are disappointed to learn they have been moved to a different location for the summer.
Vienna, known as a “green city,” boasts 700 parks. We pass the Opera House, where there are 300 performances of ballet or opera each year with a different performance each night for a month, always sold out. The Vienna Orchestra is so popular that the waiting period for season tickets is 15 years! Next is the Parliament Building, built in the style of Greek architecture signifying the birthplace of democracy. Standing outside the entrance is a huge statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom. We pass St. Peter's Church, which according to legend was founded by Charlemagne in 800. We pass a monastery that contains the Imperial crypt of the Habsburg family. We pass the Austrian National Library, one of the most important libraries in the world.
Then we have free time. My friends and I head to the Opera House for a guided tour. Our lovely young guide, who is also a harpist, fills our heads with facts as we walk about this beautiful structure:
*The Opera House was built in 1869; the two architects were very unpopular because people of the city did not like the design. As a result, one committed suicide; the other died soon after, supposedly of a broken heart.
*The Opera House suffered five bombs during World War II.
*There are 1,700 seats and space for 567 SRO tickets. Cost of a ticket is 217 euros for a front seat; 4 euros for SRO.
*The chandelier in the auditorium contains 3,000 Bohemian crystals.
*The stage is four times the size of the auditorium.
*Mission Impossible Five was filmed here.
*One thousand people work here including performers, technicians, and stage hands.
*Performers have use of 180,000 costumes.
*Viennese look forward to the yearly Opera Ball when platforms are built out from the stage over the seats to make one huge ballroom; tickets are 290 euros per person; a box which will hold eight or nine people, may be rented for 20,500 euros; city debutantes are presented and line up for a formal waltz before all the attendees; the ball ends at 5 a.m., after which the auditorium and stage must be returned to normal before that evening's performance.
*When Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn performed Swan Lake here, they received 89 curtain calls.
*Placido Domingo received the longest curtain call with applause lasting one hour and 20 minutes.
Later we board our bus for a side trip to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia—a Baroque city on both banks of the Danube River and setting for one of Mozart's first concerts. On the way we pass hundreds of windmills, alien structures that march across the land on “wind farms.” Though eco-friendly, they are very unpopular because they disturb satellite signals as well as birds and wildlife. Bratislava has 12 universities with 55,000 students. Our short visit is confined to the Old Town where we visit a castle that had its origin in the 10th century but has undergone many renovations. A walk through the cobblestone streets allows us to sit on a Medieval stone bench with crocodile heads on the arms to ward off evil spirits and to have a photo made with the famous Napoleon's Army Soldier Statue. Across the Danube we see a collection of ugly block buildings from the time of Communism. They have been painted various colors to improve their appearance—with little success.
Sunday, July 3: Leaving the beautiful city of Vienna, we drive south toward Graz, passing tiny villages with a smattering of red tile rooftops and always a church with a tall steeple. Patches of brilliant green pasture land and golden wheat fields are interspersed with the loden green of forest evergreens. Every inch of land seems perfectly manicured and either cultivated or forested. Abundant forests in Austria are protected by the government, and farms are subsidized. As we travel, we listen to the melodic strains of Strauss' Blue Danube.
Soon we arrive in Graz, a Medieval city under the protection of UNESCO. Some of us elect to climb 260 steps to a thousand-year-old castle and stand beneath the city's most famous landmark: the clock tower from the 15th century. From this vantage point we look down upon red tile rooftops, the Mur River with its glass island, an ultra modern art museum that looks like a blue space ship juxtaposed against Baroque architecture and Gothic cathedrals. Graz is a very clean city with electric trolleys used primarily for transportation. Forty thousand students attend its many universities. Graz is also the birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Leaving this lovely cit,y we head toward the Karawanken Mountains and the border of Slovenia, a country once part of Yugoslavia. It is a country of mountains and lakes, “a miniature Switzerland.”
To be continued.....