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Showing posts from July, 2009

K und K Lunchdate

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After the Schatzkammer Rob and I went in search of lunch. We decided on Trzesniewski's, a stehcafe or standing cafe down a little alley off the Graben. They specialize in little open faced sandwiches with diverse spreads. We got half a dozen of those and snarfed them down with a pretty businesslike bunch of Austrians. I like Tresniewski's sense of humor. Their awning above says "the unspeakably (unpronounceably) good little breads". One of their old ad campaigns said "Tzresniewski's? Gesundheit!" as if their name sounded like a sneeze. And the clock on their wall uses the letters of their name instead of numerals. [click to enlarge] Then for dessert, we crossed back up to the Kohlmarkt to Dehmel konditorei. This is an institution. They are the "K und K" pastry and chocolate shop which means Kaiserlich und Koniglich or Royal and Imperial. Their goods are so excellent that the Hofburg stopped having their own patisserie in the palace -- they

Schatzkammer with my Schatz

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Rob and I went to the treasury or Schatzkammer to see all the Austro-Hungarian goods. We got to see it in its original setting down in the bottom of the city palace or Hofburg . [click to enlarge] It is one of my favorite places in Vienna. It's been too long for me to know how it compares to the crown jewels in London, but you've got to be impressed by some of this bling. The green thing is the most valuable piece in the collection: a vase made out of an emerald; 2680 carats. The crown is Stephan's, and comes with a matching hat box. The cross was made in the 11th century, but the stand for it came from the 14th -- like it took them three hundred years to realize it needed a stand. To the right of it you can see a piece of the true cross. Katie had been making snide remarks about all the pieces of the true cross scattered throughout Christendom. These guys also had a piece of Christ's manger, just to up the ante. [click to enlarge] Here are some baby items: the cradle

Work, work, work!

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On Wednesday I met Rob downtown for a date. He had been working at the City of Vienna library in the music collection, and he brought me up to see it. It is in a great Ringstrasse apartment just a block away from the city hall, probably built sometime in the teens. Rob was looking for more unheard of female composers and their works. So he was up there in that alcove in the picture above. Tough life. I was blown away by the apartment, not just because of its size and decor, but also because it's in such fantastic condition. Rob and I have spent some time in altbau apartments built around this time, and this one was practically perfect. I expect this was the dining room. A ceiling panel from a different room. The dining room again. I loved the frieze around the ceiling. Here's looking from the music room into the lesesaal or reading room. This was an exhibit room. There was a Haydn mass here in E dur, among other things. And finally, the groovy chandelier in the exhibit

Treasure Hunt

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Rob was gone all day researching on Monday and by the time the kids had themselves dressed and their beds made, Joss took a long nap and then it was lunchtime and I was crazy with cabin fever. I took them down to the Naschmarkt thinking I'd get us all some lunch and they could play in the park. They insisted on schnitzel semmels (which we could have bought around the corner from our house) and I ended up trailing them through the entire market while they tried to figure out which stall it was. They finally found it ("It's across from a bakery, mom!") and a very nice mustachioed woman sold us schnitzel semmels with Almdudlers . Then I had to try to find my awesome Yugoslav falafel sandwich maker. Rob bought me one of these in the first few days we were here and it was a revelation. I haven't been able to find it since! But I got a reasonable facsimile and we went to the park where they played for a good long time on the slide, zipline, race car and in the sand

Ein Herlich Heuriger Evening

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[click to enlarge] For our last group meal in Vienna, we all went out to a heuriger . Originally these were establishments for a vineyard where the newest wine was served (heurig means this year). They can only sell their own wine, and they generally have a limited selection of dishes served from a buffet. I'm going define these as Austria's answer to the wineries you can find in Napa and Sonoma and other places in the states -- completely different atmosphere and clientele, but has the same place in the culture. There are many places around Vienna with heurigen ; we went to a traditional area to the north called Grinzing (near where Beethoven lived later in life). When a heuriger is open, they will hang a pine bough out front, and people know they're open for business. If there is music, it must be live music, typically one or two singers who accompany themselves on accordion or guitar, walking by the tables taking requests*. Feuerwehr Wagner was a recommendation from our

Children's Tour: City Museum of Vienna

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How do you get six kids to learn about Viennese history on their summer vacation? Tuesday we went to the Museum der Stadt Wien with the Husz family for another event with the Summer Vacation Adventure program. Our guide taught us about Vienna from the Roman ages to Biedermeyer (turn of the century). She showed us historical models and paintings of the city and explained how people lived in each period, which wars took place, how they dressed, und so weiter . In each section, she got a few children to dress up in period costumes. I shamelessly bribed the boys with two euros apiece if they would participate, knowing they'd nevery participate if they had to wear white wigs again. It was a bargain at the price. The guide was so good and we learned a lot. Maddie learned how walls keep people out and which wars were fought by whom. Sebi liked learning about the knights and their shining armor. Will liked learning about the Romans, back when Vienna was called Vindobona. Rob and I got in

Yppenmarkt

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On Saturday we decided to see the real market where real residents shop. The real market with the fake palms. So we rode the brown line out to Josefstadterstrasse and moseyed over to the true Turkish market in town. Prices were awfully good. They made the Naschmarkt look expensive, and so we bought several pair of shoes for 5 euros apiece. Then we went in search of Kent's: a good Turkish restaurant, looking for a doner kebap. We stay away from doner kebaps in Vienna on principle. The one true doner is in Berlin (whether you're a Yorkstrasse or a Sophie Charlotte Platz type, they have to be from Berlin, and don't be telling us that you love Shark Doners, because that is no doner, my friend! No way that mystery meat is halal!). But we will make an exception for Kent's, which until recently still had toilets in the true Turkish style (why do I keep talking about toilets? it must be Vienna). And here is everyone holding up their uludag -- Turkish soda that tastes like

Getting Inside! Hundertwasserhaus

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[click to enlarge] Hundertwasser built this apartment building in 1986 and its 50 apartments are still occupied, so it isn't open to the public. When Rob took his students there to see it on their Hundertwasser day, this woman asked if they were an architecture class and she said "You must come in!" and proceeded to take them all up to the rooftop garden and her own personal terrace. She very graciously invited Rob to bring back the family and the kids and we went on Friday. She met us at the door and we saw the roofgarden and the great view from there. Then she took us down to her own personal terrace, where she plied the kids with biscotti and juice. She is an original tenant of the building, moving in in 1986 and so we asked her about the turnover rate(the smaller apartments do change hands as people have families) and whether Hundertwasser had ever visited (he did. she and her late husband were friends with him and she remembers him coming back from New Zealand in hi

Maddie's Geburtstag

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[click to enlarge] Maddie's birthday was on Wednesday. She has had her birthday in Vienna three times and in Berlin once, which means she often doesn't get to have her friends around (which is why we did this), but she does get some incredible cakes. This year she chose the ice cream cake from the italian eissalon on Schwedenplatz. After we brought it out to thaw, we went into the living room to open presents. When we asked the boys to throw away the paper, they came running back in squealing and bringing a terrible smell -- the plastic lid to the cake had been left on a burner where a certain small person likes to turn the dials. Which is how we almost managed to start a fire with an ice cream cake. Difficult to do, I know, but if anyone could manage it, we could. Maddie got a book, a DVD, and then more grownup things like clothes, jewelry accessories and hair dye. It's a tradition that she does temporary hair dye while she's here. Friends who work at the UN even got

Ferienspiel: Raft Building

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Last weekend our friend Manuela showed us what we had been missing: a whole summer's worth of activities going on around Vienna (they began in July when the kids get out of school, but we'd still missed a couple of weeks). So for Maddie's birthday, we got online and found that there was raft building on the Alte Donau. We hauled over there as fast as we could. This is a small marina belonging to the junge OVP political party, which according to Rob is like the young republicans. There were all these nice young things helping kids to lash together rafts. [click to enlarge] So the kids made a raft, and rode around on it, and swam and rowed on a kayak? surfboard? windsurfboard? Even Rob and Joss got in on the action (one boy told me how great my husband is -- always good to be reminded, even by a long-haired kid in boxer briefs). The temperature of the water was perfect. It was a good time to be on the Alte Donau. And these boats crack me up, so I had to take a picture. I e

The Final Countdown

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We have two weeks left in Vienna now; three in Austria. At this point in the trip, we start thinking about tying up loose ends, and buying a year's supply of Luise Handlmeier mustard. Rob and I have both panicked, thinking about packing up all of our stuff into suitcases. We're tired of wearing the same clothes. We're sunburned and footsore and we have scratches, bruises and mosquito bites. But there are still things we haven't seen, and some we have never seen before, despite three summers here. So we made a list and we had fourteen items on it: one a day. We're checking them off, especially trying to get things done without the kids (since the kids couldn't care less about these). [click to enlarge] The Leopold museum was at the top of our list. This is my favorite museum in all of Vienna (and not just because I'm a Shumway and it's air-conditioned, though that didn't hurt!). It came from the personal collection of an optometrist and his wife who