The Professor and Mary Ann

Joss: I want some fruit weather. Fruit weather would be good. Would you make me a girled cheese sandwich? In NoahnCannon's car we listened to "Goin' on a crazy train, nanananeow/goin' on a crazy train, nanananeouw." MA: is that by Ozzy Osborne? Joss: no. Sebi: yes it is! Joss: we also listened to some Kermit the Frog

 Rob has been coming to Wiener Festwochen productions since we were here in 2002. When I'm around, he bends over backward to find the ones that I can understand in English or Spanish. They had several offerings this year, and I think we went to most, if not all of them in English. This was put on by an Australian company. It all took place right out on the pedestrian section of Mariahilferstrasse (big shopping street). Our headphones helped us hear the actors, who wore mics, but they'd occasionally talk to random people on the street, or hide out, and it was interesting to see the kind of fringe elements turn out to have more moral fiber than the normal-looking actors. I'd work on the story a little more. The stage for Small Metal Objects. We also saw Common People which was an evening of first dates. Introductions of 20 people and then carefully scripted meetings between two of them. A good concept, but I thought the scripts needed improvement. Rob wanted more d

 One of the most famous performing groups in Vienna is the Spanish Riding School. These are a special breed of horses, Lipizzaner, which perform in the downtown palace, or Hofburg, as they have done for 450 years now. Our family had been to see a rehearsal here (which isn't really worth the time or money, though it does take place here).  We ended up with two extra tickets and Rob tried to sell them back to the ticket office. He asked some guy standing around what to do and the guy responded "You don't want to be asking me about that . . ." so Rob went out on the street and found a mother and son and sold the tickets to them.  We were way up in the balcony and even though we had seats, we often stood just so we could see. The ends of the balcony would have had the best views. The music was great, the horses were great, their handlers were great. Then the guy that Rob had talked to came out: he was the pooper scooper entre'act. Rob's exchange with hi

 On Tuesday, Rob and I saw Beethoven's Fidelio at the Staatsoper. I was excited to see this one because, though I've toured the building, the only thing I've seen performed here was an atonal opera about a Czech giant, which was a litany of the abuses he suffered. It was truly painful to watch and listen to. I read up on Fidelio that morning (which I need to do every time. I don't know why I haven't), and it was super helpful to have the synopsis in mind and all the characters straight before I went. This was Beethoven's only opera, and I learned that it premiered here in Vienna a month after Napoleon took over the city in November of 1805. The house was only about half full and it was a failure. Beethoven tinkered with the overture and his librettists (3 of them) worked on the words, and it was shown again in 1806, 1807, and finally in 1814. It finally had some success with a great singer in the title role. Before his death, Beethoven told his biographer an

We knew that Friday was going to be (yet another) scorcher. The weather has been really tough so far. So we planned a day out to an island in the middle of the Donau. We invited all the students and grabbed our towels and a picnic and headed east.  My first stop was the wave pool. I love this place. You head way down to the deep end and just float around. It's all of my favorite things about the ocean and my favorite things about pools in one place.  But everyone else was excited to get into the Donau, which, I concede is more unique to Vienna. Here Will makes a grand entrance.  And here is nearly everyone in the group.  Maddie and Will giving Joss the toss. He'd gotten his stitches out that morning--we don't waste any time babying that one. Good thing the kid can swim!  Plenty of jumping off the pier and splashing around. The temperature in the water (in the river and all of the pools) was 77 degrees--delightfully cool when the air was in the nineties.

 Here is the breakfast room at the Turnerwirt. German and Austrian hotels (or gasthof, gasthaus, or pension) have great breakfasts and usually great breakfast rooms to go with them. Even the scary place we stayed in Munich in 2006 had a great breakfast room--it was like two baronial rooms in a zombie building.  This room is all decked out in music and I'm a huge sucker for it. And the breakfasts are great too!  After we'd filled up on breakfast, we loaded onto the bus and headed out here to Hellbrunn, the archbishop's palace. Salzburg isn't usually so hot, but every time we come we hit a heatwave, so we love this place. I think it was the Disneyland of its time. It's filled with trick fountains. Our kids and students hopped right up to the table to get a seat. They love it. And then they didn't worry too much about when they got wet during the rest of the tour.  The grotto.  Joss spent the tour in another wheelchair, but this is still a

 As I said in the last post, we had to change our plans in Salzburg because Joss was supposed to stay off of his foot for a few days. We knew that walking around the city for the walking tour was out, so Will and I stayed home with him after breakfast. Will obligingly pushed him around the go cart track a few times before they tried out the legos and puzzles and games in the playroom in the basement.  Once Rob got the wheelchair, we headed off to walk around Salzburg. This was the favorite baroque church from the walking tour. When refurbishing it, no one could believe it was originally all white, and so they baroqued it all up. Called the Kollegienkirche.  This is the Salzburger Dom, or cathedral.  This is one of the horsewashing stations. Apparently there are two, and I'd never found the right one. Up on top is a crafty little puzzle. It says "Prince Leopold Built Me", but it also says 1732 in roman numberals, which is the year it was built. One of the