Category: Travel

Went to church at the Augustinerkirche, which has a very good choir and orchestra (Shubert and Bruckner both conducted masses here). They did the Haydn Kleine Orgelsolomesse and three Bach pieces (which I found a bit odd in this bastion of the Counter-Reformation). Afterwards we walked up the street to the Albertina, where we saw the newly-acquired Batliner Collection, including works from Cezanne, Monet, Munch, Picasso, Rothko, Liechtienstien, and more.

My internal clock is off-kilter, so came back, had a nap, then dined on some wonderful things at the Restaurant Imperial in the hotel.

Went to church at the Augustinerkirche, which has a very good choir and orchestra (Shubert and Bruckner both conducted masses here). They did the Haydn Kleine Orgelsolomesse and three Bach pieces (which I found a bit odd in this bastion of the Counter-Reformation). Afterwards we walked up the street to the Albertina, where we saw the newly-acquired Batliner Collection, including works from Cezanne, Monet, Munch, Picasso, Rothko, Liechtienstien, and more.

My internal clock is off-kilter, so came back, had a nap, then dined on some wonderful things at the Restaurant Imperial in the hotel.

I have remarked how people are always stopping me to ask directions when I’m travelling. It happened twice tonight, but once with a twist.

After dinner, we walked over to the Fraziskaner to see what music was going to be performed at the service Sunday morning. A couple of Spanish ladies stopped us and asked us for directions to Blümenstockgasse, and we were able to oblige them. About five minutes later, on Seilergasse, a man stopped, asked us in very broken English if we spoke Italian, then asked how to get to Mariahilferstraße. While I was trying to show him, another man came up and flashed a badge, saying (in good English) that he was security wanted to see our papers, The other man showed him something, and I showed him my passport. He then said that there was a lot of illegal moneychanging going on in the vicinity, and wanted to see our money. The other man complied, but I – having noticed he had a tattoo on his hand, which seemed odd for “security” – said I had left my wallet in the hotel, and my dad added that we only had a credit card. He asked again, but we persisted, and he just warned us not to change money and shooed the other man off. We went on our way, but turned back to see the “security” man following after the other man.

I think if we had shown the man our currency, it would have been the last we had seen of it.

All pics are available at my Picasa webpage.

Flight from Houston to London was outstanding. Transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow was in record time, and I hoped we might get on standby for the earlier flight to Vienna…but no such luck. In fact, our flight got delayed, so we didn’t get into Vienna until after nightfall…granted, that’s around 4:30, but still…. Saturday had magnificent breakfast at the Imperial, then wandered around the inner city for a while. Slight snafu in that hotel procured tickets for us for the New Year’s Eve concert and the opera on New Year’s Day, but we had already gotten ours from a ticket agent.

Dinner was at Restaurant zum Kuckuck (cuckoo), which has really great dishes from all around the former Monarchy.

Was going to get a couple of SIM cards for the week from T-Mobile (cheaper than A1 and much cheaper than one, but when I got to the store in the Kohlmarkt they had already closed.