anotherbanana Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 clean as Vienna? Just back from three days culture topping up there and was overwhelmed by the amazing cleanliness of the city centre; no muck, no litter, no tagging (at least in the city centre), few beggars, few tattoos, even the pigeons seem to wear Pampers. Ok, it must cost a fortune and requires a great deal of civic pride, but it puts so many other places to great shame. By the way, there are at least 103 museums; if you went to them all you would be a very cultured rich bankrupt. But, the Breughel's are to die for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Nice to see you appreciate the Old Masters, Wooly. What was the weather like? Plus, you didn't mention the concert halls? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 We went to a concert of Haydn, Mozart and Bartok given by the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein, an outstanding concert hall with quality acoustics and fabulous decoration. Audience large and very knowledgable. As I said, Baatok must have had serious mental problems! Haydn and Mozart beautiful. Weather wet and dry but quite warm; we expected much colder so were cooking in winter coats and the rest. Just for the ladies, tons of restaurants for all wallets but I thought their menus a bit repetitive, amazing cakes at all time of day. Oh, and shopping, brilliant, often in old fashioned shops. Buildings were well, go see yourselves, somewhat overpowering. And naked statues everywhere, Hapsburgs seem to have loved them. There is no sense of apologizing for their past unlike the British. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 And Saturday nights can be a bit hectic especially after a local football derby: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggers Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I went this time last year,lovely city and fantastic atmosphere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 One of our favourite cities ... we watched the Vienna Boys Choir int he Musicverein once, and also managed to get to see the Lippzaners perfom - spellbinding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 (edited) Have visited Vienna too, found just the architecture of the buildings overwhelming. Although, despite the ancient building etc, my favourite place was the repurposed gasometers on the outskirts of the city. We have just come back from a long weekend in Venice, a city we have never visited. Out of season we missed the crowds and, apart from the deluge on the Friday, had two days of glorious sunshine and warm weather. I was very pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of all the places we walked - mostly away from the tourist traps. Edited February 27 by Lehaut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 We went a few years ago and loved it also. I was surprised at how easy it was driving in the center of town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Thank you for all the posts which I greatly enjoyed. Alas for me, my travelling days are over for the present time but that's OK because some things cannot be readily changed. Special thanks to Wooly for the further post on the concert he went to and to Lehaut for his beautiful photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowland Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Dear Mr. Banana thank you for your post which brought back some very happy memories. In the mid eighties we camped in the Vienna woods not far from the terminus of a railway line into the city . We couldn’t afford tickets for the Opera but went on a backstage tour and we managed a peek into the Musikverein imagining ourselves at the New Year’s Day concert. One of the highlights was a performance of Die Fleidermaus at the Volksoper and a free organ concert in the Stefansdom. We had booked tickets 6 months prior to our trip to see the horses at the Spanish Riding School - unfortunately OH is allergic to horses but it only took 24 hours for the swelling to go down!! thanks again for reminding us of a wonderful time. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Mr Banana and I did manage to get to one of the morning workouts of the Spanish Riding School, which was fascinating. I had seen them perform at the International Horse Show in White City Stadium, in - ahem - probably about 1953. I particularly enjoyed a visit to the MAK museum, for the Viennese furniture etc, including a fabulous display of Thonet bentwood chairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 Loiseau, thank you for the pictures. I haveI always loved the looks of bentwood chairs, especially the rocking ones, but I have also wondered about how comfortable or otherwise they are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 Given the increased weight of many populations I suspect that a lot of those chairs would collapse pretty quickly. That being said many were quite lovely with designs that are copied today even by places like IKEA. One thing about the folk we saw in Vienna was that there were almost no real fatties of any generation (excepting tourists) which, was a change from other places. Quite how they do it with all the cakes they stuff and with the very plump statues from cherubs to ladies, is a mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 How they do it, Wools? Perhaps with a bit of self-discipline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 Respect for themselves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 (edited) Don't snack between meals, a little like the French?? Edited February 28 by Judith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 I lived and worked in Vienna for 3 months back in the 70’s. Wonderful place and I can add little to what has been said already. The only was that I was never keen on the ‘knodel’, which comes in all sorts of variety and disguises. A more recent experience though. When returning to France from our younger son’s home in southern Czech, we were looking for a lunchtime motorway stop. We pulled off at a place about 20kms before Salzburg - no expectation of anything special, just a typical motorway service station we thought. Wrong - but in the best possible way ! Most have probably heard about the much-lauded Service Station in the UK at Tebay. Well this place is loads better ! A superb retail area, with lots of things that you’d want to buy, and plenty that you didn’t need to buy, but did. Even better though was the cafe / restaurant, which had seating on a balcony overlooking the nearby lakes. The food was delicious, beautifully presented, but also expensive. Worth it though. In summary, Austria doesn’t do scruffy - it just isn’t ‘them’. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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