Visited the Secession building which is about 2 minutes from our apartment. Really beautiful place done in what the non art student would recognise as art nouveau but is in fact, Secession! There was a pile of tat on the first floor that made me feel middle aged and grouchy. Call this art? There was a muddy puddle, for instance. How many puddles do you think they created before the artist cried out with relief 'yes, YES, this is the definitive muddy puddle, my life has been building to this moment of clarity'? There was also a video of a girl riding a bike backwards and a squashed ant on top of a Conan Doyle novel. Thankfully, the Beethoven Frieze was downstairs to make up for the fraudulent trash upstairs. Klimt is my favourite artist and Ive wanted to see his stuff for a long time. I got to see some in Venice last year but Vienna has the bulk of it because he was based here and it was from here that the whole fin de siecle thing began and ended. So I was blown away by the Beethoven Freize and felt awful knowing that as I left I may never get to see it again.
After that we went to the Leopold Museum where we saw lots more Klimt and Scheiler too. Some of the Scheiler was great but generally you could see why the police busted his house and chucked him in prison for having young girls visiting. Who knows the truth.
In the afternoon we wandered round and happened across the Town Hall and got escorted off the premises of the Leichenstein Palace. Long story.
After eating, we went to the cinema at 10:55pm to see The Third Man. It was superb. A first for me and it was so interesting to see Vienna at war and of course anything taken from a Greene novel is a delight.
4 June 2005
2 June 2005
day 4
another 'what a day' day.
took the 930 train back from budapest and met up with a really interesting retired guy living in lichenstein. talked about a load of cool things hes got up to in the past... herding cattle in wyoming on horseback, skiing marathons in st moritz etc... Got off the train in vienna and had a drink with him for half an hour or so while he waited for a train to switzerland.
in the afternoon we made good from having spent a night without toothbrushes and deodorant!
Shopped again in the afternoon at the huge food market for our dinner.
This evening we went to the Vienna opera to see Verdi`s Don Carlos! Stunning. Of course it was wonderful quality but the coolest thing happened in the middle. We went for the first interval and there was a woman wandering round with a microphone so wherever you were in the building you could hear her. There were cameramen following her and projecting what she was saying onto a huge screen in the foyer. She was announcing the arrival of King Phillip and other members of the cast due to appear in the second half. The camera also scoured the audience having their drinks and watching the screen and chatting among themselves so we looked like extras in the opera waiting for the king to arrive! Then I noticed on the screen that the cast was back on stage so I ran over to look out of one of the boxes (not our seats!!) to see what was going on. Half of the act 2 scene I was taking place on stage and the rest was taking place in different places over the building. Wherever you were you could follow the story. Suddenly a gang of policemen were storming through the bar with a group of prisoners in chains! I was running from the box to the bar and back to try and work it all out!! If you didnt see it first hand it was on the screens. Finally the king and his entourage walked through everybody slowly gathering in the main auditorium surrounded by journalists with flashes going off everwhere. It was a real spectacle.
We came home on a real high, ate my seared tuna steaks in mustard marinade with avocado and lemongrass salad and drank coffee.
took the 930 train back from budapest and met up with a really interesting retired guy living in lichenstein. talked about a load of cool things hes got up to in the past... herding cattle in wyoming on horseback, skiing marathons in st moritz etc... Got off the train in vienna and had a drink with him for half an hour or so while he waited for a train to switzerland.
in the afternoon we made good from having spent a night without toothbrushes and deodorant!
Shopped again in the afternoon at the huge food market for our dinner.
This evening we went to the Vienna opera to see Verdi`s Don Carlos! Stunning. Of course it was wonderful quality but the coolest thing happened in the middle. We went for the first interval and there was a woman wandering round with a microphone so wherever you were in the building you could hear her. There were cameramen following her and projecting what she was saying onto a huge screen in the foyer. She was announcing the arrival of King Phillip and other members of the cast due to appear in the second half. The camera also scoured the audience having their drinks and watching the screen and chatting among themselves so we looked like extras in the opera waiting for the king to arrive! Then I noticed on the screen that the cast was back on stage so I ran over to look out of one of the boxes (not our seats!!) to see what was going on. Half of the act 2 scene I was taking place on stage and the rest was taking place in different places over the building. Wherever you were you could follow the story. Suddenly a gang of policemen were storming through the bar with a group of prisoners in chains! I was running from the box to the bar and back to try and work it all out!! If you didnt see it first hand it was on the screens. Finally the king and his entourage walked through everybody slowly gathering in the main auditorium surrounded by journalists with flashes going off everwhere. It was a real spectacle.
We came home on a real high, ate my seared tuna steaks in mustard marinade with avocado and lemongrass salad and drank coffee.
day 3 cont'd/...
As you will have gathered, we took a train to Hungary yesterday. Budapest is a really beautiful city. Its made up of two parts. Buda, and yes you guessed it, Pest, with the Danube flowing through the middle. We spent most of our time on the Buda half seeing the Fishermans Bastion, the Church of our Lady (which was like no other church i have ever seen. breathtaking) and the national art gallery.
Dinner was in Pest and I think I would have travelled to Hungary just for this restaurant. We were given free starters of bread with apple pickle, dijon wholegrain mustard and piquant tomato sauce for starters. I had a beef tagine with vegetables in an amazing sauce. The meat was perfectly tender and the sauce was rich with a touch of sweetness. The couscous was amazingly light. Margaret had smoked chicken with honied pineapple and it was really tasty too. I had chocolate soup for dessert which I had never tried before and I could taste cinnamon and cardamon in there. Plus it came with fresh strawberries. Margaret had dark chocolate souffle with candied orange, morello cherry compote and ice cream. The souffle was so light really, you could hardly feel it in your mouth.
As you can see, Budapest is a city to visit!
We missed our return train by ten minutes so had to find accommodation. We stayed in a nice little apartment 15 minutes from the station rented by this older guy who told us about his daughter in Florida and showed us pictures of her winning tennis competitions! Quite an adventure.
Before bed we drank at a jazz bar and decided we were glad to have missed our train back to Western Europe!
Dinner was in Pest and I think I would have travelled to Hungary just for this restaurant. We were given free starters of bread with apple pickle, dijon wholegrain mustard and piquant tomato sauce for starters. I had a beef tagine with vegetables in an amazing sauce. The meat was perfectly tender and the sauce was rich with a touch of sweetness. The couscous was amazingly light. Margaret had smoked chicken with honied pineapple and it was really tasty too. I had chocolate soup for dessert which I had never tried before and I could taste cinnamon and cardamon in there. Plus it came with fresh strawberries. Margaret had dark chocolate souffle with candied orange, morello cherry compote and ice cream. The souffle was so light really, you could hardly feel it in your mouth.
As you can see, Budapest is a city to visit!
We missed our return train by ten minutes so had to find accommodation. We stayed in a nice little apartment 15 minutes from the station rented by this older guy who told us about his daughter in Florida and showed us pictures of her winning tennis competitions! Quite an adventure.
Before bed we drank at a jazz bar and decided we were glad to have missed our train back to Western Europe!
1 June 2005
day 3
all i am saying at this stage is that i missed the last train back into austria so i am staying overnight in budapest!!
check in tomorrow for further details!!!!!!!!!!!!!
check in tomorrow for further details!!!!!!!!!!!!!
31 May 2005
day 2
This morning we went to the Albertina gallery in the hope of catching some Klimt. There were three very simple pieces of his there but a host of other interesting artists including Bonnard, Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, Mondriaan and Fuselli. My favourite piece was the Fuselli called something like A Shepherds Dream (?). Very much like some of Blakes illustrations. Interestingly there was also a painting by Victor Hugo. It wasnt so great but I never knew he painted.
Schnitzel for dinner set us going for an afternoon of walking around the Hofburg complex. After half an hour of looking at case after case of King someone or others cutlery, I was beginning to wonder why Id paid E9.50 to admire his silverware. Thankfully we moved on and saw some very cool art in the Imperial Apartments next to the Spanish Riding School.
After a foray into the cultural experience that is apfelstrudel, we took the ´scenic route´to the main train station to buy tickets for our trip tomorrow. Youll have to check in tomorrow to see what we have planned!
This evening I made a pretty good salad to go with our pizza and an unidentified baking object is in the oven. It looks like it might have chocolate in the middle but we may yet be eating minced beef patties for pudding.
Schnitzel for dinner set us going for an afternoon of walking around the Hofburg complex. After half an hour of looking at case after case of King someone or others cutlery, I was beginning to wonder why Id paid E9.50 to admire his silverware. Thankfully we moved on and saw some very cool art in the Imperial Apartments next to the Spanish Riding School.
After a foray into the cultural experience that is apfelstrudel, we took the ´scenic route´to the main train station to buy tickets for our trip tomorrow. Youll have to check in tomorrow to see what we have planned!
This evening I made a pretty good salad to go with our pizza and an unidentified baking object is in the oven. It looks like it might have chocolate in the middle but we may yet be eating minced beef patties for pudding.
30 May 2005
wien
so my apartment has free internet access. life is sweet.
sat on the tarmac at heathrow for an hour which was a delight as you can imagine. of course, the air con had failed at that point and its been pretty much the hottest spell of the year so far. eventually took off and enjoyed turbulence a lot of the way there, but whats hurtling through the air if you dont notice how close you are to death every few minutes, right?
the apartment looked liked a dive from the outside and as finding accomodation was entirely my remit, i was nervous. inside, the place is lovely. really modern and clean, lots of beech wood and with free internet access!
i should say im here with my travel bud, margaret, that i met about 18 months ago on a trip to the states. off the cuff we thought it might be a crack to travel together so last may we spent a week in venice and now here we are in vienna. so although ive only known her for about 2 weeks in total face to face contact time, we will be travelling like this most years i think.
excuse the lack of punctuation, this keyboard is unfathomable.
ä ö ü § ß
so for the first time in weeks, my blog actually has something to say! watch this space for more kumquat adventures!!!
sat on the tarmac at heathrow for an hour which was a delight as you can imagine. of course, the air con had failed at that point and its been pretty much the hottest spell of the year so far. eventually took off and enjoyed turbulence a lot of the way there, but whats hurtling through the air if you dont notice how close you are to death every few minutes, right?
the apartment looked liked a dive from the outside and as finding accomodation was entirely my remit, i was nervous. inside, the place is lovely. really modern and clean, lots of beech wood and with free internet access!
i should say im here with my travel bud, margaret, that i met about 18 months ago on a trip to the states. off the cuff we thought it might be a crack to travel together so last may we spent a week in venice and now here we are in vienna. so although ive only known her for about 2 weeks in total face to face contact time, we will be travelling like this most years i think.
excuse the lack of punctuation, this keyboard is unfathomable.
ä ö ü § ß
so for the first time in weeks, my blog actually has something to say! watch this space for more kumquat adventures!!!
29 May 2005
how far?
something distinctly odd happened to me this morning. I woke up early and felt like running. I got up. I ran. Two miles! I didn't feel like tagging on another 24 just to keep up with my marathon running pals but this is the furthest I've run before. Try not to laugh! Here starteth the training for my Race for Life sponsored run.
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