Wednesday in Vienna

 

Both Kathy and I really love a hearty hotel breakfast in Europe. We weren't disappointed at Pension Nossek. There was orange juice, cappuccino, great bread, meat, cheese, butter, jam, and fried eggs. The bread never disappoints, but I am always disappointed when I can't find something similar at home.

On our first full day, Kathy ordered scrambled eggs. After I had my rolls and meat, I went back to the room to use the facilities.  I didn't realize that she'd ordered some for me as well, so Kathy sat at breakfast for a half-hour, wondering why I didn't come back, while I waited around the room, wondering what was taking her so long. 

Fortunately, we had our phones and she finally texted me and asked where I was. When I got back to the breakfast room, the eggs were a little cold, but still fine. I may have had another roll and some yogurt as long as I was already there.

I liked these stained-class windows in our hotel...

... as well as the, unfortunately non-working, drinking fountain. 

In Austria and Germany, Art Nouveau was called Jugendstil, or "Youth Style". Graben Street has several fine architectural examples, including touches at our hotel.

As we set off after breakfast, our first stop was the last remaining Art Nouveau underground WC, located just under our window.

Kathy went into the Dammen and took a few pictures...

while I visited the Herren, where they had an exhibit of the patent for the first waterless urinal. 

Right around the corner from our hotel is the baroque St. Peter's, whose dome we can see from our hotel window, over the top of the Hermes store.

Before I get to St. Peter's, let me say a few words about the pagan gods worshiped in Vienna, of whom Hermes and Yves St. Laurent are especially revered. Their acolytes line up on the street before dawn, hoping to be admitted once the doors our open for "shopping". Only a few are admitted at any one time, and the lines go on throughout the day. I never discovered the reason, and certainly never saw anything like this at home, where their followers are no less devout.

The interior of St. Peters is Baroque. According to Wikipedia,  Baroque was an artistic style encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art, and music. 

The church is named after St. Peter, and there is a fresco of the Biblical story of Peter attempting to walk on the water, on the ceiling as you enter.

There is a lot of gold and a lot of emotion. Rick Steves (a Protestant), says that Baroque was the emotional response to the cold logic of the Renaissance. 

Here is some of that emotion ...

... and here is some more of that gold...

... and just little bit more. It seems to me that St. Peter always gets the biggest and most impressive churches (just consider St. Peters in the Vatican). So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in Vienna, St. Stephen is number one. They even gave St. Stephen his own subway stop, so there.

Of course, the downside is that you have to pay to go inside the Gothic St. Stephens, while the Baroque St. Peter's is free. Kathy and I paid the 6E each and tried to listen to the audio narration from my Rick Steves' Pocket Guide to Vienna, using my phone and sharing a single pair of earbuds, which was a disaster. Each time one of us would turn to look at a relic, it would tear the bud from the ear of the other.

Behind the altar is a painting commemorating the stoning of St. Stephen, as related in the Book of Acts. Here's what Rick Steves had to say about it in the guidebook. "Stephen, having refused to stop professing his faith, is pelted with rocks by angry pagans." I guess it wouldn't do to have a guidebook to Austria that said he was being pelted with rocks by angry Jews. 

That led to Kathy and I stopping and having a conversation about exactly who instigated Stephen's martyrdom. After that, it was kind of hard to pick up the thread again from the guidebook, which was a little hard to follow. We looked for Mozart's baptismal fount, and found the tomb of Frederick III instead.

On the back wall was portrait of Pope John Paul the II I think.

On one side was an impressive carved wooden screen ...

... while on the floor, there were some interesting Hapsburg and Crusader motifs. It was nice having the guidebook to explain what everything meant, but, to tell you the truth, it was just as rewarding to me just to enjoy the artwork in St. Peter's, even without the backstory.

Since we had a few hours until lunch, we got on the Ringstrasse tram which circles the city center, and got off at the Hofburg palace. Both of us had to use the restroom, we couldn't find a public WC on Google Maps, so we walked into the library where they were having a large academic conference. I was a little nervous, since everyone was in suits and ties, and we really couldn't blend in. Nevertheless, we convinced ourselves in our minds that we were inconspicuous, found the restroom, and didn't get arrested or ejected.

The Hofburg Palace is, of course, no longer the home of the Emperor, but has been repurposed as government buildings and museums. The architecture and statuary is impressive. I assume that this is Cane and Able. The traffic sign even adds meaning.

Kathy wanted to stop by the Spanish Riding School. We watched a video, and considered going to a training session on Thursday, but decided against it. Outside, on the way to lunch, we found this statue which reminded Kathy of me. (I assumed that she meant the one in the upper-left with the cool beard, but, when asked, she was non-committal.)

Because we had such a big breakfast, it was hard to eat lunch at eleven or twelve. After traipsing around Vienna all morning, we were surprised to see that it was almost three and we were both hungry. We found a table at Reinthaler's Beisl, just around the corner from our hotel. I had the spätzle (a German mac'n'cheese), while Kathy had a spinach dumpling with salad. Neither of us were very impressed.

One thing that Kathy and I really enjoy is having a meal with our Calvary Chapel missionaries. Brian and Djudji Herrington have been in Viienna for years. Brian is an American, but Djudji was raised in Vienna. In addition to working at the Calvary Chapel in Vienna, they both teach in an American school on the outskirts of town. Last July, when they were visiting in the States, we got to take them out to the Golden Olive in Huntington Beach, one of our favorite restaurants.

Before we left for Vienna, we contacted them and arranged to meet them again. Since school had just started, we found that two of their children were sick, so one parent would have to stay home. Djuji volunteered to take the two youngest girls, Esther and Shoshanna, into town so we could get together for dinner.

Both the two girls and I had Wienershnitzel, and it was excellent. (As was the "potato salad"; delicious). Kathy had chicken livers; she was not impressed.

After dinner, we got some gelato and walked back to St. Stephen's, impressively lit up, where Djuji and the girls caught the U-Bahn for home. Tomorrow, we're going bike riding, and visiting Ivetka Higgins in Slovakia.