In Vienna I wandered the first day and found the museum of sound where you can conduct the virtual Vienna Philharmonic. No matter how hard I tried to keep a steady rhythm, the damn orchestra would not follow! Maybe because it consists mostly of men, even today. In film footage they showed, I spotted only three women. WTF?
Time fled away and I met Monika for dinner near St. Stephensplatz (huge central cathedral). We ate at her favourite falafel place. Really good food. We discovered a free concert being offered later at another Romanesque church, possibly St. Michael´s. Violin played with baroque bow and viola da gamba. All 16th and 17th century compositions.
So lovely in that setting. To our immediate right was the remains of - I think - the first Pope Benedickt (there were no numbers next to his name), reclining graciously behind a glass sarcophagus in his Roman-soldier-style outfit. He´d been dug up from a crypt in Rome centuries ago and brought there. His skin-covered dried husk was covered in sparkles and jewels but you could see his ribs. Hard to believe, but close study confirmed for me that yes, this was an actual deceased human body. Yeesh. I hope he enjoyed the music too!
Last day in Vienna, Monika and I caught a guided tour of the Lipizaner horse training school, built in something like 1732 and located right downtown in the middle of old Vienna. Even though the stable was built in the mid 1500s, it´s still used and in perfect operating condition. There´s also a huge indoor winter training hall where Maria Theresa used to host 8000 guests at a time to see the horses perform.
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| Believe it or not: this 16th century building houses a whole bunch of white performing horses in the middle of downtown Vienna. |
Next we walked the Ring, saw the Burg, the Hapsburg´s Imperial winter palace, just on the outside, and discovered the Naschmarkt, a very Viennese tradition: the snack market where you can buy a little of this and a little of that for your dinner, plus kaffi, und schokolade (coffee and chocolate)...(these are a few of my favourite things!)
Beethoven composed the 3rd, 5th, and 7th Symphonies in a little flat across from the University of Wien, around the corner from a house where Schubert later unsuccessfully wooed one of three beautiful sisters. Spiral stone steps led us up and up and up to Herr Beethoven´s old haunt and we saw the piano he played back in the day.
Usually 18th and 19th century artist renderings of people are idealized and you never get a solid handle on what they really looked like but a plaster mask taken of LVB´s face while he was alive really puts you in touch with the man. It stands in a display case in one of the rooms: severe and growly eyebrows, pursed grumpy mouth - that´s what he looked like. You could see every line and bump of his face.
It was too late to go into the house where Mozart lived on Dom Gasse but at least we found it. Same touristy souveniers as all over Salzburg were in the shop window. Central, busy, and full of life - a location perfect for the sociable little party animal, Wolfgang.
Monika and I ended our evening with dinner at a 400 year old wine cellar, something only found in the Quebec area this side of the Atlantic Ocean!
Wednesday morning I cursed myself for booking a 6:30am flight to Barcelona. Thankfully the train system in Vienna and surrounding area is so good I could get there in time. Arrived in Barcelona 9:00 am and was greeted by the familiar face of my Templar Knight. A jam session was priority after settling in to the basement of Enric´s family home and then we hit the town.
More winding cobble-stone streets, but different from Vienna because of the lush balcony gardens, palm trees, and extreme cleanliness. Way more crowded, to. Around 7:00 we discovered three random French guys from Marseille who joined us for a free Renaissance organ concert in the huge Cathedral, below which is buried the remains of the patron saint of Barcelona, St. Eulalia. When Florian wasn´t napping, he was fidgeting and making his friends laugh, but also listening to the huge ancient organ. The Adagios were brutal so we left after an hour but not before a bunch of old ladies who escaped before us.
Wandered again and found an awesome Tapas bar, then the Manchester bar, full of photos of New Wave artists and others from Manchester. Very appropriate since Enric just returned from that city. Of course, the boys found a cute girl from New York to chat up and I discovered a Montrealer living for a year in Spain.
It´s important to note that the trains stop running early during the week but we did catch a bus home. At 2:00 am. Today, mountains and castles!
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