BigWeather's Blog

We woke up about 6a or so and finished packing.  Genetta and I headed upstairs for one last Hotel Bolivar breakfast as soon as they opened at 7a.  Checked out of our room and got a car to FCO for our 11:45a flight.  The driver was really, really tired.  Though he didn’t speak much English I did my best to keep him alert.  Kind of scary, but we made it — and along the way drove past the Colosseum and the Pyramid of Cestius.

What is interesting is that United States and Israel bound airlines leave from terminal 5, totally separate from the rest of the airport and packed with extra security including heavily armed soldiers.  We had to take all of our electronics, etc. and put them in a clear bag.  After that we were bused to yet another building that served as the departure gate area.

As the gate area was very crowded the line was too long to get breakfast, so we settled for buying snacks like pretzels for the trip from a convenience area.  Genetta was amused by a vending machine with an Italian / German water bottle.

Finally got on the plane via a bus and walking onto the plane via a mobile stairway — yet another security precaution.  The plane was a 2-4-2 configuration, we sat in the left 2 with Genetta at the window.  I spent most of the flight watching movies: Ant Man, Django Unchained, Money Ball, and half of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.  The time really flew by with the distractions.  The flight crew was great.  The food wasn’t so bad either — pasta and tomato sauce, laughing cow cheese, cracker with butter, salad, and apple crumble.  Genetta had chicken and rice.  Multiple passes with the drink cart too, including ginger ale.  Yummy.

Right before landing we had a snack of a ham and cheese sandwich (served hot) and a blueberry crumble.  We landed in Charlotte about 4p local time and went through crazy immigration that included having to get our luggage and immediately check it back in.  Despite that, made it to the gate and on the plane to Raleigh with plenty of time to spare.  It was a short flight and unusual with an all-male crew.

Met Michelle just after 7p at the airport with our minivan and headed to Remington Grill to eat (it was Fish Fry Thursday, after all!).  I wasn’t feeling that great and had jet lag so after some unpacking headed to bed early.  What a trip!

I awoke at 6a but was not feeling well.  Took some more Pepto hoping that’d do the trick.  We checked out at 7:45a, withdrew some money, and headed to the Cafe Englander.  While Genetta had her normal breakfast I had just water, not wishing to tempt fate.

We walked to Wien Mitte station, a short walk from the cafe.  We caught the CAT (City Airport Train) at 9:06a for 12 euros each.  The ride was fairly quick and uneventful and getting through the airport to our gate was super fast as we had checked in prior to getting on the CAT, leaving us with only the security check.

We hung out in the airport for a while, drinking some bottled water and eating three croissants stuffed with chocolate.  Quite yummy!  We took off about 12:45p and had an uneventful flight.  Snack-wise it was just the hazelnut wafer cookies and Coke but it hit the spot.  We flew over the Adriatic then over the small lakes in the middle of Italy before landing about 2p at FCO.  As we had no luggage we breezed through the airport to the Leonardo Express, the train serving Roma Termini from the airport.

As we were unencumbered by luggage we walked to the Hotel Bolivar despite the heat (an unwelcome change from Vienna to be sure).  Checked in to room 102 and relaxed a bit before hitting a few sights.  Of course we couldn’t do that on an empty stomach so we got some gelato; Genetta had tiramisu in a cone while I had coffee in a cup.

In short order we were at Largo di Torre Argentina, a cluster of Roman ruins including four Republican temples and Pompey’s Theater.  It was in the Curia of that theater that Julius Caesar was assassinated.  Also situated at one end was a tower, Torre Argentina, built in 1503.  What made this place very special, however, was that a colony of feral cats had long sought refuge here!

Genetta and I enjoyed wandering the outside of the ruins (as it was normally closed to the public) looking at cats enjoying the shade.  We also went down a small staircase and into a small room where people take care of the cats.  They had a small gift shop where we bought a hand towel, a magnet, and a few other things as well as made a donation.  We also got to pet several of the kitties.  They were absolutely adorable!

Leaving the cat sanctuary we walked through a charming square with a fountain and on to see a few sights that Genetta had not seen on her earlier visit to Rome with her student friends.  We went by the Marcello Theater and the charming three-column Temple to Apollo Sosiano then looked at some rapids of the Tiber from Pons Fabricius, a Roman Republic bridge from 62BC still standing in its original form.  Amazing!

We then headed toward the Forum and through Michelangelo’s plaza, the Campidoglio.  Though flanked by the Capitoline museums (which I did not visit on this trip to Rome — next time!) I found the experience a bit underwhelming, preferring the Roman ruins to Renaissance architecture.  Genetta and I took time to relax and took a ton of photos.  We enjoyed the cool evening air immensely and it was with reluctance that we headed back to the hotel around 7:30p.

After freshening up we headed to Ristorante Petrucci.  We had the garlic bread for an appetizer.  Genetta had a mushroom and sausage pizza while I had spaghetti all bolognesse.  We shared a still water while Genetta partook in the house white wine (for the last time before heading back to the United States) and finished the meal with tiramisu.

Headed back to the hotel about 9p, packed, and watched Portugal beat Wales 2-0 in Euro 2016.  After Genetta headed to bed I worked on photos a bit before heading out at 11:30p to get a final gelato (cofee and mint chocolate chip — it was wonderful) and ate it while gazing at one of my favorite Roman sights, Torre dell Milizie.  Among all the glorious Roman and Renaissance sights I really fell for that damaged (in a 1348 quake), leaning, missing the top two floors mess of a ruin.  And, yes, I’ll end this blog (well, nearly the end) with yet another picture or two of that.  Headed back to the room around 12a to summarize the day for future blogging and turned in.

We woke up about 8a and had breakfast at the Cafe Englander at about 9a.  Not only because it is good but also was included in the cost of the apartment.  Finished up and headed back to the room briefly, leaving just past 10a with our first stop the Mozarthaus.

Mozarthaus was where Mozart lived from 1784 to 1787 and is the only surviving residence of his from his time in Vienna.  They had many neat artifacts and there was lots to see in the museum.  It was interesting to see a small but opulently painted bedroom that had been decorated fifty years earlier to serve as a model for the entire apartment block.  The painter was adept at painting the plaster to look like marble.  The study was also a highlight, just imagining him in there at all hours producing an astounding six pages of music a day!

They had a map of Vienna from the late 1700s that was interesting as it was much smaller and surrounded by a wall and moat.  Genetta and I always seemed to be around a small group of other tourists with a lady my age that seemed to be in heaven just being there.  One downside was, like the Mozarthauses (Mozarthausen?) in Salzburg, photography was not allowed.  Boo!

We walked a short distance to the site of the house where Mozart died on December 5, 1791, Mozart-Sterbehaus.  Though no longer standing there was a nice plaque marking the spot.  On the way to our next destination we passed Donnerbrunnen, a Baroque fountain and looked at some stone walls from Vienna’s original Roman settlement in Michaelerplatz, a plaza located in front of Hofburg Palace.

Next we wandered over to the Beethoven museum but it was almost 1p and they were to close for lunch at 1p for an hour.  We decided we didn’t want to rush through it so went to Starbucks and got coffee frappuccinos then, after a brief stop at an adjacent tea store, headed to the Freud museum.  We passed the striking Votivkirche, a church built in 1879, along the way.

The Sigmund Freud Museum was really well done.  It was in the location of his office from the late 1800s until 1938 when he paid the Nazis the equivalent of 200,000 euros to leave with his stuff.  His trunk was on display there with attached slips of paper detailing his travel during his emigration.  He headed to London where he died the following year.  After he left Jews used the space as they were no longer allowed renting privileges by their Nazi oppressors.  Tragically most would be murdered in concentration camps before the war’s end.

His office was stuffed with antiquities from many ancient cultures.  That was a side of him I had never known about.  He started as a hypnotist but realized later that something better was needed so developed the technique of psychoanalysis.  The office was the location for Wednesday night meetings among a small group of prominent psychologists.  His daughter Anna became a famous child psychologist and worked with children while also caring for her dad during his long battle with cancer.  A fantastic exhibit on early female psychologists, including Anna Freud, was in an adjacent space.

We ate at the nearby Freud Cafe, which was absolutely plastered with various paintings of Freud.  I had a Coke and ham and cheese sandwich, keeping it fairly light as my stomach was upset.  Genetta had Coke and a ham and cheese crepe (called a pancake in Austria, what?!).

The next stop on our whirlwind tour of Vienna was the Beethoven museum, Wien Museum Beethoven Pasqualatihaus, on the fourth floor of an apartment building in what may have been (they aren’t sure) his apartment.  It is here that he wrote his famous Fifth Symphony and Fur Elise.  This was easily the weakest of the museums in Vienna, it turns out we could’ve seen it before their closing time for lunch earlier.  Most all of the displays were only in German and they had few artifacts.  It was neat, however, to see the environment (possibly!) where he cranked out his masterpieces.

A short distance away was a museum packed with globes.  It housed the second biggest collection of globes in the world (the first being in Greenwich, England).  Greenwich’s collection is private, however, unlike Vienna’s.  There were all sorts of neat globes — early ones with California properly not an island then ones during a one hundred year period where it was believed to be an island due to a false report of a sea passage, a chalkboard globe, globes of celestial bodies (Venus, Mars, and the Moon), etc.  The Moon ones through the 1950s were neat in that they were only half represented as the far side of the moon had never been observed.  Globe manufacturers used the space to list what was on the Earth-facing side of the Moon.

There were exhibits describing the different projections used in making the flat pages that are wrapped around the sphere of the globe and how globes are made in general.  There was an interesting exhibit that compared a virtual mercator globe to real geography.  The museum also had a lunarium (with candle for the Sun), planetariums, etc.  Downstairs they had a small museum about Esperanto, the language crafted to be used throughout the world.  They had an anti-fascist poster in the language and it was surprisingly possible to discern its meaning since I had a knowledge of several languages.  On the way out of the building I purchased a book about the globe museum.

The final museum that our ticket provided access to was a papyrus museum located in another building.  As it was getting close to closing time we cast about frantically looking for it, finally finding it in the Hofburg Wien, the presidential palace of Austria, in a library.  True to its name, it was packed with papyrus.  Not just ancient Egyptian papyrus dating back to 1500BC but also Arab papyrus from the 800s AD and even clothing made of papyrus.

Finally on to the last museum of the day, the Haus der Musik.  On the way we at some donuts at a nearby shop — Genetta had chocolate with vanilla cream and myself a strawberry-filled donut.  Both were very yummy.  We did a little bit of shopping nearby, picking up some music-themed items.  It took a while for me to warm up to the museum itself as it seemed pretty gimmicky.  Things like standing in a giant chamber and listening to heartbeats and other sounds, a room with “perfect surround sound”, etc.  However, we both got in the groove when we came upon the exhibits dedicated to Vienna’s famous musicians.  They had amazing hologram busts of each and at the entrance to the room dedicated to each one their signature was displayed in neon.  They had many items from each and a bit dedicated to the grand balls that they played at, with super fancy invitations to each one.

We wrapped up the museum just past 8p and walked back to the apartment by 8:30p.  Freshened up a bit and headed out at 9p for the cathedral.  It was very dark and the organ was playing, reverberating about the high stone arches of the space.  It was like something out of Phantom of the Opera!

Went back to the same restaurant we ate at the night before as it was so good.  Had fantastic bread with spread for an appetizer.  Genetta had a beer (pilsner), breaded veal, and “hash browns”.  I repeated my meal from the prior night (how adventurous!) — steak with fried onions, reddish sauce, and roasted potatoes.  As with the prior night it was very tasty! Headed back to the room about 10p and offloaded photos and talked with Michelle on FaceTime before turning in for bed just after 1a.

 

Genetta and I woke up just after 6a.  After our showers and we headed to breakfast around 8a at the Cafe Englander just down the street from the apartment.  We had the English breakfast — two fried eggs, “bacon” (really ham), two sausages, baked beans, bread, coffee and tea.  It was quite a decent start to the day.

Got some money from the teller machine and took subway U3 from Stubentor station to Wien Westbahnhof station.  In the station I used the bathroom where there was quite the interesting sign.  There was also a statue of a fancy-looking woman, one of the early leaders of Austria.  We hopped on the 9:40a Westbahn train to Salzburg.  Westbahn being a private company alternative to the state-run OBB and far cheaper — the desk lady at the apartment highly recommended it.

The two-hour and change train ride was uneventful and offered amazing views of the beautiful countryside.  It started out flat and mostly farmland and transitioned by the time we got to Salzburg to hills and mountains and forest.

We arrived in Salzburg just after noon.  We walked around looking for lunch for a bit but had no luck finding a restaurant.  We opted to have pastries instead — Genetta had a sweet bread with some kind of filling that her fencing coach had made before and I had a cherry pastry with white icing, both were grand.

We headed to Mozart-Wohnhaus, a house where Mozart’s family moved while he was a young man.  It was quite large but sadly we couldn’t take pictures.  Did get an audio guide with combined ticket for 17 euros.  In addition to a number of mementos, letters, etc. they also had one of his violins.

Leaving Mozart-Wohnhaus we crossed the river Salzach via Makartsteg pedestrian bridge.  The bridge was covered with locks with lovers’ names on them.  Beyond the river was the old center of Salzburg with Festung (fortress) Hohensalzburg looking on a mountainside beyond.  A small stream gushed water into the river from the mountains around town.

We headed to a biergarten and had a really tasty lunch.  Genetta had sausage, sauerkraut, and roasted potatoes.  I had roast beef with reddish gravy with onions, green beans with ham and some vinegar, and a sort of pasta.  Both were wonderful.  The waitresses and waiters wore traditional Austrian dress.

Our next stop was the house where Mozart was born.  It was fascinating!  They had many artifacts including a lock of hair, a cane he owned with a sphinx on it, and mock ups of many of the sets for the operas he composed.  Opera was his primary medium and though he was only thirty-five when he died he had produced six HUNDRED works, his first when he was about five years old.  His wife, Constanz, was not his first choice as wife — that was her sister — but he loved her dearly.  The notes from him to her during his travels were very romantic and touching.  On his death she worked tireless to ensure his legacy.  We saw his childhood violin and the room in which he was born.

After leaving we passed some traditional clothing shops (very pricey!) and walked past Mozartplatz with its Mozart statue then on to Residenzplatz.  That plaza had a nice fountain and was adjacent to Dom zu Salzburg, Salzburg’s main church.  Many horse-drawn carriages sat nearby to ferry tourists about the central part of town.  We headed back to the north side of the river via a bridge built with slave labor from 1941 to 1945.  At Schloss Mirabell we saw a band performing for a group of spectators among formal gardens and neat fountains.

Back at the station we took the 5:52p train back to Vienna, arriving just past 8p.  We dropped by the apartment and freshened up before checking with the front desk about dinner.  They recommended a restaurant just down the street for authentic Austrian food called Magazin 3 Hacken.  It was fabulous.  Genetta had breaded chicken and potato salad.  I had grilled steak and fried onions.  We shared roasted potatoes and pickles.  For dessert we had coffee and chocolate mousse.

Left dinner about 10p and walked back through the center of town.  Passed a closed Starbucks and ended up back at the room just before 11p.  Took some time to charge phone and camera batteries, offload pictures, and went to bed about 1a or so.

We woke up at 8a and grabbed breakfast at the hotel.  Left the hotel at about 10:15a for a quick walkabout.  As we had only until 11a before we had to be back at the hotel we walked to the nearby Piazza del Quirinale, home to a fountain from 1818 and an obelisk moved from the Campus Martius.  We continued on past Trevi Fountain to the Column of Marcus Aurelius, a 97 foot tall column erected by 193AD celebrating victory in the Danubian wars.  The carvings were amazing and showed a variety of things from soldiers to civilians to boats on the Danube.  There were small slits in the stone all the way up — the column itself contained a spiral staircase.

Once back at the hotel we checked out, leaving our luggage with the hotel and taking only a backpack with us to Vienna.  We waited in the lobby / bar area of the hotel until noon when the car to FCO airport picked us up.  The driver was great and spoke excellent English as he had lived on Long Island for a couple of years.  This allowed us to carry on an extensive conversation about topics like Rome traffic versus that of other cities and also guns in America versus other countries.  Along the route we passed the Circus Maximus (with stage still set up for David Gilmour including protective screening so people couldn’t get a free concert) and the absolutely massive Baths of Caracalla which were built from 212 to 217AD and covered 1.1 million square feet.  Impressive!

On arrival at FCO we checked in at Austrian Airlines (after some initial confusion on where to go) quickly.  Security was also a breeze and we headed for the gates.  We got a quick lunch, myself eating cheese pizza and Gentta a cheese and ham pizza (tuscana).  Chased it down with some coffee gelato while Genetta had some chips and water.  The restroom had toilets with seats that sprung up automatically so it was impossible to do #1 with the seat down — brilliant!

On boarding the plane for our 3:05p flight we noted that classical music was playing, similar to the flight on the Indian plane in January which played sitar music.  It was pleasant and the flight went very smoothly.  We got some decent views of the Italian countryside but due to where we were sitting didn’t get a good look at Rome or Ostia.  Sadly clouds socked in most of the trip over the Alps, clearing only as we got nearer Vienna and broke through the cloud deck.  The plane’s magazine did have a… somewhat suggestive… photograph in it that made me giggle.  Clearly the Austrians are a little less uptight about some topics than America is!  I also had a hazelnut wafer cookie on the flight that was actually very tasty.

We landed about 4:30p and a car was there to pick us up.  Didn’t have to go through customs or anything and as we had no bags to pickup we sailed through the airport.  The short fifteen minute drive to Vienna was pleasant though the driver did not speak much English so conversation was limited.  Did see a billboard with “Achtung!” on it, immediately made me think of the old C64 game “Castle Wolfenstein”.  The weather was much, much cooler than Rome — in the high 60s to 70F versus Rome’s mid-90s and the clouds began to break up a little which was great.

We got to the Appartement-Hotel an der Riemergasse right at 5p and checked in.  It was a very efficient process and the lady at the desk helped us get tickets for the Mozart string quartet at the Mozarthaus for that evening.  I hadn’t reserved ahead of time as I was worried that any delays getting to Vienna would have us miss the concert, and couldn’t do the other two nights we were in Vienna as those were days off for the quartet.  Was so happy things seemed to be working out!

Went up the cool old-timey elevator with iron caging to our apartment.  We were very pleased with the apartment, multiple bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, large bedroom, etc.  Even a chocolate with Mozart’s likeness and some water (sparkling and still).  We immediately set out for an ATM and then ate at McDonalds as we were very pressed for time.  We both had large fries and a small Coke while Genetta had a McChicken and I had a Big Mac.  Wasn’t happy to pay a half-euro to use the restroom, but at least they were clean.  In fact, we were struck by how clean — and empty-feeling — Vienna was.  The people seemed to keep to themselves much more than in Rome, like they were in their own world.  I’m still not sure which I prefer.

The Mozarthaus was a very tiny room belonging to a small Teutonic church.  It was where Mozart first played when he arrived in Vienna in 1781.  The room was opulently decorated.  A small stage with four chairs, music stands, and a lamp were in the front of the room.  Six rows of about ten or twelve chairs each faced the stage, backed by two large windows that let in the evening light.  A gorgeous chandelier hung above.  It was a very intimate space.

The quartet came in and took their places.  The first violin was a white man with a ponytail.  He did most of the talking, first in German then in English, rocking back and forth as he spoke.  The 2nd violin was an Asian woman, the viola a white woman, and the cello a white man with glasses and hair in his eyes.  They were all dressed in Mozart era (late 1700s) dress, all sporting long coats and frilly neckerchiefs.  They played Mozart and Haydn.  They were amazing!  In fact, I didn’t nod off even once during the hour — that’s quite the feat for me, especially given how exhausted I was!

Leaving the Mozarthaus we wandered to Domkirche St. Stephan, St. Stephen’s Cathedral.  It was magnificent with an amazing tiled roof and intricate stone work around windows and a clock.  The square the cathedral was centered in, Stephansplatz, had a mix of office buildings and stores, including a large gift shop with a dizzying array of postcards and magnets.  We dutifully bought some of each.

We ducked into the cathedral for a few minutes.  Tons of votive candles flickered in the near darkness while a service was being delivered in German.  It was very… haunting?

Next we got some gelato at Zanoni and Zanoni.  It was OK.  Genetta got some apfelstrudel which she enjoyed.  I had a few juvenile teehee moments at seeing words with the phrase “fahrt” in them — einfahrt, ausfahrt, gut fahrt!  Genetta asked me to grow up, haha.

Headed north towards the river (a small offshoot of the Danube) and got some noodles from a place called Happy Noodles.  Genetta had chicken and I had red curry chicken — perhaps not the brightest move on my part.  Tasty though!  Headed back to the room to upload pictures and blog.  The apartment had an amazing Internet connection, far better than the Hotel Bolivar’s.  Yay!