This is the second part of the trip report, covering the
time we spent in Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Vienna.
Friday 7/18.
Drive to Salzburg was more than two hours, aggravated by
the many traffic jams we encountered.
The route would take us through Innsbruck. It was about 6:30 pm when we checked in. Walked to old town and had dinner. Turned out to be most expensive so far at 90
euros, even with Joe and Jess sharing a dish between them. Town still familiar from our visit 10/2012.
Iconic
Photo of Salzburg. River Salzach divides
town.
We first
saw locks on fences in Salzburg, now they are quite common. I don’t
remember that many locks on the fence last time.
Our dinner
was at Hagenauerstuben, in the square right next to Mozart’s Birthhouse.
A beautiful evening.
Hotel (3 nights): Crowne Plaza - Pitter, Salzburg.
Saturday 7/19.
Joe and Jess went on a Sound of Music bike tour, and we
have Emmie-sitting duties. While we were
walking in town, I couldn’t resist and bought myself an egg bacon McMuffin from
McDonald’s. We then went to the toy
museum (Spielzeugmuseum) where Emmie had a blast from 10 to close to 12. She promptly fell asleep after saying bye-bye
to the various exhibits in the museum.
Anne and I had sandwiches purchased from the store Corso.
Mirabell
Gardens. Who needs the Sound of Music
tour?
Noah’s Ark at the Toy Museum,
of more interest to me than to Emmie.
We strolled
inside one of the many churches in town (forget which one this is.) Many offer Sunday concerts, price of
admission? Attendance at the Sunday
service. This is counter-reformation area, and remains to this day quite Catholic.
A Sound of
Music Bike Tour conducted in English.
Anne was trying to listen in.
As part of the Salzburg Art Project, Stephan Balkenhol created in this rock face a statue of a woman (Frau im Fels.) The wall must be centuries old, the statue created in 2007. So not everything is "old" in Salzburg.
We went out for walk again after re-uniting with Joe and
Jess. Our primary goal was to get
tickets for a concert (Mozart Matinee) for tomorrow, which we did by going to
the Salzburg Festival box office. We
joined up with Joe and Jess at around 4 pm, they went to Mozart’s birthhouse
for a tour, and Anne & I took Emmie around.
Afterwards we had cake and ice cream at Tomaselli, a café Mozart and
later his wife Constanz supposedly frequented quite often. Some travel guides rave about the place, we
found the service to be so-so, and the cakes ordinary. It wasn’t crowded, and a good place to rest
of feet for a wbile before having dinner at Tsigiana next to the hotel. The place serves simple food, it was pizza
for me.
This man
standing on a sphere is the other half of the two created by Balkenhol.
This
restaurant serves many cuisines. And the
menu is in English. Some may lament
Salzburg as being too commercial a city.
I appreciate how they make life easy for the tourist. We didn't eat here, though.
The shops
in this particular passageway for some reason are very popular with tourists
taking pictures. I don’t understand why,
but decided to shoot one myself.
Sunday 7/20.
Joe got a late checkout for the rooms, so we had some
more time we could spend in Salzburg.
Joe and Jess decided to take a long walk around town, with Emmie in tow,
visiting various sights in the area, including a walk up to Hohensalzburg
Castle.
Anne and I had breakfast at the Heart of Joy café, then
attended a Salzburg Festival Mozart Matinee.
We had toyed with the idea of going to a touristy Mozart event last
night, but decided to hold out for a “genuine” festival experience. I am glad we went. The hall was nice and bright, and the
performance was quite good also.
It was interesting that photo-taking is allowed inside
the concert hall, and we did our share.
We would like to think we did it in a considerate manner: only before
and after the actual performance. Not so
with some who decided they could take shots during the performance, which
should not be acceptable in any society.
People dress up for concerts here, many men had jackets with them; many
just hanged on to them as it was quite warm inside the hall (outside it got to
90F today.) Very few people jaywalk
here, but they did as they left after the concert.
The outside
of Mozarteum. From what I gather, this is a music conservatory.
Curtain
call during the performance. Many
cameras were out taking pictures.
We had lunch at Indigo, and bought takeout for Joe and
family because they were running late.
Check out was close to 2 pm, and the drive to Berchtesgaden was
relatively short, even though we had trouble getting out of town.
The Intercontinental Hotel Resort at Berchtesgaden is not
actually in town, and our rooms face the courtyard. The more expensive ones would have a good
view of the valley and the mountains.
For some reason I felt quite tired and slept for a couple of hours. Since our car was valet-parked (we thought it
was the only kind here,) we decided to eat at the hotel’s 360 Restaurant. Things are more than twice as expensive as
what we have been used to, although I must say the food tasted good, at least
relative to other German food we have had so far on this trip.
The
Intercontinental Resort has a great view of the mountains and valleys around
the area. Behind us in this photo is the
actual town of Berchtesgaden.
Joe Jr and
we have rooms across each other from this courtyard. It would be rude to shout across (although we
did that sometimes,) we could certainly gesture to each other.
Hotel (3 nights): Intercontinental Resort, Berchtesgaden.
Golden Bear
Restaurant.
Monday 7/21.
The weather was not going to be cooperating today. We did want to hold out hope for some
clearing on a subsequent day, and thus decided not to head up to the Eagle’s
Nest today.
I am not sure what Dokumentation Obersalzberg really is,
but for me it is an exhibit of Nazi Germany and their horrific actions. We at first thought we would get through the
exhibit in 45 minutes, it ended up taking over 2 hours. The exhibit consists mostly of descriptive
paragraphs and photographs, which to be fair were not sensational at all. Yet it was extremely disturbing to see how
horrible man’s inhumanity to man can be.
With the passage of time people tend to think this kind of history won’t
repeat itself. Yet I am sure it is
happening in many parts of the world, just at a smaller scale. Even with the two hours I didn’t get to go
through the exhibit in detail, but I did learn how the Nazi Party got itself in
power and how it controlled the people. Some
of the conditions (such as establishing a personal cult, controlling the news
media, and destroying opposition through whatever means necessary) are
repeated; let’s hope there are enough checks (and cynicism) today to ensure
nothing to this scale happens again.
Dokumenation Center. Their exhibits give
a clear accounting on the rise of the Nazi Party and the atrocities it
committed against humanity. Educational,
but very disturbing as the dark side of human nature was exposed.
After lunch at Berggasthof Obersalzberg we decided to go
back to the hotel to rest. It rained
rather heavily in the afternoon. At about 5 pm we headed down to town, first
stop Tingelmann for groceries and snacks.
Dinner as at a rather large restaurant (Goldener Baer). We were glad we were back to paying “normal”
prices for food.
We walked around the town a bit, stopping to listen to a
few young people performing Bavarian music dressed in traditional gear. The town actually is quite pleasant to walk
around it; too bad the drizzle kept it quite quiet.
Emmie
really enjoyed street Bavarian music.
Unfortunately the heavy rain that day kept the crowd small.
The hotel
has an indoor-outdoor pool. Here mother
and daughter relaxing after a swim.
7/22 Tuesday.
We woke up to an overcast sky, so no Eagle’s Nest today.
A misty morning,
Kehlsteinhaus is out.
For its popularity
(probably due in large part to Sound of Music,) the Edelweiss is a very modest
flowering plant.
Cable cars are a way of
life in this mountainous area. Here is
the one operated by the town of Berchtesgaden.
After a leisurely breakfast in town, we went to Konigsee
for a cruise. No gas motor boats are
allowed in the lake, the tour utilizes a fleet of electric boats. They are environmentally friendly, but
cruises along at snail’s pace (if snails could swim.) A few minutes into the trip we came to a
narrow part of the gorge. The Captain
stopped the boat, and picked up a horn to demonstrate the echo effect. Simple physics, fun nonetheless, and Emmie
(again) enjoyed it very much. What was
unexpected was he then uttered some words in German with the effect that people
took out money to tip him. I have been
on many of these “cruises” before, and certainly expected some level of
tipping. However, usually it is the
Captain saying “I am paid well, but the first mate depends on tipping.” Another demonstration of the matter-of-fact
way Germans seem to deal with life.
Emmie really took to the
ducks that were in the area. She kept
pointing at the birds and said “ya ya qua qua.”
A slow cruise in an
electric boat in beautiful Koneigsee.
The destination of the
cruise is St. Bartholomae, whose “skyline” is dominated by a church. The church is surprisingly small inside.
We had lunch at the Fischerei
St. Bartholomae restaurant. The smoked
fish was surprisingly good.
No place in particular,
we just thought this was a very interesting cloud formation.
Dinner in town at Gasthof
Neuhaus, pretty good ribs and pork knuckle.
Emmie had a rib in one hand, and a chicken wing in another.
7/23 Wednesday.
Joe and family decided to take a morning swim at the
hotel pool, so we didn’t check out until 11 am.
This was the last day we would be in Berchtesgaden, so we
decided to visit Eagle’s Nest despite the foggy weather. To go there one has to take a bus. They run like clockwork, with several leaving
every 25 minutes, passing along the climb some coming back down stationed in
passing areas. After we got off the 15
or so minute bus ride, we walked through a tunnel to an elevator that would
take us up another 400 or so feet to the chalet. Germans are so efficient at herding their
tourists along; and I can’t help but think of the time when Germans were
herding people for other reasons.
Eagle’s Nest was a present to Hitler by the Nazi Party
for his 50th birthday. It was
completed in 13 months, including the access road that led up to it. Hitler visited it only a few times. It was going to be destroyed by the Allies
after the war, but pleading by the Berchtesgaden mayor saved it.
In any case, it was foggy and other than a glimpse here
and there of the valley below we didn’t see much. I was joking to Anne perhaps that’s the
reason only went up there a few times. We
had lunch at the restaurant up there, and the service was efficient, the food
was okay. For some reason I wasn’t
particularly disappointed at this visit, although I can imagine what it would
be like if the skies were clear.
View going up to Eagle’s
Nest. It isn’t that promising.
Restaurant
at Eagle’s Nest. They were doing great business, and the food was actually quite decent.
This is
what we saw most of the time. The sun
did come up every now and then and we could see down the valley, but not much.
We started driving to Vienna at around 2:15 pm. Emmie was uncomfortable and fussed quite a
bit during the rather long trip; otherwise it was okay. After checking in the hotel and dropping off
luggage, Joe and I drove to Sixt to return the car. We walked back to the hotel.
Austrian countryside between Berchtesgaden and Vienna. Or is it German?
Emmie
checking out her hotel room.
Executive
Lounge at the hotel. So much china, yet
so few things to eat.
The concierge at the Executive Lounge told us there was a
food fair at the Rathaus Park. We went
there and bought dinner. The food was
good; it would have been better if we had be able to find a proper place to sit
down and enjoy it. As it was, we ate the
food sitting on a park bench. We had a
lot of food: fried bait fish, schnitzel, kebab, chips, wurst, and Indian
chicken. In addition, we had Portugese
tart and strawberry waffle as dessert.
Our hotel is located right on the ring, and this is the view from our room.
At the food
fair. We couldn’t find a table, so had
to make do with a park bench.
Hotel for 3 nights: Hilton Vienna Plaza.
7/24 Thursday.
We had a free breakfast at the Hilton coffee shop because
of Joe’s Hilton Honors membership, and we stuck around until about 9:45 am
before we headed out to the Kunsthistoriches Museum to meet up with Joe Jr and
family. Turned out with a toddler one
could never estimate how long it takes to get from A to B, so it was at around
10:30 am before they showed up.
I am not a great fan of the masters, so didn’t have high
expectations for the museum. The guide
they provided listed 20 or so highlights which Anne and I dutifully tried to
locate. We had fun locating the pieces,
and actually didn’t meet up with Joe until 12:30 pm or so. Anne and I took Emmie to the museum
restaurant to have coffee and to get Emmie something to eat, while Jess took
Joe on a whirlwind tour (turns out Joe had been babysitting much of the
time.) Afterwards Joe and family left,
and Anne and I spent some more time in the museum, with I looking at the
Egyptian and Mesopotamian collections.
Entrance of
Museum of Historical Art. Where do we
start?
This is an
impressive marble staircase.
Klimt is
big in Austria, these paintings were his work.
It took us a while to locate them.
So I’ll remember what I saw, here is a partial list of
the artists: Albrecht Durer, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Johannes
Vermeer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Gustav Klimt, Rafael, Arcimboldo,
Caravaggio, and others. Of particular
interest are the works by Arcimboldo, which to me to be well ahead of his time,
and some of the studies done by Velazquez in preparation for his seminal work
Las Meninas. The Egyptian collection has
its share of mummies, but also has some other interesting relics.
Raphael’s
Madonna in the Meadow.
This
painting by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo bears a great deal of similarity to
Las Meninas by Velazquez. Mazo was
Velazquez’s son-in-law. This depicts the
family of the painter.
Winter by
Arcimboldo. I am not sure I like this
painting, but I was surprised that it was painted in 1563.
This hippo
in the Egyptian exhibition is one of the “must sees” in the museum. We were too hurried to find out its real
significance.
It was about 2:40 pm that we left the museum. We went to Staatoper to get on the tour,
which lasted 40 or so minutes. Last time
we were in Vienna we didn’t buy tickets to a performance because they cost over
200 euros each. Turns out those are the
most expensive tickets; one can get standing room tickets for 3 to 4 euros, but
lines form a few hours before curtain for the more popular shows. While the tour was in some sense standard –
we were shown a couple of rooms, the auditorium, and the staging areas – there
were some interesting facts the guide told us (I am sure I got them all correct
in the following.) The opera house was
mostly destroyed after WWII, and reconstruction took about 10 years, some
original features were restored, and some (then) modern elements were
added. The opera season is ten months
long, and there are performances every day except Good Friday and Christmas. Over the course of a season about 65
different operas and 10 ballets are staged.
The more popular operas get staged 8 times, less popular ones 4. Altogether about 1000 people are employed
full time, including 150 in the orchestra and 120 in the choruses. He also said the orchestra is the Vienna
Philharmonic; a look at the internet says the Vienna Philharmonic recruits for
the Staatoper Orchestra. The auditorium
seats 1700, with further standing room for 600 – relatively modest compared
with the Met, and is usually 98% sold out.
There is a hall where prior managers (he probably meant music directors)
are displayed, including that of Mahler and Maazel, who passed away last
week. Since the lunch time rehearsal is
usually for a different opera, there is quite a bit of logistical challenge to
change out the sets. The guide also said
a lead singer gets paid 12,000 euros per performance, and that is lower than
other houses pay because Staatoper is such a prestigious organization. 45% of the budget is from ticket sales, the
rest is from state subsidies (I am sure they have donors as well.) If I remember correctly, he also said the
budget is about 90 million euros a years (works out to about 300,000 euros a
day, sounds low to me.) Not a bad way to
spend an hour, and if we are to visit Vienna again, we should definitely plan
ahead and buy some cheaper tickets.
Vienna
State Opera. But can she act?
Most of the
building was destroyed during the war.
Some parts of the opera house were restored to its original design, and
some were replaced with a modern motif.
The ornate
interior of the Vienna State Opera. They
are a lot serious about their opera houses in Europe.
Lorin
Maazel’s bust in hall displaying all the “managers” of the Opera. Maazel’s tenure was a bit tumultuous (he quit after finishing two of the four years in his contract), but
evidently his relationship with the house remained good. Maazel passed away earlier this month.
The
backstage area. Three sets can be
changed in and out quickly during a performance.
The opera
house surprisingly sits only 1700, with standing room for only 500.
After a quick, late lunch at Ocean 1, Anne and I still
had enough energy to visit the Secession Building. Perhaps this is the Austrian equivalent of
the Expressionist movement, Secession is the term coined by the artists that
didn’t want to be bound by mainstream Austrian art at the turn of the 20th
Century. Our interest in the building
was stoked by its use in Der Fledermaus, and the fact that there is a Beethoven
Friese by Klimt in it. Turns out that
was about the only thing in it that we enjoyed.
The Friese is described as Klimt’s take on Richard Wagner’s
interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; a description that is a bit
complicated for us. It was still interesting
to trace the story along the walls, with the help of a very descriptive guide. The other display was titled “A Singular
Form,” and frankly I find it most uninspiring.
Secession
Building. We saw a Met production of Der
Fledermaus that used this in the set.
Part of “A
Singular Form.” I guess I would never
have thought of arranging a bunch of spoons and then calling it great
inspiration. Pencils arranged in
squares, maybe?
This is
better. It definitely speaks “prison” to
me.
This is
someone’s replica of part of the Klimt Beethoven Friese. No photographs were allowed of the actual
friese. I saw a security guard make an
offender erase that image from his camera.
We are not in Italy.
An
“abbreviated” version of the friese I found on the web. The story, as explained by the guide, is
quite straightforward.
It was about 5:15 pm that we got back to the Hilton and
met up with Joe and family. We decided
to meet up again at 6:45 pm or so at the Plachuttas Gasthaus Zur Oper for
dinner. The food was good by
German/Austrian standard, we had traditional boiled beef, baked perch, roast
beef, and Wiener schnitzel. Anne and I
walked back to the hotel afterwards, and Joe and Jess took Emmie to the Music
Museum, which evidently they all enjoyed – Emmie came by to say goodbye at 10
pm.
7/25 Friday.
After breakfast, Joe and Jess left Emmie with us while
they went on a bike ride to visit Belvedere.
We took her to the Kindermuseum which is located in Museum Quartiers. Even though Anne bought tickets for all of
us, I decided not to join them as nearly all the adults were mothers. The displays are a little “old” for Emmie,
but she enjoyed them quite a bit: Anne just complained there was a lot of
climbing up and down, which was a bit tiring.
Well,
should we wake her up for the museum visit, or should we let her continue with
her nap.
Are these
tentacles of jellyfish?
At the helm
of the ship.
Joe and Jess got their lunch at Café Landtmann. We dropped Emmie off with them and had a
snack at McDonalds. Considering the
number of Burger Kings and McDonalds I have walked by, it is quite amazing that
this is the first time I ate at one of them.
Dinner was at Leupolds, another place recommended by the
hotel Concierge. Again these meals are
quite inexpensive, we ate for 70 euros.
The food was okay, but not as good as Gasthof zur Oper, her other
recommendation.
We were surprised how quiet this place was. It came recommended by the hotel concierge.
7/26 Saturday.
Our original flights home were Vienna to Chicago to
Newark, with a rather long layover at O’Hare that would get us to Newark at
about 9:30 pm. Last night Joe found a
non-stop flight Vienna – Newark that was available. The taxi ride to the airport was about 25
minutes, the only congestion was at the airport, and it wasn’t bad. Neither Anne nor I got much sleep, and I
managed to watch two movies: Noah and Captain America. We were home by about 3 pm.
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