Chapter 50 - A Day in Vienna

I recently had another opportunity to revisit my favorite city. Brigitta Palkovich, a co-worker of Bob's, invited me to go to Vienna for the day with her and her daughter, Christina.

We stopped by the University of Vienna first so Christina could pick up some material for her law course.

The University of Vienna was founded in 1365 and is the oldest in the German-speaking world. Currently, it has 74,000 students at more than 60 locations in the city. Students from more than 130 countries attend lectures each year.

This is the building we entered.


It's quite stately and magnificent inside with beautiful marble columns and staircases.




I love this kind of detail that you see in buildings all over Vienna.


These lights add to the old-fashioned air of the place.


We went to the Nachmarkt for lunch. It's an outdoor area with many international food choices. Flea markets and Christmas markets are also held here. On the white screen on the building they show movies on summer evenings. The building is the Rathaus, a gothic style edifice built from 1872 to 1883 that serves as a combination of the seat of the Mayor of Vienna, the City Council, and since Vienna is its own state in Austria, the offices of the Governor and the Assembly of the State of Vienna. The building also contains the famous Wiener Rathauskeller Restaurant.


This building at another side of the Nachmarkt is the Hofburg Theater created in 1741 by Empress Maria Theresa. Three Mozart operas premiered here. The theater was moved to a new building in 1888. In 1945 the building was largely destroyed by Allied bombing and resulting fire. It was restored in 1953 to 1955.


My charming guides for the day, Gitta and Christina.


This is the beautiful Belvedere Palace. The Lower Belvedere was built in 1714 by Prince Eugene of Savoy; this is the Upper Belvedere built in 1720 to 1723. Today the palace holds the Austrian Gallery, a very extensive art collection that includes the works of the famous Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) who was a symbolist and leader of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement.


The palace has state rooms, marble galleries, ceiling and wall frescos. The Austrian State Treaty that formed modern Austria was signed here in 1955. The back of the 20 Euro cent coin features the Belvedere.


This type of detail work is magnificent. It was Empress Maria Theresa who first named it "Belvedere" in 1752. The word is Italian and means "beautiful view."


Another example of the detail work. Of course I wanted to take some pictures of the inside, but indoor photography is banned. They had security cameras everywhere, and, besides, I always follow the rules. One of these days I'll get brave and ignore them, but this wasn't the day.


The garden was designed in the formal French style and is currently undergoing restoration. At the back of the picture in the distance you can see the Lower Belvedere where additional artwork is displayed. Gitta and I considered it but decided our feet had had enough.


Okay, so what are these? Not winged victory. All I could figure is that they are some kind of she-sphinxes.

Chapter 49 - Our Flat in Klingenbach

At long last we are in our own place! They were great to us at Sigma, but we have been wanting our own place, especially one with a kitchen. We've already been enjoying meals like we used to prepare at home.

Our landlords, Gabriel and Hilda Zwonarits, were wonderful in their preparation of our furnished flat. They provided us with all the necessities such as kitchen items and bedroom linens. All we literally had to do was move in.

Of course technical things are never simple. We struggled for a week to get the Internet operating - many technical problems I won't bore you with and probably couldn't even accurately explain. While I was reading the instructions for the vacumn cleaner and watching TV at the same time (my version of multi-tasking), the TV loudly popped and expired. This couch potato freaked of course so our first major purchase was a new TV.

I intend to do blogs on Klingenbach. It's a small village of about 1,200 people, but it has had an interesting history and has more than once been at the nexus point of important world events. But in this first Klingenbach blog, I'm going to show off our flat. We're right in the middle of town, literally on Main Street. Of course Main Street here is Odenburger Strasse (which means the "street to Odenburg," the German name for the nearby Hungarian town of Sopron).

This is Zwonarits cafe. The restaurant is downstairs on the left, and our flat is inside the three windows upstairs on the right. We are above the tanning salon.


The middle door is the entrance to our flat.


This is the flight of 19 steps to the upstairs. Bob says it's the longest 19 steps in the world when you're carrying an AC unit or a TV. I don't know why he's complaining - I watched the whole time he carried them up and then had to climb the same flight carrying a bag and a very heavy purse. He wouldn't give me any sympathy though - go figure.


Looking down the hall to our door.


This is a common piece of furniture over here. It's for coats and has a bench to sit on while you don or doff winter boots. Haven't thought about winter yet. It's funny, but Bob has never owned a winter hat or boots. I've mentioned a couple of times that he will need to purchase those items, and I hear him muttering, most of which I can't understand, but I did hear invectives describing the word "snow."


This shelf unit is ideal for things like my purse and Bob's briefcase. It is also handy for holding the various coins like Euros and Hungarian forints.


This is the main hallway of the flat.


First door on the right - the main living area.


Eating area.


This is the built-in kitchen that is common in this area. The tall cabinet just to the left of the microwave is the refrigerator/freezer. On the lower left is a cabinet, dishwasher, then another cabinet. Everything works great although I have to admit I miss having a garbage disposal.


Now this is one of the strange things about Austria. They demand that you separate all your different kinds of trash which they pick up every month or two (brings back fond memories of twice a week in Kingwood). So we have five trash cans - labeled for plastic, paper, metal, glass and garbage. The labels are for Bob; I know what goes where. And I need the step stool because although the cabinets aren't long, they are tall.


I absolutely love the windows over here. You see this kind everywhere in central Europe. Here are our living room windows closed.


You turn the handle one way, and the windows open slightly at the top for ventilation. The outside metal shutters protect against direct sunlight (and I think are good with snow for some reason I'll discover this winter) yet the small holes continue to provide airflow.


A side view of the slightly open position.


You turn the handle another way, and the windows open wide. This is great on warm days when open windows in two opposite rooms provide more airflow. There are no screens however which is occasionally irritating. I can get the occasional flies and mosquitos, but the other day a bee flew in the window. Luckily Bob was home to get it.


The second door on the right leads to our bedroom. Bob figured out a way to jerry rig the AC. We call it "the little AC that could."


They don't have closets over here; people use wardrobes like this one.


This is the bathroom, last door on the left. Note the curtains - lace curtains are very popular over here, and I was delighted that these I brought from home perfectly fit the window.


The WC is in its own little room at the end of the hall in front of the huge water heater.


This is the study, second door on the left.


My favorite view - the kids, grandkids and niece.


This huge wardrobe holds all our office supplies and hanging clothes.


This will be our guest room, but I also use it to hang clothes that shouldn't go in the dryer. The dryer has one temperature - very high.


And here's a big reason Bob loves the flat. I'm standing at the downstairs entrance to our flat. In the left center across the street, just to the left of the public telephone booth, is the main entrance to Bob's company. This is the shortest commute he's ever had!

Chapter 48 - A Dog's Life in Austria

No one loves dogs more than me, but I am surprised at the places dogs are permitted to go in Austria. There seems to be no limit to where they're allowed. I don't know about churches and movie theaters, but I've seen them everywhere else! Yes, even the grocery store, but I didn't have my camera with me.

The dogs over here are the best behaved I've ever seen. I haven't once seen a dog have an "accident," or bite anyone. Actually, they're not very friendly to strangers and for the most part don't want to be petted by them. I have seen a few dogs offer verbal insults to other dogs, challenges that are frequently accepted by furious barking. If not for leashes, surely duels would ensue. And the vast majority of Austrian dogs are perfectly leash trained. When I commented on that, I was given a "duh" look and told that everyone takes their dog "to school."

Just like at home, people seem to adore their dogs in Austria. Most of them are freshly bathed and groomed. It was hard to capture these dogs "on the run," so we starting asking people if we could photograph their dog. Without exception, everyone has eagerly agreed to let us do so.


Here are some dogs on the street and in the park in Wiener Neustadt.








Here are two dogs on the crowded streets of central Vienna.


Yes, that's Kate on the right in the brown shirt.


Here's Ecco, our favorite ball chaser, at an outdoor party.


This puppy finally went to sleep at the pool at Sigma.


At an outdoor restaurant at Kirtag in Klingenbach.


Okay, so those aren't so surprising. Just wait! Here's a dog at the bank in Eisenstadt.


The next several pictures were taken at the huge SCS (Shopping Center South) 5-mall complex near Vienna.


The little dog offered an insult, but the big dog ignored it.




I was shopping in the same store and saw this dog just sit there and not move for at least 10 minutes while his owner flipped through the racks. He never took his eyes off her and slowly turned his head as she moved.








This little guy nibbled my fingers, the most affectionate greeting I've received over here.


Here are two pictures of dogs inside restaurants at the SCS mall.




I fell in love with this sweet little 8-month-old King Charles Spaniel. Her name is Nuni ("noon-yee"), and her owner is a Japanese man who owns a Japanese (naturally) restaurant on a side street in Vienna. We were walking by on our way to a main shopping street when we noticed the puppy inside the restaurant (all restaurant doors are open). The owner was quite chatty (in a mix of German and English with a Japanese accent) about the puppy and repeatedly apologized for her bad behavior. She seemed perfectly behaved to me, but he explained that she hasn't "gone to school" yet.


So here's the biggest surprise. We recently ate at a restaurant in Eisenstadt where the front door of the restaurant is on one street, the kitchen door around the corner. When we left to go to our car parked on the side street, we passed the open door to the restaurant kitchen. A guy was visiting his friends in the kitchen and had brought his dog with him! I didn't mind, but I suspect that some people might be shocked by it!