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| Harpist at Schottentor |
Hi Everyone!
Okay…another
late post…but yesterday was my birthday and I decided to lounge an extra day.
That means I did absolutely nothing but walking around, trying new things,
drinking beer at a pub and having a glorious couple of days. But enough about
me…that’s not what you come to the Monday column to see…you want to know all
about Austria. So, one with the show!
This
week has been interesting in a variety of ways. We’ll start first with the
weather as that seems the easiest to think about. LOL! Yeah, one of those weeks. Before we even get there,
notice I’m not really late as noted in my explanation. If you’re wondering why,
tune in tomorrow as it all has to do with my so-called writing live.
Now,
back to the weather. We have gone from hot and humid to cold and humid.
Matter-of-fact, last night I should have worn a coat. At least at the beginning
of my walk but I only wore a sweater. It doesn’t matter that I peeled it off in
the last 1000 steps, the fact is I had it on. That to me is so very, very
weird. If your own personal experience tells you that something isn’t up with
the weather, you haven’t been paying attention.
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| Closeup of Harpist |
Everyone
here in Austria says that the weather has changed since they were kids here. I
know that I say the same about Nevada. My kids have been complaining about the
humidity there. And with 110 degree temps, I don’t blame them. When I was a kid
there, we always had blue, blue skies. In the years before I moved here, and
the times I’ve visited in the summer these past few years, there are more and
more clouds in the sky. Meaning it’s more humid. At 110, a person has a hard
time tolerating 25% humidity as well as the heat. It’s just not good for you.
Still,
even with weird weather, I did get out and about this week. I think I’ve
mentioned my spa that I go to. If I didn’t, here’s my plug for them. They are
called Aisawan and are in the heart of the city. They are on a street literally
behind Stephansdom or the huge church at the city center. They are also in a
building that was once part of the old city. Meaning, they dug out the basement
and are located in the ruins from probably the 1200s. Lots of the shops and
places take advantage of what’s under them in that area. For a spa, it makes it
lovely as it’s cool and mostly quite below street level. Since other spots
around them are being excavated too, you can sometimes hear that noise but it
still makes no difference as the environment is so relaxing you just don’t
care. And if you want to see what it looks like, I couldn’t take better
pictures, so I’m sending you to their website here: http://www.aisawanspa.at/
One
thing we did this week, and it was associated with my birthday, was to take a
Strassenbahn line and ride it to the end. Now we already knew where a few
started and stopped. Like the D that runs our street ends at Beethovengang and starts
at the Hauptbahnhof right up the street from us. We noticed this week, theirs
is going to be a new end place past the Hauptbahnhof soon. Anyway, we picked a
line we knew a little about and definitely knew where it started. There are a
bunch from a place called Schottentor or Scottish Gate, so we started there.
We
decided to take the 43 and see where it ended. We’d been on part of this line
before as our doctors are located about 4 stops in. This time, we went past
that and got into the foothills. We past a lovely looking vineyard and finally
stopped. Getting out, we found a wonderful little restaurant and continued
walking up the small trail. It looked like a very nice place but we had to
abandon the walk because it started to rain and we didn’t have rain gear. So
back in the train we go.
We
go all the way back to Schottentor and decide to take a 41. While it didn’t end
up in a great place, the architecture that we saw on the way was fantastic.
There were some art-deco buildings, some pre-WWI buildings and everything in
between. We also saw a few buildings from the mid-1800s like ours is. Because
these were far away from the city center, a few of them survived WWII. My
husband and I hope to again go on these adventures to see where the line will
lead us.
The
pictures this week are simple and there are just three. Two are of a harpist I’ve
seen quite a lot at the Schottentor Strassenbahn station. Quite frequently, you
will have musicians setting up shop in a variety of places. Most of them are
professionals and have applied as well as received a permit to play in public.
While it all seems impromptu, many times it has been planned in advance so that
there is no overlap of the pros. I don’t know how they do it but I do know that
I find it fascinating they can work it out somehow.
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| Pup Harry and the DH in front of Karlskirche |
The
last picture is of my husband and Pup Harry on one of our many night walks. The
church in the background is Karlskirche and is one of the most interesting
churches in the area. We went to a concert once when my husband’s parents were
here. The acoustics aren’t the greatest but the church itself is awesome with
some great frescos throughout.
Hope
you enjoyed this little look into Austria and beyond. See you all next week!
Lynn
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