Vienna
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We arrived at our hotel in the afternoon, the Raddison SAS, perfectly located on the Ringstrasse and across from the Stadt Park where the famous golden statue of Waltz King Johan Strauss awaited us violin in hand. As we began walking towards the center of town, about a ten-minute walk, my sister began photographing every building along the way. I watched indulgently telling myself that soon she will realize that if she wants to photograph every beautiful building in Vienna, she will have to photograph them all. That’s how Vienna is. Nostalgia for Former Imperial GloryVienna combines the intimacy of a provincial city with the aspirations of an international one, after all it is the former seat of the glorious Habsburg dynasty. Beyond the cliché symbols of the Sacher Torte, the Lipizzaner stallions and the Vienna Boys Choir, Vienna offers up culture in abundance. As Karl Kraus, a Viennese writer from the last century said: “The streets are surfaced with culture as the streets of other cities are surfaced with asphalt.” Vienna is a conservative city that reclines comfortably into the soft, nostalgic cushion of its former glory Empire days. The Viennese still get teary eyed about Emperor Franz Joseph and maudlin about his wife, whom they still lovingly call “Sissy.” The Viennese never did like the modern too much and the inner city is filled with Gothic, Baroque and Neo-Classical style buildings decorated with extravagant ornamentation bearing testimony to city’s history. In the first decades of the last century, when the “modern” style began to appear in Vienna, Emperor Franz Josef ordered that the palace curtains that face the newly-build, modern Loos Haus be permanently closed so he wouldn’t even have to catch a glimpse of it. The acerbic Viennese critic, Karl Kraus, who was an ally of Loos and modernity, said to the old-fashioned conservatives: “I have devastating news for you: Old Vienna was once new.” Vienna - a heaven for serious art loversAlthough my sister did at some point put down the camera and stopped photographing every edifice in sight, over the five-day visit in the city she never stopped being in awe of its beauty.
About a third of all the paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in existence can be found in the Flemish collection--an entire room filled with them, including the famous “Peasant Wedding.” The Habsburgs’ were serious collectors and when they liked an artist, they collected as many works as they could get their hands on. That’s why in the Flemish part you can also find an entire room dedicated to the works of Peter Paul Rubens, including the famous painting of his voluptuous young naked wife clad only in fur. I told my sister to remember that painting. Rooms filled with art treasuresWhen we returned to the Italian section of the museum on Sunday, I brought her attention to a Titian painting of a young woman clad in fur, painted 100 years earlier and the source of inspiration for Ruben’s painting. (By the way, there is also an entire, glorious room filled with just Titians.) My sister, who loves art, was delighted. The building itself, erected in 1891 to house the Habsburg’s collection, is beautiful in and of itself. Going up the sumptuous marble stairway notice the coat of arms on the left with the initials FJ that stand for Emperor Franz Josef and on the right E, for Empress Elizabeth. At the top of the stairs stands a huge neo-classical statue by Antonio Canova, which was originally commissioned by Napoleon, but ended up in the Habsburg collection. Napoleon himself ended up in the Habsburg’s collection when he married the Austrian princess Marie Louise. The Habsburgs were well known for expanding their empire not by the mighty sword, but by the marriage bed. Can’t have art on an empty stomach
True, the restaurant is touristy and when we walked up, there was a long line waiting in the narrow shopping arcade where the restaurant is located. My sister, hungry, was dismayed to see the line. “No worries,” I told her. What the tourists don’t know is that at the end of the passage you take a right on Wollzeile Street, walk a few meters to number 5 and you find another, much larger branch of the restaurant and there you can find seating right away. I suggested that we take one schnitzel and split it. “It’s huge,” I told my sister. “It’s larger than the plate.” She wasn’t having any of that. We ordered two, along with a delicious Viennese mixed salad, and finished everything to the last bite. The Kiss - Only in ViennaThe next morning it was time to acquaint my sister with Vienna’s more modern art, the period in the late 1880 until the First World War, known as the Jugendstil. In France the same art style was known as “Art Nouveau.”
It was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy, a French aristocrat who fought for the Habsburgs against the Turks. His palace, set on a hill outside the city walls, looked down on the emperor’s own palace. The summer palaces outside the city and winter palaces within its walls were statements of worth, the Trump Towers of their day, and Vienna’s aristocrats tried to outdo each other with imported Italian architects and artists. In 1740 there were no fewer than 400 summer palaces around the old city. The Belvedere so impressed visiting French philosopher Montesquieu that he remarked “It is a delightful feeling to be in a land where the subjects live better than their ruler.” My sister was also duly impressed. One of the most famous paintings in the museum’s collection is the “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt. Even if one has never heard the artist’s name, every person who lives in a western society must have seen the painting reproduced on a poster, or a coffee cup. My sister appreciated the large Klimt collection but fell in love with the darker, dramatic, death-obsessed paintings by Expressionist painter, Egon Schiele. She has a good eye for art, because Schiele, who died young at age 28 from the Spanish Influenza epidemic that cut a deadly swath during World War I, is today considered one of the great painters of the 20th century. Viennese CuisineAfter a morning in the Belvedere, it was time to head for lunch to my favorite restaurant in Vienna, Plachutta, where they serve traditional Viennese cuisine. My sister ordered the Tafelspitz, Franz Joseph’s favorite dish, which he reportedly ate every day. You get a copper pot with a delicious beef soup with a generous chunk of beef cooked in the broth. Side dishes include spinach and roasted potatoes. To go with the meat you also get horseradish mixed with apples and a chive sauce. Perhaps it doesn’t sound like much, but Plachutta makes this dish to perfection. We ended up going back to Plachutta every day for the remainder of the trip, it was that good. Don’t knock the cliches
I also ordered tickets ahead of time for a concert by the Vienna Boys Choir that took place in the opulent gold leaf Musikverein concert hall that dates back to 1870 and is considered one of the best three concert halls in the world. The boys clad in their sailor suits sang with angelic voices along with a philharmonic orchestra. There is no point in looking down at touristy things. Some you just would not want to miss.
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