As I walked out of my hotel in Vienna on Sunday morning, I realized I was in a city with a rich culture you can almost inhale, and a vivid history you can almost touch. I decided to max out on culture.
At about 9:00, I dropped by the Hofburg’s Imperial Music Chapel. The Vienna Boys’ Choir was singing, as they do each Sunday morning throughout their season. I didn’t actually see the boys — no one in the church did — as they sang like angels from the loft in the rear. But, like you don’t need to look at the sun to know it’s there on a beautiful day, you don’t need to see the boys to enjoy their delicately beautiful music. Their voices blended perfectly with the scene in front of us, as sunshine streaming through the windows made the Baroque starburst of gilded statuary truly seem to burst over the altar.
Energized, I ducked through a royal passageway and paid about €20 for a standing-room spot to see the much-loved Lipizzaner Stallions prance to some more music in the Emperor’s chandeliered Baroque riding hall. (It occurred to me that they prance in 4:4 time, but not 3:4 — even though this is the city of the waltz.) I enjoyed the show as much — and with a view just as good — as those who booked far more expensive seats long in advance.
Ready for more music, I strolled a hundred yards to the Augustinian church for Mass, where I sat above silver urns containing the hearts of centuries of Habsburg emperors. This being Vienna, the service came with a complete choir and an orchestra, and today wowed worshippers with the spiritual confidence of Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 in F Minor.
After lunch under palm trees in the emperors’ conservatory, I dropped into the adjacent hothouse, a wonderland of butterflies. Enjoying the fluttering antics of these butterflies — most of which seemed drunk on the fermented banana juice they licked from the brown and sweating banana slices in their breakfast dish — is a Vienna tradition for me.
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Then, for coffee, I pulled up a chair in the smoke-and-coffee-stained Café Hawelka, where intellectuals like Leon Trotsky once stewed. The decor was circa-1900. Old man Hawelka himself was snoozing on a Biedermeier chair near the bar. His granddad could well have served a Mélange (as they would have called their cappuccino) to Trotsky, Hitler, Stalin, Klimt, or Freud — all of whom were rattling around Vienna when the chair I was sitting on was made, bought, and put in this café. I pondered how, in the last days of the era of Europe’s family-run empires (essentially all of which died with the end of World War I), Vienna was a place of intellectual tumult.
And my day was just half over. The Vienna Opera — arguably the world’s greatest — was performing Wagner’s Tannhäuser in the afternoon. No ticket? No problem. In good Vienna style, it was being projected outdoors for the rest of us in all its Teutonic glory, live on a huge screen. Arriving early to get a good seat, I waited with the people of Vienna — marveling at the potential richness of life, and how as I travel, I can experience much of its best.
Awaiting the start of Tannhäuser, I thought about how accessible all this was. Two musical Masses and this opera experience — free. Horses — $30. Butterflies — $6. Lunch under the palms — $20. Coffee and cake with sleeping Herr Hawelka — $7. As I reviewed all I had experienced today and the people I had rubbed shoulders with, I thought again — a theme for me this month — how much happiness there is in our world if you choose to see it. I’m not saying to ignore the problems. I’m saying to get out there, strive to keep things in perspective, and embrace not what turns you off, but what turns you on.
I first heard of the Lippizaner stallions 20+ years ago when reading an old novel by Mary Stewart called “Airs Above the Ground.” It was my first glimpse of these wonderful animals, and I am looking forward to finally seeing them when I travel to Vienna in September. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see a performance, but I’m planning on buying a ticket for their morning exercise set to music. And thanks for the tip about the opera – I was debating whether to set aside the 3+ hours to get standing-room tickets, but this will be almost as good.
Thanks, Rick, for brightening my day. Just reading your descriptions of Vienna and its wonderful music transported me there, if only for a few moments. A mini-vacation in the middle of a hectic day.
What a wonderful post; i felt like I was strolling the streets with you. Nice to know that you have time to stop and smell the roses while you are doing your research.
I think smelling the roses is a large part of Rick’s travel and research. That’s one of the things that make his books and blogs so interesting and rewarding.
All this writing about inhaling Vienna’s culture and taking time to smell the roses does remind me of Vienna. And also of seattle’s upcoming hempfest. Rick is a featured speaker at this event in late August and it will be interesting to read his comments. No buying or selling of cannabis is permitted at this protestival but tens of thousands of attendees pictured at past hempfests seem pretty mellow. About 14 states are now poised to legalize marijuana (mj) for medical use and we wonder if it is any more of a gateway drug than legal cigarettes and (even quicker) liquor. Furthermore, wouldn’t legalization for personal use at least cut into the Mexican drug cartels’ US profits? But then we read that a chemist at a major university down the street from me has come up with a synthetic version of the THC ingredient in cannabis which, when mixed with herbs, produces a product called K2 which is now being banned (8 states plus 6 more considering) because it may cause suicidal thinking plus hallucinations. Twelve year olds have been able to buy it because it’s not covered by law in many states. The chemist himself says, “it may be toxic.” Rick has wide readership and is influential to some people. I hope his comments at hempfest will be as balanced as they are in his travel columns. Stay tuned August 21-22.
Brilliant last paragraph. My friends and I were just talking over the same sentiment as we shared our last big dinner together in Paris tonight.
Keep things in perspective! That is a the best statement. There are so many fine things out there to do, the bad stuff comes whether you like it or not. Great Blog Rick! Our travel abroad or in the US have given us great pleasure and memories.
Rick, we just returned from 11 days in Alpi di Susi, Salzburg, Hallstatt. We are seasoned international travelers, but this was the best vacation of our lives. My now 16 year old son saw Hallstatt on your show 3 years ago. All we can say is WOW, and Thank you. your friends, the Trefry’s.
It’s like you always have said – travel is intensified living.
You can tell the entries where Rick is really in his sweet spot. Vienna must be one. It was fun to vicariously tag along Rick. The classically trained musician in you bubbles to the surface unexpectedly in a wonderful way.
The Vienna opera house shut down June 30th. The “Teutonic glory†of Tannhauser was part of the summer film series projected on a large screen in front of City Hall.
Tina is correct. The Vienna Opera House closes June 30th for vacation and retrofitting. It hosts the Vienna Jazz Festival for the following 6 days. I think the dates are out of sync with the posting date of July 10th. The Vienna Film Festival, featuring opera, concert and ballet films, is projected on a large screen in front of the “Rathaus” or city hall. Austria gave birth to a gentleman who moved to Germany and was a huge fan of Wagner and “Teutonic glory.” Careful ;)