Welcome to Vienna
After a short hop from Bologna, we are in Vienna, where a fellow with a sign awaits us. (Which is pretty cool, since how many times have you stepped off a plane into a sea of sign-bearing drivers and never had them be for you?) He takes us to the Jewish Quarter and our apartment. Christian, our helmeted landlord, meets us on his bicycle. He invites us to sit in the Grimm Bakery while he runs upstairs to kick out his last renter.
Upstairs we go to hear the rules — no wearing shoes, no loud talking, and oh, here are your two rolls of toilet paper for the week. We get instructions for the washing machine, the coffee maker, the dishwasher, and the iron. Then, we are on our own. A quick trip to the bathroom, and we are off to explore.
The Ankeruhr Clock
We just happen to be in the right place at the right time. The Ankeruhr Vienna is a beautiful clock at the place Hoher Markt. A crowd gathers to watch it go through its paces at noon. A series of 12 (we think) figures lurch from left to right. We don’t know who they are, but we are impressed anyway. We spend the rest of the day looking around, trying to figure out the order of the streets, shopping for groceries, and visiting a local eatery for a light bite and beers. Early to bed for all exhausted parties.
The Kunsthistoriches Museum
Vienna is seriously blessed with amazing museums. We decide the first we should visit is the Kunsthistoriches Museum, called the Kunst by the locals and sometimes called the Museum of Art History. On the way, handsome young men in period costume try to sell us tickets to a concert. Getting nowhere, they ask if we know Bill Clinton. They are from Kosovo, and want us to know that Clinton helped their people, and that they will not forget.
Housed in a palatial sandstone and marble structure built in 1872, the museum is much too large to take on in a single afternoon. Commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I, the museum holds just part of the Hapsburgs’ enormous collection of paintings by old masters (Vermeer or Titian, anyone?), objects, armor, weapons, clocks, automata, ad infinitum. We had seen the Hapsburg exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts just before leaving on this trip, worried that we should go since “all of the Hapsburg art” would be in Minneapolis instead of Vienna. Ha. Not to worry. The pieces currently traveling in the U.S. have not left even the tiniest dent in this massive collection.
The Grimm Bakery
P.S. We happen to be living on top of what is reputed to be the best bakery in Vienna, which (according to Google Translate) has existed since 1536. Every night about 2:30 am, we hear them starting to rustle around down there. Soon, the smell of baking twists up through the hallways and into our bedroom. Bavarian salt sticks. Mmmmm.
Welcome to Vienna
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