On the Banks of the Beautiful Blue Danube...Vienna

 

 This wigged gentleman sold us tickets to a concert in something short of a nano second.  For someone who poured over the cost of cheese and wurst in a grocery store, Paco slapped down money for a Mozart/Strauss concert toot sweet!  This is Vienna's city square.  Very very cosmo!

 

 Musik Verein!  All that New Year's Strauss that comes across the international airwaves?  Right from this place.  WE LOVED IT!!!  The orchestra all had period costumes, and the entire everybody clapped along to the Emperor's Waltz.  Entirely Viennese and made us glowingly happy.  The couple next to us were from Peru--six kids!!!!!!  You just never know who or what you'll come across.  Paco, of course, wowed them with a business card and a short description of our "alpaca farm"--I'm betting THOSE folks were thinking, "You just never know!"

This cathedral looks straight out of Ali Baba, right?  No, we didn't take a detour; this is KarlsKirche (Church of St. Charles), a "classic Gothic example" in Vienna!  Gothic architects borrowed Muslim influences from the Ottoman Empire, with which the House of Hapsburg was battling at about the same time the church was designed.  As with many other European cathedrals, one look at the inside gives an insight about why there was a religious reformation.  Church dignitaries lived with the same opulence as the cathedrals they built. 

 

Call me crazy and punch me in the arm, but doesn't the inside of this cathedral look like they tie-dyed it???

 

 I drooled through a lot of shop windows at the children's clothing.  Oh, for an extra organ to harvest and sell to afford to shop here...In true Relief Society fashion, I think I can make some of these.  Nicht wahr??? 

 

 The entire city was an homage to all that is good and sacred about classical music.  All the "Guys" passed through here; many of them made it their home.  Statues, fountains...

 

 AND toilets!  We got used to paying a euro to relieve ourselves in about 95% of our European destinations, but this place wanted an extra euro for the jolly of music with your tinkle.  We didn't fall for it.  Anybody who can't hum their own darn Blue Danube while they do their business should just stay home.  Sheesh.

 

 Schonnbrunn Palace.  Opulence.  We came across several palaces in our travels--mostly we enjoyed the free gardens.  Once you've seen Versailles, everything else is just a watered down variation on a theme.  If you think on it too hard, you realize that the cost of European opulence didn't figure in positively for 99.9% of the citizenry.  Kings schmings...

 

 

 Palace gardens.  I restrained myself from sweeping through singing something (not Sound of Music yet--wait for it, wait for it) romantic. 

 

Palace garden fountain.  Free, cool, private.  Most of the folks headed for the palace.  We had the gardens to ourselves.



 A magnificent arch above the palace. We huffed up there in the heat.  A zoo hosted some pandas just to the right of this.  So so grandiose.  Defnitely an upside of opulence!

 

 





 Now my caveat here is that I know minimal German (3 years in high school and about that many semesters at BYU)--just enough to hang myself with.  When I saw this sign I picked out "You have it in the hand" and "Stop...something something...street".  I'm guessing some Viennese dogs  are being singled out.  If anyone can translate this???? 

 

 Ahh...lest we forget that Vienna is the music capital...a subtle reminder.  Isn't it beautiful?  I could do this with my flower beds!  Maybe a potato?  Or a book?

 

 Yet again, Austrian dress lust...I love the green contrasted with the pink.  Saw quite a bit of that.

 

 

 Poetry, anyone?  Vienna's parks were spectacular.  Such a beautiful memorable city.

 

 mmmm..."Our Garden".  Wait!  Those are umlauts over the "A"!  Plural??

 

And last but not least...Strauss.  Viennese daytrips next!  Graz and Budapest!!!  (Note to the astute reader:  I did something today I've never done.  I showed Paco how to edit my blogpost and let him mess around a little with putting some pictures next to other related pictures.  Can you pick out what text he added?)

Prague and the Czech Republic

Prague is beautiful--no if's, ands', or but's about it.  Everywhere we turned was something old and cryptic and architecturally magnificent.  Its town square is massive and was a teeming mass of tourists and statues.  It felt strange and undiscovered to me--like a secret that had just been let out of the bag! The suffocating blanket of communism has been lifted, but it still felt to me like the country is still awakening.

We spent a good deal of one day and part of another in the Old Jewish Quarter, mainly because we'd heard it housed one of the most complete collections of Jewish artifacts in the world.  It was incredible.  We wished we'd had time to go to Treblinka which was the first attempt by the Nazis to try a concentration camp concept.  One exhibit in the synagogues of children's art was especially moving.    Treblinka was established as a sort of "showroom", so teachers were allowed to teach and some semblance of order maintained to present to the world for show.  The art was the result of a very in-depth program carried out by a heroine who attempted to teach the children to look for the good in their surroundings--prison though it was.  Very touching.

 

 They wanted a bundle of cash to go into the cemetery, so I took this image from google.  We could only look over the wall. Please don't think less of me.  Every headstone was leaning on another just like a bunch of sleepy kids on a school bus. 

 

 

Crossing the famous Charles Bridge.  You'll notice the darkening clouds.  We got poured on multiple times in Prague, the rivers flooded, and some Aussies we met had their Danube cruise completely 86-ed!!!  No refund either!  Act of God...come on, people.

 

A funky statue to Franz Kafka outside of a synagogue.

 

The Prague,Czech Republic Mission headquarters and meetinghouse!  What an oasis!  Paco and I would sooooooooo go back there as missionaries if they'd have us.

 

Can you believe this cool snail?  He was creeping up a tree along the trail to...

 

Krivoklat!!!  This was the darndest castle I've ever been in!!!!!!  12th century torture at its finest!!  We hopped on a train from Prague to go exploring and ended up here.  (Thanks google images for the blue skies.) The flooding tried to prevent us from getting back to our apartment--delayed the train for a couple of hours.  But to compensate we met a very gregarious Czech who returns to Prague yearly from his home in Toronto where he's lived since the communists came in the late 40's.  He gave us a running commentary on all things Czech, communist, and in-between all the way back to Prague!!!  He was articulate and wise.  We lucked out befriending him.

 

From the top turret of the castle.

 

Waiting and waiting for the train.  Those folks to Paco's left were a group of Czech biking friends who have been biking in the Czech Republic on this particular weekend for 15 years!  This year they got rained out and had to resort to castle hopping--poor things. Once we  learned we could all speak English, they were so much fun!!

In downtown Prague right next to the snazziest modern mall was this group of human rights activists raising money by serving up what appeared to be 7-layer cake!!!!  Each layer was a  bright new color, and the pieces were huge!!
 

I want to talk about this clock in the Prague town center!  It is one of a kind, and I'll tell you why!!!  After the guy built it, the government poked out his eyes!  I know!!!!

 

Ahhhh...Czesky Krumlov--Paco's Aunt Ginny made us promise to come here.  She and Uncle Tom made the Hadd pilgrimage to the homeland a few years ago, and she said not to miss this place--a UNESCO site.  We kept finding ourselves in UNESCO sites--all over the Czech Republic and then in Iceland!  This place is a walled medieval village built on an S-shaped river.  So so beautiful.  Once again we saw this from beneath an umbrella, but I didn't mind at all.  Rain just makes the colors jump!

 

From a charming charming toy store I ducked into.

Flooding evidence.

 

Marionnettes are to the Czech Republic what crepes are to Paris--everywhere!!!!

 

 

Isn't it so wonderful????

The raging flooded river of Czesky Krumlov. 

 

This bear (and another guy) live in the moat surrounding the castle at Czesky Krumlov.  I refrained from posting the picture of some amour going on down there!  These bears have been here (not the same ones, of course) for like 600 years!

 

A cathedral in Brno, Czech Republic where we stayed for a night.  You'll notice a lack of cathedrals on my blog postings.  You're welcome.  I'll put in just enough to pay homage.

 

 

Mural art in Brno 

 

Tomorrow I'll crank up some Straus, and we'll go to Vienna!!!  Ya'll come back, ya hear!!! 

Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam!

Okay, so here are the rules:  1) I will post as many pictures as I think tell the story. 2)  If you get bored you may leave. 3) Once again, I write this blog mainly for selfish reasons.  It's oftentimes my only chronicle!  In this case, I'm thinking I'll publish some sort of book on our trip on one of those fancy dancy scrapbook sites.  But I WILL fill my blog with Europe for a few days.  Be warned!!

 

We took a day trip on a bus which included windmills, wooden shoe-making demo, cheese-making, dikes, and a cool boat trip to a fishing island.  Very very Dutch, so we got our money's worth.  Notice how Paco and I are smiling and looking all chummy.  Remember that when we get to about week 3...

One of Amsterdam's myriad of canals.  We rode on the canal boats with reckless abandon for most of a day, hopping off and on when something caught our eye.  Picturesque to the extreme!!!

The Rijks Museum.  We drank this place in.  Actually we went twice.  The first day they had some sort of evacuation  which we never really got to the bottom of.  Thousand of people pouring out quite nonchalantly, and they never let anybody back in.  Backed up plumbing?  Out of Rembrandt postcards?  We'll never know.

Rather than posting pictures of the Red Light District (the street signs actually direct tourists to it; we wandered there by mistake), I thought this sign would spark some reader interest.  Honestly we didn't try this ice, but we did snoop out some AMAZING speculos gelato...mmmmmm

 Sheep.  I think I was supposed to be buying wooden shoes and absurdly-priced Dutch cookies in a gift shop.  I found this instead. And this and this.

 

 


 .

50 patrillion bikes EVERYWHERE!!!!!

Paco was hitting on this Dutch gal, so I turned her to stone.  I figured establishing myself as alpha wife early in the trip made solid sense.  We didn't have any more trouble.

What is it about wooden shoes that just screams, "YOU'RE IN THE NETHERLANDS!!!!" pinch pinch...

I grew up eating ebilskivers many a Sunday evening, so these didn't even tempt me.  Do NOT ask me how Welsh, Scottish, and English parents translate into ebilskivers because I have no answer.  We also walked by the waffles on the street because I was saving myself for Belgium.  I'm virtuous that way.

I took a stroll through a little neighborhood on an island where we stopped.  Little did I know that while I was oogling postcard lawns, barns, gardens, chickens,goats and cows an all-time record drought was wreaking havoc on Provident Heritage Farm in Idaho...

A green and black house.  And they get away with it!!!

We looked around for Don Quixote, but he was sorely absent.  Why did this conjure up memories of an old Hailey Mills Disney movie, "The Moon-Spinners"?

Anne Frank's house.  So so cool.  Much bigger than I had pictured. There!  Now that wasn't so bad was it?  Go get some rest.  Tomorrow is a new day.  We can do this!!!!!!

Mieders, Austria!

We hiked through the mountain from our hostel in Fulpmes, rode the tram up this mountain, hiked waaaaaaaay up and over to a monastery for a couple of hours, and then got down off the mountain on this.  Oh my goodness!!!  Invigorating!  Waaaaaaay fast!  Steep!!!   Sharp curves!!!!!  Screamed a little, but I didn't cry like one gal I saw on a video.  They belted us in sufficiently, I suppose.  And in case you haven't guessed, I am now ready to begin documenting our amazing month on the road.  Forgive me for borrowing this youtube video.  Neither Paco nor I had our wits about us sufficiently to videotape our descent.  Bladder control was about all I could manage!!!