A musical time in Vienna

Music shaped our time in Vienna, unsurprisingly given it is commonly referred to as the City of Music.  We enjoyed a self-guided walking tour of music, Wiener Wiesl - Vienna's take on Oktoberfest - a visit to the Haus der Musik, a concert at Karlskirch (St Charles' church) and relaxing at the famous Cafe Central as a pianist set the atmosphere. We didn't let attempts to find a doctor (one of whom was incredibly rude) disrupt our visit to the city. We admired the architecture (Kat would like to use the adjectives 'creamy' and 'grand' to describe the city) while on our walking tour and we also had a long visit to the Kunsthistorisch (the Art History museum).

Our self-guided walking tour was odd in that we got lost (there's only a small circle of people to blame when you are self-guided) but that this made it a bit of an adventure. There's certainly worse places to be lost than Vienna, with its windy streets, beautiful (creamy) large buildings with the exteriors decorated with such complete and marvelous sculptures and characters.  Places that were home to Salieri, Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss.  The place had a feeling of completeness to it.  

Passed this on the way to Old Town

Grand old Vienna

At Stephansplatz

The approach to the Hofburg palace

Hofburg

Controversial Holocaust monument

On our walking lunchbreak we found a tiny little place serving what the internet tells me is Fleischkäsesemmel.  Sort of like a meatloaf on a simple semmel roll, we thought it was delicious, but the meal was made more enjoyable for the recognisable characters drawn on the wall enjoying their own Fleischkäsesemmel.

Entertaining artwork depicting many recognisable characters munching on Fleischkäse  

More celebration of Fleischkäse

Love and bunnies outside the Opera (note the pedestrian traffic light!)

We found ourselves in Austria in early October, and Kat spotted a sign advertising the local version of Oktoberfest, Wiener Wiesl. It was great we could experience this particular Austrian cultural experience. This meant that I could enjoy a beer and together we could experience the now global sensation that is Oktoberfest. Wiener Wiesl is a celebration of autumn that brings people together in with traditional food, music, clothes and drink.  Although the young'uns probably come out at night, this is not just a weekend bender activity that it might be elsewhere in the world but a celebration for all ages and it is on all through the week with free entry during the day.

We sang and swayed along to songs we had no hope of understanding while enjoying the performance of the band and the happy people who came to dance and eat together.  By mid-afternoon it was a swinging party and we were quite out of place in jeans and t-shirts but I've never had much of a need for lederhosen before!

Is Oktoberfesting a verb?

Starting to get a little rowdy at 2pm

Beer and sunshine

The Haus der Musik was good fun with interactive games and systems (some of which were a little 'tired' on our visit) to teach you about how we hear and process sound.  There were also rooms dedicated to the great composers, sharing elements of their lives, habits, debts and works.  

Trying the Sound of Music out on the keyboard stairs

This visit paved the way for our night-time outing to Karlskirch, a church we had only really admired from afar in our first few days.  We bought our ticket on the day from the venue itself (we had a bit of a run-in with a pushy street vendor who was too eager to encourage us to buy tickets from him).  A grand building with a beautiful dome framed by two towers, brilliantly lit up by night, the church was undergoing some maintenance inside and out but not so much that we could not enjoy both the concert and the art all around us.  We enjoyed a lovely performance in a beautiful church of some of Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss' best known works and were able to wander around before and after the performance to see the church in more detail.  Highly recommended experience, but one of many that you could get to in Vienna, it is the City of Music, afterall.

The ceiling with scaffolding centrepieces

Magnificent altar at Karlskirch just before the quintet commenced

Karlskirch (under a little renovation)

Visiting the Kunsthistorisches was a really powerful experience.  Our favourite part was the Kunstkammer exhibit.  The noble families over the centuries accumulated great arts to celebrate and often demonstrate both their wealth and authority.  These were stored in what was called a Kunstkammer, like a special art room.  Sometimes they were collections of brass sculptures, portraits, and tapestries but only the imagination can prevent you from thinking about what they had in there; mounted nobles with interchangable heads, over-the-top table centrepieces, drinking horns, clockwork frigates and clocks that surprise you with a mooning bum instead of a cuckoo-bird.  Perhaps one of the grandest features was a backgammon set that laid out the dynastic and territorial claims of the Habsburgs, Maximilian I's descendants (Charles V & Ferdinand I), demonstrating their right to rule but also their wealth.  In odd timing, a joke that would have flown past me before made me laugh out loud, through our slight addiction to the show Downton Abbey, a reference came up when the Dowager Countess said "I used to think that Mary's beau was a mésalliance, but compared to this, he's practically a Hapsburg." (The "p" is the Anglicised version). The collection at Kunsthistorisches was big, and it was a kind of fun to see what they collected, what they gave as gifts; it gives you a bit of an idea of the wealth these people once had to throw around.

The cafe of the Kunsthistorisches was lovely, not modern and tucked away out of sight but within the grand building itself, with a great dome rising above and beautiful marble archways on all four sides, hubbub with activity.

We finished off our stay in Vienna with coffee at the famous Cafe Central, a place those more famous than us used as a meeting point long ago; it's been around for more than 130 years.  There we were treated to a pianist who came and went a few times while we indulged on Viennese cake and coffee.

Selection of cakes at Cafe Central 

The pianist at Cafe Central

St Peter's Church at dusk

Zurich and Lucerne

After hopping off the Bernina Express in Chur, still in awe, we looked for our fourth train of the day to Zurich. Initially we were spoilt with another scenic journey but before long tunnels and the departure of the sun limited our view. We set to some blogging and soon found ourselves in Zurich.

We were met at the platform by Laurel, Rob’s friend and our amazing host. It was great to hear an Australian accent (though our neighbours on the Bernina Express were from Melbourne!) and a friendly face. Laurel has called Zurich home for a decade and gave us a wealth of information on the city, what it is like living there and on the international school scene. We were also extremely lucky to be shown around Lucerne.

Rob & Laurel

Lucerne

In Lucerne we climbed up the battlements and the walls and went up the clock tower that was there, giving us a nice view of the city on one side, and, strangely, an athletics track on the other. Laurel took us to great lunch where Rob ordered the opposite of what he said he wanted! We were entertained by an Italian lady that tried to sit everywhere except where she was supposed to. Unfortunately the famous Chapel bridge of Lucerne was under repair so we couldn’t see its well-known paintings that depict Swiss life in the 12^th century and tell the history of the city and the story of William Tell. It was the oldest wooden bridge of Europe but was burned down in a 1993 fire and was then rebuilt. We loved the murals on many of the building in Lucerne.

Clock tower

Creepy man with a camera lurking behind a tree...

Inner workings of the clock and if you look closely you can see Ghost Rob

Lucerne city wall

Lunch venue and an amazing family tree

Public murals

Public murals

Chapel Bridge from afar

We missed this one on the way in!

You have to look UP in Lucerne

Travelling to and from Lucerne, Laurel took us to her favourite viewpoints, including a church with a bright pink interior. Unfortunately access to the church was blocked by one of the many cycling events that are following us around the world! It was lovely to see the colourful Autumn leaves as we drove between towns.

Autumn is upon us!

Zurich

I hadn’t realised that Zurich is a relatively small city with only around 400 thousand people in the city proper. The villages or suburbs of Zurich are spread out around the lake. It doesn’t feel like you are in the biggest city of a country, even though you are. The quaint little villages and the beautiful lake with views of the alps are what I think makes Zurich special.

Views across Zurich lake (unfortunately alp visibility is low in this shot)

On our walking tour of Zurich, our guide told us that though Berne is the government headquarters of Switzerland, it is not the capital. In fact, Switzerland is a confederation of Cantons without an official capital. In roman times Zurich was a tolling station along the Linmat river. One of the most historic parts of Zurich is Linderhoff, a central hill and viewpoint over the river and city and at one time a Roman fort. Whilst on the hill the guide told us an interesting story about Zurich in the 15^th century. There were no men left in the city as they were off fighting battles. With an army converging on the city, some women decided to dress in men’s battle gear and stand on the Linderhoff so approaching armies saw the town was protected and left without a fight.  This is supposedly the origin of the female national personification Helvetia, the woman in flowing robes bearing a spear.  Although, when we researched it, we couldn't find anything about this myth.

Helvetia

View from Linderhoff

View of Grossmünster from Linderhoff

A random fact that I learnt on the tour: Helvetica font was invented in Zurich. Maybe I should change the font of this post in honour of this discovery! (Changed!)

The walking tour took us by a number of churches and recommended eateries. One of the churches, St Peter’s, has the largest clock face in Europe. Another, Fraumünster, is an old gothic church with beautiful and unique window paintings by Marc Chagal. We went up the  Grossmünster ('great minister'), a Romanesque-style church, for some lovely views of the city and took the guide up on a recommended café. Despite being sick I could not resist the urge for a hot chocolate, or trying some new Lindt chocolate varieties. I was in Switzerland after all!

Fraumünster

Autumn at Linderhoff

Largest clockface in the world

Grossmünster

View from Grossmünster 

View from Grossmünster

Faces in-between clock faces

Traditional house around Zürich lake

Aside from exploring Zurich and its surrounds, the best part about our time with Laurel was chatting and watching no less than the three movies! The Zurich film festival was actually on whilst we were there but we opted for the comforts of Laurel’s home. Besides, what better place for a viewing of Chocolat than the neighbourhood of the Lindt factory? (Well, except maybe a small village in France!)

Provision of chocolate samples:
That's when good neighbours become good friends!

Belfast and the Giants that live nearby - Ireland Roadtrip Part 6

Wow. Wow is the word I choose to describe Belfast and surrounds. The centre of an evolving history, haunted by spectres of the past with an optimistic eye on the future.

We have to start with the beginning of our experience, which was navigating the Union Jack clad streets. Flapping from windows and hanging across streets like a city-wide car sale they were intimidating and even oppressive. I suddenly felt as if I had been transported to suburban USA, with someone removing all the white picket fences and laying down cobblestones. Not only were there Union Jacks everywhere, but this rather confronting English looking flag with a hand in the centre of it. And English flag, what? Weren't we in Northern Ireland? Not having expected this nor done anywhere near enough homework before our arrival, we put it at the top of our list to understand what all the flags were about.

Flags galore

Poor King Robb...

We stayed at an incredible AirBNB, owned by a couple who have a sign over their mantlepiece about where they met; at the much famed Red Wedding of Westeros. You are probably sick of hearing about it now, but parts of the Game of Thrones HBO series is filmed in Northern Ireland, which provides beautiful locations for shoots and the show, in turn, provides many jobs when it is in town.

But back to the Union flags - that's what Eugene tells us the locals call it. Apparently it's only us foreigners that call it the Union Jack. We met Eugene, a black cab driver come-tour guide randomly on the street. The day before our arrival in Belfast, we had captured a loose nail...in our rear tyre. We were looking our for a spot to get it fixed at a reasonable price, rather than pay a nasty 1300 Euro excess. At a red light, we asked the driver of the cab next to us for some directions. Eugene was so friendly, he led us all the way there. We lost him at one point due to a one-way street but he started twisting and turning through the streets to find us minutes later! My friend Dan had said that one thing we absolutely must do while in Belfast was to have a black cab tour, so I asked Eugene for his card and we ended up booking him for the next day.

We had arrived in town only a day or two after the annual celebrations of the Battle of the Boyne of 1690, and if Eugene is to be believed, the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland's can be traced all the way back there. This is an incredibly complex part of world history, and I certainly cannot do it justice on my own. In a brutally short summary that does not really do it all justice; William III of Orange from Holland claimed the British crown, his faith as a protestant gained him the support of many who wanted to oust the catholic King James II of England. Further complicating matters (to my mind at least), William III of Orange became William III of England, William II of Scotland and plain old King Billy in Ireland. William's final victory over James was at the Battle of the Boyne in eastern Ireland. With so much of this war apparently caught up in Catholicism vs Protestantism, it might be over-simplifying it to draw a line from there to the "Troubles" of the 1960's, but well...a line was drawn. The memory of that battle is still celebrated, hence the flags everywhere, I'll let this article's summary of events this year, and its obvious lack of...objectivity.. on the matter, to speak for itself.

Kat spotted this when we were looking for a particular pub (we did not realise until we doubled back that the pub was just under the photographed quote!)

Eugene was a Catholic and did a fairly good job of teaching us just a small part of the country's complex history. All the same, I would love to do a similar tour with a Protestant guide, to get a more rounded understanding. In VERY general terms, it seems that Catholics support a reunification with the Republic of Ireland, and Protestants broadly support remaining a part of the United Kingdom. The English flag with an (amputated) red hand on it, is the Ulster flag, and representative of another complicated story that I can't possibly hope to get right, and I think is used widely to represent British loyalism.

For me, it's not a happy thought that kids grow up with this vestige of the past in their neighbourhood

A street with murals protesting ongoing injustice across not just in Northern Ireland but the world

After the tour with Eugene we visited the Ulster Museum to gain more of an insight to the Troubles and other parts of history. We were blown away by an exhibition (Silent Testimony) of Colin Davidson's portrait paintings that told the stories of eighteen people and their experiences of loss through the Troubles. It was very powerful representation of the multiple ways the conflict has (and continues to) impact upon individuals and their families.

But exploring the fascinating and sad history of Belfast and Northern Ireland through this tour and galleries, gardens and murals was not all we did.  

Chris found a lovely perch to engage in people-watching

First off we drove along the northern coast on a beautiful day.  We had great views from the mainland of the sea and across the cliffs, so Chris opted not to join us in crossing to the tiny Carrickarede island near Ballycastle.  The views from the island were great, but I don't blame her for not wanting to cross the rickety 20m bridge hovering 30m above the sea!  For a few hundred years is was home to salmon fisherman who used the natural environment to easily trap dopey salmon. Unfortunately, I believe they're now almost all fished out.  Hopefully the tourists (and there were MANY of us) are keeping the money coming in.  There were so many visitors in fact that they needed a bloke to police traffic on the tiny little bridge that could only hold 10 people at a time.

The northern coastline from the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

Chris definitely made the right choice!

Looking back at the mainland coastline 

Kat enjoying the scenery

Beautiful coloured waters

Enjoying the view without getting too close to the edge!

No wonder Balon Greyjoy fell off!

We explored wider (to the west) to visit the amazing Giant's Causeway. It is said that two giants, one Scottish and one Irish, used the causeway to cross the channel to have it off with one another. Or it could just be an impressive 60 million year old tribute to volcanic power. The coastline itself was beautiful and it was quite peaceful to walk along the tracks taking in the views. We even nestled down for a snack at the base of the Giant's pipe organ, probably ruining hundreds of other people's photos, but at least it meant we could get this one of the normally VERY tall Chris, just to demonstrate how big this thing is!.

Chris having a go at the giant's old pipe organ

Chris got in a fight with a bus...

...but then crushed it under her giant foot!

Perhaps once used by a giant as a path to Scotland, I found it a nice spot to catch a break..

We don't know this photo-bomber

They look like they're man-made, but the scientists swear it was lava..

An interesting fact of the nearby Tourist Information Visitor Centre is that they include various stories about how the casueway was formed, with the controversial inclusion of the Creationist belief  of the Giant's Causeway some 6000 years ago (as part of the Creation of the earth by God).  Some argue, that it should not be there at all, with scientific evidence suggesting it was formed 60 million years ago by volcanic activity.  And some more say that the story is rightfully presented at the visitor centre, along with other mythical explanations, like Finn McCool the giant.


HOT TIP:
If you want to avoid the excruciatingly high per person price of parking at the Causeway Visitor Centre, then pop down the road to the miniature railway where you can park for 2 or 3 euros.  Of course, if you actually want to go into the visitor centre, then you'll pay the 9euro/pp anyway, so you may as well park there.