Europe Again

So the next morning, I tried to go to the armor and music museum again, but the place was still heavily guarded.  They also prevented me from going to the Museum of Ecclesiastic and Secular Relics.  I ended up going with my mother to St. Stephen's and we took a tour of the bell tower.   It was pretty cool.  Here's a picture of it.  I loved the way the inside is lit.  The place just felt so peaceful.  It was a truly holy place.  I also liked how the outside had gargoyles, my favorite mythical creature.  Then we went to eat, and ended up going to the globe museum.   It had a lot of globes.  It was interesting to see how the view of the world changed as science and exploration advanced.  It stormed on the way back, so we bought some umbrellas, and I found a really nice maize one.  Michigan represent.  I managed to get it back to Michigan too.

Another nice thing about the day was our good deed trail.  At the bell tower, Mom asked for a 5 cent piece to give to some kids who were trying to make a pressed penny.  They looked like she gave them a fortune:)  Later we met a woman from Florida who was hopelessly lost.  We used my skills with a map to walk her back to St. Stephens, and then showed her on a map how to find the Belvedere Museum.  It was fun, and we got to meet new people.  We also had a nice conversation with a woman from San Fransisco who was born and raised in Germany, but forgot how to speak German.  She still has a very thick German accent though.

The following day, mother and I took a tour bus to Baden bei Wien.  (Baden near Vienna)  It was a little town in the south of Austria, surrounded by the foothills of the Alps.  It was famous for its baths, and for being the inspiration and part time home for many composers.  Beethoven wrote his ninth symphony here, and Strauss, Schubert, and Mozart spent time here as well.  It was a nice town that was burned down completely in 1812.  They rebuilt the town in Biedermeier style.  Now every building that is built must be in this style.  After WWII, the Soviets occupied Baden, and only left when they were paid lots of money, and an agreement that Austria would remain neutral in the Cold War.  When they left, they took all the machinery, capital, and infrastructure that wasn't built on an immovable foundation.   It took 50 years for the first hotel to reopen in Baden because of the damage to the economy.  

On the way down to Baden we stopped at a Monastery.  It was beautiful and still operated by the Cistercian Monks.  It is the oldest continually operated monastery of the order.  It houses several Trinity columns, and a massive Romanesque church.  The Cloisters were built over several time periods, as evidenced by the pre-Gothic and Gothic arches.  (Gothic arches are pointier).  The monastery also holds the tombs of the last Badenburgs, which preceded the house of Hapsburg.  The highlight of the tour was when we mistakenly entered the church while the monks were singing.  It was the most beautiful chant I have ever heard.  It filled my heart with a sense of piece and the knowledge that God was there in the music.  Of course some idiots on the tour had to ruin it by taking pictures of the monks.  The tour guide put a stop to that right away.  Seriously, people have to have more respect in the house of God.  

Anyway this concludes my talk of Austria.  Tomorrow the beginning of Spain.  

Europe Day 2

So the second day of the trip I spent by myself.  Mom and Dad had some function to go to, so I set out on my own to discover some musical history.  I first went to the apartments Mozart lived in.  In these apartments, his second in the city, he wrote the Marage of Figaro, and the Magic Flute.  He was good friends with Hayden and composed several string quartets with him in the apartment.  He also taught students, composed, and played billiyards.  I also learned that when he died, he was not by any means poor.  He had a sizable income, however he did suffer from a gambling problem. I also learned that he lived just down the alley in an apartment when he came to Vienna.  He would look out the window at his humble beginnings for inspiration.

After Mozart's home, I went to the museum of Music, which by the way sucked.  It was mostly a museum of the Vienna Philharmonic, and a poor one at that.  I then took it upon myself to eat at Burger King, which had Big Kings and a McKing...  yeah, but hey they had free refills on Coke.  I then attempted to go see a Museum in the Hofberg dedicated to ancient musical instruments and armor.  Unfortunately there was a big protest and the cops were surrounding the museum.  I later found out from one of the officers that the European Economic Summit was happening inside, and they were discussing the economic bailout of Greece.  That was interesting to me as an economist, but I still would have preferred to see the museum.  They sure like to protest in Europe.  They even had the military protecting the summit.

Here are some pictures.  The first is Mozart's apartment.  The second is the museum with the cops barricade. That picture was taken the day before the summit started.

europe weiner and road construction and greece

So it's been a while since I last updated, because I was in Europe, and it costs like 10 euros an hour to use Swisscom's wifi.  This shall document my thoughts of that lovely continent.

My trip started with an almost ending.  I showed up with my family at the Air France ticket desk, and my ticket was not in their computer.  Eventually that snafu was fixed and we did the whole security thing and got to the gate.  While in the boarding line, I realized that I was missing the boarding pass for the trip from Paris to Vienna. That nightmare was also solved quite quickly.  After a seven and a half hour flight to Paris, my legs were dead from being stuck in the small airline seats.  I swear they must have been designed for hobbits.

We landed in Paris and found out we had a half an hour to get to the next gate.  Normally this would not be a problem, but at Charles De Gaul, it was a nightmare.  We had to clear customs and run like hell for half a day's pilgrimage to get to the next gate, going through and leaving security 3 times.  During one of the security checks, they found a bike wrench in by bag that I didn't know was there, and they started yelling in French as my parents ran off towards the plane.  I explained what it was and they let me keep it, and soon after, I caught up to the family.  We got to the gate just in time to catch our flight.  So to all the flight planners out there - Please put the gates closer together for connecting flights.

Vienna is a beautiful city.  A lot of the architecture from the 15th century has survived in old Vienna and the buildings are just breathtaking.  We arrived rather late in the day, so my dad and I went out to see some of the sights.  Our hotel had a beautiful view of Old Vienna, and it was located next to Statdpark and the Wein Canal.  We walked down the street and across the canal and saw something quite beautiful to our eyes - bike lanes.   The bike lanes were painted onto the sidewalk, and you were not allowed to walk in them (unless you had a death wish).  These lanes went all over the city.  You could even rent a bike at Statdpark from a machine for two euros.  Vienna also has a metro and a streetcar for public transportation.

The next day, my family and I set out to explore this historic city in true Lewis fashion.  We saw all we could non stop until the day was done.  We went to St. Stephan's Cathedral first.  This building was beautiful with lots of Gothic  architecture. It had gargoyles (my favorite mythical beings) on the roof and large towers.  Inside , it was full of beautiful paintings, and murals, and the light from the stained glass windows made rainbows on every surface.  The church was a work of art.

Later we went to the Imperial Apartments in the Hofberg.  The first part of the tour was a viewing of the Imperial Silver.  I never saw such grand things to eat off of.  I'd be too afraid of damaging them to eat off any of the pieces.  Their was a whole wing of the palace dedicated to displaying silver, porcelain, and gold plates, candelabras, and silverware.  Upstairs were the apartments of Emperor Frans Joseph I and his wife, Empress Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  These rooms were very nicely decorated and furnished, but were surprisingly low key in comparison to the Spanish palace.  Everything was beautiful and well made, but most things were not covered in gold or silver.  There was no grand throne room, but just an audience chamber with some nice chairs for the Emperor.

Finally we went to the Historical Museum and viewed their fine art portraits, and their collection of ancient Greek, roman, and Egyptian antiquities.  We also walked around viewing the town and beautiful gardens.  It was a wonderful day.

More from the vacation as well as Weiner, road construction, and Greece financial news in the coming days.