Took public transportation back down the the Danube Canal, to try the restaurant aboard the Badeschiff-Wien called Holy-Moly. B had a coconut milk-tomato soup and I had a vegetable curry soup with rice. Both excellent, and we enjoyed a nice talk with our waiter, a young guy from Italy who is recently back from 9 months in Australia. He's going for his PhD in the history of economics (I think he said). And I thought: If I ever move to Vienna, I'll be waiting tables for guys like him...
Walked around the 1st District a bit. B found a gourmet ice-cream shop she'd heard about. I'm not much of a dessert or sweets guy but I enjoyed my strawberry cone very much, while B had a cup with a small scoop each of banana, lemon, and sheep cheese (!) ice cream. All of it top-quality and very tasty.
St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is under constant renovation
I saw this bright green thing on a motorscooter. I thought it was a toy
the guy had glued on there for a joke, until it started moving it's antenna.
We came upon the Capuchin Crypt. A very interesting place, and not as creepy as you'd think.
The bodies of 145 Habsburg royalty, plus urns containing the hearts or cremated remains of four others, are deposited here, including 12 emperors and 18 empresses. The most recent entombment was in 2011. There is room for only one more entombment. The visible 107 metal sarcophagi and 5 heart urns range in style from puritan plain to exuberant rococo. The Imperial Crypt is one of the top tourist attractions in Vienna.
To this day, some of the dozen resident Capuchin friars continue their customary role as the guardians and caretakers of the crypt along with their other pastoral work in Vienna."
It costs 5 Euro to get in. You go down into the basement, and there are all the caskets, which I think are made of bronze-like alloy. Many are very elaborate:
Down there, of course, is the very latest crypt, added just this past weekend, that of Otto Habsburg. You should have seen all the stunning floral arrangements scattered everywhere, from all over Europe. The florists of Vienna probably made 50% of their income in the days leading up to Otto's funeral...
I don't know what to think of all this. To me it's just another kind of celebrity worship---if it ain't movie or sports stars, it's royalty. True, the people buried here influenced history, or would have influenced history if they'd reigned longer. But indulgences shown to the rich (usually by the rich) just kind of turns me off.
We walked to the Naschmarkt, Vienna's big outdoor food market. Bought some excellent cheeses from our favorite cheese store, Kaseland, and then some great cured meat from a nearby meat market.
Got hunger? A fishmonger in the Naschmarkt.
B and I split up then. She went home and I went off in search of the bookbinder who'd made my blank book for me on my last visit. But I couldn't remember exactly where his shop was, or exactly what subway stop to use, so I wandered around quite a while not finding him. I'll try another day.
I'm not the only Okie in these here parts. Come see Wanda Jackson on Halloween.
A woman and her book-end dogs in the Stadtpark.
Speaking of dogs, I bought a hotdog from this woman moments before
the Polizei showed up demanding their monthly shakedown.
God said: "Let there be Neo-Conservatives on all the sidewalks of the land."
And Neo-Cons sprang forth.
4 comments:
Thanks for doing this blog with pics. I almost feel like I am having a vacation. As to neo-cons, they are frying on the pavement here at 103F everyday--if only they could feel this heat dome in Washington, DC!! Love and snausages,
Soartstar
Looks to me as if that dog is giving us the same thing that's been coming out of Washington this past decade.
Soartstar, looks like you'll get your wish---we heard on the radio here today that the East Coast is gonna feel the heat, too.
That way, Coburn and Inhofe can get a taste of what non-existant climate change feels like.
Mod, if I were to show a picture of what's been coming out of Washington, I'd have to find a bull elephant with the trots.
All over Sicily are graveyards with these incredibly elaborate, above ground crypts. People live in absolute squalor, saving money their entire lives so they can be buried in style -- rather amazing.
I would have liked to have seen Otto H.'s funeral. Fin de siecle and all of that.
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