Lunch With P. Then, A Castle

We met P, our friend from last night, at the fabulous Cafe Weimar, a funky old coffeehouse / restaurant. Never been there before, but now I think it'll be one of my new favorite joints.

Checked the weather today and learned, via weather.com, that the HIGH in Vienna today is LOWER THAN the OVERNIGHT LOW in OKC. In other words, perfect. Sunny skies with lots of fluffy white clouds, and about 76 F. Nice to sit outside with P and talk about stuff.

It's not about the food you eat or the wine you drink----the food is really just an excuse to get together and have a friendly intellectual adventure; a meeting of the minds. Some time ago my buddy George The Greek told me about a dinner party he attended in Paris one time. Then I forgot his story and accidentally stumbled upon the website of the guy in Paris who's been holding these open dinner parties every Sunday for over 30 years. I told George and he reminded me he'd been there and had a good time...and then I got the idea to do little dinner gatherings in my own home, on a much smaller scale. And they've been more or less successful and fun.

P has an interesting project based in Uganda, helping orphaned street kids there. I'll post about this separately sometime because I'd like you to know about P's work and be thinking of ways we might be able to help these kids. Anyhow, that's what we talked about for the first half of our lunch, then we moved on to other things for the second half.

Sitting on the patio of a 110-year-old coffeehouse, eating lunch and talking with friends. It does not suck.

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B had the idea to visit a castle called Burg Kreuzenstein, about a 25 minute drive from her house, located on a hill outside the village of Leobendorf. It was a great day for a drive, and we got there just at 3 PM for the last guided tour of the place.

Burg Kreuzenstein

From the website: "History: The first mention of certain Dietrich von Grizanestein can be identified in a document dated 1115. In April 1645 a Swedish army under Field-Marshal Thorstenson occupied Kreuzenstein. The Swedish were defeated by the emperor's troops, and this sealed the castle´s fate. It was systematically leveled to the ground; all that remained being an uninhabitable pile of rubble. In 1874, it was Count Johann Nepomuk Wiczek who embarked upon the rebuilding and restoration of the castle . The new castle, which was completed in 33 years, is modeled on similar edifices dating from the time of the emperor Maximilian I (1459 - 1519), the last of the knights."

The Count was a big collector of weapons. We couldn't take pictures inside the castle but we toured a huge room where there were all kinds of pikes, swords, crossbows, and other kinds of stuff----enough to arm 300 men, according to the guide. One of the most interesting weapons was a modification of a shepherd's tool----a kind of a loop made of metal on the end of a long pole. It was originally designed to grab sheep by the neck. The loop had an opening and was expandable so you could slip it around the neck of a mounted knight, and then when you pulled, the loop closed and pulled him off his horse. The guide (who reminded me of Isaac Asimov in appearance) told us the knights really feared this weapon, because untrained people could use it to great effect.

 Part of the inner courtyard of the castle.

This castle is still owned by the descendants of the Count, so some parts of it aren't on the tour, like a private chapel and some other rooms. This Count dude had coal-mining interests in an era when coal was like oil, and he was very rich. He was also at least a little socially conscious, and was instrumental in founding Austria's first ambulance service...he even personally drove an ambulance during WWI.

Back home later, B made an excellent dish---some cooked spinach mixed with egg and cheese, then rolled up into large crepes, which were then put into the oven and baked with a little cheese on top. Tomato salad with basil and just a hint of olive oil, salt, and pepper. White wine to drink.

Again, there was no suck-ification to be detected on my Suck-O-Meter in the experiences of the day.