This one wild and precious life!!: Vienna, Day 1

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Friday dawned quite cold, but I was up early and feeling energetic, so I decided to bundle up and go for a run. We lived on a main street so I figured if I just go up and down the street, I can’t get lost! It was amazing how good it felt! There was still some snow on the ground, but the cold air was refreshing, and running in a new place is always fun! We then headed off to meet Shiri at the grocery store near her place (only about 1 km away from us) and buy some breakfast foods—pretzel dough rolls, butter, cheese, honey—Europeans definitely know how to bake bread!! It was wonderful to meet Shiri’s “landlady”, and spend a little time getting to know her. Then we headed into the city, and since it was still very cold and dripping something from the sky (some kind of a mixture of rain and snow) we decided to start with a museum and see how the weather developed. Our Austrian Air boarding passes got us discounts o the Jewish Museum so we started there. There are 2 separate buildings, one that has the Holocaust Memorial and is more dedicated to the Jewish Community in Vienna, and this was our first stop. I learned things I never knew—apparently in 1421, Duke Albrecht decided to get rid of the Jews in Vienna (Christians weren’t allowed to lend money, so the Jews were licensed as money lenders—when the Christians got too deeply in debt, the Jews needed to be gotten rid of), so he charged them with “desecrating the host”. He had 200 of them burned at the stake, and the rest of them committed suicide rather than facing a forced conversion. It had been a thriving and successful community up to that point. There was no Jewish presence in Vienna for years after that until the 1800s when Franz Josef again allowed the Jews to live in Vienna. The community had grown to about 200,000 but was again decimated with the Anschluss, and the Jews were all sent to camps. There is only a very small community in Vienna today. Underneath the museum are the remains of the Old Synagogue—it was built so low, that the remnants were buried and only uncovered when the area recently became a construction site. The second museum had an interesting exhibit about the history of Jewish humor (Yiddish theater to Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Big Bang Theory...) as well as many Jewish artifacts.

In the West Train Station, the connecting point from Shiri's town to the rest of the city

Easter decorations in the station

Holocaust Memorial to the Austrian Jewish victims of the Nazis

I thought this was an awesome story!

Remains of the old Synagogue

By the time we left the museum, it was time for some coffee and cake, so we went to Café Central, an absolutely gorgeous café in the pedestrian area downtown. The atmosphere, as well as the coffee, hot chocolate and cake were well worth the few minute wait, and we thoroughly enjoyed this Viennese tradition. Plus there was internet, so we were able to check in on our real lives for a few minutes. On the way we passed some Viennese monuments and sights.

Plague Column (First of many in Europe)

As we headed out of the café, the sun was out, and while it was still quite cold, it felt really good, so we decided it was time for a walk around the city center. Vienna is absolutely, astoundingly beautiful!! Each building is more beautiful than the next: St. Michael’s Church (where we discovered that there was going to be a Good Friday service with the Lechner St. John Passion later that evening), the only Roman ruins in the city in the square near the church, the Hofburg (home palace of the Hapsburg Empire), the Spanish Riding School (where the Lippizaner horses hang out and practice), and the Heldenplatz (Palace of Heroes), featuring the Neue Berg (New Castle) built in the early 1900s as the new dwelling for the Hapsburgs, but with the assassination of the Archduke and the ensuing WWI, the Hapsburg Empire was brought to an end, and the palace now is a museum.

Continuing on from there, we walked under the majestic gates to the Museums Quarter with the twin museums, Natural History and the Academy of Fine Arts. At some point, we’ll have to come back and visit at least the art museum, but it was too nice outside for that—we definitely wanted to take advantage of the sun—and, in retrospect, it was a very smart move, considering what was to come…We walked past perhaps the most beautiful building of all the Rathaus (City Hall), Parliament, made a quick stop in the beautiful Baroque Schottkirche, and then on to an Easter Market. I LOVE the colors, smells and bustle of these outdoor markets! We watched them make all kids of baked goods, admired the crafts and wished we weren’t too full to purchase some delicious looking pretzels or other baked delicacies. The Easter crafts were wonderful! Then it was back to St.Michaels for the service and St. John’s Passion before meeting Shiri’s hostess/landlady for dinner in a hometown Viennese restaurant—schnitzel and fries. Soooo good!