2013-07-24: To the top of the Kahlenberg, a spooky cemetery (!), and a heuriger

Today, as many days do, started out at the Hernals transit station by our house - the mission was to pick up the 38A to the top of the Kahlenberg.  We've already been there this trip, but didn't see everything we wanted to, so...  Turns out that we caught the bus at exactly the wrong time.  We rode up on a bus that was SO HOT and PACKED with people coming home from work, etc.  Man, we were lucky to get seats!  We're used to seeing lots of standing people on buses and trains (and BEing standing people).  But this was a whole new level of sardine-packing.  Plus, it was about 170 degrees!  Anyway, I'm sure we built a lot of character :)

At the top of Kahlenberg, there's a cool lookout with a swanky restaurant - we spent some time at the overlook, but have been a little disappointed with the view of Vienna from up high.  There seems to be a LOT of haze in the air, not sure if it's the hot weather, pollution, or both?  But even so, quite a beautiful place and we started to head down the mountain.

Amy at the top!

My sweeties enhancing the view of Vienna.

At that point, we noticed a wedding about to take place - I found the juxtaposition of the bride in total white, along with a cigarette to be really interesting.  I quickly snapped a pic, and then she noticed and actually waved for me.  Unfortunately, the waving picture completely bombed - had to delete it.

That's a lot of crinoline right there.

Another thing that was a little jarring was hearing English spoken at the restaurant - not by the waiters as prompted by "sprechen sie Englisch?", but a couple business people on a visit.  Wow - didn't expect that.

After wandering around up there a bit (we noticed a climbing / high-ropes / zip-line park - another day soon!) we started on the walk down the mountain.  Lots of vineyards, a lot of really cool houses (some with security razor wire, laser boundary scanners, what appeared to be armored walls/gates with a gap between them, etc.  Conspicuous levels of security, hmmmm.

But before we hit most of the vineyards and conspicuously secure houses, we happened upon a zombie nest unattended cemetery.  Here's the sign at the iron gate:

Translation: Enter at your own risk, also please don't feed the zombies.

This place was exceptionally cool, but also gave me a healthy case of the willies.  You had to climb a little staircase and then push open these big iron gates.  It was parallel, but not entirely visible to the road down the mountain.  And no quick way to get out - you had to backtrack to the main gate.  Ella was brave and joined me in there for a couple minutes before she got too creeped out and abandoned me for the safety and comfort of Amy and Maya (who was so genuinely freaked out by now she was pleading with her not to go inside)

The gate.

Seriously, why is this crypt cover moved over a little bit?

Near the end of the property, and all alone by this point, I opted NOT to go in. 

So, by the end of my visit ("nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there, IYKWIM" :) I had the hair on the back of my neck at full attention.  Cemeteries don't really freak me out, but I was happy to be on my way.

Walking down the road a bit, we had ample opportunities for great scenery. 

Is nice to own vineyards, yes?

Grinzing and Nussdorf, two of our favorite places!

You can't see it, but this is actually pretty steep...

Wine, before it acquires super-powers.

On the way down, we noticed this sign in a few places:

Translation: the Kite-Eating tree doesn't just eat kites.

After walking through most of Grinzing and Nussdorf, we settled on a really homey heuriger (that a lot of the locals were headed to).  Great stuff there, including what you see below!

Saurkraut!

Yes, this was delicious.

After dinner, we passed by a gym.  Like a real gym, with people working the heavy bag inside, pad work, some ground-fighting, etc.  We lingered outside the door for a while, and one of the dudes came out and asked us if we had any questions.  We were just telling him that we train a lot at home, and so far it's been pretty rare to see a gym like that in Vienna.  He said something really deep like "Nah, it's good - the whole world is training"  I was tempted to go back and see what I could learn with them, but alas, it never happened.

As you can tell from my astute and nuanced translations above, my German is coming along quite nicely, thank you very much.

Tomorrow: Belvedere!

Quick preview of 2013-07-31: EPICNESS

Friends!

Still working on the images and backlog from the rest of the trip, but today may go down in history as one of the most epic in Cochrane Family history.

Some bullets:
- climbed to the tippy top of the Kitzbueler Horn - holy crap there were some indescribably beautiful panoramas.  And some very dangerous sections on the way up and the way down.  We just had to keep reminding ourselves that the locals have been climbing this since they were 5 years old, so...

- in town, there was a big celebration (Lang und Klang) that had everything from ballerinas doing modern ballet in store windows, to a SWEET jazz singer (Anna from Voegl, studying jazz singing at the University of Innsbruck), to a polka band serenading Ella and Amy on stage (the pics are awesome - stay tuned), to Amy and I being only the 4th and 5th people in the history of EVER to see inside a closed amethyst geode (through a little drill hole, the whole thing was about a foot wide).

- Rick did the laundry by hand (that's pretty epic, right?)

Oh yeah, we also booked Rick and the young'ens for tandem paragliding for tomorrow morning.

DUDE.  At this rate, we'll have our bucket lists complete in no time!

2013-07-23: The Clock Museum!

Today began, as so many of our days have, with a rockin' breakfast of fresh semmels, jams, meat/cheese, tomatoes, berg-milch, coffee, and nutella.  I simply love waking up, because it means that I get breakfast!

Our trips always begin at Hernals.

After that, we headed to town to see what we could find - mission was the clock museum, but we managed to find a few other things as well.  One cool thing was a Swedish Design store that contained what felt like the sum total of home decorating temptations between Amy and I.  Super nice people, were glad to hear we were from Minnesota :)

BFFs!

 We also found a juice bar!  They all got pink ones, and I got a super-duper-green one.  Mine was the best (it had spinach, apples, carrots, and a little ginger, IIRC).  Also got to play a bit of Phase 10...

Spinach juice - GET IN ME BELLY

Probably 3% of our steps for the day.

Ahh, love is in the air (he's gonna be feelin' that!)

Just thought this looked cool.

Ella found her store!

We also stumbled upon a Holocaust Memorial - one thing we've noticed in Germany and Austria is a HUGE amount of support for Israel.  Probably not as much as in the U.S., but I've been pretty surprised that it's mainly a one-sided vibe w.r.t. the status of Palestine.

Memorial for the Holocaust

Right outside the cool church, near the clock museum, and near the excellent Thai place Ella and Amy ate at after Maya and I split from them.

I'm so glad we found time to visit the clock museum!  Of course, this entire episode spawned much in the way of cringe-worthy puns re: time, but making our kids cringe is one of my Favorite Things, so it was a win-win!  Or maybe a win-lose?  I dunno - all I know is I won!

A sundial - surprisingly useful and simple.  Thought the fact that it's a pocket sundial was pretty awesome - almost Flintstonian.

NOT a pocket sundial...  I'm pretty sure you can tell *anything* from where these hands are.

Need more information?  Just add more dials!

A flock of pocketwatches.

NEED MOAR DIUHLLZ

Again, I'm sure it served a purpose, but having a clock with this much handwriting on it seems a bit imprecise.  But there sure are a lot of numbers...

One of Amy's faves - we both think it looks a bit like something Dr. Seuss would come up with.

The amount of gearing is incredible in these things - giant Rube Goldberg machines, I tell ya.

A Masonic watch - notice the large number of symbols on it.

Maya likes the low doorway - Ella notsomuch.

Someone got straight-A's in penmanship...

After the clock museum, Amy and Ella grabbed lunch and then went shopping, while Maya and I went home to swim (and I got to work a bit).

Another great day in Vienna!

My sweet Maya, on our way home.

p.s.--> Amy and I will find a "love bridge" to lock this to - maybe Madrid?

... sitting in a tree...

2013-07-22: City bikes and a big hill

So one of the things I've talked about before is how awesome I think it is that they have bikes everywhere in Europe - they're not sexy racing bikes for the most part.  In fact, they're utilitarian to a fault.  But how great is it that it's built into a culture that "I have to go to the store.  Of course!  I'll just ride a bike!"  (stairs also figure prominently in daily life, FWIW).

Anyway, Vienna has a system that's really convenient, it's similar to Nice Ride in Mpls or any number of other examples.  You just register, search for a bike at a local depot, "check it out" and use it, and then return it to any other depot with open spaces. 

Today, we thought (ha HA!) that we would grab a few city bikes and ride to the top of Kahlenberg. 

What were we thinking?!?  These bikes had all of ONE gear, and it wasn't the right one.  Pretty much ever.  Certainly not while trying to hammer up a hill.

So we did what anyone would do.  We continued on in search for adventure, pushed the bikes up the hills when it got too difficult, and then decided we had enough adventure and went home.  We never got these beasties to the top of Kahlenberg, but in our Vienna trip, we went to the top 4x. 

Ella, Maya, and Amy pushing their bikes up a hill the old-fashioned way.

On the way back, Ella took some pictures.  She's super fast with her phone image editing tools and has a good eye for composition.

Cobbles > asphalt

Dinner - all done!

Ella with her new banana-stache.

2013-07-21: Kuenst Historisches, a feast for the eyes

Today was another museum day!  We went to the Kuenst Historisches, which is quite simply put, AMAZING.  I love stuff like that - am pretty sure I could spend the entire day(s) there - so much to learn!

Our beginning point to every adventure in Vienna, the Hernals Station.

While walking around town, we went to Demel's for the famous Sacher Torte (and other nummies).  They had a "gallery" where you could watch the workers making it (it felt a little like a high-brow version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - except the workers were normal-sized, spoke German, and didn't sing moralistic tunes designed to teach a lesson.  Oh, and they weren't orange either.

The Sacher Torte was definitely very good, as were all of the other treats.  But compared to Amy's Raspberry Chocolate Torte?  I'd say advantage... AMY.

But the coffee we had there was the best we've had on the entire trip.  Amy agrees, but says it was a little overpriced.  I say it was over-awesome.

Behold!  The Sacher Torte - famous world-wide, and *almost* as good as Amy's Raspberry Chocolate Torte.

The coffee to make everything right.

After achieving sufficient blood concentrations of glucose and caffeine we headed to the museum. 

HOLY CRAP!  What a place!

One of the greatest philosopher kings of all time, and a hero of mine: Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius knew more about morality than most of the population does 1900 years later.

What a mother won't do for her young - see her feeding them her own entrails?  "AWWW MOM!  Do we *have* to eat your entrails again?!?  We had those *last* night."

Everything looks cooler with horns.

Pic doesn't do it justice, these figures were AMAZINGLY lifelike.  And made of silver.

LOTS of ivory.  In this one, you see Prince Eugene defeating some unfortunate Turk.  Tons of symbolism in this one, but check out the underbite on that guy!

You thought that one had a lot of symbolism?  Check this out: winged hags, and other turbaned types all vanquished while Prince Eugene sits calmly on the throne.  I love the voluminous use of Holy Hand Grenades (of Antioch) in this period.

Symbolism level 11.

In 18th-century Austria, BEAR SHOOTS YOU.

One of the largest collections of church imagery in one place (before they outlawed images of church-related themes)  Hmmm, where have I heard this sort of things before?  (oh NOW I remember!  Everybody Draw Mohammed Day)

These are actual sceptres made mostly of jade and marble.  Beautiful, but a bit funny that this was considered to be "the staff of power".

I wish I remembered more from my Art History - but WTF is up with their heads?  It's like they all had macroencephalitis!

Check this place out!

Hercules getting to know the locals.

Ella and some pharaoh dude.

One of the things that was surprising to some of us was that most of the marble statues from ancient times were actually painted.  Of course now we look at this and think how much it cheapens the appearance, but that's only because we grew up knowing that marble statues were supposed to be white and timeless.  This museum had a lot of them that were painted with the pigments/materials/styles of the time.  Here's an article that talks a bit more about it - http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/11/dazzlers-html

Lame with the paint, IMO

I thought this mummy looked Native American from the beading/weavings.

This is 2-dimensional painting.  Very well done!

Not sure that's the last thing I want to see before you trample me in battle.  Have a little modesty, horse!  Wear a fig leaf or SOMETHING.

A depiction of Old Testament Susanna and the Two Elders (Daniel).  A couple of creepers attempt to blackmail her into naughty things or else they'll accuse her of meeting a young man there.  She refuses, they accuse her, and just like that, she's condemned to death.  (sound familiar?)  In this case, it's still a happy ending, as some level of questioning find flaws in their story, but this could be a headline from any number of countries in the world.  Today.  Like in the 21st century!  Unreal.

Why do Adam and Eve have bellybuttons?  Seriously, it's like they didn't even think this stuff through!  :)

Maya with a picture of a unicorn - almost too much awesomeness for one photo!

That's a lot of art, yo.

I don't know exactly what's going on in this picture, but my guess is that he's casting some sort of "Wardrobe Malfunction" spell.  "Expelishirtus!"

I'm pretty sure I DO know what's going on in this picture.  This pic was probably snapped about 5 seconds before the cello player gave him a good beatdown.

"Oh man, that's not what I meant when I asked you to paint me as a 'mountain man'!  I just, oh, fuck it.  Here's your money, go away."

Look!  A phone with a cord!  (yes, we disinfected her immediately after this was shot).

Poseidon's looking a little tired these days.

I seen some shit, mang.

That, my friends, is a big-ass door.

The view from the outside.  There was a group of tourists (Czech?) singing on the sidewalk - really cool.

My sweeties.

I think these shots are hilarious.

Somebody googly-eyed this statue, and the result is comedy gold.

There were tons of other things - the Virgilkapelle (Virgilkapelle), silliness at Demel's, and more.  But those will have to wait for another day.