The first time we came to California on a vacation, we wanted to go up to Wine Country and do some wine tasting. We picked up the brochures at a visitor’s center and figured our route. Oh, here’s one that opens at 9:30! So if we go there and allot 1/2 hour we could be at the next place by 10 and hit maybe 5 or 6 before lunch. Then maybe the same or more after lunch. What a fun day! Okay, so what you learn is that if you try to do that much, you are going to be blotto by the end of the day. And remember, you are driving your car. Plus after 3 in a row you won’t be able to taste anything anymore. You will end up with a fuzzy dry tongue. Two in the morning and two or three in the afternoon is more than enough.
Years ago, it was free to taste wine. Then Napa started charging and now Sonoma does too. My recommendation would be if you are going to pay for a tasting, pay more and get the really good stuff. For instance, at Chateau St. Jean if you get the $10 tasting instead of the $5, you get to taste fine reserve wines. You can sit outside and they’ll bring them to you or you can sit in the big leather chairs and munch on some grissini while they ferry the wine back and forth.
The fellow behind the reserve bar at Benziger suggested this way to taste wine to impress your friends. After the wine has been poured swirl it casually for a while. Then hold it up to the light. Next, put your nose totally into the glass for a big whiff. Finally, take a sip allowing the wine to stay in your mouth a bit before swallowing. With your best bullshitting face, remark, ah, this wine is totally approachable. Means nothing and you haven’t given yourself away if you really don’t know anything about wine.
There is no way to make one entry about Florence. The primo place to visit for art is the Uffizi which means offices in Italian. You enter on the first floor but that’s just the business end. If possible, and you are visiting in the tourist season, get tickets ahead of time. Otherwise, you are going to spend a lot of time in line. Okay, you’re in. Stop at the first floor and get an audio tour. You can share one between two people but, really, I would get one for myself. Now the trek to third floor. Don’t bother with the second floor. There is an elevator but you need to be infirm to use it. Huff, puff, you arrive at the third floor and surrender your ticket. Now, not all the rooms are open and you usually enter at room 2. This is the Giotto and the 13th century room. Okay, three big Madonnas. Don’t just walk through. There’s a lot to be learned here. First of all, look away from the large paintings and look at the smaller ones. Wow, you’re looking at stuff from the 12th century. And no, they didn’t know how to paint, it was a time when painting was formalized. The features are flat, the background gold, and the secondary figures are small. But as you look around the room, things start to change. How exciting is this, to stand in a room where you see the beginnings of the Renaissance. By the time you get to Giotto’s Madonna, the figure is much more natural and appears to be sitting on her throne. Yes, there are still little angel figures floating in a background of gold, but Mary is solidly sitting. There’s a little perspective going on here. Her body seems real under her cloak.
Some of the most exciting paintings in the Uffizi are the ones where you can see a transition from one age to another. Stop saying to yourself, yeah, altarpiece, altarpiece, let’s get to the Botticelli’s. This is where it all starts. Spend some time in Room 2.
And now we have come full circle from the title of today’s blog. The Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed, elevated bridge in Venice erected in the year 1600 to connect the Doge’s prisons with the inquisitor’s rooms in the main palace. The name “Bridge of Sighs” was invented in the 19th Century, when Lord Byron helped to popularize the belief that the bridge’s name was inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led through it to the executioner.
And while you’re in Venice, one of the items on the list of top 50 things every foodie should do, brought to my attention by the Braisinhussy, is to have a Bellini cocktail at Harry’s Bar in Venice. Although I haven’t had a Bellini there, I have been to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari where Bellini painted the Virgin and Child with Saints Nicholas, Peter, Benedict and Mark in the sacristy. This stunning altarpiece has Mary wearing her usual blue cloak and Bellini’s signature rosy pink dress underneath. The Bellini drink was so named because of the similar intense hue. If you have time when you are in Venice, have the drink and see the altarpiece. If you only have time for one of these, see the altarpiece.
Since we are talking all things French today, I thought I’d open a new category called “travels.” Last summer we spent some time in the Burgundy area of France. We headquartered ourselves in Beaune at the Hotel de la Poste. Beaune is a lovely town with an easily accessible “old town.” A must see is the the Hôtel-Dieu of the Hospices de Beaune, a hospital from the Middle Ages, built in 1443 to care for sick residents of the town. The building itself is beautifully preserved with an incredible multicolored tile roof. We had a fantastic meal at Bernard Morillon where foie gras was served in a gingerbread crust.
Probably the most fun thing we did was a spur of the moment picnic. We spent part of the morning going from one little shop to the next buying cheese, sausage, bread and wine. Off we went to the countryside, found a roadside table in Puligny-Montrachet and ate our picnic. Then we went to area wineries for tasting. At Chateau Mersault we took a very expensive tour and tasting. A better tasting was in Volnay where we just happened upon a small cellar and had the owner show us around herself.
On a more practical note, we found a laundromat and had the fun of figuring out how to do French laundry (not the restaurant!) Also, at a bike shop, there was a laptop where you could access the internet. Most everyone was helpful and nice and a stay of at least two days in this area is a good investment of vacation time.
My written narrative ends at this point so John and I have put our heads together to try to remember the three days we were in Prague. Eileen drives us to the train station and we take a train to Prague. The train ride takes four and a half hours and we are in Prague by early afternoon.
We are somewhat flummoxed when we get to the station in Prague as there does not seem to be any onward transportation to get to our hotel. But people are helpful and direct us to another nearby building. By helpful I mean that they want to walk us to the building and we are somewhat freaked out by them. We buy a ticket for the tram/bus and it takes us near to our hotel which is an old converted convent near the river. The picture below from the internet is where we think we stayed. The name has been changed.
Hotel Casa Marcello
Our hotel is near to the Vitava River and there is a pleasant walkway that takes you into the city. From the river you can see the castle complex looming over part of Prague.
View of castle complex from across the river
I cannot pretend to know what order we did things in but let’s say that since we only had part of the afternoon left that we walked into the city and saw their famous mechanical clock and the city square. We may have searched fruitlessly for the entrance to Tyn Church whose towers are very visible but whose entrance is not.
Famous clock
We also walk back and forth over the Charles Bridge spanning the Vitava River. It is a famous, now pedestrian bridge and has many statues of saints and lots of artist and performers plying their trades. John and I need to take pictures of one another on the bridge holding our Prague tour book (in case someone might have mistakened us as locals!)
John with Prague travel guideMary on bridge
The first night we are in Prague, we are very interested in trying some authentic Czech food and find a restaurant where we eat a very heavy meal of goulash and compressed bread dumplings. Not known at the time, but the gravy served with the goulash is made from a beet and beef stock. When our bodies finished processing our dinner, our poop is a very disturbing color! It took us a day or two to figure out whether it was something we ate or we were dying!
The second day we are in Prague we visit the castle complex. It is enormous and consists of many buildings including a cathedral and an old church. We rent an audio tour guide to help us navigate.
Castle tour
After our very lengthy tour we are looking for a way to get back to our hotel when an elderly gentleman sees that we are flummoxed and offers to help us. Once again we are taken aback by the friendly, helpful people but we warm to him and let him escort us to the correct stop for the tram/bus. During our conversation he thanks us (Americans) for winning World War II. It is very touching. He tells us how he had lost most of his hearing due to artillery concussions. I wonder if he walks along that stretch of road daily finding lost Americans to thank.
On both the second and third nights we eat at Taverna Toscana, a downstairs restaurant near the mechanical clock. We are happy to eat Italian food after our bad experience with Czech offerings. Our waiter speaks six different languages. While we are there he waits on tables that he converses with in English, Spanish, and Italian. He tells us that he wants to emigrate to the US but that getting a visa is very difficult. We feel America is missing out on an exceptionally talented and able man.
On our last day we visit the Jewish quarter and cemetery. We also go to this area with Sarah on a subsequent trip. It is a somber and anguishing visit. So many people slaughtered. It is so unimaginable that it is a good thing that these monuments to the horror exist.
Later that night we go to a concert in a church. As you walk around Prague people in period costume dress are hawking tickets. I do not remember what we heard. Maybe Vivaldi? Smetana?
Outside venue for concert
We catch the train back to Vienna where we end up sitting across from a family from Danville, CA. It is a small world.
It has been a long and interesting trip through Europe. Most of the places we visited we will visit again over the next twenty years. There is always something new to see and learn.
Today Eileen, our intrepid tour guide, takes us into Vienna again to visit the art museum or Kunsthistorisches Museum. They have an extensive Flemish and Dutch section which includes a Vermeer. There are also many fine Brueghel, Rubens, Raphael, and Titian paintings represented in their collection. John and I love going to art museums so we had a splendid time.
Mary and John outside the art museum in ViennaVermeer’s The Art of Painting at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
After our visit to the art museum we stop at a Spanish restaurant for lunch. John has a potato omelet and pork chop and I have a chicken breast. There are lots of vegetables which is a real treat since Germanic food is heavy on protein and starch.
In the afternoon we visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral which we had been to when we went to Vienna with Oracle. It is a large Gothic structure. I have to admit that the churches all start looking the same after a while. (I will change my mind about this as the years go by.) Interestingly the architect put his likeness in two different places in the cathedral.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral or Stephansdom in Vienna (Wikipedia photo)
Tonight for dinner we have pate and wine for dinner. We laugh and talk with Eileen and Jim for a while but we need an early night since we are exhausted and will be traveling to Prague tomorrow.
We are staying with our very good friends, Eileen and Jim Kendall. They were our next door neighbors in Massachusetts. Jim recently accepted a position with the U.N.’s IAEA. It is wonderful to see them again and exciting to be in Austria. We will also take a short trip to Prague while here.
Eileen, Jim, and Mary at the Kendall’s apartment in Grinzing
In the morning we take a ride up to Kahlenberg overlooking the city of Vienna. We see some farm animals and I am remembered always as calling, sheep, sheep, sheep, and having the sheep run over. According to this picture, there are some goats there as well.
Mary, Eileen, and goat friend
Next we stop at a church in Kahlenberg dedicated to the Polish king John III Sobieski. He was the commander in the Battle of Vienna which took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna in 1683. Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire against the Ottoman Empire. The H.R.E. prevailed and a church was built in honor of Sobieski.
Mary and Eileen near the church dedicated to King John III SobieskiMary and John near Kahlenberg Mountain
After lunch back at Eileen’s we go into the Vienna and visit the Hofburg palace. We take the audio tour describing the rooms. The audio talks a lot about Elizabeth, the wife of Franz Josef, who was very discontent. She had homes all over the world and spent her time traveling around. She was also an exercise fanatic.
Mary and Eileen at the palace
After returning to Grinzing we have a dinner of wine and hors d’oeuvres, my favorite!!
The day starts off rainy again as we leave Hallstatt. We go through the mountains and it is a beautiful drive up to the A1. The rain stops by noon. We drive to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. “As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen and its subcamps were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. Mauthausen and its subcamps included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling fighter aircraft. In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates. The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex.” (Wikipedia) There are barracks and a museum. We see a short film on the horror. There is a gas chamber. Many memorials from different countries are represented on the grounds. It is a somber and difficult visit.
John at MauthausenView approaching the campJewish memorial
Then we drive to the Kendalls, buying a map along the way. They have a lovely apartment in Grinzing, a suburb of Vienna. We have a wonderful time visiting and eating Eileen’s great dinner. They will be putting us up for the next couple of days.
Today starts off rainy. We watch the little train on the other side of the lake and the little ferry crossing the lake make their rounds. As the rain lets up we make our way to the pre-historic museum and then do some shopping. As you can see from this picture of the museum, Hallstatt is built on a narrow strip of land next to the lake and the mountains rise right behind it.
Hallstatt Museum (Wikipedia)
Later in the day we drive over to Obertraum and take the Dachsteinerbahn, a gondola, that goes up the mountain. We go up two stages and then walk around in the snow to take pictures! The day clears up for us and we have a beautiful vista of the lake, Obertraum and Hallstatt on the way down.
The gondolaA waterfallIt is winter up here on the mountain!John in the Austrian snow
When we get back down and into Hallstatt it is overrun with tourists! It is such a small place that it does not take many tourists to make it crowded. They will need to find a way to manage tourism while still reaping the benefits economically. We find a place to have some pizza and beer as an early dinner or very late lunch. After that we are ready for a quiet evening reading.
Today is our departure day from Munich. After a false start trying to find the Autobahn 8, we take a route we are familiar with. We go west out of Munich and then get off and turn around heading east. For some reason either they did not make an east entrance or we simply cannot find it!
Traffic is pretty heavy and we get to Salzburg around 1 PM. We look through their cathedral and then take the audio tour of the Residenz, former home of the Prince Bishops. It is very elaborate, like a smaller Versailles. There are lots of Alexander the Great frescoes on the ceilings. We see many original and period furnishings with many fine mirrors and clocks. We enjoy the tour very much.
Mary listening to the audio tour at the Prince Bishop’s Residenz, Salzburg
We look around for lunch but cannot find anything so we push on to Hallstatt. It is a beautiful ride through the mountains, lakes, and villages. Hallstatt turns out to be a tiny town on a lake. What a beautiful setting. Our hotel, the Gruner Baum, is not as charming as I had hoped but we have a deck overlooking the lake and a very large bathroom. Alas, it is a no shower curtain kind of bath/shower combo.Hotel Gruner Baum
John on the deck overlooking the lakeMary on the deck overlooking the lakeThe lake
For dinner we go to the Gersthofen Zauner. I order Vienner schnitzel and John has spare ribs. We also order a salad and cauliflower au gratin in hopes of eating some vegetables.Restaurant
The television in our room only has two stations. Both are in German so we do not stay up very late!
