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Published: April 2nd 2009
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Little Sandwiches
This is the sandwich shop Rick Steves told us to go to, so we did. Despite trying to hold sleep off, we ended up conking out at about 9:00 p.m. Since I sleep with a CPAP, I get very good sleep in short amounts of time, so by 2:30 a.m., I was awake and ready for the day. Clearly this was not going to work, even though Cheryl was also awake, so I put the CPAP stuff back on and forced myself back to sleep (a neat trick if you can do it) and made it to 6:30 a.m.
After a bite of Früstücks (breakfast) we headed out into the city. Our first destination was the Haus der Musik, which in the descriptions I read was to be a museum all Vienna's rich musical history. As it turns out, most of the museum is like a cross between the Pacific Science Center and the Experience Music Project. In other words, not exactly what I was looking for, but probably good for kids who are bored with "normal" music history. However, the third floor alone was worth the price of entry. It had a room for each of the major composers who lived and worked in Vienna: Joseph Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Strauss
Stefansdom
Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart were married here. II, Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler. There was even a room dedicated to the 2nd Viennese School of music, Arnold Schönberg, Anton von Webern and Alban Berg, who were pretty much the entirety of the dodecaphonic (12 tone) serialism movement. We wallowed in the history of Viennese music. I highly recommend the 3rd floor if you ever make it to Vienna, it is well worth the 10 euro it costs to get in.
After Haus der Musik, we went in search of a sandwich place Rick Steves alerted us to in his Vienna program. It has a name, which I would gladly tell you if I could remember it. 😊 The sandwiches were awesome but I think the best part of the whole experience was using my broken German to try to order what I wanted. We actually waited and let people in front of us to watch them order so we'd know what to do. We made ourselves well enough understood, so we did not starve. So, the deal is, they have these little finger sandwiches and you order up 4 or 5 of them and then a beer or a mineral water (mit Gas! ) and find a place to alight and eat. My favorite was the Speck mit Ei (bacon with egg) which was kind of like egg salad with some kind of salt pork.
The next stop was Stefansdom, St. Stephen's Cathedral, the place where Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart were married. Stefansdom really deserves its own entry, which I will probably do later. For now, I'll just say it's a very large and impressive cathedral that drives home the past splendor of Christianity, Catholicism in particular.
We wandered about central Vienna for the rest of the afternoon and eventually found our way to Demel, another recommendation from Rick Steves. Demel is a Viennese cafe, which means that it has coffee and pastries and cake and so forth. I tried the world-famous Sachertorte with a grossen Schwarzer (large strong black coffee) and Cheryl had the Esterhazytorte with a grossen Brauner (same coffee but with creme). Sachertorte is essentially chocolate cake, but not like any chocolate cake I've had, and I'm not sure I can describe it other than to say it is tasty, and you should try it. I will let Cheryl describe the Esterhazytorte.
By the time we were done at Demel, the day was wearing on, so we meandered in the general direction of our pension just taking in the sights, smells and sounds of Vienna Aldstadt (the old city), stopping at a Lebensmittel (grocery story) to pick up provisions for a small cold dinner (that's how they do it here).
And that was our day. I spent the rest of the evening working on more sketches for the mass I've been composing off an on for about the last 15 years, and which I am finally feeling like I ought to finish, and then it was bed time again.
Tscüss!
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