Vienna: Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Wednesday, 8 May 2019
We are seated outdoors under cover of an awning with heat lamps. It is still daylight. Across the street is the Vienna Konzert Haus. Another block away is the Musikverein, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic and the room where they were led by Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. Within a radius of six blocks are the apartments of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. We are in one of the few "ground zeroes" for classical music, where it's creators masterminded our musical equivalents of the Mona Lisa.  But just now, before the week of concert going begins, we are eating traditional Austrian food: beef gulyas, kartoffel (potatoes), herring, strudel and grüner veltliner (dry white wine) and beer (which has an aroma of hops flowers).

We left home Tuesday and arrived today, Wednesday. Our flight was near eleven hours. Do not feel sorry for us. We did not rough it. It was not cramped. It was not noisy. We were in spacious seats. Large electronic easy-chairs. They fully reclined into flat beds.  If one must endure a long flight, it is best to be on the intimate and cozy second floor of a 747. We slept some, but not more than a few hours.  The time "flew" by.

On arrival, we were met at the Vienna airport by a car. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the Hotel Imperial. We have stayed there once before. Then as now, our windows look across to the hallowed Musikverein concert hall. Last time our room was beautiful, spacious and comfortable in every way. This time it is the same, but double as our room is a one-bedroom suite. The walls are upholstered in blue brocade fabric. The blue, satin, floor-to-ceiling drapes hang twenty feet. Our ceilings are that tall. They have to be that tall to accommodate the large crystal chandeliers.

After a walk after dinner, there will be a hot bubble bath, followed by a good long sleep.

Wes and Marlow
Vienna, 8 May 2019



Casey in flight.


Casey in the Elizabeth Suite, Hotel Imperial, Vienna


When we desire a refreshment, we find it in the hotel bar.