Enigmatic Vienna

Austria has mountains, so Thursday seemed a good time to climb one overlooking Vienna... 

We also climbed a local 1000 year old tower, marvelling at how it was still standing when many younger buildings had long since collapsed. 

How to top that vigorous start to the 2nd half of our week? Friday answered that question... 

The day started with Mary spotting a sign advertising a 'Piccolo Bar'. "Aha!" she cried, "We have to go in there". 

Roland advised perhaps not, the reason becoming clear as we got close enough to see the window dressing... 

Off to the Belvedere instead, where we found a long queue at the ticket office, raising doubts that we would even be able to visit. Roland was volunteered by Mary to investigate the availability of tickets, because "You speak German and we don't". 

Roland obediently strode purposefully past the queue to make enquiries, and returned with 3 tickets to enter in 45 minutes time! How? "Nobody questioned what I was doing..." 

The highlight of the Belvedere was clearly the Gustav Klimt paintings, however I confess to enjoying many of the other exhibits as well, and I am hardly an art lover. Photos don't do them justice.. 

Lunch at the Palace of Justice was ironically followed by Mary trying to get arrested at the Town Hall. Apparently Mary didn't hear the guard saying "Don't go past the steps", and I had to drag her back before trouble ensued! 

I didn't know what she was thinking, so the next stop was scheduled to be the Freud Museum. On the way I spotted a young lady having trouble with her bike. What was a gentleman to do? 

The Freud museum was really cool. It doesn't contain any especially exciting exhibits as such, instead the story is told with lots of explanatory notes and samples of Freud's writings. We learned more about Freud and psychoanalysis than we ever thought possible. Well worth the visit! 

We were due to go to a Lippizaner performance that evening, so a quick dinner followed, during which we were sitting next to a family with young children. The toddler was a bit upset so I engaged her in a game of peek-a-boo, and she started laughing as did her slightly older sister. The father saw what was happening, and without a word promptly sat the two of them next to us, then turned back to the rest of his party leaving us to be babysitters! Not that we minded playing with them, but even so... 

The Lippizaner display, accompanied by members of the Vienna Philharmonic, was a bucket list item for Mary so when I booked in January I selected ring side seats as a surprise for her... 

Sadly, no photography of the show was permitted. You'll have to take our word for it that they look just like the brochure:

The performance was as good as hoped, the only issue being we would have liked less talking and more horses. 

After the hustle and bustle of Friday, time to chill on Saturday. Mary needed some merino tops so off we went to a large mall. Mary couldn't decide so sought expert advice :

Tops purchased, we wandered around Kurpark Oberlaa, first with Andrea's father, then by ourselves. Very restful... 

What could be even more restful? A cemetery. 

The attraction here was to view Mozart's resting place. The only problem is, nobody knows exactly where it is. There is a monument in his honour, basically 'We think he's here' . 

Sunday was our last full day in Vienna, so in brilliant sunshine we got in touch with our inner children and rode the Lilliput Railway through another lovely park...

....had lunch at a family restaurant with a production line to supply beer to thirsty patrons... 

... and Mary dipped her feet in the Danube. 

That was all nice and everything, but the real excitement of the day was to get a private tour of a military signals museum which had an Enigma code machine from the 2nd World War. This had a personal connection for Mary as one of her father's cousins, Annette Townend, worked at Bletchley Park during the war. 

Again, what I expected might be a one dimensional visit turned into a fascinating experience, with an 84 year old career soldier demonstrating equipment starting with morse telegraph from the early 1800s. 

Regarding the Enigma, our host was very disparaging of Hollywood's treatment of the code breaking, especially the scenes depicting the Allies capturing Enigma machines. It turns out that they were freely available to purchase in the 1930's, and part of the display included a sales brochure! 

The last surprise of the tour? We asked why the guard at the entrance wanted our passports. Apparently, the museum is housed on a working army base, and therefore normally such visits had to be arranged in advance through the relevant embassy. Which we had not done. 

While it was not clear to me why we were allowed to tour the museum under those circumstances, we felt very special and extremely grateful to our guide specifically and the Austrian Army generally for the privilege. 

Not to mention Andrea who arranged it all! 

So that brings our Vienna Vacation to a close. Once again we are extremely grateful to our kind and generous hosts, and we look forward to returning the favour when they are next in NZ.

Off to Budapest....