A Day Full of Churches. . . And Chocolate

Grüss Gott from Austria!

[warning: both Joe and I are writing this entry, passing it back and forth over our very civilized Viennese breakfast, so pronouns and references may get confused. We beg your forgiveness (it is Sunday after all).]

Yesterday morning began with a long, leisurely breakfast. Margaret is in heaven here, with the hot chocolate, croissants, bread, and cheese for breakfast. John, too, loves the hot chocolate (we've repeatedly had to stop him from shaking the pot to coax out the last few, super-chocolatey drops stuck to the bottom!) and he's taken to eating hard boiled eggs, but only the whites. The kids also spent a while updating their journals. We haven't been able to post as many of their thoughts online as we'd like, but they are writing regularly about their experiences (and it's beginning to cost us).

We began our sightseeing adventure by heading up to the Capuchin church to visit the tombs of the Hapsburgs, where we encountered yet another tour group. We generally hate guided tour groups, which crowd by, take too many pictures, and make a lot of noise, but we enjoyed some of what we overheard from this one. Apparently, the funeral ritual of the Hapsburgs went like this. The dead emperor would be driven to the church in a long procession, in a special black coach used only for state funerals, and the cortege would arrive to find the doors of the church closed. The majordomo would knock with the official state baton, and the monks would answer: who's there? The answer would come: Franz Joseph, followed by all of his many titles, etc. etc. von Hapsburg. The monks would reply: "we don't know him." The official would knock again: "who's there?" comes the reply. The official answers: "Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Grand Duke of here and there, etc." Apparently the titles take about ten minutes to recite. To this, the monks would answer again: "we don't know him." The majordomo knocks a third time. "Who's there?" He answers: "Franz Joseph, a brother, a poor sinner." Only then does the door open. It also turns out that the last empress of Austria was buried in the 1980s (she went into exile in 1918 and died a very old woman indeed). One of her sons is also buried in the crypt, and the guide said that he had on several occasions seen the other Hapsburg brothers of that generation come to pay their respects to their parents and ancestors.

After that, we set off for the river, but we didn't realize how far it was, so we didn't make it there. We had a lovely picnic by the canal and then decided to set off to visit churches. First, was St. Stephen's, the big cathedral.

Of course, the tower that is usually open for climbing was . . . closed for renovations. But, the church was quite nice. John lit a candle and prayed. The next church was St. Peter's, very baroque and according to a plaque, founded by Charlemagne. This church had a special altar in honor of the founder of Opus Dei. Joe wanted to pay his respects. Susan was eager to get out.

Here, for example is a memorial to St. John Nepomunk — just the sort of thing that brings out the Hussite in Susan:

The next church was The Church at the Court, but we didn't go in. And, then, we wandered around a little more and stumbled upon the Church of the Scots. At first Susan got pretty excited about this discovery, only to find that the church was actually founded by the Irish (when it was New Scotland), so it wasn't really Scottish at all.

Not the first disappointment of the day.

Finally, we found the Votive Church, which is undergoing renovation as well.

By this time, we were tired and hungry. It was getting late in the afternoon. So, we went in search of a cafe. We walked and walked, came upon some science and "wellness" fair for children in the park in front of the Rathaus (an apt name for a seat of government, no?), and then continued walking. We posed for photos in front of the neo-classical parliament building (the flag was lowered to half staff because far-right parliamentarian Jorg Haider had died in a car crash the day before):

Finally, we ended up back on the Graben. We found a table at the first cafe we came upon. The waitress didn't know much English. We ordered two hot chocolates for the kids, but she said that they didn't have that; they had something else. We ordered that. Plus, two ice creams, and an apple strudel and two beers (it was just too late in the afternoon for coffee). Well, the ice creams were enormous. The "hot chocolates" were really warm chocolate puddings. And, then there was the apple strudel (which turned out to be a nice break from all of that chocolate). Plus the beer. We almost declared it dinner.

Now stuffed, we went back to the flat, wandered around the neighborhood, watched people going to the opera, and then went to the Haus der Musik, a museum devoted to all aspects of music. The Haus der Musik was a very cool museum. It had lots of hands-on activities and displays, and a room where you could rediscover what it was like to be in the womb. We learned a great deal about some of the great composers who have lived and worked in Vienna. We also explored experimental music. We stayed at the museum until almost 9:00.

We returned to the flat, had a quick little picnic dinner of cheese, bread, salami, cucumbers and tomatoes. And, then it was off to bed!

Today, we plan to go to church and then to the big art museum. We may try to get standing room tickets to tonight's opera. We'll see how everyone feels.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Susan and Joe