From Salzburg to Vienna
Sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of days, but we've been on the move. We spent two lovely days in Salzburg, walking the streets that Mozart walked. On our first night there, we attended a dinner concert in the Peterskeller, a building dating back to the 800's. Today it's restored to baroque splendor, and we enjoyed a nice meal there, with performances from Mozart operas between courses. It was lovely to wander the Christmas markets, munching roasted hazelnuts or sampling mulled wine. Our local guide, Horst, was a font of information and humor....and at 6'5 1/2" inches, he was pretty easy to keep sight of! That night, part of our group headed up to the fortress for another dinner concert, while some of us found a little local bistro, then headed to the Mirabellplatz to hear a concert of violin and piano. As it turned out, the violinist was sick, so the pianist gave us a solo piano recital instead....no complaints, tho, she played Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt on the FIRST half of the program, then played the entire Kreisleriana by Schumann on the second half. The concert took place in the Marble Hall of the Mirabellplatz....ornate beyond belief, and the concert was played on a white Bosendorfer piano.
We headed out yesterday for Vienna, with a stop at the immense monastery at Melk. If you've read Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, you know about this monastery....this is the library he based that book on. Still a working monastery and school, it's quite an impressive sight.
As we made our way into Vienna, we stopped for a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace...once again IMMENSE. We got a real sense of the daily life of the Habsburgs as we toured the living quarters there.
Our hotel in Vienna is right in the city center....you walk out the front door and bump right into the back of St Peterskirche. We had dinner and local wine along with music last night, then strolled home in the brisk air, window shopping the fine stores along the way.
Today we'll tour the Fine Arts Museum and a museum of rare musical instruments. Some plan to visit the Gustav Klimt museum while we're here....and I'm pretty sure there'll be quite a lot of shopping at the Christmas Markets!
Off to start the day.....I'll try to upload some photos before I go, but internet connections have been slow, so that may have to wait until tonight.
We're already starting to talk about where we'd like to go next year, so if you'd like to receive information about future trips, be sure to sign up on the left side of the page where it says News. This has been such a congenial group, I think many of us would like to travel together again.
Well, the bells of Peterskirche tell me it's 8 am, so I'd better head off to breakfast. Auf wiedersehn.....
Cheryl
