By Susan Aurinko
I got to Vienna from Paris and settled into Hotel Austria Wien, my usual hotel. https://www.hotelaustria-wien.at/en/ I mentioned to the concierge with whom I’ve become friendly, and she told me that I’ve stayed there more than a dozen times! I couldn’t believe it. I went out with my camera right away, as is my custom, and felt as though I’d never been away. On my second day there, I had a lovely brunch with Alexandra Pfefferle, who is on the American Friends of the Vienna Museum Board with me and who is lots of fun. We ate at a lovely spot at Praterstraße 15 called Café Ansari. I’ve walked past it dozens of times but had never eaten there before. It was great to catch up because we mostly see one another in the morning zoom Board meetings, taking both Vienna and Chicago time zones into account. Vienna’s usually crowded tourist season was in progress, and could have been daunting, but I tend to wander places off the beaten path, including an adorable unnamed restaurant in a side street that I’ll probably never find again but enjoyed tremendously.
Cellphones have pretty much been the death of classic street photography. It’s been happening for a while, but this year was probably the death knell of the genre. Try though I did, the image below is probably the only real only one the trip revealed, although as you look at what appears to be timeless, you see that the subject is yes, scrolling on a mobile phone…c’est la vie…There are other things to photograph, but I will miss street work.
I went to the Leopold, which is perhaps my favorite art museum in the world, where I saw a wonderful exhibition of Biedermeier paintings, and a brilliant show on Egon Schiele’s last years. Then to the Kunsthistoriches Museum where I photographed more hands in paintings for my Gesture series and had a delightful lunch in the stunning café there. I was fascinated by all the young Asian women taking selfies with the beautiful architecture of the museum as a backdrop.
I spent one morning in the Vienna Museum seeing the wonderful show about the Allied Occupation in post-World War II Vienna. It was fascinating and incredibly well done, and then I had lunch with Matti Bunzl, the Director of the Museum(s). Some of you may remember Matti from his days with the Chicago Humanities Festival. It’s always great to catch up on all the goings on at the 17 museums under the umbrella of the Wien Museum and discuss the current shows with Matti over a delicious lunch at trude & töchter (Trude and Daughter), the museum’s gourmet restaurant serving modern interpretations of Viennese foods. https://www.wienmuseum.at/trude_und_toechter
My friend Mary Ann from Wiesbaden was visiting for a few of my days there, and it was really fun to share the things I’ve discovered over the years with someone for whom it’s all new. It was the first time in a long time I’ve shown anyone around Vienna. Add to that her friend Herta, who lives there, definitely showed me things I hadn’t seen before including a meal we had just near my hotel, (as always, Hotel Austria Wien) where Mary Ann was also staying. It’s from 1447 and is called Griechen Beisl and claims to be the oldest in Vienna. It was originally a guest house or “Gast Haus” with a restaurant and still has 8 guest rooms to rent. Shubert, Strauss, Mozart, Egon Schiele, Mark Twain and many illustrious guests dined there over its five centuries in business. https://www.griechenbeisl.at/ Herta also took us far afield on the train to the 1109 district where we ate an incredible meal (including the sumptuous dessert below!) at Feuer Wehr Wagner, another restaurant that’s been open for centuries and also claims to be the oldest in Vienna. They have a vineyard that has been making wines since the 1700s. Beethoven lived down the street for many years and often ate his supper at the restaurant. https://www.feuerwehrwagner.at/betrieb/heuriger Mary Ann and I also had a wonderful lunch at Cantinetta Antinori (the marvelous pasts below) and it turned out that I had eaten in their Florence location and Mary Ann had eaten in their Zurich location!
Having someone to show Vienna to, it was also fun to take her to some of the more touristy sites I haven’t visited since my first visits to Vienna in the early 2000s. We went to the National Library, which is one of the most stunning libraries I have ever seen. The woodwork and beautiful leather-bound books displayed floor to ceiling are worth the price of admission.
We also went to the Sissi Palace and walked through with tourists of all nations, noting particularly the Empress’s workout equipment. Apparently, Sissi watched her weight obsessively and exercised to an extreme. Everything was highly ornate, as you can see from the lighting fixture below.
There was so much more but let it suffice to say that /we had a wonderful time, albeit with the addition of a few pounds from all the eating! Mary Ann went back to Wiesbaden, I came back to Chicago, and Herta is still in Vienna where she is fortunate to live. I look forward to sharing my next trip, this time to Montreal in late October, with you here.
Yours in travel and art (and food!),
Susan
