We woke up near Vienna on the train. It was a bit dreary and looked really COLD. We were still looking forward to wandering Vienna for the day until our next train at 8pm. We had great service on this train and breakfast which was unexpected.
We made our game plan and headed out to the Oberes Belvedere museum. They have Gustav Klimpt’s “The Kiss” painting which is one of James and my absolute favorites. It was a pleasant surprise to find out form our tour book it was here and open.
We arrived and were impressed at how immaculate the city was. Every building was clean, sidewalks, streets. It reminded me of Budapest or Paris but much cleaner. I felt safe there. It was quiet.
We went in to the Oberes Belvedere and viewed other Impressionist works including German impressionists and a Monet and Van Gogh.
Then we make it to “The Kiss.” Larger than I expected. I gazed at it and kissed James. The couple embraces on some sort of ledge with the dark paint in the background symbolizing and abyss of some sort, a danger almost. They are protected by a shimmering gold aura in their embrace. The masculine figure’s robe is decorated in rectangles and squares, more hardened forms. While the feminine figure is softer circular forms. Each of the designs of the robes come together and meld into one another as the couple does.
After our visit we left for lunch. As we were waiting for the metro, a man approaches us. He was friendly and spoke English. My initial thought was he needed money but the energy was different. He asked where we were from, his brother owned a restaurant in Seattle. We connected. He asks if we would like to eat at his Greek restaurant across the street. We tell him we are vegans and he enthusiastically promises to make a great dish for us. An adventure, why not?
He brings out an elaborate Greek salad minus the feta along with some eggplant, hummus, pita, garbanzos and many other dishes. This was a lot of food. More that I even Byron could eat! We ate and ate and ate. They kept bringing more bread.
The man fell in love with Liam. Liam has that effect on most. He declared Liam as his best buddy. He was from Greece and his wife is Austrian. They have a child. We talked about schooling here. His daughter is already fluent in Greek and German and learning English in school. She is 6.
After 2 hours of this feast, much like a greek father (according to Byron) he asks us what kind of dessert we want. Oh we can’t do that. We are all stuffed. But there IS baklava. Okay a little baklava to SHARE that means like 2 pieces and we cut them up. He brings a giant plate of 15 baklava, apple streudal, and fruit.
We make it through most and realize we need to leave now before he gives us more food. Oh yeah and uh… the bill. Well you know that gondola ride we didn’t go on last night? Yep, that much. But everyone including Byron was stuffed. It will be a very light dinner and none for me. And the experience was great. We got the name of his brother’s restaurant in Seattle should we ever be there. I think we get a discount too.
We roll our bellies out of there onto the Metro heading to Museumquartier. The kids did not want to go into another museum so we admired the buildings and welcomed walking around after lunch. It was really beautiful. Again, pristine buildings and people. We rode the tram around the ring and saw the remainder of the city. We passed OPEC, a vegn gourmet restaurant, the Danube, etc. We stepped off and walked along the Danube at dusk. The children picked up some sticks and started playing music. Luna was plying the violin and Liam the French horn. I was wishing we were there longer for the children to see a Viennese symphony. I thought it was cute that we were in Vienna along the Danube and they were playing music.
It was time to make it back to the station to catch our train. We boarded our train easily and got ready for bed. In the night the border patrol came and checked passports. James was pretty anxious about this. Throughout the EU no one really checks passports on trains but in Austria, Hungary and Romania they do. It was more of a challenge on the Hungary/Romania border as they came at 2am. For some reason they looked at our middle names. One seemingly stern guard said, “Adrienne?” We pointed to Luna and he says, “Adrienne is Romanian, very nice name.” It worked out well and went back to sleep.
We woke up to a very cold looking Transylvania. I thought to myself, what have I gotten us into? I was just in the Mediterranean last week! Liam woke up and snuggled with me as we stared out the window together as the passing leafless trees and brown fields with frost.
No comments:
Post a Comment