Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Aquarium

 One of the 6 FLAK towers is now a wonderful aquarium.
 The view from the platform up there is really something.

 Look at those cool-looking guys!




 Thomas wanted to look INTO the aquarium.

Culinarium Austria

 We had to go to Tichy's again. 
These are the BEFORE and AFTER shots.
Then we had to go to the sandwich place.

 After that we went across the street to visit the Cafe Hawelka. 
Leopold and Josephine Hawelka founded this Cafe in 1939.
He had the day shift, she worked nights. 
They were happily married for over 70 years, as she said...
Leopold died 2 years ago at age 100.
Vienna's writers, painters, and artists were guests.
 Now that the Cafe has a seating area outside it is empty inside.
At midnight Josephine always made Wuchteln with Vanilla sauce;
both legendary.
Then we walked out on the Graben, ...
... and made our way to my friend Dagmar's shop. 
She was not in, but the big watch was.
 A short stop at Cafe Sperl was very nice.
 We took a walk through the Imperial Gardens next to the Palace. 
This is a monument to Mozart.
 This is the Imperial green house and butterfly house.
 We visited Anni. This year Thomas was taller than Anni!
 After our visit we went through the Prater and Thomas decided to ride the roller coaster.
 It was too high for me.
Dinner at the Prater. 
Tafelspitz, like the Emperor liked it.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

102

 Yesterday it was the hottest day of the year.
We had 102 degrees. No A/Cs!
We went to the pool.

Burgenland

 We picked up my sister and went swimming,
 ... or floating,
 ... or jumping.

Then we had some Krapfen.

Baden

 We went to Baden and their very nice public pool. 
It's been around since the days of the Emperor.
They put in two big slides.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Zentralfriedhof - Central Cemetery

 Today we picked up Opa and went to the Central Cemetery. 
This cemetery was founded in 1874 and replaced all smaller cemeteries in Vienna.
The beautiful Art Nouveau church from 1910 is still there.
In the front are the graves of all Austrian presidents.
The church was just renovated
 We found the graves of Johann Strauss....
 ... and Johannes Brahms side by side.
They have fresh flowers there, still!
Strauss and Brahms together, again.
This is the tomb of Luigi Negrelli, builder of the Suez Canal.
And this is the place of my grandparents.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Porcelain Factory Vienna

We visited the Vienna Porcelain Factory today. 
It was founded in 1718 and was the second one in Europe, 
after Meissen in Germany. 
 It is located in the Augarten, where we also saw two FLAK towers.
 We dropped into the world of delicate porcelain.
It was all around.
 Homely corners invited us to sit down and look at the little, fragile wonders.
 Here are different trades people from the 18th century,....
 .... or various cups from the Empire Period.
 Little corners like this were all around.
 Then we took the U-Bahn to the first district. 
Here is a bakery directly on the platform of the underground trains, 
deep in the bowels of Vienna.
Then we took a snack at Trześniewski's.
This is interesting because most Austrians have a hard time
pronouncing "Miller" without a thick accent, 
but they can say Trześniewski without a problem.
 People stand in line and order....
 .... Trześniewski's famous open-face sandwiches.
Yes, we've gone completely native.