A trip to the mountains

We are spending the week in a small mountain village near Marisa's relative (most of you know Marisa's mom is from Vienna). The town is called Langwies and it is in the beautiful area called the Salzkammergut. Salt has been mined here for thousands of years.

Yesterday we took two rides up into the mountains. One was a cog rail up a mountain side to the earliest salt mine yet discovered, in Hallstatt. Hallstatt is actually the name given to a civilization, some 3,000 years old. Up high in the clefts of the mountains people lived a hard life in places where the sun appears for only 1/2 the year. Yet, they had trading relations with Africa and the Baltic.

Later, joined by our Austrian relatives, we took a cable car up the side of the Dachstein massif, to go to the Giant Ice Caves, situated under the Dachstein glacier. It was amazing. Some of the "rooms" we walked in were the size of churches. All at freezing temperature, or below. We wanted to go up the second cable car, to the top; there is an observation deck that juts out from the top, called the Five Fingers, but, it was snowing.... we wouldn't have been able to see anything. Maybe next sabattical...

Tomorow I hope to stop by Steinbach am Attersee, which is just on the other side of the mountains we are staying at (www.therestisnoise.com/2005/08/mahler_on_the_b.html).

Later, I'll post about the Berlin concert I went to on Sunday, I already posted the pics.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pics:

1. Us at the exit of the Ice Cave.

2. Us and the Austrians.

3. The view from the exit of the Ice Cave. Imagine skiing all that...

4+5. Ben and Lucas, appropriately respectful in the presence of a 3,000 year old body... (the exhibit was of the ceremonial burial practices of the Hallstätter people.

Berlin in Salzburg

Just a couple of images from our trip to Salzburg to hear the Berlin Philharmonic. More about the concert later, when I have an internet connection all day.

Pics:

1) Herbert von Karajan Platz, right in front of the Hall.

2) Getreidegasse, after the concert. It's the street the Mozart's lived on when Wolfgang was born.

3) Bows, right after the Berg 3 Pieces, which was downright scary good.

4) The main landmark of Salzburg, the Festung. It is visible from almost every point in the area.

More pics

Yesterday we went swimming. We joined Mnozil Brass' Leonhard Paul, and his children, Dominica (11) and Florentine (6), at a city swimming pool. It was great. Marisa is already best friends with the Pauls, especially the kids. Afterwards we had some of the best Italian Ice in Vienna. (Sorry, no pics, camera battery was dead...)

Before that, we took another stroll, this time through a different area of the city. Everywhere you turn there is something, old, beautiful and unique. Many times all three at once. And yet, Vienna is alive and modern. It has always been a city of contrasts: modern, yet reactionary; forwardthinking (Mahler, Freud, Klimt), and also ignorant (centuries of anti-semitism and anti-foreigner politics). Yet, Vienna would not be the Capitol of Culture it is, especially music, without all those outside influences - Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, none of them were originally Viennese. They came because the great city was then, like New York is to so many now.. "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere..." Corny, but true.

Pics:

1. Musikverein. Home of the Vienna Philharmonic. Place of countless premieres from Brahms, Strauss, etc. One of the greatest halls in the world.

2. Brahms Memorial, in Karlsplatz, directly across. Great statue. Brahms is asleep, dozing quietly, his muse lying at his feet.

3. Our apartment building. We are on the 5th floor on the right hand side (the five windows above the little balconies).

4. Marisa and Lucas on a stroll. Notice the tram rail lines in the street to their left.

5. Maria am Gestade Church. Built in the 14th century.

A Visit to Mahler

The music of Gustav Mahler has always been special to me. I first heard it late one night when I was in high school in South Florida, on the radio. I missed the beginning of the piece, so I had no idea who or what I was listening to. It didn't matter. It spoke to me, and continues to, in a very special way. I actually don't listen to Mahler more than other composers, but like an improtant friend that you don't see as often as you would like, it is never far from my mind.

The Österreichisches Theater Museum is presenting an exhibit called "Mahler and Vienna". Ben and I visited it today. It received glowing notices from Ben, " Dad, that wasn't boring at all... I'd go back there again." Never prouder....

Pictures:

1. Mahler Street. How cool is that? It's right next to the Opera House.

2. Bust of Mahler at the entrance of the museum.

3. Original poster of the premiere of the 8th Symphony, 100 years ago, next month!

4. Mahlers death mask.

5. The shirt he died in. Nice linen fabric... Incidentally, his burial date was May 22, 1911. Exactly 47 years later, I was born. Co-incidence? I think not!

6. Composition sketch from the 3rd Symphony, 1st movement: the ultra-cool trombone solo.

Thanks for stopping by!

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More from the Big Day

The boys in the courtyard of the Mozarthaus. He wrote the Marriage of Figaro there, among other great works. Tonight we watched some videos of Mozart operas on Youtube. Ben really liked Papageno from the Magic Flute...

The view from Mozart's apartment on Domgasse. The street signs on either side of the street going away read. "Blutgasse" (Blood Alley)... I don't think they were so clean in Mozart's time.

The High Altar of the Stephansdom. Very Gothic... "Ben asked, "is that where they get the term "goth"? He still hasn't learned that his father is a professor, when he asks a question, he's gonna get an answer....

You find these things all over Vienna. This one reads: Beethoven lived in the Theater an der Wien in 1803 and 1804.

Some of his works - The 3rd Symphony and the Kreutzer Sonata were composed here.

Fidelio and other works received in this Hall their World Premiere.

(Incidentally the Magic Flute was premiered in the Theater and der Wien as well...)

A big day!

A big day today. We walked for hours through the Innere Stadt (the old center of the city). Today was a "Lucas" day, which meant that he got the honor of picking the main events of the day. Above all else, he wanted to go down into the catacombs of the St. Stephans Cathedral (Stephansdom) and "see all the bones!!!". So we did. Deep, deep under the city, where there are perhaps the bones of 10,000 people, mostly victims of the last Black Plague, in 1713. Vienna figured out it need to move the cemeteries out into the country soon after that. Before they came to that realization though, they came up with a version of the chain gang.... to make room for the newly dead ("BRING OUT YOUR DEAD..."), convicts were forced to take the previously buried people out of their graves, break up the skeletons, clean them, and place them in huge, underground bone piles... At this point in the lecture, Ben whispered to me, "Hi, honey, I'm home." "How was your day?" "Oh, the usual, dig up bodies, clean 'em, crack 'em, throw 'em in a pile...." Lucas said, "I woudn't want THAT job...")

We also climbed the narrow, 342 step, 500 year old stairwell to the top of the north tower, which of course, had a freaking gift shop at the top.... We didn't buy the Pope Benedict Postcards.

Also on the docket was a trip to the Mozart Haus. The only surviving building that Mozart actually lived in. IT's a great place to visit. I bought a t-shirt, Lucas bought a fan.... I'll post a photo from there in the next post.

These pictures: 1) the family in front of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. 2) Lucas on one of the winding, narrow streets of the Innere Stadt. 3) Mahler. He's everywhere! More soon, thanks for stopping by. Jack

What you see when you look down...

Two forms of Viennese memorials:

The first - one finds brass markers placed into the sidewalks at the front of many apartment buildings. They read: "From here were deported and murdered... then goes on to name the people, with birthdates and deportation dates and destinations (Auschwitz, Treblinka, sometimes "unknown), who were send off to the camps and who never returned. They are subtle reminders of a time not long ago...

The second one is happier - this one is on the pavement outside of the State Opera House. There are many of them - composers, singers and conductors who had an important influence on the musical life of Vienna: Strauss, Verdi, Karajan, Böhm, etc.

Discovering Vienna

Hey every body! It's Ben. Lucas talked about our room, and a cat. I am gonna talk about something a bit more... viennese. FOOD!!! The food is o-mazing! Last night we ate at a very fancy awesome italian restaurant where I had pizza. That was awesome. They didn't have pepperoni, I figured that out when I thought the word salame in italian was pepperoni (the whole thing was in italian). It's actually salami, so I had huge slices of salami on my pizza. Our second night here We went exploring around the streets near our apartment and found a jillion different types of stores (mostly food ones), where we had our first dinner, mine was pizza at this pizza place. It was pretty good. Then we had dessert at this ice cream place. I tried this AWESOME flavor called stracciatella. It's like cookies and cream only better. It's vanilla\chunks of chocolate\ and this thing called amaretto (i have no idea what that is) Then the day we went to the Italian place, we went for our first Viennese subway trip. But here's the thing, normally you go underground, and that's were you get your tickets and get on the train. But here, there are 2 levels. And one is entirely shops, and more than half of them are food!! (although I have no idea what any of it tastes like)! Today we walked around the city, and there's a whole section where there's almost no Austrians, and it's mostly Turkish people. So we walked through a Turkish market. And there's about a billion different types of foods, my mom bought some peaches. They were delish! Gotta go, gettin late. So later!! (we'll try to post a video later, there seems to be technical difficulties...)

All better

As can be seen, the boys are recovered from their Jetlag. Normal life begins again.

Lucas' Post

Hey everybody this is Lucas. As you all know, I am in Vienna. And there are lots of places that are really cool, but my and Ben's room is the coolest! It is the coolest because it has a super high bunk bed, and a swing underneath it. Click on the video and you'll see me swing on it.

Last night I looked out of my window and saw a cat sleeping on a window ledge, 4 stories up! When I saw the cat stand up I thought it would fall, but it didn't. I'll see if it comes back tonight. There is also a toy dragon that hangs on the top of my bed. And when I wake up in the the morning I am staring into it's face. That's it from me today. I"ll write back tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Here are the boys on our first stroll. At the MuseumsQuartier. You can see the Jet lag in their eyes. It's now 6:55 pm and they are asleep! Marisa and I soon, too.

In Vienna

One more picture of misery... The boys, waiting for our connection to Vienna.

The flight was short and they got a second wind.

We received a great surprise on our arrival. Leonhard Paul of Mnozil Brass honored us by greeting us at Schwechat Airport! What a guy. He had arranged for a special cab to pick us up (he knew we had a lot of luggage for our long stay). Leonhard thinks of himself as an unofficial ambassador of all Vienna and wanted to make sure everything went smoothly. Needless to say, we were touched.

We are ensconced in our apartment on Gumpendorferstrasse (say that 3 times fast) and took one short stroll, and are off to bed to recover. More later. Thanks for stopping by

In the Air

Here we are, all chipper, about to go through security, on our way. The boys had no idea what they were getting into. About three hours into the overnight flight, Lucas says, in a pitiful voice to Marisa, " I want to go home...." Buck up, little man...

The next pice is as we are waiting to get off in Zürich. Not so chipper.

Underway!!! Unterwegs!!!

Goodbye, 72 Vernon St. Bangor, Maine, USA!!! A beautiful day in Maine. Bald grüssen wir Österreich!

Here we go!

I'm sitting in the kitchen. Surrounded by the chaos of packing. Take this, dump this... so many choices. We're on our way tomorrow. Boston - Zürich - Wien. Very exciting. I hope the blog tunrs out to be fun for us and for anyone choosing to follow it. We will try to make it interesting!

Jack