Clary's Travel Digression

ul

I watched "Moser's Death" yesterday. It's been on before, several times, but I hadn't seen it. The Possum-cat and I watch Rex - mostly for scenes of Vienna (me) and for a dog being intelligent (Possum!)

Hundertwasser - there's a Hundertwasser toilet I saw when I was in Kawakawa, New Zealand last year - it's a big tourist attraction in the area and is a, guess what, public toilet!


There's little else of interest in the area, but here's the site:Hundertwasser's Kawakawa

margo-
Hundertwasser loved New Zealand, he is buried there. I like his early paintings.
The houses have become landmarks here, not everyone likes them. But people living in them love them.

So Clary and I had lunch. It was very hard to be gloomy in her presence. :wink:

I can't remember, was this the first time you and Clary have met. Ul? You are two of my favorite people that I have "met" on the internet - am delighted you could meet in person.

Great to meet Ul, and hear all about her views on Vienna, education, etc, we hardly had time to eat our spaghetti in the sun! Despite her advice, we did go to Grinzing yesterday evening, but walked up out of the village to a Heuriger with terrific views over the city and had a splendid time with crisp white wine and good salads sitting in the balmy evening air - perfect!

This isn't my photo but it gives a good idea of what it was like:

And I liked the stories about Hongkong..
Grinzing is a nice place, in a way, but being out of the valley on top of a hill - you chose well.

I found my favorite place here

Hi Osso- still waiting for you to come. Your room is dusted on a regular basis, fresh flowers will be there when you arrive.

What a building! Not the slightest bit gloomy! I like it!
What goes on inside, Clary?

This one is a block of flats. He abhorred straight lines, even the floors are curvy.

He designed a rubbish incinerator too:

and then there's a rather commercialised 'art village' where I used the 'restroom' - cf Margo's NZ reference.

It's worth clicking on Ul's link to her favourite winebar - you get a 360 degree look!

Gorgeous views from your hilltop rendevous.

I've had a great weekend. It must be because it's Maytime, everyone's out and enjoying themselves. My son, his uni friend and I decided to go to Bratislava via Hungary on Saturday, and found a pretty road along the Danube, looking for a restaurant for lunch. We found one - the usual wooden tables outside, genial people drinking etc. but with the added bonus of live music. First of all there was a small troupe of drum majorette type girls, twirling silver batons, which after a while they abandoned for alluring black tango dresses and did some sinuous latino dancing... then a pop trio came on and played 60s and 70s favourites, so we all danced to Obladee Obladah, pausing only to refresh ourselves with red Balaton wine.
The Bratislava experience was different indeed. Irishmen, bent on cheap drink and amusement, littered the streets; as it was mid-afternoon they were quite happy and friendly, though reeking of beer - hate to think what happens in the evening. The centre of town has been painted and pedestrianised since I was there 16 years ago, and it's delightful.
We found the Cafe Verne, Dagma, and because of our riotous lunch were only up for coffee and ice cream there - but they were excellent! If I had your email, I could send you a nostalgic picture.

Then back in Austria, son and I had a good dinner streetside, but were interrupted by something Ul claims is not a custom but was fun nonetheless. A gaggle of nubile young women appeared with some oompah music on a cassette player, and much laughter. One of them was wearing a bridal veil on top of the usual jeans and t-shirt. She had a tray round her neck like an icecream vendor in a cinema, and in it were various white elephant objects - bracelets, bottles of hand cream, nail varnish - obviously donated by her and her friends. She was selling them to get some cash for her wedding, they explained. We bought a bracelet and a gilded pineapple (always useful). Then a friend whipped out a lipstick and proceeded to make up my son, who then was invited to kiss the bride-to-be. She already had lots of kiss marks all over her face so they giggled him into kissing her tummy next to the navel which he did very willingly. Then she and he had to polka up and down the street to the accompaniment of music, laughter, clapping... I thought it was a charming custom and am sorry it isn't traditional!
Then yesterday we thought we couldn't leave the Czech Republic out of our country hopping, and went to Brno... which undoubtedly is on its way to becoming prettied up and possibly even a drinking destination for the Brits and Irish. Maybe it already was, but since it was Sunday, they were sleeping off the previous night's excesses. On our return we stopped for something to eat and lo! another stage with an oompah band and happy laughing villagers enjoying a fast whirling dance on the specially chalked floor below. The local Heurigen were doing a brisk trade in their wines and a merry time was had by all, including us.
Who said the Austrians were grumpy and gloomy? Not me!

Bookmark.

Thanks, butterfly!!

Bookmark! More like a whole library. First time visitor, long time lurker.

These things grow.... but it's useful because I don't keep a diary! Thanks for bothering.

Reading and enjoying your travels, Clary.

I will have to read the other 87 pages before I ask a foolish question. Nice idea Clary.

Some of those pages, as I recall, are about red shoes... a conversation between MsOlga, Margo and Ossobuco!
Moving on today, Steiermark/Styria I think...
may be absent from here for some time.

But you only just returned, Clary!

All the laender, I could (and do) go as well:
- Vienna (and Lower Austria): aunt/uncle plus cousins and their familie,
- Steiermark/Styria: two sister-in-laws, a handful nieces and nephrews and their families ...

Have a nice time, Clary :wink:

Clary, hope the weather will be better than here.
This weekend there is the traditional Narcissus Festival in Bad Aussee.
This part of Styria is pretty.

And they got a very nice queen, the woman of the day in Styria, a girl with " a view" (a pun: she's a medical assistent in the radiology).


From the regional paper "Kleine Zeitung" (Styria edition, page 13):