Waldkirch and Other Nearby Places

We drove to Waldkirch which was historically a major centre for making organs, mostly for fairgrounds, to be played on the street, read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldkirch 

There is a museum of them but it was closed, we’ll go back because Christoph says it’s worth a look and if you click on the pictures in the article, I think it will be. We had lunch, of course, in a small family run guest house called JägerHäusle and it was really good food, not fancy but good home cooking. We tend to like those places more than the really upscale restaurants in most every city we visit, you'll read about another in a bit.

Walked on to the Baroque style church of St. Margarethen, website http://www.ksew.de/cms/website.php?id=/w/index.htm you will need to do a translate on it. 

Detail of the inset above the entryway.

Inside it is very ornate and has many windows to show the coloured murals in the ceiling. 

Traditional and modern working together, or not, depending on your opinion!

Loved these stools!

From there we could see the Kastelburg Castle built in 1260 shrouded in fog, rather sinister looking, or if you prefer, romantic, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastelburg Despite the foggy day it was an enjoyable one! 

Kastelburg

We took the car share with Christoph to the large department store, which has finally got in stock (a spring purchase), the light for over the dining table. Using the car made the trip easy and less expensive than going by bus or taxi. Firstly we went to lunch, due to the usual timing issue, in Vörstetten at Gasthaus Zur Sonne. The special of blood sausage did not appeal to me but Bruce and Christoph enjoyed. The restaurant had low beamed ceilings and the ceramic covered oven wall kept my back warmer than I really needed but didn't mind. Authentic German style pub which put me in mind of some of the English ones we've been in, different of course, but homey well prepared country style food. 

Being Saturday before a long weekend and a sunny and fall day warmish, market was very crowded, to be expected. I truly wish there was a smell app, they are starting to bring out the mulled wine and apple juice of all kinds is available. I was looking for a favourite stall for a veggie burger and had to navigate around the platz, so many people, dogs on leashes (usually cute) but got a bit confining and I started to feel what I think is a form of claustrophobia. Get me out of this crowd now please!  Sat on a bench to enjoy people watching  and just being out in the lovely day. It is, after all the end of October and to get a day like today we wanted to take full advantage of it. A friend in Madeira Park remarked that every day that is sunny in the fall is a gift, now that has resonated with me since, so true! 

Weather here has alternated between lots of fog and full on sun, as you've probably gathered by this post by now.

We had another cooking “lesson” for Christoph and his son. We made stove top lasagne which brightened the son’s day considerably, he does like, no make that loves, lasagne. Made Canadian style potato salad and coleslaw and stewed tomatoes with vegetables. To eat while they were here Bruce made a feta cheese and mushroom omelet. We’ve never done lasagne on the stove before and it did burn a bit on the bottom but tasted good. Sent them home with all left over vegetables and salads along with one container of lasagne. Christoph will collect much more early next week when his fridge is more empty. They brought us a lovely tart, large enough to share between the four of us a crust, full of cinnamon, not sweet and raspberry jam filling, original recipe from Vienna. As you know I don’t eat sweets but this was lovely! 

That's about it for now folks, sorry not as many pictures this post, will try for more next time. Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Black Forest and Cooking Lessen, Given not Taken

Painting the entire flat done in a day and a half. Raphael brought two fellows with him the first day and finished up himself the second. One fellow did all the taping and laying out of plastic, Raphael and the other fellow painted. It is amazing to me how efficient they are and able to get so much done in so short a time but without appearing to hurry. 

You know I sometimes carry “weird” things in my purse, like lemons. Yesterday it was a hard boiled egg, today it was a small bottle of sekt, sparkling wine, given to us by the travel agent, I prefer the sekt. We booked our flight, rail, hotel for in-between through this agent for Sevilla and she jokes about how much bother the cat is, being a cat person herself. 

Bruce bought a beautiful leather coat with with wool inside that makes him look very dapper and while expensive is already a good buy since it was cooler today than it has been since our return. It is knee length so will keep his bum warm too.

Ravenna Gorge Viaduct

Took the share-car on another day trip, this time into the Black Forest or Schwarzswald. We stopped for lunch at Hofgut Himmelreich in Kirchzarten www.hofgut-himmelreich.de The food was excellent but what was interesting about this hotel and restaurant was that they hire and train people with physical and mental handicaps. It is a remote location but the train does stop there so I suppose people from Freiburg could be employed.

Hotel is actually a Best Western

After lunch we went further to Breitnau to a tourist destination called Hofgut Sternen www.hofgut-sternen.de There is a glass blowers outlet there showcasing glass from all over the world along with the local blower’s works. The real work is done at Dorotheenhütte in Wolfach. But they do demonstrations here, just not the day were visiting. 

Cuckoo!

There is also the largest running cuckoo clock which forms an entire outside wall of a building. Life size figures dance in and out when the hour strikes. It was a rather cold, wet day but we still enjoyed being out and seeing new things.

Mist coming down the mountain

Railway Tunnel through the mountain

These two pictures you can tell were taken from the car, which I don't like to do often but did want to show the rugged terrain.

Cooking lesson, given this time instead of taken. Christoph and his son came to our flat on a Sunday to learn some basic methods, more around use of herbs and spices. Christoph had mentioned he can cook but limited menu and didn’t know about how to spice things up or broaden flavour aside from using salt and pepper. I asked him if a lesson would help and he said a resounding yes! much like we did with Ivan’s offer to us of Spanish cooking lessons.

Christoph went to the library and got a book German/English on cooking terms to help his son understand prior to coming, wish I’d  done the same visa versa, was a smart move on his part! His son can string simple English sentences together which is certainly better than I can in German, and understands most of what is being talked about. 

We bought a raw chicken and made four meals from it and for a more vegetable based dish, I did a stir fry, which Christoph liked but honestly I thought was a flop! I taught his son how to chop vegetables and he was a busy fellow keeping up with all the chopping, two sizes for different dishes of the same vegetable, a pro by the end. 

What we wanted to convey, and think did, was that one can put together a tasty but inexpensive meal and they understood that by the end of the day.  We also bought some basic dried herbs for them as a starter kit to take home and a notebook for Christoph to take notes. After all he wasn’t going to remember everything told to him and timing of it, or the herbs used for each dish. They have not got an oven so limited a bit by that but Bruce found out how to cook a chicken in a large pot so even that was overcome. They are a little more self sufficient now after today’s experience and perhaps we’ll do another before going to Sevilla. 

What I liked about the day was that Christoph’s son was included, he’s fourteen so now is a good time for him to gain cooking skills, Christoph appreciated that, as well as learning himself and they are delighted to be able to try out these recipes on the other younger children in the family. 

What I also liked is that we are helping out again, missing my volunteer hat I suppose, while this was a small endeavour for us, it had a larger impact for them.

Very glad to have a dishwasher, I think we used every plate, pan and cutlery item in the flat! We also put out cheese and pickles, bread and shrimp chips (a hit) for nibbles so they wouldn’t starve while cooking. 

All for now, 

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Fall in Freiburg

Anybody know about these instruments?

Then we went on to the Munster Market to breathe in the scents of it, always a joy, and see the fall colours and produce. We heard very different sort of music being played on the street and found these fellows.

Going back a couple of days ...

Flight Vienna to Frankfurt was about half full so we were able to stretch out. It’s only an hour long, just the waiting in the airport then finding baggage, i.e. Bruce’s wheels takes what seems like forever. Overnight in Frankfurt with a cop convention in the hotel! All in complete uniform including their full belts with guns and handcuffs and other paraphernalia they carry. When I worked at the cop shop, and that's what they called it, those belts weighed forty pounds or about 19 kilos! There was an event in downtown Frankfurt they were there as security for. I tried to find out about it and didn’t. 

Train Frankfurt to Freiburg and no taxi for Bruce’s chair so we took the tram. Saturday and I’d written in my calendar BUT didn’t look at it, Darn! It’s German Unification Day and therefore a civic holiday, therefore meaning no food shopping. The larder is seriously bare of food and of course no shopping tomorrow either being Sunday. Maybe we’ll go to the train station. We did and there is a lovely market downstairs we hadn’t seen before. Nice, fresh fruit and vegetables and just about anything else one would need, filed under another “good to know”.

So we’ve just been unpacking and getting appointments set up. Lexi’s rabies vaccination expires this week so it’s off to the vet to get a jab and an update to her pet passport. We now know vets in four countries/cities which is handy when we travel with her. 

Came home to the lemon tree being just about dead. It’s got a white bug all over it and the orange tree has a small amount on it. We took the large wheels down to the Stadtgarten nursery where we bought them and took them a branch with bugs on it. The bug expert there said they were originally from Australia, hard to get rid of but he would try. I do think the lemon tree is toast but may be able to save the orange. They will come and transport them to the nursery for the winter again and work on the problem then. Hope they isolate the trees from others because this bug is invasive. I was quite disappointed since I think the bug originated in the nursery to start with but guess it can’t be helped. Coming back it poured rain and we were both dripping wet, good thing we weren’t walking though. 

Small update, I’ve made inroads on the bug, in other words, killed it I think! Research on the Net suggested several remedies but one was just plain old dish soap and water sprayed on. They are brown now so here’s hoping and there is new growth on the tree… 

Out with Christoph on a sunny Sunday afternoon. First thing up was looking for lunch, as said, restaurants close around 14:00 until dinner time in the area so he called around and we found one called Bräutigam in Ihringen. Able to sit outside in a garden area which was very pleasant and especially appreciated this time of year. Traveling the back roads the fall colour was beautiful, grape leaves red along with the green and flowers still in bloom. Did see a large field of sunflowers that looked dead on the stem, perhaps they dry them that way? Would be quite a waste if not, or perhaps they plow them in for next year’s crop.

"Wishing" well bucket

We walked through the village of Burkheim to the castle at the end which isn’t any more, it got destroyed and the property is being used by a winery and food co-op. Lots of motorcyclists and cyclists were out enjoying the day.

Interesting clock, translated, "time flies, seize the day".

See previous post of June 1st when we were in Burkheim last year. http://www.bevbrucelexi.blogspot.de/2015_06_01_archive.html 

 It was good to see Christoph again and catch up. He’s originally from Vienna so he had lots of questions about what we saw there.

We've only got a month and a half here this time around because of spending more time in Vienna. That's good and not so for me because I do enjoy this flat and Freiburg very much. But the flip side is that we will get to see our dear friends in Sevilla soon and that will be wonderful! I feel so lucky and appreciative to be living this lifestyle.

Cheers, Bx2 & the newly jabbed, rabies free, Lexi Cat

Last days in Vienna, sigh....

Lovely day on one of our last, walking through the touristy areas of Vienna. The architecture here is so ornate, I’ve said that before but going through the Hofburg area has incredible statues everywhere you look, bigger than life with people battling each other or just standing there, it is truly amazing. 

We walked/rolled through the Museums Quarter to most of all the famous buildings we see from the window of the flat. 

Being Sunday the way was full of tourists as expected but we stopped at a legendary cafe called Aïda which is all pink. Let me elaborate for a minute, pink uniforms on waitresses, chairs, decor, down to the toilet paper, if you don’t like pink do not go there my friends! Vienna is well known through history for it’s cafe culture which is all I’ll say about it, you can read about it on the web if interested.

We had close seating as usual and this place is known for it’s great coffee and pastry so we have a really good coffee and pastry with cream cheese and apricot called marille here and they are considered to be some of the best in the world (their marketing, no research done). This is also the area in the Wachau Valley, that apricots are considered very special but that's another story, you can read about it here. http://www.thetraveltester.com/reason-to-travel-austria/ 

The fellow sitting directly next to me says there is a tram exhibition about to happen in about half an hour of all the trams in the last 150 years in Vienna. Celebration of 150 years of the Ring Road around Vienna. It took a wait of hanging about but was worth it. We saw the pride on the conductors faces and the different technologies used moving forward. I think what struck me the most was the early ones had no side, back or front protection from the weather elements. 

That's Bruce on the right

They were trailers with seats, the steam engine locomotive was the most dramatic belching grey coloured steam from it’s spout. 

It was followed by a fire truck!

Many, many people came to watch and photograph, standing on the track as I did until the last minute to get a view without someone in front doing the same thing, not always successfully. 

Nice uniform on this fellow

They even came in baby blue!

Or the more boring beige.

It was a treat to be involved and present at a truly Viennese event. Had we not stopped at that cafe we would not have known about it, sometimes it’s just happening that happens, some would call it kismet. 

Read more about it here http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/ringstrasse-vienna/

We had a good couple of days, should say productive rather, not that they all don’t have good in them, it’s just getting personal things done, pedicure for me, haircut for Bruce, picked up my new glasses. 

Back to the Naschmarkt and it has even more construction going on in the middle, now completely splitting it in two parts making it awkward to get from one to the other. Some of the more permanent stalls are not accessible but others have moved, makes me wonder when it will be complete.

Saw this poster then ...

This!

The Clamato story: I found Clamato juice! In a Mexican store just up the street, had a hankering for salsa and there it was on a shelf lower down. The Caesar we make is a treat drink, not all the time, but enjoyable when made. Bruce especially likes it and has been in withdrawal for the two years we’ve been in Europe because there is no such thing as Clamato juice that he could find in Europe. He has ordered clam juice from the States and tried mixing it, he’s bought powdered form and both are terrible, so to find the real thing is quite amazing. If you are not from Canada, or apparently Mexico, you have probably have never heard of it before, such a Canadian drink, I read the first Caesar was made in a bar in Calgary, Alberta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_(cocktail)

Had to take a picture...

Flew home to Freiburg but may return to Vienna next September.

Cheers, Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat

Schönbrunn Castle Train and Zoo

Yes folks, I finally looked up how to type an umlaut, the dots above the "o" and other letters in German, about time!

We went with Peter to the Zoo, called a Tiergarten, here in Vienna, it is the oldest zoo in the world. www.zoovienna.at  He hadn't been in a zoo since he was about five years old so he was delighted and we wanted to treat him for all the wonderful things he's done for us. 

First off we took the mini-train around the Schönbrunn grounds and marvelled that we had walked pretty much the whole way a few years ago! Train is easier and better I can tell you. 

Carriage Museum

The woman portrait on the right door is of Empress Elizabeth, called Sisi, read about here here http://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/sights/imperial/sisi-museum She was one interesting woman and certainly did what she wanted, when she wanted, no matter what the Society norms were. 

We didn't go into the Carriage Museum, we were there to see the animals!

This is Peter, our wonderful host!

The cloudy liquid in the wine glass is sturm. It is a strong, slightly sweet wine that is brewed to be drunk very young and only available now until December. More about it here http://www.kcblau.com/sturm/ Since it is still fermenting it needs to be stored carefully so it doesn't blow up - really!

Leopards, the two snuggling, one is licking the face of the other.

On to the animals, we saw probably about half available and still walked a ways.

Elephants one had a large tusk and there was a baby one too!

I didn't catch what kind of bird this is but it was pretty!

Note the very long curved bill on these ones.

A banana tree, lovely.

Orangutang's just hanging about.

Timber wolf puppy we didn't see, did see the adult wolves but they were too far away for a picture. I don't know where this picture came from to cite it, perhaps the zoo.

And now for something completely different. I've never seen this kind of lock on a bicycle before and thought it practical, this wasn't at the zoo.

We had a wonderful day at the zoo and one could go back day after day to walk through different parts of it to see different animals each time. We concentrated on what Peter really wanted to see since it was "his" day. 

Peter sent us this picture of a swimming place called Gänsehäufel in Vienna, classic don't you think?

The taxi cab driver going back to the flat was an expert on driving in Vienna, probably had been driving for many years, he took all the back routes and we wound our way through the City, truly amazing! 

If you like zoos, and I know some who don't, but if you do, Vienna has one of the best we've been to and would recommend a visit. No, they are not sponsoring me to say that, just my opinion.

Next post will be coming to you from Freiburg.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat 

Visit to a country winery and more pictures of Vienna

Secessionist Building

Read about it's history here http://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/sights/art-nouveau/secession

Yes, unexpectedly this is a garbage processing plant, the tower...

Read about it here http://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/green-vienna/vienna-power-plants

Outdoor library in Museums Quarter

I don't know much about this but it was colourful and had hammocks for people to laze in as well as these large pillows. It stayed up about two weeks and people seemed to really enjoy it.

Art? Installation on the outside of a lift going to the Museums Quarter

Continues YOU-weed, THEY-weed. This is a Street Art Passageway to the MQ where "Vienna forges an artistic link to the tags and graffiti that mark the streets bordering Vienna's 7th district." Quote taken from a Public Art brochure for Vienna. website www.koer.or.at/en/ for all the projects.

For our trip to the country winery we took a taxi to Peter’s place, picked him and his girlfriend, Margit up and went to a winery on the hillsides above Vienna. 

A bit of a challenge, firstly the lift broke again, forcing us to take the long and winding stairs. Then getting to Peter’s place the taxi driver didn’t want to stay and take us to on the winery, big argument ensued between Peter and him. Finally he agreed, it was a problem with the driver’s dispatcher not telling him and booking another trip. We find this happens more frequently than it should! 

Anyway arrival at the winery and the views of Vienna are fantastic! 

What a View!

The winery’s website is www.wailandwein.at (in German but great pictures) and the general one listing all the vintners is www.winesfromaustria.com  (English) We tasted two vintages of Gruener Veltliner, common grape here, while sitting under a tree at a picnic table and generally enjoying ourselves. 

Wonderful afternoon!

It was a lovely afternoon, sunny but not too hot. We tried out some of the food: five different dips, pork crackling and pork and vegetables in aspic, served with really good tasty dark bread. Two other neighbouring wineries were open and there were parked cars and people everywhere on the road. Taxi driver coming home was a talkative bloke in almost perfect English. 

Now for one more picture of a building in Vienna, interior.

This is in a restaurant I mentioned and gave you the link to in a previous post, my photo version...

An aside where I can't resist sticking my nose into someone else's business... I went in to the beauty shop to make another pedicure appointment and the manager was there. I asked if I could speak to him about one of his staff in private, a girl was at the sink and that seemed the best way. I told him about my terrible hair cut in his shop and said this person needed more training. He seemed to appreciate the negative feedback and said "how else were they going to get better if they didn’t get feedback". Duty done and enough said but it felt good to tell him.

Next post we went to the Schoenbrunner grounds and Zoo called Tiergarten.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

More Vienna, yes, we are still here ...

We did the shop together, nice since the bike takes all the weight then went directly to the Museums Quarter (MQ) for a pomegranate drink, yum, while we waited for the Leopold Wasser restaurant to open at 12:30 for a grill cooked burger which we shared. Bruce’s appetite is back with the cooler weather! Yeah! 

We watched people and dogs but being Monday it wasn’t too busy there. Nice to get out into the sun and air and enjoy good food, burger was wonderful. Home and a cleaner is cleaning the area around the elevator, he pushes the button for it to open and Bruce isn’t quite quick enough before the door closes or tries to with Bruce caught in-between. Cleaner shoves the door open, we get to the fifth floor and door won’t open. I pried it open with my fingers to get us out. Now the damn thing is broken again. Contact Peter and go through the usual. He said they used substandard parts when putting it in and now they are worn out, as with many in Vienna. Well it’s a major problem for us for sure! 

Days out for lunch, shopping but not really any sight seeing, pleasant days though. I need to take some pictures of the detailed architecture here, works of art, just hanging out over doorways and windows. Here's a start ....

Went out for brunch on Sunday and after had an ice tea each, served in a mini-carafe with lemon, orange and mint. Vienna does know how to make interesting drinks! They will use any fruit like pomegranate and rhubarb and many contain herbs like basil, mint and spice of ginger. You saw the picture where they used roses on a previous post. Very inventive and some are tastier than others to our palates of course I appreciate the inventiveness of their making. 

Street "art" or graffiti, you decide.

On the domestic front I got a long awaited hair cut. Bad cut in Germany, tried a correction which made it worse, and needed another when I came to Vienna. Stopped in a shop up the road from the flat and he’s booked out for a month so make an appointment anyway for now. Get another hair cut to last me over and it’s worse than both German ones! Ugh, should have known I’d be in trouble when she asked me AFTER the cut if my hair was naturally curly or a perm. Who perms these days anyway? Well, now I have a good cut and feel better and have another appointment for trim before going back to Freiburg.  The fellow is truly so very good it was a great stroke of luck to meet him! There are very many hair and personal services in the neighbourhood we are in, difficult to choose who is going to be the best to engage and for what. Example the worst haircut at the shop also gives the best pedicure, obviously by different people, different skill sets. I truly live by my mother’s rule, “if you can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all”. So I won’t give a bad review to the first “stylist” she’s young and just needs better training. 

We breakfasted out, I had scrambled eggs with vegetables in, asked what vegetables and the waitress said, what ever they had on hand. Well there were chopped carrots and peppers, green onion and while I’ve never had carrots in my eggs before it was tasty. Did the shop, went back to the MQ for an iced tea, a British couple moved tables because of cigarette smoke, I don’t think they’ve been here long, it will become an annoyance to them. On the way back to the flat smelt the grilling hamburgers so stopped for one to share. Quite a warm day but a breeze so nice to be out again. 

Back down to the Naschmarkt market around 11:00 a.m. on a weekday and it’s quite quiet, easier to move around and see more. It’s such a fascinating place for us, and you know how we do like markets, kids in a candy store would describe us well in markets. So many different fruits, vegetables, example black potatoes, and a multitude of other things, spices from all over the world, teas, fish and meat. 

Much of it is Turkish so there are many falafel stands. We bought more hummus, the stall owner is very liberal with his samplings. In fact, most are and some yell Stop! at their stalls to offer you something. They will ask where are you from and the ruse often works! One fellow, large bloke was dining at a seafood restaurant and they gave him a bib after he spilled on his shirt. This big, almost mean looking fellow, wearing a bib! We had Indian food again, jumbo prawns for me that were some of the best I’ve ever had. Bruce had lamb biryani, the rice was spiced so wonderfully.

I liked the presentation.

This is the mini-sweater and dirndl I mentioned in the previous post.

Picnic supper tasting very small amounts of things bought at the market, pomegranate seeds, messy, more on that in a bit, hummus, avocado, stilton cheese, dried lingonberries, a feast even after lunch. I don’t think you can commonly get lingonberries in Canada. I have a Polish friend who loves them. 

To eat the pomegranate, we looked for videos on the web to see how to seed and every one said the juice stains as item number one. Operation pomegranate: we took the top off and scored the outside which allows you to peal the layers out and fairly successfully get the seeds out except, I popped one, juice everywhere, wall, fridge, my favourite top, which I should have removed prior. Seeds are yummy though and reportedly good for you so was worth it I suppose. 

Saturday and our local artisan market is on. But firstly I decided I wanted new glasses, not really needed, as such, but wanted a change, ones I’m wearing have a small scratch on the lens and I’m just tired of the frames. There is a nice looking glasses shop up the street so went in to “just to” try on frames. A while later I have new glasses, well, not yet in ten to fourteen days while the lenses are being built. Small change in the prescription, left eye weaker than the right but here they are, drum roll please, http://brillengiovanni.com go to Marken, they are called Gotti, the light blue ones. I’m very pleased!

A stop at the Mexican food shop yields green tomatillo salsa and taco chips, then on to the artisan market. 

What caught our eye and intrigued was a leather belt, more the buckle actually and then I went into the shop to find handbags, beautifully, made in the Czech Republic. Walked out of there with wallets for both of us and a handbag for me. Bruce gave me the bag and wallet as an early birthday present! Thanks Love! They are of a fine quality leather and etched and coloured in beautiful designs. Bruce says he doesn’t think he’s owned anything more beautiful, admiring his wallet now, as I write this. 

Then I spotted some unusual earrings in the next shop and bought them and a ring to match. Packaging is in small boxes with handles on top, lovely too! 

Whew, a lot of money was spent today but we both know that when you find something that is unusual, hand crafted, the bonus is you are helping to support an artist, you fall in love, true love, buy it because you’ll always rue not doing so. 

We’ve both experienced that before, mostly over non-utilitarian items, for me it was a tiny hand thrown pot, so thin light shone through on Granville Island, by the time I thought I had to have it it was gone and the artist wasn’t showing there anymore. For Bruce was a kimono, hand stitched and large enough to be a wall hanging on Salt Spring Island. These things, while beautiful and wanted were impractical. What we bought today is more practical, we can admire and wear them daily so, again, supporting artists, and using the product daily is a win-win. Off the old soap box once again.

We’d stopped for lunch at a favourite restaurant which is in the atria of a pre-school and many other offices of which I don’t know about, mostly arts according to the brochures seen. There was a hoard of people dropping off bottled water, clothing, diapers, all manner of things and all at once it seemed. The street was overloaded with cars and truly swarms of people seemed to inhabit the area with the goods they brought. At first we didn’t know what was happening, only that Bruce couldn’t get by a van to get to a slope in the curb. Watching, since we had no choice, I think they had organized a relief mission for the thousands of Syrian refugees who had crossed into Austria last night, bused in from Hungary. I missed a taped interview that happened while we were there, in English too, being more worried about getting Bruce out of the well meaning fray. I’ll try to find a link to the story for more information, didn't find that particular one but many people are helping out.

A cooler Sunday with wind and we’re out fairly early so have breakfast in a glassed in solarium at the Leopold Museum. We don’t drink a lot of coffee in restaurants but may remedy that since Vienna is said to have the best coffee and having had one it truly was.

I tried sitting or reclining on the blue blocks everyone uses in the MQ but I’m too short and kept slipping down, they don’t work for me…http://www.mqw.at/en/about/mq-courtyards/  go to the bottom of the page to read about the design and function of the furniture. Being short or PQ vertically challenged is a disadvantage most of the time, well there are worse things for sure.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat