The first new building completed on the Ringstraße was the opera house, built in 1861-1869. It was originally known as the Wiener Hofoper (the Vienna Court Opera), but after the fall of the Habsburgs in WWI, the name was changed to the Wiener Staatsoper (the Vienna State Opera). Bombing during WW II destroyed most of … Continue reading →

We returned to Krems from Melk on the other side of the Danube River, the southeast side, which is not as scenic, but the cycling was better because the trail is mostly off the road and right along the river's edge. The morning started out mostly sunny, but we found ourselves riding in the shade … Continue reading →

The town of Melk, where we spent the night, is the site of the Stift Melk, a Benedictine abbey that sits 200 feet above the Danube. Originally founded in 1089, a monastic school and scriptorium were added during the next century and the abbey became known for its manuscripts and library long before the invention … Continue reading →

A little over five miles upriver from Krems, we came to the medieval walled town of Dürnstein (established 1019 A.D.), just as the tourist riverboats from Vienna docked nearby. The main attraction inside the walls of Dünstein is the Augustiner-Chorherrenstift, a gothic monastery built for the Order of St. Augustine in 1410 and then rebuilt … Continue reading →

On Monday, we set out on the train from Wien Spittelau Bahnhof (“Wien” is German for Vienna) to the town of Krems an der Danau for an overnight bike ride along the Danube River to Melk. Across from the train station was another Hundertwasser creation, a garbage incenerator known as the District Heating Plant Spittelau. … Continue reading →

Friday was Art Day for us as we set out to see the exhibits of reknowned Austrian painters Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918) who, I subsequently learned, were of the Vienna Secessionist movement which turned its back on the realistic historical style of mainstream Austrian artists and worked in a contemporary, impressionistic mode. … Continue reading →

It hadn’t occurred to me, though it should have, that Austria is a Catholic country (75% of the population). You know, the Habsburgs were the Holy Roman Emperors, allied with the Roman Catholic Church – that should have been a tip-off. But we were a little surprised to find out that everything was closed Thursday … Continue reading →

On our first day in Vienna, we rode trams 1 and 2 around the Ringstraße, hopping on and off as it suited us. We were intrigued by what appeared to be a city gate with a palace of some sort behind it, but the sky looked a little ominous so we decided to save exploring … Continue reading →

It was fascinating to learn about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire when we visited Turkey in 2012. Prior to that trip, I knew relatively little about Rome from the early years of Christianity on – and nearly nothing about the Byzantine Empire, that is, the Eastern Roman Empire that continued on until … Continue reading →

On Tuesday (“Mardi” in French), we went on the scenic train ride known as the Südbahn, the Austrian Southern Railway, over the Semmering Pass to Austria’s second largest city, Graz (pop. 265,000), the capital of the Austrian state of Styria. Leaving Vienna, the country’s largest city with 1,725,000 residents, we traveled through relatively flat countryside … Continue reading →

I remember taking Civics class in Junior High School and learning how government works. Government has always fascinated me and later, in law school, I took both local government law and international comparative law, studying the interplay within the United States’ governmental hierarchy, as well as the different systems and forms of government around the … Continue reading →

If there's one thing Austria is known for above all else, it would have to be music. And while we Americans might immediately think – Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music – the hills around here are filled with much, much more than that. We first visited Austria in 1983, just after marriage and … Continue reading →

The Hofburg Palace complex contains several museums, in addition to one of the two royal residences, the treasury and the Spanish riding school. It also is home to the Austrian National Library, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Around the back side of the National Library, and somewhat hard to find, is the Prunksaal (the State Hall) that … Continue reading →

After spending a couple days just walking around the city center getting our bearings and looking at magnificent structures from the street, we finally settled on our first excursion, the Hundertwasserhaus. According to Wikipedia, the artist, Friedrich Stowasser, was born in Vienna in 1928. After World War 2, he studied art briefly at the Academy … Continue reading →

We will be living in an apartment in the Neubau district in the heart of Vienna (“Wien”) for the month of May. Our apartment is on the top floor (we would call it the 4th floor, but in Europe it's called the 3rd floor, that is, three floors above the ground floor). Street level is … Continue reading →