Mozart and Strauss – Heroes of Vienna

Within 5 mins of being on the bus tour of Vienna, we passed the former house of the great Viennese composer Johann Strauss, famous for popularising the waltz. He, along with Mozart, were treated like rock stars in Vienna, the centre of the world’s popular music industry in the 18th century. Having both studied music history, we soaked up the Vienna experience like a Danoz Direct Magic Cloth. Buy 2, get 2 free! But wait, there’s more….

Stunning architecture, narrow winding streets, hidden café gems. Like the one that Mozart frequented and would perform impromptu concerts at! Café Frauenhuber. You know how in Australia we can order a Vienna coffee? It’s a real thing! Cream upon cream upon coffee, and in Tim’s and mine, liqueur! And no one’s over weight. I think it’s all the beer that offsets the calories… Works for me!!

Centre of the old city area

Mozart was here. According to the wall plaque, so were Handel and Beethoven!

Café Frauenhuber

Mozart Kaffee

The highlight of Vienna, was the evening concert at the magnificent City Palais Liechtenstein, a little Austrian holiday shack of the Liechtenstein family when they’re not in their own castle, in their own country! The Viennese Imperial Orchestra played all three Strauss’ (senior, junior, and younger brother Josef), and Mozart, music and vocal arias. What a venue! What a privilege!

I hooked up with this amazing leggy blonde!

Not as gold looking as it really was. Incredible concert with fantastic musos!

The orchestral hall. All that gold is for real!

Free time on the second day in Vienna saw us at the NaschMarkt, a wonderfully long array of food, clothing, food, beer, wine, and food stalls. Needless to say, we stopped for food, and Tim and I had to try a pint of the local! It was everything we wished Freo Markets would be!

The Viennese are very proud of their (former) royal family, the Habsburg’s. We heard about them, in relatively unkind terms, in Hungary which was ruled by them for hundreds of years. Descriptors such as inbred and mentally impaired were used! But now in Vienna, these people were depicted as conquering heroes and innovators. The truth, I feel, is somewhere in between. Certainly they were filthy stinking rich and loved to display their obscene superiority, including by having their arm of the Roman Catholic Church bestow sainthood on dead emperors! Some cathedrals even have the remains of an ‘unknown saint’ gifted to them by the royal family for display (and presumably to pray to) in glass cases! What the!!

Schonbrunn Palace, the ‘small’ winter palace to get out of the stench of the city.

The palace backyard complete with monument to the Austrian Empire’s war dead

Having said all that, we absolutely loved Vienna and will definitely be back for a longer visit. Tschüss Wien!