Walzer in Wien

“My hair looks like shit,” Lisa deprecated.  We are heading into the last week of our journey, and the hardships of the road were taking its toll.

I assured her she looked beautiful and cosmopolitan, and  after a little unwohlsein mit der haar, we were back on track in Wien, the Capitol of Imperial Austria.

The city is framed by remarkable architecture and formal gardens and animated by music – everywhere musicians can be seen carrying instruments, boarding trams. I wise-cracked to one little guy schlepping a giant bass “Wouldn’t it be easier if you played the violin?” Without missing a beat, he refrained “Yah, but it vuddent be as kool!”

We were treated to the ballet, Don Quixote, courtesy of a giant video display outside the Operhaus. People were politely seated in folding chairs, sipping Starbuck’s, braced against the night chill, as pixel pirouettes filled the night. We could even hear the finale and curtain calls in our Pension, half a block away.

Strolling through elegant flowered parks, hearing the clip-clop of carraige horses and viewing their aristocratic cousins at the Spanish riding School (housed in the Imperial palace), nursing Gruner Tea in the storied Kaffeehauses around the Ringstrasse, and eating brot and crunchy wursts at street vendors, sum up a typical day in the life of a  couple of Kalifornien tourists. (They are very proud of Arnold.)

Today we took our morning speed walk into the globalized (Baltic moslems, Indians, Chinese, Russians) neighborhoods concealing the real-life Wien. Our destination was the Naschmarkt (yes, “noshing”) – open air stalls offering delights from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Middle East. Later we visited the Albertina art museum (Klee, Chagal, Lichtenstein, and Oakland’s Art Ramos). The museum is an exquisite background for modern art combining classic and new design in a tasteful setting.

Tonight we took the sleek tram to the Volksoper beyond city Zentrum to see Rigoletto. It was a stirring performance in proper German, although the famous arias where done in Italian – some things can get lost in translation, I guess.

We managed to stare down the weather that threatened rain and sustain our glorious sunny streak.

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