Intermission...

 

Interim Update #1,271

On October 28th Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa and United flew us to Frankfurt, then Chicago, then Fayetteville, Arkansas, for a week visiting life-long friends Tawana and Wes. We're back in the States! Relaxing and catching up with some of our best family and friends. From here, we'll return to Knoxville, then to DC, and eventually to Cary, NC, for Christmas. And then to Auckland for three months in New Zealand with its warmth and hospitality. 

Awaiting the train to Flughafen Wien

Breakfast of champions at the Vienna airport lounge

With Wes and Tawana in Fayetteville

Sam Walton's pick-up at the northwest Arkansas airport; next time,
Tawana, let's do the Walmart Museum for sure

Auf Wiedersehen, Wien

Absolutely as great a visit as we'd hoped. Paris, auf Deutsch.

Vienna Out-Takes, 3

Not many masks on the streets nor in the stores;
but virtually universal on public transit

One more view of the Uniqa building, Vienna's Waltzing House

In a relatively compact historic district like Vienna's inner city, we
walk most of the distances involved, mostly to see things, but also
to get our 10,000+ steps most every day; at our age, however, walking
so much requires resting sooner or later, mostly sooner, and thus our
expertise in finding comfortable benches; this day, walking completely
across town from the Belvedere to our apartment, we somehow managed 
to miss several parks and their abundant benches, but, finally, on a lonely
street in a somewhat downwardly mobile neighborhood, we spot a nice
bench at the attractively landscaped entrance to an apartment building;
relaxing there, I look up from my phone and notice a scantily-clad young
woman blowing me kisses from a 2nd story window; interesting; it
finally occurs to me to look up "laufhaus" on Google Translate; some
sort of Comedy Club thing, I wonder; but no, it translates
straightforwardly to "whore house"; some workers arrive, one a 48Z,
Vicki says, and before things get more complicated, we decide to look
for another bench  

Vienna State Opera, one of the largest and greatest; I did the tour
in 2010--best opera house tour ever--and didn't want to disturb my
good memories

Usually you see bicycles locked to gratings and fences; someone's
soap box?

Branch office

Antique clock repair

Puppet doctor

Presto!

Dirty, disgusting, filthy, lice-ridden birds...

Outside the Albertina, Durer's Hare adorns a hot dog stand

The Albertina's great prize, and a great one indeed

Sic transit, Gloria

What happens when you eat too many greens

Clark Kent in pink pants with matching pink phone

"Here I come to save the day!"

Ornaments in a pastry shop

Loos' loos

Public toilets designed by a young Adolf Loos

The urinals are free...less is not more

Last seen in Berlin

The giant sofa at the MAK

Of course we took pix

And clowned around

Vienna Scenes

 An assortment of further scenes from a beautiful and historically important city, still thriving...

Haas House, a contemporary structure opposite the
cathedral, which is reflected in its glass

A curvy street here and there

Christmas decorations ready for the season

Construction and renovation everywhere

Near the Albertina, the Monument against War and Fascism, with
a still pertinent, even urgent, message

Lobmeyer building, 1830s

Church of the Knights of Malta

All in German, we guessed

Prince Eugene's town house

Among many pretty portals

Many contemporary buildings

Sofien Sale, an 18th century building with a long

history, updated to an art nouveau facade in the

early 1900s 

Some ugly buildings too

The studio of

Ernst Fuchs

Painter, designer, sculptor, composer, architect; died just in 2015

Colorful block

Part of the Vienna we didn't see

Russian Orthodox church

Across from the Russian Embassy, construction workers have
flown the Ukrainian flag

The Albertina Museum...maybe next time

Burial crypt for the Habsburgs

Another beauty

The first Bauhaus construction; Loos built it right across from the
Hofburg: note its lack of "eyebrows" on the windows