February 17: Took the S Bahn to Klosterneuburg. It is a lovely town about 10 minutes north of Vienna by train. There is a famous church and abbey there. It was a dreary day, but not cold. Got off at the train station and walked up the hill to the church and abbey. The church is a beautiful church with Baroque decorations on the interior. The museum was closed and there were no tours so wandered around. Went into the museum store which shared an entrance with a café on the edge of the downtown. Since Christmas items were 50% off, Mary did some shopping. For late lunch we stopped at a restaurant across from the station. I was a little cheaper than Vienna. Ordered menu 2 which consisted of liver dumpling soup, fried cod (non-greasy), 3 slices of potato, and a side plate of potato salad (erdäpfel salat). The owner and waitresses were friendly—it was not real crowded. On the way out Mary spied a cookie like my mother used to make so we bought 2 Linzeraugen to take with us (these are like large sugar cookies with a raspberry spread between the two cookies; there are holes in the top cookie so you can see the raspberry). Took the train back to Vienna. Got off at the Franz Josef Bahnhof—saw the hotel we stayed at almost 35 years ago before taking the train to Prague. The Franz Josef Bahnhof has been remodeled with a horrible modern glass 6 or 7 story building. After unloading our purchases in our apartment headed down to the Staatsoper to see if we could get standing room tickets for Tosca; however, the line was so long, I knew they would be sold out so just walked a bit before heading home.
February 18: A beautiful day with a blue sky! Since everything tends to be closed on Sunday we did our last minute grocery shopping in the morning and then just went for a two hour walk through streets we had not gone down before and into churches we had not seen. Saw the church where Beethoven’s funeral service was held. Ended up walking around the Votivkirche and back to our apartment.
February 19: Went to church not knowing who would be speaking. The pastor was in Burkino Faso for 2 weeks. The speaker turned out to be David Guzik. I was somewhat shocked, because I have used his commentaries which are posted online for a number of years (because they are free). He is now teaching at a Bible school in Germany. He is an excellent speaker with a lot of life application. Walked to a kebap shop with our Turkish friend and sat and talked and ate lamb kebab. Instead of ordering ayran to drink, we purchased two Egyptian-style soft drinks. They were very good and one tasted a lot like ginger beer or Vernor’s. Walked home through the middle of the city which was crowded with everyone out enjoying the good weather. The only troubling thing I saw was an Austrian holding her little dog up on a sink in a toiletten (men and women had separate stalls, but the sink was shared). She was cleaning the dog’s “behind” on the sink I would be using to wash my hands! And it smelled like wet dog! I think there are some things that should just be done in the privacy of one’s own home. Austrians and their dogs.
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