April 3: In the evening went to the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in the city to hear a choral and organ recital of Bach pieces. The City Choir of Bratislava was performing. It was lovely to listen to the organ and the choir was superb. It is a smaller church and obviously less ornate than Catholic churches. There might have been 70 people there. All this week the church is offering free recitals so we will try to go to as many as possible. It is interesting that during Lent, all of the crosses/pictures in the front altar areas of Catholic churches are covered or shielded. On Easter Sunday they will be removed. In the Lutheran church I saw a liturgical cloth hanging from the pulpit with the “Omega” before the “Alpha”—it will be switched back to the normal alphabetical order on Easter.
April 4: Went to another concert at the Evangelical church—heard a harpsichord and a “Gambe” which looks like a cello to me, but maybe a bit smaller. I think some of the musical instruments are slightly different here. Someone was saying a European oboe is not exactly like an American oboe.
April 5: A busy day so we ate out. Mary ordered a dish which consisted of slabs of fried cheese covered in almonds and placed on a salad. I ordered Osterschinken which was a ham steak with a fried egg on top with mashed potatoes on the side. It was almost like an IHOP breakfast. However, Mary’s dish was much tastier than mine. We are going to go back and both of us will order this cheese dish.
April 6: Went to the Leopold museum and saw some of the 20th century Austrian artists.
April 7: Took the tram to Grinzing and then transferred to the bus and got off at Kahlenberg. You can overlook the city and the view is wonderful (except for the haze or smog). You can see the skyline and the Danube. Walked about 20 minutes to Leopoldsburg and saw the old fortifications. John Sobieski’s army was on the heights overlooking Vienna from this point as Vienna lay under siege from the Turks. His army marched down (after a special mass) and defeated the Turks. You could also look west up the Danube and see Klosterneuburg. Came home and met a lady who is teaching ESL and went to another concert at the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. Stopped for coffee and torte in a little café and enjoyed the fellowship.
April 8: Wanted to go back to Kahlenberg and hike down to Klosterneuburg through the Vienna Woods. Got to Kahlenberg and hiked down the big hill through the woods to the central part of Klosterneuburg—it took about 50 minutes. We passed some lovely homes. Stopped in a little restaurant and order the lamb lunch special. Mary looked at some of the stores and then we headed to the train station to get a ticket and train back to Vienna. Bought some Italian ice cream cones—I had pistachio and amarena (cherry). Came back and went to another organ concert at the Evangelical church. The Bach and Brahms pieces were great, but the organ master’s improvisation was not to my liking. Walked back to the tram past a number of Goths/punks out for the night.
April 9: After church walked back through the Belvedere Palace grounds and stopped at a restaurant advertising “Wiener Kuchen” – it was not one of the best meals we have had. We did see a new church, St. Elisabeth’s, which was several blocks behind Karlskirche. It was one of the more beautiful churches we have seen—a simple gothic style (although the outside had probably been rebuilt because of the bombing in WWII). A Russian theoretical physicist I am getting to know asked me if America was as violent as the films he sees. It is interesting how powerful Hollywood is in giving sexual and violent stereotypes of America. He has never been to the US. He is extremely smart and deals with theoretical issues related to silicon in his research. He said that many of the articles in “Nature” or “Science” deal with the simplistic issues of what is happening and don’t get into the theoretical issues of what is happening in atoms and smaller. I don’t operate at the sub-atomic level.
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