In and around Berlin we had our fill of Grand Royal palaces. Winter palaces, summer palaces, palaces for the Empress, palaces for the kiddies, palaces to impress the neighbours. But in the end, as Frederick the Great said, “A crown is just a hat that lets the rain in”. The monarchy went steadily downhill and people found other ways to amuse themselves.

.

On our last night in Berlin, what better preparation for travelling back to the Vienna of the golden days than replaying a DVD of The Sound of Music? The train trip to Vienna gave us ten hours, travelling at up to 220 km/h, to build up anticipation of the good old days. Many things in Vienna have been put back just the way they were before the war. Try to ignore Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway and Bodyshop – concentrate on the elegant boulevards.

Gave the taxi driver the address of our Airbnb apartment. A quarter hour later he stopped outside what appeared to be a disused plumbing shop. In disbelief, I looked up and down the street for something more promising. Sweetiepie had more faith in the system. The hostess, Christina had sounded so helpful. There was, however, a combination lock on the door pillar and the given code allowed entry. In the mid 19^th cent. Ferd. Schremmer established a plumbing business in a Biedermeier style complex. A pair of shops sat either side of a carriageway that gave onto a spacious garden courtyard. The residence above and around the courtyard has now been turned into comfortable Airbnb apartments. We were guests above while below, the plumbing business still operates at a very gentle pace.

Checklist: Wifi – tick. Bathroom, colossal shower head – tick, microwave – tick, comfy bed – tick, personal stuff, tooth brush, spare nickers and pills stowed away – tick. Ready for action.

Bankrolled by Emperor Franz Joseph, in the 1850s architects Eduard van der Nüll and August von Sicardsburg proudly produced the Vienna State Opera which was, at the time very avant-garde. The Emperor was disappointed, he said “It looks like a railway station”. Van der Nüll committed suicide and barely ten weeks later Sicardsburg died of tuberculusis. All prematurely it turns out, as the public and the Emperor eventually approved when they saw the interior decor. Funnily enough, in WW2, the Allies bombed the Opera, mistaking it for a railway station. The Viennese so loved the building that after the war they rebuilt it just the way it was.

The new year spectacular and the Opera Ball in February have long been very popular. Debutantes age 18 to 24 can apply to come out at the ball. Others can expensively dance away the night till the early hours. It is said the one of the hundred boxes, each seating at 8 people, can be booked for as little as €20,000.

.

Having not pre-booked any high-end concerts on line from Melbourne, settled for a guided tour of the state opera house. Luckily, at the time, we were able to see the set being prepared for the evenings performance of Eugene Onegin.

More in keeping with our budget was a string quartet performing twice a week in the glitteringly lovely little St Anne’s church. We joined with 120 customers for a very polished and enthusiastic performance of the 3rd Beethoven Razumovsky. Sitting on the edge of our hard, wooden upright seating we were, for the intense and polished performance. The musicians all do mix and match with other ensembles. In Vienna the bar is obviously quite high for those who would make a living from classical music. Except maybe for those who do nightly concerts in wigs and frilly dresses. On the way home we sat for a while outside the State Opera watching the Tchaikovsky on the big screen. Very cold, but without entrance fee.

Haven’t ventured underground for the trains, the trams are so cute, doing s-bends around the narrow streets with cars parked either side and scuttling out of the way just in time.

Prominent around town in the important galleries were the works of the secessionists Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Oscar Kokoschka. All born late in the 19^th cent. and proudly claimed as sons of Vienna. Schiele had his short young brilliant career as an artist cut short by being drafted into the army in WW1, dying of the Spanish flue in 1918. Lots of Klimt’s paintings on show, with pride of place given to “The Kiss”. Vienna would have loved to have kept “Woman in Gold”, but as the movie records the $135million painting now hangs in Manhattan’s Neue Gallery.

From beginnings in 1910 the Naschmarkt has grown to a street market one and a half kilometres long. Quite near the city centre, it is made up mainly of permanent stalls from the pre-war period. Rows and rows of restaurants, many buzzing with happy customers. An area of empty restaurants with staff eagerly touting for business. “You are breaking my heart”, one of the spruikers pleaded to me. We enjoyed a meal at one of the busier places. Then there are stalls selling street food, big flat pastries with fetta and spinach. The rich smells of endless cheese stalls, spice stalls, meat and fish stalls, all sorts of sweets and nibbles. Some clothing stalls too.

.

Think of Viennese life as a grid. The X axis goes between the von Trapp family and unreconstructed Nazis. The Y axis from the obscenely wealthy and extravagant royal families down to the squalid peasant masses. Most of present day Vienna sprawls in the middle of the grid, comfortably enjoying their Art, Music, Schnitzel, Sachertorte, and Strudel, washed down with beer or Viennese white wine. What do the school children of today think when they visit, en masse, the Kunst Historisches Museum, trawling through the treasures that somehow survived the ravages of the war? We were totally overwhelmed. Sweetiepie managed to tick off another Vermeer from her list of must-see things. The one with the painter, painting a painting of himself doing a painting. Abundant Rubens, Rembrandt, Dürer and Italian masters for those who are into that sort of thing.

the Arithmetic Engine

I was blinded by the vast collection of gold, silver and ivory jewellery, reliquary and decorative art. Couldn’t help thinking “Is this stuff all real?” There is an enormous golden “Arithmetic Engine” dating from at least a few years before digital calculators. A collection of large jewelled eggs rivalling the fabulous Russian Faberge eggs in excess. A gold Automaton battle ship that actually fires tiny guns programmed by a clockwork mechanism. Another golden Automaton has a beautifully gowned lady playing a mandolin while she waggles her head and moves gracefully across the floor. The list goes on.

After all of that, lunch in the grand dining room of the gallery would have to impress. It did. Perfect in every way. Particularly taken by the elegant coffee cups with asymmetrical handles. Ergonomically just right. Tempted to try to copy.

Venice beckons in the morning