Michael travels with his good friends Eddy, Mercedes, and Jane in October 1991
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t’s August 1991, and I am living in London. Massive changes are occurring in Amex, and a considerate boss, Juergen offers me a paid sabbatical leave.
“Get away for six months. Go home to Australia if you have to and have your other corneal graft taken care of. When you can read again properly, come back and we’ll talk about the future”, he says. The free time afforded me by this sabbatical allows me the luxury of some personal introspection. Everyone knows I’m a mad, ‘driven’ personality, but this is a great opportunity to try and moderate that behaviour. I’m going ‘all out’ to address not only the work/play balance, but also to take advantage of the travel and cultural opportunities open to me living in Europe. An extended weekend in Vienna with my good friends the Bühlmanns and Jane at the end of October is a great start. And we’ll do it in style! For once we decide not to bring travellers cheques and simply ‘do it’ as one would always like to – ‘charge everything’! Eddy is in-‐charge. And he’s delegated the arrangements to our General Manager for Austria, the affable Herr Konsul (of France) Guenther Klimitsch. So we have no doubt about the choice of hotel, the standard of rooms, and gifts of chocolates and champagne waiting for us on check-‐in. But, on arrival at Vienna airport late on Friday evening, Guenther surprises us with a chauffeured, brand-‐new Mercedes limousine, that’s to remain at our disposal for the entire weekend? On Saturday morning, after a leisurely buffet breakfast – European style with muesli, fruits, ham and cheese – we drive out through the Vienna Woods until we reached the Danube. It’s a sunny and brisk autumn day and we make our first stop to walk around the ancient little town of Krems. It’s the Austrian National Day Holiday and the only activity at all is a wedding in the local church. We sit and watch and get about finding a coffee to get warm. We lunch in Durnstein in the dining room of a converted monastery, right below the ruins of the castle where King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned as he journeyed home from the Crusades nearly a thousand years ago. The views out over the Danube and the vineyards in their autumnal colours are a picture.
Durnstein -‐ the views out over the Danube and the vineyards in their autumnal colours are 2 a picture.
In between the liver dumpling soup and stroganoff, we savour Jane’s stories of Richard being saved through the efforts of Blondel, his minstrel boy – ‘he returned to an England bankrupted by his squandering on the Crusades, died and was succeeded to the throne by his brother John, who signed the Magna Carta, changing the role of the monarchy to ‘first among equals’. (It’s a bonus having an historian for a travelling companion, Jane! Thank you.) Continuing along Austria’s ‘Romantic Road’ the sun keeps its strength just long enough for us to visit the magnificent baroque Benedictine Abbey at Melk. It’s an imposing yellow in colour and is situated in a commanding position on a hill looking out over the surrounding rural areas and the Danube.
The Benedictine Abbey at Melk
Culture The next twenty-‐four hours is as demanding as it is exhilarating – Guenther has arranged tickets for the Opera, the Vienna Boys Choir and the Spanish Riding School. From the cultural perspective this weekend, Beethoven wins out over Mozart (even if it is his 200th anniversary). Mozart wrote a few too many notes in the ‘Magic Flute’ for my liking. The opera is too long, and frequent asides in the German language don’t help my appreciation. The atmosphere in the 6-‐tiered Vienna Opera House lives up to my expectations. We have excellent seats on the main floor under the crystal chandelier (later to find out Guenther paid $200 each for them). I’m surprised, however, when I realise that each of the tiers encircling us on three sides has only one row of chairs!
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Mercedes, Jane and Michael – ready for the Vienna Opera
On Sunday morning we go to hear the Vienna Boys Choir in the Court Chapel of the Habsburgs. They sing Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor with full orchestral accompaniment. It is a powerfully beautiful experience with contrasting and completely disarming moments. My senses are lulled into a wonderful tranquillity with strings and voices of lullaby softness, occasionally to be encroached upon by crescendo of wind instruments and rising volume of soprano and tenor voices. We have ten minutes to ‘hot-‐foot’ it over to the Spanish Riding School and find our seats in the gallery. The whole performance is done to music of the great composers. I feel the Japanese should be invited to install a new sound system (or after my experience in the chapel earlier in the morning, the orchestra could be brought across to perform ‘live’). Eddy, Jane and Michael along Austria’s Romantic Road
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Local Cuisine Late evening supper at the smart Café Korso, and Sunday lunch at the Hotel Sacher presents a challenge to ‘digest’ so much in such a short time. But we do! I wake with puffy eyes on Sunday, but a little shut-‐eye in the afternoon while others go to the Schönbrunn Palace readies me for the evening in a home-‐style restaurant in the suburbs. Did you now there were twenty-‐four types of meat on a cow, and that the most delectable piece was to be found around the shoulder? The Austrians and Swiss swear by it! ‘Tafelspitz’ is boiled meat, and served with an apple/horseradish combination sauce and hash-‐brown potatoes. We all choose this national delicacy in the traditional wood-‐panelled dining room of the Hotel Sacher (of Sacher torte fame) for Sunday lunch. It’s good; it’s filling. But it’s still boiled beef! (My New York butcher tells me it’s the cut he sells for ‘London Broil’). The Austrian white wines are very good, but the new experience comes with tasting the ‘sturm’ at the Sunday evening suburban retreat. At Mercedes’ behest, the owner delivers a carafe of what looks like cloudy white apple juice. It is from grapes nonetheless, but two weeks after the yeast had been added and a bubbling chemical change to alcohol has commenced. Salzburg Being on sabbatical gives me the freedom to wave my friends off back to work and take some extra time to visit Salzburg – a place I’ve wanted to see for many years. I stay in a hotel right on the river with a wonderful view of the Castle and Old City from my window. Floodlights through the mist by night and a guided walking tour by day really bring the whole place to life.
Salzburg
Salzburg is a city, which was ruled over by wealthy Prince-‐Archbishops until the early nineteenth century when Napoleon stopped all that. I attend a concert in the Schloss Mirabel, which was built by one of the Prince-‐Archbishops of the Florence Medici family for his mistress
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(and mother of his twelve children). I put all this behind me as I sit and enjoy a piano recital in the Marble Hall where Mozart’s father Leopold had brought him to listen so many years ago. The lakes and mountains around Salzburg are as spectacular as I remember in ‘The Sound of Music’ – and so peaceful. A full day’s drive with only the cows for company tops off five really wonderful days.
Michael at Strauss Memorial in Vienna
Eddy, Mercedes and Jane in Vienna – probably just before we footsore tourists visited the famous Vienna Coffee House Griensteidl for a coffee and a chance to unwind
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