NOTICE: For a recipe that sweeps you back to a Vienna Coffee Shop, follow this link to My Kids Eat Squid.
Destination: Vienna
Book: A Death in Vienna (2004) by Daniel Silva
A GUEST POST by Kristin J. Gough Continue reading A Mystery Book and a Taste of Vienna
I have been pondering what places my husband and I have visited that were the most romantic. There are so many. Santorini, Budapest, Florence and Salzburg, for instance.
This little cherub in the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg seems to have a headache as he points the way out the door. Mirabell was built in 1606 by an un-churchy Archbishop, Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, who needed an ostentatious home for his mistress. The mistress was named–I am not making this up–Salome. Back in the day, Archbishop’s ruled, which gave Mozart some headaches of his own, but that is another story.
We came across a wedding in the Mirabell Palace.
As we walked through the Mirabell Palace, two people, seemingly costumed for The Sound of Music, (in Austrian national costumes) came in and ascended the marble stairs. They paused for a photo–only the bride looking happy about the whole thing.
Places gain instant romance cred when a bride in flowing white gown floats into view. We run into them everywhere. In a courtyard in the Alhambra , in Granada, Spain, we came across a photo shoot with a bride and groom. No, they weren’t models working for an ad agency. They were not perfect enough for that.
But using the Bridal scale for measuring romanticism, St. Petersburg Russia turns out to be the most romantic place of all. As we entered Peterhof Palace, with the beautiful series of fountains and bridges, a bridal party preceded us. They were obviously enjoying their partying in the famous gardens of Peter the Great.
It was a wonderful addition to our experience of Peterhof, which Peter built in imitation of Versailles. The Nazis bombed it to extinction in WWII and the Communist government of Russia spent millions of dollars as they restored every overblown, over gilded, outsized bit of it after the war.
When we returned across the Gulf of Finland to Petersburg, and sat drinking tea at a square overlooking the river, we saw the same wedding party. Someone told us that in Russia, the wedding party goes off sightseeing after the wedding, still in their wedding garb, while the parents put together the reception. Lovely way to start married life, that…sightseeing.
Now I promise that I will get back to talking about books as soon as I get all this romantic travel out of my head.
Book: Mozart, A Cultural Biography by Robert Gutman
Destination: Salzburg
Don’t take the Sound of Music tour. Don’t tell an Austrian how much you like the Sound of Music. For heavens’ sake, don’t walk down the Getreidegasse humming “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music.
I had been warned before I went to Salzburg that Austrians do not like American’s beloved musical because it portrays them as too friendly to the Nazis in World War II. What others saw as accommodation, the Austrians saw as survival. But the lovely lady who guided us on a walking tour around the UNESCO World Heritage Site Old City, blamed it on dissing Austrian music. “Edelweiss,” she explained, “is not even an Austrian folk song.” And with that, we went back to exploring the childhood neighborhoods of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salzburg’s favorite son.
While Mozart did indeed spend his childhood in this city (when he wasn’t on tour impressing crowned heads of Europe with his prodigy), he lit out for Vienna, saying a few nasty things about Salzburg when he was old enough. Learn all about the boy genius and his pushy dad in Mozart, A Cultural Biography, perhaps the best of dozens of biographies of Salzburg’s pride and joy, and worthy of a place in the traveler’s library.
So after you land at the Mozart airport, visit the Mozart Cafe, munch on some Mozart candy, attend the Mozart Festival or listen to puppets perform Mozart’s operas, but DO NOT take the Sound of Music Tour. Keep your ear on the Baroque music of Mozart.
Travel guides come wrapped in books of biography, too, you know. What biographies have you read that deepened your understanding of a destination?