by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7
Urbanna, Va.— Austria is a nation of about 9 million people and about 2 million live in Vienna. Each day 200,000 people come into Vienna to work as it is the capital of the country. It also has a UN headquarters, which employs 5,000 workers.
In spite of all this, it is a noticeably quiet city and one reason is honking a car’s horn is illegal except in an emergency. Also, there is excellent public transportation: underground train, electric trolley, bike and walking lanes that keep auto traffic to a minimum. It is also a remarkably clean and well-organized city.
Bike lanes, walk, and auto lanes are separated by color zones. Although confusing at first, one quickly learns to stay in the correct lane. Cars and bikes speed by in their own designated lanes and one could easily be eradicated if one happens to be walking in the wrong lane.
Our third day in Vienna was a little easier for me to deal with my jet lag, even though it was still difficult to get to sleep at night because a 10 p.m. Vienna bedtime was 4 p.m. Urbanna time. Even worse was getting up in the mornings as 8 a.m. was 2 a.m. Urbanna time. I wondered how long it would be before I could go to sleep and wake up on Vienna time.
We decided to skip planned tours and do our own thing exploring the city. With map in hand we headed to the City Center, which was a massive and crowded pedestrian shopping avenue where millions of electric Christmas lights were already displayed in preparation for the holiday. We could see it would be a fantastic sight but it was our bad luck the lights would not be turned on until the day after our departure.
Music wafted through the air and just ahead we saw an orchestra seated on a platform in the middle of the street playing Strauss waltzes. Crowds of people were waltzing to the music, their faces lit up in expressions of joy. It was both an ecstatic and hilarious sight because the dancers were dressed in wintry clothes: thick ski coats, slacks, walking shoes, scarves and gloves—a far cry from what one might have expected, the beautiful flowing long gowns of the past.
I grabbed Chip who is ever reluctant to dance (for that innate Virginian fear of “creating a spectacle”) and reviewed the 1-2-3 steps to a Viennese waltz. We were soon whirling around in our winter garb just like the others. The fast pace soon made us breathless and we stopped dancing to rest. But what fun! The Austrians really enjoy their beautiful waltz music.
Suddenly the 50,000-pound bell from the famous St. Stephens Cathedral on the square rang out behind us and we turned to view the massive 15th-century Gothic Church in all its splendor. The pealing sent a thrill up my spine. I suddenly realized hearing the massive bell peal, the largest in Austria, was worth all the suffering from travel and jet lag. As if on cue, the sun momentarily broke from the clouds, turning all 230,000 glazed tiles on the cathedral roof to a glistening gold. I was stunned at the beauty of the vision.
The massive crowds moved toward the cathedral as if drawn to it by the pealing bell. We were swept along and soon were standing in the back of the church listening to a priest sing the same refrain in German that we sing in English in the Episcopal Church.
The interior was breathtaking, magnificent really, with the heads of all the past popes carved in stone. The brochure stated the composer, Haydn, had served as a choir boy in this cathedral, and Mozart was married in the cathedral and his funeral also was there.
I felt inspired as I usually do when visiting the many spectacular cathedrals in Europe and although I have read that church attendance is low now in all European countries, I hoped that Christianity would somehow manage to survive in future generations. Mankind certainly needs constant reminder that love, tolerance and forgiveness is the civilized way to live.
We followed our map and found we could manage well, thanks to excellent German organization and correct street signage. Our goal was the Shakespeare Book Store in the Jewish section of town as we were in the market for books written in English. Chip chose “History of the Hapsburg Empire” while I purchased several Iris Murdoch novels, a favorite British novelist.
Clutching our precious books, we headed back to the Imperial Hotel stopping for pizza where an Italian cook made us “funge” (mushroom) and a salad with black olives and tomatoes. Delicious. “Ciao!” he called as we left. Vienna is a city of multiple languages but everyone speaks English.
(Continued on January 2) ©2019
Note: Mary Wakefield Buxton wishes all her readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
