Serene, Scented and Stately Vienna

Arrival into Vienna is less than serene.  The Vienna railway station (and I am becoming a bit of an authority on railway stations) is a modern and practical space, with services clearly marked and thankfully, fully understandable. The taxi rank is therefore easily found however there seems to be a huge argument ensuing between a number of drivers with much yelling and striding about.  Having watched this non plussed, for several minutes we finally succumb to the overtures of a man who opens his boot and indicates us forward. He seems to have been at the heart of the action and when our journey is underway and I ask him if the rank is always like this, he laughs.

On the journey to our hotel the monumentalism of inner-city Vienna begins to reveal itself. The Age newspaper journalist James Marriot in an article I read prior to leaving on this trip, describes loving “the melancholy gigantism favoured by the Hapsburg architects who built central Vienna: the massive domes, porticos, angels and supersize Austrian generals astride enormous sad looking horses. “I begin to love it too.

Our hotel is modern Vienna, stylish with unfailingly helpful and charming staff. In the coming days, this approach to the many tourists that inhabit the city, seems to be a quality common to all service staff. They are genuinely nice and laugh easily. I am developing a sense of Vienna as a place where people are authentic, themselves. I am also humbled by how easily people switch between languages to accommodate our needs. It is a quality of the Europeans which has always impressed me and over ten years since I last travelled in this part of the world, I am even more impressed.

The streets local to the hotel reveal quirky cafes, hardware stores with eclectic window displays and a number of small design businesses manufacturing arts and crafts type homewares. They also reveal refined and elegant arcades and increasingly substantial buildings which eventually forecourt the glorious Volksgarten, a public space planted with thousands of rose bushes, each bush commemorating the deaths of someone loved. Being spring, the blooms are full and the scent, heady. At the centre of the park stands the distinctly Greek inspired Theseus Temple originally built to house a sculpture that has since been moved elsewhere. It is weirdly impressive.

This pretty place which becomes a landmark on walks to and from the city centre, is always inviting a rest and occasionally providing a musical interlude. Once, an elegant harpist adds her notes to the floral scented air and on another day, two rustically dressed gentlemen play folk songs on piano accordion and guitar. Their playing together is effortless and delightful. The buskers of each city visited have been important elements in providing a sense of each place.

A more formal musical encounter is had one evening in St Anne`s church in the heart of the city. The following image is not mine; Confronted with the extraordinary interior of this hidden away little church, I became awestruck at the skill required to achieve this level of lavish Baroque ornamentation and horrified by the power and wealth of the catholic church in equal measure.

Add these interiors to accomplished renditions of Mozart and Beethoven by a string quartet and it was a memorable evening, finishing in the shopping precinct of downtown Vienna which boasts an enormous cannabis (CBD but no THC) shop at its centre.  The laws regarding Cannabis in Austria are pretty unequivocal. It is illegal unless prescribed, so this huge shop in the centre of Vienna and the widespread sale of hemp products in corner stores in Prague are interesting statements. This is an evening of the sublime to the ridiculous in whatever direction you go.

The monumental buildings of the Opera House, museum and the gargantuan statuary are initially jaw dropping. Vienna does big, really big, but in this city, it does not feel overwhelming as it occasionally did in both Berlin and Prague. The city feels spacious and elegant and whilst the tourist crowds are as prevalent as they have been elsewhere, they do not feel as intrusive. It seems we can all do what we want to in these spaces without abrasively impacting each other. Storms gather during the late afternoons and the statues against the darkening skies are epic.

It was one of these storms roiling across the sky, and opening the clouds to drop a heavy deluge, which puts me on a bus and into the home and treatment rooms of Sigmund Freud, now a museum. As a psychologist for over thirty years, this represents the holy grail. I am not disappointed by this beautifully curated collection and even as I write, can feel the goosebumps. To walk through the place where his original work and thinking around what constitutes the human psyche, was undertaken, is beyond thrilling.    

I think that a performance by the Spanish Riding School will also be thrilling. One of my earliest recollections of anything European is being a small girl on a farm in Australia reading about the Lipizzaner Stallions of this 450-year-old riding school in Austria. That I am terrified of horses is beside the point because these white horses dancing in unison, seem magical. This is not quite the reality although the setting itself, is glorious and undoubtably there is pageantry. The image below is not mine because photographs are not permitted due to the chance of scaring, particularly the young stallions. As I watch the horses being schooled in this particularly elite form of equestrian activity, I am torn by feelings about humans subjugating animals to their will and despite UNESCO`s deeming the school as a place of intangible cultural value to humanity I come away with mixed feelings about this experience.

One of the delights of having time to wander a city, is to discover part of it that you did not know existed. Embarrassingly close to the hotel, but not found until almost the last day in Vienna is the Museum Quarter. With its casually plotted and naturalized temporary garden beds, and sculptures for lounging on in huge courtyards at the heart of a number of equally huge buildings, this area is a lovely space for breakfast in one of the restaurants dotted around the edges of the space.

  In the Leopold Museum, a modern white cube blending seamlessly with its more ancient counterparts, Rudolf and Elizabeth Leopold`s private collection of modern Austrian art between the late 1800`s and 1930`s has been wonderfully curated. Klimt, Schiele, Gerstl, Hoffman, and artists with ties to the arts and crafts movements current at the time in Britain and France, are celebrated. This is a collection not without controversy. In a number of court cases, works from the collection are alleged to have been stolen by the Nazi`s from Jewish owners. In several instances this has been proven and the inference is that Rudolph Leopold was so passionate about collecting the best works of this period that his moral compass may have strayed. Knowledge of this aspect of the collection adds a small dissonance to viewing it.

Vienna is all about the Hapsburg Dynasty but the rooms of their palace, Schönbrunn are surprisingly intimate: delicate and finely detailed. It is possible to imagine it as a family home although the acres and acres of gardens, hiding for example a zoo and the most extraordinary palm house would have required at least as many staff as the 1500 required to manage the palace itself. Obviously Schönbrunn is not a small enterprise.  

Eating pizza and drinking wine served by a Turkish man who faithfully remembers our order from the first night we visited his small hole in the wall establishment, I reflect on how comfortable I feel in this city. Vienna has felt effortlessly stylish, comfortable, spacious, gracious and easy. It has also been filled with the scent of roses and a sweet, citrusy perfume from a pretty flowering tree I (and Dr Google) have been unable to identify. I would like to revisit Vienna to identify that tree and to gain a truer sense if its undoubted depths. It is a lovely city.