K & L's Travel Blog

Travel experiences for us tend to unfold along the fault line between planning and spontaneity. I’m more of a planner than Kitty, and have a not-so-healthy drive to check off goals. I literally spend months planning, reading and researching, and approach travel as a limited opportunity to try to identify what I might value and then prioritize that goal. Kitty is more spontaneous, and happy to start each day without any plan—just strike out and see what calls us. I’m the one who has the mental check-list. If you asked me what I want to see in Vienna, I’d have a practically endless list of carefully researched potential sites. Kitty can travel with broader goals: reconnect with past, experience animals and gardens. I am largely driven by photography, an attempt to capture the moment for futurity.

This dynamic and its attendant pressures actually works pretty well for us. I tend to keep us moving towards, Kitty is more in the moment, and therefore attuned to opportunities as they arise. I awake this AM feeling the pressured tick tock of time passing. Note we are only on day 3 of a month-long vacation, but I am (to use a horsey term) chomping at the bit. When we get to noon and I realize I haven’t yet taken a photo, I feel my anxiety rising. Tick tock. Kitty, meanwhile, is watching the crowds, generating narratives and taking it all in.

And maybe this is just life: we have an idea of where we expect to go, but life has a way of interfering. Today, our itinerary was disrupted by multiple tasks and chores. I’ve had troubles with my SIM card, but there’s a Drei Store across the street. They fix it in no time (don’t ask me for details), but it still feels to me as though it’s lost time. Next we have to buy a transit ticket. We settle on the 8-trip group ticket. This allows for 4 days of travel for a couple. Then another chore, go fix my battery charger. They are so nice at the Leica place that they show us how to make the charger work and then agree to charge my extra battery at no cost. By this time it’s noon and I’m ready to get on with our vacation, painfully aware I haven’t take a single photo. But then, this is life.

We set out on the Rick Steve’s Vienna Straßenbahn tour. Clearly, we could have done more advanced planning, namely cuing the tour and getting set with our headphones. We do catch up, but then find the entire experience unsatisfying. Maybe it’s because this is our fourth trip to Vienna, so are not in need of that general Ringstraße tour. When the tour ends, but we decide to rebel against Steve’s advice to get off the tram assuming it runs in a tight circle and we can get back to a nice vegetarian restaurant we’d spotted. Not a good choice. We end up in a southern suburb, and slowly make our way back. On the way, we realize we’re near the Naschmarkt, and get off there instead. Perfect decision. We are just at the right spot. And I am back on itinerary.

We are both what one would call “foodies,” so a site like the Naschmarkt, a lengthy strip of food joints and restaurants, is sure to please. We had been here before, but our memories are limited (I remember seeing a calico cat pelt in one store and I have a photo to prove it). We go down the left side, which is mostly vendors. We get a restaurant about half-way, and stop for chicken schnitzel and salat. It’s perfect.

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After the Naschmarkt we head to the nearby Secessionist Museum. We had just heard Kirks’ stories about his time there, and that definitely brought it to life. The Klimt Beethoven Frieze was unexpectedly intriguing (I must listen again to Beethoven’s Ninth to see where the gorilla comes in) and the building itself a treat.

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Next it’s onto the Albertina to see a Dürer exhibition . Thanks to our friend Bob for alerting us this one. Amazing sense of detailed realism for engravings. The rabbit is the star, but I enjoy the rhino and his portraits as well. And then works like “Melancholia” and “Saint Jerome” that I’ve studied but have never seen. It’s hard to get close as people are so avid (one woman has brought a magnifying glass to see the rabbit’s hairs and the guard has to ask her to move back and move on). There’s one portrait of “an African” that is rendered tenderly (one of about 5 black people we’ve seen in Vienna) and another of an 18 year-old boy. Of course there’s more to this museum (used to be a palace) than Dürer. We are introduced to an Austrian artist, Maria Lassnig, and enjoy their collection of Monet, Cezanne, Picasso. Nice groupings to show various movements. 

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Tomorrow they forecast rain. We’d intended to venture towards the outskirts of town to enjoy some of the wineries, but will need to be flexible and change our itinerary. I can handle it.