A Place Called Bad Ischl

            By the time you read this, I’ll be winding my way across Austria with my in-laws. They came for a visit and decided that we needed to do a car tour of the country. This will be very fun and I’ll have lots of stories to tell but right now, I’m going to talk about one of our first trips.

            One of my favorite places in Austria that we have visited is called Bad Ischl. It is west of us, toward the Alps and near Salzburg. Our first year here, we were lucky enough to visit it as we went for my husband’s birthday. The very next year, we went again for a short visit in the summer when we had friends visiting. And believe it or not, we will be visiting it again on this trip.

            The place is reknown for where the last emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I, decided he wanted his cousin, Duchess Elizabeth of Bavaria to become his bride. Kaiservilla is where the proposal was delivered and much to everyone’s surprise, it was accepted. Duchess Elizabeth became Empress Elizabeth and was commonly known as Sisi, the reluctant empress. Yet, this remained one of the couples favorite places.

            What struck me was the beauty of the area as it was far from the Austrian court at the time and a great respite from those duties. It is still a respite in the modern era as I felt more relaxed than anywhere else in the country. We had lazy days and explored the whole small town on foot as we’d arrived by train.

            Just look at some of the wonderful things we saw!

            

At the top of the hill in Kaiservilla

Interesting gate at Kaiservilla

The grounds at the back of Kaiservilla

The back of Kaiservilla

View of Kaiservilla and Bad Ischl

One of the wings on Kaiservilla

A statue on the grounds at Kaiservilla

            Hope you enjoyed this look at another wonderful place in Austria! See you later this month!

            Lynn

The Beauty of Schonnbrunn

First, let me apologize to everyone for missing my last post. I am so, so sorry. I am on vacation in the States and visiting family. I really must say that I am missing Vienna more than I thought. I miss my husband, my apartment and of course, pup Harry. Still, I love being with my kids and grandkids but my house is way too small to keep us all comfortably.

Now I’m pulling something from my archives that I wrote my very first summer in Vienna. That has now happened nearly two years ago. Next month, I’ll be talking about our trip around Austria as we’re doing some car touring with my in-laws who are coming to visit.

Here’s what I had to say about one of the most beautiful palaces in the world…Schonbrunn…on my first visit.

One of the things I haven’t done much of so far since moving here to Vienna is visit museums or palaces. Not that I don’t want to, I really do, it’s just that I’m living still in a totally male dominated world that wants to do whatever they want. Sigh. I want to have my fair share and was surprised when they agreed to go to Schonbrunn Palace.

This place is huge with a zoo, a labyrinth and a variety of other things normal people can only dream about. The palace was built by Empress Mary Theresa in the late 1700s as a home for her family. She had eight or so kids and wanted a more roomier place. Never mind that she had Belevdere as one of her country estates, she wanted something more grand to accommodate her brood and to provide for their every need. 

And grand it is. This is one of those places it is better shown than told. When you arrive you enter through the front gate and go directly into the courtyard which is immense with a circular stair leading up to the main entrance. Here is one of the two fountains located there. The low buildings are where all the guards were quartered as well as some of the servants.

This courtyard is huge and could easily provide parking for hundreds of carriages in its day. Now, the palace itself is huge and really made me wonder just how would anyone use all one-hundred-eighty rooms of the place. True, some were used as personal quarters, some were used for balls and other entertainment, and there were those places used strictly for affairs of the state. Still, there were more rooms than anyone had a right to have much less use. Here’s a picture of it from the back, so you can see the immensity of the place.

One thing to remember is that this was in the country when the palace was built. As far as the eye could see was green, whether forest or meadow, I don’t know but I do know there were no buildings whatsoever except for maybe the church. Since this place has been here since the late 1700s, the church might be that old as well even though does have some sort of chapel inside as do all the palaces. As each ruler thought they were ruling by divine right, they made sure they kept God close at hand.

While it’s impressive, it’s in no way, the best the place has to offer. One of my favorite places is the fountain that was built in the back of the gardens. In the picture above, it would be just before the trees closet as the path up is a long, winding, sometimes steep path. I walked it very, very slow and will show you in another picture. Now, we’ll look at the fountain.

See...isn’t that impressive? The first time I ever saw it, it was iced over and the water wasn’t running. My husband assured me it was beautiful when the water was on and he’s correct. It is a lovely fountain and I’m sure happy that more than just royalty can enjoy it now.

Thanks for spending part of your day reading about this wonderful palace. Hope you enjoyed…see you next month!

Lynn

A Sunday Stroll

Hi everyone!

This week is going to be short and sweet because I am traveling to the States on Tuesday, March 5th. I can’t wait to see friends and family but will be leaving Vienna after some lovely days. Just a few weeks ago, the world here was covered in snow and we wondered if we were ever going to see sun again. Everything has changed since my last post. We heard an interesting tidbit about the winter we just had. Apparently it was the most sunless winter since 1943. No wonder I kept comparing it to WWII conditions.

Sunday we woke to a fabulous day and decided we couldn’t pass it up. Us and others felt the need to get out into the sun and be renewed. We decided to go on a walk that I know as Beethovengong and it was apparently a place where Beethoven would take his constitutional. According to local lore, he loved this trail as it winds its way toward the vineyard areas in the hills.

Now we didn’t have time to go to the top but we did get some mighty fine pictures. Here are a few for you to enjoy.

This is the trail we were on. The picture was taken when we were going down the hill.

We never could figure out just what this was. We think an abandoned flood control gate.

This is one of the many workers huts one sees in the vineyard area.

The occasional evergreen.

A nice little waterfall in the stream by the trail.

My husband and pup Harry before he got all muddy.

A fantastic view of Kahlenburg. It's a hotel and shops plus it has a fantastic view of the city.

Hope you enjoyed this little look into one of my favorite walks. See you next time!

Lynn

A Day at the Naschmarkt

            First, let me apologize for posting this so late. I’ve had bronchitis that is kicking my butt. The weather here is cold and it’s snowing again. That’s another story...here’s today’s post...

            Nearly every Saturday since we’ve been here, rain or shine, we go to the Naschmarkt. The only time we don’t go is when one of us is ill or we feel we have enough food. It is similar to a Farmer’s Market in the States but much more. In addition to the weekly vegetable vendors, there are flower vendors, bakery vendors, and the inevitable flea market where people show up to sell their goods of all kind. Now, I asked my husband once if these were open during the week and at the time he didn’t know if they were or weren’t as he’d only been there during the weekends. Since I asked, I’ve discovered that all the vendors with permanent places are always open during the week. It’s only those at the flea market who come and go.

            Now, we have a friend who every time he’s in town, he will go to find antique signs at the flea market portion of the Naschmarkt. He has decorated his recreation room with signs of every sort from here. The ones he chooses most often are the signs concerning the train system here in Vienna. He has many U-Bahn signs as well as ones for the Strassenbahnand the Sudbahnhof. All I can say is that his basement where he keeps all these signs must be very, very interesting.

            It’s here that I’ve actually done some Christmas shopping as there are vendors amongst the flea market who have some great things I’d be proud to give as gifts. Some are new shops and some are old but all of them have a unique flavor about them that’s seen in few places in the world. It was at one of the small vendors at the flea market where I got my lovely floor rugs. Here’s a couple of pictures of them but first I'll describe them a little.

            The first one is in our living room. I had actually picked out a bigger blue one but when they showed me this one, I fell in love with it. I also got a good deal on both the rugs. The bigger one actually still has the tag on it from the maker and this is wonderful when proving the worth of the rug. Originally it sold for $2450 Euros whereas I was lucky enough to purchase it for $400 Euros. I’m using Harry for scale as he’s a 20 pound dog that’s only 14.5 inches at his shoulder. The picture is also taken in my living room.

            

            The second rug is actually more interesting as my husband thinks it was done by someone in their home. Many of the oriental rugs you see are actually machine made using the same precision as those made by hand. This one is a little worn and is actually softer to the touch. I love the blues in this one whereas the other one is green. This one is at the entrance of my bed room and is the small of the two.

            

            Here are some of the shops that we frequent, such as vegetable vendors, the flower shop, the Oriental shop and more.

          

            Please note that all of these pictures were taken during the fall as a lot of it is currently covered in snow. Hope you had a great day with me at the Naschmarkt!

            See you next time...

            Lynn