Pauls-Paradigm

October 17th, 2007 - Vienna

Vienna (Art Museums)

The target of the day was “all things modern” in the art world of Vienna, or at least the two main museums. Exiting the subway at the "Museum Quartier", the impressive architecture of the back side of the museum of natural history definitely sets the tone.

Down the street is the grand Parliament building.

Walking past the front façade of the Museum of Natural history may be an equally impressive site to the government house.

But, my aim was this graphite colored modern structure, hidden in the courtyard of the Museum Quartier. Without even viewing the collection, the building in and of itself demanded respect and attention.

Inside there was an open six stories of elevators and catwalks (four up, two down). The mechanisms of the elevators were buffed to a bright chrome finish.

With everything exposed by the glass casing, form and shape had already been introduced. As usual, no pictures were allowed of the exhibits, but I would definitely recommend the venue.

Outside, people made good use of the sculpted benches.

Two blocks away from the Museum Quartier is the Burg-Albertina garden, with two important statues. The first is of course the musical genius Mozart, complete with treble clef sign at his feet.

And the second is Goethe. He seems to vi for the attention of the Viennese, as his likeness is well represented, even without paying a Faustian ransom for the multiple venues.

Vienna is another town where it pays to simply look up and enjoy the visual surprises.

A trip to Vienna would not be complete without at least walking by the opera house. Since the restoration geniuses in Italy used blowtorches to remove ages old lacquer from the seating and managed to burn down, La Scala, formerly the most important stage in Opera, the Vienna Opera house may have a legitimate claim as one of the premier remaining edifices.

Walking back to the hostel, there was a particularly interesting sign mechanism. Similar to using pixilation dots of light to spell words, someone had decided to drop water in pixels to spell words. It was captivating to watch the words fall to the ground and disapate, even if they were in reverse from this angle.

October 16th, 2007 - Vienna

Vienna (The Austrian Mozart Tour Continued)

A crisp, crisp, blue day was my entrance into the world of Vienna this morning. Temperatures are in the upper thirties and that is a bit of a change, but walking on the “sunny side of the street” helps to ease the sting. The first order of the day is to find Stephans Platz, home to the great tiled roof Cathedral.

Unfortunately, I’m in the mood of “this is just one of too many Cathedrals”, so enjoy the roof and head to my real prize, Mozart’s Flat where he did much of his Vienna writing. For instance he wrote "The Magic Flute" in this residence.

The theme of “no photography inside” continues, but what I can say is that for anyone interested in Mozart, this is a morning well worth the effort. The audio guide is excellent and the historic relics and shared historical context really help to bring things to life.

On the map of Vienna, there is a giant ferris wheel depicted in the Volksprater. Just how big was this thing? Well I’m sure it would have been impressive, if I hadn’t seen the London Eye. Taking pictures from the train platform was all that was needed for this tourist sighting. Granted, the passenger compartments were the size of street trolleys and in the day when it was built this must have been a marvel, but these are technologically jaded times.

So, skip the ferris wheel and head to the Museum of Modern Design. This should be awesome! Sorry, again, not photo’s allowed inside, but you should be happy for that.

The museum ended up be a history lesson in the design of the obtuse. (At least for me.) My life really could have been complete without wandering through the exhibit on “The History of Upholstery”. But, the technological development of silver wear, i.e. knife, fork, spoon, was actually pretty cool if you just looked at the elements of design and ignored the fact that airline cutlery and “the spork” were included. I really think that my college roommate Steve Hanlon was needed to make this museum come alive for me. As an artist and furniture designer I’m sure Steve and his excitement over certain design elements could have shifted my historical relevance/impact skepticism into appreciation, especially in a fifty meter hall dedicated to the evolution of the chair in the 19th and 20th century. (Actually, that exhibit was pretty cool.)

To complete the Mozart tour of Austria, I headed to St. Marx cemetery.

Wolfgang’s final resting place is easy to find, once you have entered the grounds. Simply, walk down the main path, until the top of the rise in terrain and look left.

Fortunately, it was relatively late in the afternoon, so I had the opportunity to experience the scene alone.

It would have been fitting to listen to Cecilia Bartoli trill through a few of his arias, but it was then that I noticed their absence from my ipod playlist… must rectify this back at the hostel.

So I spent the remaining hour and a half of the early evening walking the Vienna sidewalks and streets back home. I knew I was close by the neon signs of the previous block. It is strangely coincidental how many hostels have neighboring blocks looking for clientele.

Dinner was this "take away" salad and I thought it was a little ironic, given the political tension of the past couple of years, that the "American Dressing" turned out to be what we call "French Dressing" in the States.

October 15th, 2007 - Luzern to Vienna

Train Travel Day

In Berchtesgaden, Germany, the menus clearly labeled any food that contained any artificial ingredient. Surprisingly, much of the menu was clean of asterisks. The Swiss have taken things one-step further. The source of all meat is clearly posted at the entrance of the hostel dining room. The expectation here is that all meat is organically grown and I saw many guests choose the vegetarian course because the dinner’s protein was not Swiss grown.

Today is a travel day to Vienna or Wien, as the locals call it. On the quick trip to Zurich there are many Swiss troops on the move. I thought it just a little ironic that the only notoriously neutral and uninvolved country maintains a standing army. What is even more interesting is the nonchalant show of force by these soldiers in transit who carry their machine guns for the ride.

I had to take a picture of this billboard advertisement because it absolutely captivated consumers. (Cheers to the agency on this one.) The advertisement is for butter and the clothed man holds a sign saying, “I eat butter.” The steroid case holds a sign that says, “I don’t.” The tagline at the bottom says, “Butter. Anything else is unnatural.” This was an awesome multidimensional execution.

The train was, of course, on time. This “is” Switzerland, the only country that has a right to complain about the promptness of German trains. I have a reservation in the “scenic car” with elevated windows and a higher seating level.

This turned out to be more hype than anything and there were neither leather seats, nor electrical outlets for laptops. But I did have the good fortune of sharing 5 hours of scenery with Jess, a lawyer from Seattle, who was on her way to Slovenia for some hiking.

We enjoyed the lakes, ...

mountains, ...

and villages. The time flew by.

Jess headed south at Salzburg and I continued the western tack. It was tempting to bail out and head south. As the trip continued, Austria moved away from the Alpine stereotype into the flat or rolling hill Bohemian countryside.

October 14th, 2007 - Luzern

City Sites and Memories

Arriving two days ago in Luzern, a single object summoned a memory of visiting Switzerland as a child with my Dad. The trigger was the Kapellbrucke, a wooded bridge that spans the Reuss River.

Originally constructed in the middle ages, what makes this bridge so special are the hundreds of original period paintings that hang in the eves. Unfortunately, a fire in 1993 consumed 83 of the 111 original works.

The reconstruction of the bridge houses the remaining original works, with a large noticeable gap of missing art.

The cloud cover is relentless this morning, so I head to the old part of town to the Picasso Museum. The permanent exhibit is home to many original drawing and prints, but what is most impressive is the photo diary, of sorts, taken at his home in the last years of his life. The photographer captures the creativity and playfulness of Picasso, especially with his children, and the loving care given by his younger wife. The black and white photographs captured so much detailed expression that these impromptu exposures seemed to reveal Picasso’s true hidden life.

Just to the left of the Picasso Museum is the city hall for Luzern, with the royal family tree painted on the side. This is worth a moment to trace the lineage roots.

There is a carnival today along the banks of the Reuss. The common event is a roulette game of chance, where tickets are purchased in advance and the wheel is spun until a winner is found. The various venders use all sorts of costumes and gimmickry to try to lure in customers.

Walking the riverbanks, I notice something only previously seen in amusement parks. There were swans paddling along the water’s surface with their wings arched upwards, just like in the paddleboats. Until now, I’ve only witnessed swans with sleek long necks and smooth backs. I don’t know what makes these swans elevate their wings, but now the attractive to paddleboat designers is clear.

Given the dreary morning, the rest of the pre-noon hours were spent reading and sipping green tea at a local Starbucks. The patience has paid off, because the sun has finally reappeared. Everything takes on new energy. Children jump up and down to point out the carrousel.

The Old Town is beginning to show its colors…

… and the Kapellbrucke is now showing why it is the icon of Luzern.

The other noticeable city monument, the twin spires of the Hofkirche, look so much better against a blueing sky.

Switzerland seems to have taken their previous America’s Cup victory to heart, as a slightly over zealous, and over engineered, catamaran tries desperately to utilize any puff for forward propulsion. The funny thing to watch was a paddleboat fluttering past the obviously frustrated skipper.