Luckily, Mylo and I were dressed for it, unlike this gentlemen.
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Roof avalanche
22 JanAll around Vienna you see these signs in winter.
They always make me smile because “Dach” means “roof” and “Lawine” means “avalanche”. Seems like such a dramatic way of describing the snow that slides off the roof.
Snow – update
17 JanI had an appointment near the Freyung this morning. This photo is from about 11.30 and it is still snowing now at almost 2 p.m.
Snow
17 JanMylo and I walked out into a pillow fight this morning, big downy flakes such as come about once a winter in Vienna. Wonderful!
A winter walk in the Vienna Woods (where else? ;-))
12 Jan
There was quite a bit of activity this afternoon in the Woods. People of all ages, moving at all speeds, with dogs, without dogs, with Nordic walking poles, without Nordic walking poles … but I only saw one person on a bike. Could be because the conditions were pretty hazardous. After at least a week of rain everything froze quite quickly and then came the dusting of snow that you can see, so you didn’t notice the ice underneath until it was too late!
There are a few houses in that part of the Woods, but only few. This one always makes me think of my home country, New England.
When the snow stopped, the light was gorgeous.
As you can see, more or less just a typical winter’s walk in the Vienna Woods.
Café Konditorei Klement
4 JanI went to have breakfast with a friend at Café Konditorei Klement in the 17th district and found that they closed their doors on December 31st. The friend actually has been a customer there much longer than I have and was able to give me a bit of background, although she, too, hadn’t known they were closing.
It is a fairly typical story not only for Vienna. The children–in this case a daughter–didn’t want to take on the business so that when the parents reached an age where they could no longer keep the café going (and, let’s face it, it is very long hours and hard work with no great financial return) the café closed. The photo below of the notice outside Café Konditorei Klement explains the circumstances to some extent. Another factor may very well have been that the terms on the lease changed with the new proprietor. This makes it even harder for children to take over the business and make a good living.
Klement was, in fact, one of the few hold-outs left. A number of other Konditoreien (fine pastry shops) have become chains–centralized their production and standardized their look, taking over family businesses with sound customer bases as they close. In fact, L. Heiner, who is taking over the Klement premises, is one such company. Originally a very select pastry shop in the First District it has grown to simply a very good mass producer and distributor of creamy cakes. (Can you tell where my preferences lie? ;-))
It reminds me a little of the sign Kathleen Kelly hangs on her children’s bookstore in “You’ve Got Mail” when she accepts the inevitable. One paragraph above says: We thank you for your loyalty over all those years. It was a pleasure to fulfill your wishes and delight you with our work. Thank you for having been our customers!
New Year’s Day
1 Jan
Went to Café Weimar for breakfast this morning to welcome in the New Year (starting as I mean to go on ;-)). I reserved a table for two people and two dogs and this is what the card looked like. 🙂 And people say Viennese coffeehouse waiters aren’t friendly!
The mushroom is to bring luck in the New Year. The fish is to put in one’s wallet to ensure lots of money coming in. Mine went in there immediately and is, I hope, doing its job!
And, of course, what is a New Year’s breakfast without sparking wine (Sekt) served here with light, crispy fish cookies, again to ensure plenty throughout the year. But careful–you have to eat it head first or some terrible fate will befall you!
Odd that when I still lived in the U.S. I listened to the New Year’s concert with the Vienna Philharmonic every single year it was broadcast, first on the radio then on TV. Now it is rather hit or miss whether I hear it. This year it was, as you can see, a miss. I had other fish to fry. 😉
The Viennese ‘House Mountains’
29 DecToday the weather was gorgeous (after a number of days of gray skies and rain) and Mylo and I went off to do something very Viennese–we left town and headed out to one of the ‘mountains’ in the Vienna Woods, the Anningerberg in Gumpoldskirchen. There we had a long walk under beautifully blue skies followed by lunch with a glass of the local (famous) wine for me. This gives you an idea of what it looked like:
A good way to spend a day, don’t you think? 😉
White Christmas?
25 DecWell, we didn’t make it, at least not downtown.
Never mind. It still has a certain Viennese charm. (The focus on my camera works just fine, by the way. That is the common Viennese winter fog you see in the picture.)
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