Walking in the footsteps of Beethoven and Strauss

One thing that I miss about living in Boulder, Colorado was being able to hike up the foothills, and being rewarded by the fantastic views from high above the city. So when I heard of a great hill to the north of Vienna, I set my mind to making it to the top. Near the foot of the hill lied a street by the name of Beethovengang. It turns out that this district, Heiligenstadt, was where Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a famous letter to his brothers expressing his grief concerning his growing deafness. Being a fan of the composer, and of synchronicity, I turned my iPod to the Ninth Symphony, and started down the road, a small pathway really, which went along side a small creek. At the end I found a small bust of the man himself, and signs pointing to Beethovenhaus, which I'm guessing was some sort of Beethoven house. Cough.. actually I believe it was the home of the brothers he wrote that letter to. It would probably have been interesting to check out, but as the signs pointed in the opposite direction of the giant freaking hill, I opted to stick to my plan and head upwards. Large vineyards surrounded the path I took, and when I wandering out into one I found remnants of the huge fireworks display from New Years a few days before. There were casings and launchers all over the place. Eventually I made it up to the top, it was quite cloudy and I wasn't able to see much of the city, but it was still a fantastic experience. At the summit was small village, a few houses, a restaurant, a chapel, and a forest covered in snow. It wasn't snowing down in the city, but up here at a slightly higher altitude there was quite a bit of accumulation. It was definitely a change of scenery from being in the city. And so, after hiking around the area for a while, it was time to meet up with my friends for a trip to an historical Viennese coffeehouse

Now, the Viennese are serious about their coffee, and I mean serious. Not only do they have their own terminology for everything (names like Melange, instead of your basic latte, cappuccino, etc.) but the coffeehouse there are quite fancy. Not exactly the same experience as your average trip to a Starbucks. Graying middle-aged waiters in tuxedos fly by as the Metro dressed patrons sip their coffee for hours. Once you've fought off the hordes to get a table, you can stay there all day without interruption. I've included a photo of one of the places we visited. As you can see from the blurs, the aisles are face-paced, while the customers take their time to savor the scrumptious cakes, and heavily blended roasts.


This coffeehouse, Café Bräunerhof, was visited daily by the famous Viennese author Thomas Berhard, renowned for his books about how much he hated Vienna and Viennese coffeehouses. Go figure. We also visited another coffeehouse, where we sampled a piece of the famous Sachertorte, a delicious cake unlike any I had tried before. Covered in a chocolate shell, each bite was so rich I could feel my arteries crying in agony. Delicious, delicious agony. This second coffeehouse was also famous (everything seemed to be famous for something historical in Vienna) for being the local of the debut of the violinist/composer Johann Strauss. He's probably most well-known for his piece, The Blue Danube, which always reminds me of an old Looney Tune. A young duckling resembling Daffy tries to swim along with some more refined looking waterfowl and is shunned, but after saving them from some predator later on he is accepted into the flock. The fact that this is what immediately came to mind goes to show you, I'm so cultured that it hurts.

Thus ends my tales of Vienna, for now. As I said in the last entry, hopefully I'll go back again someday soon.