From the
moment you arrive this is a city that sings and echoes its personality – from
the colourful graffiti, to Mozart’s music notes and image, perfect cakes and
the stories everywhere.
Many composers
lived here – Hadyn, Schubert, Strauss,
Beethoven and of course Mozart. We were
pleased to attend Mozart’s Marriage of
Figaro. Opera expresses a big emotional dynamic range – plaintive pleading,
soft caressing, comic timing, absurdity and questioning, heady emotions,
collective joy, contemplative heartbreak….
This is a
small country of 8m who have fought for their survival at the heart of Europe.
A crossroads place with Russia on one side, Hungary and Germany on the other.
Austria at one time was the centre for the Habsburg empire. One senses today
the European Project is alive and well here
There is the
well-known tourist Vienna –the tour buses, the horse drawn carriages, the
coffee houses, the imperial palaces. There are glittering rooftops, ordered
cycle ways, the walks in the old quarter and of course luscious and light
cakes! Of The Sisi museum stories and the moving images of Empress Elizabeth and of her tragedy, the reluctant princess.
This is a
city for music lovers, bookshops and art. People are very polite, well
mannered, positive and hardworking with a good attitude to life. You find
answers here – perhaps.
Then there
is underneath the real Vienna – of a warm, proud and friendly people – proud of
the heritage of their city and it’s history. We took the
first class underground system to the Schonbrunn Palace on the sunny Saturday, but
found it packed out with bus loads of tourists. So instead we headed back to
the Vienna old quarters.
At the St Stephendom at the heart of old Vienna, inside the light seems to play tricks as
it dances on the very tall dark columns and lays soft shiny highlights on the
gold statures. We search for the quieter cobbled by ways behind the dramatic
light and shade of the cathedral and find a small coffee shop near
Mozarthaus to stop and enjoy the moment.
We discovered the Vienna Peace museum
and the Austrian Journalists Club (OJC) – The Vienna International Press
centre.
What did you do for peace today?
 |
| St Stephans |
 |
| Mozarthaus |
**ART
In Vienna’s
1900s Liberalism battled absolute power.-
The
Succession Movement. ARTISTS – Klimt,
Kolo Muer, Otto Wagner – all died 1918.
There was
also the artists Max Licberman, Eduard Munch, A
Rodin.
There were
many posters of Austrian painter Schiele’s work. Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918) – Symbolism to Expressionism
“There
are only a few, very new new artists. Chosen ones. The new artist must absolutely
be himself; he must be a creater; he needs to have the base on which he builds
inside him immediately and by himself, without using that which has been handed
down from the past. Only then is he a new artist.”
 |
| Vienna Museum Windows for Peace |
Places to
visit -
*Hofburg
Palace and Imperial Palace
MozartHaus
St Stephansdom,
Scots
Quarter
Schonbrunn
Vienna State Opera
On my trip to Vienna the Danube flowed with the stirring of violins strings and the operatic mounting songs of drama and hope. There were grand palaces, the sound of horse and carriage on cobbled byways and the red images of Mozart! And there was the symbolism of words and art.
One message stood out among the many colours and sounds and images – a message of unity and of peace – from the Picasso’s Dove of peace, the artists Sciele’s experience of WW1, and the Vienna Peace museum we stumbled upon when we stopped for coffee and cake in the lane near Mozart’s house..
What did you do for peace today?
In Vienna old town , near Mozart’s Haus, we sat for a coffee and cake. After we noticed a small cobbled alleyway and posters of Lennon and Mandela. There was a narrow stairway to the Austrian journal offices.
Schile, The Russians wanted war to end as much as we did.
Looking for peace when night fell….
Austria was once at the heart of imperial struggles and empires. Today the grand palaces are showcases of a past that is remembered and respected – but not about todays world. The European project is alive and well here and has brought 70 years of peace in our life times – why should we throw this away on a foolish Brexit?
We stand on the brink of turbulent times today.
VOTE for peace!
As I flew home, I thought of the ease of travel today and how, I hope, ‘otherness’ is not as it once was….
We must never forget the horrors of war – the needless sacrifice
