If Vienna is a city of music, then today was our day to experience the music of Vienna. We began with a trip to Haus Der Musik- actually just across the street from our hotel. Think science centre meets music and you’ll have a good idea of what it was like. We began on the third floor, which paid tribute to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mahler and other lesser known composers who lived and worked in Vienna. There were a number of fun activities including composing a piece using your name and directing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. An audio guide provided a detailed description of the life and work of each of the composers. The second floor was all about sound – how we first begin to hear sound in the womb right through to how sound can be manipulated. One could even make their own CD by choosing and manipulating various sounds to make music. The museum is a wonderful setting for children to explore and learn about music – one I’m sure is well used by school groups.

After a quick lunch we headed off to Schonbrunn Palace to see The Magic Flute at the Marionettentheater. As you might guess this was presented by marionettes. What a great way to spend an afternoon! Each puppet is about 2 feet high and has anywhere from 8 to 16 strings. Because the stage is small, it produces an optical illusion making the puppets appear life-sized. The music and dialogue was all pre-taped and was of excellent quality. Afterwards we were invited backstage to see the puppets and find out a little more about how the theatre works behind the scenes. Even though it’s in German, I encourage you to watch the video on their website. It describes how they make and manipulate the puppets http://www.Marionettentheater.at.

Dinner tonight was at the Cafe Centrale at the recommendation of the front desk. The building has an old world charm and lays claim to the place where Leon Trotsky came to play chess while he lived in Vienna. In fact they had a likeness of Trotsky (made of styrofoam) sitting by the front door. Imagine our surprise when Mr Trotsky met with an accident and lost a foot, while we were eating dinner! In true Viennese fashion the cake counter takes up the centre portion of the cafe…they do like their sweets. During dinner, a pianist played an eclectic selection of pieces including show tunes, folk songs, movie themes and jazz. We had to stay for dessert because we were enjoying the music.

Tonight we’re watching the soccer game (with German commentary) and preparing for a train trip back to Budapest tomorrow morning. We’ll only be able to watch half the game tonight because it goes to 12:30 which makes for a very late night. We’ve really enjoyed Vienna and I expect that we’ll be back to spend more time here. There is so much to do.

Wow, no garbage trucks or cafés setting up on Saturday meant a nice quiet morning that didn’t start until after 9am. Our travels today started with a walk over to a quilt shop which unfortunately closed some time ago. Makes one wish that websites would self destruct when businesses close. That’s not the first time we’ve gone looking for something based on a website only to find out it no longer exists. Next stop was a bank machine and then off to the main event of the day – Belvedere Palace.

Belvedere was originally built as a summer home for Prince Eugene of Savoy and is constructed as two palaces linked by a formal garden. It now serves as an art gallery and is currently running a special showing of the work of Gustavo Klimt. After touring an exhibition of Russian paintings in the lower palace we stopped for lunch in The Menagerie. One of the problems we have discovered is that vegetables are few and far between here and generally not served with dinner. In order to compensate we’ve been having soup or salad for lunch. Today’s salad was greens with goat cheese, honey and nuts. They poured the honey over the cheese and then baked it so it had a crusty outer layer. Yummy, yummy!

The Klimt collection was probably a dozen paintings including The Kiss, likely the best known. I really enjoyed listening to the commentary on the audio guide, which helps you understand the background story of the painting and highlights certain special features. Other than finding out about each of the rooms in the palace, some of which were spectacular, one of my favourite displays was a series of busts of the funny faces people make when they take medicine! We headed home about 4pm to have a short rest and change before dinner.

Tonight we took the subway and bus out to a suburb called Grinzing. It’s quite easy to get around on public transit. There are four subway lines and a number of streetcar lines in addition to the busses. Everything seems to be very clean and electronic signs keep you updated as to when the next train or bus will arrive. Grinzing is a cute little town that began as a result of the wine industry. Heuriger (new vintage) wine taverns used to sell their own wines, while snacks were offered for free. The snacks are no longer free but diners sit at wooden tables in a courtyard and many sample the different wines of the vintner until the wee hours of the morning. It was a lovely warm evening with just a slight breeze which made dining al fresco quite appealing. We had a nice chat with a German couple who sat next to us and then on the way home in the subway we met a fellow from North Carolina who is here teaching at a Christian school. He gave himself away when he asked “Where y’all from?”

What a beautiful day this turned out to be! Not only was it sunny and warm but our tour took us to see some beautiful scenery and we met some nice folks along the way. While we were waiting for our tour operator to pick us up outside our hotel, George got into a conversation with another hotel guest. It turns out he’s a church organist in Norway, so I think they enjoyed their conversation. The bus picked us up shortly after 9am and took us to a central location where we met the double-decker tour bus. The drive of about an hour was from Vienna to Spitz, through some lovely countryside – farming, forest and vineyards – and a number of small quaint towns. Maybe sometime we’ll come back and travel that way on our own. At Spitz we transferred to a boat for a trip up the Danube to the town of Melk.

On the boat we shared space with a couple from Australia and found we had quite a bit in common. She is very involved in their church, enjoys church music and of course, travel is always a great topic to while away the time. We shared lunch with them once we arrived at Melk, then it was off to see the beautiful Benedictine Abbey. Our tour guide at the Abbey was a young girl from a small village nearby who spoke perfect English. She did a great job telling us about the history of the baroque building, which is still a working Abbey. The church was unbelievably ornate with gold everywhere one looked. A few of us commented on how incongruous that seemed given the Benedictine focus on the community. The library was also interesting – housing some 100,000 volumes dating back to the Middle Ages.

The trip back to Vienna by bus was somewhat quieter – both of us took the opportunity to have a brief snooze. We just stopped for dinner at another one of the little cafés on our street on our way back home, as we were both tired. Tonight we spent the time catching up on email (George had lots of emails to acknowledge) and planning our last two days in Vienna.

Oct 26th – 28th – Rotorua is the centre of Maori culture and just about everyone who visits New Zealand makes their way to Rotorua eventually. On our way into town we found this Zorbing site and thought we might try it, but given that my back is acting up we decided to act our age and pass.

The centre of the city is Lake Rotorua surrounded by sulphur-rich thermal hot springs, geysers and mud pools. The smell is certainly noticeable as you enter town. We took a short afternoon drive around the lake to get our bearings.

On Sunday we had a most unique experience at the Rotorua Baptist Church. The pastor is a quadriplegic and had only had very minute movement in his hands. He was an excellent preacher and greeted us warmly after the service. He shares the pastorate with another individual so presumably all responsibilities can be covered. In the afternoon we went to the museum and again received a pleasant surprise. It was national choir day and so we enjoyed two presentations in the rotunda. All in the April Evening brought back memories of Peter Bruce.

Our big event was going to Te Puia for the Maori Cultural Experience. We began with a guided tour of the village, the Pohutu Geyser, the weaving school and the carving school. Following the tour we were welcomed by the Maori Chief and invited to enter the meeting house for a cultural performance. This was a display of music, song, dance and some other fun activities that included audience participation. Dinner was a buffet which included traditional hangi-cooked food and contemporary Maori dishes.

Hangi cooking is usually done in a thermal pool but given the size of the group, our dinner was cooked in a pit using hot stones. Beef, chicken, lamb, pork, potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing were all included in the same pit. Because it’s slow roasted the meat was very tender. A delicious meal!

After dinner, they took us back out to see the geyser at night. Sitting on the hot thermal rocks we heard more stories of the Maori people and drank hot chocolate. Some of us had to move after a while because the rocks were just too hot!

Oct 21st – Monday was our opportunity to travel north to Whangarei. This is a Maori word so the ‘wh’ is pronounced like our ‘f’. On the way up towards Helensville, we stopped first at the local gannet colony (nothing compared to Newfoundland) and then at the Kumeu River winery that was written up in the Globe and Mail. We sampled and purchased two bottles of the recommended wine to share with friends along the way. What’s bought in NZ has to be drunk in NZ!

We also stopped at the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens and spent about an hour strolling along a path which led through formal gardens dotted with locally made sculptures. It was quite interesting even though many of the spring flowering trees were just about over.

Lunch was a quick sandwich and apple eaten in the car since we had a fairly long drive ahead of us.

The Whangarei area is full of lovely scenery and we stopped a number of times to take in the view. We also found our first beach  and took a brief walk along the beach. Too cold for swimming but nice to walk in.