Fled the Cube

Vienna

Gardens at Schonbrunn Palace. I did not know much about the Habsburg dynasty before our trip, so I was fascinated to learn more during our excellent guided tour of the family’s summer palace, designed by Maria Theresa, the empire’s only female ruler and the mother of Marie Antoinette and 16 other children. Maria held various titles, including Queen of Bohemia, which has to be the coolest one ever. Mozart played a concert for her here when he was 6 and was so thrilled that she liked his performance that he jumped into her arms and kissed her three times, during a time when not even her own children were supposed to touch the empress.

Ahhh…we had so much fun cafe-hopping our way around the city.

Buchteln (pl., sing. Buchtel) are sweet dumplings made of yeast dough, filled with jam, poppy seed paste or curd and baked in a large pan so that they stick together. The traditional Buchtel is filled with plum powidl. Buchteln are topped with vanilla sauce, powdered sugar or eaten plain and warm.

I love love love Klimt and was very excited to see The Kiss in person at The Belvedere museum.

Get ya hot dogs here! And noodles.

At the Weinorgel wine bar, we were encouraged to throw our peanut shells on the floor. Being from Connecticut, this felt very wrong to me, but we were the only foreigners there and decided to just go with it. When in Austria…

Vienna was much less picturesquely antique than I had imagined. There were some nice buildings designed to look old, but they were constructed in the 1860s. Our tour guide said Vienna wasn’t very damaged during WWII, so I’m not sure what happened to the truly old places.

“The first church to occupy the site of St. Stephan’s Cathedral was a Romanesque church, which was replaced by a larger Romanesque basilica in 1147. A major fire in 1258 destroyed the basilica and construction on the present Gothic cathedral began in the early 14th century.”

Naschmarkt.

No good vacation would be complete without stumbling upon a protest of some sort.

Parliament. “The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.

The Habsburg Empire collapsed in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic was established in 1919. In the 1938 Anschluss, Austria was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany.[9] This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Nazi Germany was occupied by the Allies and Austria’s former democratic constitution was restored. In 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral. Today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.6 million, is Vienna.”

Cambridge

I took the train up to Cambridge for a little business trip on Tuesday. My train actually got cancelled and I worried I might not make my meeting on time. I hopped in a cab and a little while later the cabbie said, “We’ve got plenty of time, so I’m taking you on the scenic route.” I’m not sure where he got the idea that I had time to kill as he was driving me to an industrial park clearly for work, but regardless, Cambridge is beautiful and after my meeting I spent the afternoon on a blustery walking tour. 

St. Botolph’s. People prayed to this saint for a safe journey to London, or to give thanks for a safe return. 

Queens’ College. Note the punctuation. Queen Margaret wanted this college built after her husband, King Henry VI, started King’s. After she died, the next queen wanted in on this action, so it’s not Queen’s College, but Queens’.

To the left, note the older architecture, which dates to the 1440s. In the 1700s, they started rebuilding the school, the results of which are to the right. However, they ran out of money and did not finish the job.

This Queens’ College master’s lodge was once covered in an extra layer of plaster for warmth, but in 1911, they took it off to expose the Elizabethan wood. The floor was so warped, it was near collapse, but they fixed it up and now the master can enjoy a pleasantly drafty life there.

The Parker library contains books from the churches that Henry VIII closed down, including the oldest book in England: ”the St Augustine Gospels, believed to have been brought to England by the Augustinian mission, sent by Pope Gregory I to convert the people of Britain in AD 598. The Gospels are still used in the enthronement of the Archbishops of Canterbury today and are transported to and from Canterbury for this occasion by the Master and college representatives.[3]”

“The Corpus Clock is a large sculptural clock at street level on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College. The dominating visual feature of the clock is a sculpture of a grim-looking, devouring, metal insect similar to a grasshopper or locust. The sculpture is actually the clock’s escapement. Taylor calls this beast the Chronophage (literally “time eater”, from the Greek χρόνος [chronos] time, and φάγω [phago] I eat). It moves its mouth, appearing to “eat up” the seconds as they pass.”

People once performed plays at The Eagle, including Christopher Marlow’s first. During WWII, American airman used candle wax to draw their initials onto the ceiling, which is now landmarked. In the upstairs peak, to the right of the chimney, you can see the window is open despite the cold weather. It’s actually a local law that it must stay open forever. Legend has it that two small children died up there and the place is horribly unpleasant unless they have the freedom to fly out the window.

King’s Chapel dates back to the 1400s and hasn’t changed since Henry VIII’s time. 

Henry VIII commissioned this oak screen that housed the organ…

…and the stained glass windows. Money ran out before the inside could be painted.

Cambridge is a town for cycling.

And shopping. There are many cute boutiques and, inexplicably…

…an open-air mall. Why, England, why? Why won’t you accept you’re not a balmy, Mediterranean country? Cold air is fine when shopping on Main Street, but what is the point of walking around a mall that is windy and freezing-ass cold? I went inside to try out this mad little experiment of theirs (I needed the loo) and found the experience most unpleasant. 

But overall, I really liked Cambridge and look forward to going back when warmer weather returns.

Kobe

While in Reggio, I learned that NBA star Kobe Bryant had visited only a week or so before. Turns out he grew up in Reggio Emilia because his father played basketball in Italy. Reggio: Kobe and Sarah were here!

Return to Reggio!

I jaunted off for a weekend in Reggio and had such a great time visiting my friends (Aleksandra, me, Elena, Annalisa, Elena M.). Friday night began with aperitivo at Cafe Europa and then dinner here at Casseruola.

Followed by more drinks.

As I usually get around by public transport, I frequently got carsick on this trip. We had to make an emergency stop at the McCafe so I could get ahold of myself. I had help eating this, in case you’re wondering.

I stayed with Annalisa’s family. This barn is next to her parents’ house and Annalisa and her boyfriend have plans to rebuild on this space.

I met little Iris, Annalisa and Marco’s daughter, for the first time! There is a much better photo of us, but I love this one.

Pumpkin soup! We had a dinner party and Annalisa made pumpkin soup with balsamic and parmesan, as well as spinach pie. I contributed vegetarian tacos and there was also tiramisu. The next day we managed to bake an apple pie, despite our inability to find apple spice or canola oil in the store.

Annalisa and Christian. 

Annalisa, Elena M. and I had tea at Pasticceria Torinese, Reggio’s place for fancy afternoons. Wistful sigh…

Best of

My homage to the best travel partner ever. Shoreditch (I think).

Blackheath.

Sally Lunn’s.

Roman Baths.

Greenwich.

Camden Town.

Taking Precautions in Greenwich

There are 16,000 police officers on the streets of London tonight and while we still hear sirens and helicopters, things seemed under control as I was walking home from work. Hopefully they’ll stay that way! My mom didn’t want to risk going out tonight, but I insisted on at least getting takeout—I wanted chimichangas damn it! Actually, I wanted Indian food, but the place I planned on going to was all boarded up, like many other places tonight.

She met me at my office and we went to Greenwich, a rather upscale Bohemian neighborhood that looked like a ghost town this evening. Aside from a fish and chip joint and a Mexican restaurant, all shops, grocery stores, etc. were closed. My mom and I shared a margarita at Desperados, collected our food and got back on the train to go home.

My aunt asked me why people are rioting. A friend summed it up this way: In the Middle East, people are protesting for freedom; here people are rioting for plasma TVs. Pathetic.  

Desperados had a bit of a speakeasy feel.  

Montmartre

This is Saint Denis, France’s first bishop. He supposedly had his head chopped off for preaching the gospel. No matter. He allegedly picked up his head and walked it up the mountain, giving Montmartre its name (mon=mountain, martre=martyr).

It used to cost 50p to go to the Moulin Rouge and the girls in the vaudeville act were totally nude (Nicole Kidman looked way too classy in the movie). Now they’re just topless and tickets cost 100 euro, but one does receive a bottle of Champagne. At one point in the show, the girls swim around in a pool with anacondas. I hope they receive a very large cut of that 100 euro.  

There used to be 30 windmills to grind flour for galettes, now there is just this one. I don’t know if it functions or not. In addition, 30,000 prostitutes used to work Monmartre, now it’s about 3,000, according to my tour guide. Perhaps I’m naive, but that number still sounds astronomically high.

Candelaria has my favorite margarita; Broceliande makes my favorite crepes. I tried both spinach and mushroom and learned that a vegetarian should not order anything ‘complet.’ 

Glorious, glorious summer vegetables.

Paris

We stayed at Hotel Dauphine, right in the heart of Paris. As soon as we arrived, I met up my Venezuelan friend Alexandra (whom I know from Rome). We had a great time catching up at Café Latin (after drinking overpriced, overly sugary cocktails at another place).

Observe the ominous clouds—it looks like we’re in England! On Saturday, we went on a great walking tour, where we saw this statue of King Henry. After the 23^rd assassination attempt on his life succeeded, his heartbroken wife Margaret commissioned this statue.

Here is the garden in which he’d cheat on her.

They wed in this church against her will to bring peace between the Catholics (her side) and the Protestants (his side). At the wedding reception, someone tried to kill one of the guests—the Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Margaret’s mother, Queen Catherine de’ Medici freaked that the Protestants would riot for revenge and ordered that the top 100 Protestants be murdered to nip any trouble in the bud. The bell at the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois rang as a signal for the murders to begin, but instead of 100 people, up to 30,000 were killed…and this was the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

At some point after this, King Henry built the first bridge in Paris without houses crammed on it. Everyone wanted to live on a bridge back then because it smelled better—they could throw their waste into the Seine river, while everyone else threw it out their windows onto the crammed, narrow streets below. Paris used to be a big slum with everyone piled on top of each other until Napoleon bulldozed everyone out, cleaned up the place and widened the streets.

Lunch break! Half way through the walk, we stopped for delicious food at Aux Pains Perdus.

We followed the tour with drinks of melted chocolate bar at Angelina. Yum!

And…more food. That night we made it to Josh’s Mexican restaurant in Marais. Best margarita of my life! Spicy with cilantro and cucumber. I’m not usually into savory drinks, but trust me, if you go to Candelaria, order the Green Hornet! And the spicy chocolate brownie. And all the tacos and tostadas and guacamole. The dining room is small, but if you go out the back door you’ll find the bar, which is three times as big.

Notre Dame. 

Bath

We did an overnight in Bath, where the town offers free walking tours every day. We saw the Abbey and the Royal Crescent and learned some history about this ancient town, which was most fashionable in the winter season of the Georgian and Victorian ages. At dawn, rich people would be carried to the baths in sedan chairs to ‘take the waters’ then just hang out all day eating before going out at night. They didn’t wash their hair though, and all the lard and whatever else the women used to make their hair really stiff and high became very smelly and dripped down their necks while in the steamy baths. Children were not allowed on these vacations until they were teenagers and in need of marrying off. The season ran from September to May.

The Romans came to Bath around 45 A.D. and stayed for 400 years. It struck me as strange that they would all pack up and leave at once after all that time; one would think they would have developed some ties to the region after several centuries. However, Rome was falling and the military men there were needed elsewhere. Our tour guide said that the Romans had tried to integrate themselves into the society, but the tribe in the region saw them as occupiers and also found it bizarre that they were so into bathing. So, even though the natives, who were basically living in mud huts before the Romans arrived, worked for their occupiers and learned a lot about engineering and architecture from them, they were not sad to see them go.

At the baths, which were co-ed until Hadrian ordered the sexes separated, you would strip in a tepid room to get used to the temperature. Your slaves would guard your clothes and rub you down with oil and lavender. You would then go into a scalding hot room—so hot you’d blister your feet if you weren’t wearing sandals—and then to a cold room to refresh and open your pores. At some point, someone would scrape off your dead, oiled skin and you’d save it in a jar for a beauty treatment. After the Romans left, the main bath fell into ruin and was buried in an earthquake. It was rediscovered in the 1700s and people were allowed to swim in the rediscovered waters until 1978, when it was deemed too gross.

However, we drank some of this hot water after our tour. It’s an acquired taste. The water we see in the baths fell from the sky 10,000 years ago! 

Pulteney bridge.

Tea at Sally Lunn’s.

Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason is this uber-fancy shop that sells all sorts of teas and related treats. Now that I have a paycheck again, I might go back and buy that ridiculously overpriced biscuit tin that’s making me grin a little too mischievously. I have no interest in said biscuits, but I am obsessed with that turquoise tin. One could put receipts in there, or spare change. Or biscuits I bake myself.

Italian Picnic

The only requirement at this Italian gathering in Regent’s Park was that the beverages (wine) had to come from Italy. Not sure why my friend is triumphantly shaking my hand in this photo, but we’re excited about something. 

High Tea at the Soho Hotel

When Elena came to town we met at the Soho Hotel for high tea, one of my favorite British activities (I drank a lot of tea before Italy turned me into an expert little espresso maker). The sandwiches they served us were so-so, but the desserts—my god, the desserts. Best scone of my life. Make that scones. We couldn’t even finish it all. I know this is not proper, but I slipped one of the eclairs into my purse before we left. Letting these pastries end up in the trash would have been sinful.

Mom’s trip

We visited Spitalfields and Camden markets, where for lunch we shared a falafel wrap so big we had to cancel our dinner reservations in Notting Hill. But then we went for a walk through Greenwich and ended up eating at Bianco, an Italian restaurant where all the servers are Italian and most of the diners are, too. We shared gnocchi and pizza, which was delicious. I know Italians drink beer with their pizza, but I ordered Chianti.

That Saturday we visited Buckingham Palace’s State Rooms, open from July-October while the queen is away. We saw Kate’s dress (sorry no photos allowed) and the wedding cake (made up of a tower of 17 cakes that took two months to build and no one ate).

After the palace we strolled on up to Harrods, where my mom fell up the escalator and had to receive first aid in the high-end piano department. If you’re going to cut your toe open, I recommend doing it there: They treated us very well; a July Christmas display brought holiday cheer; and a woman sang opera by the Egyptian elevator.

Next we went to Bea’s of Bloomsbury (the one near St. Paul) for high tea. The scones and other baked goods were great, but the upstairs dining room was so hot we finished an entire pitcher of water before we left. The air was much cooler outside, where a few of the tables sat empty, but our waiter said those who order high tea are not allowed to eat out there because they might steal the tiered-tray. As you can see, there are legs.

Tower of London. Henry VIII had polar bears and lions in his own private zoo here. However, I think the most fascinating story about the Tower involves the two princes murdered there as children. They had been away when their father, Edward V, died and their uncle called them back to London, supposedly to protect them. They were locked in the Tower for two years and then disappeared, after which their uncle—Richard III—took over the throne. Later, during the War of the Roses, Richard was murdered and the new king, Henry VII, married the sister of the murdered princes. So, in the end, one of the children of Edward V was returned to the monarchy.

Veggie chili made by Mom.

An Italian feast made by Mom.

The Railway

We are the dorks who will order port at the pub. Actually, I ordered port (because they didn’t have sherry) and Elke was a sport and joined me. Yes I’m 90.

We’re at The Railway in Blackheath, the village right next to mine. Super cute neighborhood that I run through to get to Greenwich Park.

Sunset in Blackheath.