Ahhh Vienna

The first time I went to Vienna was some 35 years ago. I got there before Christmas and left in January.  

I was working on an opera project at the time (among other things) and took the opportunity to just "drop in" on the Vienna Opera's director to see if there was some interest.  I mean, I just walked and said "blah blah blah can I see her"?  I learned that the Viennese are warm people but they get their backs up in a hurry.....and who is this American anyway? I found I could be equally snooty and am told my "posturing" is disturbing.  To sooth a somewhat testy scene, I was offered to be the Opera's guest at the the New Year's Eve concert of the Vienna Philharmonic.  

I drank champagne at the place across and down the street from the Opera House where Mozart and Beethoven once drank (but they drank everywhere it seems) and generally had the time of my life.


I was there for a couple weeks with prompt business in the morning and the rest of the day to wander.  Beethoven and Mozart must have lived, had a student, or drank at least at one spot on every street in town.

 My hotel was the Metropole.  It was famous and infamous although rebuilt after the War.  ...from Wiki":

 "The hotel was built for the Vienna World Exhibition and was designed by Carl Schumann and Ludwig Tischler. The four-story building was richly decorated with Corinthian columns, caryatids and atlases. The inner court was glassed over and had a richly decorated dining hall.

After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938, the hotel was confiscated by the Gestapo who made it their headquarters. Prisoners, especially Jews, were brought to the hotel to be interrogated, tortured and killed. During the war the building was hit by a bomb and burned down and ultimately the ruins were torn down to eliminate any memory of the building".....