Tag: Travel

Thursday Landscape

Travels

Vienna 2008
 Best Gulaschuppe in the world, there.

From Reader Abroad Scott W.:

New England guy here (Live Free or Die) who’s been reading you for… let’s not look back too far, ahem. Anyway, this isn’t about all that — here I am in Vienna and I think I have you to thank. 
You’ve written about many things, but what you’ve had to say about traveling, about your travels has always been encouraging. Not in a travelogue way, but just in a plain ol’ “there’s a lot of map out there, let’s get to it” way. Likely that’s just my interpretation but it is what it is. So when the conversation came up of “where to go for a vacation,” SWMBO and I had a short list and my recollections of your recollections made me press hard for Vienna.
And here we are.
Is it magical? No, not really. It’s a modern city. Is it perfect? Heck no. But is it wonderful? Why, yes, yes it is. I’m looking at the Danube and journaling about these Vienna Days. That’s how it’s on our calendar, and that’s how I’ll remember it.
Anyway, thank you.
Scott
Then the  bastard  good man had the temerity to send me these pics of his visit to the Hotel Sacher for his Brauner, Apfelstrudel und Sachertorte:
I am SO jealous…

Validation

Travels

Many years ago I made the decision to travel only during off-peak season times — usually during fall and winter — so as to avoid this kind of thing:

Apart from the claustrophobia of crowds such as the above, I decided that there was nothing — no tourist attraction, no museums, no vista — that was worth that kind of hassle.

And I’m not even considering the fact that among those crowds in the pictures are undoubtedly scum like pickpockets and other such wealth redistributionists.

It has bitten me on a couple of occasions, of course, most notably in winter when establishments such as restaurants and hotels will “close for the season” (New England and the French Riviera being the most notable).  So be it.  I make a note, and move on.

I also make an exception for things like Christmas markets — especially in southern Germany and Austria — mostly because I enjoy them more than I hate the crowds that throng them.  Here are Heidelberg, Salzburg and Vienna (in order):

Note that the freezing temperatures didn’t seem to put off too many people — mostly, I suspect, because they’re locals (ergo accustomed to the weather).  Certainly, from memory, German was the most common language I heard in all three places;  Japanese, Chinese and other such diversity:  not so much.

Then of course there are crowds that would be welcomed, such as at the Goodwood Revival*:

…and if you’re not willing to put up with crowds for the last of these pics, I don’t want to talk to you.

Then there’s the Chelsea Flower Show for New Wife (a very keen gardener), which is taking place as I write this:

But being in a summer crowd of thousands at the Spanish Steps in Rome, or waiting to get into the Louvre in Paris?

Pass, with prejudice.

*note that I said “would”, because I have yet to go to the Revival.  One of these days, Rodders…

Lovely Trip, Shame About The Nazis

Travels

The Daily Mail’s Bel Mooney writes:

We took a rare holiday, on the River Danube, cruising from Passau to beautiful Budapest. It seemed amazing that in one week we could set foot in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary – flying visits, of course, but fascinating nonetheless.

Among many memories, two things stand out in my mind. First, near Linz in Austria (which Hitler considered his hometown) is Mauthausen Memorial site. This was one of the most brutal and severe of the Nazi concentration camps; prisoners suffered not only from malnutrition, overcrowding and constant abuse and beatings, but also from exceptionally hard labour.

We saw the terrible quarry where they were broken and killed, the gas chamber, and the heart-breaking ‘Room of Names’ honouring the thousands of dead: political enemies of the Nazis, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and (of course) the Jews, who were treated with the worst brutality.

You might think that doesn’t sound like holiday fun, and you’d be correct. But we need to bear witness to what can happen in plain sight of ‘innocent’ communities all around. Extremism and collusion can happen all too easily within societies. Mauthausen made me weep and rage – the only possible response. I shall never forget it.

It’s happier to recall the national pride of guides in (especially) Bratislava and Budapest. We heard how students and workers rose up against the Soviet oppressors and how the end of Communism enabled Slovakia and Hungary to be reborn.

I loved their delight in their own culture, their wish to protect it, and the welcoming patriotism that made me suspect they were rather sorry for us tourists – born elsewhere. It was genuine, unforced and I couldn’t help but wish we had more of it here.

I had precisely the same reaction upon visiting Dachau, outside Munich — tears of rage and sadness, even though it came in the middle of an otherwise-idyllic vacation in Austria and southern Germany.

I think it behooves us, every time we travel abroad, to take a day off from the museums and bistros and rub our noses in the history of the place.  Otherwise, we are just tourists and not travelers.