"Is this the new era?"

"This kind of creature comes out of it?" --Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, who died in 1916. He was referring to the head of the Austrian spy network, a notorious traitor who turned out to have been spying for Russia for 10 years. The information the spy leaked to Serbia led to WWI. After he was discovered, the spy wrote out a confession and then they left him in an empty room with a loaded pistol. He knew what he was expected to do with it...he executed himself.

Today was all about World War I and the disastrous century that followed inevitably in its wake. Vienna was the place where it all brewed, then boiled over.

This is the Cafe Central, just about 5-6 blocks from the Institute where we study, and just 2 blocks past the Hofburg, where the Austrian Hapsburg Emperors ruled from the 13th century onward.

Trotsky spent his days here in 1913. So did Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Tito. And others, like Freud and his disciples, that I'm still finding out about. Here you could stay all day for the price of a cup of coffee and read, write, and discuss. The police cut them some slack for their revolutionary talk because they were plotting against Russia, Austria's enemy.

In addition to being a hotbed of history, this cafe serves the most amazing spread of desserts I have ever seen. Here are just a few, the ones we ordered. I may need to visit there every day for a couple of weeks to sample them all.

Yes, we were all taking pictures of our food...

After the Cafe Central, I visited the National Library. It's exactly like Beauty and the Beast, and contains leather-bound, centuries-old gold embossed volumes from floor to domed ceiling. Only thing is, you can't touch the books, but I did get to see a WWI display there. This Saturday is the 100th anniversary of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination.

Last of all, I went on a long history walk--we have MP3's describing where to go and what to see--and got caught in a downpour at the entrance to a gothic church dating from the 14th century. Eventually it was raining so hard that even the deep porch was too wet, so I went inside.

A typical downtown Vienna street. Foot inserted for size, since I didn't have a banana.

No one at all was inside the church. Notice the medieval writing and shield painted near the ceiling halfway up the nave, the gothic altar, and the stained glass windows. Did you know that gothic architecture is designed to feather away delicately as it moves higher? This is symbolic of earthly cares and sins dropping away as we move towards heaven.

I got a bit bored after a few minutes, so I started singing, really quietly at first. But nobody showed up to shush me, so I sang a bit louder. Even when I sang softly, the cathedral picked up my voice and echoed it all around. I sang all the Latin hymns and songs I could remember, which unfortunately didn't take long. German lessons are driving everything else out of my head. But it was still beautiful.

A few other great Vienna moments this week:

The labyrinth on the enormous grounds at Schonnbrunn Castle.

And the entrance to a tunnel of blooming vines.

Empress Elizabeth's wedding train. Yes, that is heavy gold embroidery:

Inside the performance area of the Spanish Riding School, waiting for a performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions. They have been here since the 1600s. They live and practice indoors. They are trained in what looks like dancing: skipping, prancing in place, pirouettes, rearing, etc. Most of them are completely white.

In the Golden Hall at the Musikverein for the final performance this season of the Vienna Philharmonic.

 My bedroom:

The Vienna Boy's Choir:

A box seat at the Opera for a performance of Die Walkyrie:

At the Opera during intermission:

And finally, miraculously, after much prayer and begging, the organ at the church where I now have a key so I can practice. Last Sunday, after many frustrating dead-end phone calls, I was a little late for church. The usher found me a seat by a very kind woman--who turned out to be the Stake President's wife. She got me a key in under 10 minutes. I feel blessed!

Heute auf Wien--Today in Vienna

Heute auf Wien
Today in Vienna
This morning was my first chance to really sleep in since I've been here. The sky outside my light floral drapes begins to lighten before 4 AM, so "sleeping in" means I made it past my usual 5 AM

 startle awake time (that's when it's light enough that I think I've missed my alarm) clear until 6:20. And then I went BACK TO BED. Heavenly. My alarm went off at 7:15 and I wrote and read emails, washed my hair finally, and ate a delicious breakfast of chocolate Muesli (we really, really need this cereal in the US--dark semi-sweet chocolate with nice healthy raw oats), an egg, mango juice, and tangy miniature bananas. After a nice conversation with my "house Mom" aka fellow Grossmutter aka new friend for life, Frau Miller, I rode the bus and the subway to the center of Vienna, arriving at 10:00.

Today is a holiday, the Catholic celebration called Corpus Christi, where everyone marches slowly in a procession from plaza to plaza, chanting about their gratitude for Christ's sacrifice. At various outdoor spots they halt for a few minutes before an altar decked with flowers, singing hymns and listening to short sermons in between. The procession is amazing. Their are many groups in various church robes, gorgeous native costumes, guards with swords, a brass band in 19th century uniforms, priests with incense, little girls and boys in white spreading flower petals, even a Bishop with his entourage. Or maybe a cardinal. Many of the crowd wore traditional German dress, dirndl dresses for the women, leiderhosen for the men. As e procession nears the church plaza ("Platz"), the church bells begin ringing, continuing until all is in place. Then the band strikes up a hymn, and everyone on the square sings. I heard "Lob Auf Den Herren" (Praise to The Lord) in Grabensplatz.

I entered the city looking for the procession, and I only had to walk about two blocks to find it. I even found a chair from a sidewalk cafe to sit in as it went by. I recorded the bells of Augustinerkirche, then went to the city center to begin a recorded historic walk of Vienna prepared by the BYU German department. On the way I went into the subway station one more time to look at the ruins of the Medieval church they excavated there while building the subway.

15 minutes into my walk I ran into the procession again, this time grouped around the plague monument erected in the 17th century by the Emperor in gratitude for the city's deliverance from the plague. After listening to a couple of hymns I turned aside just a partial block and entered my favorite church so far, a beautiful Baroque cathedral called Peterskirche.

A few moments after I entered St Peter's, a gorgeous alto voice began singing "Panus Angelicus" with organ accompaniment. I looked around and saw that High Mass in Latin was about to begin, performing Jean Langlais' Missa Simplistica for alto and organ. It was beautiful music, superbly performed, and lasted about an hour.

Yesterday I heard my own Mendelssohn organ sonata performed by an organist during the daily free 3 PM organ recital at St Peter's. The long reverberation time of the cathedral lends an entirely new character to the piece, which I usually perform so precisely. It was a glorious swarm of notes in spots, and I loved it.

After the Langlais Mass I found some lunch (always a challenge) and a bathroom (even a greater challenge, since the Institute where we study is closed today for the holiday). On the way to lunch I was passing through an arch covering the sidewalk next to Augustinerplatz when suddenly a gate opened--a gate into a BUILDING, mind you--and out came a procession of elegant horses. The Lipizzaner Stallions were crossing the street to a stone courtyard across the way.

After a sandwich and some gelato I spent the afternoon in the Albertina, an art museum housed in the palace next door to the Opera and the Institute. I saw some amazing works by: Durer, Renoir, Rembrandt, Monet, Chagall, and Picasso. Not just a single work--whole collections of them. Then there was the palace section of the museum. Did you know that Maria Theresa was the mother of Marie Antionette?

Now I am sitting in the plaza outside the Opera on a nice chair, waiting for a performance of Das Rheingold. I'm going to hear the Vienna Philharmonic play Shostakovich on Saturday, and I have an actual ticket for Die Walkyrie on Sunday (please don't ask how much I paid for it).

The thing is, this has been another amazing day in Vienna--but all the days in Vienna seem to be amazing. Incredibly well-performed, glorious music for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a side of gelato und Schokolade. Other than that, I'm living on sandwiches. And my feet always hurt. But, really, who cares?