Day 17 - Music to Raise the Dead

Sunday morning greeted me with no alarm clock!  I slept in until a little after 8:00 am!  This may not seem late to many of you, but for a teacher 8:00 am is late!  I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with several of the other participants and the topic of conversation was "So, what are you going to do today?"  I was planning on making up for the rain yesterday and go tour those blasted gardens at the Schloß, but it was still raining and windy and cold and just not a good day to look at gardens!  


I consulted the Vienna tour book that Jenny gave me before I left and decided that I would visit the Mozart Museum.  It isn't a huge museum.  It is housed in the building where he lived the longest during his time in Vienna.  He lived there for two and a half years and his third son was born and died there.  Infant mortality was fairly common in the 1700's.  Mozart's first child also died while still an infant.  Of Mozart's six children only two survived to adulthood.  


On the way to the museum I walked past the Kapuzinerkirche and thought about all those dead Kaisers, Emperors, Empresses, Princes, Princesses, etc. just waiting for me to come visit!  Five Euro later and I'm in the Crypt.  It wasn't quite what I expected.  The dozens of Sarcophagi are made of metal and some of them are extremely ornate.  Of course the most impressive ones belonged to Empress Maria Theresia, Emperor Franz Joseph, and Empress Katherine.  The entire collection is in the photo album, but here are a few highlights.  


I was glad the Empress Maria Theresia's coffin was so ornately designed or I wouldn't have known which one was hers.  There are a lot of dead Maria Theresia' in that vault.  Unlike the Joseph's and the Wilhelm, and the Firederich's  The Maria Theresia's weren't numbered.  You know, like Emperor Joseph II or Kaiser Wilhelm III.  I'm only at the beginning of learning about the lives of Austrian Royalty and the Habsburg empire.  I couldn't tell you one Habsburg from another yet.  When they're dead it makes it all the more difficult!

This view hasn't changed
much since Mozart looked
out this window.

Interior of Mozart's building

Like many of the museums here, no photography was allowed in Mozart's apartment.  Mozart and his family lived on the first floor.  First floor here is the same as second floor in the States.  Here they count floors as ground, first, second, etc. The higher up in the building you lived the cheaper the rent.  Why?  Because the elevator hadn't been invented yet!  Imagine living on the top floor of a building without any elevators. The ground floor was often used for shops and/or a common entry for the building.  Mozart's was no different.  It had a quaint central courtyard that allowed for windows to be on multiple sides of the rooms.  The Mozart Museum now takes up three floors in the building. You start on the third floor and work your way down to the apartments.  Good news though, since Mozart's time they've installed an elevator!  The website for the museum is really good and has pictures of all the things I couldn't take pictures of. 


Lunch time came around I found a little tourist trap of a restaurant and went in.  Walking through the door led to a room so small that it only had room for about four or five tables.  Off to the side was a stairwell that indicated more seating downstairs.  The stairwell circled around and opened up to this beautiful underground grotto.  It looked similar to some of the crypts, but it had loads of tables, multiple rooms, a tree growing in the middle of the room and more.  Austrian restaurants don't seem to have Maitre D's so I chose a quite table in the corner where I could survey the room and began to browse the menu.  I chose schweinskotelett vom Grill mit Pommes frites und krautsalat.  It was delicious.  I could really get used to the home cooking style of these restaurants.  

Back on the Graben I walked around for a while, dodging raindrops, and found this pretty little alleyway that is adorned with pretty little shops.  I strolled along the pretty little cobblestones and looked in the pretty little window at a pretty little display that made me think of my pretty little wife.  This the souvenir I would like to bring home to her.  Remember honey, a picture is worth a thousand words!

My next stop was back at  PetersKirche.  The first time I visited Peterskirche was with out architectural expert Chris Otto. Unfortunately mass was going on so we couldn't be tourists.  This time I was able to spend a good amount of time looking at all of the beautiful altars. While in the church the rain outside turned into a storm.  I could hear the wind howling and the rain pelting the windows so I decided I would sit down and read a few of Mozart's letters.  I ended up sitting for about 45 minutes, enjoying the peaceful quiet, when a man walked by and dropped a flyer on the pew.  Peterskirche was going to host a free choral music concert at 5:00 pm!  I had about an hour to wait so I did what any self-respecting Viennese tourist would do. . . . I went in search of torte!  And did I find a good one!  I didn't get the name of the torte, but it had a slight marzipan flavor and was rich and moist and sweet!  I'm not usually a fan of marzipan, but this was just the right amount. I also tried one of their beautiful petit fours.  It was as delicious as it looked!

Back to the concert!  I arrived with about 10 minutes to wait before the concert began.  The crowd looked to be pretty good and I had a great seat in the third row.  Then the chapel bells began to ring and everyone stood up.  My German had failed me again.  Upon closer inspection the flyer read that the concert would be presented after the 5:00 pm Mass.  Not being Catholic and having only limited German, I was a little concerned about offending the people around me.  I knew I couldn't walk out without being rude so I stayed for Mass.  I'm glad I did!  Even with the language barrier, it was beautiful.  Two of the hymns I knew and my German was good enough that I knew when to say the Lord's Prayer and when to say the Nicene Creed.  I said it softly in English, so as not to disrupt my neighbors from their devotions, figuring that God has really good ears.  Attending a simple Mass in this amazing space brought tears to my eyes as I thought about all the things and people that I have to be thankful for; Jen, Jade, Mom, Dad, Mom K., Dad K., my extended family, my students, my former teachers, my friends. . . . and music!  This love of music that has taken me half way around the world to study one of the best.  Thanks to this silly blog I've not felt alone while I've been here.  I spend each day thinking about what I'm going to post and share with everyone back home and I feel very loved.

Just before the concert began a gentleman passed out programs from the choir and they were in English!  It only makes sense that they are in English since the choir was the Penninsula Women's Chorus from southern California!  They were quite good and I managed to get a couple of video's just for you!  (Seriously,  I thought to myself  "I should video record this just for insert your name here, he/she will really enjoy it!"