Day 25 - Food to Die For and Shoenberg

A typical Monday begins with breakfast and a trip to the tobacco store.  No, I haven't taken up smoking.  The Tobacco store sells weekly tram passes.  Class was rather uneventful.  Over the weekend our group did suffer a few casualties.  John, my room mate, ripped the muscle in his leg.  He was encouraged to let them do surgery but he is trying to just medicate it enough for him to get home and have surgery in the states.  I'm sure the Viennese hospitals and doctors are just fine, but I can't say I blame him.
Meanwhile, my friend Kathy, has taken ill and has missed out on the three day weekend and didn't even make it to class today.  I hope she's feeling better.

With colleagues dropping like flies the rest us went to the cemetery!  Seems appropriate, right?  We traveled out to where Mozart is buried.  Now many of you may know the stories about Mozart's grave.  "He was so poor he couldn't afford a casket."  "He was buried in an unmarked mass grave."  "He was wrapped up in marzipan and dipped in chocolate."  These statements are both true and false.  Let me clarify.

Mozart was not very well off financially at his death, but he was not poor.  Emperor Joseph had instituted thousands of decrees during his rein and some of them dealt with burial. In an effort to make funeral costs more economical, he introduced re-usable coffins.  They had a swinging trap door on them so that the body could be dumped into the grave.  In addition, since Mozart died of a disease rather than old age, he would have been buried far outside the city limits just in case the disease was communicable and still infested the corpse.  This would have happened fairly quickly too, to minimize the risk of contamination.  And as far as him being wrapped in marzipan and dipped in chocolate, well that part is true and you can order Mozart chocolates here.

Based on what records exist, scholars generally believe that Mozart was buried somewhere in the vicinity of this memorial.  There is no way to know for sure.

Brahms

Beethoven 

There is another cemetery in Vienna where some of the greatest musicians in history are buried.  We went there next.  They have a monument to Mozart and the actual graves of Beethoven, Brahms, Wolf, all the Strauss's and several others.  The cemetery was beautiful and some of the tombstones incredibly ornate.  I enjoyed the dead quiet of the place.  Although it rained a little and I was a little cold and stiff.  None-the-less I felt comforted to be surrounded by so many decomposing musicians.

Arnold Schoenberg

One of the most interesting graves was Arnold Schoenberg's.  Arnold Schoenberg is possibly the most famous Viennese musician of the 20th century.  He was the inventor of twelve tone serialism, which is a new way to compose music that had never been done before.  I've always enjoyed his work.  On the way back to the hotel the tram stopped right next to the Schoenberg Institute and I felt I just had to check it out.

The Schoenberg Institute is comprised of a small museum, an extensive library and some interactive exhibits that help give you a feel for this revolutionary musician.  It wasn't much, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Let's talk about food.

Schnitzel

Kartoffel Salat

Mango Torte

For lunch, a simple sandwich with some unidentified lunch meat on a cheesy croissant with lettuce, sliced egg and cream cheese.  For dinner, I joined a small group of women at a Polish restaurant.   I couldn't read the Polish or the German and I knew I was going out for Torte later so I just ordered the cheapest thing on the menu and prayed.  I got Schnitzel!  I like Schnitzel!

For dessert I ended up at the Cafe Landtman with Jael, one of my colleagues.  I had a Mango Torte and she had a Marzipan Kugel. They were both delicious.

Marzipan something