Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Day 16 Vienna, Day 17 Vienna to E-ville

 

The last two days: more great contemporary art, a long walk to the Daube

and even longer Uber ride back from lunch (Vienna is getting ready to host

Eurovision contest), a small dinner in the hotel, and early start to the airport,

an on-time arrival at SFO.

view from hotel 

THB and DB get a tour of other hotel rooms; the pics are from the unoccupied rooms. About 25+ years ago an IT tecchie exec bought the building and converted around 60 units to hotel rooms, using variouss architects. There are still a few of the original tenants, and Reception handles their needs as well. The "curator" of the art hustles through the tour, she and the owner's daughter rotate art every Dec/Jan during the  low period. No attributions as the hotel doesn't want the hotel guests know how much individual pieces are worth





photo was blurry before THB took the pic


THB thinks the vacuum is real, the car is not
this painting was outside our room and the closer THB looked the more he like it



not easy to tell, the headboard is a chocolate bar




this rug would fit perfectly in the Loft
pics around town, taken as we walk to the Danube for lunch












we are dining outside at Heindls Schmarren & Palatschinkenkuchl
we are a few minutes early so walk a few blocks to the Danube





slightly spritzy strawberry lemonade

Heindls Schmarren & Palatschinkenkuchl: THB can't believe he ate the whole thing!! We first had this dish at Hotel Charles in Munich...
more shots from around town before we take an UBER uptown....an hour ride (we walked it in 30 minutes) as the police have closed a number of bridges along the Danube



The Ludwig Moderner






2 big shows: a selection of artists who canvas the museum's collection to pair up with their own work; and lots of work by Tobias Pils (THB not overwhelmed)








there's a large blue line on the floor, reminiscent of THB's and DB's apartment near Lake Mettitt where we painted a similar stripe on the walls.




projected on the stairwell


one of the few paintings with color



Years ago, Trumer opened a brewery in Berkeley, using a recipe provided by the Austrian company. Lots of places in the East Bay carried the draft version and THB made it the Loft house brewski. Just recently they sold the Berkeley site to an LA group. The bottle below was ordered by THB as part of the light dinner at the hotel. Identical to the Berkeley version

DB sticks with Gruner Veltliner
somewhere between Vienna and Istanbul (probably the Black Sea)
the new look in Business Class: an updated Jane Fonda workout type attire
She put on a coat and she's ready to party in SF

graffiti artists are not known for getting their acronyms / spelling right




Book Reviews


The Unicorn Hun (book 5 of the House of Niccolo Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett

(read by John Banks, pub’d 1993, audio version in2023). More travels and travails

for Niccolo as he finally gets his child and wife back in Venice.


Beyond Inheritance, Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding

of Health, Roxanne Khansi (read by author): mostly snippets of how on-going

analysis of changes in DNA over our lives can create diseases. Not recommended -

a long-ish magazine article would suffice.