Hundertwasser House

After seeing a picture of this amazing housing complex in a guide book, I put it on my list of ‘must-sees’, and was mildly obsessed with making sure we checked it off the list before our trip to Vienna came to an end.  I naively assumed that this was far enough off the beaten track that there would be few visitors on a cloudy Tuesday morning.  Apparently not – this is one of the most visited sites in Vienna!  Thankfully, there were no tour buses the morning we arrived.  The walk to the Hundertwasserhaus led us past a very intriguing magic shop, which stocked supplies for all sorts of things, including ventriloquism.  You need supplies for that?

As creative and imaginative as his buildings and his art was the architect’s chosen name: Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. According to the all-knowing source, Wikipedia, his name means “Peace-Kingdom Rainy Day Darkly Multicoloured Hundred-Water”.  For more entertaining tidbits and trivia about Hundertwasser, check out the entry in Wikipedia.

Hundertwasswerhaus was built between 1983 and 1986 as a social housing project (or, as someone rather untactfully put it, “where the poor people live”). Hundertwasser reportedly accepted no money for it, arguing that the project was worth it, if only to prevent some other monstrosity being put up in its place. Favouring naturalism, Hundertwasser rejected straight lines, declaring them to be the work of the devil. The building features undulating walls and floors, and colourful, Gaudi-esque mosaics.  Well, straight lines might be the work of the devil, but curves are the enemy of IKEA… quite how people arrange their furniture on undulating walls and floors remains a mystery, although Hundertwasser doesn’t sound like a man who cared much for practicality.

It’s unclear whether this is still being used as a social housing project.  There definitely are private residences, which means that all you can really gape at are the intriguing exteriors.  We were in the tourist-oriented gift shop at the base of the building when another tourist walked in and asked to see one of the apartments.  Sadly, not only could she not see the interiors, but she was treated to a dose of Austrian ‘hospitality’.  The exchange went something like this:

Tourist: Is it possible to see inside one of the flats?

Charming gift-shop attendant: No!

Tourist: Oh, so not now?  Maybe in a few hours?  Maybe this afternoon?

Charming attendant (with a clearly disgusted look on her face): No!  Not now!  Never!

I didn’t know if I should feel sorry for the tourist, or commiserate with the attendant, who obviously gets these kinds of questions on an hourly basis.  Nevertheless, I thought her reaction could have been slightly tempered, or at least accompanied by an explanation!

In addition to the Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna is full of amazing buildings and grand edifices.  Stay tuned for more Viennese art and architecture…

Sucker for Sachertorte

I resisted the temptation to title this post ‘Suckertorte’, because, well, that would have been unkind……

The story goes that, in 1832, the Austrian minister for foreign affairs ordered his chef to create a dessert for a special dinner. The chef fell ill, however, leaving the task of devising a suitable dessert to Franz Sacher, then a second year apprentice in the kitchens. The result was the now-famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam, covered in chocolate icing. Franz Sacher’s son, Eduard Sacher, founded Vienna’s Hotel Sacher and registered the trademark for the “Original Sachertorte”, which is still made to this day from a secret recipe and served daily to hordes of tourists (us included).

The rights to the “Original Sachertorte” have been the subject of a legal dispute between Hotel Sacher and Demels, which claimed to have acquired the recipe from Sacher. The Hotel Sacher won the exclusive right to serve the “Original Sachertorte” based on the family connection. Demels still sell their version of “Ur-Sachertorte”, the main difference being that their apricot jam is layered underneath the icing instead of in the middle of the cake.

All this pre-amble aside, the Hotel Sacher is a nice place for a mid-afternoon pit stop if you feel like getting out of the Viennese rain and indulging in a piece of culinary history accompanied by a frothy cup of mélange (a Viennese cappuccino, usually served with whipped cream). In my opinion, the cake itself is over-rated. Apparently, the reason why it’s usually served with whipped cream is because most Austrians find it too dry to eat on its own, which makes one wonder why they don’t just make the cake more moist. It’s also not very chocolate-y. Oh, and Austrian coffee, while nice, is over-frothy, although the Viennese don’t seem to care too much about the size of bubbles in their cappuccino froth (no latte art here….). If you’re ambivalent about the Sachertorte, you can try their apple or cheese Strudel, both very good. And there is a bewildering range of other Sacher-related drinks and confectionery, all involving some or other combination of chocolate and apricot liqueur.

Original Sachertorte

Viennese mélange

A brief interruption…for Vienna

We’d like to take a small break in telling you about our adventures in Ethiopia to bring you tales of our travels in another direction, and on another continent. Never fear, loyal readers, we are far from finished with Ethiopia and promise to bring you more episodes shortly. But… in the not so distant past (i.e. last week) we flew off to Vienna for an extended weekend. It was a meeting of the siblings (G and N) and their close associates (CCT and R), on the tail end of N and R’s travels through Europe. Never being ones to pass up an opportunity to check out the people and the food of a new city, we were quick to book our flights to Austria. After our rather arduous journey to reach Ethiopia, we shouldn’t have been that surprised that we’d need to run through the Zürich airport with 10 minutes to catch our connecting flight, that our onward flight to Austria would be held up due to a hostage situation in Vienna, or that, despite the delay, our luggage wouldn’t make the dash across the tarmac, meaning that we would arrive in Vienna with nothing but the clothes on our backs, which we would have to wear until our bags finally made it from Zürich the next morning.

Secession Building

Nevertheless, we made it safely, picked up the rest of our party at the Südbanhof Wien (the south train station) and had a great 4 days in Vienna – a city overflowing with Mozart kitsch, an abundance of beautiful architecture, museums and palaces enough to make your head spin, and an equal number of restaurants offering Wiener Schnitzel and Turkish specialties.

Majolika House

My list of ‘must-see’ places in any city I visit always includes a market, so of course we had to visit Vienna’s famous Naschmarkt. Crowded with local Viennese and tourists alike, the market is a feast for all your senses. Mountains of fresh vegetables and fruits, dozens of barrels of vinegars, the mandatory beer and wine stands, and stall after stall offering stuffed olives, tomatoes, cheese and humous met our eyes.

The city is also known for being the home of the Viennese Secession movement, as exemplified in the architectural works of Otto Wagner and the paintings of Gustav Klimt, most of which are displayed in the grand Belvedere museum.

Belvedere

And, of course, there’s the Sachertorte. Ah, yes…. the Sachertorte. More on that to come…