Vienna

Vienna Austria

Schloss Belvedere in Vienna

On Friday, we took the train from Innsbruck to Vienna. Friday morning, we didn't quite allow enough time to get to the station on time, and were literally running to catch the train. Thanks to Markus and Bert, we barely made it on time and we piled our luggage, gear and guitars onto the train with just seconds to spare before the train departed the station. This was really the only mishap on the entire tour! After talking with Tony and Pat, it sounds like the CGT tour was almost more of a vacation schedule wise in comparison to the Stickmen tour, which is still going. We met a very nice guy on the train named George, who told us to go to cafe called Alt Wien, which means "old Vienna". After we settled in the apartment, we found Alt Wien on the map and walked through the beautiful streets of central Vienna to find the cafe, which turned out to be a very old, very local cafe. I think we were the only foreigners in the place. The walls were covered with posters of upcoming theater and music events, and it seemed to be the place where the musicians and actors gathered, so we knew we were in the right place. And as recommended by George, we all ordered the Goulash, and it was delicious!

We spent 3 days in Vienna, staying at an apartment in central Vienna. On Saturday morning we worked with the Vienna Guitar Circle. We performed for them, and then they played for us. Then we divided into 3 groups, with Bert, Hideyo and I each showing one of the groups our parts in Blockhead, and then after about an hour (they learned really fast!) we all got back together and played Blockhead all together. I really enjoyed working with the guitar circle and hope to have another opportunity to work with them again.

The Vienna Guitar Circle opened the concert for us on Saturday Night, giving an excellent performance and created a good energy in the venue before the CGT began. The concert was held in a nice small community theater. It was our first time playing in Vienna and I enjoyed the concert very much. I could feel the audience really listening and getting into the music. A great day in Vienna!

On Sunday we did some sight seeing in Vienna. What a beautiful city filled with amazing palaces, churches, theaters, museums and incredible architecture everywhere. We went to both Beethoven's house and Mozart's house... wow! We walked most places, but also wanted to go see the Schloss Belvedere and the Gustav Klimt exhibition there, which was a few kilometers away from the center, so we got in a Taxi to take us there. I heard Bert say "Schloss Belvedere" and also spoke a few other words in German to the taxi driver, and after about 15 minutes drive, the taxi driver pulled up in front of a large palace and the driver announced "Schloss Shune Brune, here you are". Somehow the taxi driver did not listen to Bert saying Belvedere, and we ended up at another palace (which was also amazing) 5 kilometers out of town. We began arguing with the driver, and Bert wanted to run away from him without paying, and after much arguing and I was threatening to call the police, and the taxi driver chasing bert, we finally reached an agreement and he took us to Belvedere. And we saw the palace and the Klimt Exhibition including "The Kiss", and I tried quickly to forgot all about the mishap with the taxi driver. This was the only other small mishap of the tour.