Today was a day with few things on the schedule, and it really stayed that way. As I stated in yesterday's entry, it was tough to get onto the internet in Vienna. The hotel allegedly has wireless, but no ones laptop, including mine, can find the signal. So, there is a terminal on which you can rent time- but the thing shuts off without warning, and wouldn’t read my flashdrive. Finally, they let me plug into the landline- inconvenient, but it worked. All of this thrashing around kept us in the hotel until 10 AM. We thought to do a bit more of the city walking tour in our guidebook, then go to the Ritter Café on Mariahilferstrasse (recommended by our friend Charley) and then hit the Art Museums, followed by a “nice dinner” somewhere. So we headed out into the day.
The weather had cooled, and the air was crisp and clear, with puffy clouds in the skies, as we set out up toward the old part of the city. The shop windows quickly distracted us from our goal. So much fashion- Julie says that European women where clothing much more adventuresome than that of their American compatriots. I, of course, have no opinion in such matters, as I am morally certain that my wife is always the most well dressed and beautiful woman on the planet.
Candy stores were ubiquitous, each with a window display more impressive than the last. We agreed on some supplies for our book group on Sunday. What is local in Vienna is sure to complement our book. Many shops were selling "antiks" (antiques) and "schmuck" (we think that means jewelry, but were not sure). Some of it was nice. We stopped in many stores, and slowly worked our way up the streets. Along the way, we found fabulous architecture (including a public restroom that was listed as a sight to see in our guidebook), some other churches (St. Peter's has a an organ concert every day at 3 PM-perhaps we can come back), ancient ruins of the Roman city preserved as they were found in the middle of a square, 
street musicians, and just a lot of people from a lot of different countries. Vienna is a very busy place.After a couple of hours, we found ourselves in the center of the Austrian government, an area full of parks and museums as well as parliament and the chancellors office. Some of the roses in the rose garden were passing their peaks, but still impressive (it is “Herbst” or autumn now). We admired the statues and decided that we should learn more about them.
How did this empire of Austria, which held Central Europe for 400 years, work? Why did the people of the first republic think that Anscluss with the Third Reich was such a good idea? How does the experience of empire inform your life as a prosperous democracy? How do you work with the ruins of an empire to create new and vigorous forms of art and music while keeping alive the old traditions? Austria and England are good places to contemplate what happens when empires fall.We, on the other hand, continued our quest for the perfect coffee shop and art museum. On the far side of the Museum Quarter (a former palace now devoted to art, I think) was Mariashilferstrasse, another street full of shops and the sought after archetypical Vienna coffee shop- Ritters. We walked up the hill, staring in windows and, at each corner, saying, one more corner and we turn around. After about 1 km, we found it, perched on a five-way intersection. My stomach still only permitted tea and soup, but Julie went with the Eiskaffee and crepes with jam that were delicious.
By now, it was 2 PM, and we had to decide- art museum or organ concert? We went with the organ concert, and boy was it worth it. I wanted to try taking a streetcar, our mass transit experience in Vienna thus far being limited to the Underground, and thought I had spotted a streetcar on the map. Turned out to be an electric bus, so we headed back to Mariahilferstrasse through an arch and an alley (Rule of thumb in Europe: Interesting stuff lurks in the alleys). While walking through, Julie spotted a leather coat store with a sale sign in the door that had the perfect leather coat and wore to the Symphony the next day. (see tomorrow’s blog for details), and across the way, the perfect necklace and earrings, in a Turkish shop where they opened the window to take them off display for us. After this bout of coffee and shopping, we arrived at St. Peter’s just in time to here the organ, 
which was mostly Bach and complemented the Baroque interior beautifully. All of this took us to 16:00, at which point we decided that we would go back to the hotel and change for a nice dinner.I had spotted a Weinskeller that looked promising, with a Zagat tag and “Bestem im Oesterreich” all over the place. When we walked downstairs, we found a smoky bar with lots of folks drinking and a small buffet for eating. Not what we had in mind. We went with plan B: a somewhat touristy looking place advertising Weinkuche (Viennese cuisine) in a 500-year old building.
We were told on entry that we might have to share a table, since they only had a 4-person table available. The wine was excellent, my soup and Julie’ s appetizer passed muster and we were just digging into some goulash and venison when were joined by a young Canadian named Caroline, who had just come from the annual conference at Melk. She was so wired after the experience: one hundred and fifty people in an intimate conference that focused on sustainable change and spiritual growth, highlighted by the Dalai Lama. She is moving from the corporate world to create an entrepreneurial media company that focuses business on sustainability; how does one extract profit while leaving a planet behind for one’s grandchildren. She spoke of speakers describing initiatives all over the world, which would allow sustainable capitalism. Of particular interest was a job creation program in Pittsburgh, founded by an African-American who has forged alliances with business to bring the “people that you give up on” into corporate life. It reinforced our sense that an ancient place like Melk can provide a catalyst for change in a world that sometimes seems to have forgotten its way.“All that wander are not lost”, the saying goes. We wandered into some wonderful stores, amazing stories and great food amidst the ruins of empire. The key question, seems not to be “How did this happen?”, but “what do we do with it now?”.
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