Visitors (Habsburger, Hundertwasser and Heuriger)

Last week the joys of Vienna were heightened by two sets of lovely visitors!

First, Charlotte and her sisters Lucy and Emily came from Switzerland for a holiday. Charlotte and I did not choose our degrees strategically for our friendship, as she was away in Russia last year and I am away this year, so this may have been our last meeting for some time! It was great to meet Emily and Lucy too, having heard so much about them. We had a lovely time doing some tourist-y things, eating, cooking and catching up. Highlights included a visit to Schönbrunn palace and gardens (a summer residence of the Habsburgs), watching an outdoor screening of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Rathaus with Tom (see his blog here), and just drinking tea in my WG room. There is something about hosting people that makes a place feel more like home.

Emily, Lucy and Charlotte at Schönbrunn

I then spent Friday with the wonderful James and Judith Gardom. First up was the Kunst Haus, a gallery focused on the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Studying Hundertwasser as a cultural topic for A-level turned our whole class into devotees of his architecture (more on that another time), but it was lovely to see more of his artwork too. In the evening we took the tram to the edge of the city and walked up the Kahlenberg through the vineyards to Heuriger Sirbu (pictured).

James and Judith at Heuriger Sirbu on the Kahlenberg

Heuriger are wine-taverns up in the hills where visitors can drink the most recent year's wine (heuer = this year) and eat traditional local food (James and I both enjoyed Bratwurst and Sauerkraut). The evening light was particularly beautiful. Idyllic.