I’m appalled by how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog. So here goes. Today I’ve been laid low with a miserable virus–sore throat, fever, general pessimism about everything–so I’ve pretty much stayed in bed and pulled the covers…
Until I’ve recovered from my amazing African adventure long enough to write something more coherent, here are a couple of pages from my journal. Enjoy. I’ll post photos later.
I am writing this entry while my students are working on writing a part of a scientific paper. This way I can upload (I hope) this document at the next break. There are computers here at the Albert Schweitzer hospital…
After work yesterday, I stopped in at a jewelry shop on a big shopping street, to inspect their collection of gold charms. Although I do this on every trip to Vienna, I can never remember the word for charms. And…
Yesterday I was waiting for the streetcar at a busy intersection, on my way to work. It was cold and rainy, and the streets and sidewalks were slick. Some background: Austria is about 99.9% Roman Catholic, and you see a…
Alas, dinner at Meinl was a bust. The food was mediocre, but the service was appalling. And this, at one of the top restaurants in Vienna! It’s a lovely place that looks out down the Graben (“moat” in German, not…
I arrived in Vienna this afternoon (that’s the Stephansdom on the right), after a wonderful day driving along the Danube, stopping in to explore a few little villages. One was Durnstein (near left), where I stopped in at the church…
When I first checked in to this hotel, I was given the curse of all lone travelers: the tiny room, with a single bed, and a bathroom with no tub. Boldly, I marched back downstairs and said, auf Deutsch, naturlich,…
Today’s main destination: Maria-Gugging, home of the Donauklinikum, which is a psychiatric hospital where lots of artists happen to be. They have a workshop there called Haus der Kunstler, which is decorated in a kind of outsider art/art brut style,…
When I arrived in Krems yesterday, I noticed lots of fields full of what appeared to be tobacco on its last legs. You know, most of the leaves had been pulled, but there were a few yellowing ones left. The…