Travels With My Book
Inside Demel coffee house. Photo: © F. Hardy
Vienna in Springtime
This week was my first time in Vienna since November 2015 when I came up with the idea of researching – and then writing – a book about my family. The city was just as lovely as I remember it and two days weren’t nearly long enough!
I managed to go to some of my grandparents’ favourite places, although it was a bit of a rush fitting it all in. First of all we went to St Stephen’s Cathedral and looked around inside. It was busier than I remember it, but I am sure that April is a more popular time to come here than November.
Outside St Stephen’s Cathedral. Photo: © P. Hardy
Then we walked about five minutes’ away to my grandfather’s former office at 1 Morzinplatz, overlooking the Danube canal. The six-storey building has seen better days – in fact in my grandmother’s 1930s photo album you can see life-sized classical statues positioned between every window. All these have long gone (apparently they were stolen during the Second World War), but the fourth floor still has sculpted heads of gods and kings set like medallions into the stone between each window. Presumably these were too difficult to remove. What was once my grandfather and his brother’s textiles business is now a modern lighting shop, although the exterior walls are peeling.
In the afternoon we had delicious Viennese coffee and Kaiserschmarrn (my favourite pudding: chopped pancakes topped with spicy stewed plums) at Demel coffee house. As you can see, I photographed a dummy version of my book sitting on the table. There’s also a picture of me holding the book outside my grandfather’s office.
My trip was organised by Austria Tourism and flights with Austrian Airlines. I stayed at the convenient Hotel Gilbert in the Museum Quarter. The Vienna City Card was an invaluable extra, including on it the very quick airport transfer (16 minutes direct) and the U-Bahn (underground), as well as discounts in museums. I went to the Klimt exhibition in the gorgeous Belvedere Palace, something I’ve been wanting to do for many years. I wish there had been time to go to the Leopold Museum, which apparently has some amazing art as well.
It’s 2023 and I’m standing outside what was my grandfather’s office building until 1938. Photo: © P. Hardy
