A touch of Newfoundland

Vienna’s modern-day transit system is second to none. The underground is clean and easy, the buses are regular and the trams work well around the older part of the city. Even bicycles have their own paths complete with traffic lights.

The U4 subway north connects us with bus 38A and takes us in the hills to Kahlenburg at the edge of the Vienna woods. Here, high above the city, there are hiking trails and wine gardens. Also, in the restaurant area, there is spectacular view of the mighty Danube and the bridges that connect the city. The air has cooled to 10°C, giving credibility to the theory that last week’s high temperatures were abnormal. We decide to visit the restaurant for lunch. Many of the restaurants and cafés in Vienna allow smoking; this one doesn’t.

We’re still yearning for a good sampling of authentic Austrian cuisine. Our waiter brings us the menu and a bottle of still water, Romerquelle. I read the back of the label and find it is bottled by Coca-cola. Monica does well with an appetizer – cappuccino/pumpkin soup, frothed with cream and topped with roasted pumpkin seeds. I decide on poached veal with roasted potatoes and a vegetable dish of roasted squash and cabbage. It was good. For her main course, Monica orders a sheep’s cheese dish with a garden salad. Unfortunately the cheese is breaded, fried, and a little salty. We figure two out of three isn’t too bad.

Back at the Carlton Opera Hotel (our apartment), we are anxious to try our Austrian beer. Yesterday, at the grocery mart, we contemplated which type of beer to buy. There were so many. After much deliberation, and with the assistance of a store clerk, we decide on Pilsner. Even efficient city travel can be long and tiring. How relaxing it will be to sit back and have a cold beer. I sit at the table and Monica goes to the fridge for the beer. She looks back at me disappointedly. “Guess what”, she says “we left the beer in the freezer overnight”.

Before leaving Vienna, we have the pleasure to meet with Monica’s cousin and a former native of Gander, Newfoundland, Patricia Griffin. Monica hadn’t seen her in 30 years. Patricia trained in Toronto as an opera singer in the 1960’s. She taught voice in Toronto and performed throughout Canada and some parts of the United States. With her opera training, she learned to speak Italian and German and in the mid-1980’s she left for Europe. In Vienna she set up her own private school teaching voice lessons. She had only intended to stay there for 6 months. That was 25 years ago. Patricia has found a home in Vienna and is now enjoying a comfortable retirement with her two new favorite pastimes – hiking in the Alps and gardening at her cottage. We depart, content that there is still a touch of Newfoundland left behind.