TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS
However, life goes on, and the era in which Freud lived and earlier Johann Strauss is felt here to this day, is in the air with the spirit of the Vienna Opera! We decided to go up to our room and were met in the hotel lobby by real noble ladies in antique dresses. And their elegant gentlemen in tailcoats and tuxedos! Living characters from the canvases filled the hall, those that returned at such a late hour from the ball! In the meantime, authentic carriages drove up outside the window as in 19 century.
The time comes when the most daring dreams become a reality, again ironically, smiles so that, like in the song of "Machine of the time" band.
" Here, a new turn, and the engine roars, what it brings to us, an abyss or takeoff, into a pool, or a ford, and you won't make out until won't turn back"!
To this music, we went to the airport to respond to a new turn of Fortune.
The Zero Project and ITU invited us to represent the International Community of Boundless Travelers "Accesstravel" at the UN conference as part of the competition's finalists for the best Accessible Europe project - Accessible Europe!
Legends gathered in the team of speakers, and we had no doubt it was time to fly, especially since the day of our arrival in Vienna just coincided with the birthday of my wife and faithful friend.
Luck smiled again, and through our booking system, we managed to order a room in one of the most amazing hotels for little money.
The Hotel Ferdinand has an excellent location in the centre of Vienna, where the Duke himself often liked to stay, or maybe it's a racehorse whose stuffed animal is in the lobby?
What can I say when the price differs four times from the official price tag on the hotel website and even more from Booking! Here, at accesstravel.com, this happens, and this is not advertising. Still, just the stars can converge like this at the right time, for the formal meeting, for the proper vacation where miracles happen, and this happened to us two weeks before the start of the global Corona epidemic, which was is still known only in China.
Plane tickets started from 40 euros in both directions, but this, as always, did not coincide with our schedule.
We flew on the evening of February 18 with Austrian Airlines. We did not regret it, and miracles began right in the air!
Firstly, white wine flowed like a river, and in alpine zones, the flight attendants' blond beauties did not skimp.
Tomato juice did not cause heartburn, and now, after the third glass for the health of the birthday girl, and it's so romantic to celebrate a birthday on an aeroplane, I turned to the stewardess and told her that, by the way, my wife's birthday is today! Although the dishes were plastic, they resembled the good old school style, elegant coffee mugs with an intricate pattern on the handle, not a fast-food dessert and not faceless food as is customary in modern aviation. Notice all this in the economy class, Strauss waltzes and a completely German attitude to accuracy and service.
And suddenly, a 180-degree turn of events, and five minutes later, at least half of the crew came to greet us with dessert and sparkling champagne from the first class !! Wow!! This is where the real fun began, heartfelt toasts because what does a party at home mean for a true adventurer, and how can it be compared when you are in an actual, not at all virtual state of flight, in the best cafe with wings that takes you to old Europe!
Having felt deeply, we signed a postcard from Jerusalem with the warmest words of gratitude to each flight attendant and captain of the ship, and we were seen off with a bang! We did not feel the German coldness at all, just the opposite!
The airport in Vienna is very convenient, but if you booked a transfer, then after a driver meets you with a sign, you will go together to some extended underground garage, which takes another 20 minutes) At least that's how it was with us, no cars at the entrance, everything is in German, or Austrian, although the Austrian dialect is softer, more melodic, kind of like German, it sounds much more likeable.
At around 10 or 11 pm, we arrived at our luxurious five-star Hotel.
https://youtu.be/DA0ksg3_8mM
An employee met us at the entrance in a very authentic cap as if descended from the thirties films of the twentieth century!
Photo in the lobby with that friendly guy!
There was a minor incident at the reception. We ordered a room adapted for people with disabilities. Still, the receptionist told us that we would have to pay extra for a fully accessible space for a higher class. I became indignant, but still paid additional 30 euros for three days, although we received an incredibly cool room!!
The photos of the room are here!
In general, the Hotel is very unusual. The design combines simplicity and elegance, high class and simplicity of the mid-twenties loft-style and Louis style flourishes! Not your usual room design! The oak parquet on the floor immediately immersed me in an atmosphere of comfort.
And above the rough, unfinished concrete ceiling as if in a garage, dark grey walls without frills, painted like a stage in a chamber theatre and suddenly a window into another world. There is a massive mirror on the entire wall in an oval, with ruffles, white framed! The contrast here is in everything, precisely in the middle of a vast room. A leather sofa in the early twentieth-century style (carriage coupler) and opposite it a rough table welded from steel, almost rusty metal corners with a chic white marble top!
Using a combination of polar antagonisms in standard thinking, the designers have glued together a new, harmonious, boldly bold, gently cosy world. Imagine a great composer or a poet will now enter and, in his way, will offer to taste Austrian strudel together!
Even though we were already exhausted, the birthday continued, and we had a table booked in advance at the Grand Etage (The famous attic restaurant right in the building of our Hotel, oh yes !! I love it when you don't need to go far, because my wife can look for a suitable cafe for two hours, and this, with all due respect to her exaltation and creativity, is sometimes tiring) carriage tie)
And lo and behold, we are here! And I'll tell you, it was worth it, and again and again, I want to return to this ivy-covered loft in the centre of Vienna!
And I can't resist and convey everything with these non-professional photos and insert more, and then I will draw with words.
My birthday girl, tired after the flight but beautiful
and this is how the Grand Floor looks like in the morning,
every day we had breakfast like this and drank three cups of coffee and orange juice
enjoying the view from panoramic windows and dreaming,
and of course, I ate a lot and tasty
https://www.facebook.com/828300450/videos/10163118838975451/?t=11
It was the first Hotel in my travel experience with a Bloody Mary set for breakfast, tomato juice, celery, Absolut vodka and large crystal glasses mm. Now it would be all here in quarantine in Jerusalem)
Set photo
On the Grand Floor, you feel at home surrounded by floor lamps with velvet, bluish shades and authentic Persian carpets on the floor.
There is something like a cosy stove with giant burning candles, and the open space of the attic is wrapped around completely homemade ivy! On the contrary, everything is relaxed and green.
We met a waiter during one of the breakfasts, a very nice guy who turned out to be from Belarus, who emigrated with his family to Austria quite recently. He told us that the Grand Floor is a favourite place for business breakfasts of ambassadors from various states, including the embassies of the former CIS countries.
And indeed, the view from here is beautiful, and the service is top-notch.
However, our first breakfast was over. We hardly got out of the table to return to reality and the purpose of our visit to Vienna. After taking a taxi, in 15 minutes, we were at the UN City, the so-called UN city. We came to present our project of Accesstravels, an inclusive tourist community for all.
A complex of buildings is located in a semicircle, at the head of which rises a black skyscraper.
It rises like an obelisk above the world, giving the impression that this is the headquarters of some evil genius from Hollywood films.
From this side, the building looks friendly, but from the other side, it seems like a completely black castle)
Such is the granite of international guarantors, surrounded by light complexes.
It would be best to get a badge and a pass at the first complex. There is a ramp for those who need physical accessibility.
At the entrance, you are greeted by hospitable UN members in a uniform similar to the uniform of some heavenly policemen, such warm guys, and characteristically, many of them speak Russian! Yes, yes, calmly switching from English to native, and suddenly you understand who occupies a significant role in this organisation.
Security took a picture of us and gave us these badges.
It was an exciting day because not every day you have to speak at the UN, and dreams come true. The idea that tourism should be accessible to everyone is getting closer, but I will not detail this story.
I was very impressed with the scale and those people from all over the globe that gathered at the ZERO Project conference, which aims to make our native Planet a space without barriers and accessible to everyone!
During a free lunch in the corridor, with a beautiful view of Vienna, we found a fabulous ring that seemed to be a good sign of a bright path. It was a multi-coloured and multi-faceted four-leaf clover.
However, we gave a ring to the lost and found and, satisfied with our performance, went home by metro, which was very convenient and friendly. However, because I don't get around with a wheelchair, we had to look for an elevator in the dungeon, and this turned out to be a quest since it was from the back door to there was no sign anywhere in the metro station building.
However, later we quickly learned to understand how to look for an elevator in this mysterious game. As it turned out, if you raise your head on the signs, there is a Stroller icon and inscriptions, an elevator, AufZug.
As we exited the elevator and continued towards our Hotel, we suddenly stumbled upon a beautiful shop with a Cannabis badge!
What was not in this beautiful shop, and cannabis beer
And hemp cakes and chocolate
And also medicinal hemp tea
And just Cannabis with different flavours, for example, strawberry flavour, in general, whatever your heart desires, and all this in Vienna and legally! However, there is one thing, only marijuana with low oil content, the so-called CBD, is legal here because it won't put you in much, and it's not scary even for schoolchildren.
For only 35 euros, you can take as much as 5 grams at a discount)
However, we were already quite hungry and went straight to the Hotel, because right under the windows of our room is the most delicious cafe with a long history known for serving the most delicious schnitzels in Vienna!
Riding Schnitzel (a Riding Dinner cooperation)
Authentic Viennese schnitzels, giant, on the whole plate.
The cooking process of these is a whole art entrusted only to men, and not to one, but to several, one of which beats, the other, as if in the rhythm of a Strauss waltz, throws up, touches the snow-white mass and again sends it flying in a cloud flour. Then on hot baking sheets, and then an elegant and well-trained waiter like a soldier with a Rolex watch on his hand and a stately bearing with a graceful movement puts a plate right in front of you with a still smoking schnitzel topped with a small, as it were, the cherry on the cake. That's how I understood such a small herring rolled up or some other fish for salinity!
However, I'm talking about schnitzels again! They made from beef, and on top of the dough, I don't know about you, but we, in the Holy Land, are used to the fact that the most ordinary dish is Schnitzel and somehow not perceived in a restaurant, let's say. However, it is delicious, especially if you take a particular set, namely a set of Schnitzel,
potato salad,
sweet, like berry sauce jam.
Just as history testifies and Sigmund Freud himself liked to regale the restaurant workers!
The great psychologist, in his old age, in 1938, with the advent of the Nazis, had to leave his beloved home. A cafe in which he ate his traditional Schnitzel and went to a foreign land at the request of Franklin Roosevelt himself, never to return. And a year later, he asked his faithful doctor to apply a lethal injection of morphine.
However, life goes on, and the era in which Freud lived and earlier Johann Strauss is felt here to this day, is in the air with the spirit of the Vienna Opera! We decided to go up to our room and were met in the hotel lobby by real noble ladies in old dresses.
And their elegant gentlemen in tailcoats and tuxedos!
In the meantime, authentic carriages drove up outside the window. The living characters from the canvases filled the hall that returned at such a late hour from the ball!
The Grand Etazh, the restaurant where we had breakfast, has a special menu for those returning from the ball, with champagne and snacks.
Author: Wilhelm Gause - Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien
You heard right, and the gentlemen were returning from the ball, from the opera, in authentic carriages. The sound of hooves and the rustling of skirts took us somewhere there, in those days when the cheerful Johann Strauss first came up with his melody from the Tales of the Vienna Woods while walking and having fun whistling, and the forest birds echoed him and completed the tune.
Taram, taram, taram there, taram, taram taram there tamm. In every breath, there is music and significant events, and meanwhile, lightness and a specific desire to always and in everything follow the old traditions, combined with loyalty to migrants, sexual minorities, the UN and marijuana)
Well, what else? We didn't have much time, and the coronavirus plague began to blow in the city. Still, we managed to visit the Leopold Museum of Contemporary Art in the Museum Quarter and learned a lot about this city, which at one time became the centre of free thought in Europe.
I accidentally drew attention to the lady in the mask who became prophetic, everything is not accidental, and we create our Universe when we need rest and self-isolation.
Then, merrily hiding from the museum, we still had time before leaving by a seemingly happy accident. As you know, accidents do not happen in the most iconic, but unfortunately, not a very accessible cafe in terms of threshold size, which again happened to be next to our Hotel where we tasted.
What do you think? Yes, that's right, the famous Viennese strudel!!!
And so, write down the name of the coffee shop, stay away from us, shh Shvarzenberg! This cafe is 150-200 years old and has the tradition of making coffee with a glass of fresh cold water! A sip of coffee, a drink of water!
Old-timers recommend drinking coffee because the tongue's receptors do not get used to the taste after a sip of aromatic coffee. With each new drink, new sensations! You kind of wash away the old flavour and drink again and again a fresh and clean sip! Coffee houses in Vienna are famous for their coffee, mmm, it's delicious, especially with strudel! A glass of coffee, a spoonful of strudel with creamy sauce
Similar to condensed milk in a compartment with ice cream, mmm.
A sip of cold water and everything is like the first time!
That's it, and I think it's time for us to teleport to the present. However, I'll also note that we travelled on foot to move around a very friendly Vienna without slides.
Like in every city we visit, we take a ticket for 24 hours for a double-decker. Hop off-hop bus is where you will find an audio guide in 27 languages.
and accessibility for all
and comfortable ramp
If you need something from the set - Hotel, excursions, transport, bus, use this link https://m.me/accessiblefordisabledhotels, and our partners will make your unforgettable vacation friends. With love, Damir and the Accesstravels team
See you.
