Kunst Haus, Vienna
Hundertwasser Haus -low income housing
Trash to Electric Power Incinerator
Vienna Trash Incinerator - other side!
Autobahn Rest Stop by Hundertwasser Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. What a moniker!
Herr Hundertwasser is to staid Viennese architecture what Attila the Hun was to the hot springs at Budapest. He really shook up the old neighborhood bigtime! His beautiful, quirky buildings dot the bland Viennese urban landscape like exotic gems. A trash-burning power plant looks like a Russian fairy village. An art museum (the Kunst Haus) looks like Legoland on drugs. My favorite is the Hundertwasser Haus, a block of low income housing flats with no square angles and no two apartments alike. Nine hundred tons of dirt and 250 trees and vines are an integral part of the latter’s design.
Seeing these buildings brings up a very reasonable question, "Why should ordinary architecture be so extraordinarily boring." Also: "Why should't form be fun as well as functional?" Hundertwasser's work reminds me of Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, but without the heavy religious symbolism. I'll take a fanciful Austrian autobahn reststop over an inspired Spanish cathedral any day. Pass the hot espresso and hold the holy water, Danke schoen.
Rena and I quaff our hot espresso in the courtyard of the Kunst Haus (art museum) and marvel at Hundertwasser’s undulating floors, riotous plantlife, and tiled walls. After the Kunst Haus we walk across the Danube canal and into the Prater - Vienna’s Coney Island. We take the famous Prater Wheel - a Ferris wheel from the 1890’s. The sun's going down over Vienna and the view is Wunderbar. The day ends in a perfect golden glow and we still have the night ahead of us! Time to 'wein und schwein' before we 'rise and shine'.
We finally meet our sponsor at the International Conference of Nutrition: Ms. Alice Wimpfheimer (and her roommate Erly from Campinas, Brazil). They are waiting at the Austrian Conference Center where Bernie has spent the day attending nutricious lectures and presentations. Alice is 77 years old with the energy of a 17 year old. She probably weighs 77 pounds soaking wet! This little dynamo lives on Central Park West but remains Swiss to the core.
After greetings and exclamations, we board a bus to Grinzing for a traditional Austrian pork fest - or as they call it, a Heurigen night. There is pork cutlet, pork roast, pork sausage and, to avoid any clogs in the plumbing, fresh sauerkraut. Being as how we're Jewish by religion and vegetarian by inclination, Rena and I eat very little. But the Apfelstrudel for dessert is great! We drink Austrian red and white wine and sing some Trinkenlieder which I remember from my childhood on the Alsatian border. Alice is impressed!
After greetings and exclamations, we board a bus to Grinzing for a traditional Austrian pork fest - or as they call it, a Heurigen night. There is pork cutlet, pork roast, pork sausage and, to avoid any clogs in the plumbing, fresh sauerkraut. Being as how we're Jewish by religion and vegetarian by inclination, Rena and I eat very little. But the Apfelstrudel for dessert is great! We drink Austrian red and white wine and sing some Trinkenlieder which I remember from my childhood on the Alsatian border. Alice is impressed!
About 10:30 Rena and I start to fade and decide to take public transport back to the hotel instead of waiting for the tour bus. I ask a local Burger “Wo ist die Grindzinger Statione?”. And I understand enough of the reply to arrive at the busstop just as the trolley car doors open. In 20 minutes we are out of the dorf and back at the K+K for a night of rest. All except Bernie who awakens at 4 AM to worry about the poster. Tomorrow is POSTER DAY.
Daktari
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