Munich - New Design Museum at Pinakothek der Moderne

After a treacherous car return in the bowels of a parking garage under Karlsplatz, we were free to explore Munich. It's a dense but highly pleasant city of 1.5 million that looks and feels quintessentially German. After about 40% of the city was destroyed during WWII, buildings were reconstructed as they had previously appeared for the most part, bringing it back to that Bavarian Oktoberfest style. But the Pinakothek, the modern art museum, is an exception (it also helps that it was completed in 2002!). A large rectangle from the outside, the interior lobby rises up several floors with an enormous oval disk hovering at angle above your head. Precise German engineering keeps it from falling on your head. Spectacular.

We concentrated on the design museum, which is celebrating its 20th year by showcasing design advances year by year from 2002 to 2022. This included the 3-D printed chair you see above, Nike shoes that don't require tying your shoelaces, a robot that picks up trash in the ocean, and other innovations.

Furniture from half a century ago reminded me how enduring "new" styles can be. The Eames rocking chair above first appeared in 1948.

I was particularly tickled by the outdoor furniture exhibit, which featured camping furniture used in Eastern Germany, six feet tall plastic cacti, as well as the hip loungette above.

Then we moved on to the X collection. Steven described this as "sh** we have in our garage, but better organized." (Though we don't have 50 toasters either). So, should you tire of 15th-19th century architecture while traveling in Munich, I suggest a day at the Pinakothek.

Heilingenblut and Glossglockner Hochalpenstrassen in the Austrian Alps

The pictures here will say it all. We took a detour after Salzburg through the Austrian Alps, along the Grossglockner Highway, and spent the night in Heilingenblut. Hard name to say, but beautiful to behold. Above is the view at night from our hotel toward the iconic town church of St. Vincent, established 1490. My guidebook says this is one of the most photographed sites in Austria. I think there is no need to elaborate on why.

Here's a view from our hotel, the wonderful Panoramahotel Lärchenhof.

More mind blowing pictures above, these from the town of Zell Am See, where we took a gondola up the local mountain. Cows are frequently cropping the grass here, bells ringing.

Salzburg during the Salzburg Festival

We didn't know it when we planned our trip, but our night and day in Salzburg coincided with the Salzburg Festival, which has been in operation since 1920, and is a premier venue for all classical music. The festival also accounted for the crazy crowds and even crazier parking we ecountered. Here you see Steven and Benjamin in front of Mozart's birthplace. We elected not to tour this museum, as we expected it to be wall-to-wall with tourists like ourselves. (We feel watching the Magic Flute the previous night counted toward punching our Mozart ticket.)

We did elect to have pastries and coffee at a famous coffeehouse, Cafe Tomaselli,"seit 1703." And then visited the castle on the hill, Festung Hohensalzburg. You can do it the hard way, and climb to it, or do it the easy and fun way, and take the funicular. We elected for the easy and fun route. Once in the fortress/castle, you find a miniature town that is now a museum. It was the home of a series of archbishops. Take a look at the spectular aerial view here.

Salzburg - The Magic Flute

We drove from Vienna, without opera, to Salzburg, with opera. This is the off season for opera in Vienna, but the famous Salzburg Festival is in full swing. We were able to get last minute tickets to see Mozart's The Magic Flute, performed in the city of his birth. Here we cheer our good fortune pre-show outside the theater. The Magic Flute is part fairy tale, part comedy, and part morality play, with the three lead characters all wanting to do themselves in at various points during the opera. (Perhaps not ideal for children?) The version we saw was transferred to Vienna during WWI and we learned that war was bad, very bad. I agree on that point, but the libretto didn't really match. I wanted the Sun King to be all good,but in this version the Sun King recruits soldiers to go into battle! And I wanted Papageno, the bird catcher, to be covered in feathers, but here he is the family butcher. I do the director, Lydia Steier, credit for inventiveness. And yes, the staging and singing was pretty spectacular.

Here you see the opera crowd at intermission. Note fancy dresses and leiderhosen and drindl dresses.

Vienna - Opera tour

What's a person to do when they can't see an opera at the world famous opera house in Vienna? They take a tour of the opera house. Benjamin and I did just that, because the opera season runs September through June, and it's still August. Tours are offered in multiple languages and give you some behind-the-scenes views, and what I consider front stage views. Case in point. Here you see our group in one of the better box seats in the house.

And here you see the rest of the opera auditorium. When I first saw it, I thought it looked very 1950s. Nothing like the lobby, which is all 19th century Renaissance style (the house was completed in 1869). But in the waning days of WWII, the opera was bombed, and the auditorium had to be rebuilt (in part with funds from the Marshall Plan). And so they did a midcentury modern style, with goldleaf. I'm not a fan, but so be it.

Contrast this with the lobby, pictured above. We also were led through the various intermission lounges, which were either elaborate 19th century masterpieces or 1952 modern art. The opera operates every day of the season, except for Christmas and the Opera Ball, For the Ball, all seats are removed and a dance hall assembled. Debutantes dance the waltz, and ballerinas entertain the crowds. And a box seat at the event is only 25,000 Euros.

Vienna - Schonbrunn Palace

Today was our second day of royalty. We took the clean and efficient Viennese subway to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Schonnbrunn Palace, summer home of the Habsburg dynasty. Formerly the site of the abbey at Klosterneuburg, the land was purchased in 1569 by Maximilian II, the first of the Habsburgs to own it. It was mostly used as a hunting lodge, until Empress Eleonora built a chateau de plaisance in 1642, only to have it destroyed by the Turks in 1683. A palace was built over the ruins by Leopold I with completion in 1700. But it wasn't until Empress Maria Theresa was given the property in around 1736, that the palace began to take its present shape.

It is such a long building, that to see it in its entirety, it's best to climb the steep hill behind the palace to the gloriette built in 1775. What is a gloriette? According to Wikipedia, a gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings. This gloriette was built in 1775 and used for balls. You can see it behind us, as we stand in the colorful gardens, near the zoo and the maze. (What's a palace without a zoo and a maze?)

The palace ground contain several gardens, including a "privy" (private) garden and an orangerey garden (for all your royal palm and citrus trees). Here Benjamin stands at the privy garden, with the side of the palace behind him.

The privy garden is ringed with immense trellises, overgrown with vines. You could run laps here without getting wet.

Vienna - Kunsthistorisches Museum

Today we saw the Ufizzi and Louvre of Austria, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. The largest fine art museum in Austria, it takes a full day to take it all in, and even then, you have to pick and choose. We opted for the picture gallery on the first floor (that's the second floor for us Americans). The museum is full of the greats - Klimt, Bosch, Rubens, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Durer, Bruegel, Raphael, Titian, Velazquez, Carvaggio, Ballotto. Above you see Steven admiring a Vermeer enttiled The Art of Painting.

Though I was most interested in paintings by Pieter Breughel, there is always a painting that catches me unaware and just seems to emit a spark of electricity. For me that was Portrait of a Young Merchant, painted by Hans Holbein in 1541. We don't know who the merchant is, or really what his profession is. He's at his desk, looking intense, competent and prosperous. I like him.

After the Merchant, there were directional signs to the paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. He's that popular. KHM has one of his most popular paintings, The Tower of Babel. But also Peasant Dance, Peasant Wedding, Children's Games, Hunters in the Snow, and for comic relief, The Peasant and the Nest Robber. I think of Brueghel as the original "Where's Waldo" painter, as there are so many stories and characters in such a small space, you must look and then look some more. He was both a miniaturist and an encylopedist. In Children's Games, close-up above, he has 230 children demonstrating 83 different games.

It's hard to view masterpieces for hours on end, so we took a break and got some mango ice tea and sausages at the musuem's iconic cafe, set in the center of the cupola. I'd eat here even if the food was terrible, just to sit in this magnificent space. But the food and drink is good and the wait to be seated not to long.

Above is the grand staircase leading to the picture gallery, adorned with paintings by the Klimt brothers, and a marble scultpure commissioned by Napoleon himself. The museum is an art work itself, built at the request of Emperor Franz Joseph, and finished circa 1890.

Vienna - Stephansdom and Stephanplatz

On Sunday evening we visited St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) in Stephen's Square (Stephansplatz). Stephansplatz was bustling, despite the drizzle. The bubble lady was entertaining kids in the square while young men in Renaissance costumes were enticing tourists to buy tickets for Mozart concerts and bus tours.

We slipped into the cathedral and discovered that Mass was in progress. I took a picture from the visitor's gallery in the back while listening to the service.

The exterior is just as imposing. Built mostly in the 14th centruy, it is a mix of Goth and Baroque styles, with towers so high they can be seen throughout the city.

Vienna - Hofburg (Imperial Palace)

We spent several hours at the Hofburg, home of Hasburg royalty from 1273 to 1918. I'll let my guidebook do the math - that's 630 years of Austro-Hungarian rule. Now it is public property, with at least a half dozen museums. The Vienna Hofburg started as a fortress with a moat and drawbridge in the 13th century, and then sprawled into a varied mix of buildings totally about 2,600 rooms. That includes the Michaelerkuppel, pictured above, a grand entryway through which Emperor Franz Joseph could make a suitably extravagent entry.

We bought the 3-in-1 tickets to see the silver collection, the Sisi Museum, and the Royal Apartments. The silver collection is a bit of a misnomer. The royals ate most of their meals on silver plates, but there is also a lot of porcelein, gold and copper in this collection, including a bright green porcelein service from Louis XV. You can see Steven here amidst the assorted cutlery and serving pieces every royal couple needs.

This included unique flora and fauna plates from the Minton manufactory that Empress Elisabeth gave to Emperor Franz Joseph for his hunting lodge at Offensee. It was my favorite set.

The Sisi museum is dedicated to the life of Empress Elisabeth, known as Sisi. Married to her cousin the Emperor Franz Joseph at the age of 16, she became increasingly unhappy with the constraints of royal life, but still managed to travel, write poetry and learn seven languages. She was assassinated by an Italian anarchist on September 10, 1898 when he stabbed her in the breast with a sharpened file. She was astonishly beautiful, standing 5'8" tall, weighing not much over 100 lbs. and had a tiny 20" waist. Her dark wavy hair fell to her ankles, and her hairdresser needed two hours a day to dress it. (Sisi had lessons in Greek while her hair was styled.) Nonetheless, she hated being stared at, and withdrew from most public appearances as the years advanced.

Her husband, the hardworking emperor, adored her, though it was not clear she returned that affection. He stationed a portrait of her, with her long hair loose, in front of his desk, as you can see in the photo of his office/bedroom/study above. .

Vienna Uhren (Clock) Museum

In District 1 of Vienna, in a cobbled courtyard frequented by horse drawn carriages, lies a smaller museum specializing in clocks. Here, on three floors of a historic home, are thousands of timepiecesn dating from the 14th Century. Benjamin stands in front of the opus of Viennese clock maker Franz Zajicek (1828-1902), who spent ten years and 10,000 Gulden building this astronomical clock which recorded the time in Vienna, Paris and London. The workmanship is exquisite, and also allowed Zajicek to advertise his business, as his name is recorded prominently twice on this clock!

Here we see Hanswurst, the comic and merry drinker, who also happens to sport a clock on his chest. Made in Austria, about 1820.

Slinky the Snake, RIP

Slinky, the best creamsicle corn snake in the world, passed away today, age 14. Samuel got him when they were both young. At the time, in May 2008, Slinky was the size of a pencil. At his death, he was over six feet long. Four days ago, a tumor burst forth by his tail, leaving a bloody trail in his tank. It caught us by sruprise. We were working on getting him diagnosed, with surgery to follow, when he passed away at the vet's. He was fascinating to watch as he moved about, and he could also be an escape artist, especially in spring, when he went looking for snakes of the female persuasion. We will miss his presence.

San Fransisco - SOMA, South Park and Michelin-starred Mourad

For a day in the big city, we elected to eat well and see the hidden VC hub of San Francisco. Along the way, we also wandered through Yuena Buena park, which featured this three-handed gentleman. Samuel is shaking at least one of his hands here.

Samuel then suggested we walk to South Park, which now contains a cluster of VC firms, many in 19th century townhomes. When I looked up the history of this neighborhood, YouTube videos of the South Park episode of smug San Francisco were the first to pop up.

But moving past that, I discovered that South Park was developed in the 1850s by lumber dealer and British immigrant George Gordon. He was hoping to create an exclusive residential neighborhood south of the business district on Market Street. He built a long skinny park in the center, to be ringed with refined townhomes, and to resemble an elegant London square. But by the 1870s, the well-to do had moved to Nob Hill, which had much better views. As the years went on, the area became a working class neighborhood, until the 1980s when it started become artsy and chic. Now it's still chic but filled with VC firms tucked in behind single doors facing the street, with blink-and-miss-it name plates.

We then strolled down to the Embarcadero and bay shoreline, and the world famous Red's Java House. It's pretty run down and there is an unpleasant smell emanating from the harbor, but it's a picturesque spot. But dinner awaited us, and no time to test the coffe at Red's.

We headed back to New Montgomery street, which houses the Michelin-starred Morrocan restaurant called Mourad. It's a splurge, but memory worthy. The restaurant and bar is deceptively large, but you enter through a single door under a burgundy awning. It's housed in the historic PacBell building, an art deco masterpiece built in the 1920s.

The Mourad, opened in 2015, does indeed deserve it's Michelin star.

Los Altos' Hills - Hidden Villa

In one of America's most expensive zip codes lies 1,600 acres of progressivism. It is Hidden Villa, once owned by social justice warriors Frank and Josephine Duveneck. The Duvenecks came from money back East, settling in the Santa Cruz mountains in the 1920s. They bought a great deal of property and used it to build a hostel in 1937, still in operation, and then founded the first multi-racial summer camp in 1945. They also sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, Japanese Americans returning from internment camps, and United Farm Workers organizing for worker rights.

I have been interested in visiting Hidden Villa, not just because it's listed in the 111 Places in Silicon Valley That You Must Not Miss (#24), but because Hidden Villa experienced a distinctly progressive outcry this Spring over some tiles purchased in 1913 in Asia by the Duvenecks. They were embedded on the exterior of the Duveneck home when built in 1929. You can see the house pictured above, but not the tiles. (See article here for that.) They were Hindu swastikas, a sacred symbol of good fortune. But this distinction was lost on camp counselors this Spring, one of whom said that the swastikas made her deeply uncomfortable as someone who identifies as a queer person of color. A mass resignation of camp counselors ensued, and Hidden Villa had no choice but to cancel all summer camps because they were understaffed The tiles were removed two days after the resignations. I wonder if the Jews sheltered by the Duvenecks understood the distinction between a Hindu swastika and a Nazi swastiska?

So when we visited on a hot weekend in July, there were no crowds and no summer camps. We gandered at the goats, goggled at the garden, and took a hike on one of the many miles of trails.