JEFFREY AND RENEE 2013 AROUND THE WORLD : August 2013

August 27, 2013

Reykjavik, Iceland to Prestwick, England (735 NM)

Prestwick, England to Vienna, Austria (900 NM)

Today is the last lag for the Atlantic crossing. Hurray! No more survival suit after England. Marlene and Randall will get off at Prestwick and have a short tour to London before they take a commercial flight back to California. Bye, Marlene and Randall. It has been fun to travel with you. You two are good sports. We will miss you.

Three and half hours to Prestwick and another 4 hours to get to Vienna. We lose 2 hours by time difference too. We arrived Vienna at 6:00 pm. Checked into the Imperial Hotel. This historical hotel is just next to St. Charles church.

Vienna is rated number 2 in the world as most livable city. The marks of Austro-Hungarian Empire's glorious history are amongst modern buildings and clean treelined streets. With population of only 1.5 million, to me, Vienna is like an elegant lady, always has time for afternoon tea. But, I guess everyone has a Vienna in his/her heart, be it Mozart's favorite city, the Blue Donau's muse.....

August 28, 2013

Take a off day today to recoup. Update blog, learn to use Blogsy, and recharge everything. Being the music capital of the world, there is always a performance somewhere in town all year round. Tonight, we see a performance of most popular Mozart pieces at the Opera House. Pass time the Viennanian way.

August 29, 2013

Half day tour. Bernard, our tour guide, curates the city for us. A visit to Schonbrunn Palace gave us glimpse of the home of the Hufberg monarchy. Also saw the center character of the sensational focus, Empress Kaiserine Elizabeth, " Miss Sisi" (1837 - 1898). A true beauty in deed. She never allows her waist to be more the 16 inches. Movies, TV series repeatedly adapt her story in Europe. I have to check it out in YouTube.

Shonbrunn Palace. Very pleasant tour. Not a lot of people.

Okay, now, that is for good luck.

每個人心中都有一個維也納。對我來說，遙想奧匈帝國盛世，四千萬子民，雄踞歐亞，各方來朝。音樂，文化，政治，風華無雙。如今，對昔日奧匈貴族而言，是否有繁華過盡，＂雕樑玉階應猶在，只是朱顏改。故國不堪回首明月中＂的倀然和凔漡？

誰知，遊遍世界，今日才有緣一訪。維也納冼盡鉛華，又有一番風貌。如今，奧地利，人口不到九百萬，維也納，一百五十萬。極簡的現代大樓，錯落在昔日皇宮，教堂，花園中。電車還像60年代，穿梭在大道上。路上行人，不見擁擠，行色從容。砌石路上，不再是馬蹄，而是自行車，電動車。不見喧囂，而是自在。

如今的維也納人，像是世事盡入眼底，卻又都可付之一笑的貴婦。眼下最重要的事，是帶著愛狗散步，在林蔭大道上坐下，看本好書，喝杯咖啡吧！

Stopped at a few landmark "Hundertwasser" buildings. Friedrich Husertwasser (1928-2000) an artist first, then the architect. He build buildings around the world but mostly in Vienna as he was born there.

His building is mind boggling in its irregularity about everything. He wrote " What we urgently need are barriers of beauty; these barriers of beauty consist of uncontrolled irregularities. Paradises can only be made with our own hands, with our own creativity in harmony with the free creativity of nature."

What is inspiring to me is that he has a believe, and he lives his life everyday to work on his believe. He paint, he designs, he build walls, he writes..... He just live his life fully with no reservation and enriched this world with his creativity.

Time to sit down and have a real Vienna coffee. At the famous Cafe Central.

City of Vienna has this "Car 2 Go" program where people can sign up and use and return these cars at designated road sides. Great idea put to work.

Bye, Vienna. Tomorrow, we will fly to Turkey.

Posted with Blogsy

August 26, 2013

Day at Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland is known for its never too cold, never too hot climate. Cool temperature for summer. Low 60s. Vast land with not too many people. We visited "American Plate" where the separation of America and Europe continent is visible. It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing the geological formation displayed in front of you and realize that human migration, history, and culture are all affected by it.

As land of seismic activities, there are plenty of geysers, volcanos, and waterfalls. A short stop to see a few.

The eruption is continuous. As if we are seeing earth breathing.

Finally, we arrived at the famous " Blue Lagoon". Natural hot spring with its pastel blue water is a wonder. We have made arrangement to use the newly established private quarter where individual private changing room and rest area is quiet and cozy. Food and wine can be ordered with a balcony overlooking the lagoon. One and half hours passed by too fast. Blue Lagoon upheld its reputation. Did not disappoint.