Je pense Francais es et tres beau langue. Dans moi avis. J'aimeairas ils ne pas serait parle alors vite.
We had three languages in our home in late 1940's-early 1950's Vienna: German, English and Czech. My father (from Chicago and Seattle) only spoke English, my mother (Vienna) German and English, my grandfather (Rossatz, Danube River Valley) only German, my grandmother (Brno, Moravia) Czech and German. It was quite an interesting and occasionally dizzying swirl of words that we lived in.
You'll see a Vienna that I've never seen. I lived there from 1947 thru 1955, then went back every summer until 1967, and last visited in 1971. An awful lot can change in 46 years; I'm not sure how much of the city I would even recognize anymore. Our first dwelling there, for example, was a fifth floor walkup studio apartment. It had to house all eight members of my family of origin with no hot water, a toilet out in the hall that we shared with the neighbor, and gas lights in the stairway. Across the street was a very dusty coalyard and downstairs the building manager ran a mom and pop convenience store about the size of an SUV. Good times.
I went to Vienna in 1996, from California with a stop over in Atlanta during the summer Olympics. Once in Vienna we drove all the way across the country to Salzburg and back. Visited some salt mines, ice caves, lots of interesting places along the way. Vienna is really nice. Prater is the big permanent carnival/theme park there where they have the worlds largest ferris wheel (yes I went up in it). This was when I was visiting my future wife. Good times indeed!
Sounds like you had a wonderful journey. I hope you were able to ride the one-of-a-kind tiny "straddle/sit-on train" through the salt mines, wearing the white coveralls to protect your clothing from the salt dust. By the way, the Riesenrad (Giant Wheel) had twice as many of those mini-streetcars that serve as its gondolas prior to WWII; they just never put the other half of them back after the war. It's an impressive ride, especially when you get to top and you can look out over all of Vienna. My Austrian Opa (Grandfather), who had been an Austro-Hungarian Dragoon (cavalryman) in WWI on the Russian Front and then spent five years in captivity in Siberia before finally escaping and making his way via Trans-Siberian Railroad back to Vienna to eventually become a career-long policeman, regularly took me to the Prater, the Vienna Woods, and to the Schoenbrunn Palace parks to stroll the beautifully manicured grounds and feed the friendly squirrels. Those are wonder days that are forever etched in my very fondest memories. This year happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of his passing, and I still miss him to this day and think of him all the time.
I rode one of those really safe (!) straddle things down a hill, but it was outdoors, not in the salt caves. Pretty dangerous, the “brakes” were a joke, but I obviously lived to tell about it. I believe I toured the Schoenbrunn Palace as well. Isn’t that in Vienna? Also hit up the breweries (I’m a beer geek) so we went to Stiegl Brauerei in Salzburg and Medl Brauerei in Vienna. Prost!
I'm glad you got to experience it even if they don't take you through the mines themselves on one of them anymore. There are likely all kinds of safety regulations and prohibitions in place now that no one even thought about in the early 1950's (those wild and crazy times). Yes, Schoenbrunn is on the outskirts of Vienna as it was built as the summer residence of the Hapsburg Emperors. Did you go up on the Gloriette, the giant stone viewing platform/veranda at the top of the hill overlooking the Palace? I'm sure you were abler to enjoy the local beers, but the environs of Vienna are actually much more well known, even famous, for the white wines they produce there, especially the "Heurigen" (that year's harvest), which is presented at wine garden festivals every year to great local fanfare.
Yes I went up on the Gloriette, which was quite a sight! I just wish I could afford to visit Europe again. I visited Israel, France, Spain, Italy, England, Jamaica, Barbados, Cuba, St Thomas, Puerto Rico & some other places when in the Navy in the mid-late 80’s.
"When I came to this country, I didn't have a nickel in my pocket. "Now, I have a nickel in my pocket." - Groucho Marx