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VIENNA

Monday, November 14: Ah Vienna! What can I say? This was our second time to this absolutely beautiful city and I enjoyed it even more this time since I was a bit more familiar with the city than I had been previously. Here again we had a respite from travel since we wouldn’t be performing until Wednesday. This time we were staying longer than our 2004 visit so we truly could get to know the city better.

Met and greeted at the airport by our good friends Albin and Eric, we were again in familiar surroundings. A rather cold evening when we arrived at our hotel, we all enjoyed some delicious hot mulled wines of different varieties from a street vendor there. Being with our friends again and in a city that we loved, it gave us the feeling of coming home.

Tuesday, November 15: We spent the day doing various things casually, such as purchasing our train tickets to Budapest (our next destination), taking photos in St. Stefan's Cathedral with its beautiful architecture (below), and finding our way around the city. This was Nathalie’s first visit to this city so all of it was new to her. She found the city as charming as Robert and I had.


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I met with more of our friends for dinner that evening including our friends Wolfgang and Gerhard. We worked with Wolfgang in 2004 when producing Time, the Changes/Cadaverous Condition split 10 inch and it was great to see him again. I had met Gerhard for the first time when performing in Vienna in 2004, and have been communicating with him for some time since via the internet, but was delighted to get to know him well throughout the rest of this tour as he (Allerseelen), his bassist Jörg and his drummer Balazs would be accompanying us to Russia following the Budapest concert (more about this fabulous trio on the Russian pages of this tour diary). One of the main things that was notable about this entire tour was the abundance of delicious food and drink and this night was certainly no exception. How I didn't gain 50 pounds by the end of this tour, I'll never know.

Wednesday, November 16: Our performance was scheduled for 10:00 p.m. and our sound check wouldn’t be until about 7:00 so we had much of the day to again enjoy ourselves in the city. I had seen advertising billboards of an exhibit of the works of Francisco Goya that was being shown at one of Vienna’s many art museums. Late in the morning Nathalie, Robert and I boarded a subway train and headed in the direction of the museum. Sometimes to people new to a city it is a somewhat difficult to navigate through the subway due to the fact that while underground it is easy to lose sense of direction. Fortunately we were able to find our way there without any problems. Not only was the Goya exhibit fantastic due to the fact that there were several paintings and pen and ink drawings that we’d never seen, but the architecture of the museum was absolutely stunning. I don’t believe they allowed cameras in the museum, but I wish I could have been able to record the beautiful ornate structure of this splendid edifice.

One notable guest that we were privileged to have lunch with was our friend Andrea from Italy who came to Vienna for our performance. A very warm and sincere person with a good sense of humor, I met him in person for the first time when he attended our performance in New York City and was grateful to get to know him better this time.

Shortly before our performance, we were accompanied by our hosts and friends for another delicious meal, this time at a restaurant in the hotel where Beethoven composed his Ninth Symphony. Having always loved Beethoven’s symphonies and among my very favorites is the Ninth, this was like a magical place to dine.


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Our performance was once more at The Monastery (where we had also performed in 2004) and again it was a very good audience and as before a very enjoyable atmosphere. As a side note for those unaware (as I was before our first performance), that even though The Monastery is now a night club, it has a history of being an actual monastery in the late 12th century from which King Richard of England was captured on his way back from the Crusades for having insulted the Duke of Austria when previously passing through the country. He was held in an Austrian prison overlooking the town of Durnstein for a year. [The above photos left to right: The outside entrance to The Monastery, a beautiful building I encountered which is covered with illustrations and the portal to our lodging]

The list is endless of the fine people who were in attendance that we had previoiusly communicated with by e-mail but were meeting for the first time in person and I will just say it was a pleasure and honor to meet them all without listing them in the event that I might not mention someone’s name and offend him or her.


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(These concert photos can't at present be enlarged. I believe I'll have higher resolution versions soon)


Concert photos courtesy HR!SPQR


Next day: Budapest


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