Coming from Madrid, we are still on Madrileno time, so rose late, as did Kathy, our host here in the Judenplatz. She is very welcoming, and she makes rooms in her large flat available to visitors to Vienna. Her father Emanuel Fiscus was a Holocaust survivor, and led a remarkable life. On the Judenplatz is a large memorial to the 65,000 Austrian Jews who were murdered by the Nazis. I can see it from our window.

It’s a big concrete rectangle shaped as a mausoleum, and the 4 walls are a relief of rows of books with their spines inverted, so you can’t see what they are. Stories which won’t be told.

Nearby is the Art Forum am Judenplatz, which is showing the Holocaust survivor Adolf Frankl’s permanent exhibition Art Against Oblivion. These are telling and heart-wrenching images in expressionist style. These things must be confronted and never forgotten, although it has taken the Viennese long enough.

Arrival of a transport on the ramp in Birkenau, October 1944

After the morning muesli and rounds of emails, it was down to our local coffee shop and Bäckerei:

natürliche Grimm in Kurrentgasse.
Then a delightful ramble through old Wien along back streets as well as down the Kärntnerstrasse, where we dropped in at the Nordsee and had a very reasonably priced snack lunch. I had a Bismarckhering roll: delicious! And then on, to the Konzerthaus, as the start of a wonderful musical day, and nearby, the superb Arnold Schönberg Center in the afternoon. It has films, voice recordings, and his study transported exactly preserved from Los Angeles with his wooden hand made sticky tape dispenser. He invented them! He made lots of useful things, such as a five – pencil contraption so he could make manuscript paper. Also music recordings, and quite a few of his paintings, also programs and documentary records. There is also a very good library and a performance space.

Rob loved it too: “Arnold Schönberg – not only a revolutionary musician but an inspirational idealist, writer, painter and inventor… So much I still have to learn… see Arnold Schönberg Center Wien, probably one of the best museums I have ever visited…” You could sit down on a sofa !!! and browse through some very interesting books, and various facsimiles of his diaries and all sorts of objects and written records he made or acquired during his life.

On the way back, we had an obligatory coffee, a grosser brauner at the Café Bräunerhof, where we read a range of newspapers, Angie the Süddeutsche Zeitung or Neue Züricher Zeitung, Rob the Guardian, London Times or New York Times. This is one of the many wonderful and often distinguished coffeehouses of Vienna. Here the famous playwright and novelist Thomas Bernhard used to be a regular visitor; his photo is on the wall. It has a wonderful atmosphere of comfortable (gemütlich!) and slightly worn surroundings, and no one is ever pressured to leave. We go there every day actually.

We walked past Antiquariat Christian Nebehay in the Annagasse, near the Staatsoper. I used to live here, in a small flat, during the time I studied at the Academy.

Professor Nebehay had an Antiquariat, where he sold old books and prints, there for many years, and now the business is run by his successor, Dr. Krüger. Christian and Renée Nebehay were wonderful friends to me.

The other thing we did was to go to a terrific recital of French melodie with US mezzo Susan Graham and accompanist Malcolm Martineau in the Wiener Konzerthaus.

It was a wonderful recital ranging right through 19th and 20th century French song, from Bizet, Faure, Gounod Saint-Saens to Debussy, Duparc, Ravel, Messiaen, Hahn, Satie, and Poulenc. Quite a tour-de-force, and a long-ish program. There were composers I’ve never come across, e.g. Paladilhe, Caplet, Rosenthal. She is an excellent recitalist and I hadn’t heard her at all before, though she came to Australia a few times when Edo de Waart was Chief Conductor of the SSO -they were very close! Beautiful voice, and very good-looking person – extremely musical, great technique, the whole program memorized, and in defiance of that idiot Graham MacDonald’s requirements, she didn’t chat with the audience!!! Beautiful clothes, too. Of course, perfect French. Very satisfying indeed.

Rob: This was a very fine recital, I was entertained, amused, educated, but mainly carried away to another world by Graham’s artistry and superb performance. I found the reaction of the good Viennese burghers remarkable stolid, as with Australia many could hardly wait to get to the parking lot, rather than hear an exquisite Duparc encore. Many must think it’s more important to attend than to listen.

Tonight (Thur 18) we’re going to hear the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien with conductor Bertrand de Billy, violin Frank Peter Zimmerman, and program Beethoven Violin Concerto, R. Srauss and Schlee, also in the Konzerthaus. As we write this, the children in the kindergarten across the street from this room are singing songs accompanied by guitar – they do this every morning and it is beautiful. They’re all more or less in tune!

There’s lots of jazz on here. In fact there’s a lot of everything on here. And so to bed, after catching up on the Iran election aftermath via CNN on TV.

Monastery Valley is best described by Gertrude Bell – below. But we had a delightful ramble along this very quiet and lonely spot.

It was evidently a place where monks could isolate themselves from the secular, and find the penance they sought, and maybe visions into the bargain. (Visited by A & R Sunday 26 April.)

Monk's cell carved into cliff

Church carved into cliff

We agree with Gertrude Bell who came here in July 1907 that this is an amazing and impressive site. http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/ “found the finest church I have yet seen, standing quite complete all by itself. A building like this is worth 7 days’ journey. It pulls all one’s other work straight, and having thoroughly understood this one because I could see every detail, I can correct several other plans from it.” letter 11/7/07

From Bell’s diary:
Thurs July 11 [11 July 1907] Off at 6.30 with 2 Greeks and Haidar and rode over the hill east to Sivri Hissar. It is the little point one sees from far off. There is a small castle on top and the village lies below to the east. We went first still further east down into the valley where I found a great church standing all by itself with heaps of featureless ruins round it. It has the same ground plan as Chukurken and I think I can safely correct my plan of the latter from it. The nave had an aisle only on the N side, 2 double columns form the arcade. The nave and transepts are barrel vaulted, the vaults not horseshoed.

Gertrude Bell photo 1907

All the windows and arches and the apse are horseshoed. No decoration over windows or doors, a Greek cross in a circle over the door lintels. The dome over the cross is octagonal, 4 sides broken by windows, 4 sides scooped out into quarter vaults. Above the octagon a round dome. The dentil appears on the upper member of the cornice outside. The column caps were much weatherworn and I cd not make out whether they had been decorated but I think not. The chief difference from Churkurken was that the aisle vault was lower than the nave, the W front coming down in a steep gable. I am not quite sure about this but the photographs will show. A penthouse narthex. S of the church a spring of good water with a sarcophagus shaped water trough by it.

From the Friends of Cappadocia:    -    “A lonely proud church stands since the 6^th century opposite the chain of Melendiz mountains. It’s the only remaining built church of that period in Cappadocia. Kizil Kilise is thought to have been built on a property belonging to St Gregory of Naziance, one of the founders of Christianity in Cappadocia and his tomb may have been in the church. If nothing is done soon, the church’s dome will fall and the rest of the church will collapse with it.”

East Terrace

Tumulus of Queens at Karakus

Severan Bridge, constructed during reign of Septimius Severus, the second largest Roman arch ever built...

visited on 28 April 2009

Nafplion was the first capital of Greece after the Independence War 1821-1828, and is only a stone’s throw from Mykinis where Agamemnon and others planned the Trojan War, in his Palace past the Lion Gate. The whole Argos peninsula reeks of history.

Ruins of Agamemnon's palace

Pension Dafni: women gather in the gathering dusk

It was darker without the flash

But despite wry comments, we loved the Greeks and were shown great kindness and hospitality.

Halfway up the 900 steps to the Palamida

The glorious interior of Hydarpasa Station

We travelled for 4 hours by fast and comfortable conventional train to Eskisehir, where we changed to the new bullet train to Ankara. On this we reached speeds of up to 245 km/hr, travelling in leather armchairs in business class, with power for my laptop! First and Business class to Ankara was only YTL34 all up, for a journey of c 500 km.

Boarding the Ankara express

Thence a short taxi ride to the welcoming Hotel Spor, round the corner from Meydani Ulus, the heart of old Ankara.
After visiting the justly famous Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, we caught a Metro (YTL1.70) to the vast, well designed and organised bus station, ASTI. Like so many other similar transprort termini in Turkey, Greece and Egypt, this leaves Sydney’s Eddy Ave for dead, and again reveals how poorly organised Sydney transport is. Scores of buses arrive and depart on three levels, and buses can also fuel up on the spot. It’s like an airport, but vastly superior to the overpriced shemozzle that is Mascot. (By the way, if melbourne can do it with their Southern Cross bus/rail interchange, why can’t Sydney?)

ASTI bus terminal, Ankara

On the bus to Cappadocia, we were served tea gratis by the stewards! Murrays take note. Finally arrived by mini-bus at the exceptional Kirkit Pension, where we dined in a cave listening to gypsy music: a zither and drums.
So in less than 2 days: tram, ferry, train, bullet train, taxi, metro, bus and mini-bus!
20 and 21 April.
see also Great Eastern Lines

Hydra has historically been a fishing and maritime island port, and was an important naval base for the Greeks during the Revolution after 1821. Today it is a holiday getaway for wealthy Athenian Maybe including Richard Branson: we believe we saw his mansion being totally rebuilt-in stone, construction transport being by donkey or mountain pony.

Motor vehicles including motorbikes are prohibited. (only exception being the municipal garbage collection) Hence a beautiful silence reigns, most wonderfully a freedom from heavy rock pumped from cars at high decibels, which in most places in the world is a plague.
We reached Hydra from Nafplion via 3 buses: to Epidaurus, to Kranidi, then to Ermioni, where we took a 30 minute ferry across to Hydra. There is a fast hydraplane ferry, the “Flying Dolpin” which reaches Athinas in about 2.5 hours, this is how we got back.
We soon found the charming and comfortable Pension Erofili ( info@pensionerofili.gr ) and then discovered our “local” taverna on the waterfront, the Psaropoula (a fairly accurate transcription from the Greek which we – mainly Angie – learnt to decode).

Bakeries were frequently visited, plus Il Posto cafe was our hangout for Greek coffee, the occasional beer, and wifi access.
We did some wonderful, walks up in the hills, one was a good hike. The weather was marvelloous, we saw lots of spring flowers and occasionally startled some fat quail, and sometimes heard the bells of sheep and goats grazing on the hills.We bought tyropita and spanakopita in an excellent bakery, and that was our lunch, somewhere along the way. We saw monasteries and churches usually built at the top of some high hill with a stunning view of the sea.

In front of the Blue Mosque

Since arriving from Thessaloniki on the Monday night train, we have been very busy, working hard at sightseeing etc, Friday we went ferrying up and down the Bosphorus, and climbed an ancient Byzantine (Genovese, they were allied against the Venetians) fortress. Saturday (today) we are rushing out to the Topkapi Palace. Why? because we are leaving on Monday for 3 weeks in the wilds of Anatolia, leavened by a few days on a gulet. This is our own homemade “Turkey encompassed” with a little help from our friends at Kirkit travel, a company run by a very nice friend of Kim Sanders.
A highlight will be climbing to Nemrut Dagi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nemrut

So far Turkey has been the most amazingly enjoyable experience, so different to Cairo. Perhaps we have best liked just wandering in Beyoglu, enjoying some music, and looking at all the young people enjoying themselves. Hardly a walking tent in sight. I really can’t describe standing inside Agya Sofia, maybe words will come later.

Very worthwhile driving right around old Istanbul on a red sightseeing bus, and seen the huge Theodossian Walls. We couldn’t find the way to climb the walls, there were also a lot of unfortunates hanging around. Also visited the beautiful Eyup Sultan Mosque – tomb of Mohammed’s standard-bearer. However, as the bones weren’t found until 700+ years after he died, it’s an open question whose bones are actually in the box. Totally serious Islamic spot,
The population of Istanbul is officially 18 m, but really 20-our whole Oz pop. in one city, like Cairo!!! It’s such a beautiful city, and unlike beautiful Sydney it sports MANY more stunning buildings!!!

At Khan il Khalili market

The situation of women in Egypt is every bit under the thumb as I expected and could get worse – more and more seem to be in full hijab which is very weird.

Mohammed Ali Mosque, Cairo

Good to be in Athens where you don’t see the walking tents. But we also saw lots of loving couples and women out smoking in the coffee houses too – plus lots of younger women working, but they tend to stop when they marry except for the elite who do what they like.

Our guide (male, they are all male) had the perspective that men have a very hard life because women “have” to stay at home, so men have to do most of the work, all the women have to do is cook, sew, wash, clean and look after the house, look after the children and of course look after their husband.

This is Angie listening attentively to the Iman…

There was nearly an uprising a couple of decades ago when the govt made a law that a man had to inform his wife if he was divorcing her or taking a second wife. I think the imans are still outraged by this. The whole country is held back by religious conservatism – and can’t improve until the women are free, which will take a revolution.

Al Hussein Mosque, Khan el Khalili, right where the bomb went off recently.

But the mosques are beautiful.
The best books I read on this subject are
Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire, eg http://www.islamfortoday.com/9parts.htm
and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel, eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infidel_(book)