Austria

Mauthausen Concentration Camp – last trip we visited Dachau, so after some research we settled on Mauthausen.  It is a little different in that it was built to incarcerate criminals and supposed political and ideological opponents of the 3^rd Reich. It did not start taking Jews and prisoners of war until 1943.  It was however, a category 3 which had the harshest conditions and one of the highest death rates.  Over 100,000 inmates ‘died’.  I had no idea how many concentration camps there were in Germany, Austria, Poland and the other occupied Eastern European countries.  Again it is beyond comprehension that people can treat other human beings that way and still sleep at night.  Very sobering.

We continued our journey via the scenic route which followed the Danube.  Beautiful as both banks are dotted with castles, monasteries, medieval villages and lined with terraced vineyards.  Lots of barges and river cruise boats.

Vienna

Whew! Hot again.  Sent Greg on a ‘recon’ of the camp to locate a TV to watch the opening of the Olympics.  Returned rather sheepishly saying he felt like a stalker peering through caravan windows!  No camp TV so we’ll have to watch it on the internet when we have Wi-Fi. 

We hadn’t been to Vienna before.  Rather lovely.  Filled with ostentatious buildings and beautifully tended parks which makes it a pleasant city to explore by foot.

Highlights:

Day one - Hofburg, the summer palace of the Habsburgs – especially the Sisi Museum which looked at the life and personality of the Empress. A woman ahead of her times she used exercise equipment, rebelled against court ceremony and travelled incessantly.  She was assassinated by a radical in Geneva.  Our tour of the Opera House was another standout.
Day 2: the Habsburg’s summer palace - Schonbrunn and the Hundertwasser Museum.  Very cool! The Art Gallery itself is very Hundertwasser/Gaudi like with irregular elements like an uneven floor, misshapen windows and mixture of glass, metal and brick and ceramic tiles.  Tomorrow driving to Prague.

Quirky Stuff

Vienna would be the city of Museums.  The Museum of: Funerals, Torture, Crime, Contraception and Abortion, Folklore, Porcelain, Carriages. Trams, Clocks, Theatre, Music and many museums housing paintings … the list goes on and