Our first full day in Vienna

That last post was supposed to be published a couple days ago.

Yesterday (Friday) our luggage arrived. Hooray! It was very complicated, but it came just in time for us to get ready and go to my meeting with Dr. Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, the curator of the Wiener Werkstätte archives and a leading scholar on the topic. She was very nice and helpful, and got us set up to work in the reading room of the MAK while we are here. There is also a really great exhibition at the MAK right now called "Vienna 1900". The first gallery shows some of the British influence, and the second gallery is mostly Wiener Werkstätte. Here are some picture from the exhibition.

We thought Erik would love seeing this seating area covered in Morris-inspired fabric, like in his house!

A dresser by my favorite of the Viennese artists, Koloman Moser.
This is an early piece that he made for his parents' house.

Also Moser

Josef Hoffmann, one of the chairs he designed for his Purkersdorf Sanatorium,
which was part of my undergraduate thesis.

Moser

Klimt's designs for the Stoclet Frieze

Margaret Macdonald of Scotland. This is part of a huge frieze of built of gesso with glass and stones adhered to the surface. She created many amazing pieces like this to accompany the work of her husband, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

 After the museum I talked Grandma and Grandpa into going out for dinner to rest our weary museum legs, instead of having to cook our own.

At one of Grandma and Grandpa's favorite restaurants, Goulash Museum. Named, I think, because the menu is like a whole museum of goulash.

My mushroom goulash with Knödel. Do the Viennese actually eat huge balls of Knödel and like it?

After dinner we wanted to ride the streetcar all around the Ringstrasse, but they don't run around and around the city like they did when Grandma and Grandpa were here five years ago, so we ended up having to make a bunch of connections to get back to our apartment. It was still fun. If you are interested in seeing where we are living, our apartment is at 25 Beatrixgasse. Just south of the Stadtpark and north of the Belvedere. Great location. 

Today (Saturday) we are going to go on one of Alan Keele's walking tours of Vienna. Alan is a good friend of Grandma and Grandpa's, and was here five years ago when Mom and I visited. He's the one who took us out to Otto Wagner's Steinhof hospital, which sparked my interest and love of the Viennese artists at this time. He is also on my graduate committee. Should be fun! Hope everyone is happy and safe at home. I can't wait to see everyone in Alaska. That will be an especially fun trip for me because by that time I will be completely done with my Master's degree!

Well, here we are in Vienna (Grandpa, Grandma, and Caitlin) but our luggage is still in Paris (they think) and should be delivered to our apartment tomorrow (Friday) morning, but the only phone number we could give the airport people was our landlady's cell phone, so the airport will have to call her and then she will have to come over to the apartment to meet them with the luggage and come up to the apartment (6th floor) to find us.  Otherwise everything is going fine.  We got a few groceries from a local SPAR and Caitlin made us a nice omelet for supper.

We are trying to stay awake until it gets closer to 10pm.  It is now 7:30.  Caitlin has her first meeting with the Direktor of the MAK (Museum fuer Angewandte Kunst) (Museum for Applied Arts) at 2pm tomorrow.  I will go out tomorrow morning and buy a cheap Handi (cell phone) to use while we are here.  Until then you can contact us on the internet. garoldandnorma@gmail.com.  Gruesse von Wien, Grandpa Garold.

Merry Christmas to everyone. We love you!

We just wanted you to see this neighborhood example of the true Christmas spirit.  The parents of the children who built this snowman were badly burned in an airplane crash a few years ago.  They have had to learn all over again to love and admire their mother who, even after many surgeries, will always be disfigured.  These little girls built the snowman you see in these photos.  They built it in their neighbor's yard and placed it so that it could be seen from the neighbor's big dining room window--just where the couple always sit when they are eating.  These neighbors have been very ill for several years and are now pretty much home bound with round the hour care from a caretaking company.  To us, this is a wonderful example of children who are well-acquainted with receiving a great deal of attention and gifts of all sorts because of their parents' accident--now turning and giving what they could to others.  Merry Christmas family, we love you.

This is how I feel about meeting everyone in Alaska.

Family Reunion July 2013

Hi Everyone

The family reunion has finally been officially scheduled.  The dates are July 8 through July 13 in Talkeetna, Alaska.  Please mark your calendars and start planning your trip! We hope most of you can come earlier and stay longer, but these are the days we are hoping EVERYONE will be here.  We have tenative housing at the Talkeetna Roadhouse and A B&B on C. Check them out online. This is in addition to housing at our house, dry cabin, and town apartment. 

Jeff and Gay

Merry Christmas everyone.

At least for today, we have a white Christmas, so I went out and took some pictures of our house.
We hope all of you had fun plans for the holidays.
Today we are having an open house for our neighbors with wassail and cookies.  Dad loves to show off the nativity set.  Well the doorbell just rang, so I'll go.

We love you
Grandma and Grandpa