Anna Frank

We visited Anna Frank House, after strolling around the streets of Amsterdam from the Central Station as far as the museum. It is quite an emotional experience to visit this museum and revisit the life of this young lady who was killed by the Nazis after hiding for nearly 3 years along with her family in the achterhuis, the hidden rooms of her father's office. All member of her family were also killed except her father who ended up alive at the end of the war. Her father, Otto Frank, went on to publish Anna's diaries, which turned out to be a best seller, The Diary of a Young Girl. He latter founded the Anna Frank House to raise awareness of the horrors of the Holocaust and the dangers of a continuous anti-Semitism.

Dutch Scenes: the leaning buildings of Amsterdam

Amsterdam has a very unique architecture: several of its buildings are of, say, irregular shape. Makes me wonder if any builder from Pisa got a job there.

"Scientific Research" (part 12 and 13 of many)

Right photo. The last beer in Vienna before taking the plane back to Holland: Schneider Weisse. Another good red beer. Drank in the WienerWauld.

Left photo. This is the beer I investigated in Bratislava: Kelt. You know Slovakia used to form a single country with the Czecks. No wonder, Slovak beer is so good.

Volcano: bad for more people than you think

The disorder caused by the Icelandic volcano is not totally bad, as this Dutch cartoon points out. More people are distressed ...

Sky covered by ash plums. Osama, problem.

Our favourite eating spot in Vienna

Denise and Thales discovered this restaurant right downtown Vienna. Excellent food, and plenty of it: half a chicken with all-you-can-eat salad plus another dish of our choice for less than 10 Euros!

Wiener Philharmoniker and Mahler

When I was a teenager all I wanted to do was to play my guitar and listen to classical music. I used to purchase those old (new at the time) vinyl long players of the most important philharmonic orchestras whenever I had enough money saved from any source available (BTW: the long players were 33 RPM, not 78 RPM ... I am not that old :-D ). Among them were the big 3 orchestras, from Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin, the best in the world.

Therefore, I felt as a dream come true when I watched the Wiener Philharmoniker play in its own house, the Musikverein Theatre in Vienna. And it was a very special program, which included a Schumann overture and the 5th symphony of Gustav Mahler. Mahler, who at the end of the 19th century was himself the director of the Wiener Philharmoniker, is one of my favourite composers.

It was an unforgettable event that my wife, my son and I shared together, closing our 10 days stay in Vienna with a golden key.

Can you imagine a world without Mozart?

What does the crescent-shaped croissant shown in the picture and the title, a world without Mozart, have to do to each other, you may ask. Well, everything. Let me explain.

Without this shaped croissant there would have been no Mozart!

After conquering Constantinople, in 1453, the Ottoman Turks moved their war machine towards Europe. After failing to conquer Rome, in 1480, they stretched their power to the heart of Europe. Vienna itself was sieged twice. In 1529, led by Suleiman, the Magnificent, 120,000 soldiers were repelled by a defensive force of 23,000 composed of Austrians, Czechs, Germans and Spanish. The second siege, also known as the Battle of Vienna, took place in 1683. Things were going from bad to worse for the besieged Habsburgs and Vienna was about to be stormed by the Ottoman forces led by the Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha (that is a mouth full) representing the Caliph Mohamed IV himself. Vienna was saved in the last minute by the cavalry. No, not the US cavalry. The Polish cavalry, the Hussars, under King Sobieski, stormed the Ottomans in what is considered the largest cavalry charge in history, saving Vienna and Europe.

To celebrate the victory, the Viennese designed a crescent-shaped croissant, after the Crescent symbolizing the invading Ottomans.

Had the Ottomans conquered Vienna, then the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, it would have been more than a symbolic victory. It would have given additional incentive for the continuation of the Ottoman invasions into Europe. What would have happened? Well, nobody knows.

What I know is that had Vienna fallen, the artistic and musical environment that flourished there a few decades later would have never developed.

Can you imagine a world without Mozart? Or without Beethoven? Without a waltz of Strauss. Without the symphonies and Hungarian Dances by Brahms? No Haydn? No Shubbert? No Mahler? No Bruckner? Well, that almost happened? Thanks to some brave European who knew how to defend their house.

And let us eat croissants! And listen to Mozart! (for example, Ave Verum)