Museums, festivals, blah blah blah

From the posts we've done so far, you might conclude that we spend all of our waking hours outside hiking and biking around, except for the time that we spend eating. That is 90% correct, but of course that means it's 10% wrong. 

For a lot of people, much of the point of a visit to Europe is to go to visit cultural icons: the Louvre, La Scala, and so on. Many people spend most of their days visiting those sorts of places, and might spend a few hours (if that) doing a hike in the hills or a bike ride along the river.  Juliet and I reverse those proportions, but we still go to some of these cultural places or events. Here are a few examples.

Phil visited the Eiffel Tower. They only let you walk up to the second level, after that you have to take an elevator.  If you look up through the tiny, stained window in the top of the elevator, this is what it looks like.

Melk Abbey, seen from a distance.

We spent an hour or so wandering through Melk Abbey. In its current form it dates only to the 1700s, but it has been an important religious site (and famous for its extensive library) since about 1100. In fact, the narrator of The Name of the Rose is the fictitious "Adso of Melk."

Juliet and a vintner, discussing the finer points of Gruner Veltliner. We really liked some of it, and toyed with the idea of importing about 500 bottles, which is a magic volume as far as shipping fees are concerned. 

In the Wachau region we spent a few hours tasting wines, mostly the locally produced Reisling and Gruner Veltliner.  

We went to a giant wine festival in Vienna. About $30 entry, and wine tastings are free.  This is one room out of about 10 this size. You can (and I did) get totally schnockered on good wine, 1/4 glass at a time.

Very touristy Mozart concert in Vienna. Can't fault the performance, though.

To aid my memory as much as to entertain you, I will now list all of the things we did (that I can think of) that fall under the categories of museums/galleries/churches/festivals. 


Phil went to the Eiffel Tower, and visited the Pantheon; we went to a very good Paris art museum exhibit on animals in painting; Juliet went to an organ concert in Passau; we walked through Melk Abbey; did some wine tasting in Wachau region; went to a wine festival in Vienna; went to a Mozart concert in Vienna; Juliet went to an opera in Vienna; we saw the great Chagall stained glass windows in the Fraumunster Cathedral in Zurich; we took the tour of the Oban whiskey distillery; we stopped in all of the art galleries on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides (all four of them); visited the Tarbert Agricultural Festival (probably will do a separate blog entry about some of the things there). 


I'm sure I've missed a few things, too. And you know what? There's really nothing on that list that wasn't worth doing. As far as I'm concerned we are doing just exactly the right amount of this sort of thing. Hooray for us!