Austrian airlines very good even when crowded. Really nice vege food, good service and pretty airplanes. Stewardess turned on reading light overhead while I read in the dark and remembered to bring me an extra dessert after they finished serving all the meals. Strangely enough, the A321, with bigger seats, from Vienna to Tel Aviv was more comfortable for a 3 hour flight than was the A310 from New York to Vienna. By the way, Tel Aviv doesn’t appear on their route maps though they fly there. Flying time 7:30 from New York with arrival 9am. ATM’s in airport, when asked for $100, give out equivalent of $100 banknotes — just like Switzerland. People here must dislike small bills. Taxi is 20 minutes to the hotel — double that in rush hour — and $30; or train to central railroad station is 35 minutes and runs every 30 minutes for $3. Train is a bit irritating since it makes a bunch of stops. [Plus an $8 taxi to my hotel came out to about $11.] Train leaves airport to center city at :14 and :44 past the hour; leaves to airport at :07 and :37 past the hour. Stayed at Hotel Tigra which is part of Best Western chain; cost just over $100 a night. Very good hotel; strong locks on the doors just like my friend Alex has on his apartment doors in moscow. Actually, even the bathrooms in places such as museums have big locks on them — this must be a paranoid country. Location is on Tifer Graben Street which is inside the “First Ring” and about 7 minutes walk northwest of the Stephen’s Cathedral which is dead center of the city. Tel. 533.9641/fax 9645. Another hotel located near Opera House is Best Western Hotel Romischer Kaiser tel. 512.7751; 4 star hotel more like $150 per night but better location for shopping street and opera. Started the day with a 3 hour nap and then a taxi to get tickets to all the museums. Taxis are really stupid inside the town since you can walk faster with all the one-way streets they must go around. Instead of telling you what I did, which was not terribly efficient considering that one of my two days in town was a saturday with limited mobility, I will recommend to you a battle plan for spending 2 full days of sightseeing in vienna, which is necessary to cover the ground.
First some comments: some sites such as Schonbrun palace have tickets useful only for the day printed on them so if you want it for another day you must tell them. By the way, just about everyone here speaks English. Problem is most of the people on the streets are tourists who may not speak english or know anything. The ones who are well dressed are the locals. The tickets for some museums such as Schonbrun also are computerized with the exact minute you may enter so if you try to go in 5 seconds early, you won’t be able to get in. This is to handle crowds. I thought tourists were not so much here in mid september but the weather is great and so the tourists are all over europe now. Schonbrun is a must-see and nice to walk 5 minutes up the hill to the Gloriette for a cafe, beautiful view of the palace and the city. Afternoon is best photo-op. Huge gardens with lots of manicured tree-lined walkways and people use the area for exercise, concerts and events. At Belvedere castle grounds there was a olympiad going on for handicapped kids. Went with taxi and returned by metro which is a 10 minute ride to town — get the Vienna Card for $15 it allows unlimited use of trams and metro for 3 days and discounts in almost every attraction. Actually, I didn’t see anyone actually using a ticket to ride the metro or tram. It’s on the honor system with a big fine if you get caught. The public transport is fun and easy to use and I never waited more than a few minutes for anything. Very few and small garbage cans in the metro stations; not like the big cans all over the New York City stations which are bomb dumpsters waiting to happen. Karlsplatz station is an underground shopping mall with interesting floors and decoration. Wonderful eating and very fine service — dinner at Sacher Hotel next to the opera house — zunder fish, potatoes, cabbage & pumpkin, rolls, selection of desserts on a plate came to $40. Sacher torte is a disappointment as they make the chocolate cake very dry here. The main shopping street, the Karntnerstrasse, is without cars and like a carnival atmosphere with lots of street musicians and theater. On Saturday there was a fundraiser for sick children and lots of clowns and a bandstand on the street. Friday night there were lots of things going on — tents with poetry readings and foods next to the national theater, a circus in the park across from the town hall. Saturday night there was a youth dance at the Hofburg with that German techno-music that’s currently the rage; also lots of kids hanging around at Schwedenplatz eating ice cream. Actually there’s plenty to do here at night and plenty of people out there doing it. Across from St. Stephen’s Cathedral on the Graben shopping street is the Onyx Bar otherwise known as Do & Co in the Haas Haus (house). It’s about 5 floors up with an elevator and has beautiful views of the cathedral all lit up at night and is a popular american-style bar.
Falko took me to breakfast at Central Cafe, a famous and beautiful coffee house where Lenin, Trotsky, Marx, Freud and others used to sit. Says Austria was doing great the past 5 years opening up the gates to Eastern Europe and now a recession in USA threatens to undo all the prosperity. Austrian airlines a big hub from vienna to eastern europe and has a 5pm flight back to usa which is a late flight from central europe. Hofburg Imprerial rooms not such a big deal once you’ve seen Schonbrun. Climbing roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral is fun; the view is not that great but you can pick out things. Must pay 30 shillings (about $2.50) to walk up the stairs and it’s 350 steps and will take 10 minutes to get up. Went window shopping here — rather expensive and not much to buy. No big department stores in center city. Swedish “Gap-like” H&M chain a hit with cheap and youthful things to wear. Lunch at Demel Cafe on Kohlmarkt street near the Hofburg and the Graben Street which leads into the Karntnerstrasse shoping street. In Demel, you pick out what you want to eat, get a ticket, sit down at a table and give the waitress the ticket and she brings you the food and then you eat, pay and tip. Poached salmon, vege ratatoulle, and 2 pieces of cake came to $28 but it was a real delight.
Good to have a hotel in a good location as you can keep going back for short naps. At Belvedere Castle, good to go upstairs for some beautiful rooms and nice views. Take Tram D south from Karlsplatz or along the Ringstrasse to get to Belvedere. It’s a bit of a walk. Nachsmarkt is at the Secession which is located at the Secession exit of the Karlsplatz metro station. The Nachsmarkt is a sort of outdoor flea market with an oriental twist and the buildings lining the street are of a certain architectural style. Near the opera is the Movenpik cafeteria which is downstairs in the Galleria shopping mall that leads from the Karntnerstrasse and the Ringstrasse. Great concept — a bit of a Move and Pick nicely decorated with make your own pizzas and other nice things. Schwedenplatz has great geleterias (ie: Eis y Eisen) which reminds me why I don’t eat ice cream much in the USA cause it ain’t nearly as good as what they have over here. Opera offers $8 seats in the nosebleed section or you can go an hour early and wait on line for a standing room ticket for $3 which is just behind the orchestra level seats. Those are great seats and the opera breaks for 30 minute intermissions every hour and everyone leaves the auditorium to go onto the terraces — so if you’re standing, you can sit during the intermissions and lots of people such as myself leave after the first act since they just wanted to be there even if they didn’t particularly care to sit through 3 hours of opera in a language they don’t understand and therefore they have no idea to this day what they were watching!!! Opera has a pretty spartan stage and no real sets but some nice costumes and props and a big orchestra. Good singing too. All I figured out in Act One is that boy wants girl. I figured he probably gets her in Act Three and figured there was no reason to stick around in case I was disappointed.
Leaving to Tel Aviv is a bit of a pain as there is one guard doing the security check for everyone boarding the flight. Somehow it leaves only 10 minutes late. The gate next door has a flight to Damascus and no security check at all. Most shopping is before passport control which is stupid since passengers want to get to the gate and not be stuck in passport lines and worry about missing flights. In my case, I was at airport an hour before the flight which was plenty. There is supermarket in the airport at the lower level and you can walk with a trolley all over the place. Not too much walking at the airport since it is small and there is not much delays on the runways here. Flying time to Tel Aviv from Vienna is 3:10.
TOURING VIENNA: RECOMMENDATIONS
Best way to get a quick orientation is to get on the Ringstrasse which is the big boulevard that goes around the center of the city (the ending “strasse” at the end of a word means street). Tram #1 goes around the ringstrasse and the trip takes 25 minutes. But you will see everything that lines the city center. At night, the buildings are all lit up and worth a second look.
Day 1: Breakfast at Cafe Central. Hofburg Imperial Rooms. Cross Heldenplatz to see surrounding buildings and walk on Ringstrasse to see such things as museums, cityhall (Rathaus), National Theater, Opera, Secession. Lunch at Galleria Movenpik or Nachtsmarkt. Walk through Karlsplatz, Schwartzenbergplatz to Belvedere Castle. Return by tram from Belvedere to Karlsplatz and take metro to Stephen’s Cathedral (to Stephensplatz station which is one stop) and go to the top. Walk along Graben to Demel for a well-deserved tea. Shopping along Karntnerstrasse and metro from Stephensplatz to Stadtpark station. Walk through Stadtpark (citypark) and see the pretty buildings inside and then walk along the ringstrasse back to the opera house. Dinner at Hotel Sacher which is right behind the opera house. Opera. See monument behind the Opera to WW2; walk along Ringstrasse to the National Theater and Rathaus. Hop on the tram to Schwedenplatz for ice cream, the Gestapo memorial, the River Danube, St. Rupert’s cathedral and head back to Stephensplatz for a drink at the Onyx Bar (“Do & Co”). If you have found Ma Pitom restaurant (obviously an Israeli restaurant since it means What’s Up in Hebrew), then you know you have really covered the area near Schwedenplatz. They call this area the Bermuda Triangle since it’s the only part of Vienna you can supposedly get lost in.
Day 2: Start at Hofburg area to see Spanish Riding School (summer months only I am told), Jewish Museum, Judenplatz (midieval ruins of jewish life in the city and the synagogue) and make it to Anka Clock by noon for the 10 minute organ recital and the figurines in the clock dancing around routine. Afternoon: Schonbrun palace requires 3 hours with travel to see the insides and gardens. Can have tea at the Gloriette. Easy metro connections.
The subway goes from north to south within the first ring (ie: Schwedenplatz to Karlsplatz) in 5 minutes. Can walk that route in 20 minutes if you know where you’re going but the streets don’t generally run straight.
Things I didn’t see: Prater (ferris wheel at an amusement park), danube island and danube tower (outside city and i’m told not worth the trip), jewish and natural history museums, imperial burial vaults, belvedere midieval museum, tour of opera house. the tour is offered weekdays generally at 2 and sometimes 3 pm but come early for tickets as there are lines for everything. Better to just see the opera house when you see the opera. The Secession is currently being renovated and is under scaffolding. Walking tour Friday 4pm meets at the main exit of Stadtpark metro station and visits shooting locations of the movie Footsteps of the Third Man based on Graham Greene’s novel. Includes walk thru underground canal system. Might be interesting. Fee is $15.
Jerusalem — Sunday 20 September through Wednesday the 23rd
Taxi remains at $30 or so for the 40 minute drive to Jerusalem. Digression for personal story here.
Upon arrival at my parents’ hotel, I called from lobby as if I were in the US and asked how things were, blablabla, then said i had a call waiting and would call back. Then ran upstairs to their room and knocked on door and said Room Service. Mother said, what room service, must be our travel companion Charles playing a joke on us. But it sure sounds like Ivan. Then she opened the door and SHRIEKED louder than I’ve ever heard from her. Almost had a heart attack but both parents were real glad to see me. So the secret of the surprise was kept. I stayed at the Gesher Guest House for $35 a night just 6 minute walk from Jerusalem Sheraton Plaza hotel just off King David and Agron Streets. It’s a dormitory and rooms can put up to 4 people inside. Private shower and bath. Nothing fancy but certainly adequate. Can also get lunch and dinner on sabbath and holidays for not too much money. A lot of families staying there. Gesher Telephone in jerusalem 624.1015. Services for Rosh Hashana (jewish new year) start at 7am and finished Day 1 at 1:30pm and Day 2 at 12:45 at the Great Synagogue. Second day i went to Yeshurun to hear Cantor Heinowitz and they got out same time. A word about the strange place known as the Great Synagogue — you have to essentially bring your own prayer book. Unless they want to go out for you (meaning you are a big donor), they won’t find you one. They don’t announce out loud what time services are so you are just supposed to know, even though the time changes every day. But anyway, since I sit with the synagogue’s president and one of its founders, i don’t have to worry about such things but it bothers me that they do things this way. Seeing my father open up the ark and take out the torahs with the cantor and choir was a very big honor and inspiration that made the whole trip worthwhile. We ate Day 1 at the Plaza and Day 2 dinner at the King David Hotel. Food looks better and service is better at the King David but we tend to agree taste is better at Sheraton Plaza. The Plaza costs $145 a night corporate; $230 a night through Isram Travel and 12,000 airline miles per night through the American Express program. Better deal to use these frequent flyer miles for hotel rooms than airline tickets. Couldn’t get any tickets but the rooms were easy to get and my father was able to get a hotel manager to switch some nights while he was there when he decided to change his itinerary in mid-stream. Good number of cafes are open during the holiday and I am walking through town and about a dozen lubavitcher hassids are also walking around among the cafes blowing shofars at the tables so the customers can hear shofar blowing (a ram’s horn blown on the jewish new year). A riot as in real funny.
After the holiday, a short military briefing from my friend who has been on the mark for 8 years now and who says nothing good or new will happen this year viz. the peace process. His opinions: Arafat and Rajoub are israeli stooges on the israeli payroll; the palestinians have and will have nothing; the reason the hotels are filled with israelis (and not tourists) are that the shas political party and the labor unions are using public money to buy hotel rooms and put their supporters into them as bribes to vote for their party. Rabin was a genius for institutionalizing the concept of autonomy without statehood; Bibi just figuring out now that Rabin was smart in giving nothing away but appearing to do so. Israel can’t leave Lebanon; if israel would leave the syrians would have to leave too and they take $100 million a year from lebanon via 100,000 workers and soldiers in that country and this is their whole economy so they would go bankrupt if they had to leave and assad might lose his job. hamas wants perpetual conflict; they don’t want peace. they’re nuts and they like bibi and so haven’t made any terrorism the past year. israel is bankrolled by the usa which props up an artificial economy of few companies; no one works and a few people create and do everything and pay all the taxes and all the stock market consists of 20 companies which people have no choice but to buy into so therefore the shares over the long term always go up. consider the following: cars are stolen a lot. who cares? the insurance companies get all the money they need from the government and the government raises taxes by slapping 300% duties on the purchase of new cars. meanwhile, the palestinians in charge get revenue by stealing all the cars. all works rather well. israel will have second-strike capability via the new german nuclear submarines and the missiles they will launch from them. israel is the us’s only friend in the region since all the arabs, russians and everyone else hates the usa so the usa won’t pressure israel since they need the country. no indication that there will be change in prime minister. we should all move to israel, join 4 political parties and open 4 bank accounts on different names and just keep bouncing checks — no wonder no one uses checks in this country.
on this happy note, we headed out for nathan’s famous hot dogs, kentucky fried chicken and mcdonalds for a big mac and fries. all kosher here so i’ve finally had my chance to eat a big mac in my life. all very good if made fresh. all very bad if they sit around. pretty good shwarma on ben yehuda street just north of burger king. saw tons of kids with cellular phones; yeah i see this every time i visit but i just can’t get over it. i saw two people within earshot talking to each other on the phone twice. lots of faces we know on their year abroad. met up with a big shot from the world jewish congress who confirms the analysis given to me earlier that evening. On zion square in the heart of jerusalem, there is a DJ playing music and a bunch of hassids and passers-by dancing. Nearby is a truck with a big picture of a mystical-looking rabbi. The DJ is singing all these popular hassidic dancing songs and inserting the name NACHMAN M’UMAN into all the songs. I figured it was a political rally for someone named Nachman M’Uman. It was hilarious and i figured i’ve just about seen it all. Later that night, someone explained to me that Rabbi Nachman of Uman, Ukraine has been dead for well over 50 years but he has a bunch of followers who want to keep his name alive. A few thousand of his followers charter 747’s each Jewish New Year to pray at his grave in that little town in the Ukraine. Anyway, there are signs all over Jerusalem for months now that say Na-na-na-nachman M’uman. The guy’s got a great PR machine. Too bad he isn’t alive to enjoy it. Unless he is….
visited with some friends while i was there (one friend brought his 2 year old son who i had not yet really seen since he was born) but didn’t let most people i know i was coming since i’m only parachuting in for 72 hours. got a new tefillin (prayer phyllacteries) bag at Yirmiyahu embroidery shop on Yanai street directly behind the main post office on jaffa road. Then visited new neighborhoods such as Shaarei Chesed near Wolfson towers, Ramot and M’vasseret Tzion. The only kosher McDonalds is in M’vasseret’s shopping mall; most shoppers are israelis from the local area. The new “Begin” road cuts across jerusalem from the malcha shopping mall all the way through Givat Mordechai and Bayit Vegan to Ramot, making a 40 minute drive just a 5 minute drive. It also has a turnoff to Tel Aviv which allows commuters to bypass the busy intersections near the central bus station. Major improvement. Amazing how every time i visit there is so much new going on. Begin Road just opened a few months ago. Ended our visit at the Western Wall with my parents and then headed to airport to meet a friend for lunch. Took me just 8 minutes to check in and go through security. Flight to Rome is normally 2:50 but longer today due to headwinds. Vege food as all food on Alitalia is not much to talk about. Alitalia flights run real full; I wonder how they can be losing money.
ROME — Thursday & Friday 24 & 25 September
Over 50 people just walked right through passport control and they didn’t even look at their passports. Wow! Not like Israel where I waited 20 minutes to get through that. Every hour there is a 35 minute express train to Termini Train Station in center city. Costs about $9 a ticket or there is a $35-40 taxi ride to the hotel which can be done in 25-30 minutes if no real traffic. Express train leaves airport to town at 7 minutes after the hour. There are local trains as well but they take longer and require transfers. All escalators and moving sidewalk from time you exit customs to the train platform and you can get trolley at train platform till you check in at airport. Rome airport excellent for arrivals. They bussed us from the plane to the customs area so there was hardly any walking. This is a big improvement from what it was 4 years ago. Rome for departure is miserable; be prepared to carry your bag alot from check-in all the way to the gate. There are no trolleys except once you pass passport control just before the gate and don’t count on finding any. The duty free area is split over 2 floors and 2 different sides of the bottom floor in the shape of a U meaning you can’t walk across the floor from one side to the other. To get your VAT refund, first go to the Customs Office after passport control to get your papers stamped, then you go to the refund counters but there are 4 counters depending on which company handling the particular merchant. A real mess. Only one money changer for the entire departure and he’s on the upper level. Limited shopping once you pass passport control. Must enter “B” entrance if you want “B” concourse gates. Can’t try to enter via “C” entrance and cut across. A good number of delayed outgoing flights. Worst departure airport I have ever dealt with in terms of poor layout and inconvenience but the gelato was real good and I couldn’t help but finish all of what was in my dish. Leonardo da Vinci airport in the town of Fiumicino. Flight to NY is 8:40. For all flights in September, face North for lack of glare. That means Left Side going East; Right going West. Alitalia has taken to decorating the interior and exterior of its 747’s with corporate logos such as Bulgari. Personally, I don’t like having these commercials all over the place (ie: on every baggage overhead bin) during a flight.
Problem: Public and many hotel phones are rigged not to allow touch tone dialing so phone cards and switches don’t work for overseas calls. First night hotel was so bad I won’t discuss or recommend it. Problem was there was a convention in town and it was hard for my friend at Telecom Italia to find hotel rooms. No blood oranges yet at this time of year. Second night hotel was excellent — Hotel Aventino — San Anselmo. Three villa-like buildings turned into hotels in this quiet and exclusive part of town near the roman ruins. Paid $120 per night for a single on the 4th floor but there’s a lift and private gardens for the hotels and it was quiet and beautiful. Taxis come to hotel quickly after concierge calls for them by phone. Hotel is located at Piazza San Anselmo, tel. 574.5231 fax 578.3604. Hotel is a 10 minute taxi to Piazza d’Spagna and the Spanish Steps and took me 25 minutes to airport. I love the little bars on the street with finger sandwiches (ie: white bread with mozzarella cheese and spinach heated up with fresh juice and a piece of cake. yummm..)
Dinner with Alain at pizzeria with young leadership group of the Jewish National Fund. They are used to late dinners that begin at 10. Opportunity for people there to plan other parties and they are mostly koshers who eat vege outside. Rome jewish community is small and somewhat closed. Streets in Rome are chaotic — often no traffic lights and no lanes on the roads inside cities but there are pedestrian crosswalks with markings — you walk into the streets and somehow the cars stop figuring they should if you were crazy enough to walk into the street! In Rome streets can be real thin and one lane only but even the city busses move quickly. Not too much gridlock. In New York, it’s just horrible. All the people using motor scooters probably helps keep things moving; at 9am it’s a real fashion show with all the people scooting by on their way to work. My taxi driver is dashing in his green and yellow jacket. Now showing suits with 2 pockets above each other on the side of the jacket, also 3 piece suits in again. Lots of buttons and vests.
Shopping (updated 11/2000): Via Nazionale from one end to the other: 241: Roger. 205: Marco Polo; 184: David Saddler Shirts. Opposite side of street has different numbering system: Savoy 68 at #68; Roger for sport clothes; Socrate 89 (Socrate is closed from 1pm to 3:30 pm for lunch). The whole Via Nazionale street is about 8 blocks long and store hours are generally 9am to 8pm but i’m not sure which stores are closed on monday mornings during the summer months so assume they all are. To get to Rinascente department store (open 10 to at least 9pm straight), walk down past Socrate to the end of the street (ie: the musical instrument store) and then turn right and go down and go left into Piazza Venezia and right again onto Via Del Corso — continue along Corso about 5 blocks till you get to the Rinascente. It’s about a 15 minute walk from Socrate and take a taxi if you can get one. Other stores to consider: Bluman for clothing at piazza del parliamento 32; head of store is morris. telephone 686.7519. Also for eyeglasses: Efrati at piazza de spagna 91; telephone 679.5361 head of store is Dino. If you like something and don’t buy it in person, don’t expect to be able to call on the telephone and charge it from the US; Italy doesn’t yet know how to deal with telephone credit card sales. Also, unlike in the USA, it is very hard if not impossible to return something and have the credit card account credited. I don’t know how they function in this country. You can now have the VAT refund applied to your credit card. Just indicate as such on the form when you fill it out at the time of purchase. I declared about 1/3 of what I brought in to US customs; lots of people try to escape all duties and that is pretty stupid. Throw them a bone and they will generally leave you alone. US Duty is $10 per portion of any $100 above $400. Can pay duty with VISA but not AMEX. By the way, First USA Bank has a paranoid security department and stopped my credit card twice this year abroad even though i called in advance to tell them i would be traveling. it’s a good idea to call credit card customer service departments before traveling but this is not a failsafe thing.
Sightseeing: Didn’t do any on this trip to Rome but my previous notes from 1994 visit reveal that you can hire a car and driver for 8 hours for $200 to guide you. In 7 hours (plus an hour for lunch) you can cover the following: Coliseum, Synagogue, Forum, Palace of Justice, Catacombs (bring sweater since it’s cool), Villa Borghesi, hilltop atop city, Trevia Fountain, Pantheon, lots of obelisks, fountains and squares, Via Apello and bathhouses, arch of constantin, circus maximus, and some voodoo museum near Bebeni Piaza with skulls of friars from centuries past. Things I haven’t yet seen: Osteria Attica (near airport) and Vatican Museum. Call Scala Reale for specialized walking tours www.scalareale.org or in US 888.467.1986; 39.06.474.5673.
Arrival at JFK TIP: If taxi lines at international arrival terminal 4 are crowded, walk with your trolley to Terminal 5 — TWA. There’s never a line there. It’s a 10 minute walk but saves an hour’s wait.
