OPIUM ICE CREAM

                                             A Surprise Flavor

     One evening leaving a restaurant in Vienna where we’d enjoyed a really good, if different, pizza my travel buddy said, “An ice cream would be a perfect topping of a great meal.”

     “What a good idea!  I’m sure I saw an ice cream kiosk a block from the hotel when I was scouting out the neighborhood this afternoon before you arrived. (She lives in LA). We should hit it if we cross here and then turn right,” I answered.

     We did just that and then joined a short line in front of the kiosk. It was hard to make a choice of the twenty or so flavors displayed. Each was labeled, but in Austrian or German. It didn’t make any difference as norther of us spoke either language.

    I tried to find out from the young man behind the counter what flavor the vanilla-looking ice cream with tiny dark specks in it was.  Maybe chocolate chip?  The fellow didn’t speak any English, which was surprising for a young male.

     Not wanting to hold up the line forming behind us I gave up the conversation and just took the ice cream.  For this ice creamaholic, I knew no matter what the flavor it would be good. Licking our cones we walked off heading toward the hotel. Suddenly we heard a  young man  say, “Ladies, ladies. That ice cream you are eating is opium ice cream.”

    “What!” we exclaimed simultaneously.

     “Yes, you know like from the poppies that grow in Afghanistan. Opium ice cream,” he commented.

     After a minute a light went on in my head and I said, “Oh, you mean poppy seed.”

     “Yes, Yes.” He strolled past us licking on his cone.

     He was standing directly behind us, and we both wondered why he hadn’t jumped in to interpret for us when we were trying to converse with the vendor.

     We had a good chuckle over my opium ice cream and often mentioned it on succeeding trips when we were together.

SCHONBRUNN PALACE

                                             One huge home!

     The stately Schonbrunn Palace is one of the notable landmarks in Europe The UNESCO historic site, located in the Vienna Woods, is now actually part of Vienna, albeit in the suburbs.

     Turks burned the original palace in  1683. Afterwards the Ottoman Empire built a small hunting lodge. A half century later Maria Theresa built the huge 1400-room royal summer home covering several acres.

     One enters the palace foyer over extremely quiet wooden tiles. On my first visit  I was given an English-programmed phone for my tour of the forty rooms open to the public. Such phones allow one to tour at leisure and to see and take in all of a room one desires before moving on to the next one. This option also gives me ample time to make my own notes.

    One of the first things I learned was that Mozart gave his first concert, at age six, for the Imperial Court. It is said that afterward he jumped up into Maria Theresa’s lap, not unlike what any small child might do.

     The palace is painted yellow, Maria Theresa’s favorite color. I was intrigued with the gorgeous intricate wood parquet floors, each room with a different design. The patience and craftsmanship needed to create such beauty—and then to let people walk on them—has to be admired!  The ceilings covered with beautiful frescoes were magnificent. The woodwork and staircases noteworthy.

     Elizabeth, known as Sisi, was the much-loved wife of Emperor Franz Joseph. She was hardly ready to be married at 16, and she didn’t think much of the institution of marriage. After a few years she found the demands of the court tiresome, so she spent many years traveling Europe alone.

     She was well known for her intelligence, independent spirit, extravagant nature and beauty, but she was obsessed by her weight. With only 105 pounds on her 5-foot 8-inch frame she was very slender. She ate like a bird and weighed every day. It took hours to fashion her floor-length hair, and quite naturally her hairdresser became her confidant.

     Sisi was considered one of the best horsewomen of her day. She was assassinated in1898 at age 61 in Geneva, Switzerland.

    On two subsequent visitors I spent a morning in the zoo one time, listened to a concert on the mall after climbing up to Glorietta and down again on another visit, and both times touring the palace seeing different rooms.

    It is a stunning palace built  as a rival to Versailles and to me my favorite of the two.

OLD ZOOS

     My California travel buddy, who I met in the Swiss Alps, was an LA zoo docent, so we visited many zoos in our travels. In return she accommodated me with my floral clocks and botanical gardens. We each learned a lot from the other.

     The oldest zoo in the world, Tiergarten, was built in 1752 at Schonbrunn Palace in Austria, just outside Vienna. It was designed around the Emperor’s breakfast pavilion, so he could enjoy the animals along with his morning chocolate. On a very hot day, after walking about the zoo, we decided to have lunch in the pavilion, now a small restaurant.

     Many animals were gifts from European nobility and diplomats from all over the world. In 1828 the first giraffe and first elephant born in captivity were born at Tiergarten. How exciting that must have been!  Even on a hot afternoon the lions, leopards, and black panthers were active and passed only a few feet away behind heavy glass.

     The zoo went under government control in 1921, but in 1991 again became a private enterprise. Today the zoo is actively involved in the protection of threatened species.

     On another European trip we visited the Budapest zoo on a quiet Sunday afternoon. This zoo dates to 1866. Besides the hundreds of mammals, even more birds and reptiles are residents, plus the complex also includes  a large botanical garden, and includes 69 buildings. The elephant house, modeled after a Turkish Mosque was really beautiful.

     Here I saw some new animals which my zoo docent friend was able to explain and identify for me. Of course all the signs and map were in Hungarian.  A couple of  times we were a bit confused as to where we were so we looked for a young male to seek help. Both times we were just around the corner from where we wanted to be. In Europe look for a teenage boy or young man as they almost always speak English—that tid bit never failed us when traveling.

    At the Edinburgh zoo we were having trouble finding the painted hunting dogs. Eventually we spotted a fellow who we thought was a zoo employee. We asked if was familiar with the zoo layout, and then showed him the map and what we were looking for. He stopped what he was doing and trotted all over the zoo until he found the dogs for us. We double stepped to keep up with him and thanked him for his help. Then he told us he was the insurance inspector doing his annual inspection. Just  another example how we found friendly and helpful people everywhere we traveled.   We spent half a day in each of these zoos and I certainly wouldn’t mind visiting them again.

ANTIQUE CLOCKS

It seems every city has a major clock somewhere within its boundaries. I’ll relate a few that I’ve found interesting and have enjoyed in my many travels.

VENICE, ITALY—St. Mark Sq

This clock near the palace is several hundred years old. It strikes on the hour and the roman numerals move every five minutes. It’s fascinating to watch the little people up there strike the bell. The slowly rotating bell is struck in a different place each time.

VIENNA Anchor Clock, Ankeruhr.

Built between 1911 and 1917 it is situated at Hoher Markt, the oldest square in Vienna. The Art Nouveau designed clock forms a bridge between two parts of the Anker Insurance Company's building. The clock itself is adorned with mosaic ornaments. In the course of 12 hours, twelve historical figures or pairs of figures move across the bridge, Joseph Haydn and Empress Maria Theresa among them. Music from various eras accompanies the figures at noon each day as they all parade by. This tourist spectacle is a special kind of Viennese High Noon.

WERTHEIM, GERMANY:

The tower clock at the 1383 Gothic church is rather unusual. The tower was added 40 years later. On the town side is a normal clock with both minute and hour hands so workers would work to the last minute. But only an hour hand is on the clock facing the castle, as the rulers were only interested in the hour, not the minutes.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

There is a marvelous hanging clock in the center of the foyer of the QVC building in Sydney, Australia. Every hour on the hour loud trumpeters announce the display of a series of mechanically moving tableaux of British kings and queens. The exhibition ends with the beheading of Charles I. It is interesting to watch.

HALIFAX'S Citadel

On the harbor side of Citadel Hill is the Old Town Clock. Prince Edward, father of Queen Victoria, commissioned it in 1803. The clock on each side is a different size. The population in each direction, N,E,S,W, determined the clock size. Staring at this unusual four-sided clock all I could say was, “Amazing.”

MUNICH'S glockenspiel

Late morning we hurried to Maria Square to join a large crowd gathered to watch the 10-minute performance of the century old glockenspiel. In the tower of the new City Hall, which looks like a big Gothic church, the glockenspiel plays at 11:00 AM and again at noon. The figures in the 1908 clock are about six feet tall. The bells ring first, then the figures move around in a circle. It is over when the rooster at the top crows three times.

Departing the square for lunch I said, “ What a fun performance, but I expected the rooster to move forward when it crowed.instead of flapping its wings.” 

VANCOUVER Steam clock

The famous antique steam clock is the first built in the world. Douglas Smith was the engineer who built the clock over a steam vent at a cost of $42,000 in 1977. Ray Saunders, a well-known inventor and clockmaker designed the 16.9-foot clock. Weighing two ton, steel weights go to the top and then drop by gravity. Every quarter hour Westminster chimes are heard, and on the hour a large whistle belches from the clock. The steam pipes are all underground and also heat many of the buildings as well as running the clock.

One evening at a nearby Japanese restaurant we listened to all its chimes and whistles while enjoying a delightful dinner.

Since the city of Reykjavik is totally run on an underground steam system it would be a great place for a steam clock.

YORKMINSTER

On one wall in York, England’s Yorkminster is a charming 400 year old clock. Oak figures strike the clock every fifteen minutes. The clock movements date to 1749. The 15^th century screen is decorated with statues of fifteen kings from William I to Henry VI.

PRAGUE

On the front of the Old Town Hall in Prague’s old square sits an astronomical clock that chimes every hour on the hour from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. The clocks shows the year, month, day and hour as well as the rising and setting of the sun, east and west, the noon and the signs of the zodiac. But crowds gather on the hour to see the 1410 clock’s animated movements. The clock was restored in the 19^th century. When the hour approaches the window opens and the apostles move by.

Flanking the clock are statues representing the values of the day. The fellow looking in the mirror representing vanity perhaps saying he who spends time before a mirror has a poor life; he who helps others has a rich life. The miser represents greed saying spend your money, enjoy life, and have fun. The skeleton representing death says, enjoy life, it is short.. I don’t have you now, but I will. Finally is the Turk soldier representing pleasure and entertainment and not such a good life under them.

This astronomical clock is the third oldest in the world and the oldest still working. The legend is that the builder of the clock was blinded when his job was finished, so he could never duplicate his fine piece of work. I have heard this same legend about other artists being blinded in at least a couple of other places.

In Prague’s old Jewish Center on the Old Jewish Town Hall is a clock with Jewish numerals and the clock runs counterclockwise. Was the builder left handed? No, he was just following how Hebrew is read, from right to left. I really don’t know a lot about the clock, other than it is unique. Above it is a smaller clock with Roman numerals.

ZAGREB, CROATIA

Wandering around the capitol city I spied a wall with an unusual sun dial clock on it. A little over a half circle in size, it was divided into 12 pie-shaped sections with a roman numeral at the end of each pie. It was a most unusual clock and I have never seen another one.

ALPHORN abd OPIUM ICE CREAM

MORE FUN EXPERIENCES

THE ALPHORN

        In the 1970s a Swiss band made the alphorn famous but we know it from the popular Ricola TV commercials. In Switzerland a visit to the only alphorn factory in the world was  most interesting. A factory guide told us that the factory manufactures two horns a day, or about 250 a year. The small factory has only a few employees.

      Half of the horns manufactured remain in Switzerland; 25% of the horns are exported to the US, and the remaining 25% go to Asia, mostly Japan.

      Holding a horn the guide explained that it has no holes or valves, so the length determines the pitch. The longer the horn the deeper the pitch.

      Then surprisingly he pulled the horn apart telling us that the horn breaks down into three sections to fit into a manageable carrying case. Narrow brass rings connect the horn when it is connected. The average price of a horn is about $2000. The longest horn in the world is 47 meters (approximately 153’) and is in the Guinness Book of Records.

      In the show room we were given a chance to try to blow an alphorn. A couple of the fellows had some success, but you really have to know how to blow a horn instrument. I huffed and huffed into the horn with absolutely no success.

      The alphorn is an unusual and unique instrument, and the visit to the factory was fun. I have kept an eye peeled for the instrument ever since, but so far have not spotted one except on TV.

OPIUM ICECREAM

       One evening in Vienna leaving a restaurant where we’d enjoyed a really good, if different, pizza my traveling companion said, “An ice cream would be perfect for topping off a great meal.”

      “Good idea! This afternoon I saw an ice cream kiosk a block from the hotel. Cross here and then turn right should bring us right to it,” I answered.

       We joined a short line at the kiosk. It was hard to make a choice of the twenty or so flavors displayed. They were labeled---in Austrian or German. It didn’t make any difference as neither of us read or spoke either language.

      I asked the young man behind the counter what flavor the vanilla-looking ice cream with tiny dark specks in it was. I thought likely  chocolate chip. I was totally unsuccessful, as the fellow didn’t speak English, which was a surprise, as most often I’ve found young people, and especially young males, speak English overseas.

      I gave up the conversation and just ordered the ice cream. For this ice-creamaholic, I knew it would be good, no matter what its flavor. Licking our cones we walked away. Suddenly a young man behind us said, “Ladies, that ice cream you are eating is opium ice cream.”

     “What!” we exclaimed simultaneously.

     “Yes, you know like from the poppies grown in Afghanistan. Opium ice cream.”

      After a minute a light went on in my head and I said, “Oh, you mean poppy seed.”

      “Yes. Yes.” He strolled past us licking on his cone.

       He had been standing behind us in line and I wondered why he hadn’t jumped in to interpret for us when we were trying to converse with the vendor.

      We had a good chuckle over my opium ice cream, and I’ve had a lot of fun relating the story ever since.