Category Archives: Amuse-Bruce

18 May: Kahlenberg

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I hired a bike from pedalpower.at and cycled out to another of our traditional haunts, the Kahlenberg (a hill just north of Vienna, with fantastic views over the city). Elly was sensible and took the U-bahn and then a bus.

Meanwhile, I failed to get up the MTB path, so cycled on to Klosterneuberg and ascended via a shallower but longer route – and cooked my arms in the sun.

Several drinks, including a verlängte Brauner (look it up!), later, we walked down to Klosterneuberg. Elly took public transport back to our hotel, while I  went via the Donauinsel. Dinner was at another of our favourite haunts, the Dreivierteltakt. More Kartoffelsalat, Gurkensalat and Petersilkartoffeln. Austria does spuds! Continue reading →

17 May: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Donauinsel

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Elly fancied seeing the display of the Habsburgs’ book collection at the National Library. The state hall is full of books from mostly Empress Maria Theresa’s time (18th century). It’s absolutely amazing – I hope the photos do it some justice.

After a room full of books, none of which we could touch, let alone read, we headed for the Donauinsel for drinks, a shisha and (for the silliness addict) a dip in the Donaukanal. It’s rare that I’ve been so cold.

Dinner that night was at the Loving Hut – vegan Wienerschnitzel with mayonnaise-Kartoffelsalat. Totally yum! Continue reading →

Say it loud

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I’m reasonably pleased that I was one of several thousand people braving Saturday’s perishing cold to protest against Donald Trump’s actions and policies. I hope that he might be persuaded to tone his offensiveness down just a little, but I’m not holding my breath on this score.

Some placards and posters were quite amusing, in my opinion.

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I shouldn’t be pleased that I’m on this video (sadly no longer available on the BBC) around 27 seconds in – the point is not to aggrandise myself.

Hypocrisy has many faces. Am I wearing one of them?

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The last few weeks have been, er, interesting. Perhaps the most significant event was President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning nationals of seven countries from entering the US, and temporarily halting its refugee programme. The fallout from that has been massive, including Angela Merkel reminding Mr Trump of international duties to accept refugees, and a very popular petition against a possible state visit to the UK by Mr Trump. And then there was the Westminster Speaker’s magisterial speech against Mr Trump’s perceived sexism and racism. (I have to admit I nearly cried when I first saw that – I almost felt proud to be British.) Continue reading →

Topsy-turvey

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In this post-truth world, full of trumpty-dumpty dangers, we have to take our amusements and pleasures where we can. So I am rather tickled that of the four Macs in Servants’ Quarters

Couldn’t have said it better

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The words of ‘Milton’, a Register commentard:

What can possibly go wrong?

When the world’s most militarily powerful bankrupt nation, armed with thousands of nukes, is taken over by an ignorant, lying, bellicose, childish, homophobic, lying, simplistically-minded, arrogant, egotistical, lying, thin-skinned, insecure, racist, self-confessed sex assaulting, lying, sexist, lying, misogynist, serially bankrupt, lying liar?

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall … you can guess what happens next.