Vienna

Left for Vienna on friday the 9th with my good friend Wim to do the town and go to the opera. Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the 'StaatsOper' with Barbara Haveman as Manon. We dressed up for the occasion and had champagne and canapés with smoked salmon and caviar reserved for the interval....very chic indeed, so us......!!. The performance was outstanding with fab sets and beautiful voices. The 3rd and 4th act were superb indeed and yes, Manon, who couldn't decide between rags + true love and riches dies 'sola, perduta e abandonata', while singing 'Tutto è finito'....... There is a lesson to be learned here, somewhere......
Did Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs summer residence, and MAK, Museum für angwandte Kunst, full of applied art by the 'Wiener Werkstätte' (e.g. Loos, Wagner, Hoffmann and Moser) and the 'Albertina', the former city residence of the imperial family. Mingled with the local gays (Café Savoy, next to the 'Naschmarkt'), who are a bit shy to say the least.
Lotsa 'Gulashsuppe' and 'Sachertorte'...our staple diet in Vienna.

After a quiet flight back home, Wim was picked up at the airport by his man, Jos, and myself by my man, Paul, who had spent a weekend in his mothers summer-house in Belgium with Stefan & Leon and Ton & Diederik.