The Brothers Josephu

The Brothers Josephu
Young Josef at work...circa 1917

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Trip - Day 6

Saturday, June 4th

Today my hunt is shared with Brigitte. George is preparing his apartment for the arrival of cousins coming in from the Czech Republic for our family reunion tomorrow.  We visit more cemeteries today, looking for graves sculpted by Josef and Florian. We found our targets, and both are in excellent condition. One other grave I was not sure if/where it existed, but for some reason thought it was in Baumgarten Cemetery...but it was not.

From the cemeteries we head off to an animal protection/Humane Society and veterinary site, the Wiener Tierschutzverein Tierschutzhaus. The target is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi.  We couldn't find this statue 14 years ago. It was originally in the Lainz Tierschutzgarten, but not there on our visit, and no one knew of its fate.  It was George who found this piece years after we first got to know each other. Overall it's in good shape.

From here, it's off to wine country. There's occasionally light rain but not enough to spoil any of our fun. Brigitte takes me to a town near Mödel and the more famous town of Baden, called Gumpoldskirche. Very quaint with narrow streets. We walk down a narrow path, under a Linden Tree (Brigitte's favorite). Linden tree blossoms have a wonderful aroma, not unlike honeysuckle but less sweet and more haunting - there should be a perfume based on the Linden. We hike through some vineyards, and eventually settle into a heuriger. We enjoy some wine and talk, and are eventually joined by George, and the Czech cousins, Dusan and Bianca Benicek. We have a lovely afternoon, and eventually move inside to avoid an approaching thunderstorm, where we enjoy food, wine and a friendly evening together.

No comments:

Post a Comment