Vienna and Munich

I am now in Munich, the last big touristy stop for me on this trip. On the 12th I will fly out of here for Barcelona where I will visit my cousin (who I haven't seen for nine years) for a whole day before returning to London and flying back to Vancouver.

Our last stop was Vienna. For those who don't know, my Grandmother on my Dad's side was born there. Being a jew, she left on not the greatest terms. I only had two days in the city. We spent the first touring around and seeing just the general sites. It was quite rainy, which compounded with the fact that I lost my rain jacket, made for not the greatest first impression. Despite this though, the city is clearly beautiful. Too many people back home are stuck with the Canadian view os a city and fail to even stop to think of what it would be like to walk down a road that is hundreds of years old. Vienna and Prague are cities that both stand out to me as places where you just look at the buildings, and not just in the old centres, and you can see that they've been there for a very long time. They are still beautiful though.

On the second day I set out to see a few more sites, but also find some sites of significance to my family. With help from my Dad and Great-Aunt Anni I pieced together an address for my Grandmother's old house. I wasn't too sure if it would be right, but once I got there and realized it was a residential building in the old jewish area I knew it probably was right. From there we headed up to Prater Park, an old amusement park dating from the late 1800s. It was good to see but was also a stopover on my next quest. I was out to find the old (and as it turns out current) site of Hakoah, a jewish sports club my Grandmother and her family had been a part of. After a walk which was much too long I did find it. I also found that the club is operational once more and has a brand new facility. After giving my story to the receptionist I was given a tour of the place and was most impressed.

From there it was back to the centre of town to locate an old swimming pool. My Great-Aunt was a swimmer, and if anyone has seen the documentary Watermarks, the pool I was looking for was the one in which they take their reunion swim. I did find it, it was sort of hidden in plain site, but sadly it was closed for the summer. I tried to go in, but there was a lot of scaffolding and construction dust falling on me, so I decided to leave. My last stop was then to the Holocaust Memorial, which is quite plain yet powerful. Once there though I found the ruins of a 14th century synagogue, which for a couple of euros was well worth seeing.

As I said, I am now in Munich. Tomorrow we will have a look around the city. There is a tour of the BMW plant which I may try and do. I'll let you know how it goes, stay tuned...