Thursday, August 28 – Graz

Next day on Thursday, August 28 we depart from Graz for Vienna around 10AM.  Roads in Austria are toll free, but if you use highways, you have to purchase passenger-car vignette.  We already had this sticker attached to the inside of the front windshield, because we rent our car in Austria.

Johann Strauss	Johannes Brahms	Franz Schubert

Around 1PM we entered Vienna proper.  We took Favoritten exit from the highway and relatively quickly found Wiener Zentralfriedhof or Vienna Central Cemetery.  It is located a little off the center, and it is inconvenient to visit without a car.

Ludwig van Beethoven	Death gives a new address – Memorial Group 32A	Dec. 17, 1770 – Mar. 26, 1827

This cemetery is very large and it took a good walk to reach famous composers moved here all together after the fact.  We visited and photographed tombs of four composers: Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and Josef Strauss (1827-1870).

Mozart last address is St. Marx cemetery.  They did not move him, because there were nothing to move.

Mozart was buried in1791 in a common grave in St. Marx cemetery, so no one knows exactly, where his grave was.  But we went there anyway and found the most moving composition at the place of his possible burial.

27 January 1756	You need a car to get to Friedhof St. Marx. This is where his body was  most likely dumped.	5 December 1791

Friedhof St. Marx is a small cemetery closer to Vienna, but still a way off.  It is squeezed by overhead highway and modern developments, but you forget all about it, when you get closer to the site.  Site of Mozart grave is large meadow big enough for couple of houses to be build there.

You do not see any other graves nearby.

All is green and quiet, and you see a white composition in the middle:  a broken column and a crying angel.  It is very small and doesn’t look interesting on the pictures.  But it is really powerful, when you visit it.  It is a perfect place to be buried.  And humanity is sometimes too late to recognize its true talents.  I wrote down that day that to me this composition signifies a life stopped in its tracks and sorrow of unfulfilled dreams.

We found hotel right here on the same Simmeringer Hauptstraße, that points to the airport and connect city to its cemeteries.  For 61€ cash we got a room with refrigerator, bath and breakfast.

This evening we went to re-discover Vienna and easily found parking right on the Ring Staße next to Burggarten.  We purchased 2 x 2 hour parking permits (1.05€ per hour) in nearby hotel and went to catch up on what we missed 10 days ago.

Navigate through the List

1. 01 European Trip 2008 to Austria and Italy – Preparations (2017/05/31)
2. 02 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 13-14 – First Steps in Wien (2017/06/04)
3. 03 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 15, 2008 – Wien (2017/06/08)
4. 04 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 16, 2008 – Wien (2017/06/12)
5. 05 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 17, 2008 – Salzburg (2017/06/16)
6. 06 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 18, 2008 – Ice Caves (2017/06/20)
7. 07 August 19, 2008 - Crossing Into Italy - Cortina d'Ampezzo (2017/06/24)
8. 08 Austria and Italy – August 20-21, 2008 – Crossing the Alps (2017/06/28)
9. 09 August 22,2008 – Back to the Wild - Rifugio Alimonta (2580m) (2017/07/01)
10. 10 Austria and Italy – August 23-24, 2008 – Overwhelmed (2017/07/05)
11. 11 Austria and Italy 2008 – August 25 – Venezia I (2017/07/09)
12. 12 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 26-27 – Venezia II (2017/07/13)
13. 13 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 28 – Back to Wien (2017/07/17)
14. 14 Trip to Austria and Italy – August 29 – Back to Boston (2017/07/21)