Wednesday, 24th July 2019
Well we are not allowed to leave, Jozo and Gerry are not yet finished with reminiscing and Adriana wants to show us more of her beloved city, Graz!
We slept well and as this apartment is in a 130 year old building the walls are thick and hence quite cool indoors while it’s like a furnace outdoors during the day. So our nights are very pleasant without even having air conditioning in the apartment.
Breakfast was very Austrian, rolls, and the real original croissant and home made jams….. and coffee.
After breakfast Adriana planned a walk around the Old Town – it’s great that everything is within walking distance from the apartment and although we left early, it was already quite hot even though we chose to walk most of the time on the shady side of the street.
Our first stop was at the Opera House, a beautiful structure but as Adriana explained, it was built during the Austro Hungary Empire in 1899 and it seemed that at that time, there was only one model, the neo -baroque style as the same type of opera house can be found in Budapest and Vienna…….
We continued our walk to the Dom (Cathedral) and the Mausoleum, however as there is some Reno action work going on in the Cathedral, it was not open. We did go into the Mausoleum and were astonished with the grandeur…….
Emperor Ferdinand II held his court in Graz and in 1614, he commissioned his Italian court painter and architect to erect a Mausoleum next to the St Catherine’s Church, however by the time he died, the Mausoleum was only half complete……
On our walk around we also came to an old square – The Graz Town Crown – the monumental buildings ensemble around the Graz Castle and known as the Town Crown. An interesting feature here was the double spiral staircase erected in 1499/1500.
Our next stop was the Landeszeughaus, the Styria Armoury which stretches from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Styria was a very turbulent region in Austria and was continuously afflicted with armed raids and military conflicts with Hungarian rebels and the Ottoman Empire. However on our way, I noticed a sign leading to the Glockenspiel and as it was nearly 11 am, we made our way to the pretty square and sat down for a coffee while waiting for the two figurines to come out and dance up in the table – of course the figurines depict a young maiden and a lad dressed in local costume, the lad having a beer in his hand while the girl a tea towel – the reason for this that in the old days, women were not allowed to drink in public….. it was really a pretty site and quite a number of tourists gathered for this show…..
Finally we reached the Armoury and I must say there was a lot to see. We took the elevator to the fourth floor and made our way down through the big rooms filled with historic armouries – there are some 32,000 pieces ranging from swords, pistols, complete armouries to protect horses and various guns.
By the time we were finished with our tour, we were ready to walk back home for lunch. Jozo had prepared a really tasty goulash and mixed salad. After lunch it was siesta time as later on towards the evening we would be visiting a park before going off for dinner.
In total we walked well over 7km which is quite some distance when it was such hot weather, so in the evening we took the tram to Lechwald – here we strolled around the pond filled with ducks and at the end enjoyed a glass of wine on the terrace of a lively restaurant before catching the tram again to go to the restaurant, Gasthaus Klamminger, close to Jozo and Adriana’s apartment and having all sorts of mushrooms as it’s speciality – we had battered egg sponge mushrooms on a bed of mixed salad. At first I thought it was not enough as we were ravenous – so ravenous that I forgot to take some pictures…….. well we ended our dinner with home made schnapps and that I did take a picture.
Tomorrow we will be continuing our homeward bound journey – some 600km into Germany, halfway to home…….
