Going to View Freud's Place in Vienna 2018

Leaving Florence for Vienna...

A short flight with Austrian Airlines to Vienna, but the sense of enormous cultural change strikes me as i board my flight. Momentarily forgetting the language change, i ask the flight attendant for sedia venti due and her reply in English was she did not speak French, only German and English! I was leaving the Latin world for the Teutonic.

A smooth landing (always nice) and a long cab ride to Vienna and my Pertschy

Hotel destination. Now registered, I am happy with the small but cozy room with a huge window overlooking Hapsburgergasse (the entry street for the hotel). At the night clerk's suggestion for a local casual place to have dinner, I have my first walk in Vienna

fortunately just around the block as it is night fall. Here i ordered

what turned out to be the strangest dumpling experience; dumplings smothered with scrambled eggs (i have Czech antecedents where dumplings dominate the cuisine).

My original intention for visiting Vienna was to meet up with my pal, Kremer who would be arriving from Budapest, a short 2 hour train ride away. Bob Kramer co-edited THE LETTERS OF SIGMUND FREUD AND OTTO TANK in 2012 and so would be a fine guide to explore the history of Freud in Vienna. Together we would visit the Vienna apartment turned museum of Freud where he had his practice and lived with his family for 47 years, until the Nazi threat forced them to leave for London.

Having the day to myself, I wandered through the neighborhood trying to

familiarize myself with my it, discovering that there was a definite difference in mind sets between the young Viennese and their elders. Dressed mostly conservatively the mature persons i asked directions of usually rebuffed me or turned away. I learned

rapidly it was preferable to encounter a younger person for any inquiries if i wanted help.

I discovered the museums had long lines trailing outside, and considering the wind and rain now falling, only the Leopold held any interest for me with its Klimt and Schiele art collections, its easy access and the wonderful bookstore -restaurant connected with it.

Thursday came and we took the two subways from the center, Graben. We were now in a university neighborhood of cafes filled with young people smoking at tables indoors and out. Up a few hills with wide sidewalks and then down a slope we were on Berggestrasse 19, and found the courtyard gates open to the five storied building. Two flights up and we were in the entrance where volunteers collected the entry fee. The place was modestly furnished as close as possible to its original well documented decor. I enjoyed the sense of familiarity from all my readings and studies of how in this modest place Freud had struggled to create a scientific base for his psychoanalytic theory. Today we acknowledge human behavior cannot be reduced to purely objective terms but the wealth of material produced on the range of human motivations is a contribution to our understanding that still holds.