In Vienna I was invited to the house of Dr. Erwin Neumayer who has a great love for Indian art and culture. He is a historian and the well-known author of some very famous books on Indian art such as, Prehistoric Rock Art of India, Bharat Mata: Calendar Art and India's Freedom Struggle Popular Indian Art: Raja Ravi Varma and the Printed Gods of India. I found it very interesting to see that Erwin had a cut out of Amitabh Bacchan in his study and we took a photograph in his study. Both Erwin and his wife proved to be great hosts and after a lovely Indian lunch of rice and curry , they took me around to show their beautiful city.
We first visited the Schönbrunn palace (meaning "beautiful spring"), a name coming from the artesian well from where water was supplied to the palace. This was the residence of, Franz Ferdinand II, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and whose assassination on 28 June 1914 sparked the First World War. His wife , Eleonora Gonzaga, loved hunting, and spent much time here and made this her residence after the death of her husband. It has some 1441 rooms and some beautiful gardens.
We next went to the Vienna woods from where we can see the Danube river. The 45 kilometres wide range of hills is heavily wooded and a protected forest. a popular recreation area with the Viennese reaching into the city of Vienna itself. . The Vienna Woods are bounded by the rivers Triesting, Gölsen, Traisen and Danube, and are the border of the four quarters of Lower Austria. It was nice to see grapes orchards from where the famous wines of Austria come and some densely covered forests in the vicinity of a city. On the edge of this forest is an ashram built by Chinmayyanand's followers. I was thinking what a beautiful place to meditate and may be some day in future i can come and stay here for a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment