European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Vienna continued from Page 3 escorted us Down the aisle amid the Hall s old world splendor i Felt positively kingly. Still it is possible to indulge in aristocratic dreams on a Middle class budget. On opera nights for example we Dine outdoors on plates of bratwurst and sauerkraut sold for about $2.50 each from vending carts outside the opera House Entrance. And we sometimes have skipped lunch so we could splurge on a fancy cake and whipped Cream topped Coffee at Demel a where the Check for this Little snack can easily climb to $15 or $20. Public transportation is so Good you almost never need a taxi. It s not regal but it s cheap. Vienna is my favorite european City though i am very fond of Venice too. The two Appeal to me As a visitor because they have emerged from the past relatively unscathed. It is As if they were Quick Frozen in time a Century or two ago preserved for future generations. The present has intruded but not really All that much. In Vienna i have no trouble at All imagining i might bump into Mozart on a stroll through the streets. On a Short stay last february i checked into the hotel Konig von Ungern a Small charming hotel just behind St. Stephen s Cathedral in the old City. Appealingly traditional in style it is located next door to Figaro House Mozart s residence from 1784 to 1787 while he was writing the opera the marriage of Figaro and other pieces. Mozart s House is now a City museum full of the musician s Memorabilia. I picked the hotel because i liked the idea of Mozart or at least his memory As a neighbor. The hotel which is expensive was the first of my indulgences and i planned others in a rambling walking tour of Imperial Vienna. My idea was not so much to pursue hapsburg history As it was to Sample the regal life As exemplified by the hapsburgs As Best i could on a restricted budget. Ever the sybarite we Royal pretenders know that Vienna can be fun. In my quest i managed to order a inadvertently i swear a the most expensive meal in my life. But More about that in due course. To put yourself in the proper mood you should first tour the lavish Imperial apartments in the Homburg a sprawling Complex of monumental structures that was Home to the hapsburgs from the 13th Century. The exterior Walls once a sullen sooty Gray Are being horse drawn carriages clip clop Down Vienna s narrow picturesque streets past colourful facades of former palaces. Scrubbed to a gleaming dreamlike color which is much More inviting. I had toured the apartments twice before sol decided on this trip i would take a rather offbeat look at hapsburg Home lifer. I visited the Imperial furniture depot the huge warehouse where much of the leftover family furniture is stored. The furniture once decorated other hapsburg palaces in the Empire. About a 20-minute walk Southwest of the Homburg at 88  the depot was founded in the mid-1700s by Empress Maria Theresa the Mother of 16, As a Way Tot keep a frugal accounting of her Large family s often very expensive possessions. Everything not currently in use was to be registered repaired and stored in the depot. Today the present depot which was built at the turn of the Century is a Little visited but wonderfully fascinating museum. Its several floors overflowing with thousands of objects resemble a huge furniture showroom dealing Only in exquisite Antiques. Some Are dispatched on loan to Austria s embassies around the world. My wife and i were the Only visitors for the afternoon s 60-minute escorted tour so it was not hard for me to imagine myself a hapsburg Cousin picking out a few select pieces for a country estate. Many of the items have interesting histories. Our English speaking guide pointed out a collection of eight chairs the cushions of which had been embroidered by eight of Maria Theresa s daughters each in a different design. One of the chairs he said was the work of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette of France. Also within walking distance of the Homburg is another Royal Palace a the far More appealing Belvedere the former summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Fronting Broad formal gardens it is a baroque Delight representing the pomp and splendor of the austrian Empire at the height of its Power. From the Balcony you can see the City Skyline and the Green hillsides of the Vienna Woods beyond. The Palace and gardens Are worthy artwork themselves but Belvedere also houses an interesting a collection of austrian Art including Man excellent paintings by Gustav Klimt Vienna s famed impressionist. We own an inexpensive print of a Klimt Garden scene purchased on a prior stay in Vienna so  Klimt gallery was something of a _ pilgrimage. My theory of museum going when you Are surrounded by the sort of abundance Vienna offers stick to the works you know and love. File with Vienna s old world splendor visitors May have no trouble at All imagining they might bump into Mozart on a stroll through the City. A on our walk Back toward the Homburg we stopped at the secession building an architectural Gem built at the end of the 19th Century to celebrate Art Nouveau in Vienna. As decorative As the Belvedere though More restrained it displays a famous frieze by Klimt covering three Walls. The frieze was designed As a backdrop for a sculpture of Beethoven once a resident of Vienna and is said to present a visual interpretation of the final chorale of Beethoven s ninth symphony. The treasures of the Empire can be seen in the National gallery of Art located just across a Broad Plaza from the Homburg. I went in search of the paintings of Pieters Bruegel. An innovator the master flemish artist captured the everyday life of 16th stripes Magazine october 18, 1990