Red-Letter Day!

 All the way back to the Roman Empire, special days have been designated on calendars and historical documents with red ink. Standing out against the black letters of normal activities, especially on liturgical calendars, people recognized red-letter days at a glance.

 Today is a red-letter day at my house: In exactly one month, Michael and I will depart for Vienna, Austria, where we will live in an apartment in the 17^th district, Hernals, for four weeks!

 This is our trip of a lifetime to celebrate our upcoming 50^th wedding anniversary. Fifty years ago, during a surprise wedding at the Buel Street Pub in St. Louis’s Soulard neighborhood (that’s another blog), we couldn’t have imagined this opportunity.

 Truly, I don’t think we ever imagined that this “someday” fifty years hence would actually materialize, despite our love for one another. Both divorced and unwilling to have that happen again, we made a private wedding vow: Homicide, suicide, or natural causes, the only way out is a pine box. Many joys have blessed us and many pitfalls have befallen us over the decades, but we persevered and here we are, both above ground.

 You might wonder how we chose a month in Vienna. That’s easy: ballet! For several years, Michael and I dreamed about a dance tour of Europe, but we never could find one. We tried to devise a tour of our own, but the logistics are very complicated and we never nailed a trip down.

 After a dance talk sponsored by the Houston Ballet last year, I asked visiting choreographer Reed Anderson Graph of the Stuttgart Ballet which were the best companies in Europe. He named several, but Vienna’s, Prague’s, and, of course, Stuttgart’s stood out. Just a few weeks later, I stumbled across an online ad for The Good Life Abroad.

 This travel company arranges extended stays in European cities for groups of people, provides them with private apartments, and adds in a Community Manager. There are a few group activities included, like a weekly lunch, a weekly excursion, and a weekly happy hour, but other than that one lives like a local. What a fabulous opportunity!

 Our anniversary is in December, but we didn’t want go when the only performances on offer were different versions of the Nutcracker! Fall is the opening of dance season in the States, so we opted for the October-November window.

 We already have tickets to the Vienna State Ballet and have arranged a weekend trip to Prague with a performance at the Czech National Ballet. Sadly, the Stuttgart Ballet doesn’t sync with our calendar, but we may find some other opportunities after we get settled.

 Our Vienna neighborhood is a mix of 19^th-century buildings, villas, forested hills, and quiet residential streets. Our particular building looks pretty modern on Google Earth. It wraps around an ample green space, apparently typical of Vienna, and seems to be in a dense, mixed-use area. There’s an Apotheke (pharmacy) just across the street.

 We’ve been preparing. In July we started taking German classes. That’s gone fairly well, but it is a relief to know that many people in Austria sprechen English. We are supposed to be able to walk two miles on uneven surfaces (read cobblestones) and climb two flights of stairs before the trip—we’re getting there.

 There’ll be more about our trip as it draws closer, but for our RED-LETTER DAY this is enough.

 It’s the season for stuff to start happening! What red-letter days have you had recently or are you anticipating?

 Tschüβ

(tschuss = ciao in German)