Sunday 30th September 2007

A day when nothing goes to plan, thankfully!

We decided to pop into the town centre of Klosterneuburg before doing something else. Walked up to the Stift (Abbey) and, after looking around the church, noticed that some musicians were gathering outside. Followed them into the church hoping that they were going to give a performance. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were playing during a service and we got caught up in it. We managed to extricate ourselves part-way through the service after spending quite some time listening to incomprehensible German. The only bit that we did recognize was The Lord's Prayer but only by the intonation!
We then walked round the outside of the Abbey – a massive complex of buildings beautifully and richly decorated with statues and gold. Then on to a large square a short distance from the Abbey where we found a number of stalls and a large Stadtkapelle (town brass band) preparing to play. After investigation, we found out that it was the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Stadtkapelle Klosterneuburg. It was a small group of these musicians that we saw in the church. We sat in the square, listening to another Stadkapelle from Bad Ischl, eating Bratwurst and drinking Sturm, a partly fermented wine. The thought of partly fermented wine is not very attractive but despite that it is cloudy with yeast, it is very pleasant.
It turned out that there were about 20 different bands at the celebration and each one marched along the street and were greeted by the Stadtkapelle Klosterneuburg. The greeting involved the local band playing a snatch of music, and then the two mace holders (who lead the bands) waving maces around in front of each other. The mace holders then had a brief conversation and this was followed by an exchange of presents and drinking of schnapps. You may imagine that with more than 20 bands, this took some time but every band was dressed differently, mostly in traditional dress, so it was a very colourful spectacle. The two leaders and the mace holder from Klosterneuburg drank a schnapps with every band and, although they looked a little flushed, they were still standing at the end, able to make speeches and, in the case of the mace holder, able to lead the band. I was very impressed. If I had drunk that much schnapps, I would have been a gibbering wreck.
We thought that was the end but then a competition was held with every band marching again and performing a choreographed number at the end with judges buzzing around them. At the end of this there was a performance by the Russian Brass Orchestra in Austria (based in Vienna), who played a variety of classical music.
A thoroughly enjoyable day! Such serendipity is one of the delights of travelling.

The photograph shows the Klosterneuburg greeting committee with yet another schnapps!