Open Features: Only Seeing Is Truly Believable
"‘An der schönen blauen Donau’, better known as ‘The Blue Danube Waltz’ has ingrained itself into my subconscious and whenever I hear it, visions of a snowy Vienna come to mind with all the fun of the festive season eddying around it streets. Waltz tents, buskers, mulled wine and ice cold champagne, braziers for warming hands and roasting chestnuts, fir boughs decorating the streets, market stalls twinkling with lights, the visual memories flood back,'' writes Mary Pilfold-Allan.
Johann Strauss may not have realised it when he composed the music in 1866 but just two or three notes of the tune can deliver the equivalent of a subliminal message more powerful than any gaudy holiday poster.
Ofcourse the Danube is not blue, although, if rivers were people then it might be feeling like it right now. There has been so little rain in central Europe over the last four months that only a vessel with an extremely shallow draught can currently negotiate it. Budapest for instance is a no go area for the river cruise boats, as is a huge stretch of the Wachau Valley, Austria’s wine growing region. How do I know this? Because the ‘Romantic Danube’ dream cruise I had looked forward to with such anticipation, turned into something of a busman’s holiday, if you will forgive the pun. When I totted up the miles covered, it amounted to less than half by boat and the rest by coach between ports of call and different vessels.
Taking a positive angle on the whole experience, the 5* Budapest hotel, a substitute for the high and dry boat, was very pleasant, even if the Scottish bagpipes played at full throttle in the foyer were a trifle unexpected. The explanation; the manager was from Scotland and wanted a proper celebration of St. Andrew’s Day, so imported an authentic band.
From Budapest to Vienna had to be done by road and despite the gathering gloom of late afternoon, the landscape passed by in a never-ending expanse of arable land. So never-ending was the scenery that rather like a child takes to I-spy to relieve the tedium of travel, I started counting the birds of prey that sat on the fence posts along the way. What kind of raptor they were, I have no idea, but they were big, brown and a lot of them.
At Vienna we joined the boat and I discovered how wonderful it is to watch the world go by whilst on water, to drift off to sleep passing under bridges and wake the next morning to a new place to explore.
The rest of the week passed much the same, new dawn, new day of discovery, until we came to Nuremberg. Being born in the so-called ‘Baby boom’ era, as a child newsreels and documentaries often flashed back to the notorious images of the Nuremberg rallies. For me it was almost overwhelming to stand on the Zeppelin Field where so many had stood believing in the omnipotence of one man. Now, without its banners, its embellishments and its crowds, the area is vast and derelict, but if ever there was a need to prove that propaganda and subliminal messages worked, Nuremberg provides a prime example.
In our modern life we have come to accept that advertising, propaganda and subliminal messages are part and parcel of our world. Johann Stauss set a fine example by inserting the word ‘blue’ into his waltz title. The Danube is normal river colour, but for me, there is always an expectation that it will be blue! The Romantic Danube cruise was a ‘box and cox’ of travel and let’s face it, ‘romantic’ is a personal interpretation. As for building up egos to believe they are invincible, there is nothing new under the sun. It’s what the image-makers do everyday for politicians and so-called celebrities. The edifying factor in all of this is that everything is open to interpretation or to put it more simply, only seeing is truly believable.
Switch on the television tonight and the likelihood is that every fifteen minutes or so you will be bombarded with advertisements for things you never knew you needed. Children especially, are swept away by the allure of a new toy, a different type of game or somewhere exciting to go. The reality is that, if they didn’t know these things existed they wouldn’t miss not having them. And I think that brings me back to Johann Strauss. If he hadn’t inserted the word blue ….well who knows?
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To read more of Mary's entertaining columns please click on http://www.openwriting.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=mary+pilfold-allan
