The guide I had hired to take my brother and his family around Vienna for the morning proved to be a fabulous storyteller. She made the ancient history of Vienna come to life. I only wish I had taken such a tour earlier on in my stay. As we wandered the backstreets of the Inner City, attempting to visit Mozart's House, we fell into a time warp:
Odd, to say the least, but easily explained: Movie Set.
In some ways, it's a bit obnoxious. They take over parts of the city, and you can't get around.
That said, the movie that was being filmed takes place historically in Vienna during World War II, so you can't get much more authentic than filming where the story the film is based on actually took place.
The movie in question is The Woman in Gold, is based on the true story about a woman's journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family during World War II. Hence the Nazis. The film stars Dame Helen Mirren, but as she was not actually in Vienna the day we passed the movie set, there was no chance that we could have happened to see her.
The World War II scenes in the movie are meant to be flashbacks, so I'm not even clear she would be present in them at all. One assumes that flashback scenes would have some younger stunt double? Although the woman looks magnificent for her age.
Our guide was a lovely, sensible woman who was able to sweet talk us past the film crew. Apparently, people who actually live in this area and people who make a living taking paying customers through the area have some kind of priority access.
Disconcerting, though, to say the least.
Next: Brno!
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