Vienna Day 3: Just the two of us. Gold tableware. And procrastination.
As it turns out, I’m much more interested in blogging than doing my real job, which is about to rear its ugly head and bite me in the ass. Oh well. Here’s what will likely be my final post for the working week. I know all 25 of our readers will be sitting at the edges of their seats.
The Habsburgs (based in Austria and then later Prague) ruled a ton of central/eastern Europe for several hundred years (you can read about them here), and on Monday, Jeff and I toured part of their enormous palace in Vienna, which is now broken up into a number of museums. We opted for the silver/china, Queen SiSi, and Royal Apartments package tour.
I seriously almost never get sick of seeing how the royal once lived. It seems utterly excessive, but I can’t help but wish these palaces would open a camp for adults, where you could dress in old royal garb, sleep in freezing cold canopy beds, and tinkle in a pot for a couple days. Okay, so a lot of it really wasn’t so glamorous, but it would be really cool to be transported back just for a few hours — even as a fly on one of those gilded walls. I would, of course, also be interested in how the other 99.99999999 (“with a bar”) percent lived. I’d probably need to learn how to build a fire, but I could do it.
From the palace, we were finally able to get into the Stephansdom. Only took three tries! Fortunately, it is still a functioning church, unlike some we have toured. It was beautiful, but I had a hard time capturing a decent photo, even with my rad camera. I just was not feeling extremely patient.
We also walked inside the baroque St. Peter’s church. While I’m not a student of architecture, baroque to me has come to mean dripping with opulence, and also excessively … excessive. Certainly not humble, nor does it seem terribly holy to me. Oh, well. What else would tourists do without these grand sites?
More pics from day three below!
Next, we were off to Bratislava, Slovakia.
Outside of Habsburg Palace.
Cold, bored horses.
Palace staircase.
Some insane gold tableware, Habsburg silver collection.
Habsburg gold/silver collection.
Loved this plate. Mädchen mit Hund.
Small church we visited prior to entering the palace.
Inside of small church. Even the seemingly insignificant looking churches from the outside are more impressive than anything we have in the US.
Statue outside of palace.
Inside the baroque-style St. Peter’s Church. Ridiculous.
Had some tiny sandwiches at Trzesniewski.
So good.
And tiny beers. Pinky out!
After the tiny beers, we needed to use the public toilets.
And then we finally made it to Stephansdom, with the “Tupperware-colored” windows, as Rick Steves calls them.
Inside Stephansdom. I was having trouble getting a good shot of this church. From here, we warmed up with some hot chocolate, coffee and cake. And that pretty much concludes Vienna!
Vienna Day 2: Like Moths to a Flame
On the second day, the three of us started our day with yogurt, gouda, and some coffee we made at the apartment we rented.
As an aside on the apartment … We used Vacation Rentals by Owner to find it, and I think this is a great way to go if you’re staying somewhere for a few days — it just feels more homey, and it provides the option for making your own breakfast, especially if you enjoy real food and not just air-filled croissants and pastries. It was a nice place, with a kitchen and big bathroom, master bedroom, and big living area that included two twin beds. Aside from our flu-infested neighbors (who owned the place), and my mysterious case of the sniffles that appeared two days later, we were mostly satisfied. However, the owner was a little stingy with the toilet paper — TWO ROLLS ONLY! Very German for a French dude. Also, we needed 4 keys to get into the place. It was like Fort Knox, and I’m almost positive that in the event of a fire, we would all roast — because you also need the keys to GET OUT. I don’t understand this European way. In Cologne, we have no smoke detectors installed in our apartment, and I could literally lock someone into our pad.
Back to our day: first stop was the Hundertwasserhaus, a modern-art residence that sort of reminded me a bit of Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. Here we “made” a bunch of photos (we were too early for the tour), and took a scenic walk — featuring much graffiti — along the river to our next stop.
Next stop — Karlskirche, where we actually climbed the stairway to heaven. This was a beautiful church and an icon often used to represent the city. While there was some construction and renovation within the church, we were able to take advantage of the scaffolding to get really close to the artwork on the inner part of the dome. Beauteous!
Next up, some penguins and the gilded Strauss statue, where it was difficult to get a decent photo of this famous violinist due to the recently unfettered tour group. You would have thought Strauss was handing out gold bullion. I take offense when large groups swarm monuments. I know you paid a lot for your seat on that bus, but please get out of the way.
Then, we finally made it inside the Opera House. Here we learned the theater puts on about 70 (if memory serves me correctly) different shows per season, without ever performing the same show on consecutive nights (they’re performed in threes, I think). So, if you’re visiting for several days, you can go for a few nights in a row and see something new each time. On the tour, we also had a chance to see the debutantes practicing for the upcoming Wiener ball, where admission is 250 Euros, dress code is formal/coattails, and box seats cost around 18,500 Euros. I will watch it on TV, thanks.
After some delicious goulash and the local pancake specialty, we attempted to get inside Stephansdom for the second time. But, mass was taking place AGAIN. So we climbed 300+ stairs to the top of one of the towers. It was actually a pretty disappointing climb for all the effort since the stairs simply deposit you into a gift shop with dirty windows, offering a sub-par view.
Anyway – here are some photos from the day.
Outside Hundertwasserhaus.
Hundertwasserhaus.
Lindsay and random dog. I told her to bend over to get her in the shot, although it was actually unnecessary. I still think it’s cute!
Dog patiently waiting for owner.
I love how Lindsay’s outfit matches the graffiti in this picture!
Cool.
A penguin fountain that apparently only serves as a fountain when it’s above freezing.
Like moths to a flame.
The beautiful Karlskirche.
Stairway to heaven.
Actually, it was more like an elevator to heaven for the majority of the climb. Lindsay only appears to be relaxed in this picture.
Nice close-ups of the frescoes.
Rejected. Back to Earth he goes.
An inside shot of the cathedral.
Huge church doors.
Inside Vienna Opera House — lobby/main stairway.
The auditorium.
Opera house.
Inside opera house.
Attempting to get a shot of the debutantes practicing for the ball.
It took us a while to find a decent lunch stop since smoking is still allowed in most restaurants. In search of a non-smoking section, I found these ancient hieroglyphics of male/female anatomy.
Traditional goulash and dumplings!
My protein-rich lunch.
Feeling pleasantly plump.
Stephansdom – take 2. A view from the gift shop at the top of 300 stairs.
Stephansplatz. I love how the Dom reflects in the windows of this modern building.
Famous public restrooms. Jeff and I actually used them on day 3.
Of course, we ended the night with … cake! Rick told us to go here.
Treats.
Vienna Day 1: The Good Life
We just returned last night from a week in Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague. I will start with a recap of Vienna — day 1. I actually wrote this in notepad on the train from Vienna to Bratislava, so let’s blame any typos on that …
Vienna feels a lot like Paris to me with old, unique, and heavily decorated buildings everywhere you turn, lots of cafés, and wide streets (implemented to help prevent enemies from barricading the main thoroughfares — a best practice from the Parisians, actually).
Our good friend Lindsay was able to join us for a couple of days, as she was traveling to Europe for a wind energy conference (coincidentally, I type this as we pass a bunch of wind turbines on our train to Bratislava. Maybe they’re GE’s!).
Jeff and I arrived last Friday — Jeff from Budapest following a work trip, and I from Cologne (where else?). Lindsay joined us Saturday morning after a red-eye.
On our first day, we attempted and failed to time a tour of the Vienna Opera House, making our first real major stop the famous Cafe Sacher for sachertorte (pic below) and delicious, overpriced coffee (we girls got ours with egg rum). At least we have our priorities straight — coffee and chocolate! Jeff ordered some Turkish blend, which to me looked more like coffee-flavored sludge than a beverage, but it was appropriate due to some Turkish influence in Vienna.
From here, we went to the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer home of the royal Hapsburg family. The “Rococo”-style (baroque) palace has more than 1,400 rooms. We toured only 50, which was plenty. Audio guide in hand, we learned a lot of interesting facts that I don’t really remember. Having seen lots of residences/palaces in Europe (Versailles, Brühl, the Residence in Munich, Marksburg Castle, many in Copenhagen, etc), I have to say that I really liked the pace of this tour. It is here we learned of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria (known as “SiSi”), with her knee-length hair, who lived a tragic life that ended with her assassination by a file while visiting Italy. More on her later.
After visiting the “gardens,” which isn’t much to see on a freezing, rainy winter day (we used our imaginations), we went –shivering and wet — for some lunch. Aside from the bad chianti we were charged for, the pizza was huge and delicious, and I was able to dry my feet on the heater I was essentially sitting on. Did I mention my elf boots have sprung a leak?
From here we went to Stephansdom for the FIRST time, with our Rick Steve’s audio guide in hand. Stephansdom is Austria’s largest cathedral and literally sits in the center of Vienna. It is also “sehr alt” — built in the 12th century (groundbreaking in 1137, to be precise).
At this point in our journey, it had stopped raining, but the wind had picked up. The inside of the church was closed for mass (well, technically open for mass, but closed to camera-toting tourists), but we were able to at least complete the outside portion of Rick Steves’ audio tour (FYI, Rick has free downloadable tours for many cities and sites in Europe. Despite his often flowery speech, the tours are awesome!). From here, we walked /trained home, stopping for some chocolate on the way. Vienna, like almost ever other city in Europe (it seems), is known for sweets. This makes Jeff very happy.
Here are some day 1 photos! Enjoy. More on day 2 tomorrow.
Welcome, Lindsay. And a little view of our apartment rental.
Vienna town hall.
Jeff and Lindsay, the tour guides.
Candid!
Vienna Parliament. Nice scenery on our walk to the Opera House.
Looking surprised by something!
Listening to the Rick Steves’ walking tour of Vienna outside of the Opera House. Unfortunately, no tour today.
Cafe Sacher. That is some strong Turkish coffee!
Sacher torte and delightful coffee-rum beverage.
Wet tour of the gardens. Pic from Jeff’s phone.
Hiking up big hill to the top of the Schönbrunn Palace gardens. (Pic from Jeff’s phone, so it’s a little grainy).
Inside palace in the only location we were allowed to take pictures.
Beautiful building in Schönbrunn Palace gardens. We were tempted by the overpriced (and warm) cafe inside, but resisted.
Cute umbrella purchased for the day.
View of palace from the hill. It was well worth the hike.
I’m not sure that’s enough, Lindsay.
Outside of Stephansdom, Vienna.
Another shot of the massive, gothic cathedral.
The one inside shot we could get during mass — and our first attempt of an inside tour.
Late-night candy stop!
A European Adventure 