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.
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.