We arrived in Vienna and took the metro to the city centre to find our hotel, which was supposedly somewhere near the Opera House. Well, it wasn’t that far from the Opera House, I think “near” was an overstatement. My mom stayed at the hotel to rest and my dad and I went out to explore and to buy 3 day passes for the public transportation system- which is amazing, by the way.
We saw the main shopping district and toured the Church of
the Capuchin Friars Imperial Crypt. I
went through the crypt my first
trip to Vienna and it is still impressive.
We also wandered around Hofburg Palace and saw the Lipizar stallions’
stables. We then met up with my mom at
the hotel to go to Schonbrunn Palace.
I was excited about going to Schonbrunn since I didn’t go
there during my first trip to Vienna.
I’m glad I didn’t go then because Schonbrunn has amazing gardens and
gardens are decidedly less exciting in the winter. Schonbrunn was the summer palace for the
Hapsburgs and was built in 1695 and 1713.
It is yellow (which I found out later was an official royal color in
Austria) and the interior is, as with most palaces, amazing. You can’t take pictures inside, but my
favorite room was the grand gallery. It
is 130 ft long with an arched roof painted with amazing murals. I also liked the Blue Chinese Salon, because
as anyone who has seen my wardrobe can attest, I like blue.
We wandered around the gardens and then my dad and I walked
up to the Gloriette. This is a large pavilion
used originally as a dining hall. It
overlooks the gardens and the palace and now holds a café. We came back down and, since it was really
hot out, went to the restaurant to try and eat dinner. It was about 5:30 when we did this, but
unfortunately they don’t serve dinner until 6:30, so we sat there. It was hot.
Our dinner finally did come and it was delicious. I had the vegetarian option, since boiled
beef didn’t sound appealing and I don’t really eat beef. I started with really good tomato soup (even
though it was hot) and then I got some sort of spinach, potato, onion thingy
wrapped in phyllo dough with a really good salad on the side. Strudel (of course) was served for dessert,
but I don’t actually care for strudel (or pie type pastries in general) so I
just ate the crust.
From there we went to the Orangery. Orangeries are so named because they were
like giant green houses used to hold orange trees and other tropical plants
from palace gardens during the winter.
Now, the Orangery at Schonbrunn hosts concerts. We looked terrible, since we had been
sweating all day, but the concert hall was fairly cool and the concert was
good. The concert featured a small
orchestra that played compositions by Austrians (Blue Danube Waltz, anyone?)
and had dancers and opera singers.
The next day started out with breakfast at McDonalds
(because it was just down the street from the hotel and it was cheap) where my
dad asked me if the breakfast McChicken was good “for breakfast.” I’ve eaten so much weird stuff for breakfast
lately, that as long as I’m full, I don’t care.
We then went to tour the opera house.
I toured the opera the last time I was in Vienna, but this time I took
some notes (not kidding).
The Opera house was partially destroyed by Allied bombing
during WWII, but has since been rebuilt.
The original parts of the Opera house are amazing. The Emperor’s room and even the front entry
have incredible ceilings and gold trimmings.
The rest is still really nice, but you can tell it was built in the 1950’s. Now, the stage. The flies are 82 feet high, the stage has
lifts that can rise and drop nearly 40 feet below the stage (one lift is for
trucks) and the entire stage is about 250 feet deep. It’s really big. That’s what I took notes on. We also went to the opera museum to see the
costumes. I also got to see my dad try
out the ballet position tutorial taped to the floor. (see picture)
From there my dad and I went to see if we could get boat
tickets to Bratislava for the next day.
We also stopped at a post office to see about stamps, but they only sell
stamps in packages of 4 (only country I’ve ever been to that won’t sell one
stamp), so I just got one stamp from the hotel desk. Unfortunately, the boat was sold out, so we
would be taking the train.
We met my mom and went to the meeting place for our Segway
Tour. Since my mom has trouble walking,
these tours are a really great way for her to see more of the city. We met up, signed our lives away, and were
trained in stopping, starting, and turning.
We then headed out.
First stop: Hofburg
Palace. (my first
Vienna entry talks a lot about this, so go there if you want to read
more). We also saw the parliament, town
hall, Beethoven’s Vienna apartment, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. A monument to Gutenberg was near where we
stopped to get ice cream, and from there our guide took us to the Jesuit Church
which has the most amazing interior. It
was built in the 1600’s and the outside is not much to look at. However, on the inside, the vaulted ceiling
is painted to look like it has a dome. 
Our guide also showed us a model of what medieval Vienna
looked like (and some wall remnants) and some concert halls and the standard monument
to the Russian soldier, which are basically found in all countries liberated by
Russia during the second World War. We
stopped for a good look at St. Karl’s church (built out of thankfulness for the
Black Plague ending) and then made our way back to the Segway tour place by way
of “The 3rd Man” underground tour start site. You can literally tour the tunnels where the
movie was filmed.
My parents and I decided to go see the inside of St. Stephen’s
and then we went to Figlmuller, a restaurant famous for its giant
Schnitzle. It also makes the best potato-spinach
salad ever. It was soooo good.
The next morning, we went to tour Hapsburg Palace. When touring the palace, you get to see the
Royal silver and china collection, which fills up rooms and rooms. It is one of the most ostentatious things I’ve
ever seen (and now I’ve seen in twice). You
then enter the Sissy Museum, which gives you a look into the life of Empress
Elizabeth. She has the standard “I hate
being royal” tale and really became much more popular after her assassination
than she ever was while alive. Lastly,
you see the private rooms of the emperor and empress in the palace. They are mostly decorated in red and I
probably couldn’t even afford the fabric that the furniture is upholstered
in.
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