Saturday, April 23, 2011
Vienna, Austria
Up again this morning, about 6:30am, under brilliant blue skies and the temperature already warm, or perhaps still warm from yesterday. Out we go to the train station to make our reservations for Monday to get to Budapest. This we do easily and without any strain at the very efficient ticket center for OBB, the Austrian train authority. Then a quick Omlette brunch at a very tasty little restaurant in the station, and out for a hike. An hour later we were back after scouting the area of town that we were headed for later, the 'Altstadt'. At 1:45pm we were back in the lobby being picked up by a tour bus, heading off on a city tour that was to be three hours long.
The tour actually lasted until 5:30pm and they finally dropped us off at the State Opera House downtown in the old city (altstadt). It was worth the 80 Euro we paid for the two of us, an excellent guide and a new airconditioned bus and light traffic in the city on this Easter weekend. Many tourists in town, but not many cars as I guess the locals were being tourists somewhere else, seems to be the way it goes. Many interesting facts related, not many remembered now, but we finally feel in touch with this large, old, sprawling city. Our tour ended with a visit to the ancestral palace of the Hapsburg's, Schloss Schonbrunn. They were the rulers in these parts for hundreds of years with the dynasty collapsing in 1918 at the end of the First World War. The Hapsburg's were banished and the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire collapsing into constituent countries, the 55 million citizens dropping to about 5 million in the core of the new 'Osterreich' or Austria, at that time. Huge opulent palace, rivalling what we recalled of the famous Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg in its style and furnishings. We had a wonderful tour and finally connected with the city and its place in the world.
Dropped off at the State Opera House, on our own, lost, far from the hotel, but armed with a couple of tourist maps that had been opened and closed so often they were already tearing. And the maps, with their small scale and very long German street names, were very hard to read if we were in shadow. Undeterred, as adventureous as our rat friend of last night, we skittered forward on the ring road and winding streets, bound for a 'wine cellar' adventure that seems to be unique to Austria. We knew the address of our destination, and by plunging forward and seeing the street names as they passed us we found our bearings and wandered through the packed pedestrian-only streets of the old town. We weaved and wandered, seeing sights as we passed, masses of people, street vendors, jugglers, acrobats, statue-men, all vying for the tourist Euro. We joke that our daughters have 'mall radar', they navigate the malls so unerringly, and now I know where they get it -- from Jan. With hardly a blind alley, we found our way to the wine cellar Esterhazy Kellar, down a thousand stairs off a narrow winding alley. Worth the journey, the wine was excellent and the Weiner Schnitzel and potato salad and Apple strudel were to die for, and I thought I might, going up the stairs at the end of the large meal.
Now, very well fed but in failing light and warm summer air, we orienteered our way home. So very many more sights, photographed in the evening light as we have learned to do. Such a lovely grand old city, most impressive it is and must have been in its glory days of the empire, the military ruler of such a large and rich area until the assassination of its Arch Duke Ferdinand in Sarajevo plunged it and world into good old WWI. And, as important as tourism is to the country now, the Austrians maintain this city with care as they should.
Again Jan's sense of direction and intelligence got us to the route home, and a very pleasant journey it was in the twilight. The streets are very safe here, and the hour-and-a-bit walk passed quickly.. Home by 10:00pm, after a very pleasant day, sleep will come easily tonight.
A note on finding your way in Vienna, the street signs are fastened in European style to the side of buildings. In Vienna, the street's district number preceedes the street name. That fooled us a bit, as the hundred-block is on our signs at home. But here the streets are so short and winding, like London that hundred-blocks are hardly needed. Nor is the district number, for us, as the tourist maps don't cover that detail. Curious, we figured it all out.
