Visiting Vienna

So, to pick up from Tuesday, September 23rd...

Family flew out on Tuesday morning, and then it was home to do laundry and pack - as we were leaving for Vienna on Wednesday morning. We took the 8:15 a.m. train to Schipol for our 10:30 flight on Wednesday. The flight was uneventful and only about half full, so we had 3 seats all to ourselves (we should only have 2 seats as Ben is not yet 2 years old and we do not buy him a ticket). We got our luggage and cabbed it to our hotel, Hotel Eugen Prinz. Beautiful! Although, it was a bit funny that our view was this parking garage with a huge picture of a man's face. Over the course of our stay, we learned that elections were being held and this man was running for office. (Even funnier once we got back to Amsterdam, we were watching CNN and they showed this man's face before beginning the story about the election results, and I thought "hey, where do I know that guy from?" As if we were close, personal friends by now.)

Greg worked for a bit while I unpacked and got us settled - oh yeah, this is a work trip. :) We went out to sightsee along the RingstraBe (circular road surrounding the inner district of Vienna) and grab some dinner about 5 p.m. We saw Votivkirche, which you can see was being refurbished on the lower half. The church was one of the first buildings to be built on the RingstraBe and was badly damaged in WWII. From there, we walked past the University to the Burgtheater, the Austrian National Theatre. Across the RingstraBe is the Rathaus, the city's town hall. I couldn't get a great photo of the entire building from a distance because a huge tent was set up in front of it for a dog and horse show. I was bummed, but Ben was very happy to see the 'doggies' and 'neighs' (we have since mastered 'horsie', thanks Vienna!).

After the Rathaus, we came to the Parliament building. This building is one of the largest structures on the RingstraBe and was also badly destroyed during WWII. Nearby is the Palace of Justice, and then we came to the twin museums of natural history and fine art. These buildings, built between 1872 and 1891, have identical exteriors and face each other. It was getting to be dinnertime, so we stopped for a quick bite and then back to the hotel. It was a good day, and Vienna is quite beautiful so far!

Thursday morning greeted us with a really yummy breakfast spread, and a waitstaff that adored Ben. It was self-serve, except for our son, who was brought croissants, bananas, etc. :) Greg left for work around 8:15 a.m. Ben and I played at the hotel until about 9:45. We were visiting the Belvedere Palace, which didn't open until 10 a.m. and was only a convenient 5 minute walk from our hotel. Wow, what a palace! The upper palace contains an art musuem, featuring art from Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. I fell in love with his painting, The Kiss, and also with his 'leisurely' nature artwork. Ben fell asleep as we made our way to the gift shop, so I back-tracked to find a quiet spot to sit and relax. I came upon the museum cafe and stopped in for a latte and to read more about Klimt. While there, I happened to notice all of the tasty looking sweets (what a surprise). So, for lunch, I had a piece of Sacher torte. This torte is a world famous dry chocolate cake with apricot jam - and boy, was it good! I was quite thankful for a chance to sit, enjoy some alone time, and a taste of Vienna.

After Ben woke up, we had planned to visit the State rooms in the Lower Belvedere Palace, but this part of the palace was closed due to setting up for an exhibition. We made our way back to the Upper Belvedere and to the Botanic Gardens. We saw some really beautiful trees and flowers, and the temperature was cool, but not so cold that we couldn't enjoy being outside.

We went back to the hotel to play for a bit, and Ben and I headed to the dog and horse show at the Rathaus around 4 p.m. Greg called around 4:30 to say that he was done working (and, he wouldn't have to work on Friday, hurray!) and would meet us there. Except...he hopped on the tram, and then got delayed due to a car accident in the tram's path. So, he got out and walked the rest of the way. In the meantime, it had started pouring, so by the time we connected, we were all cold, wet, and our spirits were fading. We walked along the RingstraBe and found a cute little Viennese cafe for dinner. Nothing can perk up our spirits like fried food! I had the wiener schnitzel, Greg had bratwurst and sauerkraut, and we topped it off with some hot apple strudel. A meal well worth the rain! We headed home after dinner to snuggle in our pj's.

We slept in a little on Friday since Greg didn't have to work, then took the subway to Schloss Schonbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace). We got off near the zoo (supposedly the oldest in the world) and saw the beautiful Palm House before enjoying the morning with the animals. As usual, Ben could probably have cared less about the animals, he was delighted to just run around and share with us all of the leaves on the ground. (Maybe we have a future landscaper?)

After lunch, Ben fell asleep and we walked on towards the Palace. The view from the back of the Palace is of the Gloriette (top of the hill), the Neptune Well (fountain), and the Great Partarre (Great Ground Floor, referring to the gardens). Amazing, and it reminded us a bit of Versailles. As for the Palace, since the downfall of the monarchy in 1918, it was preserved and has become a museum of state rooms, also very beautiful (but no pictures allowed, rats!). As you can see, the weather was still a bit damp and overcast, so we made our way back to the hotel in the late afternoon. We grabbed some pizza and postcards, then to the hotel for a night in.

Saturday was another busy day of city sightseeing. Our first stop was of a fountain put in place in the late 1800's to commemorate the opening of the city's first springwater main. Also there is a WWII war memorial statue there. We walked to Karlsplatz to see Karlskirche (St. Charles Church), a fabulous baroque-style church.

From Karlsplatz we walked to the Hofburg Imperial Palace. The palace has housed the Habsburg dynasty (their winter home, as Schonbrunn Palace was their summer home) and is now the official residence of the President of Austria. The Mozart Memorial is just inside the gates, I loved the treble clef of flowers in front. As we walked towards the main section of the palace, there was an open-air sports festival going on. I think it's great to see these old structures being used by the city for more than tourist photos. There are many things to see at the palace - the residences, chapels, library, treasury, riding school, and horse stables - home of the famous Lipizzan stallions. I had read that performances were only on Sundays, so we didn't even bother to look into getting tickets since we were leaving that day. But, once we found the school, we saw that a performance today was at 11 a.m. Shucks...it was now 11:45. We didn't have a lot of time to spend at the palace, so we chose to see the imperial treasury, which houses many pieces from the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire. We exited the palace from the "back", with a view of the Michael wing and St. Michael's church.

We continued to explore more of the city, St. Peter's church was next. Then we came to Stephansplatz, a large square, where we saw St. Stephen's Cathedral - considered to be the most important religious building in Vienna as it is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna. The steep roof is really amazing with all of the detailed tiles, and there were sections of the church, including it's tall steeple that were being refurbished - as soot and air pollution have made the church quite black. On our walk back to the tram/hotel, we saw the Wiener Staatsoper (the Vienna State Opera).

The boys napped for a bit, and we then decided we would go to Prater amusement park to see the Riesenrad - giant ferris wheel. It is one of the earliest ferris wheels, erected in 1897, and apparently is quite the tourist attraction in Vienna. We arrived at Prater and took Ben on a little carousel ride, he loved it! We walked through the park a bit more, and then couldn't help ourselves with letting Ben ride the big ponies too. He was a little unsure at first, but then started giggling once the pony got going. He was clearly not happy when it was time to get off. (I figured that I always include photos of my smiley guy in the blog, better include his not-so-happy moments too.) Then we went for a ride on the ferris wheel. We had some great views of the city this way! While riding, I noticed that all of the cars had even numbers. I did some research, and I found that the wheel originally had 30 gondolas, but was severely damaged in WWII, and only 15 gondolas were replaced when the wheel was rebuilt. (Don't ask me why though...) We had dinner at the park, and then back to the hotel to get packed up.


It was almost a little strange to wake up to sunshine and clear skies on Sunday...we'd had nothing but clouds and periods of rain thus far. So, since our flight wasn't leaving until 2 p.m., we had a few hours in the morning to see a bit more of Vienna - as it looks in the sun. We took the subway to Donauinsel (Danube island) - an artificial island running along the Danube river. It is a recreational area with restaurants, bars, and lots of sporting activities in the park. It was really pretty there along the water. And, with it being a Sunday morning, it was very quiet and peaceful. We headed back into the city, to Stephansplatz. We got a better view of St. Stephen's Cathedral and could really appreciate the colored tiles of the roof in the sunlight. The photo below of the modern building was again showing my love of old and new existing together. (This building is right across the street from the cathedral.) We stopped off at the Hofburg gardens to let Ben run around a bit before going back to the hotel to catch our cab - a beautiful place to be with my beautiful family in such a beautiful city.
Our cab picked us up at 11:30 for the airport, and the flight home was good. It took a while to get our bags, but we finally made it home around 6 p.m. Just in time to unpack, have dinner, play a bit, and get ready for bed. We were pretty tired, but were so glad that we joined Daddy for his work trip to Vienna. And now, it's time to settle back into life in Amsterdam for a bit...