Vienna Part 1

Monday and Tuesday, July 15 and 16

Once again, we took a cab from our hotel to the train station.  We boarded our train and settled into our seats.  This train wasn’t quite as nice as the train we had taken from London to Carlisle, but it was decent.  The 3.5 hour trip gave us time to relax, take a little snooze, as well as give me a chance to catch up a bit on my writing.  We arrived in Vienna and Gavin found the ticket office so he could purchase our train tickets to Salzburg, so we wouldn’t have to go out our way again--we learn from our mistakes!  We had a quick snack and then hopped in a taxi to our hotel.  We arrived and were greeted extremely warmly by the hotel staff, who personally walked us to our room, and introduced us to our butler.  Yes, butler!  “Room” is an understatement, really, as Gavin had used his points and Starwood status perks to upgrade us to a luxurious suite.  He had done this in Budapest as well, but this hotel was even more luxurious and opulent.  There was a huge vase of white roses on the coffee table to welcome us, along with a large box of chocolate petit fours and a sumptuous bowl of fresh fruit.  On the desk, they had left hotel letterhead, business cards, and luggage tags, all personalized with Gavin’s name, “Hotel Imperial, temporary resident.”  Not.  Too.  Shabby.  

We relaxed in our room for a short while before heading out to dinner.  The concierge had made us a reservation at a traditional Austrian restaurant about a 15 minute walk away.  We walked alongside the city park, and we glimpsed a golden statue of Johann Strauss within.  Ewan saw it and excitedly exclaimed, “Look Mommy, it’s C3PO!!” 

Johann Strauss, aka C3PO

We reached the restaurant, were seated outside, and ordered our food and wine.  Ewan was delighted to discover that schnitzel is basically a giant, flat chicken (or veal or pork) nugget.  The food here was definitely heavier and not as sophisticated as in Hungary, but it was fine.  On our way back to our hotel, we went back the way we came, and turned into the park to get a better look at “C3PO” and happened upon a playground where we let Ewan frolic about for 20 minutes or so before we walked back to the hotel.  Unfortunately, when we got back to our hotel, we discovered that something was wrong with our Internet (noooooooooooo!!!!) and the hotel technician was unable to fix it without the IT person.  It would have to wait until morning.

We went down for breakfast and informed the front desk about the Internet problems, and to spare you the boring details, it took quite a while to sort it all out, which delayed our departure until about noon.  No matter, we walked out and headed toward the Opera House to catch the yellow tourist tram that circles the Ringstrasse, the city center’s main ring road with a recorded narration in dozens of languages.  We thought this would give us a good overview to the city sights.  Incidentally, Vienna is a lovely town to walk around, and the wide boulevard of the one-direction Ringstrasse has spacious, tree-lined, paved sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists to easily navigate.   Unfortunately we just missed the tram we were aiming for and saw it pulling away as we were making a run for it, so we ended up with a half-hour to kill.  We did this by walking around the famous Opera House, and being bombarded by powdered-wig-wearing men who were pedaling tickets to Mozart and Strauss greatest hits concerts.  We politely extracted ourselves, and then walked just past the Opera House and wandered into a park along the back of the enormous Hofburg palace where we saw a lovely statue of Mozart, who was standing in front of a bed of colorful pink flowers artfully arranged into a treble clef sign.  Enough time had passed, and so we walked back to the tram stop a few minutes early--we didn’t want to miss it again!

In front of the Opera House

Mozart

Back of the Hofburg Palace

We boarded the tram and rode halfway around the ring where we disembarked and planned to walk to the city’s famous cathedral, St. Stephen’s, which is located almost smack dab in the middle of the city center.  We wandered down some of the back streets until we reached the massive building, at the center of Stephensplatz (Stephen’s Square). 

View from the rear of the cathedral

Front entrance

We entered into the church; it’s cool, stone interior a welcome respite from the warm midday sun.  I had my handy Rick Steves ebook on my iPhone, and his guided tour of the church was extremely helpful in noting points of interest within, as well as keeping Ewan interested and engaged. 

Looking down the nave

I pointed out an icon of the Virgin Mary and child, which had been discovered in some remote Hungarian village, that was said to have wept real tears way back in 1697.  I directed him to the intricately carved pulpit, with figures of lizards and toads ascending the spiral staircase handrail, as well as the baptistry where we saw the font in which Mozart’s children were baptized.  

The pulpit

The baptistry, containing the font where Mozart's children were baptized

Lighting a candle

Finding the perfect spot

We said prayers and lit candles, and looked for the Virgin Mary.  We explored and photographed the church’s interior for the better part of an hour until Ewan’s ice cream-o-meter alarm went off, and we knew there would be no hope in expecting him to climb the church’s soaring south tower without this sugary fuel.  It wasn’t hard to find a place selling our favorite frozen treat in this busy, touristy square, and once this mission was complete, we headed to the south tower to purchase our tickets.  The south tower is the taller of the two towers standing at 445 feet. 

The South Tower

Amidst much whining and complaining, we boldly set up the dark, narrow stone spiral staircase and ascended the 344 steps to the top where we were treated to a commanding view of the city, as well as a closer up look at the ornate and colorful tiled roof of the church.   We looked out from four windows within a small gift shop (no open balcony or viewing platform, unfortunately).  We praised Ewan for his fortitude and bought him a little coin as a souvenir and reward for making it to the top, and then we headed back down all those steps (with fewer complaints on the way down).

View looking west, note the lovely roof

Another view from the tower

From there, we headed back to the tram stop and hopped back aboard the yellow tram and circled the ring road back to the Opera House, and walked the few blocks back to our hotel where we were delighted to find a three tiered plate of little finger sandwiches waiting for us--we could definitely get used to this treatment.  We rested and looked into making a dinner reservation.  We had heard good things about some Austrian wine gardens called “heurigers” that were located on the outskirts of town, and thought that would be a fun destination.  We had our concierge make a reservation for us, and we caught a taxi for a 30 minute ride out to the suburbs.  We arrived at the heuriger and checked in and found our reserved table on a charming, trellised patio beneath grapevines and amidst musicians playing folk music.  These wine gardens are very casual establishments, almost cafeteria-like.  We went inside and got in line to order our food, not knowing exactly what we were getting, but we chose what looked familiar: a slice of ham, pork, more schnitzel for Ewan, as well as a few fresh looking salads to share.  We ordered house white wine, of course, served in a 1/4 liter glass mug, inexpensive and refreshing.

Enjoying the food and wine at the heuriger

The meal passed quickly, given the format of the restaurant, and given the fact that we chose to skip dessert, due to the the lack of inspired choices.  We decided to try to make our way back via public transport, which turned out to be less difficult than we thought, via bus and subway.  We found a little Viennese coffee shop near the Opera House not far from our hotel where we enjoyed a nightcap before returning to our hotel and collapsing into our beds.