Tackling Vienna: There's a Lot to See!

Whenever we come to a new place or city, it is always intimidating.  That is because you are leaving an environment where we have become comfortable (even in Bratislava, we became comfortable in only two days) to an unknown environment.  Are we going to be able to see everything we want?  Can we find our way around?  Well, the answer is nearly always yes, but still, there is a nervousness at first.  A way to overcome that nervousness is simply to dive in and see as much as you can.  However, first things first; we call up housekeeping to take away our dirty laundry so that we can have enough clean clothes to make it through the rest of this trip.  Then, it is time to hit the road!

We proceed directly to the Royal Hofburg palace area in Vienna to see as many sights as we can.  Our first stop was to the Spanish Riding School, which is home to the world famous Lipizanner stallions, essentially dancing horses who perform choreographed routines.  Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to see a show -- they are only on weekends, but each morning they rehearse from 10am until noon, so we are hoping to buy a ticket to watch the rehearsal.  No such luck today, the horses get Monday off.  Oh well, we can do this another day.  We cross the street and enter the Royal Palace to buy tickets to the tour.  It is about 9:15am, and I had expected that it would be a mob house here, but there are surprisingly few people, which is nice.  We buy our tickets which gain us entry to three exhibits: (1) the royal silver and dinner service pieces, (2) the royal apartments, and (3) a museum dedicated to the Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sisi, who was the wife of Franz Joseph, one of Austria's most memorable rulers, and the next to the last emporer (he died in 1916).  The first exhibition features lovely pieces, but royal silverware and dishes can only be so interesting.  The most beautiful dishes in my opinion were those that featured beautifully colored flower paintings.  The royal apartments were of course very grand.  There was an audioguide that told us information about each room.

The museum dedicated to the Empress Elizabeth was the most interesting, but probably not in the way they intended.  Sisi was 15 years old when she was promised in marriage to Franz Joseph and 16 when they married.  Immediately, she was not happy in her life, complaining that she was like a performing animal to be trotted out on state occasions.  She said that she had no freedom to do what she wanted.  She also said that it was not fair to promise a 15 year old girl to a lifetime marriage commitment.  To us, this sounded a little like sour grapes.  Are we really expected to feel sorry that she has been put in the position of being the most powerful and wealthy woman in the world?  Oh, boo hoo!  She grew her hair to ankle length, and it required one full day to wash in with eggs and cognac.  She had the best dentist for state of the art oral care.  Exactly who would she have wanted to trade places with?  The maid?  I don't think so!  She had four children: one son and three daughters.  The son, Rudolf committed suicide, which was certainly a blow.  Later in life, she did achieve the freedom that she wanted.  She negotiated a separate life for herself from her husband and traveled extensively.  She actually spent very little time in Vienna in the latter stages of her life.  She was assassinated in 1898 at age 61 in Switzerland by an Italian anarchist.  At the time, there was no great sadness in Austria at her loss, but rather sympathy for her husband, having lost a wife.  The Austrians barely knew her, so why would they grieve?  Fast forward one hundred years, and now she is the toast of the town!  Everywhere you go, there are pictures of Sisi!  Part of the reason for this is because many movies were made about her.  The most well-known from Hollywood (although I have never heard of it before) was "Mayerling."  It starred James Mason as Franz Joseph, Ava Gardner as Sisi, Omar Sharif as their son, Crown Prince Rudolf, and Catherine Deneuve as Rudolf's mistress.  Should be a hoot!  Anyway, enough about Sisi (for now, unfortunately).

Through the arch in the photo, the Lipizanner stallions are to the left and the royal tours are to the right.

The next stop in the palace area is the Augustiner Kirche, where the royals worshipped, I guess.  It is not too large and gothic in style, simply decorated.  The most distinctive feature is a sculpture by Italian artist Canova dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa's favorite daughter, Maria Christine.  It looks like a grave, but she is not buried here.  Here is a photo of the interior:

However, that is where we are headed next -- the Kaisergruft, located within the Kapuzinerkirche (Capuchin Church).  Oh my, is this impressive.  It is one metal (copper?) coffin after another, all Habsburg royalty, down to the very last emporer.  Of course, the biggest coffin of all is the shared one for Maria Theresa and her husband, Franz Stephan.  Wow, I don't expect I will ever see another coffin as large as this.  Fortunately, for 50 cents, you can also buy a map which tells you who is buried where and also has a family tree of the Hapsburgs on the back.  Maria Theresa's gigantic coffin:

Since it is right here, we go next the the art museum called the Albertina, named for Albert and Maria Christine (mentioned above).  Obviously, merging names happened a long time before anyone evered utted the words "Brangelina" of "Kimye."  This is a small museum in the royal complex for more modern art.  The main exhibition that we enjoy is called "Monet to Picasso."  It has a wide selection of newer art that was permanently gifted to the museum by the Batliner family, sometime in the past ten years, I think.  Boy, is it good and very varied!  In addition to the headliners, there are Marc Chagalls, Joan Miros, plus more.  These people had easily a billion dollar art collection.  

Now, it is time for lunch, which will likely present a problem.  Most of the restaurants have only one menu, which we call dinner:  wienerschnitzel, goulash, and other big plates.  This is too much for lunch.  Where can we find lighter fare.  Believe it or not, we find a cafe that meets our needs in the number one tourist spot on the Michaelplatz, directly in front of the entrance to the royal palace.  It is called Cafe Griensteidl and seems to be old school Vienna.  Inside, most of the diners seem NOT to be tourists.  We have a charming waitress, and each have grilled chicken breast with vegetable salad -- perrfect with a glass of Gruner Veltliner, Austria's best known white wine.  We are enjoying ourselves so much, we even have an apple strudel for dessert -- delicious (so much for our light lunch)!

Our afternoon plan is to do a lot of walking with a few side trips inside a few sights.  We walk to the Secession Building to the south, which is the home of a very famous mural/frieze by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt -- turns out it closed today.  We see the open air food market across the street called the Naschmarkt, but we decide we will check it out when we return to see the Klimt.  Next, we walk past the twin museums, which face each other accross Maria Theresa Platz -- they are also closed today, but we knew that already (we'll be back another day), but we wanted to see their magnificent exteriors.  They have been recently cleaned and look spectacular.  Here is the art museum:

Our next stop is a very special one:  the Palais Epstein (Rob's mother's maiden name).  Rob had seen a reference to this on the news this morning, so we had to check it out.  It is a nice building, so I take a picture of Rob in front of it.  

It is also next to the Austrian parliament building, which we walk past next.  This is an impressive building, but not historically significant like the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary.  The next sight is the Rathaus (town hall), which still has a Eurovision party going, kind of like a street fair, but no celebrities here today.  We are not sure if we are able to go inside, but we do (we are the only people inside it seems -- except for perhaps the people cleaning up from the big party last night).  We are able to see the large hall in the Rathaus.  Finally, admire the Burg Theater across the street.  Here is the Rathaus:

Time to turn east and head back through the old town to our hotel.  We pass through the Freyung Square and enjoy walking through the Fristel passage (shopping arcade).  We continue through another square called Am Hof that I particularly love with all of its grand buildings and churches.  Then we stroll through the Judenplatz, which has a Holocaust memorial.  One large block that is to resemble a library that you cannot enter, and all the books are turned backwards.  Then we enter the Peterskirche, a Baroque church with a notable sculpture of St. John of Nepomuk being thrown into the river in Prague (discerning readers of this blog will recall that this is the guy buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague whose tongue was still pumping blood after a hundred years or so ...).   

Then we pass through the pedestrian shopping area to return to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  

Since it Monday, we can go in -- kind of.  Apparently, most of the church is still off limits, plus we have seen better (also suffering from old church fatigue ...).  We do go up the north tower, which it turns out is the short tower with views that aren't so great, but anyway, we did it.  Now it is time to rest, so we return to the hotel.

Dinner tonight is at a restaurant called "Merlo."  We had passed it on our way back.  The menu looked interesting (seafood), so we will take a chance.  We had asked the concierge for a recommendation, but he did not impress us.  Unlike our experiences at the hotels where we have stayed on this trip, this Hilton seems too busy to be bothered with us.  So, we are on our own.  The restauant, as it turns out, is fantastic!  We order way too much food, starting with tapas of cheese sausage, sauerkraut, and lentils on one plate and codfish pate with toast on another.  Then we each have a plate of grilled seafood, which included pieces of sea bass, monkfish, calimari, and prawns -- wow, super good -- wish we could eat it all.  This is a restaurant run by a Croatian family.  Our waiter is also Croatian, probably a family member.  There are hardly any other customers, which is a shame.  Our waiter tells us that it has only been open one year and is a sister restaurant to another further north in town called Kornat.  We would be happy to eat here again!