Today's pictures can be found here on Flickr.
The train got in close to 6:30am, and I had already been up for an hour. I knew this was going to be a long day. I was in occasional email contact with my host in Vienna, and rather than get there so early, I left my luggage in a locker and after checking my email and getting some breakfast in the 1st class lounge, I jumped right into my tour of the Vienna sights. I took the metro into town from the Hauptbanhof (main train station) and picked up a ticket for tomorrow’s morning practice of the Lipizzaner Stallions, who train right next to the Hofburg area.
The Habsburgs also subscribed to the notion of “it’s good to be the king”, though they didn’t know at the time that all their stuff was going to end up either as a museum or in one. The first one I saw was the Hofburg Imperial Apartments, “Hofburg” being the name of their palace in Vienna. The display of opulence in this building was astounding, from their collections of gold and silver utensils, porcelain, table centerpieces, and everything used in the household on a daily basis and for state dinners. The kitchens had to be huge to take care of not only the couple dozen choices of food the royals had for each meal, but also for the giant retinue of people needed to care for the royals themselves, their palace, and their general household. The next part of the building on display were the apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth (aka “Sisi”), who could be compared to a 19th century Princess Diana, including his and hers rooms, the audience room, dressing rooms, and dining rooms, all of which were decorated in the style of “I have an unlimited budget and I’m really really rich”. One thing that I finally noticed during this tour, after having seen similar museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and Prague, is how intertwined the lives and marriages of the various royal families throughout Europe were for hundreds of years. It was a great way to unite kingdoms and forge alliances. Napoleon married into the Austrian royalty, and Marie Antoinette was a Habsburg before that, for example. Spain, Netherlands, and Germany got involved too. Franz Joseph’s brother Maximilian was briefly the Emperor of Mexico (before he was executed by Benito Juarez), and his nephew Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination sparked the first World War (which ended the Habsburg ruling dynasty).
After the tour, I grabbed some lunch and hopped on a city tour bus. Some of the stuff I planned to see later, like the New Palace, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and St Stephen’s Church, as well as sights along the Danube that I wasn’t planning on seeing further on this trip like the Danube City downtown area and Prater amusement park with its own Ferris Wheel. After that, I followed the Rick Steves city walk for the rest of the day, which covers the main sights in the Old Town area. The first sight is the Vienna Opera House, which is truly a sight. It’s an amazing looking old building, and they put on a different opera every night (and often sell out). The Viennese love opera, apparently. Strolled down the Karntner Strasse, with everything from flower shops to McDonald’s to the storefront for the company (still in business) who supplied the Habsburgs with their porcelain and crystal since the 1800s. The pedestrian-only street, great for just people watching on a nice day (even if it was cold enough to require a sweater) leads to St Stephen’s Church, a huge Gothic building, and then down the street to St Peter’s Church. Along the way I stopped at H&M, a European version of Macy’s, and picked up a scarf. I had been looking for a decent one since Prague, when I found that my jacket still left my neck exposed enough when it was cold and windy. Around a corner not too far away I stopped at the Judensplatz, a memorial to the Viennese Jews killed by the Nazis, which looks like a library (to represent the “people of the book”). Then, being in Vienna, I had to stop into a coffee house for a coffee – espresso is too strong for me, so I’ll usually get a cappuccino. For dinner, I went to Café Sacher and had a weiner schnitzel and their famous Original Sacher Torte cake.
Went back to the train station to pick up my suitcase, then made it out to my apartment for the next couple days. It had been a long day and after putting my laundry in and catching up on email and trip plans, I hit the sack.
Today's pictures can be found here on Flickr.
(Originally posted 10/19/11 at 10:53am, Munich)
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