Vienna, Austria – 14 June 2005
Vienna is a lovely city with a population of 1.6 million people, so it much larger than many of the cities we have visited so far. We only had about 2 and one half days in Vienna, which was way too little time. The first day and one half we were running around like crazy and ended up with very sore feet and legs. The last day we decided that we were not going to see everything anyway so we might as well slow down and enjoy what we do see.
Vienna was the capital of Austrian Empire, which included a huge amount of territory in Europe, until the end of World War I, when Austria lost the war. Austria now is a fairly small county of limited importance, but before WW I it was one of the most important countries in the world. The Empire was ruled by the Emperors form the Hapsburg family that ruled the country for 600 years. Over that time they build huge and lavish palaces in Vienna. Much of touring in Vienna was spent visiting these palaces. The largest is the Hofburg place in the center of Vienna that served as the winter palace. The second, about four miles from the center of town is the Schonbrunn palace that was the summer palace.
The Hofburg is an enormous place and is reminiscent of the government buildings in downtown Washington, DC, but much more elaborate. Some of these buildings are now used for government offices but the majority is now museums. We only had time to see a small number of these and the most impressive was the Hapsburg treasury. The treasury was mind boggling and included incredible gold, silver and jewel encrusted coronation crowns, and gowns made of silver and gold thread, swords and decorations that were gifts to the Emperors. Even a jewel covered case that included yet another "true nail" from the cross of Christ. (There sure seem to be a lot of "true nails" out there, all sworn to be the real thing.) The Schonbrunn place was just as incredible; it has 1,440 rooms of which only 40 are now open to the public. It is a very large estate with beautiful gardens, fountains and includes EuropeÂs first zoo, which is 250 years old. We toured all forty rooms and the decorations, furniture and paintings were gorgeous. The highlight was having a wonderful lunch at the Café in the magnificent Glorietta building overlooking Vienna and the Palace gardens on one of the highest hills on the estate. It is here that we said to ourselves that we should just slow down and let ourselves absorb and enjoy thambiancece instead of rushing to the next thing.
Although Vienna is al large city it was easy to get around on the modern subway system and streetcars. We used our Michelin and Rick Steves guidebooks to sample the highlights and to get round on public transportation.
Although the Museums and monuments are the real highlights of Vienna, just walking the old streets, many of them paved with cobblestones was equally wonderful. On every corner there were magnificent old churches, old buildings with elaborate decorative finishes, lovely balconies, beautifully sculpted facades, relief statues, magnificent window frames and imposing doors, beautiful domes and interesting roof lines. It was hard to know where to look first. You can imagine them some hundreds of years back, being fancy palaces of the aristocracy and are now subdivided into upscale apartment buildings or official government buildings. The sound of horse drawn buggies rolling on the cobble stones ferrying tourists around conjured the sounds of the old days.
We spent Sunday morning following a walking tour of old Vienna and stumbled into some wonderful experiences. At St. StefanÂs Cathedral we heard Organ music and a wonderful choir singing. The sound in the magnificent Gothic enormous space was heavenly and it was hard to tear ourselves away. Later, we heard part of a Mozart Mass in a beautiful Jesuit church. The combination of the choir music and the beautifully decorated interior was incredible. It is easy to understand how such environments can inspire religious devotion.
We also saw the old Jewish area, the Judenplatz, with remains of a thriving Jewish community that was destroyed completely in 1420. Now a memorial to Holocaust and a Museum are built above the remains of the old synagogue showing various displays that reveal what life was like in the community 500 years back.
On the last day we visited the beautiful Vienna Opera house and saw the elaborate stage from the inside, and then visited the Albertina Museum, which had a particularly great exhibit of Mondrian. Our final visit was to see the whimsical Hundredwasser house that was designed by an eccentric architect who believed those straight lines and repeated basic windows stifle the mind.
In two days we sense that we just sampled a few highlights of Vienna and we should come back for a longer stay so we can see the many Museums
Vienna was the capital of Austrian Empire, which included a huge amount of territory in Europe, until the end of World War I, when Austria lost the war. Austria now is a fairly small county of limited importance, but before WW I it was one of the most important countries in the world. The Empire was ruled by the Emperors form the Hapsburg family that ruled the country for 600 years. Over that time they build huge and lavish palaces in Vienna. Much of touring in Vienna was spent visiting these palaces. The largest is the Hofburg place in the center of Vienna that served as the winter palace. The second, about four miles from the center of town is the Schonbrunn palace that was the summer palace.
The Hofburg is an enormous place and is reminiscent of the government buildings in downtown Washington, DC, but much more elaborate. Some of these buildings are now used for government offices but the majority is now museums. We only had time to see a small number of these and the most impressive was the Hapsburg treasury. The treasury was mind boggling and included incredible gold, silver and jewel encrusted coronation crowns, and gowns made of silver and gold thread, swords and decorations that were gifts to the Emperors. Even a jewel covered case that included yet another "true nail" from the cross of Christ. (There sure seem to be a lot of "true nails" out there, all sworn to be the real thing.) The Schonbrunn place was just as incredible; it has 1,440 rooms of which only 40 are now open to the public. It is a very large estate with beautiful gardens, fountains and includes EuropeÂs first zoo, which is 250 years old. We toured all forty rooms and the decorations, furniture and paintings were gorgeous. The highlight was having a wonderful lunch at the Café in the magnificent Glorietta building overlooking Vienna and the Palace gardens on one of the highest hills on the estate. It is here that we said to ourselves that we should just slow down and let ourselves absorb and enjoy thambiancece instead of rushing to the next thing.
Although Vienna is al large city it was easy to get around on the modern subway system and streetcars. We used our Michelin and Rick Steves guidebooks to sample the highlights and to get round on public transportation.
Although the Museums and monuments are the real highlights of Vienna, just walking the old streets, many of them paved with cobblestones was equally wonderful. On every corner there were magnificent old churches, old buildings with elaborate decorative finishes, lovely balconies, beautifully sculpted facades, relief statues, magnificent window frames and imposing doors, beautiful domes and interesting roof lines. It was hard to know where to look first. You can imagine them some hundreds of years back, being fancy palaces of the aristocracy and are now subdivided into upscale apartment buildings or official government buildings. The sound of horse drawn buggies rolling on the cobble stones ferrying tourists around conjured the sounds of the old days.
We spent Sunday morning following a walking tour of old Vienna and stumbled into some wonderful experiences. At St. StefanÂs Cathedral we heard Organ music and a wonderful choir singing. The sound in the magnificent Gothic enormous space was heavenly and it was hard to tear ourselves away. Later, we heard part of a Mozart Mass in a beautiful Jesuit church. The combination of the choir music and the beautifully decorated interior was incredible. It is easy to understand how such environments can inspire religious devotion.
We also saw the old Jewish area, the Judenplatz, with remains of a thriving Jewish community that was destroyed completely in 1420. Now a memorial to Holocaust and a Museum are built above the remains of the old synagogue showing various displays that reveal what life was like in the community 500 years back.
On the last day we visited the beautiful Vienna Opera house and saw the elaborate stage from the inside, and then visited the Albertina Museum, which had a particularly great exhibit of Mondrian. Our final visit was to see the whimsical Hundredwasser house that was designed by an eccentric architect who believed those straight lines and repeated basic windows stifle the mind.
In two days we sense that we just sampled a few highlights of Vienna and we should come back for a longer stay so we can see the many Museums
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 1:45 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:02 AM,
Anonymous said…
I was looking for a picture of the sore feet so I could describe them to Mom. She's always interested in feet. We are getting ready for our trip and fly out on June 26 and will be in Rome for one day on June 27. The ship leaves on the 28th and we return July 12th. I'll get the phone number for the hotel in Rome and maybe we can chat if we can corrdinate the time. We're planning a tour of the Vatican on the one day in Rome. All's well here. Weather on the East Coast has been dreadful for about 10 days but had a nice break today.
Ciao,
Dave
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