Vienna

I think one could spend close to a month in Vienna and not see everything that really needs to be seen, particularly if one were to include side-trips to the surrounding countryside. We did one day of that (more later) and it was my favorite part of the entire trip. Don’t get me wrong … Prague is absolutely fabulous. But aspects of Prague seem a bit like medieval Europe combined with Disneyland. Away from Old Town it doesn’t feel that way AT ALL so maybe that’s a bit unfair, but for now I’m gonna stick with it.

Vienna is considerably more refined and feels like it could completely do without tourists. The history and architecture combined with a seemingly endless circuit of hidden courtyards with interesting buildings and terrific restaurants and cafes make it incredibly appealing. It sort of feels like how London might be if it were to try to reinvent itself as a smaller / quainter town with a bit more character and better food. Maybe that makes sense. Maybe it doesn’t. But that’s how Vienna comes across to me.

Anyway, as usual we did all of the mandatory stuff – St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a good bit of the Hofburg Palace and its environs, Mozart’s apartment, Schonbrunn Palace, at least 3-4 other churches – and a fair number of extras as well. But as usual, I'll focus here on the out-of-the-way and/or unexpected:

Train from Prague to Vienna – Our train trip to Vienna featured my favorite air / rail / subway / tram / bus passenger of all time. I don’t know the guy’s name but I do know that he was from Australia and that he was traveling with his wife and one high school-aged daughter. I also know that he spent at least an hour of the 4 ½ hour trip rearranging / crinkling the plastic grocery bags that he was using to store stuff in the family backpack, obsessively combining partially full Sprite and water bottles (see picture below), and walking to another coach to buy bags of potato chips (which he took great pleasure in crinkling as well). He also spent at least 90 minutes standing next to the two-seater in front of him where his wife and daughter sat. Some of the time he was sort of talking to them. The rest of the time he was just standing there, invading Paige’s space across the aisle and being hilariously annoying simply by virtue of his presence. Then, a full 30 minutes before we pulled into the Vienna station, he triumphantly pulled down all of his family’s bags, took them to the exit door between the coaches, and stood there, absolutely swollen with pride, secure in the knowledge that he would, in fact, be the first person to exit our coach. In many ways he reminded me of a much-less-lovable version of Clark W. Griswold, Chevy Chase’s character in the Vacation movies. I wanted to thank him for helping us make a memory, but I didn’t think he would get it.

Vienna Zoo – If you know Paige, you will not be surprised at all to learn that about half of our time at Schonbrunn Palace was spent visiting the Vienna Zoo. Yes, Schonbrunn Palace – the summer residence of Austrian royalty – is the site of what is supposedly the oldest continuously running zoo in the world. Francis I, founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, put it together in the mid-1700s. Actually his wife, Maria Theresa, wore the pants in the family so it probably was her doing, but whatever. The zoo has hippos and capybaras and pandas and hippos and koalas and hippos. Plus hippos. And that basically is all you need to know (again, if you know Paige). The palace and grounds are spectacular. Overall, the feel reminds me of a combination of Versailles and Sanssouci (the palace of Frederick the Great) just outside of Berlin. Inside pictures are prohibited, but if you’d like to take a semi-virtual tour, go here.

State Hall – One of the buildings secreted away within the in-town Hofburg Palace area is the Austrian National Library. Within the Austrian National Library, the State Hall contains over 200,000 old texts along with a series of 20-or-so stations that explain much of the history of Vienna up through about World War I. And yes, Archduke Franz Ferdinand – the guy whose assassination ostensibly brought about the beginning of World War I – was a nephew of Franz Joseph I, who was the longest-ruling emperor of Vienna and also is the guy you hear most about while you're doing historical-type things in Vienna. Anyway, old books plus history plus intricate carvings and ceiling frescoes always make for a good time. This place certainly is a hidden gem. You can see a virtual tour here.

Silver Collection – If table settings and cutlery and candlesticks and napkins and centerpieces are your thing, then this part of the Hofburg Palace is not to be missed. While I thought it was mind-numbingly dull, I did find it completely brilliant that there were tons of people who actually did the full 50-minute audioguide tour of room upon room upon room upon room of this stuff. After finishing the Silver Collection tour you can take the equally minutiae-driven Sisi Museum audioguide tour. Mercifully, my battery died about 10 minutes into that one, which gave us an excuse to just walk through and browse at our leisure. Ultimately, Paige and I decided that the real reason Goebbels and Hitler committed suicide was because they had intercepted a transmission telling of Allied commanders’ plans to force them to tour these two areas (with no shortcuts) after Berlin had been conquered. Actually, the Sisi Museum is pretty interesting if you just take it at your own pace. Note: Empress Sisi basically is the late 19th century Lady Di of Vienna, except she was a recluse and people didn't become obsessed with her until after she was assassinated. No inside pictures are allowed, but you may find further details about these two museums here. The photo below has nothing whatsoever to do with the Hofburg Palace. Rather, it's a view of St. Stephen's Cathedral from the terrace of our digs at Hotel Lamee (which I heartily recommend).

Melk – Of all the places we visited, Melk was my favorite. Melk is about an hour west of Vienna by train. It is famous for the Melk Abbey (the picture below is not mine), which is a Benedictine monastery that has been in operation on the same hilltop location since the 11th century. Because it is a working monastery, it has been subjected to various updates and renovations over the years, including major work in the 19th century after a huge fire wreaked havoc on the monastery and the town proper. The monastery itself is completely ridiculous. It is gigantic, houses a lot of super-important Benedictine monk stuff, and has a fabulous library and a sick cathedral. If I knew anything about art and architecture and the Catholic church I could be super impressive in my description of it, but instead I’ll just have to punt and say that it absolutely is a 10 on the gaudy scale. The stained glass isn’t in the class of St. Vitus / St. Chappelle / Notre Dame / Westminster Abbey / etc., but for full-on insane carvings, frescoes, marble, and gold, it takes the cake. Honestly, though, the best thing about Melk is the fact that it is a beautiful little cobblestone lane-ridden town that overlooks the Danube River. The entire Wachau Valley is lovely and I certainly could see spending a LOT of time there.

So that's all I've got. We got home last night to find the house clean and the kids in good spirits. They made several day-trips in our absence (including a walk-down-memory-lane College Station adventure) and handled their responsibilities beautifully. It is nice to know that we can, in fact, head off and pretend to be real adults periodically without having to worry about things too much.