A Day In the Imperial City of Vienna

Been a couple of days since I've been able to get to internet so this is from Thursday. Will try to catch up on Friday, Saturday and today tonight. We did get to see Voita & Marek in Prague but more on that later.

The train to Vienna from Venice was a sleeper again, but this time everything went very well. Vicki & I got a private car and the ride was much nicer than that from Paris to Rome. We both actually slept well. Here’s Vicki setting on one of the lower bunks we both took:

As we arrived in Vienna our worst fears were confirmed – the rain we encountered in Venice had followed us to Vienna. So after putting our bags in a storage locker at the Westbahnhof (West Train Station), we decided to take a bus tour of the city. It took us all over and we got a pretty good orientation but none of the pictures I tried to take out the windows of the bus turned out very well. Also, Vicki is having a hard time tuning her ears to the Austrian accent when they speak English so I have to interpret much of what our guide said.

Even in the rain though, the city is beautiful. The succession of Baroque, followed by Ricocco, then modern architectures we saw along the RingStrasse (Ring Street) that encircles Vienna was amazing.

We did however stop for a guided tour of the Schonbrunn Palace – the summer residence of the ruling dynasty of Austria, the Habsburgs – that was modeled on Versailles and lies about 10K outside of the city center. To my eye though, it was much more beautiful than Versailles. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside but here are a few views from around the building:

Here’s Vicki at the front gate

Here we are in front of the palace.

One of the fountains in the front courtyard

The side garden.

The back garden:

Just for fun I thought I’d stand in one of the guardhouses outside the palace:

After the palace tour, we returned to the city center and had lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant called Rosenberger’s where I got a Schnitzel mit Kartafel (breaded & fried veal cutlet with home fried potatoes) and Vicki got Goulash with potato dumplings. I thought it was pretty good but Vicki didn’t really care for it. Ah well, maybe better luck next time!

When we were done eating the rain had stopped so we picked up a brochure from the city info office and started walking. Here’s Vicki in front of the Vienna Opera House where Mozart performed all his works:

Then on to St. Steven’s Cathedral. This gothic structure, based on Notre Dame, was so large that I had to take two separate pictures to be able to show you the whole thing:

Much of this church was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt by donations of the people of Vienna. Here you see the roof decorated in tile commemorating it’s completion in 1950.

Inside, because the stained glass was replaced with newer more modern glass during the post-war reconstruction, it’s much lighter than most gothic cathedrals. Here’s a few views for you to enjoy:

This was the church where Mozart was married, both his children were baptized and he often performed. Here’s a display of the sheet music he used when he performed in the cathedral.

In addition, we toured the catacombs under the building that were used as a cemetery until the 1700s. Then, as our guide said, the smell of decaying bodies was so bad that nobody wanted to go to church any more! Again, we were unable to take pictures during this tour but it was interesting.

As we walked around the city we saw several more interesting sights. Here I am in front of the Imperial Palace, the regular seat of power and the headquarters of the empire.

While wandering, we came across this excavation site displaying the remains of buildings going back as far as the ruins of a Roman fortification dating to 2-4 BC.

Finally, here I am in the main city park with my bud Mozart! :-)

By this time it was getting late so we walked back to the train station, picked up our bags and hopped onto Streetcar 9 to go to our hotel. Vienna was one of the harder public transport systems to understand but we eventually got it straight and got to our room around 8PM. By the time we got checked in, put our stuff down and walked out, all the regular restaurants were closed. We finally found an all night Schnitzel house though and had Schnitzels and Pom Frites (French Fries) before calling it a night.

Well, tomorrow it’s off to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaner Stallions and then to the Blue Danube, but it’s now 1:30 AM so I guess I’ll say Guten Naben and Auf Wiedersein!

The Drought’s Over in Venice!

Unfortunately for us, today brought much needed rain in Venice! It sounded & felt like a hurricane – rained all night and most of today but we’re not sticking around to see when it quits. There’s been flooding pushed onshore by high winds but that didn’t stop us from touring though. Here we are during a break in the rain by the Grand Canal.

Started the day by taking a water bus to the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) from the train station. All the traffic here goes by boat so there are no cars or busses like in a normal city. Here’s what the bus looks like:

Deliveries are all made by boat too – here’s a supply boat dropping off at a hotel.

The Grand Canal is Veince’s “Main Street” and is over 3KM long and over 50M wide. It loops thru the city and passes under 3 bridges: Ponte Scalzi (behind Vicki on the right),

Rialto

And Accademia

Veniced also has works of art along the Grand Canal. This skull made of pots & pans and cans welded together was strange but interesting!

The candy cane posts used for mooring boats on the canal, called bricole, are painted with the colors of the family whose palazzo adjoins to them. Here are some others and some shots of the grand canal:

In addition to the Grand Canal, there are numerous smaller side canals like this:

Despite the rain, we decided to do a walking tour of Venice that started out by the Palace of the Doge (the elected leader of Venice), the traditional seat of power for Venice when it was an independent republic.

The Palace is right next to another of the most recognizable buildings in Venice, San Marco’s Basilica.

We were supposed to go in but due to flooding, all the doors except one were closed and it would have taken hours to get in. The picture below looks kind of blurry because of the heavy rain! Another item for our next trip! :-)

The Piazza San Marco is famous for all the pigeons that flock around and onto visitors. Depending on your point of view, that can be good or bad – anyway, the rain kept them away and here’s how the square looks when nobody’s there!

In addition to the Palace and the Basilica, the Campanile bell tower rises 300 feet over the square. As our tour guide said, it’s not original, but replaces one that collapsed in 1902

Because all the main streets are actually canals, the walkways tend to be small alleys like this:

But some of the richer neighborhoods also had beautiful flower box lined walkways like this:

After winding around on the walking tour for about 2 hours and getting soaked, we finally stopped for a lunch of bruchetta and Calzone – excellent!

Well, we’re still trying to dry out and get ready for our next ride, so I guess I’ll close for now. This is another night train so we don’t have to pay for hotel!

On to Vienna!

Chao Bella & Auf Wiedersehen!

Arrivederci Roma

Well, today was a travel day so there won’t be much. We got some last minute souvenirs, lunch to have on the train and we were off to Venice!

We sure do like the trains in Europe, but Vicki got bitten by some kind of bug on the train to Rome and had an allergic reaction. She says she’s glad to be leaving the warm weather of Rome behind because it makes her itch! So our first stop was at La Farmacia (the pharmacy) for some cortisone cream and some other medications. Didn’t require a Dr. visit like in the states – the pharmacist gave her what she needed – we hope.

But that didn’t stop us from strolling around Venice for the evening, looking in shops and planning for tomorrow.

That and dinner by the canal – Vicki had an excellent lasagna and I had seafood spaghetti and some scalloped veal medallions. We're taking advantage of one of the traditions of Europe - being seated with new people! Tonight we met some newlyweds from England and a French Canadian couple from Ottawa. When I mentioned that Dad was stationed at BentWaters Woodbridge RAF station in the 60s, the young man said that he works in Ipswitch close to there! Small world huh? I’ve also gotten into another tradition of Italy - rosso vino della casa (red house wine) with dinner! ;-)

Well, that’s all for tonight. Going to get to bed so we can get an early start tomorrow!

Ciao!

A Day at the Vatican

Today was dedicated to waiting in LOTS of lines while visiting the Vatican. First we went to the train station and bought a day-long Metro pass. 4E & we could ride wherever we wanted to go – lots quicker and not nearly as tired at the end of the day! Got a quick sandwich at the train station and took it to eat at the Vatican.

As soon as we got close to the Vatican, we found the lines for the Vatican Museum – they went on for over a mile!

We kept walking past these lines and entered into the open arms of St. Peter’s Square.

While waiting in line to go up to the cathedral, Vicki started talking to a young lady gathering people for tours and we decided to join a group that was forming. Our guide was a quirky young New Zealander named Ryan with a great sense of humor who is an RN by training but has been living and studying in Rome for several years.

If you ever get to Rome, look him up! ;-)

As we went thru the Vatican Museum, we were amazed by the sheer size of the collection. We were on the go for over 5 hours but only saw a small part. The statues and paintings were remarkable!

This box is the burial crypt of a Saint (I forgot which one!) and all the figures on the side were carved from a single piece of granite!

This hall had to be 150M long – the ceiling was completely adorned with paintings and relief sculpture and the walls were covered with maps of the world.

The Sistine Chapel was amazing but since no photography was allowed, I was only able to surreptitiously snap a couple of shots without flash that came out rather blurry! L I’m including them here though so you can get an idea of the beauty of this master work of Michelangelo!

After the Sistine Chapel, we went into St. Peter’s Cathedral where we listened in on Mass. Since it was in Italian, we couldn’t understand one word of it!!

We also just strolled around inside the cathedral – it’s so massive and beautiful that it’s hard to think of it as a church!

Just for giggles, decided I needed to take a shot of what the square looks like from the point of view of one of the big-wigs as they address the crowds!

Finally, here we are saying farewell to St. Peter’s Square.

Then off to the Pizza di Spagna to walk up the Spanish Steps for a great view of the city:

Afterward, we strolled down the Via del Corso and window shopped in all the stores. Finally, it was time for dinner! We’re falling into the Roman schedule rather well – coffee and a croissant with some chocolate for breakfast, out of the house in the morning, a quick lunch on the go, snack around 5PM and dinner at around 8 PM. Tonight it was a small café off Piazza del Popolo – Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcino (linguini with mushrooms and a crème sauce) for Vicki and Scampi Alla Griglia (grilled shrimp) for me. Another great meal – good thing we’re walking so much or we wouldn’t fit in our clothes at the end of this trip!

Well, going to close for tonight. Time to get ready for our ride to Venice in the morning.

Ciao!