A beautiful, warm and mostly sunny day (29 degrees). We awoke much earlier this morning. Surprisingly, it is much quieter than we expected given we are just above the street. Electric trams, vehicles, people below but not too much street noise. The bed was comfortable. Lana had another great sleep and my 1/2 sleeping pill helped me during the night and into the morning. Shower is cramped, but works fine and there is a hair dryer for Lana. No bathtub though.
We are not having the 9 Euro breakfast, as we opted to find food in the local shops along busy Mariahilferstrasse. Bananas, yogurt and bottled water to start. Plus, there is a bakery about 1/2 block down the road. I had a plum jam pastry (kinda like a danish) and Lana ate a laugen (like a pretzel) croissant.
Good day to wear shorts, sunglasses and a tee shirt plus have the iPhone camera ready. In no rush today, yet got a lot accomplished. Lots of walking, good food, Mozart and attractions.
Our idea was to walk eastward along Mariahilferstrasse to get to the destination all Vienna tourists want = Innere Stadt. Basically, the old area of Vienna populated by most of the famous buildings and tourist attractions. We have a great location at Das Stanys Apartment Hotel as we are a couple of blocks from the U3 line and about 2 kms from the Innere Stadt walking.
This main street has tons of stores for shopping, groceries, restaurants and all kinds of purchases. We noted that the traffic green lights flash before going yellow. Lots of fellow tourists along the street. If you are wanting to know if Starbucks is here - yup! There is a real coffee culture in Vienna, yet Starbucks is located on all the main streets. We use it for their toilets and the occasional chai. Plus, Lana tracks her international Starbucks visits. She is a collector! ;-)
Our first stop on this warm day was the Church of Mariahilf built around the late 1600s. We spent some time in the nave and lit a candle (.70 Euro) for good luck. Neither of us are religious, but the church can be a great oasis from the business around and the art work and history are worth the time. Plus, the churches can be quite cool inside.
Check out the very neat, tidy sandwiches below. Very popular in Vienna:
Ate lunch here outside looking over the huge lawn expanse/trees. I had grilled sardines. Lana boiled beef with chive sauce. For dessert, we had a fantastic piece of Viennese cake (topfen marillen).
Topfen marillen dessert.
Its a tough life, but someone has to do it! Lunch, Vienna style.
The Innere Stadt has so many massive old buildings and parks. Never seen anything like it before. The Hapsburgs must have been incredibly rich and been in power for a long long time. Not much sense taking any pictures as my camera could not capture the scale of these buildings. Around the musical buildings lots of hawkers trying to see you Symphony tickets for a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart concert and other attractions.
Plus, there are many guys who dress like those times trying to look like Mozart and sell you package tours:
The major destination of the Innere Stadt is Stephansdom. St. Stephen's Cathedral lies at the heart of this area and dominates the city skyline. Some of its original building material dates back to the 13th Century.
The interior of the church is awe inspiring given the height of the ceilings and the sheer size of this place. Free to walk around most of the interior, but they encourage paying for tours.
View from the 1/2 way point up the Cathedral.
Another view from the observation windows.
OK, this climb up the South Tower was 343 steps and cost us $3.50 Euro each. It is a stone spiral staircase that seems to go on forever before you make it to the top. Try not to get dizzy on the way up or down. This picture below evidences where we climbed to. Only a healthy mobile individual should try this. We would agree the views are magnificent and the exercise helps deal with the Viennese desserts. There were not a lot of people in this smallish room, but those who made it up were breathing pretty hard. We are not sure what the guys who works in there does when he needs to use the bathroom? We were out of the heat up there with the winds gently waffling thru the windows. The shocker was when we got up there we discovered we were barely halfway up! Check out the picture below. You cannot walk any farther up as it is blocked off.
This is where we were scaling the spiral staircase up the south tower of the church.
Lana and I like visiting Jewish museums and Holocaust museums, where possible. We visited the Jewish Museum Vienna after finally locating it. This area of Vienna is not on the grid system and it can be difficult to navigate. Needed to use my iPhone GPS to get there. The map was good, but GPS ensures you are going in the right direction.
We spent about 90 minutes in this air conditioned and very new public-funded museum. Located on four floors and audio guides were 2 Euro each. Gotta get an audio guide when you are in a Museum. They enhance the experience. This museum did not cover much about the Shoah (Holocaust) which is good as they covered Jewish history and life in Vienna. Obviously, much of the museum articles were displaced during WWII, but due to a couple of Viennese Jews collecting they managed to fill the museum.
Old Jewish typewriter - all the characters are Hebrew!
After completing our self-guided tour of the Judisches Museum Wien, we decided to get back on the subway and to our room. Lana wanted a nap before we were back in the Innere Stadt for our concert. We are getting pretty good with knowing the U Bahn subway system. :-)
Our concert begins at 8:15 pm, so we left our apartment and caught two subway trains to get to the area where the Musikverein is located. We used Google Map to confirm the closest subway stop and it was only about two blocks from the music hall. We found a neighbourhood type restaurant on the main street for our dinner. Ate outside and people watched while we waited and ate.
We got our chance to eat the different style of schnitzel you find in Vienna. As you can see from the picture below as thinner, larger, puffy, but crispy. I ordered a pork schnitzel and Lana ordered a veal schnitzel. The schnitzel comes with potatoes (like chunky french fries) and a simple garden salad. I had a glass of Gruner Veltliner white wine. We both agreed that this style of schnitzel was delicious and would order again.
We decided to get to the famous Musikverein on Bosendorferstrasse music hall as we needed to pick up our official tickets to the Mozart concert. Lucky we got there earlier as there was a long lineup to pick up tickets. Many Asians attending and we think they must sell these tickets as part of a travel package?While it says no cameras, everyone is taking pictures and some people use their iPhones to video the production. To summarize our experience, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The conductor, orchestra and the two opera singers were top class. I had forgotten how many popular and excellent tunes Mozart had created while living in Vienna. As you can see from the pictures, the music hall is incredible on the exterior and interior. Well worth the money! Even a chorus showed for a couple of tunes. Standing ovation to finish.
Exterior of the music hall around 8 pm.
Another view. Wow!
Before the orchestra arrived. The chandeliers are beautiful.
Rear of the music hall. You can see the back balcony. Plus, the balcony extends along the sides. Must be a great view from there.
The musicians and the conductor wore the white wigs. Yup, you really feel like you might be listening to Mozart back when he was alive and famous.
Given it was such a beautiful night, we decided to take the subway only part way home and then walk the rest of the way. Perfect temperature and not too many people on the sidewalk. Good long walk and we were back to the apartment by 11:30 pm. It is now around 12:45 am and might be time to shut it down and get some sleep......... Plus, not sure how much sense I am making....
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