15th January - Vienna
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
20
28
Trip End
Jan 26, 2009
Vienna,
Vienna,
Austria
Thursday, January 15, 2009
We walked down to a cafe we saw yesterday and decided it would be a nice place to eat. We each had a melange coffee (in a very small cup), Penny had a brioche and Darren had Vanillekrapfen (fancy talk for Custard Donut). A noticeably smaller breakfast than normal.
After a short discussion we came up with a plan for the day: to walk around the ring road and stop at anything that caught our eye. Wandering back to the apartment we bought Vienna Cards (transport and discount card)s, more travel laundry detergent, and Penny got a new chapstick, then we were off.
Walking down the road we eventually hit what we thought was the Danube (actually a canal of the Danube) and followed it to the ring road. Following the road, with a smaller canal along it, we came to bridge into the Stadtpark which was a very pretty area. We continued on and found an excellent statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Darren had to have his photo taken with the stern German master. The statue was located next to a school that had people like Lise Meitner, Franz Schubert and Tomas Masaryk (founder of Czechoslovakia) as previous students. Unfortunately the only students we saw hanging about outside were either smoking or snogging. Continuing on we made our way to the Karlskirche which is just a magnificent cathedral.
Akademisches Gymnasium
The entry fee was 6 euros which Darren felt was a bit stiff but as the church was being renovated the ticket included the use of an elevator right up to to the top of the dome. The cathedral had an awesome vault with a golden plate with the word for god carved into it so the light from the window behind shone through and around it. The marble and carvings were incredible as were the frescoes painted on the ceiling of the dome. Darren took many photos.We loitered about outside as Darren took some more photos then set off again and soon came across the Naschmarkt, a food market, where we bought some apples and a snack of a Turkish spinach and feta bread thing. It was pretty yummy but it was lunch time by now and after our light breakfast and big walk we were ready for more, so we walked to Cafe Sperl, an old traditional Kaffeehaus, where we had a "large" Mocca, an even smaller coffee (they all have different names in Austria), and Darren had a Sachertorte and Penny an Apfelstrudel. It was very nice.
We kept on walking, with frequent photo breaks, until we got to the Rathaus, which we couldn't get to as it was being prepared for the Eistraum, a huge open-air ice rink and ice paths later in January. We could see what a beautiful building it is, though. We were then tempted to go into a bar called Einstein (more time had passed since the Kaffeehaus than it sounds like, honestly!) for a beer and some chips. We then kept walking and walking through gorgeous Vienna and ended up back in the shopping streets near the apartment. Penny had yesterday spotted a Pandora shop and managed to steer Darren in that direction, reminding him that had asked for one for her birthday. He duly bought one and the first charm for it, a coffee cup, which seemed appropriate. Penny is very excited and wearing it now.
This had taken a little while so we abandoned Plan A, which was to go to a museum, and after a cup of tea and some internet research "at home" took the U-Bahn to the Haydn English cinema where we watched Australia. Perhaps a strange thing to do in Vienna, but we really enjoyed it.
Then it was off to the nearby brewery-pub 7SternBraeu for a beer and dinner - Darren had Nuernberg sausages and Penny finally completed her first vegetarian day for a month or so by having spinach gnocchi. Both were very good. We then walked home admiring the wonderful Vienna by night again.
