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Published: October 3rd 2013
There are three things that I had forgotten about Europe …….
Just how many people here smoke …..
Just about every second person has a dog that they take everywhere with them ……
And .... that you have to pay to pee!
Smoking in public places has been banned in Australia for years – particularly in restaurants. Consequently, you tend to forget that it never was that way.
In Europe, there is nothing more annoying than going into a restaurant for a meal, getting settled at a nice table in your area of choice, only to have someone come along a few minutes later, sit down, and “light up” at the table next to you which means that you then have to suffer through breathing in their cigarette smoke for the duration of your meal. Ughhh! Not to mention the health risk.
Dogs are taken everywhere by their owners – even into restaurants in some countries. As far as I’m concerned – that isn’t the place for them. Restaurants are for people, not dogs.
And, as for public toilets …… the old term “have to spend a penny” is very much alive and well
in Europe and, you have to pay to pee! However, inflation has also hit this basic function and these days, it costs a lot more than a penny. 😊 Ted’s comment was, “how come it only cost me 29c for the bottle of water yet, it’s just cost me 50c to get rid of it!?”
Monday, the 16
th September – my (Jan’s) birthday!
We left Dubai at 10.20am. Departure was due at 9.55am so, only about half hour late. Traffic was at a premium on the tarmac which meant we had to queue for several minutes before take-off. Flying time to Vienna is 5hrs 35 minutes and a distance of 4,228 kms.
Our route took us straight up the Arabian Gulf - past Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran (Bagdad), Mosul, across and into Turkey. Just north of Ankara and Istanbul, over the coastline and across the Black Sea, over Bucharest and Budapest and into Vienna.
All the Gulf area was very hazy so no good at all for taking photos from 40,000ft. Iran appeared very barren, flat and desert-looking, even though we flew alongside the Tigris River, we couldn’t see any green
areas at all.
Southern Turkey the landform changed somewhat. It became more mountainous but, we could some green and cultivated areas. Lakes and rivers here and there. Northern Turkey, we could see some wooded areas below us.
Our approach into Vienna was over patchwork fields of green (so different from where we had just come from) and, right over the mighty Danube River. Thoughts of The Waltz King (Johann Strauss) and his masterpiece, “The Blue Danube”, running through my mind as we flew over it. We were in Europe!
On the ground by 2pm, getting through Customs and Immigration well, Immigration anyway, as Customs didn’t seem to exist. Coming from Australia which has some of the most stringent customs and quarantine laws in the world, we are just not used to sailing straight through to the outside world.
Not that we sailed straight through – it took us about 45 minutes to clear Immigration with the huge crush of people all crammed into quite a small arrivals hall, all trying to get through and get outside.
Once outside, we grabbed a cab to take us to our hotel which took us about 45 minutes to
get into the city at a cost of 50 euro.
We were staying at the Savoy Hotel at Lindengasse 12. A smaller hotel with a lovely olde-worlde atmosphere, crystal chandeliers and repro period furniture. We even had small chandelier reading lamps at the head of our bed. How posh is that? 😊
It took us about an hour or so to get a bit settled, changed and off to the Vienna State Opera House, about a 20-minute walk from our hotel, to pick up our tickets at the box office.
Before leaving home, we had booked our tickets for tonight’s performance of the opera, “Carmen”, by Georges Bizet. This was to be my birthday present. 😊
As we were a bit early for the box office which didn’t open until 6pm, we found a small café just down the street where we shared a pizza and a glass of Austrian beer for a quick dinner before the performance.
The Vienna State Opera House is famous worldwide. This magnificent building has all the charm of yesteryear and the elegance and grandeur of days gone by. The architecture, the frescoes on the ceiling, the huge crystal chandeliers
and the opulent décor, is quite overwhelming.
We were able to take as many photos as we wanted inside until the performance began at 7pm but then, like most of these things, no photos or video was allowed of the performance itself.
Over the next 4 hours, we watched a world-class performance of this opera. The principal singing voices were excellent and the sets spectacular.
It was quite a long night of it even though, during this time, we had 3 intermissions but, as we had already had a long day and a 6-hour flight, we must admit to having had the odd “long blink” but, this was through no fault of the opera being a boring experience. Quite the opposite in fact.
Everything in Europe is done with style and, none so less than the intermissions themselves. It was a very long first act of the opera – about an hour and a half – so, when intermission came, the audience was ready for a break (besides, the 18
th century seats weren’t all that comfortable or roomy – people were much smaller in those days!)
Once out in the foyer, the champagne flowed and
conversation was spirited for the next 20 minutes or so.
Alcohol was the last thing that Ted and I needed after such a long day so, we went for a little wander around and to stretch our legs.
The second act was somewhat shorter (about an hour) and then the intermission process was repeated once more. All very civilised! The intermissions were something of a celebration in themselves! 😊
My wonderful birthday opera experience concluded around 11pm and as we prepared to leave the Opera House and ventured outside, only to find that it was teeming with rain!
There was no chance of us being able to walk back to our hotel without getting soaking wet even under our brolly so, only one thing for it and that was to try and get a cab.
Soaking wet night; downtown Vienna; a couple of thousand people leaving the opera – what were the chances? Apparently, a lot better than trying to get a cab in Sydney under similar circumstances.
Back to the hotel, a little damp around the edges but, at least, not soaking wet.
It rained for the next two days that we
were in Vienna. Mostly drizzle but heavier at times but, you can’t do anything about the weather so, you just have to work around it.
The rain did curtail our activities somewhat as we wanted to go and see Schonbrunn Palace the following day and, did get out there in the afternoon but, after a short while, the rain got heavier so, we decided to pack it in for that day.
We had purchased our 3-day Vienna Pass before leaving home which gave us unlimited travel on public transport all the time we were there but, because of the rain, it wasn’t very pleasant hopping on and off public transport let alone walking around at your destination when you got there.
Not to be deterred, we decided to get the hop-on-hop-off bus around town where at least we would be dry as well as being able to get to see some of the local attractions with the commentary to go with it. Unfortunately, our Vienna Pass didn’t work on this but, it was only 20 euro for each of us and lasted for 24 hours so, not too bad. Hopefully, tomorrow the weather would be better for
our visit to Schonbrunn Palace.
We had about half an hour before our bus arrived so, feeling a bit peckish, thought we would go and have a coffee at a little coffee shop we had discovered not far from the Opera House.
On a board out the front, I (Jan) spied a special they had of coffee and strudel for E4.90. There again, there are just some things that that you have to do when you are in Vienna and that is - try Wiener Schnitzel and Strudel!! The schnitzel was to come later ….. 😊
It was a bit of a cold, windy and miserable day so, a hot tea and a hot coffee would be just the ticket! We arrived at the sidewalk coffee shop to find that they had provided knee rugs in a soft polar fleecy sort of fabric for their customers which they had draped over the backs of the chairs. Talk about service! Probably not a novel thing for this part of the world but, you would never see that back in Oz!
Tea, coffee and strudel consumed, it was time to get the hop-on hop-off bus around town for
the next little while.
We also wanted to go back and do the tour of the Vienna State Opera House and had also heard about a “free” Mozart Walking Tour in Vienna which we also wanted to do but, everyone we asked, didn’t know anything about it, including our hotel, which we thought was quite strange.
We finally found the tourist information place after pounding the streets for some time – no one seemed to know anything when we asked – and fronted the counter.
We told the lady there what we wanted and she looked at us as though we were from another planet. They had lots of walking tours, she said, but, “A “free” walking tour? Free – in Vienna??”
She seemed a bit embarrassed that she didn’t know anything about it so, turned to the internet to see what she could find.
The bottom line was that, it seems that the “free” walking tour is a money-making exercise for the students during the summer months whereby they will take you around Mozart’s haunts – “Following in the Footsteps of a Genius” – for a fee at the end. Don’t know where the
“free” bit came into it! 😊
By now, we were a bit over it all by this. It was still drizzling rain, was now late afternoon, we were tired, as we had walked for hours throughout the city, we had missed the time for the Opera House tour so, had to content ourselves with the fact that, at least we had seen the opera there.
Not to be outdone, we knew of a monument dedicated to Mozart in a park relatively nearby so, this time asking a policeman how to get there, we did manage to find this at least, in commemoration of the great composer.
Back in the 18
th century, Vienna had become the centre for music throughout Europe and many great composers made their home here. Mozart, of course, Haydn, Gluck, Schubert, Mahler, Beethoven to name but a few and, of course, The Waltz King himself, Johann Strauss.
We spent a few minutes there just taking in the scene and several photos, of course but, I was particularly interested to notice that, the small garden in front of the monument planted with low-growing flowering begonias, had been planted in the shape of a Treble
Clef.
Now, most people wouldn’t have noticed this or even known what it was – it was just a small garden – but, for anyone who has studied music, this became immediately apparent. I thought, “How significant and certainly, a nice touch!” Subtle, but very significant.
During our wanderings that day, we had (once again) walked past the Opera House which is a bit of a minefield for pseudo-Mozarts (mostly uni students dressed in 18
th century period costume, looking like Mozart has cloned himself many times over) – their purpose being to sell tickets to the many concerts happening in the city, that are available. For many, this is their summer vacation job.
Earlier that morning when we had been organising our hop-on-hop off bus tickets, we had been approached by “Mozart” to buy tickets to a concert of Mozart and Johann Strauss music that evening. Being polite but, brushing aside his offer, we went off on our tour around town.
As we rode around and got thinking about his special offer, it seemed pretty good so, on our return, Mozart was still there so, we decided to buy his discounted tickets and go off to
the concert that night. I wanted my Mozart experience! Besides, you can’t come to Vienna and not hear Mozart!
The concert went for an hour and a half with the compositions being played by the Vienna Resident (Chamber) Orchestra.
This is a world-class orchestra that has played all over the world and has also had many guest conductors in its time – one of these being Rudolph Nureyev. Perhaps better known as a ballet dancer extraordinaire, he is also an accomplished orchestra conductor.
Being a classical music lover from a very young child, it was a great treat to listen to the music of these two great composers, on the one programme.
We also had a male and a female opera singer sing as part of the programme by singing a couple of arias from some of Mozart’s repertoire, one of them being “Susanna’s Aria” – an operatic aria that our daughter, Natalie, has sung many times over the years both when she was studying singing and also in many classical singing engagements that she has performed during her career.
We tapped our toes along to the Radetsky March and Trisch Trasch Polka by Strauss
and, if you closed your eyes, you could picture in your mind the grace and elegance of the aristocracy and their honoured guests, with the ladies dressed in their elegant ball gowns and with a coquettish flutter of their fans, swirl their way around the 18
th century drawing rooms of Europe to his famous waltz, The Blue Danube.
I must say, that Ted, not being a classical music lover by any stretch of the imagination, soldiered on through the Opera the night before as well as our musical evening tonight of Mozart and Strauss, without a whimper. He is very indulgent of me at times so, I am very lucky.
I had had my Mozart (and Strauss) experience; and my birthday opera in the magnificent Vienna State Opera House. Two unforgettable experiences in Vienna - one of the most delightful and enchanting cities in Europe. 😊
Next day – still raining but, at least it had slowed to a drizzle again so, being undaunted but, a bit sceptical about being able to wander the enormous grounds surrounding the palace once there, with Vienna Cards in hand, we walked to the nearest train station to get the train
to Schonbrunn (meaning "beautiful spring", because of the artesian waters nearby)
From the 16
th century onwards, Schonbruun Palace became the hunting lodge and summer residence of the Habsburg family. It was rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1693, after the total destruction of it during the last Turkish attack in 1683. It consists of 1,443 rooms and had around 5,000 people residing there during the summer months when the family were in residence, being cared for by an army of 1500 servants, stable hands, grooms etc. It has also been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
In those times, Austria was an absolute monarchy, presided over by the Emperor. The emperors of the ruling aristocratic families throughout Europe believed that they had been sent by God to rule and govern so, in their minds, were on God’s duty.
Franz Joseph was the last enthusiastic and capable emperor to rule and died in 1916, two years before the end of World War 1 when, his nephew, Charles 1
st ascended to the throne and became Emperor for a short period upon Franz Joseph’s death.
But, Charles 1
st was a reluctant ruler and had no heart
for it. He managed to see out the end of the war but, when World War 1 ended, then signed away his absolute right to rule, thereby ending the Habsburg dynasty and also the empire.
After the end of World War 1, Schonbrunn then became the property of the people of Austria. Today, it is run by a Trust with all of the profits from the ticket sales for tours of Schonbrunn, being returned to the management and the running of the palace.
It is a magnificent building which sits in acres and acres of manicured lawns, gardens, fountains and Roman statuary. It is also the site of the world’s first zoo in 1752.
Originally coloured in pale blue with pink highlights, somewhere along the way (and no-one knows why, or where, or when) it became painted in the pale yellow colour that we see today that has become known throughout Europe as, “Schonbrunn Yellow.”
We get our Grand Tour tickets for the 11-15am tour in English and spend the next hour and a half, touring 40 rooms of the palace whilst hearing about the history of this beautiful building.
The question was asked, “Did
Mozart ever play here?” The answer was “yes, many times.” He first played there at age 6 (he was a child prodigy) when, after playing one of his own compositions, clambered down from the piano that he had been playing, ran across the room, and climbing up onto the lap of the then Empress, Maria Theresa, promptly, kissed her on both cheeks!
After our tour, we ventured outside in the drizzly rain to have a walk through the gardens and down to the majestic Neptune Fountain at the rear of the grounds.
Whilst wandering around, enjoying our experience, (albeit under my umbrella) it was easy to cast your mind back to the grandeur of the 18
th century and imagine the privileged lifestyle of the aristocracy. You could almost visualize the palace ablaze with candlelight at night; imagine the horse drawn carriages arriving whilst hearing the crunch of the wheels on the long gravel driveway. The footmen attending as they helped the ladies down from their carriages in their elegant ball gowns, as the nobility arrived for a grand ball at the palace.
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Mal & Ron
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vienna
We found flying into Rome the same, long line but no customs to speak of - did have to catch a bus from the plane to the terminal though!!! Also had to pay 1.5euro for a toilet in Venice - cut down the desire to go :) Suddenly having cold here after a hot week so not complaining, enjoying seeing the Navy fleet and tall ships in Darling Harbour this morning and expect Nat, Justin and Co will be there sometime this weekend. Off for a walk so I feel virtuous but would rather have the lovely buildings to look at like you've been seeing. Love Mal & Ron