Blogs from Vienna, Austria, Europe - page 8

Up early for a bus tour of Vienna, culminating in a visit to the Schönbrunn Palace. The bus takes us through the centre of the old city, then circumnavigates the core on the ring road, which follows the path of the old city walls. An interesting aspect of the ring road is that it has a centre lane originally for carriages and now used by motor vehicles, a second lane originally for riders on horseback and now used by bicycles, and a third outside lane for pedestrians. Vienna is absolutely gorgeous. Our guide has us looking left and right, left and right as wonderful buildings, each worthy of hours of inspection, file by on either side faster than one can keep track them. I have to admit that I am surprised by the prevelance of graffiti ... read more

Although this journey wasn’t one of our longest ventures through the airports we were feeling pretty shattered. The main reason was our 10 hour layover in Dubai airport in the middle of the night. We were hoping to find a sneaky corner to snuggle down and catch some zzz’s but Dubai airport was absolutely heaving with people. The tannoy system was shouting out different flight numbers non stop and almost all the seats in the waiting area were taken. Char managed about 3 hours but Jack only got 2. Still, we got through it and before long we had touched down in Bratislava. Char had been to Bratislava inter-railing when she was younger but didn’t really remember much about the place. It seemed the reason for this was because it was a bit crappy. So we ... read more

Vienna on a Sunday. Blue sky. Old world charm lured us into a collection of art that is beyond comprehension. We visited the Vienna Treasury which is considered the cradle of imperial collections. Jewels, tabards, swords, crowns and icons inspiring such awe as I cannot possibly convey. Jack had shared a photo on Facebook of an icon that holds a nail from the cross of Christ. A commenter to this post replied that this museum contains enough nails and wood of the cross to build an ark. Do we know? Did those long ago KNOW when HE walked the earth? Just by happenstance, we crossed paths with the Lipizzaner stallions being stabled after their Sunday performance. Up close and personal! My favorite memory, so far! We attempted a night at the opera...word of wisdom, the standing ... read more

Vienna is splendid! The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is renowned for the all-white Lipizzanner stallions. Four hundred years ago, these horse were trained for combat. In modern day, the Lipizzanner training continues for show and the stallions perform in a glorious, chandelier adorned arena to the sounds of Richard Strauss. A lovely and impressive show of horsemanship. The first year a woman has been elected as a full-rider of the Lipizzanners in 2018. Interesting fact, the Lipizzaners are born dark brown (called bay). As the Lipizzanner foals matures, their coats turn white. Only about 1 in 100 ponies remain a dark bay at maturity. It is the legend that the bay Lipizzanner joins the white stallion brigade as a good luck charm and the troop will continue as long as a bay remains in the ... read more

Jack and I managed to turn a 5 hour drive to Vienna from Munich into a 10 hour drive today. Not everyone can do such a feat. Along the way we searched for the island castle of King Ludwig, "Herrenchiemsee". We never found the elusive road sign to signal us to turn to catch the ferry to the island where the castle still sits long after its mad (as in crazy) owner has gone. The car GPS instead lead us to a boat ramp used for the multitude of sail boats on the Chiemsee. We then took a quick side trip to Traunreut to visit Jack's former office, nice memory lane experience. Next stop Salzburg for some overdue lunch and obligatory photo ops of the local culture. We most inadvertently saw some of the sights that ... read more