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Published: February 22nd 2009
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Jane's Birthday
Celebrating with Sacher Torte! Saturday 10th - Thursday 15th January 2009 Although I was excited about the Australian Summer waiting for us, our last week in Vienna was a little sad. We said goodbye to Jamie (for the last time) on no less than four occasions and met Malachy for lunch and Emmanuelle and Hans Peter for dinner. Gathering our belongings and cleaning up the apartment I’d fallen in love with and teaching my last lessons were harder than expected.
Fortunately, Jane and Phil arrived on Saturday and kept us entertained and busy for the final few days. We showed them around our favourite sites in Vienna and did a couple of final things that we’d been holding off on until they arrived. For the weather conscious, the most important thing to note of this period is that it was freezing!!! In fact, we now believe that a freakish cold snap followed Jane and Phil on their journey right throughout Europe. Four layers, two pairs of socks, a scarf, beanie and gloves couldn’t stop my cheeks and nose from instantly freezing every time we walked outside. I think the highest temperature during our sightseeing days was minus six! Luckily, Vienna is pretty well
equipped for dealing with cold weather so it was never too hard to find a cosy cafe to warm up.
On the Sunday we visited Schonbrunn Palace. We’d planned to just visit the grounds, but the cold drove us inside. Lucky for us though because we did the Imperial Tour, which is an audio tour through the royal rooms of the Habsburgs. While I don’t think Sean and Phil were overly impressed, Jane and I loved hearing about the royal family and their tragic, privileged lives. (But we do not understand why the gift shop sells Empress Sissy dining sets; who would want to own one?)
While I was wary of the frozen lakes (people were ice skating on the Alte Donau, which is the same place I had been swimming four months beforehand), I was happy to slide around on the huge frozen fountain / pond in the palace gardens (it couldn’t be too deep). We got some great video footage of Sean and Phil sliding across the ice, before the cold got the better of us again.
We also made our way to Prater Park, which was one of my favourite places in summer. Most
of the park was closed, but we did manage a ride on the Riesenrad. This Giant Ferris Wheel was one of the first big wheels when it was built in 1897, and has survived both the world wars (albeit with some rebuilding necessary). It is something of a landmark in Vienna these days.
The other main attraction that I’d been holding off on was a visit to the Belvedere. The Belvedere consists of two palaces built in the eighteenth century for Prince Eugene of Savoy and is now used as an art gallery. It is home to Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ and much of his other work, which I’d decided I just had to see before leaving Austria.
We all spent our last day sightseeing in Vienna with Mark and Sue, who were passing through for the day before heading to Munich. They had been travelling around Europe ever since we’d seen them at Hilary’s wedding in Ireland in November. We had sacher torte and coffee at the Hotel Sacher, home of The Original Sacher Torte (you can have them delivered anywhere in the world).
That evening, we met up with Jamie and Adriana for ice skating
and dinner. Surprisingly, the ice rink was on top of a supermarket. We had a good time, although I think Jane was the only one not to fall over. Afterwards, Jamie took us to one of his favourite guest houses for dinner; authentic Austrian is how I’d describe it. The waiter opened up the non-smoking room of the restaurant for us (the smoking section was full), but then told us that we could smoke if we wanted to and placed three ashtrays on the table. We all feasted on the humongous children’s serve of schnitzel (turkey or pork only), before farewelling Mark, Sue, Adriana and Jamie (again).
Jane and Phil headed to Budapest for the next two days, which gave Sean and I a last opportunity to pack up. Now, all this time I had been wondering, how on earth was I going to cope with this weather while skiing next week.......
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Moira
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We never thought we would be able to share in your trip. We expected the odd text, phone call and email. Instead your fantastic writing and photos have included us in everything, everywhere in your travels..an enormous thank you to you both..also for my lovely holiday with you in Prague, Vienna and Ireland.