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Was Vienna just as I remembered it? No it was not and I don't really know why. I have this vision in my brain of a busy city full of buses, trams and horses. They were all there in abundance. It was a dice with death trying to cross the roads sometimes. Crossing the tram lines, missing the oncoming trams and avoiding the horses and carriages and cyclists. That was the same as 20 years ago although I imagine there are more cars there today than there were last time I was here. 1998 or 1999 I cannot remember accurately. It was cold . The fountains were cloaked in wooden overcoats to keep out the cold and prevent them freezing. They were uncloaked today. It was still cold though and raining. I remember the impressive white buildings on the Ringstrasse. . We parked up somewhere near the Museums and walked through an archway. Surely I could find the same place. No - found the museums but they did not seem to be where they were last time. I swear they have moved the things. Perhaps we parked near the Hofburg and I am getting muddled up. That is what time does
for you. What about the art exhibition? I saw the impressive collection of Bruegels - guess what - they are planning another one starting in the Autumn of 2019. Then there is the Spanish riding school. I went in but didn't watch the horses doing their prancing last time round. Even that seemed to be in a different location to the one that is planted firmly in my brain. The cathedral - Gothic very inspiring and lovely inside . Surely that would be the same. Last time round I visited the crypt and saw the urns containing the innards of the Royal Family. Why was it nothing seemed right ? Memory is a funny old thing. Not always accurate.
We are staying on another Premium stellplatz on Perfecktastrasse. Same group, same look , same welcome and a gift of something smelly . Reception not quite so warming more unfriendly. You will listen to me I was told so listen I did . We parked up on a flat pitch. Water provision and dump exactly the same but the toilet blocks although functional were less new. We were issued with a city map, directions to the UBahn , a tour
guide booklet and were able to order bread for the morning. As I left after paying who should turn up but my Australian friends who waved frantically at me when they spotted me. I did my second good deed for the day when I changed 50 euros down to smaller notes so that Mr Oz could pay his camp fees. We never saw them again.
What is there to like about Vienna ? If you like waltzing you will be happy hereabouts. If you like that sort of music it is everywhere. If you like chocolate cake it is sold in every café and shop . If you like the efficiency of a tram service then this has to be the best we have ever travelled on. For 8 euros each we had unlimited travel for 24 hours or the other choice for golden oldies was a one hour ticket for a less than a couple of euros. I was tempted to say "If Carlsberg designed a tram service " You know the rest .
We headed up to the station and took on the ticket machine. The instructions for the journey and ticket options were multilingual however
the card reader was not. After a couple of abortive attempts I resorted to cash. By the time we had worked out which platform we needed, climbed the stairs the train came in. It was a few minutes ride to the first change . We knew exactly how many stops were needed as we had the map, the maps of the UBahn were displayed on the carriage walls, the robotic voice sounded out the name of the next station just before arrival and a display had the same information synchronised to perfection. You just cannot go wrong. We got off and went in search of our next connection. Easy - all we had to do was cross the platform and we were on the next line. Within minutes the train arrived and whisked us effortlessly into the city. It was a pleasure to ride their underground. We probably got off too early. We thought it was the best stop but it was a little too far up the street so after admiring the architecture of a city we headed to do what we do best . Eat cakes and drink coffee.
Coffee drunk and cake eaten. As we paid
the bill we were informed that there was no service charge added to the 14 euros 90 cents. Hint - tip please . We headed up the street in what is the largest city in Austria with a population of about 1.9 million. It is regarded as the City of music and the City of Dreams due to being the birthplace of one Sigmund Freud. We were heading for the cathedral . Let's see what my memory does to this one. St Stephens Cathedral more commonly known as Stephansdom was cloaked in scaffolding. It is Romanesque and Gothic in style but most of it was covered up. Consecrated in 1147 it was our style of cathedral from the exterior . Plan to look through the door , make a decision whether to pay to go into the crypt and up to the tower once inside. It seemed darker than I remember and more sombre. We looked around before deciding not to visit the crypt with its urns full of internal organs. It was too cold and miserable to climb the tower. Glenns foot was playing up. It was red and sore and he was finding walking difficult. I blamed it
on an allergy to the washing powder I had used. It ached so much it made walking round difficult.
If there was one thing I wanted to see in Vienna it had to be the famous wheel. It sits in Prater Park an amusement park dating back to 1766. The giant ferris wheel with its distinctive red gondolas featured in the film The Third Man. We caught the UBahn from Stevensplatz to the Prater Park. The wheel was turning slowly in the wind. Any thoughts of riding it went out of the window when we started to encounter the rough sleeper and Alcoholics Corner. Groups of men stood around drinking from large bottles. It became a bit too edgy. Even Bosnia felt less edgy than this corner of Vienna. We caught the UBahn back to the Museum Quarter with the plan of lunch and perhaps a bit of warmth wandering round the Egyptian section of the museum. Queues out of the doors, down the steps and into the street. Everyone in Vienna must have been cold and were looking for a place to warm up out of the cold winds.
Frantically the brain kicked in. What on earth
can we do to get out of this cold? To escape the chill and the rain. Back to our saviour the UBahn which from the museum quarter took us quickly to Schonbrunn. What is here? A summer residence. Inside . Out of the cold. A restaurant. It was a 10 minute walk from the station to the palace and by the look of things yet again all of Vienna were thinking the same thing. Another reason for visiting the palace was a long forgotten memory of a postcard of the palace which I saw on a noticeboard in 1995 in Market Drayton Jobcentre. It was yellow. Bright yellow in fact. Glaring in its difference from our stone palaces back home. First stop toilet - 50 cents. Only free if you purchased a meal in the restaurant which we did but only after we used the little girls and little boys rooms. Lunch was a rather tasty Goulash Soup. Warming and welcoming after the unusual cold of this May day. Glenn ate a sandwich. There was not a great deal of choice and the seats were all full.
We wrestled with the ticket machine. You could buy any manner of
ticket. Two ticket prices for the palace depending on how many rooms you wanted to see. Extra for the gardens which looked lovely as we gazed through the windows. Extra add on charges for the Maze, extra for the zoo and finally extra for furniture collections and the summer house the Gloriette. We paid 16 euros for the basic. 40 rooms and nothing else. The place was heaving which did not auger well for seeing the rooms. Groups milled about , queues formed to get in as it on a timed system. Our ticket was for 12.31. We walked up to the palace a little early admiring the beautifully clipped Hawthorn trees with their red blossom. It was not hard to imagine carriages arriving in huge square in front of the palace. Viennese gentry in their finery. The palace was commissioned at the end of the 17th century for Crown Prince Joseph who later became Emperor Joseph I. . Designed by Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. No I had never heard of him either. As we got inside we joined the queue to go in but were turned back as we were 10 minutes too early. Sent to
the back of the queue like naughty school children we had to start again. This time we were let in only to join the back of another queue for audio guides. There were so many people in the queue we just stopped and could not go any further. This was the story of the whole visit. We crawled slowly up the stone staircase with its painted ceiling trying to avoid the queues that built up again as folks stopped to listen to their audio guides. First room of 40 was small with little furniture within. A huge porcelain heater stood in the corner and in front of the barrier more people. It was impossible to stop to see anything. If you stopped you got swallowed up by the folks arriving behind you. Room 2 admired the white and golden gilded doors . Small room , no furniture - lots of people. Rooms 3 through to 10 were exactly the same. Same doors, beautifully simple white and golden ceilings, very little furniture and crowds. It spoiled the whole visit trying to squeeze by people who just stopped in front of you. Rooms 11 - 20 were the same although the walls were wallpapered. 21 - 25 had wonderfully painted ceilings . 26 - 30 were dining rooms , small perfectly formed with wonderful chandileers. However the self guided tours were just getting in the way of seeing any of it. The last few rooms were ballrooms with exquisite floors and artwork . What was wrong with the place? I am sure they could do better . Let fewer people in. Stop giving the audio guides out. I shall never complain about the National Trust ever again . To make it worse no photographs allowed inside .
Our last trip was made on the UBahn. We got home . What should we do tomorrow? The weather is still given to be poor if we continue eastwards. We could go to Bratislava. A new country , a new city. However we have to come back this way. Glenns foot has swollen badly and finally we may know the reason. Two puncture marks have appeared on his ankle . They are uniform in size and equally distant from each other. They look suspiciously like a snake bite . Now that makes things interesting does it not?
Just to finish off - what else does Vienna bring to mind? Yes we sang it too Midge Ure and Ultravox classic Vienna the song that failed to get to the top of the popular charts. Kept off the number one slot by John Lennon's Woman for a week and Joe Dolce's Shaddup You Face!!!!!! Vienna was ranked the fifth best selling UK single for 1981. Oh dear the travesty of it all. It hurt at the time and it still hurts.
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Jackie Harrison
non-member comment
snake bite!
I hope Glenns anklles better and that it wasn't a snake bite! Vienna is one place we haven't been too yet but hope to visit on a City Break!