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Published: August 3rd 2013
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A rather early start to the day when the tent behind us decided that 6.30am was the time to wake everyone up, very kind of them – not. It did however mean that we were showered and ready to go earlier than usual.
Woolly says – I was a bit grumpy after my early wakeup call but soon cheered up when we went to find the public transport system. Only two minutes to the bus stop and a bus was there, only problem…..we didn’t have a ticket. Tickets seized from a platform machine and a few minute wait for the next bus. It was a nice cold bus and having sat on it for 20 minutes or so I was comfortably cool. Next came the tube station and a quick search as to which platform and we were straight onto a nice cool train, all is good in Woolly world.
We had purchased the Austrian equivalent of a day saver for 7.10 Euros (approximately £6.00 GBP) which could be used on buses and trains, coming up from the underground we found ourselves in the Old Quarter of Vienna. It is a bittersweet pill to be
here as this was planned as part of our time with Zoe before she needed racing back to the UK and she was sadly missed. Like most major cities it is always difficult to choose what to do in a limited time span, we had choices of palaces and castles surrounding the city or five different quarters inside the city and had picked the old quarter as being the most interesting for us.
Woolly says – once Ian had wrestled the maps from Jo we made good progress and although it was quite warm by now there was lots of shade to walk in as we made our way to one of Jo’s all time travel destination, the Spanish Riding School. I found myself feeling rather confused at this point as we were in Austria and not Spain. Jo explained that it was named after where the breed of horses came from not the country. She has waited since she was eight years old to visit and I could barely keep up as she sped on ahead. We arrived and paid our 10 Euros each approximately £ 8.25 GBP) and climbed up into the main performance hall.
It wasn’t that big but was beautifully decorated with 3 of the biggest chandeliers I have seen. We arrived to watch the carriages doing their thing, a lady translated into three languages and told us about the horses. The famous Lipizzaner horses are born black in the main and by the time they reach full adult hood they turn white, they are famous across the world for their classical dressage performances. Once the carriages had left the arena we were introduced to the brood mares to be, they ran round the ring rolling in the sand and providing great entertainment. Next came the new Brood mares and their foals who were really cute, two of them kept trying to wash each other, the final demonstration was of the dressage horses and the carriage horses who instead of being side by side were one in front of the other. Jo beamed her way through the whole thing bless.
I loved every minute and thought it well worth a visit. Finding our way out and consulting the map we started our own walking tour of the old quarter.
Woolly says – everywhere we looked there were
magnificent buildings, my neck was starting to ache and we hadn’t even started. Our next stop was to St Stephen’s cathedral with its amazing tiled roof, the building was being refurbished so wasn’t on display in its finest glory. We entered for free and inside were thousands of people gazing at the dirty columns and ceilings. We could see areas where the work had been completed and it will certainly look good after everything has been cleaned.
Heading down a smaller road we made our way to the apartment inhabited by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from 1784 to 1787. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures so after paying our 10 Euros (approximately £8.25 GBP) we were given an English audio guide and directed to the lift.
Woolly says – The museum explained about Mozart and his work, his time here was some of his most productive and included him writing the famous Opera “The Marriage of Figaro” ( I thought his most famous tune was “Rock Me Amadeus!). The different floors gave different insights to his world and that of his family including the apartment that he had actually lived in. There was no remaining furniture
left but it defiantly had room for his piano and his billiard table of which he was a keen player (I’m sure Ian would beat him, have you seen him play?!).
Hot and thirsty we found a McDonald’s – yes boring but cheap and cheerful and having downed large drinks and a couple of burgers between us we were ready for the next bit.
Woolly says – with Ian’s excellent guiding we were soon outside the Jesuits church located in the centre of the university quarter. From the outside it didn’t look much more than a church but inside it was jaw dropping with gilded decoration, fake dome painted ceilings and the general décor – stupendous. We gazed round for free and once we had drunk our fill made our way out, all the better for having seen such a beautiful place.
On we went stopping for more drinks, the heat was rising and drinking enough fluids became a priority. We searched for St Francis’ Church but it was not to be found and finally admitting defeat with the temperature now in the forties (well it felt like it!), we made
our way to the underground and our return journey. A brilliant day out with so much more we could of seen, loving Vienna.
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The Travel Camel
Shane Dallas
Classical music heaven
I too loved Vienna - attending church services (complete with the Vienna Boys Choir), operas, concerts, browsing music shops, visiting the grave sites of famous composers. Glad that you enjoyed your time there!