Dear Loyal Readers:
Clearly, my energy level has dipped somewhat in the second half of our trip in terms of creating these Haber Travel Reports. This one will cover our entire stay in Vienna.
But first a word about our trip home. American Airlines (our usual airline of choice and where we accumulate the vast majority of our miles) is clearly making it more and more difficult to use those miles. To begin with, our trip home will be Vienna to London via British Airways; London to Montreal (!!) where we will sleep tonight and then Montreal to NY; at least the last leg lands us at LaGuardia. HOWEVER, when we got to the airport this morning, our flight information was not in the British Airways computer! Marty then spent over an hour on the phone with American Airlines till they corrected THEIR error. We missed our flight to London which didn’t matter since we originally had a 5 hour layover there which has now been divided between Vienna and London. Still no luck in getting from Europe to NY without going through Montreal. Ah well.
When last I left you, we had just completed 3 hot days (you do remember how hot it was, right?) in Budapest. On Sunday morning not only had the temperature dropped but it was raining. We slept in (as they say!), had breakfast in the hotel, packed and took a train to Vienna. The train avoided any airport problems but wasn’t terribly exciting; there wasn’t anything to see from the train; I did get some reading done (both about Vienna and on my Kindle).
In Vienna we stayed at the Imperial Hotel which is part of the Luxury Collection where Marty has points. They upgraded us to a 2 room suite. The ceilings must be 20 feet high; amazing.
I had very mixed feelings about coming to Vienna; never wanted to spend money in this country. However, I must admit that there was something comforting after coming from Hungary (where the language was incomprehensible) to Austria where not only can I read and understand all the street signs but can also easily communicate with the people. While no longer fluent in German, I can clearly get by and yes, it’s fun to be somewhere where my language skills surpass Marty’s!! Also the currency is so much easier. Austria uses the Euro, while Hungary is still on the forint; there are 250 forints to the dollar; it’s like paper money; almost like it used to be with lira.
Weather is such an important topic when you’re traveling. It definitely impacts on your enjoyment. The first day in Vienna was actually cold; well, it was over 30 degrees cooler than in Budapest; around 60 degrees. The next two days were more pleasant; around 70 degrees; perfect sightseeing weather.
We spent 3 days here sightseeing. On day 1 we went first to Schoenbrunn Palace–the former summer residence of the Habsburgs; 40 rooms of opulence. I always enjoy going through these incredible houses. From there we went to Belvedere Palace; also a summer residence; this one for Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It has now been converted into 2 museums; there’s Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere. We went to both; the Lower Belvedere can easily be missed. The Upper one, however, has a terrific collection of paintings including many from the 3 primary Austrian painters (Klimt including his most famous painting “The Kiss”, Schiele and Kokoschka) as well as paintings by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Pisarro, Degas and Corot. At that point we were exhausted and had some cake and coffee in a cafe; after all, we’re in Vienna-the land of cake and coffee; more on that later.
On Day 2 we went first to Freud Haus which is where he lived from 1891 to 1938. The apartment contains mostly memorabilia from his life. Only the waiting room furniture is authentic; see photo.
It was a little disappointing but still fun to be in his home. As an aside, in 1938 Freud went to London where he lived for only one year before he died from cancer. We had been to that home as well on a prior trip. As I recall, that one had his actual couch that he used for his psychoanalysis.
From Freud Haus we went to Schoenlaterngasse which means street of the beautiful lantern. This street was once part of Vienna’s medieval quarter and there is a lantern still hanging there. The street contains some town houses and art galleries now.
Then we went to Mozarthus where Mozart lived for 2 1/2 years. It is the only still existing abode where Mozart lived. Again, nothing inside from that time but still fun to be in the building. A good audio guide though that talked about both Mozart’s life and his music.
Right near by is the Blutgasse District. Blut means blood in German and it is where the Knights of Templar (not to be confused with Simon Templar from “The Saint”!!) were slaughtered in 1312.
Then we went to the Judenplatz Museum in what was the old Jewish ghetto in the Middle Ages. Several years ago while digging to make a new parking garage, workers discovered the remains of a 13th century synagogue in this space. It is on display. In the courtyard outside the Museum there is a concrete block whose faces are casts of shelves of books to signify the Jewish love of learning. It is a Holocaust memorial.
That was about it for Day 2. We had our afternoon snack at Cafe Mozart; more about the food later.
On Day 3 we went to the Hofburg Imperial Palace. This was the winter;not to be confused with the summer residence! This is a huge area that contains lots of different buildings. We went first to the Butterfly House; lots of beautiful butterflies flying around. Then to the National Library with an ornate reading room and a great trompe l’oeil ceiling fresco; I am a fan of trompe l’oeil. Then to the Museum of Court Silverware and Tableware; that was lots of fun; they had an amazing number of pieces and designs; some of the fulled set tables gave a view of court life. Marty was quite bored with this but didn’t complain! Then we went to a new museum on the grounds devoted to Sisi–Franz Josef’s wife; it was fun to see but the aisles were small and very crowded. Lastly we visited the Kaiser apartments; this part was similar to what we had seen 2 days before at Schoenbrunn Palace. At this point we were quite exhausted. We fell into a little place that was serving quite good pizza.
Having re-grouped, we then went to the Albertina Museum which I thoroughly enjoyed. Their current exhibit covered a huge time period and all the key players. We saw paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Toulousse Lautrec, Sisley, Cezanne, Bonnard, Matisse, Braque, Derain, Signac, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Soutine, Beckman, Klee, Brancusi (well, that was sculpture!), Chagall, Miro, Arp, Magritte (who Marty considers his favorite artist since our trip to Brussels in April), Leger, Picasso, etc. Also on display was a huge selection of paintings by Alex Katz; a Brooklyn born artist who has donated his paintings to the museum; I’m assuming he’s of Austrian heritage.
From there we walked (gosh, we did a lot of walking) to the Secession Building. The Secession Movement was started in 1897 when 20 dissatisfied Viennese artists headed by Klimt seceded from the conservative artists’ society associated with the Academy of Fine Arts. The building was not as spectacular as I had hoped it would be.
Lastly we went to the Naschmarkt which is Vienna’s main outdoor produce market. I found it to be not as impressive as other markets we have been to. Perhaps it was time to end this trip!
So let’s talk quickly about the food in Vienna. Briefly, it was better than in Budapest BUT I was surprised that I wasn’t bowled over by the desserts, especially the sacher torte. I had a piece one evening at Cafe Sacher; I thought it was dry and did not compare favorably with what my mother used to buy from Regina’s on Dyckman Street!
The first evening I dragged Marty to a nearby suburb to a wine tavern (or heurigen). Vienna is the only European capital where wine is actually made. These wine taverns serve only their own wine and some food. We went to a place called Mayer Am Pfarplatz which I found in my guide book while on the train from Budapest to Vienna. It was a 30 minute taxi ride from our hotel; it was smoky and raucous. I got a lot of grief from you know who when we first got there. However, he then calmed down and we actually had a fun time and he even enjoyed his food (ribs).
The second night we went to Figmuller- the place for wienerschnitzel and recommended by Jeanie (and the guide book). Marty had previously gone on their web site and discovered that their wienerschnitzel was not made with veal. He reluctantly agreed to go and we made a reservation from NY. That was a good thing as we were able to by pass a very long line. Marty had a schnitzel made from chicken and I had the traditional one made from pork. Neither of us thought they were anything special and don’t understand the hype.
The third night we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant; again, enough with the Middle European food! Among the 10 best restaurants listed in Jeanie’s 10 best book (which I used in addition to Fodor’s) was an Italian restaurant; turned out it was gone! We went with a recommendation from our concierge called Cantinetta Antinori and it was quite nice.
I managed to save the best for last. We ended our trip at Steirereck; a reservation I had made several months ago. It’s a one star Michelin restaurant and the best meal we have had since La Pergola in Rome (back in April; do you remember that one?) The restaurant is situated in a beautiful setting in the city park, the service was impeccable, the food presentation gorgeous and the food itself delicious. I had a crayfish dish as an appetizer, the best liver dish I’ve ever had as my main course and ended with a cheese course (plus chocolate petit fours of course). It was the perfect ending to our trip.
All in all, this was a fun trip. What I enjoyed most was the variety of things we saw and did–palaces, museums, markets, synagogues, historical sites (e.g., House of Terror and Hospital in the Rock in Budapest, Freud Haus and Mozarthaus in Vienna), the opera house, Parliament and even a small wine tour and tasting. There was no chance that one would get bored; I didn’t have to hear: “oh no, not another Medieval village”!!
I hope you have all enjoyed traveling with us. This is our last major trip for 2010, although we do have a few week-end trips planned including Pittsburgh and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water with the Wolpins in October and Washington DC with the Davids also in October (to see a Norman Rockwell exhibit that MD found!) So until the next edition of the Haber Travel Report, keep well and keep in touch.
The Traveling Reporter
PS Two new grandchildren arrived while we were on this trip. We wish them, their grandparents and their parents all the best. Grandchildren are definitely the dessert of life!
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