Day 20: Home

This should be called day 20 and 21... it was a longer day than we expected today.

We had a nice, leisurely breakfast then got a taxi early so we could stop off at the Hundertwasserhaus apartment block on the way to the airport.   The building is an eclectic, very colourful, hipster building that shows a different side of the orderly heart of Vienna.   Along the Danube nearby there are also numerous graffiti murals which contradict the lawfulness of areas we’ve seen so far.

Our flights were a 3 hour hop to Lisbon then an 8 hour flight back to YYZ.   The Lisbon airport was a huge contrast to Vienna..... older, pretty run down, not very clean and quite sparse, at least the part that we saw.

Papa and Blair showed up soon after we got to Lisbon.  It sounded like they had a great trip.  Beth and I plan to go there, alone, in the near future.  

Even though we were on the runway at 930 in Toronto, we didn’t get Abby’s bag until just before midnight, capping off a shocking number of delays and gaffes at Pearson International.

It’s always nice coming home.  We had a great trip but now we are home, sweet, home.

Day 19: Vienna Exploration

We felt like we made a good effort at seeing the sights yesterday, and luckily Beth was feeling much better so we made a plan to explore in a little greater detail today and also cover some of the same ground as yesterday to see if we see something different.

We were going to walk over to the Naschmarkt, a kind of outdoor, long, two aisle St Lawrence Market, but I cut off any notions of building into a hanger state by hailing a cab (which is super easy here by the way, they are everywhere!) for the short drive over.

The market was really nice.   Starting at the bottom, closer to the Ringstrasse the market was still waking up, but as we went up one aisle of the place the shops went from dead to bustling.   There were all kinds of fresh fruit, vegetables, spices and sweets, interspersed with bier gardens, cafes and trinket shops.   We ate a really nice breakfast halfway up.  It had begun to get hilariously frustrating that the servers and staff spoke better English than us :-).  

As we continued, the market turned a little middle eastern, then eventually  Indian then Asian.   Robin came all the way to Vienna to buy a cheap wall hanging/tapestry from an Indian guy, confidently bargaining him down from 20 to 15 Euros.  Way to go Reebs!

We took our time in the market, walking all the way back down the other aisle and occasionally making small purchases.  Abby pointed out the buildings lining the street next to the market which we hadn’t even noticed and they were beautiful - typical of Vienna but with some extra decorations as well -one even had a tasteful mural of vines and flowers lightly painted on the ornate facade.  

Everything about our impression of Vienna and its people so far was that it was high end, exacting, just and conforming to rules and regulations (of which there are many), friendly and direct, clean, precise.  Abby exclaimed that she could “live in this place” and that pretty much says it all.

The market was a short walk away from the Opera, so we headed in that direction, strolling up the Karntnerstrasse again.  Today, at this time, it was more jammed full of people than yesterday, with huge congregations of people in the large square around St Stephen’s.  However, the crowds didn’t seem to have the desperation of the hoards in Dubrovnik... more of a patient, inquisitive crowd that probably had a little more time to explore.

We checked out the horse and buggy rides and decided to do the long one (40 minutes for 80 euros felt like a bargain compared to Central Park).  We just felt in the mood to sit back and let the historic city pass us by.   The clip clop of the hooves on the road and the occasional bounce as we slowly trundled over cobbled sections (ooh... that reminds me of missing Sunday’s tour do France stage over the cobbles...) was very relaxing.

The girls managed to do a little shopping...l well, window shopping, and Beth and I found an amazing cheese shop where we dropped a few euros for cheese and mustards.  

Beth had to take a work call, so the girls and I walked down the Graben (dubbed, by us, the “rich Street “ for its high end shops), through the palace grounds and over to Rathaus.   

The city hall had its summer food and film festival on.   The entire area in front to the impressive city hall had about 20 food trucks and a large seating areas under shade.   The girls and I took turns buying a dish and splitting it... trying to go slowly so Beth wouldn’t miss too much.   Abby started with a plate of gyoza, Robin followed with chicken tacos (Beth made it before we sacrificed the fourth taco as a tribute to our absent travel mate.... I imagined giving an impassioned speech of “she would have wanted me to have her taco.... sniff” before downing the really tasty mini soft shell).  I was next up and chose a Lebanese Mesa platter, followed by Beth buying a Japanese stir fry.   The whole thing reminded us of the fun we had in Hong Kong when we did our world tour of restaurants in the mid levels.

What massive lunch shouldn’t end with a trip to the nearby Cafe Landtmann for its famous apple strudel (though the girls got cakes instead!).   The skies opened up while we were there, so we waited for a slight break and quickly walked over to visit the royal apartments in the Hofberg.   

The ticket included a visit to the Silver Collection (actually an amazing collection of plates, China settings, centrepieces etc) that was a dinner table setter hobbiest’s dream (of which I have two in the family).  Next up was a museum dedicated to Sissy, the Princess Diana of historic Vienna who also had her life shortened dramatically, though by assassination.  Last up was a stroll and audio guide tour of the Emporer and Princess's apartments which really showcased how we do NOT live!   

It was close to 530 by the time we walked back to the hotel.   The girls have shown great stamina, save for a few sighs and snipes :-).

For dinner, we walked over to the set of streets in the neighbourhood we ate at last night (Spittelberggasse, Gutenberggasse, Schrankgasse) and found a place that had a local crowd filling its seats.   The meal was amazing - schnitzel for three and goulash for me.  So far, everything we’ve eaten in Vienna has been top quality and delicious.   The service at the place tonight was actually a little slow (only the bill paying part) but the friendly hostess that was filling in as a waitress tonight was so nice that it didn’t really bother us (the only thing that does bother us here is the same as the rest of our trip... the incessant smoking... by everybody!  But I digress....)

Abby and I took the other two back to Mariahilfer Strasse and up to the end, stopping only to enjoy a gelato (or in Abby’s case a Nutella waffle) before we hopped in a cab back to Flemming’s Selection, our cool hotel near Rathaus.

Tomorrow, we head home.  Work beckons, unfortuenaly, but it’s been a great trip.   I’m sure we will be back to explore some of the smaller villages of Austria and the mountains at a future date.   I felt like we did Vienna justice and Abby is correct in saying that if we do come back, we will be sure to see an opera, a ballet and maybe a concert or two.

Day 18: Historic Vienna

In researching Vienna, it was quite clear that the main feature of of the city is its importance and prominence in world history.   I didn’t know much about the Habsburg empire before starting my research, but was amazed to learn how similar their influence in Central Europe was to the Ottoman Empire on southern Europe and Northern Africa.  Last night, Beth and I watched a time lapse video on YouTube (yes, it was a crazy night!) showing the empire’s geographical reach from the 1200’s to 1918 and I was shocked.

The challenge, then, was to come up with a balance of history with entertainment for the kids.  Vienna has some of the biggest and best Museums in the world, impressive religious monuments and OPERA! But as with our Big Trip in 2015, our focus would be to hit the necessary highlights, make sure we get a good understanding of the people and culture (geez....I think HR speak is wearing off on me) and get a good feel for neighbourhoods by hitting the streets on foot.

One snag... Beth has come down with a bad cold.  She thinks it might be a sinus infection and her energy is very low.   Taking to the ground was the way to go today, but Beth would need her rest.

We started out taking a loop of the old city by tram/streetcar.   We had all downloaded some audio tours podcasts by Rick Steve’s and we had one for the tram tour around the ringstrasse.   Managing three people on an audio tour podcast would prove to be hilarious.... “Dad, do I start now?” “Did you pause?” “I can’t see the building he’s talking about” “Dad...

 DAD!  DAD!!!!”

We started and ended the audio tour at the Vienna Opera House.   It was summer so the Opera was not holding nightly performances (thank god...) but we took an excellent 45 minute guided tour of the building which offered a great synopsis not only of the building and musical history of Vienna, but also a great insight into the people and their recent (ie WW I and WW II) history.

We took to the streets after the opera, weaving our way towards the center of the old city center.   We sampled, but didn’t buy, the “famous” Sachertorte (a chocolate cake invented at what is now the Cafe Sacher Wein).  We strolled up Kärntner Straße which is a pedestrian only boulevard that rivals some of the best I’ve seen in the world.   The Street was packed with people and it was then that I realized that this was truly a pedestrian city.  Even on the bigger streets, you just don’t see many cars.   Vienna has been voted the most livable city in the world - there are close to 1000 km of bike lanes (only 100 km in the 90’s), lots of pedestrian malls, and tons of transit (buses, trams and subways galore) - all for a city with a metropolitan population of 2.6 million people.

Beth needed a sit down, so the girls and I went exploring a bit -we stopped at one the Wurst places that are dotted all over the place.  We got three giant wursts featuring different level of spices and shared them all.... yum.

We hooked up with Beth, walked to the center of the city where St Stephen’s Cathedral looms over a gigantic pedestrian square.  St Stephen’s is very impressive.... even more, I think, than Notre Dame in Paris.   Where that building is more unique and symmetrical with its flying buttresses, this one seems to have a much more interesting history and evolution.   The imbalance of the huge south tower looming over the rest of the building is kind of the attraction of the place.   The unique roof with thousands of tiles making up mosaics with various meanings are beautiful.  The interior of the church has more symbology I’m sure than I could learn in a lifetime of study.   The kids really liked the tidbit from the audio guide that pointed out the cannonball embedded in the south tower that was fired by Ottoman attackers!

Beth was really not looking good, so after a quick lunch, we packed her into a taxi and sent her home for a nap.   She didn’t resist which was not a good sign... she does suffer from bouts of FOMO and she has a ton of endurance so if she is not protesting at getting sent home.....not good.

After some free “shopping time”for the kids, I led the down another great pedestrian street called Graben which quickly turned into 5th avenue, with every high end brand represented.

The Street ended at the Hofburg, the former imperial palace and current government complex.   The buildings continued to amaze in Vienna, and the Hofburg was no exception.  I dragged the kids into the treasury museum, featuring all of the treasures, costumes and religious artefacts amassed by the Habsburgs over the centuries.   

We were debating what to do after leaving the museums when a Big Red Bus pulled up in front of us,   I’d read that it was pretty good, and we were looking for a break from the walk, so we decided to hop on to the double decker bus.  The kids had really enjoyed the London Big Red Bus so we thought this would be ok.

It was nice to get out of the sun and feel the breeze as we checked out some of the sights.   For a bathroom break, we got off at Prater, which turned out to be the cheesy amusement park that features the Ferris wheel you see in many pictures of Vienna.   It was even in an episode of the Amazing Race that we had seen, but we weren’t that tempted.   The girls did go on one indoor roller coaster, but really the whole place was like Centreville meets Niagara Falls.

It was nice to see the area on the other side of the Danube, but overall, the bus was just ok.   It actually started raining so when I saw the #2 tram line stop that I knew returned to our hotel we jumped off the bus and on to the tram to head back and check on Beth.

We went with a Rick Steve’s recommendation for dinner, and it was fantastic - right up our alley.   It was a non descriptive building that opened up to a huge, ivy covered courtyard that was full of what seemed like locals.   We had a great dinner then Beth and Robin headed home while Abby and I walked for an hour around the mariahilferstrasse pedestrian street.  Abby was really shocked when I pointed to a nearby cigarette vending machine - she couldn't believe they existed, much less in our own country maybe twenty or thirty years ago.  It seems like Europe is really that many years behind in terms of smoking.

This place really reminded us of Tokyo - the wide, mostly pedestrian boulevard was tree lined with lots of neon brands interspersed with many wurst, ice cream and Asia food shops.  We will have to come back here with the other two tomorrow, but it was nice stumbling upon this place with my little fellow explorer.