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.