VIE: Last Day in Vienna.

Breakfast this morning was at the Tyrolerhaus, and old coffee shop, where the waiter wears a suit and bow tie, and the Wieners come to read the paper and eat toast. The cakes still come in glass cabinets, the chandeliers are real crystal and service after you get your food seems very, very, relaxed... it's the same as it was in the 30s when coffee was a bit more luxurious than now.

The big rush for me was getting a front row seat at the Spanish Riding School, where they train the horses every morning at 10. This is their front door.

The American woman from the walk yesterday was here too...


You are not supposed to take pictures, but I sneaked a couple because everyone else was... At least I did not use the flash... Amazing they think it will help the picture when they are so far away...

I just love how they maintain the old shops...


Back in town to St. Steven's cathedral to say a prayer for you all in your cold wet spring weather back home....lol

It is 27 degrees here today! So off to climb a tower... Which I immediately regretted as I hate heights and the stairs are narrow and the place is so old it will topple over no doubt with my extra weight...



You can see some mountain tops in the distance here...


I swear to G*d that this town is so clean, these roofs and buildings...look how spotless they are, no garbage in the streets...

Off in the distance you can see the modern side of the city on the Donau.

Next stop was Schonbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg summer palace.

No pictures allowed inside, although a few were sneaking them in, the stadtspolizei were right outside, so I chickened out. Beautiful rooms inside, they are your fairytale image of royal rooms... Or those TV historical dramas...

This is part of the 'back yard'.

I met the Singaporean woman here from yesterday's walk, what a small town! I had a latte here and apple strudel in the Hapsburg's garden...

The tulips are nearly done, summer has officialy begun.


Schonbrunn is so big it even has its own U Bahn station. Except it's out of the city so it's above ground...

Then the final hike for the day Belvedere, with it's advertised biggest collection of Gustav Klimt pictures, the most famous of which is 'The Kiss' They also have Monet, Rodin and others, but Klimt was a local and like Picasso he developed a world of his own...

The front of Belvedere.

Looking toward the city from the front:




Tis woman has a lovely house!

But hold on, several Klimt's were missing and now I find out they are spread across at least 2 other galleries in town... So no more Klimt for me this trip.

These last couple of pictures are for the roof top condo conversions, note how they excahnged glass for some of the roof, rather clever I think...

And that was Vienna pretty much, I am eating my dinner as I type this up, then up in the morning for the Railjet train to Salzburg.
I like Vienna, but as of 9:14am tomorrow I will be a Wiener no more, depsite what you may say. Everyone should come here, it's probably the most impressive city I have seen in all my trips... At least so far.
You can all be Wieners too.
-
-BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery. Copyright 2012 TinyFrontalLobeWerke AG., Zurich.

Location:Vienna, Austria.

VIE: Wien

The East Kingdom of the Österreich is famous for its once mighty empire and now is one of the wealthier spots in Europe, twice the size of Switzerland it's no giant in land mass. Wien is the name in German, which makes everyone in Vienna a Wiener.

I have seen a few cities in the world, and few are as beautiful as Vienna, and I can say that on day 1. The cloudless blue sky and strong sun really bring out the pics too, but this place is quite something. Although I am only visiting the centre of the city, it is surrounded by forest, and the entire wooded area around and in parts of the city are the catchment area for the water they drink here... Flying in gives you a good look at the city, the Donau river and the woods, in my short time however, it's mostly the highlights to focus on... It must be a very nice place to live...

The hotel is nice, another Holiday Inn...


With my frequent stay card I got upped to a suite, and it's a very modern apartment, 2 lcd tv's a living room and look at the bed side tables !


In the city's ring, which was marked by a huge circular wall, all the bigger buildings of the old empire are found.


Immaculately kept, look up at pic above and see why Mercedes Benz's are known as the taxis of Europe, if you don't own a car you ride in a Merc all day. They are taxis and government cars... Not the private car so much.


Vienna famous for horses...


Pic below, off kilter I know, this is the Hapsburg wedding chapel.


Organ below was played by Mozart and the like....


The Hapsburgs were incredibly rich and apart from grand houses, one symbol of wealth then was chimneys - the more you had the richer you were... As you could afford to heat the whole thing.













Below is my Viennese postcard shot...


Below is looking out of the courtyard of the Spanish Riding School.


Old monument in the middle is a monument to the plague victims... Look how nice this street is, it's just one of many... Clean, well kept, lovely!


The nets are used here to keep birds off the many monuments, you only see them close p, but they look cob web like to me.... Creepy.









The guy below probably sneaked in under the Schengen agreement, and yes, people hate it here too... Can you work out how he does it? :) There's nothing under his ass, we looked....lol


I joined a 2 hour walking group around the centre, so that's who the 'we' is referred to above, about 9 of us. The woman leading the troupe was very good.


This cafe is at a famous hotel, but the chocolate cake is apparently world famous.






State Hall, a beautiful old library with some of the oldest documents and books in Europe...


























Vienna is famous for coffee shops and I had to partake, they usually sell cakes too... Strong coffee served on a small silver tray, like most of Europe it comes with a glass of water and a cookie or small piece of chocolate, the latter to clean your coffee breath and kill the bitterness, and if that doesn't appeal, then about 8 dollars to have a coffee with a very small coconut macaroon shows you what a ritual it is.... There are so many of these shops here...very different to Amsterdam coffee shops :)... Note all the BMWs in the pictures. It's the car to have if you're a wiener, but we knew that already, Beemer's do bring out the real estate agent in people...


Tram flying East Reich flags.


This little car show was ou in one platzt, do you know what car this is? It's not cheap. Looks like 007 sould have one.


The one below.... Oh my.... Wonderbar! I do like Audi.





That's end of day 1 in Wien, and I went to bed early, as I was shagged out. That said, the two options for this evening were the opera haus or an "Austran Show" with women in old dresses and men slapping their liederhösen covered thighs to old folk music.... There's so many of these blast from the past things on German speaking TV too, obviously there's a market for it... Not sure if I fit the demographic though...

I found a shop selling imported Brit stuff, apparently quite a few here, so I bought some treats.

I have to say, it's only the end of day 1 and I am thinking maybe a should be a Wiener instead of a Schweizer now... I am very impressed with this town.

And you heartless people are all thinking I was a wiener already...sheesh.

No more flying for a week! Yay! It's all sunshine and lollipops in Vienna. Gut nacht.
-
- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery. Copyright 2012 TinyFrontalLobeWerke AG., Zurich.

Location:Vienna, Austria.