|
    
An historic and
beautiful city...
|
|
Schonbrunn Castle upper fountain |
Vienna is a very clean,
refined and safe city. The architecture is rich, but not
as diverse as Prague's. It is also very compact, which makes it a
good walking city for visitors. I had very limited time
in Vienna, but planned ahead to see its high
points. |
|
|
Friday May 11th
I arrived in the early evening and headed for the
Vienna Marriott. The
airport shuttle to the city air terminal was cheap and
dropped me off just across Stadtpark from the hotel. John and
I had dinner at the
Kervansaray und Hummer Bar, which was excellent. We went
in search of music and ended up at
Flex by
the river canal. The music didn't look promising that night,
so we had a beer and left. We walked through the city toward
the hotel and got a few shots of
St. Stephans at night (below - first two pictures). |
Schonbrunn Castle with Vienna in background |
|
We used the lookup capability of my
GPS to find
Loos American Bar for a martini. There is a significant
architectural story behind this 1907 bar, designed by Adolf
Loos, which is studied and emulated by architects all over the
world. A full size replica of the bar was built in
Trinity
College, Dublin's Dining Hall. The door guard at the club
next door took our picture in front of Loos (above - last
picture), which was overcrowded and didn't live up to its
reputation of having the best martinis in Europe. |
|
Saturday May 12th
In what could best be described as a classic bad eating
choice, John and I headed out from the hotel in the late
morning for an Austrian lunch of Goulash and beer, which
seemed to stay with us the rest of the day. We got a one-day
MetroPass and took a train out to
Schonbrunn
Castle (first picture above). Schonbrunn is a baroque castle which evolved from
a hunting lodge in the middle ages to become the second
largest castle (behind Versailles) in Europe. We took the VIP
Pass self guided tour that allowed us to skip the lines and
move through the apartments rapidly. The grounds were
spectacular (second picture above) and the walk up the long hill to the
Gloriette (third picture above), which overlooks the castle, provided some good
views of Vienna (fourth picture above). The restaurant at the top provided us
with our first
SacherTorte of the trip.
|
|
From Schonbrunn we took the train back to Vienna and the
Hofburg Palace.
The Hofburg Palace is used today as the Austrian President's
office, but dates back to the 13th century. The Imperial
apartments and the grounds around the Palace allowed us some
good shots (first three pictures above).
We then took the Circle Tram around the inner city and
captured a few shots of some impressive buildings. The fourth
shot above is of the side of the Opera House. The first and
second pictures below are government buildings on the ring.
The third picture below is a walk street scene along one of
the shopping districts near the Opera. We grabbed a drink at
the famous Hotel Sacher
(last picture below) before moving on to an excellent
Tafelspitz dinner ("The Emporer's dish" - seasoned beef stew)
at
Plachutta.
The next morning we rented a car and began our all-day
drive through the Danube and up
to Prague. |
Mackey Group, Inc.
© 2002 - 2021
|
|
