We woke up super early on the train to pack up our stuff and make sure we didn't miss our connection. At 7:21, right on schedule, we arrived in Munich, dragged out bags across the platform from 13 to 12, and boarded our second train, which left promptly at 7:27. We grabbed 2 window seats facing each other, and enjoyed the 4 hour ride to Vienna. The scenery was beautiful, breakfast was delicious, and the first class seats weren't too bad, either.
We arrived at the station promptly at 11:44am, and after booking my train ticket to Venice for Friday evening downstairs, headed down to the subway, which took us to the above-ground, which took us to Brunn-Maria Enzersdorf the closest station(1.5km) to Harry and Melissa's adorable flat.
We staggered up just minutes before she had to dash off for afternoon work – perfect timing.
We had our showers, ate pizza down the street, wandered the scenic route back, and took naps. When Melissa returned home, we (she) cooked some pasta for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening in. Harry, who'd been in Amsterdam for two nights on a business trip, returned around 11pm.
05/10/2011 Day 7 – Stephen, Wolfgang and Rigoletto
Wednesday started out fine.
We grabbed breakfast at one of the train stations on our way to our first stop: St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was marvelous.
Much more enormous than I thought it was, and even better was the view from the top. Horse-drawn carriages lined the northern side of the church, and people and pigeons flocked everywhere else. Beautiful.
Walking down a side street from the cathedral we stumbled upon the House of Mozart, and decided to see it while we were there (we had planned to see it the next day).
While the museum takes up the first three floors, tenants still live on the floor above it; one of the security guys said that they are all people who've still got lease/contracts from the 60s, and the apts have just been passed down through generations of the same families. He also said that if someone else (someone new) wanted to rent one of them, it would likely cost them nearly 30 times what the current renters pay. Crazy.
Then it was time for lunch! We found a cheap deli and got sandwiches, followed by a delicious sachertorte. After stuffing our faces we hopped the tram to go see the Giant Ferris Wheel. Rode it all the way around, enjoyed the beautiful view of the city from the top, then took the tram, underground and over-ground back home to get ready for the evening.
An hour later we were off to see Verdi's Rigoletto at one of Vienna's magnificent opera houses.
Loved the show, despite it all being in German, which was apparently not what the Jersey-Shore-wannabe sitting next to me was expecting. Our short conversation during intermission went like this:
Jsw: Do you speak English? (deer-in-headlights look)
Me: Yes I do. (I should've said no)
Jsw: Oh..so do you also speak German?
Me: (hiding my amusement) No.
Jsw: So do you know what's going on? Like, I'm just trying to piece it all together..
I explained what little I knew of the story, and tried to identify a few characters for her, but she still seemed completely lost. Sigh..some people are so uncultured.
We didn't have time to eat before the opera so we grabbed pizza and kebabs at the rail station afterwards.
06/10/2011 Day 8 - “It's all about sex”...and truffles
We started our day at the Spanish Riding School, which we thought would be pretty interesting. Well, it was, for about 5 min. But after about half an hour I found myself wondering what had possessed me to pay €11 to watch 5horses (and riders) walk around, occasionally trotting, for 2 hours (the shows were quite pricey so we'd chosen to watch the morning practice). We left after an hour. Had another delicious meal of sandwich and gnocchi, then hit cafe Dumel for tortes. I decided on the truffle torte (a-MAZING!) while Katie chose to sample another sachertorte. Mine was totally better.
Next was the Freud Museum! I know, I know, nobody likes him anymore and his theories are ridiculous and outdated, but he did a lot of the groundwork in the field, and set the basis for a lot of what we've learned about Psychology and the mind since then. It's on the second floor of the building, and you have to ring the buzzer outside the door to go in. Interesting place to see, as his office was half of the apt, and the living quarters were the other half. The original waiting room furniture is there thanks to a generous donation by his youngest daughter, Anne Freud.
"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages, they would've burnt me; nowadays they are content with burning my books." - Sigmund Freud
After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon riding the tram ring to the Danube, and walking along the river before heading back to have a yummy schnitzel and potato salad dinner with Harry and Melissa (she even made a special bowl of potato salad for me without onions – such a sweetheart).
07/10/2011 Day 9 – Weird art, Rain and Goodbyes
Friday morning was all about rain. I didn't like walking in it, but my new shoes and my jacket did a good job keeping me dry (except when a car drove by as at top speed, sending a wave of water over us). Our one and only stop for the day was the Hundertwasser Museum.
Hundertwasser was quite the odd fellow, painting modern art, designing “green” houses, and holding nude “third skin” protest/rallies. We walked through all four floors of the museum, most of the time with confused looks on our faces, then had a late breakfast/lunch in the cafe downstairs, complete with hot chocolate. It was still raining when we finished our lunch, so we took the tram instead of walking. Packed up our bags, said our goodbyes and thank yous to Melissa (Harry wasn't home from work yet), and headed to the train station. Katie and I parted ways (she to London by plane, and I to Venice by train), and at 8:40pm I was on my way to Italy.
Fun Facts:
-Austrians are mean, and German is such an ugly language
-Vienna was beautiful, but I don't know that I'd want to live there
-Harry and Melissa were wonderful hosts, and it was nice to be able to visit them since they left Thailand in June
-This guy was down the street from St Stephen's Cathedral, and I feel compelled to share his moves with you :)
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