Tuesday 6 September 2016

Vienna

Vienna
Tue 6 Sep

The fine weather returned with temps up in the high 20s for our first two days here but then on Sunday night a front went through with rain and cooled things down. There were showers and storms behind the front. Monday was showery but rainy on Tuesday. Fortunately the weather is forecast to return to fine and warm for our next leg to Salzburg on Wednesday.

We have been wandering around, revisiting some of the places we enjoyed last time we were here and discovering new ones. The advantage of staying in a different part of the city on a second visit is that it causes you to see places you may not have been before. Previously, we stayed in the Paulanergasse area, now Schottenring area.

One thing I did last time was go on a guided tour of sites associated with the movie "The Third Man". 
Fans may recognise the doorway.
Very interesting but having done it once I didn't feel the need to do it again, but  I missed out on the ferris wheel last time as we didn't get to that part of the city. This time we did and I couldn't resist taking a ride on it.



There is a museum dedicated to the movie which is only open on Saturday afternoons which I couldn't visit previously. Even if you aren't particularly interested in the movie but are interested in post WW2 Vienna, it is a must visit. The movie was set in post war Vienna and this museum has a fabulous collection of material relating to Vienna in that period. 
Seeing pictures of how Vienna suffered from bomb damage during the war and seeing how it looks today is amazing. The fact that nearly all of the inner city was reconstructed in the same style that it would have been before the war gives it a special charm I think. 


Vienna has a similar look to it as Paris, whereas say, London and Berlin, who both also suffered a lot of damage, have a very different look to them now.

One place unique to Vienna is the Hundertwasser House.



We seem to have mastered the Vienna underground system but have no idea of how the trams run, despite having what appears to be a current map of the system. The trams going past have a number which doesn't correspond to the map and/or go in the opposite direction to the sign on the tram, so we just get on one and hope it takes us to where we want to go, if not, get off and walk. Vienna is a very "walkable" city, mostly flat and not very far from one side of the main areas to the other and we walked a lot of it.

The distinctive sound of inner Vienna is the sound of horses hooves on the pavement (with the associated smell). They must drive the local car drivers crazy as it not possible to overtake them in the narrow streets.



 Another sound is the squeak of parquetry floors in the old museums.

One thing we have noticed in Europe is the many people smoking. Australians seem to have mostly given up the habit but not people here. Cigars are common also and it makes it difficult for us non smokers to find somewhere to sit in restaurants to avoid the smell of smoke.

Odd things happen to you when on holidays. We had noticed that nearly all the music we heard whenever a radio was playing, was in English. (Probably explains why most of the performances  on Eurovision are in English.)
Anyway, we were sitting in a cafe one afternoon and blaring out from the speakers in the Naschmarkt across the road, was Olivia Newton-John and when we were having dinner that night, Air Supply were on the restaurant's speakers.

There is a much greater mix of people, nationalities and ages, in Vienna than we have seen in the places we visited in Germany. On Sundays, nearly all the shops (apart from souvenir shops) and a lot of the restaurants are closed. The areas away from the main tourist areas are very quiet. There are very few beggars and people sleeping on the streets from what we have seen.


We went into a wine bar, down a flight of stairs off one of the narrow streets for a drink, then when we were finished, came out via a different stairway, right into a magnificent food emporium - Julius Meinl, Graben 19. Recommended.
I was looking forward to revisiting the Rosenberger restaurant which is near the Opera House as I remember it as having a fabulous range of food, cafeteria style, at good prices. However, I was disappointed. The range was limited and more expensive than I remember.
Speaking of food, there must be a factory (or three?) in Austria turning out Weiner Schnitzels by the ton. They are on the menu of just about every restaurant and I can't image that there is someone in the kitchen, cutting, pounding and breading them to order, except maybe in the very upmarket places.

We have been into a few museums and lots of churches of different denominations (where you are allowed to take photos, not like in Melk).


The MAK museum was more interesting than I expected and the Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury) is fascinating. The craftsmanship in the objects on display is amazing.
The Albertina had a wonderful exhibition "Monet bis Picasso".
Here is my version of Impressionism:

 
Yours truly enjoying his birthday cake at the Cafe Central, one of Vienna's Grand Cafes. The wines came later in the day.


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