We flew out to Vienna on a thursday night and took various trains/trams to get to our hotel. The hotel was amazing, because it wasn't really a hotel but a small apartment in a restored victorian era building, complete with a little kitchen for all my midnight munching needs. Very cosy, pretty, grand, and very Vienna.
We spent the next several days running around like a bunch of tourists, takings pictures of everything, acting crazy, and having a blast. Below are some highlights.
Schonbrunn Palace and the surrounding gardens. We spent a whole day just exploring this huge area.
Karlskirche - we saw an awesome concert here later in the week.
Beethoven's grave, and a lot of other composers not in the picture. It was fun to explore a posh Austrian graveyard.
Mozart's grave, or at least the spot where he is most likely to have been buried. This graveyard was less touristy and more creepy.
The library. We did a lot of our walking around in the evening since it was cooler.
The museum of natural history
The library from the front.
City Hall
Morten loves animals, so we had to check out the zoo. I noticed that at the Austrian zoos/aquariums, they don't really believe in putting barriers between the guests and the animals, which was especially true in the case of this sloth. It was really friendly and at several points Morten had to back away to keep the sloth from climbing onto his shoulders. He wasn't even zooming in this picture.
On Wednesday we took a day trip to Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia - only an hour by train from Vienna). It was really fun to see such a big difference between the two cities when they are so close together. We got a bit of culture shock at the train station in Bratislava because it was quite a shady area but when we walked on into the "old town" we found it endlessly charming. I've definitely acquired a taste for eastern Europe and would love to also visit Prague, Budapest, etc.
We discovered later on that we didn't get any really good pictures in Bratislava because that was the day it started getting REALLY hot, and we were more concerned about staying out of direct sunlight than getting good pictures. Below is a church we found in the old town, which was basically crumbling in disrepair (unlike most of the old churches in Vienna). I loved the way it looked.
Bratislava castle, on top of a massive hill. The climb was tough but worth it in order to explore the castle and see the view over the Danube from the top.
Back in Vienna the next day, we lost a bit of our "must see and do everything NOW" tourist stamina and spent our time on some more relaxing activities (especially if they involved air conditioned buildings).
This is the view from the roof of the aquarium.
Wandering down pedestrian streets, into touristy shops in order to make fun of the souvenirs and try on silly hats...
The natural history museum.
Thursday night was my favorite part of the whole trip. During the entire week, people on corners dressed as Mozart had been trying to sell us overpriced, touristy concert tickets. While I was determined to see a classical concert at some point during our stay in Vienna, I didn't want it to be one of those commercial ones. We were lucky to find out about a less advertised concert series in Karlskirche cathedral, where we saw Mozart's requiem thursday night. It was an unforgettable performace by a very gifted local group, with a surprisingly small audience and personal feel to it.
Some things I noticed about Vienna:
-The buildings almost ALWAYS have statues and some manner of "curly q's" all over them.
-People are extremely courteous to the elderly, women with children or pregnant, and handicapped. In fact, politeness in general seems to be very highly valued.
-The classical music background of the city is a very important cultural heritage.
-I guess I would notice this, being pregnant, but there are far fewer unpleasant smells than you would imagine, even in elevators at train stations, etc. Maybe I am just comparing with CPH where the train stations almost always smell bad.
The whole trip was a wonderful time for Morten and I to relax and enjoy spending time together before our lives get turned around (in a good way) when the little one arrives.
More baby news soon!
1 comment:
It looks like so much fun! Good on you two for getting in one last trip before the baby arrives. Travel is still lots of fun with a kid but it is just trickier and less relaxing. Sometime you'll have to check out Budapest and Prague, too...both really great cities. We miss you guys and are so excited for the baby to arrive. Too bad we'll have to wait so long to meet her :(
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