Trip to Austria
We left on Friday and had a long travel day. First we flew from Detroit to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Vienna. Next we took a bus to the Westbanhof train station. We’d counted on some travel delays and thus had to wait in the train station for a couple of hours before our train left from Vienna to Salzburg. The train ride was about 3 hours and was very pleasant. We then walked about 10 minute to our hotel, The Allstadt Residenz. We were on the third floor and there was no elevator but the poor bellhop grabbed the bags and started right up. We very much liked this hotel. Since it was only about 5PM, we headed out to explore a little. The city is very compact and you can walk everywhere. We had a lovely dinner at Der Eulenspiegel. After dinner, we walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel. That was one seemingly long day!!
We got up the next morning and ate our full breakfast at the hotel. Delicious!! Since it was Sunday, we decided to go to Mass at the Salzburg Cathedral. It was packed but we found a spot near the front. The mass was all in Latin and German but it was easy enough to follow along. They placed Mozart’s mass music as well!! We stuck around for a while afterwards and explored the Cathedral. We then hiked up to the Fortress. What an experience- an amazing place built and expanded over hundreds of years. We spent basically all afternoon exploring the various rooms and exhibits. We then headed back to our side of the river and had a very nice traditional meal at Gablerbrau. Our hotel is very near St. Sebastian’s Church so we wandered back into their famous cemetery (Mozart’s wife Constanze is buried there) and nearly got locked in as the man closed the gates while we were still inside (I’m sure he said something funny to us in German as he let us out but we sprechen only English). Back at the hotel, we decided to try out the pool and sauna and even rested in the silence room. Very refeshing!! Our hotel has a DVD library so we checked out “The Sound of Music” and tried to identify the various places we’d been.
After breakfast on Monday, we started our “Day of Mozart” by heading to Mozart Gebaustchaus- Mozart’s birthplace. The apartment where Mozart was born and lived as a child houses some of Mozart’s childhood instruments along with various other items (locks of his hair, compositions, etc.). Then we walked back to Mozartplatz to see the special “Viva Mozart” exhibit. There was lots more interesting things about Mozart’s life here, including a place where they let children don period costumes and the museum worker teaches them traditional dances. After that we bought some lunch from the outdoor vendors- loved my Shnitzel sandwich and apple strudel!! We next wandered over to St. Peter’s Church and explored it a little. Neat church with some crypts inside. Since we didn’t see enough tombstones, we also wandered back to their cemetery, the oldest in Salzburg. After heading back to the hotel to rest a bit, we headed out for our dinner. We ate at the Salzach Grill associated with the Hotel Sacher. Dinner was lovely and we enjoyed a world famous Sacher Torte. We then headed over to the Marionette Theater to see Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute). The marionettes were tremendous- their movements were so intricate, we were so entranced that we even forget that they were marionettes (it wasn’t until the end of the performance when you saw how tiny they were relative to the people).
We started our Tuesday with a visit to Mirabell Gardens. The Gardens are lovely (the fountain was even used in the Sound of Music). Besides the huge statues near the main fountain, there is a small side garden that has awesome dwarf stone carvings. After the gardens we headed to Mozart’s Wohnhaus- a place where he and his family lived after moving from his birth house. There were lots of cool items there as well and that completed our Mozart Trifecta. Then we went to the Residenz and Residenz Galleries. The Residenz was once home to the archbishops and monarchy. The audio tour of the state rooms was very cool as was the art gallery. After a busy morning we ate lunch at Stiftskeller St. Peters- the oldes recorded restaurant in Europe (c. 800). From there we took a short walk to the Catacombs at St. Peters- they are actually built into the mountainside and were the homes to the friars who once lived there, complete with mutliple chapels and frescoes on the wall. We did a bit of shopping in the Old Town and then rested for a while back at the hotel. In the early evening we had a coffee in Cafe Tomaselli- an historic cafe dating from the 1700s. After lingering a while, we walked to the Nonnberg Convent- the model for Maria’s convent in the Sound of Music. Back at the hotel we watched Don Giovanni from the DVD library.
Wednesday was a travel day as we took the train from Salzburg back to Vienna. We even managed to use the subway to get to our new hotel- Pension Perschy. The hotel was nice- spacious room with an old ceramic stove (for decoration). The location is awesome- right in the middle of the old part of Vienna. We are steps from Stephansdom, the Opera House, Hofburg Palace, etc. To get our bearings, we walked over to Hofburg Palace which now houses the Spanish Riding School. We discovered that the Vienna Hofburg Orchestra was playing a concert of Mozart favorites at the Vienna State Opera House. So we got tickets for later that evening. The Opera House was awesome and the conert was very enjoyable. We were in one of the boxes on the second level. Our little box held just 7 patrons. Very cool!! Plus, after seeing Die Zauberflote and watching Don Giovanni, many of the songs were old favorites.
We spent our first full day in Vienna touring the nearby sites. First we went to Hofburg Palace to see the morning exercise of the Spanish Riding School. The famous Lippizaner horses were amazing with their various graceful trots and jumps, not to mention the huge palace room in which they ride. We then went to the Lippizaner museum where we learned more about the history- including how they were saved by various entities from the Nazis. After lunch we toured Stephansdom. Unlike the previous churches, this one is famous for its Gothic stone work inside. It was truly amazing and the audio guide was very well done. Following the tour, we went to a little grocery store to get some bread and cheese to enjoy with the complimentary birthday champagne the hotel provided.
The next day we took a tour of Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens. What an amazing place!! We took the hike up to the Gloriette to get a good view of the palace. After walking back down, we enjoyed the maze (Liz beat me through) and the other neat parts of the garden. The tour of the palace was awesome- all the individual rooms were incredible including the Hall of Mirrors where Mozart performed his first concert at 6, Franz Josef’s personal work and bedrooms, and the room where the Austrian empire was officially dissolved. We pretty much spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon wandering around. Back in Vienna we had a coffee at the famous Cafe Hawelka.
On Saturday we explored Vienna a bit more and tried to find some local markets for shopping. We went to one place only to find no market there. Doh!! Then we walked to this other market which had lots of food and assorted other stuff- more like a flea market. Surprisingly, there were lots of Arab vendors selling falafel sandwiches, etc.!! For lunch we headed back near our hotel and had “the most famous schnitzel in Vienna.” And boy was it- we called it “schnitzel the size of your head” as they are famous for pounding the schnitzel very thin so that it is actually bigger than he plate. We caught up with Mike and his dad in the afternoon and agreed to meet for dessert since we were planning to attend mass in Stephansdom. For dessert we headed to the Hotel Sacher cafe where we had the famous Sacher Torte- so light and delicious!! We then went back to the hotel and packed up so that Liz could head home early the next morning and I could move to the conference hotel. The following day I met up with Mike and his dad again and we went to Zentral Friedhof- a huge cemetery just outside Vienna. Many famous people are buried there but we went in the entrance without any information. So we wandered around a bit but couldn’t find anyone we recognized. Then we saw this group and discovered the composer section where Beethoven, Schubert, multiple Strauss, and others were buried along with a memorial to Mozart.
Be sure to check out our photo galleries- feel free to comment here or on the photos in flickr:
Salzburg Gallery
Vienna Gallery
Extra Gallery
Related Posts (perhaps)
September 23rd, 2006 at 10:04 am
What an incredible time, the pictures are amazing! I would have loved to have seen the maze! Kudos Liz!!
September 23rd, 2006 at 11:20 pm
O WOW
November 13th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Hey Guys,
Those were some beautiful pictures! It looks like it was worth the long travel trip. Is this where Liz’s ancestors are from, hence the name on the signs?
November 15th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Not quite…in German it means “tobacco”.