Danube Extravaganza: Why Is the Danube So Far Away? - Days 6 & 7

Hello Days 6 & 7!  

Where did we leave off?  Oh yes, the day where I had things planned out, but then a misreading of a calendar led me to completely rearrange my day.  At the end of my first full day in Vienna, I had sat in my bedroom at the hostel plotting out my next two days.  My plan was to start Day 6 off by seeing the world famous Lipizzaner stallions train.  I had looked at the calendar on their website, confirmed they were not on vacation, so it should all workout.  The thing is, I forgot Europe tends to work on a Monday to Sunday calendar, so when I looked at the calendar on their website I saw that there was no training on the first day of the week, but there was on the following 5 days.  I didn’t actually look at the days of the week.  Turns out that they do training from Tuesday through Saturday, not Monday through Friday.  So I turned up to the ticket counter to find it closed with a sign saying there is no training on Mondays.  Plans changed!  I turned around and headed across the palace to the entrance to the Sisi Museum there at the Hofburg (the Spanish Riding School where the Lipazzaners are is also at the Hofburg).  I still did get to see some of them through the windows of their stalls. Also, funny story...as was walking over there, I was thinking to myself, "I must be close! I've got to be almost there." And then I caught a whiff and said, "that smells like a horse," and it was.

Oh look!  It's a horse!

The first hour or so that I was at the Sisi Museum, I actually wandered through their collection of dining goods.  They had so many different sets of plates, silverware, candelabras (turns out Lumiere from the new live action Beauty and the Beast had some cousins at the Hofburg).  I never thought that I’d be fascinated by this sort of thing, but the audioguide talked about what the different collections were used for, where they came from, and how dining at the palace worked, so it was really more fascinating that it sounds.  No pictures were allowed so I don’t have any pictures from the collection.

From the kitchen collection, you move into the actual exhibit about Sisi (Empress Elisabeth).  She has obtained a sort of mythical persona in Austria and Hungary since her death.  During her life she really didn’t enjoy palace life.  She was more of a free spirit.  While her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph, absolutely adored her, she was more ambivalent about the marriage.  She married him at only 16, so that was probably part of it.  But anyways, she suffered from depression from dealing with life and people in the palace, so she basically left for long periods of time.  She would travel Europe, and avoid going back to Austria for as long as she could.  And then to add to the myth, she ended up being assassinated by an Italian (who had wanted to assassinated someone else, but that person changed their plans and wasn’t present that day so Sisi it was instead).  The exhibit talked first about that mythical persona she had, and then laid out the facts.  Then it moved onto the apartments that she and Franz Joseph used while in residence at the Hofburg, which was typically all, but the summer months.  As you can guess, it is elaborate and beautiful, and no pictures allowed.

After leaving the Hofburg, I wandered around a bunch.  The Hofburg is actually quite large and I think many of the buildings I passed were actually still part of it; it is just hard to tell because you’re not getting an aerial view.  The Hofburg is used for a variety of things from museums to government offices, so they get good use out of the old palace these days.  Also across the street is the Austrian Parliament building.  

Austrian Parliament

While wandering around, I wandered across a winter festival.  Mainly they had ice skating and some food places.  But instead of an ice skating rink, they had an ice skating track that was about 10 feet wide and went up and down and around.  It looked more fun than just regular ice skating on a rink.  While there I got some kasespatzle for lunch; that would be cheese spatzle.  Spatzle being a type of noodle.

The ice skating track.  I think this would be a fun Olympic sport.

My Kasespatzle.  It was delicous!

I walked back around the backside of the Hofburg before having a moment of panic.  I thought I had left my camera at the WC I had used before leaving the festival.  It wasn’t in my pocket and I couldn’t find it in my bag.  I jumped on the tram to head back.  About halfway back, I found my camera buried in the very bottom of my bag.  Crisis averted. Whew!

In spring there will be a Trebel Clef of flowers in front of the Mozart statue.

After this moment I headed over to Stadtpark and then to the Belvedere.  Stadtpark is just a nice little park in the city.  I sat for a while watching birds at the pond, while listening to an audiobook.  It is moments like this that I try to find time for on my trip.  It isn’t just go, go, go like some might think.  I learned during my first solo international trip to Spain that I needed to make sure to just stop and take a break sometimes or I would just get too exhausted.  And it’s no wonder, because I’ve been averaging somewhere between 11 and 14 miles a day worth of walking.

Just sitting here watching the birds.

From Stadtpark and the birds, I headed to the Belvedere.  I ended up on the wrong tram, which took me to the side of the park with the (closed) Botanical gardens.  I ended up having to walk all the way around one side of the park to get to the part that was open.  The Belvedere has two sections, Upper and Lower.  They are art museums.  I decided that on this trip I wasn’t really going to do art, so I just went to see the buildings and wander past the fountains and gardens.  

The Upper Belevedere.

Day 6 was my last night staying at the first hostel I booked in Vienna.  After looking at train timetables and ticket prices, as well as what I had going on for my last day in Vienna, I opted to stay one more night in Vienna and then hop an early train out to Salzburg.  I also booked my last night in a different hostel after not being very happy with the one I had been at.  I wish I had booked the new one instead during the first go-around.

At least the sunset from the hostel was amazing!

Day 7 started how Day 6 was supposed to.  With horses!  I headed out to the Spanish Riding School and they were open this time!  I got tickets to watch their morning training session.  I’m not a huge horse fan, but they are super well known, and I remember watching the segment on them when Samantha Brown went to Vienna on her Passport to Europe show (my favorite show in high school).  I decided to splurge and spend a whole 2 Euros extra so I could get a seat, instead of standing room only spots.  During training, 5 riders were out there at a time on their Lipazzaners, with 2 training sessions happening for a total of 10 horses.  They said that some of the horses we would see were already professionals, while others were just starting their training, or still working their way up to professional level.  A similar thing happens for the riders.  During the 2nd half of training there was an apprentice rider out there.  She wore a different uniform than the official riders.  It was interesting watching the horses prance and hop and skip.  There was one guy during the first half of training who had a horse that was being very ornery and didn’t really seem like he wanted to be there.

After I was done seeing the horses, I headed up to the Anker Clock.  It is supposed to be an entertaining watch at noon, but unfortunately it didn’t go off.  Only at about 12:02, did someone see a sign saying they were repairing the clock so it wasn’t working.  Bummer.  

Next I decided it was time to actually see the Danube, since this is my Danube Extravaganza.  Unlike in Budapest, where the city is pretty much built up along the river, Vienna was built along a channel of the Danube.  The good news is upon my arrival in Vienna, I had bought a week-long all-transit pass, so I literally rode the U-Bahn out to the river, got off, took a look at it for about 2 minutes, and then got back on the next train.  I then rode back to the Prater.  The Prater is a large park in Vienna.  A small section of it is an amusement park, with a ferris wheel, smaller roller coasters, and other rides.  I took my time zigzagging through the park.  Every 20 minutes or so I would sit down and listen to the audiobook I have downloaded on my phone for about 20 minutes.  I sat and watched birds at the pond, kids skipping rocks on another pond, and a family flying a kite in a bigger area.  Finding time to do stuff like this is relaxing.  I do a lot walking on vacation, but I also make sure I take some time to rest.  Especially because my feet start hurting after a while.

Mistletoe in some of the trees of the Prater.

When I felt like I had done the Prater, I headed to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to take a look at it.  This cathedral is more gothic in nature than the other churches I’ve been in so far.  It looked more like pictures I’ve seen of Notre Dame.  This church was saved from destruction during WWII, when a Wehrmacht captain disregarded orders to smash it to smithereens.  It did end up losing its roof though, due to fire.  They are currently doing some work on the towers on the outside of the church.  And in the plaza outside the church, they were in the process of setting up a 1-Year memorial for the war in Ukraine.

After this, I felt I had pretty much done Vienna.  I definitely liked Budapest more.  While I’d consider returning to Budapest some day, I don’t think I’ll return to Vienna.