Nathan and I spent the week surrounding New Year's Eve (29 Dec-5 Jan) soaking in Vienna, Austria at a leisurely pace. It was a 'proper holiday', contrasting strongly with the weekend rush that has characterized my travels this year. We had plenty of time to sit and enjoy coffee together in the cafes and to crowd into the kitchen of our accommodation to chat with our hosts, Arabella and Rudy, and to pet their 15-year-old dog, Benji.
Our Viennese holiday started with good luck: our flights arrived timed so that Nathan got through customs a mere 5 minutes before I did. That afternoon, we strolled up one of Vienna's main shopping streets, Mariahilfer Strasse, toward the Innere Stadt (Inner District). We found a Christmas market along the way and had our first kebap of the trip--washed down with gluhwein (mulled wine). Even though I had been to Istanbul, Liz--who spent a semester in Vienna two years ago--listed eating the street food 'döner kebap' as a must-do in the city. Having tried it, I agree; it was delicious and just what our hungry stomachs wanted after our flights!
a stand selling gluhwein in the Christmas marketon Mariahilfer Strasse next to Mariahilferkirche
The next day (30 Jan.) started with a tram ride 'round the Ringstrasse, the road that circles the Innere Stadt, built when Vienna's medieval wall was taken down in the late 1800s. From the windows, we watched a procession of sights: the Greek-inspired Parliament, the Rathaus (town hall), university buildings and our first glimpse of a waterway bearing the name Danube, the Danube Canal.
Next on the agenda was Schatzkammer, the imperial treasury. Before we hit jewel-overload, we ogled at several crowns, including the 9th-century crown of Charlemagne, and saw the cradle-of-state of the Duke of Reichstadt, Napoleon's son. It is a good thing this cradle wasn't made to sleep in; the gilt eagle staring up from the foot of the cradle would have been enough to give me nightmares!
After a yummy lunch at Kantina, a cafe in Museumsquartier, we spent the afternoon on a directed ramble through the Innere Stadt. Without a real plan, we looked for the double Austrian flags that signaled plaques marking buildings of historic interest and peaked into the buildings themselves when we were intrigued. We chanced into Minoritenkirche, a church whose interior is dominated with a mosaic copy of da Vinci's Last Supper, window shopped at stores with child-sized dirndls and other traditional clothing on the touristy shopping street, Graben, and (our streak of good luck continuing) walked into Michaelerkirche just as a public organ concert was beginning.
Look, it's a chandelier! Outdoors! While certainly not the most innovative of Vienna's outdoor lights, these chandeliers were my favorites--they transformed the shopping street Graben into a classy promenade. I can't imagine the street without them!
Waking up late after the New Year's festivities, we caught part of a simulcast of the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert, which was projected on a large screen outside Rathaus. The music was great, but our local dancers, two adorable toddlers, stole the show as they waltzed with their mother.
That evening, we attended yet another traditional Viennese event--the New Year's Day performance of Die Fledermaus at Staatsoper. After a minor wait, we got day-of standing room tickets for the balcony, which had a great view. Our only complaint was that it was quite hot in the theater; we just 'had' to get gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni (another Liz suggestion) afterward!
above the stairwell in Staatsoper,during the second intermission of the three-act Die Fledermaus
Mmm, gelato! If I remember right, my cone had coconut and stracciatella (I successfully ordered auf Deutsch!) and Nathan had chocolate and rum raisin.Starting to get 'tourist-ed out' with museums and sightseeing, the next few days took us a bit farther afield, with walks along the Danube and in the Vienna Woods, and visits to lots of cafes, including Beethoven's haunt Cafe Frauenhuber, Trotsky's Cafe Central and Cafe Leopold. Nonetheless, we did make sure to visit the historical musical instrument collection and armory at Neue Berg on 2 Jan. The collection was fascinating, with beautifully made lutes, clavichords, trumpets, shawms and my favorite: the flutes. While the occasional transverse flute appeared in the earlier display cases, I was most excited to see a case ear the end of the collection. There, without much description, the curators had set out 6 or so flutes and a pair of piccolos spanning the introduction of the Boehm system, which eventually standardized the flute's keys and the flutist's hand position.
Cafe Central, my favorite of the Viennese cafes--if only because of its live pianist. I had what became my 'standby' coffee here--Kaffee verkehrt (coffee with milk, served warm with lots of froth in a tall, clear glass)--while Nathan branched out and tried a Kaffee Amadeus, which had Mozart chocolate liqueur and fresh whipped cream.On 4 Jan., our final day of touring, we put on our tourist trappings one more time and headed to Schoenbrunn Palace to experience (according to the claims of one of the tour books on sale in their gift shop) the single biggest tourist attraction in Vienna. The rooms at the palace were wonderful to look at, with the Great Gallery, the Chinese rooms and paintings of a royal wedding with details that reminded us of 'Where's Waldo?' However, in this collection, the question was 'Where's Mozart?'--the painter, Martin van Meytens, had included the 7-year-old genius and his father in the wedding paintings, although Mozart had not been in Vienna at the time of the wedding.
After a late lunch at the on-site cafe and a chilly walk in the gardens, we took in two of our favorite Viennese culinary experiences just one more time: relaxing over coffee at Cafe Griensteidl and kebap for dinner.