by
Mick (Mrigank) Das
This was the
day we were asked to beat the roosters; to rise and shine at 7:30 am…. it was an easy chore to accomplish as Vienna or Wien(in
German) is a lovely city. Austrians
speak the German language, but they don't like to be identified as Germany's
little brother, they have a lot of national pride. The city exudes charm and
romance in every street, every alley, every café. Even though there are plenty of tourists milling through
the tourist spots, the city doesn't lose its identity.
The centerpiece for
a tourist is Schonbrunn palace, the royal palace of the Habsburg emperors (or
at least some of them). It is a
magnificent edifice and gets 10,000 tourists per day…so our goal was to hit the
earliest entry that we could, I believe around 8:40 am was our time slot. This
was designed to beat the maddening rush that happens even by mid-morning.
Our local guide for
Wien was Trudy (Gertrude) who was a middle-aged white lady donning round rimless
glasses who looked like a schoolteacher but would crack some surprisingly funny
lines that I will try to recall as we go along.
So we wolfed down some breakfast at the Hilton's breakfast buffet and the reliable duo of Dean and Gabor
got us off in time a few minutes after 7:30am…. Dean did a bit of herding of
the cats to get us underway in time.
Trudy was a great guide… she pointed out some great landmarks like the
building that houses the Austrian Symphony Orchestra which is known across the
globe for a New Years Eve concert that they conduct every year. She showed us a
very old and historic College of Arts which denied admission to Hitler three
times, and thus the course of history was changed forever; instead of a
mediocre painter living in obscurity he became one of history's most evil
dictators responsible for extracting an incredibly sad price on humanity!!! -
what was the admissions committee of that college thinking? :)
She showed us some other buildings too like the Opera House, key museums etc.. Some of them we will come back to later. She did her part to give us a thumbnail sketch of the two most famous musically-inclined sons of Austria; one adopted from Germany: the philandering genius Mozart and the son of the soil and inventor of the Waltz, Johann Strauss. Everyone on the coach was excited like little kids to check off our bucket list the famous Schonbrunn palace.
She showed us some other buildings too like the Opera House, key museums etc.. Some of them we will come back to later. She did her part to give us a thumbnail sketch of the two most famous musically-inclined sons of Austria; one adopted from Germany: the philandering genius Mozart and the son of the soil and inventor of the Waltz, Johann Strauss. Everyone on the coach was excited like little kids to check off our bucket list the famous Schonbrunn palace.
When we finally got
to Schonbrunn it lived up every bit to its reputation… Gabor dropped us off and vanished. We had a couple of hours at the
palace… Our first glimpse was of this cream-yellow colored classical palace
that cut a huge swathe across the horizon with rows upon rows of french style
windows… it was set back from the road by extra wide double wrought iron gates with some imposing feline motifs on both sides …
All of us in the
tour group hastily gathered up our hand bags and were eager like kids visiting
a hallowed candy store… selfie sticks were retrieved, mobile phones were busy
and picture taking was underway.
Meanwhile Trudy and Dean were like schoolteachers on a field trip…
forcing us to hurry up, telling us there will be plenty of time later to take
pictures (it turns out it was and it wasn't, there is never enough time to
cover everything Schonbrunn has to offer, but we got enough to call it
good). They were very eager to get us in
to our 8:45 am slot to do the interior tour of Schonbrunn, which of course
Trudy was going to anchor. It was a
magnificent place to be sure… except no photography is allowed inside the
palace; on the grounds outside one can
click to their heart's content. [ Schonbrunn Palace front - Fig 1, Schonbrunn Palace rear gardens - Fig 2]
Trudy was a good wisecracker. She mentioned that Maria Theresa hosted a lot of parties; since there were no electric bulbs invented in those days.. .when the candles were almost out, it signified that the party was over. So the length of the candles gave a hint to the guests as to how long the Empress wanted the party to last before people had to disperse!! The one thing though, the palace is not well ventilated, so it was hot… with the day outside in the 88-89'F range, people were trying to fan themselves and the palace rooms had a couple of fans sometimes and people that felt the heat (like me) tried to steal a bit of the breeze from the portable fans.
We passed through some other rooms including one that looked like a bedroom but really wasn't used to sire her sixteen kids...Trudy cracked us up by asking us what the bed was meant for. It was a huge ornate bed with satin sheets and many throw pillows and a color-coordinated canopy, but it was really used as a diwan by the empress to hold court with her confidants and senior advisers in a comfortable position of semi-recline; apparently the French royalty had introduced this particular fashion statement to the other European ruling classes.
We also went through a room which had some old rifles, and a couple had scopes on them. Trudy made a crack about Maria's hubby being severely myopic and that Dick Cheney could have used the same on his guns (a reference to Cheney's well known hunting fiasco). Only one bomb ever came through the ceiling of Schonbrunn during the second World War... fortunately it rolled in but didn't explode; the ceiling damage was repaired and it was a minor blip compared to what might have been an unmitigated disaster.
Once the palace tour
was done tourists were conveniently funneled out through the gift shop -- in tourist areas, commerce is never an afterthought -- it is always blended in seamlessly to entice the tourist to distance themselves from her (or his) pocket money :). Since I
couldn’t take pictures inside the palace, I bought a packet of postcards with
interior photos of Schonbrunn; later Gate 1 also gave us a calendar with Schonbrunn ambience as the theme, so I have enough mementos of this splendid royal dwelling of yore. There were several tour groups going through the palace; some didn't even have guides but audio tours with earpieces; the mind boggling retinue of tourists through this venue is now a major cash cow for the Austrians; if you want to sell history, you gotta
have some eye-popping munificence to peddle.
The outside of the palace was really awesome too.. The gardens were a pleasantly stupefying iridescence of flowers, shrubbery and lawn props all laid out with a tremendous display of landscaping as a form of art. The nearest thing I could recall in my life was a when I was a young kid and my parents had taken me to the Mysore gardens. I took some pictures in the garden, and the distinct geometrical patterns of squares and ovals of flower beds and shrubbery - were a nice backdrop; not a big fan of selfies I asked a cute korean couple, a japanese gentleman, a chinese lady - it was a delightful pan-global cooperation to save your mug for posterity amidst the manicured vegetation. There was a hillock at the back of the palace, which I didn't get the chance to climb up… we were given some fixed times by which to return to the spot where Gabor was gonna bring the coach back and it was too risky…, I thought I had time the next day to come back but never did, because some other places took precedence. Maybe next time!
The outside of the palace was really awesome too.. The gardens were a pleasantly stupefying iridescence of flowers, shrubbery and lawn props all laid out with a tremendous display of landscaping as a form of art. The nearest thing I could recall in my life was a when I was a young kid and my parents had taken me to the Mysore gardens. I took some pictures in the garden, and the distinct geometrical patterns of squares and ovals of flower beds and shrubbery - were a nice backdrop; not a big fan of selfies I asked a cute korean couple, a japanese gentleman, a chinese lady - it was a delightful pan-global cooperation to save your mug for posterity amidst the manicured vegetation. There was a hillock at the back of the palace, which I didn't get the chance to climb up… we were given some fixed times by which to return to the spot where Gabor was gonna bring the coach back and it was too risky…, I thought I had time the next day to come back but never did, because some other places took precedence. Maybe next time!
After Schonbrunn,
Gate 1 had scheduled a city walking tour with Trudy… it started from the city center St
Stephens Church to the Museum Quarter. It was real fun to walk the streets of
Vienna along with other tourists and we got glimpses of the famous Mozart Café,
and the other Royal Palace or something, which had a spectacular fountain up front - I kinda lost the narrative of which building was what, they all looked beautiful; the constant chatter in my ear was getting a bit tiresome, so I just silenced it and read the signs and soaked in the ambience. The city
tour was real nice… despite the guide's blah blah blah. After that I
personally skipped out of a tour called the Crypt of the Habsburgs. I am not a real fan of crypts and mausoleums
so I gave that optional tour the wide berth. So did the 65 year old lady from Boca
Raton, Linda. So both of us decided to
have a late lunch alfresco in one of the many outdoor cafés that Vienna is
famous for and then head out to a museum by walking. I must have walked several miles a day; I was complaining about that to a friend who
remarked how come the gym fit body is getting weary of walking? Good point… I complained more than it really
affected me; or it is a good ole American trait to complain about walking, when
I can play racquet sports for hours without even batting an eyelid :) … [This are city center awesome government buildings, during the city walk.. their names
slips my mind]
Anyway, we ate out at a café on our pedestrian rally
from the Hilton Stadpark to the city center in a colorful little side street; I
had a seafood salad and some kinda Italian coffee drink… chatted with Linda a
bit. She was divorced and single Jewish lady, with three grown up kids, but looked very fit and energetic. Very
interesting point of note was one of her kids, a daughter was Editor-in-Chief
of a very famous US magazine called INC which features stories about
Entrepreneurs and Start Ups. Editor-in-Chief is a CEO type role; very
influential. Due to her Jewish
background, she always went a bit out of the way from the rest of the tour
group to see Jewish quarters and booked outside tours to go through places
which featured in the horrifying genocide that Jews underwent during World War
II. She and I got along fine; she wasn't pretentious or redneck-ish. She had a good idea to visit the Leopold
museum, home to one of Austria's most well-known painters Gustav Klimt - well
known for his painting the 'Kiss' and considered a very bold painter who wasn't
afraid to mix in some erotic themes in his paintings, although he wasn't
alone in that regard. [ view of a Vienna square, near the lunch cafe)
So after lunch at the café we soldiered on by foot towards the museum quarter. After walking a few miles and even stopping at a Tourist Information office, we came upon a square where a museum stared us right in the face!!! It was the Albertina, which our guide Trudy had pointed out during our morning sojourn to the Schonbrunn. By that time, I had the itch to actually do something instead of walking around aimlessly… so I suggested to Linda to hit the Albertina instead of walking a couple of more miles to the Leopold. She agreed to it, so we went in and it turned out to be one of the best choices we made.
So after lunch at the café we soldiered on by foot towards the museum quarter. After walking a few miles and even stopping at a Tourist Information office, we came upon a square where a museum stared us right in the face!!! It was the Albertina, which our guide Trudy had pointed out during our morning sojourn to the Schonbrunn. By that time, I had the itch to actually do something instead of walking around aimlessly… so I suggested to Linda to hit the Albertina instead of walking a couple of more miles to the Leopold. She agreed to it, so we went in and it turned out to be one of the best choices we made.
The Albertina was
loaded and for about 13 euros I personally felt it was very cheap compared to
the fare it offered - more so because we got incredibly lucky as two temporary exhibitions were going on along with the permanent ones; Pablo Picasso,
Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Gustav Klimt, Henry Lavasque, Paul Gaugin.. The
galleries were full of originals that cost millions of dollars… and featured
the who's who of painters - the number of Picassos they had was very
impressive!!. Absolutely loved it!!! And
I am not even much into it…. This was one of the highlights of Vienna in my
opinion… After spending a couple of hours in the Albertina, I felt very
satiated as a tourist. It was a good
feeling, and I highly recommend it to anyone headed to Vienna. Next time, I will hit the Leopold, although
we did see a couple of Klimts even at the Albertina. The Picassos showed the genius of the cubist mastermind, Marc Chagall was an impressionist maestro, Claude Monet and Henry Lebasque brought their usual French flair to their paintings... [Picasso on top - 'Mediterranean Scene', Marc Chagall - 'Girl in a dream']
After the Albertina, Linda wanted to go a Jewish museum in the north side of the city. I debated about seeing the Freud museum, which the aforementioned friend had been to, but Dean kinda talked me out of it. He said it was just a regular flat where Freud lived with a few of his personal artifacts and it was on the opposite side of the city - nothing really grandiose like the history of psychoanalysis or such. I still would have, if the distance wouldn't have been a barrier. So I skipped and decided to head back to the Hotel and get myself some authentic Austrian beer, company or no company.. I did not want to walk back :) - had enough. So I asked a tourist information booth and headed down to the nearest tube station. There I found a very vivacious Polish girl in her twenties and her aunt - and just struck up a conversation with them, mainly to figure out how to use the tube line. She and her aunt were very nice… maybe they discerned a mixture of intellect, charm and a warm personality, which is not uncommon ;)…- anyways they helped me figure out how to get a 24 hour pass and which way to go… It was quite easy really.
I found the right blue line going towards my hotel and in about 4 minutes was at the Mondi mall underground stop; instead of walking several miles. When I entered the hotel I ran into Andrew and his mom. Andrew was the American University sophomore who is studying International Relations - he and I struck up a good rapport almost instaneously. I had a very nice day in Vienna; all I wanted to do now is to take in the early evening at leisure and have a beer in a café and do some people watching. So Andrew and I headed out to an outdoor pub a few blocks from the hotel and ordered ourselves some large helpings of Stiegl, an Austrian beer. The clientele at the pub were really well dressed, much more so than the US; more style, more oomph… not as casual. The Stiegl went down real smooth… Andrew and me made some plans for the next day Saturday to visit the Naschemarket (only Saturdays)… that was also an incredibly sound decision as we shall see later in the series.
After the Albertina, Linda wanted to go a Jewish museum in the north side of the city. I debated about seeing the Freud museum, which the aforementioned friend had been to, but Dean kinda talked me out of it. He said it was just a regular flat where Freud lived with a few of his personal artifacts and it was on the opposite side of the city - nothing really grandiose like the history of psychoanalysis or such. I still would have, if the distance wouldn't have been a barrier. So I skipped and decided to head back to the Hotel and get myself some authentic Austrian beer, company or no company.. I did not want to walk back :) - had enough. So I asked a tourist information booth and headed down to the nearest tube station. There I found a very vivacious Polish girl in her twenties and her aunt - and just struck up a conversation with them, mainly to figure out how to use the tube line. She and her aunt were very nice… maybe they discerned a mixture of intellect, charm and a warm personality, which is not uncommon ;)…- anyways they helped me figure out how to get a 24 hour pass and which way to go… It was quite easy really.
I found the right blue line going towards my hotel and in about 4 minutes was at the Mondi mall underground stop; instead of walking several miles. When I entered the hotel I ran into Andrew and his mom. Andrew was the American University sophomore who is studying International Relations - he and I struck up a good rapport almost instaneously. I had a very nice day in Vienna; all I wanted to do now is to take in the early evening at leisure and have a beer in a café and do some people watching. So Andrew and I headed out to an outdoor pub a few blocks from the hotel and ordered ourselves some large helpings of Stiegl, an Austrian beer. The clientele at the pub were really well dressed, much more so than the US; more style, more oomph… not as casual. The Stiegl went down real smooth… Andrew and me made some plans for the next day Saturday to visit the Naschemarket (only Saturdays)… that was also an incredibly sound decision as we shall see later in the series.
After partaking a
couple of Stiegls, we headed back to the
hotel. Andrew and his mom had reservations at some restaurant. I just went to Mondi mall, had a dinner bowl from a Vietnamese joint at the food court, did a bit of
shopping at H&M (a chain department store that I like) and went back to the
hotel. Day 4 came to an end; and I was still pinching myself that the pictures
I saw of my friend in this city a year earlier was really where I myself was
and grabbing the opportunity with both hands and making new friends in the
process.
