Last stop: Vienna

I don't mean to start this post off on a bad note, but I've gotta say: Vienna is overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty city and there's a lot of interesting things to see there. But I heard from lots of people that it was amazing or the most beautiful city they'd been to or other things along those lines. So I had very high hopes. I guess to look at this in perspective, Vienna did have a couple things going against its favor. For one thing, it was the last of four cities on a ten-day-long trip. We were tired. A little sick of traveling. Longing for our own beds at home. Another problem was the weather. I can stand the cold. I don't like it, but I am from the northeast and we do get some relatively cold winters, so I'm used to the cold. What I don't like is constant cold, rain, and wind. That was day one in Vienna. Day two was freezing cold with a bit of snow. And lots of wind.

Okay, so not ideal. I told you this wasn't going to start out on a positive note. But I've gotta add one more thing to this list, something that kind of is Vienna's fault: the city, though not exactly huge, is overwhelming. Or at least it was for me. There are a lot of things to see there and they're all spread way the heck out. What also didn't help this situation was the fact that the only map we were given was this ridiculous, gigantic map of the city that wasn't really ideal for tourists. Sure, it had a blown-up map on the back of the city center, but that isn't much help when half of the things you're looking to see aren't in the city center. So basically I spent two days looking like a stupid little lost tourist, folding and unfolding my map and yelling at it as it tried to blow away from me in the wind while I was holding it with one hand and my umbrella in the other.

Brrr. I am cold. Don't let the smile deceive you.

All right, enough of that. Now the good stuff. There were some things that I really liked about Vienna, and actually, I think my favorite thing of the entire trip was a museum we went to there (more on that later). So as I said, there's a lot to see in the Austrian capital: many museums, a few palaces, lots of parks, lots of churches, one of the world's most famous opera houses...too much for just two days. So of course we had to narrow it down a bit, and in doing so we had to do a few solo tours of the city. Day one we started in the historic city center. We checked out the cathedral, another really beautiful church, and some of the main squares and streets. Then we went to the opera house for a tour. We briefly debated waiting in line for standing room opera tickets for that night, but then decided touring the place was enough. I do wish we'd had a chance to go (I've never been to the opera, and I think it would probably be an interesting experience), and I think if we'd had more than two days in Vienna, we may have done it. Oh well, next time.

After the tour, we split up to go to different places. I went to a small art museum called the Vienna Succession, which was opened around the turn of the 20th century. The museum space has the same name as a movement began by artists and architects, led by painter Gustav Klimt. The group held several exhibitions, the most famous of which (in 1902) was one dedicated to Beethoven and included a work that remains in the museum today: the Beethoven Frieze. The work, by Klimt, is basically three mural-sized paintings that cover three walls of the exhibition room. It's probably best for me to just quote the pamphlet that I got at the museum in regards to the work's meaning or purpose, since I know and understand very little about art: "The frieze takes its theme from Richard Wagner's interpretation of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and depicts humankind's search for happiness." There's a lot to the work (which thankfully the pamphlet explains, otherwise I think I would have been pretty lost), but it's really only best seen in person. Since it's displayed on three walls, seeing an image online doesn't really give you the same experience. I thought it was pretty cool, though. The rest of the museum wasn't really my sort of thing (modern art, ew), but it was worth going to just for the Beethoven Frieze.

Anyway, after the Succession, I wandered over to Belvedere Palace, which is a palace used as an art museum. I'm not really much into art, but I started to actually really like Klimt's work, and there are a lot of his paintings at Belvedere, including one of his most famous ones, The Kiss. Unfortunately, I didn't really have enough time to go into the museum, and decided to just walk around its gardens instead. Next time.

Front view of Belvedere Palace.

On the second day, Nicole and I went bright and early in the morning to the Schonbrunn Palace, which is a bit outside of the city. And good thing too, because we had to wait a little while before we could enter the palace, and when we left the line just to buy tickets was insanely long (and out in the cold!). Anyway, the palace was built in the 16th century as the summer residence of the Austrian royal family. It has some really beautiful and extensive gardens, which we spend a while exploring. Once we'd had enough of the freezing cold and the wind (and a little bit of snow), we headed back into the center of Vienna for lunch and some more wandering around. Not sure why we decided to do that in the cold, but we did. We first went to Stadtpark, a park dedicated to famous Austrian musicians and composers. Interesting, but a little underwhelming. After that we decided we really deserved some sort of hot beverage. And Austrian pastry. Yum.

Back view of Schonbrunn Palace.

Fountain in the gardens of Schonbrunn.

After our snack/respite from the cold, we went to the Haus der Musik. This was perhaps my favorite thing of the whole Germany-Austria trip. I'm not really much of a musician and I don't know a ton about music, and I've forgotten a lot of what I did learn. But I did spend somewhere around thirteen or fourteen years playing the violin, and this museum, well...made me miss my violin. Basically, this museum is just dedicated to music, as simple as that. The first floor has some historical information about the Vienna Philharmonic, a video playing the latest Vienna New Year's Eve concert (so cool), and a few other things, including a wicked awesome (that's right, so awesome I'm pulling out the "wicked") game where you and a partner each roll a set of dice to compose your own waltz. Anyway, the second floor has all different things about sound - the physics of it, how we perceive it, etc. The third floor is dedicated to the most important Austrian composers, including Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, etc. Each room is dedicated to the life and career of each composer. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the 4th floor because of time, so I don't really remember what would have been up there. Anyway, the museum is so worth going to, even if you don't know much about music. And it's so interactive (especially the floor dedicated to sound).

Anyway, so there's my long spiel on Vienna. Hopefully I haven't discouraged anyone from visiting, because it is a nice city. Just not my favorite. Perhaps if I went back I would have a better experience.

So there. Whew. Finally, only about two months later, I'm done writing about Semana Santa. If you've made it this far reading...well, you're a trooper. Auf wiedersehen for now.

Salzburg, Austria: a Few of My Favorite Things

Ah, Salzburg. Aside from the weather (and a few other minor things), this city doesn't disappoint. It's not too big, it's really pretty, and it's where The Sound of Music takes place and was filmed. How can a city where The Sound of Music takes place not be a happy place?!

Just look at it. Convinced?

I'm starting to sound like a guidebook. But really, even in the cloudy and rainy weather that we had while we were there, Salzburg is still really beautiful. We started our first day there by doing a Sound of Music tour (for anyone who's rolling their eyes: get over it, you and I both know you're just jealous). The tour first brings you a bit outside the center of the city to the house that they used for its back terrace and the lake where Maria and the children go boating and then fall in right when they see the Captain and the Baroness. They also bring you past the house that was actually used as the front of the von Trapp house, as well as the Hellbrunn palace, whose grounds house the gazebo used for "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "Something Good." You used to be able to go inside the gazebo but then some old lady broke her hip or something and so they decided to close the gazebo off to visitors. Thanks a lot, old lady.

Well, uh, the gazebo.

House used for the back terrace.

Anyway, after we stopped briefly at these places, we drove off into the mountains/lakes region outside of Salzburg on the way to the town of Mondsee, where the church that they used for Maria and the Captain's wedding is located. We had just enough time in Mondsee to see the church (very pretty), the lake and surrounding mountains (even prettier), and eat apfelstrudel (yum yum!). I think doing the tour was worth it most of all because they bring you to Mondsee, which aside from being a nice little town, allows you to see some great Austrian scenery on the trip there: the mountains, the lakes (which are especially beautiful), and the cute little Austrian mountain villages.

One of the lakes, about half an hour outside of Salzburg.

The tour dropped us off in front of the Mirabell palace, which is famous mostly for its gardens, which Maria and the children ran through singing "Do Re Mi." We explored the gardens for a while and then afterwards headed over to the city center (the historic part). The historic center is pretty small; you could easily walk from one end to the other in maybe twenty to thirty minutes, but there's a lot to see and as I said, it's really pretty. There are several little squares, many churches, markets, levitating Mozarts, a really impressive cemetery (weird combination of words, I know), and several other little monuments made famous for all of time thanks to The Sound of Music. We spent the rest of our first day after our Sound of Music tour just walking around. Mainly we visited the cathedral and then walked to the Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria (both the real one and the Sound of Music character) was a postulant. I think they were only allowed to use the outside of the abbey for filming, though.

Entrance to Mirabell Gardens. Look familiar?

The second day in Salzburg we went up to the Hohensalzburg fortress/castle. It's one of the largest and best preserved medieval castles in Europe, and really, it's more like a mini town atop the hill overlooking Salzburg. There's a big courtyard with a few paths leading off of it to several buildings (the main part of the castle, the chapel, etc.). You also get probably the best views of the city from up by the castle. Anyway, after spending plenty of time exploring said castle and eating lunch there (I guess it's kind of cool to say I ate lunch in a castle?), Nicole and I went to check out the museum at Mozart's birthplace. Yep, if you didn't already know, Mozart was born in Salzburg and lived there for a good portion of his short life. The birthplace is interesting, but really more of a traditional museum; very little to none of the original furniture or possessions of the Mozart family remain there. However, his first violin is on display, which I thought was pretty cool.

View of the castle and cathedral from the Mozart bridge.

Only a fraction of all the Easter eggs...

Now, since of course our trips to Germany and Austria were during Spain's Semana Santa, this means that Easter was approaching. Apparently coloring and decorating Easter eggs in the German-speaking countries is really popular (in Spain, not so much). We came across lots of colored eggs in outdoor markets, but nothing compared to one particular store we came across in Salzburg. It was

I thought thiese were pretty sweet.

really a store for decorations in general, I think, but at this time of year the ENTIRE store was filled with decorated eggs. And not just different colored eggs. Eggs with flowers, eggs with bunnies, eggs with geometric designs, eggs with maps of the world, you name it. Seriously. I have never seen so many egg shells in my life. It was incredible and terrifying at the same time (I mean, you get too close and one misstep and you break like 300 euros worth of egg white- and yolk- free egg shells). But mostly it was really cool.

Coming up, our next and last stop: Vienna.