This Means Nothing To Me

Well, what else was I going to call this blog? Vienna?

Vienna (or Wien as we’re supposed to call it) isn’t quite on the Danube, so we have to dock on the river and take a bus into to the city. It’s quite a way from Budapest, so we got under way as we were having dinner, and drove all night to get there. We were slightly late in arriving, and after breakfast went up to the top deck to watch as we went through the final lock before Vienna (apparently we went through one in the night, but we didn’t notice). Our excursion in the morning was at the more civilised time of 9:30 – this largely due to the fact that it took that long to arrive.

Start at the bottom...

...and get to the top

The bus took us the short distance into the central district of Vienna, and we passed many of the buildings on the  Ringstrasse, which is a road that surrounds the city on the site where the old city wall stood – it was torn down by Franz Joseph I as part of a plan to expand the city. All of the buildings are palatial – some literally so, such as the Staatsoper, Wurttemburg Palace, and the Palace of Justice. Some of these have been converted to other uses now, hotels and museums being popular options. Many of the other buildings were originally private dwellings of the rich and royal – again now converted to other uses.

We parked up, and our guide, Jascha, took us past the Natural History Museum, to the Habsburg Palace, which was hosting a visit from  a foreign dignitary – possibly the president of Slovakia, he wasn’t sure. This involved some military guard-changing type activity, which we watched, then proceeded through the palace. He told us the history of all these places and how the Habsburgs held control over hundreds of years.

Habsburg Palace

Habsburg Palace

Military men and women doing military things

The Natural History Museum

We then headed into the centre, and St Stephen’s Cathedral. At this point he said we were free to roam for an hour before he would again meet us and take us back to the bus. Or not, if we preferred to stay in the centre city. We’d already opted for the latter plan, and been supplied with Metro tickets and instructions on how to return to the ship, so we had a look inside the church, then went to get a cup of tea. Although Jascha had warned us that surliness seemed to be a requirement of waiters in coffee houses, ours was surlily efficient (in a way we hadn’t experienced in Budapest) and was able to supply us with two cups of tea in short order.

Suitably refreshed, we then sought out the Mozart House. We found it. It’s closed on Mondays. Bugger.

Jascha had pointed out some statues in some of the parks we passed on the bus, so we walked back to the Stadtpark to find them again – notably Schubert and Strauss. We stayed in the park and had lunch there, washed down with a beer. Then we walked to the Staatsoper and attempted to get some pictures which didn’t include the tram wires which trail everywhere, hampering the best views. Finally we went to the Burggarten, where there was a statue of Mozart, and also Goethe – he’s my go-to German poet.

By this time we were pretty well walked out – Wien is suffering from the hot summer as is everywhere in Europe at the moment – so we used our Metro tickets to get back to the dock. I say “used” - we were supposed to validate our tickets but failed to do so. Oh well, the ticket inspectors must have been having the day off.

We’re in Vienna overnight, but tomorrow we’re backtracking and doing a day trip to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia.