Vienna, Baby! (Day 22 - GToE)

It's just a little after 6:00 pm in Vienna and have I had a very, very full day -- and it's not over yet. If you remember, I was scheduled to depart Prague around 11:30 last night, and so I did. I got into my 4 person sleeper car (which only had 3 people in it - including yours truly) and attempted to fall asleep. But the bed was roughly about as comfortable as sleeping on a slab of concrete so I didn't get much sleep last night. I was awakened at 6:00 am by the attendant delivering hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant for breakfast. Nice. The train arrived in Vienna at approximately 6:30 am. I caught the subway to my hostel and arrived at approximately 7:00 am. I didn't expect to be able to get into my hotel room - I thought I might just have to dump my bags and wait, but lo and behold, luck was on my side, my room was available. Again...nice! After dumping my stuff in my room and making my bed, it was time to explore Vienna. 

First, breakfast. Then, I purchased a hop-on/hop-off bus ticket to get myself orientated with the city. Afterward, I following a great self-guided walking tour from one of my favorite travel writers - Rick Steves. If you are ever traveling through Europe and need a good travelogue, look for Rick Steves. Here is the list of major sites I saw today: the Vienna Opera House (no tour today, tomorrow though...), Cafe and Hotel Sacher, the Albertina Museum, the Imperial Crypt for the Habsburg family, St. Stephen's Cathedral, St. Peter's Church, Loos' Loos (the fanciest bathrooms I've ever seen), the most expensive street in Vienna, and finally, Hofburg Palace. Whew, that's a lot for one day.  

I saw so much today, it's hard to pick my favorite. One of the highlights was the Albertina Museum, a former royal residence turned into art museum. It's interesting to be able to tour classic state apartments and magnificent modern works of art at the same time. The artwork housed is from the Impressionists through the Modernists and everything in between. My favorite paintings were from Monet, Picasso, Chagall, Beckmann, Munch, Kandinsky, and Warhol. A truly great museum.

St. Stephen's Cathedral was interesting, but not nearly as amazing as some other cathedrals that I've seen. Bonus points though for having a plaque honoring my man, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

The best site visited today has to be the Hofburg Palace. While the ground floors shows every possible piece of porcelain and silverware ever used in the palace is kind of a snoozefest (for me), the upper floors which consists of the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments are well worth the price of admission. The Palace focuses on the life and times of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife, Empress Elisabeth ("Sisi"). Sisi was a bit of an enigma during her time as Empress and after her assassination in 1898, there was all sorts of stories told about her, mostly incorrect. The Sisi Museum is dedicated to telling Elisabeth's story and the Imperial Apartments are stunningly gorgeous. Sadly, photos were not allowed. But it certainly made me interested in knowing more about the Habsburgs, especially Sisi.

As I mentioned, my day is not quite over. I wanted to experience seeing something at the Opera House, so I checked what was available and decided to get a ticket for tonight's performance, Romeo and Juliet, a ballet by Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev based on the famous play by Billy Shakespeare. I just hope I can keep awake until the end. I'm a little nervous about that. I have just about enough time to relax for a little bit before taking a shower and getting dressed for tonight. I will report on the performance tomorrow.

Day 22 photos are available on my GToE photo site.