April 15 - 16, 2016 - Last Day in Vienna and Home

Guten Tag meine freunde,

15 April was our last day in Vienna and we visited the Belvedere Palaces, Upper and Lower, and the Winter Palace. The picture above on the left is of the Upper Belvedere Palace. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel and we soon knew why the palace is called the Upper Belvedere as we were continually walking up hill to get to it. Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), the most celebrated of the Habsburg generals due to his defeat of the Turks in 1683, had the palaces built in 1714-1723 by the architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrant as a summer residence with the money he received as a reward for his victories during the Spanish Succession. It was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by a private individual. The picture above on the right is of the entrance and one of the magnificent support statues in the palace known as the Sala Terrane. The palaces are now home to the Austrian National Gallery. We were in one of the rooms and I was taking pictures and was approached by a guard saying no pictures. We had not seen the sign as we entered into this side room. I apologised but did continue to sneak pictures as we were more interested in the palace rooms themselves as opposed to the art they housed. The picture below on the left is of the Marble Gallery. The one below on the right is of the French-style gardens that link the Upper and Lower Palaces taken from one of the rooms in the Upper Belvedere Palace. It appears that the guards did not care about pictures being taken of the outside from within the palace.

From the upper floor of the palace we got a fantastic view of Vienna and I spotted a green dome with gold crosses and peaks. Upon asking the guards what the building was, they were not able to tell us. We continued our exploring and then walked through the gardens making our way down to the Lower Belvedere. The gardens are in the French style with marble statues and a beautiful fountain a little more than halfway down the gardens. We stopped to take a number of photos and before entering the lower palace we treated ourselves to the most decadent ice-cream cones we have had in a while. I enjoyed an extremely rich chocolate cone while Fred had a hazelnut cone. One scoop was more than sufficient.

The Lower Belvedere only had a few rooms that showed its former splendour, such as The Hall of Grotesques and the Golden Room as pictured on the right, it is really an art gallery with pictures by famous artists such as Gustav Klimt. While we have enjoyed the palaces we are a bit disappointed as the rooms were not as opulent as we had expected. We did not know if this was due to deterioration over the centuries or damage during the war.

I was determined to locate the green dome we had seen from the Upper Belvedere as it looked very interesting and no one in either of the palaces could tell me what it was. We walked for a relatively short period and Fred finally spotted the dome down a side street just as we are about to give up. We walked a couple of streets over in a very quiet area and came upon the most beautiful church, a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. We took pictures but did not enter as there were men working on the outside and on stairwell of the church. The church is pictured below on the left.

We now headed off to the Winterpalais, but decided that lunch was in order as the palace was just 10 minutes away from our hotel. One cannot visit Vienna and not experience proper Weiner Schnitzel. Mine came with sweet potato chips. The chips were not what I was expecting but the schnitzel was delicious. We also shared an apple strudel which was warm and better than anything I have ever made.


Full and legs rested we now walked to our final site for the day the Winterpalais. Other than the spectacular stairwell the winterpalais was very plain and mainly an art gallery. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest before we headed out to a concert, our final event before preparing to head back to the UK.

The concert we attended was held in The Kursalon, built in the Italian Renaissance style between 1865-1867. It was here that Johann Strauss Jr earned his title as "Waltz King". The concert we attended celebrates the music of Strauss and Mozart with dance and opera singers.

The last two pictures on the left are of the chandelier that rotates slowly when the music is playing and the music hall. For me this has been the highlight of our celebration of Fred's birthday.  We headed back to the hotel to have a light meal and drinks before heading to our room to pack.

The 16th we forgo breakfast at the hotel and headed to the airport. At the airport we checked the departures board for our gate and headed for what we thought was security. We scanned our boarding passes and walked directly into the duty free area. After that came passport control. At this point we were a bit concerned as we had not seen a security check. Our concerns were put to rest as the security check was right at the boarding gate. A great idea as you go through security at the time of your boarding call. We did come across a unique feature while we wondered around the airport, a smokers chamber or glass room with vents that were for those who smoke and cannot go without for a few hours.

Our flight back to the UK was non-eventful and clearing customs in the UK took forever as they had only agents on duty for Non EU passports. Once cleared we were on the road and home in a good four hours, a much better drive home than our drive down.

We hope you have enjoyed this blog stay tuned as we have a short trip planned in mid May .

Auf Wiedersehen,

Sandy & Fred

April 14, 2016 - Happy 65th Birthday to Fred. In Vienna to Celebrate

Grüb Gott All,  

As you have guessed today is Fred's birthday and we were up handily and headed out to Schloss Schönbrunn via public transit. For 2.30 euros we could get the tram and then the train that took us to the outskirts of the city and the Palace. We got on the tram and tried to purchase our ticket from the driver who pointed to the back and a box. A passenger pointed out the box to us and I proceeded to drop my coins into the box and nothing happens as it keeps returning my coins. Fred finally sorted it out and I laughed saying typical tourist. By the time we sorted out out tickets we thought that we are at our stop, we got off the tram only to find out it was one one stop too soon. Thankfully it was just a short walk to the next stop and the train.

Schloss Schönbrunn is the former summer residence of the Habsburgs. It was build on land acquired by Maximillion II in 1569. It was a wooded area outside the city and during the Turkish Siege of 1683 the woodland was destroyed leaving the land available to build on. The palace was built between 1695 and 1713 to the designs of architect Johann von Erlach. Today, however, little remains of his original plans. The Empress Maria Theresa ordered most of the interior be redesigned in the Rococo style  and the facade was altered in 1817-19 when it was painted the characteristic Schönbrunn yellow. The picture above on the left is of the back of the palace taken from the garden. Picture taking was not allowed in the palace and they were really strict on the matter so we purchased a couple of postcards of the three rooms we were most impressed with. They were also strict on the number of people entering at any one time. Tickets to enter the palace are time-stamped with your entry time, which is strictly enforced.

The picture on the right is of The Great Gallery in the Palace. We did a walk about in the gardens, which we imagine must be very pretty in the summer but we were just a bit early in the season to see much other then the bare beds, the fountain and  the Gloriette that overlooks the gardens. To see more picture's of the gardens check out my Facebook wall. We spent a couple of hours exploring the palace and grounds and then headed back into Vienna for some lunch and libations.

The picture at the top is the birthday boy enjoying a brew while we had lunch at the Billabong Bar which was near our hotel. Rested and tummies full we headed off to explore an area that I saw earlier in the day when we got off the tram, which looked interesting.  It was a fountain that I saw in the distance and behind it was the Soviet War Memorial, pictured below.

With sightseeing done for the day we headed back to our hotel to relax, download pictures and get ready for the big game tonight. We had booked a table in the Champions Sports Bar that is part of the Marriott for the Liverpool vs Dortmund game, one that Fred would have bought tickets for had we been home.  As I said before the Austrians love their footie so we were looking forward to a exciting night being Liverpool supporters among a great number of Dortmund supporters. It was an all you can eat buffet that consisted of various salads,wings, ribs, chili, lasagna, nachos and burgers. A lot of food for 17 euros each and the bonus was the drinks were cheaper than in the hotel bar because it was a sports bar.  It was a fantastic atmosphere and a perfect end to Fred's birthday as Liverpool beat Dortmund to qualify for the semi-final of the Europa League.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Sandy & Fred

April 11 - 13, 2016 - Vienna and Birthday Celebrations

Güten tag meine freunde,

April 11 we were off to Vienna to celebrate Fred's 65th birthday. We started by driving to Gatwick airport as flight times were much better than those leaving from Manchester and they were also cheaper. The drive down was a long 5 hours as the traffic was horrendous and I am sure very tiring for Fred. There were for me a few holy shit moments as a passenger and there was a truck that drove very dangerously darting in and out of lanes at the last moment. It was unfortunate that the truck did not have a number that asking"how is my driving" as many do in the UK because I would have taken delight in telling the company what I thought of the driver.

Our flight from London to Vienna was just over 2 hours and non eventful. We were off the plane and out of the airport quickly as we only had carry on luggage only and customs was a breeze.We took the City Airport Train (CAT) into the city which was a short 16 minute ride then a 10 minute walk to our hotel. Once checked in we headed out to stretch our legs and check out the park that was across the road from the hotel. The picture on the top left corner is of a statue of Johann Strauss. The one on the right is of the floral clock with the Kursalon Palace in the background.
We walked around the park for a while and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and plan out our strategy for exploring the city on the 13th.

We had a leisurely breakfast before heading out around 9:00 am. Our hotel was very conveniently located near the city centre and made walking to all the major sites, with a few exceptions, very easy. First, we headed off  towards Hero's Square. The buildings are all very ornate. It was a lovely day already, sunny and warm. Our first stop was the Spanish Riding School. Sadly, there were no shows until Saturday and Sunday and by then we will be back in the UK. We did, however, see some of the horses as they were being lead to another building.

The picture on the left is of the Swiss Gate which, we passed as we entered Hero's Square. There was so much to see and photograph that you will have to check out my Facebook Wall to see everything. There were numerous statues around the city to Archduke Charles and while in the Hero's Square we saw two that date at different times of his reign. We continued our walk stopping for many photo opportunities along the way.

Fred kindly poses and salutes in a guard box as we enter the Josefs Platz. Our next stop was Stephansdom located in the heart of the city and is Austria's finest Gothic edifice. The foundations of the original church date back to 1147 but the earliest surviving features today are the 13th century Giant's Door and the Heathen Towers. The church suffered severe damage during WWII bombings, but the rebuilding was a symbol of hope as the country emerged from the ashes of the conflict. This church can be seen above on the left.

Our walk took us through the Museum quarter and then lunch before we visited the Karls Kirche. This church was built  in honour of St Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) who was the patron saint of the fight against the plague. The plague in 1713 took more than 8,000 lives and in the same year Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) vowed to have the church built. In 1716 the foundation stone was laid. The construction took over 20 years to completed was consecrated on October 28,1737.

The interior of the church is magnificent, but personally I think what detracted from its beauty was the installation of an elevator and stairway that took you to the top of the cupola.

The pictures to the left and right are of Karls Kirche. The outside and the beautiful fresco on the cupola. We took the elevator up and Fred made the walk up the staircase to get closeup shots in the cupola.

We stopped and had a bit of refreshment at the Billabong Bar on Parkring before heading back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We covered a lot of miles today with a good 8 hours of walking. We could not have asked for a better day 20C and sunny. The hop on hop off bus was rather expensive, especially when you consider most of the major sites are clustered close together and were within walking distance.

We had wanted to have supper in the sports bar, but as there was a Champions League match on that night and the Austrians are big footie fans bookings were required. So it was supper in the bar at the Marriott. It has been a full day with a lot of ground covered. So bedtime and an early start for Fred's big day!!

Auf Wiedersehen,
Sandy & Fred