Kiss goodbye to Vienna

It's our last day in Vienna, and after checking out of the hotel this morning we've come by underground and tram to the Schloß Belvedere. This is the permenant home of Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" together with some more of his works. Victoria hot this view of the gardens from inside



We've been round the galleries and seen the paintings and are now sat in the gardens. The Schloß is beautiful and with the sun in just the right place we've taken some pictures:




Now all that remains to be done is head back into town for some lunch (before our travelcards expire) and then prepare for the flight home later this evening.
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Location:Prinz Eugen Straße,Vienna,Austria

A little night music and politics

What a last night in Vienna! After a day at the conference and catching up with folk there, Victoria met up with the lone ranger and we headed back to Stephensplatz (the centre). It was still hot -been about 22 deg today and no rain- it was a shame to not take advantage of it so we walked back to the hotel rather than take the underground. 15 minutes Andrew said it would take.....that's 15 minutes on Planet Andrew.

Anyway it turns out our street (Mariahilfestraße) is a bit like Oxford Street with miles of shops. Great! The hotel is just at the cheap end. When we got back we went to the restaurant beside the hotel (the Mariahilfebrun) and had the best meal so far in Austria: Andrew had garlic soup for starter (yes it was smelly), then pork fillets with sauerkraut & dumpling and Victoria had beef soup with Austrian croutons (balls of bread) then goulash with potatoes (potato goulash with some sausage). We were stuffed, but the bill was miniscule! The beer was huge!


We then headed back to the Schönbrunn Palace Orangery for our Mozart & Strauss concert. Disappointingly, the Radesky March wasn't on the programme so Victoria was a bit gutted. But the Orangery is one of the only places where it is known that Mozart definitely played, so it was authentic.


In the first act the orchestra played Mozart and Haydn and included pieces from the magic flute, don giovanni and the marriage of figaro. Andrew likes opera so this suited him but even Victoria the opera-hater enjoyed some of this! There were two dancers who appeared to have seen better days, but if you closed your eyes it was ok. Second act was Strauss so a mix of waltzes and polkas. If Mozart is Michael Jackson, Strauss is definitely Pete Waterman-churning out loads of toe tapping tunes. It finished with the Blue Danube-what else-which was lovely to hear here in Vienna. But wait! Is this an encore? Yes - the Radezky March. Smiles all round and Victoria managed to resist the urge to get up and do her ballet number from the show! Brilliant!!

We've headed back to the hotel for the election coverage and have bought some crisps and chocolate to see us through CNNs coverage. Polls have just closed so we're expecting the Sunderland South result any second!

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(very) Blue Danube

No travel blog to Vienna would be complete without the obligatory photo of the Danube. So, here it is....



Off now to pick Victoria up from the conference. Hope this glorious weather holds for another day!


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Donauinsel, Wien

Vienna solo

Well, Victoria is doing her EGU talk today so I'm "flying solo" until this evening. So far, I've taken a tram round the Inner Stadt (old town) and had a wander round the streets. Ironically today is the best day weather wise, the early morning storm has cleared to leave blus skies and bright sunshine.
Right now I'm having a coffee at the Keinen cafe on Kärtnerstraße before heading off to check about tickets back to the airport tomorrow.
I'm also finding the 'extra' characters on the iPhone - very useful for german words!


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Keinen cafe, Kärtnerstraße, Wien

At home with the Habsburgs

Today was our first full day on Vienna. We started with the hotel breakfast buffet which kept us going most if the day and was worth the €10 each!

As we had a reasonably early start we headed on the underground to the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens the former home of the Habsburg dynasty. It was originally intended to be bigger than Versaille but is just smaller. It was built by Maria-Theresia and painted her favourite colour yellow. In all honesty the Hermitage in St Peterburg was so much more impressive.


We took the "grand tour" around the 40 accessible rooms that cover the lives of Emperor Franz-Josef and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi), plus a previous generation of Maria-Thesesia and Franz-Stephan. We got an audio guide but after a while we came upon an English tour guide so stuck with him!

Turns out Empress Elizabeth's eldest was married off to King Louis XVI of France and was none other than Marie-Antoinette. With the number of Cafe Konditoreis (tea rooms) around Vienna no the wonder she was obsessed with cake!

Empress Elisabeth had a special bed made like a throne as she was permanently pregnant from the age of 19 to 39 and by law she wasn't allowed to get put of bed for the last 3months of each oregancy but still needed to meet and greet!!

We next headed it to the Privy Gardens:


Then we took a walk around the maze and labyrinth then up to the Gloriette which was built to commemorate something, but it was all in German.....We climbed to the top anyway.

We had used up our Classic Pass Light ticket which covered all this (and was good value for money and cheaper than nirmal cos of our Vienna card!). We headed towards the Danube in search if a boat trip, but were rather disappointed with what was on offer (and the price!) so headed back to the city centre. We had another sausage from Franz's Wurstel Stand just off the Karntnerstrasse - highly recommended.

We went to the Albertina art gallery, part of the Hofburg Palace complex. In here was an Andy Warhol display of his car pictures and on the top floor an excellent permanent exhibition of modern art: Monet, Cezanne, Durer, Renoir, Picasso, Miro (hoorah!), Braque and loads more. Well worth the entry fee.

Yet again it was pouring and we wandered aimlessly through Vienna's centre. Lo - a sweet shop called Dumel's. This wasn't any old sweet shop-this was a proper chocolatier. The assistants even had black & white uniforms.


By now we wanted so e dinner and found a restaurant called Diglas where Victoria had (mire) sausage and sauerkraut and Andy had Scnitzel. We finished it off with the best cake so far.

Victoria needs to run through her talk for the conference tomorrow so we've headed back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day - not just at the conference but we've got tickets to hear a Mozart & Strauss recital at the Schonbrunn Palace Orangerie tomorrow night!

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Rock me Amadeus

Well, we've now arrived in Vienna and checked into our hotel. To say our room is big is an understatement; we must be staying in a spare ballroom as we only occupy a small portion of the total space (and that's with a reasonable amount of furniture). What's worse, there are no tea & coffee facilitites in the room!
After settling in, we headed on the U-bahn (underground) to the main square - St Stephens. Here we were not at all surprised to find the cathedral encased in scaffolding, it happens everywhere we go!
We walked in a loop down towards the imperial palace (Hoffburg) and then back up to St Stephens. On the way, Victoria got a couple of books (she's nearly finished Heidi) to keep her going. One of the books is about a family known as the von Trapp's (they sound familiar)....

We eventually made our way to Mozart's Viennese residence (just behind St Stephens). Here we not only learnt about 18th century Vienna, but also about how prolific Mozart was here. In fact, we also found out about his death! Sadly, it seems he worked himself to an early grave, although the copious drinking and gambling probably didn't help...

With the rain coming down, we decided to grab some dinner, eventually finding a small restaurant off KartnerStrasse. Here we both had a soup (really tasty) followed by beef goulash (served with a single, large dumpling). This too was really tasty and filling, leaving us with no room for dessert (despite the abundant temptations on offer).

We are now back at the hotel relaxing and planning our day tomorrow. We may head to the imperial palace (yep, more than 1 here) at Shonbrunn, and will also attempt to find Haydn's residence. Of course, our plans all depend on what the weather does....

Location:Mariahilferstrasse, Vienna, Austria

Auf Wiedersehn Salzburg

We're now on the train heading back to Vienna. It'll take about 3 hours but we've got a compartment to ourselves (like on old UK trains) with electric sockets, air con and 6 seats. Ample room for luggage. We're keeping an eye on the news with the new ash cloud but if anyone has news please text so we have a heads up.



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Location:Giselakai,Salzburg,Austria