Austria - Vienna

  • Around the Town
  • Burg Theater
  • Danubium Fountain
  • Jesuitenkirche
  • Minoritenkirche - Last Supper
  • Dominikanerkirche
  • Miscl. Church
  • Museum Area
  • Neus Rathaus
  • Opera House
  • Parliament
  • Pestsaule
  • Peterskirche
  • Central Cafe
  • Vienna Cafe
  • From the Train

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We arrived by train at the Westbahnhof train station from Budapest and spent 3 nights in Vienna.  We had beautiful weather with the exception of one day when it rained.  The weather was actually very warm for March.  The city has a nice subway and trolley system that is very easy to navigate.  At first impression, the city seems very large, but after walking around a bit, the main tourist areas are not that far apart and can easily be reached by the subway or trolley.

The food in Vienna was very good and the coffee shops offer several varieties of coffee.

Vienna is filled with shops.  It was fun just walking around window shopping.  Many shops have a heavy German influence such as the cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest in Germany.

On the main square by Stephansdom, people would gather to slowly stroll by the shops, even in the evenings when the shops were closed.

We stayed a few hundred meters from the heart of the city (Stephansdom).  It was a quick tram ride to get there.  The hotel was very nice with large rooms.  We would stay there again, but next time may like to stay closer to the city center.  Our hotel:

City Hotel Tabor
Taborstrasse 25
Wien, AT 1020
+43 1 2111 70
Around the Town: Horse and buggy rides around the town and one of the interesting carved wooden signs.
Burg Theater: Another theater we really wanted to tour, but it was closed on the day we were in the area.
Danubius Fountain
Jesuitenkirche: This is a Jesuit church.  The interior is heavily decorated with plump marble columns screening the side chapels.  The ceiling frescos are cleverly executed using a trompe l'oeil effect (a style of painting that gives an illusion of photographic reality) and the pews are richly carved.
Minoritenkirche: This church was established by the Minor Friars in around 1224, although the present structure dates from 1339.  The tower was given its odd pyramidal shape during the Turkish siege of 1529, when shells sliced the top off the steeple.

The church contains a mosaic copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper and a faded fragment of the 16th-century fresco of St. Francis of Assisi.
 

Dominikanerkirche: The Dominican Church, also known as the Church of St. Maria Rotunda, is an early Baroque parish church and minor basilica in the historic center of Vienna, Austria. It is the third church built on the same site in the course of time.
Miscl. Church
Museum Area: An elephant statue outside of one of the museums.
Neus Rathaus: The Town Hall.
Opera House: The Vienna Opera House.  When we arrived, the main auditorium was closed due to technical issues and we had missed the English speaking tour so we did not get to go inside.  This is on our list for a future trip to Vienna.
Parliament: Vienna's house of Parliament.
Pestsaule: During the plague of 1679, Emperor Leopold I vowed to commemorate Vienna's eventual deliverance.  The plague over, he commissioned the statue showing a saintly figure on an angel supervising the destruction of a hag representing the plague, while above the bewigged Emperor prays.
Peterskirche: This church has been here since the 12th century although the oval structure dates from the 18th century.  It was modeled on St Peter's in Rome.  The interior is amazingly lavish and there's an exuberant, eye-catching pulpit (1716).  The richly clothed skeletons on the right and beneath the alter are the remains of early Christian martyrs originally deposited in the catacombs in Rome.
Central Cafe: The café was one of the most important meeting hubs for intellectual life in the city right the way through until 1938, and also welcomed numerous chess masters during this time.

 

Vienna Cafe: This cafe had a nice brick and cement wine storage area.  We took a photo to remember it by.  If we ever get around to finishing the basement in our home, we may build something similar.

Vienna is known for it's coffee shops.  If you look closely at the cafe sign, you will see a coffee with an egg yolk.  We saw a photo of this in our travel book and for some reason really wanted to try it.  It is called 'Kaisermelange', black coffee with an egg yolk and brandy.  We went to several coffee shops and could not find one that served it.  On our last day, we were walking through town and happened to notice this picture.  We went in and ordered and the waitress said they did not serve it.  I said it was on the sign outside.  She was from the Czech Republic and had only worked there a short time.  We went outside and I showed her the sign.  She could not believe no one had ever ordered it before.  She asked the manager and he said they serve it.  He even showed her how to make it.  So finally, we got our coffee with the egg.  It was actually very good.  The egg completely dissolves in the hot coffee and you can hardly taste it.  It does give the coffee a slightly richer flavor.  I would recommend giving it a try.

We also tried 'Turkischer' plain, strong black Turkish coffee.  It was very strong.  You are almost drinking the finely ground coffee.  It's almost like a paste in the bottom of the glass.  Another coffee, 'Pharisaer' is a strong black coffee with whipped cream on top, server with a small glass of rum.
From the Train: From the train, we saw a large windmill farm.  We had actually never seen so many at once, only a few scattered here and there.

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